Chapter 190: Refining Sneak Attack Gu
Sha Xiao's gloomy voice transmitted: "Grandson, you don't want to listen to grandpa? Do you want to live or not?"
Young Thieving Heaven, however, persisted: "Who doesn't want to live? But I have my bottom line. This Gu recipe is too vicious, I refuse to follow it. Sha Xiao, didn't you want me to get near that pool? Now that I am in top eight, I have the qualifications to enter it, don't you think it is a pity if you kill me now?"
"Hahaha." Sha Xiao laughed, "Yeah, it is a pity."
The words had just landed when young Thieving Heaven's pupils shrunk rapidly as he felt an intense pain attacking his body.
At that instant, he almost collapsed on the ground.
But he endured with all his strength and rushed to a dark corner. He then leaned his back to the wall and endured with clenched teeth.
Sha Xiao's voice once more transmitted: "You are just a small pawn, you really think you can talk terms with me after entering top eight? You think you have such a high value? Hmph, there are countless people who want to be my grandson! It is your honor to be able to call me grandpa, do you understand?"
Sha Xiao paused before continuing: "Let me hear you call me grandpa."
Young Thieving Heaven's face had a distorted expression, he clenched his fists so tightly that his nails had dug into his flesh.
"Gran, grandpa…" After a long while, young Thieving Heaven squeezed out this word.
"Yes, my good grandson. Your voice is too soft, grandpa is old and did not hear you clearly." Sha Xiao laughed sinisterly.
Young Thieving Heaven immediately felt his pain lightening by a lot.
Sha Xiao had reduced the effect of his method.
Young Thieving Heaven's brows tensed as the resolve to die flashed past his eyes, but he then recalled his family and his beloved woman, he took a huge breath and called out: "Hello, grandpa!"
"Hahaha, as long as grandson is obedient, grandpa will be satisfied." Sha Xiao's laughter was filled with smugness.
"Now, grandpa wants you to refine Gu, can you do it?"
"Can… not!" Young Thieving Heaven's face was deathly pale from the pain, but he still persisted in his bottom line.
"Scumbag!" Sha Xiao was furious, intensifying his method.
Young Thieving Heaven cried out and fell to the ground.
Even after torturing him for a while, Sha Xiao felt a headache when he saw young Thieving Heaven refusing to compromise: "You brat, you have quite the sense of justice. A pity, a pity, I thought you were raw talent when I saw you fight so efficiently. I did not think you don't even understand the logic of 'every man for himself'. So what if you have to kill an infant?
If they do not die, then you will die. If you die, then any wealth or desire will fade out of existence. Think carefully."
Young Thieving Heaven was slumped to the ground, curled up like a shrimp, his whole body was soaked with sweat, and he had almost lost consciousness; he did not have any energy right now.
But, the corners of his lips still rose slightly: "Sha Xiao, you can forget about it. I am different from you, I won't build my happiness and bliss on others' suffering."
"Laughable persistence! A lot of things in this world need to be fought for, if you don't fight or kill, how can you continue to live? What are you thinking in that head of yours?" Sha Xiao's voice was icy and disdainful: "Just think of why you were banished by the clan?
Hehe, wasn't it because there were too little resources in the clan, and they felt raising you was a waste, so they used clan rules to openly try to kill you."
Young Thieving Heaven's eyes shone brightly: "I understand this logic now, but what others do is their issue. If I do it, then it would become my issue, and I won't do this!"
"Ignorant! Then let me send you to your death!!" Sha Xiao's fury had reached its limit, but just as he was about to attack, he suddenly paused.
"Ahhh, my poor son, how could you pass away like this!" Young Thieving Heaven who was slumped near the wall, suddenly heard a woman's cry from inside the house.
Then, there was a clamor inside the house.
Someone also started crying, and someone was furiously cursing the doctor for being incompetent.
Young Thieving Heaven and Sha Xiao listened attentively before understanding the reason.
It turned out the owners of this house had a baby, but the baby was congenitally deficient and was barely hanging on to life. The house lord spent a heavy price to invite a rank three Gu Master, but the Gu Master was also unable to save the baby who finally died today.
"Hehe, kid, your luck seems to be pretty good. This baby is enough to refine Gu, he has already died, you can collect his corpse and use it to refine the Gu." Sha Xiao laughed, but it was filled with killing intent: "If you don't agree, you can go die. At worst, I will just change to another pawn."
