136: Chapter 136 One Sword, One Youth

Such things were happening all over the Small World.

But most people were not as relaxed as Jiang Hanzhou, who had encountered the young Dragon Slaying True Person just after entering.

...

The prairie.

An endless prairie.

The grass was verdant and reached up to the knees. When the wind blew, green waves surged, rolling layer upon layer toward the horizon.

There was no sun in the sky, but omnipresent light fell evenly, illuminating the entire prairie and making it warm.

Immortal Master Ku Rong stood in the center of the prairie, his face so gloomy it was almost dripping water.

"Where on earth did that Gui Mo run off to!"

He kicked a stone at his feet; the stone traced an arc and fell deep into the grass, startling several unknown small insects.

"He ruined the Sect Leader's big plan and caused us to have to stay in this godforsaken place too!"

He cursed aloud, but his mind was on other things.

A year ago, the Ten Thousand Gu Sect received a big job. Someone offered a sky-high price to take the life of the heir of Donghai Prefecture.

The Sect Leader handed the mission to Elder Gui Mo.

That fellow Gui Mo had profound cultivation and was proficient in hiding and tracking techniques; he was best at assassination.

Theoretically, killing an ant in the Viscera Burning Realm should have been as easy as pie.

As a result?

That fellow was greedy. Not only did he want to complete the mission, he also took the opportunity to set a trap to kill the target and obtain the flesh and blood of demons.

Once this news came out, the Sect Leader was happy.

But who knew that there would suddenly be no news? This made the Sect Leader very dissatisfied, so he had the three of them come to search.

Immortal Master Ku Rong and the other two were ordered to search. Just as they stepped into the West Sea, they bumped into the manifestation of the Dragon Slaying True Person's Immortal Cave.

He watched that pillar of light connecting heaven and earth, feeling the majestic, sea-like surge of spiritual energy, and only one thought remained in his mind—

"To hell with Gui Mo and the Sect Leader's mission!"

If he could obtain the Legacy of the Dragon Slaying True Person...

Immortal Master Ku Rong looked around. The gloom on his withered face gradually faded, replaced by undisguised greed.

"Only those in the Primal Form Realm may enter."

He whispered to himself, a smug smile curling the corners of his mouth.

"This old man is at the Late Stage of the Primal Form Realm, just one step away from the Dragon Fetus. In this Immortal Cave, I am among the very best."

He raised his head and looked deeper into the prairie.

"If I can obtain the Legacy..."

His voice became lower and lower, but the light in his eyes grew increasingly fiery.

"Then that broken sect, it's not worth staying in anyway!"

The Ten Thousand Gu Sect was a large sect, and the Sect Leader was an expert in the Mysterious Glimpse Realm, but in the sect, he, Ku Rong, was just an ordinary Elder, held back everywhere, and resources never fell to his turn.

If he could obtain the Legacy of the Dragon Slaying True Person, whose face would he need to look at?

He became more excited the more he thought about it, and he lifted his foot to walk deeper into the prairie—

His footsteps halted.

Immortal Master Ku Rong turned abruptly. Gray-black Gu Qi surged from his entire body, condensing into a protective barrier around him.

"Who?!"

No one responded.

The prairie remained silent, the wind blew through the grass, and green waves surged.

But Immortal Master Ku Rong did not relax his vigilance.

He had cultivated the Gu Dao for a hundred years, and his perception of life force far exceeded that of Cultivators of the same rank.

Just a moment ago, he had clearly sensed—

An extremely faint, yet extremely pure killing intent.

That killing intent came fast and went fast. If his perception hadn't been sharp, he would have almost thought it was an illusion.

"Come out!"

Immortal Master Ku Rong shouted sharply, flipping his right hand to grasp a pitch-black short staff.

The head of the staff was inlaid with an emerald bead the size of an infant's fist. Something seemed to be squirming inside the bead, emitting a disgusting, decaying aura.

This was his life-bound Gu artifact, the "Soul Devouring Staff".

Sealed within the staff were seven "soul devouring gu" that he had refined for thirty years. Each one could devour the Divine Soul of a Martial Artist in the Viscera Burning Realm in an instant.

The prairie remained silent.

Immortal Master Ku Rong's brows furrowed tighter and tighter.

He unleashed his Divine Sense with all his might, scanning the surrounding hundred zhang of grassland inch by inch—

There was nothing.

"Could it be an illusion?"

He muttered, just as he was about to retract his Divine Sense—

A hand reached out from behind him.

It was a very ordinary hand.

The skin was slightly dark, the knuckles distinct, the nails trimmed neatly and cleanly, and there were thin calluses on the fingertips.

In the hand, it held a sword.

A wooden sword.

The sword body was rough, and there was even unpeeled bark on the hilt. It was completely out of place with this prairie, this Immortal Cave, and this killing-filled Secret Realm.

Immortal Master Ku Rong's pupils shrank!

He didn't even have time to turn his head—

The sword had pierced forward.

No sword light, no Sword Qi, no fancy Moves of any kind.

Just one sword strike.

An ordinary sword strike.

Thrust.

But the moment this sword was thrust, all the hairs on Immortal Master Ku Rong's body stood on end!

It wasn't speed.

It wasn't power.

It was—

Dao.

He had lived for a hundred years and had never seen such a sword.

No, he had never thought that a sword could be wielded like this.

He couldn't even describe the feeling this sword strike brought him.

He only felt that the rough wooden sword didn't seem to be piercing toward him, but toward his past, his present, his future, and everything he had accumulated in his hundred years of Cultivation—

He retreated frantically!

The gray-black Gu Qi around him instantly condensed into seven shrieking phantoms. The soul devouring gu swarmed out, pouncing toward the person holding the sword!

At the same time, the Soul Devouring Staff in his hand stabbed out violently. The emerald bead on the staff head burst suddenly, turning into a sky-filling, foul-smelling poisonous mist that covered a radius of ten zhang!

This was his trump card for saving his life.

The seven soul devouring gu, each one was enough to damage the Divine Soul of a Martial Artist in the Primal Form Realm.

The poisonous mist was the "Withered Glory Miasma" he had refined with thirty years of hard work. Anything that touched it would rot; even a powerhouse in the Dragon Fetus Realm would not dare to easily clash with it.

He only had the chance to do all this—

Turn around.

Then he saw that person.

It was a youth.

About fourteen or fifteen years old, wearing coarse cloth short garments, barefoot, with his hair messily tied into a small bun.

His face was delicate, his brows and eyes gentle, even carrying a bit of lingering childishness.

But those eyes—

In those eyes, there was not a ripple.

As calm as a pool of stagnant water, yet as deep as a bottomless abyss.

That wooden sword was passing through the poisonous mist.

The sword body was covered in foul-smelling mucus, yet it didn't suffer any damage, and not even a single burr on the blade edge had curled.

The seven soul devouring gu were circling the youth, biting frantically.

But the youth's figure appeared and disappeared. Every time the soul devouring gu bit down, they bit into nothing.

Immortal Master Ku Rong widened his eyes.

He saw the youth's body, the moment the soul devouring gu bit down, become blurry and transparent, as if it were not a physical entity but a phantom.

But the next moment, the phantom would solidify again, and the wooden sword in his hand would continue to thrust forward.

"What kind of... monster is this..."

Immortal Master Ku Rong muttered.

Then, the wooden sword pierced into his throat.

No pain.

Not even any feeling.

Just as the sword tip pierced in, Immortal Master Ku Rong suddenly felt—

That his own hundred years seemed to have been lived in vain.

Those years of bitter cultivation of the Gu Dao, those years of wins and losses fighting with others, those years of greed and schemes for resources, power, and Legacy...

In front of this sword, they all appeared so laughable.

He widened his eyes, looking at the youth holding the sword before him.

The youth's face remained calm, his brows and eyes remained gentle, as if he hadn't killed a Cultivator in the Late Stage of the Primal Form Realm, but an ant blocking his path.

Then, Immortal Master Ku Rong's corpse began to disintegrate.

Like a sand tower meeting water, it silently turned into countless tiny specks of light, drifting away from his clothes.

The light specks didn't drift toward the sky, but like a hundred rivers returning to the sea, they all surged into the youth's mouth and nose.

The youth's body trembled slightly.

His face remained calm, but in those eyes that were originally like stagnant water, a faint ripple suddenly appeared.

The ripple vanished in a flash.

But the youth's figure seemed to have solidified a bit more than just now.

He lowered his head to look at his own hand, then looked at the wooden sword in his hand, and finally raised his head, looking deep into the prairie.

There, the wind blew, and the grass waves surged.

The youth's figure gradually faded, finally disappearing completely in the wind.

Only that wooden sword remained, stuck lonely in the grass, with a few drops of Immortal Master Ku Rong's blood still on the blade edge, shimmering with a cold luster under the lightless sky.