Young Thieving Heaven was silent for a long while before replying: "Okay."
"Hmph, that's good." Sha Xiao did not speak anymore.
Young Thieving Heaven rested for a good while before standing up with difficulty.
Through this event, young Thieving Heaven thoroughly realized Sha Xiao's nature was extremely forceful, he meant what he said and did not allow for any disobedience.
To return to his home, young Thieving Heaven decided to swallow this humiliation.
According to the clan's common practice, the small competition would halt for a few days.
Over the next few days, young Thieving Heaven began to gather the Gu materials recorded in the Gu recipe.
Although the gathering process was filled with obstacles, he managed to find them all.
After that baby's corpse was buried, young Thieving Heaven dug it out in the middle of the night.
There were two more days before the competition resumed.
This night, in a remote hut, young Thieving Heaven started refining Gu.
"This Gu recipe was already clear and concise, but grandpa thought of your tiny primeval essence storage and added in many steps. Grandpa is so considerate, grandson, you need to succeed in this Gu refinement!" Sha Xiao's voice transmitted, he was going to guide young Thieving Heaven throughout the whole process.
Under Sha Xiao's guidance, young Thieving Heaven followed the steps and began to process the Gu materials one by one.
Because it was his first time refining Gu, young Thieving Heaven's performance was extremely bad at the start, he repeatedly made mistakes even in the most simple procedure like using fire to process the materials. Were it not for Sha Xiao's timely guidance in correcting young Thieving Heaven, this Gu refinement would have already failed.
Sha Xiao was hurling all kinds of abuse in anger.
But as the Gu refinement progressed, Sha Xiao's curses became fewer and fewer.
"There are final four steps remaining to refine this Gu worm." Sha Xiao actually encouraged young Thieving Heaven: "My good grandson, do well, refine this Gu worm and give your grandpa face in the competition!"
Young Thieving Heaven took a deep breath and gazed at the baby's corpse in front of him.
A resolute light flashed past his eyes.
"Although this baby did not die by my hands, if I use it to refine Gu, how can I bear it in my heart? Anyway, Gu refinement can easily fail, if I fail here, Sha Xiao also won't blame it on me."
"Child, forgive me, even after death, you could not rest in peace. But I had no choice, this is all I can do. I hope your soul can ascend to heaven through this fire."
"If you can reincarnate, please don't return. This world… is too cruel!"
While murmuring this inwardly, young Thieving Heaven made a mistake, the fire immediately burned fiercely and engulfed the baby's corpse.
"The intensity of the fire is too high, lower it quick." Sha Xiao said in a startled tone.
"I am trying!" Young Thieving Heaven pretended to panic, immediately controlling the fire, but the fire instead burned even hotter!
"Such audacity! You purposely failed, you are going against me!!" Sha Xiao's gaze turned furious as he realized young Thieving Heaven's intention.
"No, grandpa, you misunderstood me! I truly cannot control this fire's intensity." Young Thieving Heaven was still continuing with the act.
"Hehehe. You dare to deceive me, you are truly looking down on me. Alright, I won't take your life. Let this fire devour you as well. You think Gu refinement is so simple and safe? You are seeking your own doom by intentionally failing the Gu refinement!
Die, die, this is the result of your persistence, this is your own doing." Sha Xiao snickered.
Before he finished his words, that fire immediately soared and covered young Thieving Heaven.
"Why did this happen?" Young Thieving Heaven wanted to charge out, but the fire was emitting an enormous attractive force that kept him on the spot.
Fang Yuan once again gained control of young Thieving Heaven's body.
Fang Yuan controlled young Thieving Heaven's body to throw sandpit Gu to a certain position in the fire.
The delicate Gu immediately attracted the fire and was soon burnt into a pile of powder.
The fire's attraction force decreased sharply, Fang Yuan took this chance to jump out.
He rolled on the ground for a few times to extinguish the remaining fire on him.
His injuries were severe.
Young Thieving Heaven's face, neck, arms and other areas were burnt to a miserable degree.
But Fang Yuan ignored the injuries, and put all his attention on that fire.
Fang Yuan activated chimney smoke Gu, smoke came out and covered the basin sized fire.
As the danger decreased gradually, Fang Yuan felt his connection with the fire was rapidly weakening.
A change occurred right at this moment.
The smoke was suddenly absorbed into the fire.
The fire soared once again, the baby's phantom jumped about in the fire and pounced towards young Thieving Heaven.
Looking at the fire about to pounce at young Thieving Heaven's body, Fang Yuan threw chimney smoke Gu.
The chimney smoke Gu immediately attracted the baby phantom in the fire, it made babbling noise as it charged at the chimney smoke Gu and started eating it.
Taking this chance, Fang Yuan quickly retreated a few steps, pulling apart some distance from the fire.
But soon, the baby had finished eating chimney smoke Gu and charged towards Fang Yuan again.
Fang Yuan immediately threw clear water Gu.
Clear water Gu was thrown out, and was also devoured by the baby.
The fire suddenly dimmed, the clear water Gu turned into a lump of emerald green water that could not be evaporated by the fire.
And the red fire turned into orange-yellow, shrouded in light. It was no longer fiery as before, and was deeply concealed instead.
The emerald green water and orange-yellow fire circulated around each other in the air.
Fang Yuan moved young Thieving Heaven's body to advance instead of retreating, and went in front of this strange water and fire.
Fang Yuan bit his tongue and spat out his blood into the strange water and fire.
"Eeeek." After the strange water and fire was touched by the blood, it suddenly turned into a blue baby phantom that screamed and pounced at Fang Yuan.
Fang Yuan did not dodge, letting it attack.
The blue baby phantom directly entered young Thieving Heaven's aperture, turning into a rank two Gu worm.
"What is this?" Young Thieving Heaven came back to his senses and was stumped.
Fang Yuan once again lost control of young Thieving Heaven's body.
"You actually refined a completely new Gu worm under a series of coincidences?!" Sha Xiao also shouted out in surprise.
"No, that's wrong." Shortly, he came to a realization, "Brat, you seem to have a hidden nature which only takes control when you encounter fatal danger, and then makes you intuitively make the best choice. It was like this in the competition, it seems to be the same in Gu refinement as well."
"You are naive and stubborn, as well as hopelessly stupid, but this hidden nature of yours is quite pragmatic and extremely cunning, having talents that you can't reach! I quite admire this nature, very impressive!!"
Sha Xiao started laughing.
"I refined a… new Gu?" Young Thieving Heaven still had not completely reacted to this situation and was dazed.
"That's right, give it a try. This new Gu is a rank two Gu, it seems to be a new innovation, even I can't make out its effect."
Young Thieving Heaven activated the Gu worm.
The moment it was activated, this Gu worm turned back into a blue baby phantom that gave a strange scream before exiting young Thieving Heaven's aperture and charging ahead.
There was a stone stool ahead, the blue baby phantom directly entered the stone stool, then exited and returned to young Thieving Heaven's aperture, turning back into its Gu appearance.
The stone stool looked undamaged.
Young Thieving Heaven walked to the stool and touched it.
Bam.
A crisp sound echoed as the stone stool turned into crushed stone pieces.
Young Thieving Heaven was taken aback and took a step back, looking at the pile of pebbles on the ground in shock.
"Wonderful!" Sha Xiao praised: "This Gu worm has extremely high power, it is a top tier rank two Gu worm. More importantly, it seems to be able to pass through defenses, take a look, the stone stool crumbled from the inside."
Sha Xiao looked at his aperture and praised again: "Amazing! Look at your aperture, only ten percent primeval essence has been expended in activating this Gu worm, this is unimaginable. This is a rank two Gu worm with so much power, but it only needs ten percent of rank one green copper primeval essence!"
"But I only have D grade aptitude, my primeval essence is just a bit more than twenty percent. I can only use this Gu worm twice." Young Thieving Heaven was worried.
"You know nothing. With this Gu worm, the first position in the competition is yours. No one can defend against your Gu worm." Sha Xiao scoffed.
"I can be first with this Gu?" Young Thieving Heaven's eyes opened wide.
"Once this Gu worm is activated, it will turn into a blue baby phantom that will attack the enemy. You have seen its speed, it is extremely fast. Rank three Gu Masters might be able to dodge it with difficulty, but against rank one and rank two Gu Masters, as long as you close some distance, they will be struck and have no time to dodge."
Sha Xiao continued to analyze, mumbling: "Hmm… looking at this Gu worm's power and effect, we might as well call it sneak attack Gu."
"Sneak attack Gu…" Young Thieving Heaven immediately frowned and wanted to object.
"Yes, call it sneak attack Gu, my naming sense is still good. Hahaha!" Sha Xiao said domineeringly, young Thieving Heaven could only roll his eyes helplessly.