243: Chapter 243 My benefactor! You've caused a huge disaster!

The old man knelt in the mud, frantically kowtowing and begging for mercy.

The thick-backed cleaver brought a gust of bloody wind, slashing directly at the child's slender neck.

He didn't hold back in the slightest.

This was a strike intended to sever the head in one blow.

Bang!

The doorframe of the adobe house exploded with a roar.

Wood chips mixed with dry mud flew in all directions.

A green afterimage pulled out a piercing sonic boom, arrogantly crashing through the air resistance.

It was too fast.

So fast that the burly man had no time to make any reaction.

A foot shimmering with faint golden patterns rapidly enlarged in his vision.

It slammed solidly onto his chest.

Crack!

The agonizing sound of bones shattering erupted in quick succession.

The burly man's chest cavity instantly collapsed into a terrifying deep pit.

His massive body, weighing over two hundred pounds, flew backward like a tattered sack.

Boom!

The half-person-high mud wall of the courtyard was directly knocked down.

The burly man smashed into the muddy ground, blood mixed with bits of internal organs spraying wildly from his mouth.

He didn't even have time to scream before his body began to twitch violently.

Gu Changsheng slowly withdrew his right leg.

The hem of his green robe rustled in the airflow.

He stepped out, crossed the threshold, and walked to the body that looked like a pile of slush.

He raised his foot.

And stomped down heavily.

Puchi.

The head shattered like a ripe watermelon.

Red and white matter splattered everywhere.

The twitching body went completely stiff, dead as could be.

A deathly silence fell over the courtyard.

Only the rustling of the wind passing over the thatched roof remained.

Gu Changsheng grabbed a piece of rag from the corner and unhurriedly wiped the bloodstains from the sole of his boot.

He shook his head inwardly.

He really didn't want to cause trouble.

His core goal for this trip into the grotto-heaven was the Law Origin and Desolate Beast blood crystals.

Making a fortune in silence was the way to go.

He didn't consider himself a compassionate saint.

After struggling in the Cultivation World, his heart had long become colder than ten-thousand-year-old profound ice.

But lying in bed pretending to be dead while watching the savior who had just fed him medicine be hacked to death...

This was something he, Gu, simply couldn't do.

Killing a piece of trash in passing would count as payment for that bowl of red thread grass medicine.

“Bi~ Big brother~”

The child sat paralyzed in the mud, his whole body shaking like a sieve.

He stared blankly at the bully who had been flaunting his power just moments ago, now turned into a headless corpse.

His brain had completely shut down.

The old man was the first to react.

He scrambled forward and tightly hugged Gu Changsheng's calf.

His withered fingers dug into the fabric of the green robe.

“Benefactor! You've caused a huge disaster!”

The old man's voice was hoarse, filled with endless despair.

“That was Wang Hu! A member of the village Guard Team!”

“Run, quickly! It'll be too late if you don't!”

Gu Changsheng allowed the old man to hold his leg, remaining motionless.

“Guard Team?”

He uttered the two words, his tone flat without a hint of emotion.

“His older brother is the Guard Team's Vice Captain, Wang Bao!”

The old man's tears flowed uncontrollably as he frantically pushed at Gu Changsheng.

“Wang Bao is a Martial Artist of the Blood Tempering Realm! He can tear tigers and leopards apart with his bare hands; his strength is boundless!”

“If he hears that you killed Wang Hu, he will surely skin you alive!”

“Flee into the old forest in the back mountain, hide as far away as possible!”

Blood Tempering Realm?

Gu Changsheng mulled over these three words in his mind.

It sounded quite intimidating.

According to the cultivation system of this grotto-heaven, it probably meant training one's blood and Qi to the level of skin, flesh, tendons, and bones.

He didn't move a single step.

Flee?

To where?

Those Golden Core True Lords who had lived for thousands of years in the outside world, or the top-tier old monsters of the Five Methods of the Purple Mansion...

If he encountered that level of existence, Gu Changsheng would definitely turn and run without a word, acting more submissively than anyone.

If you can't win, there's no shame in backing down.

But what kind of place was this Desolate God Grotto-Heaven?

A Spirit-Severing Land!

The Heavenly Dao rules had arrogantly sealed off all techniques and Divine Abilities.

Everyone had their trump cards stripped away, leaving only the most primitive Physical Body to fight with.

Comparing Physical Bodies?

Gu Changsheng almost laughed out loud.

This shell of his had first soaked in the Dragon Transformation Pool of the East Sea Dragon Palace, plundering True Dragon blood and Qi.

Then, in a cave at the bottom of an abyss, he had used a quasi-Golden Core level wood-attribute Origin to refine it for three whole years.

Every inch of bone and every single Meridian had become strong to an inconceivable degree.

Let alone some bullshit Blood Tempering Realm Martial Artist.

Even if a Purple Mansion Body Cultivator from the outside came in, he could shatter their Protective Aura with a single punch.

In this small grotto-heaven, he was an absolute dimensional strike.

It wasn't certain who was provoking whom.

“Old man, get up.”

Gu Changsheng grabbed the old man's shoulder with one hand and lifted him up effortlessly.

“If I leave, what will happen to you and your grandson?”

“Will you stay here and wait for death?”

The old man's body stiffened, and cloudy tears slid down his furrowed face.

“Our lives were worthless to begin with.”

“The fact that the benefactor killed Wang Hu has vented our frustrations; it would be worth it even if we died.”

“With your skills, you can definitely escape. Don't worry about us!”

Gu Changsheng let go.

He didn't have the leisure to play out a tragic parting scene.

He turned and walked to Wang Hu's headless corpse.

He crouched down.

His hands quickly searched through the coarse animal-skin clothing.

Soon, he pulled a palm-sized coarse cloth pouch from an inner pocket close to the body.

He untied the drawstring.

A few pieces of broken silver, plus two fingernail-sized, dark red crystals.

They rolled into his palm.

blood crystal.

Gu Changsheng rubbed the two dark red crystals with his thumb.

There was no Spiritual Qi fluctuation at all.

But inside, a violent and pure non-attribute blood and Qi was sealed.

They were like two miniature blood and Qi bombs.

He applied a bit of pressure with his fingers.

Crack.

One of the blood crystals shattered in his palm.

The violent blood and Qi power instantly dissipated.

Gu Changsheng didn't even need to guide it; his pores instinctively opened, devouring all of this blood and Qi.

Boom!

A warm current surged through the Meridians of his arm and into his entire body.

His Physical Body's cells emitted a joyful hum.

That feeling was even more direct than swallowing a top-grade Medicinal Pill.

Ignoring Bottlenecks, direct absorption.

The information was indeed correct.

Gu Changsheng stood up and tossed the remaining blood crystal and broken silver into his Storage Ring.

Although his magic power was sealed, the Storage Ring only required a faint trace of Divine Sense to open.

This stuff was a great supplement.

If he could get his hands on thousands of high-level blood crystals...

The strength of his Physical Body could probably be pushed to an unprecedented Realm.

By then, even after leaving the grotto-heaven, he could withstand the pressure of a Golden Core True Lord with his Physical Body alone.

“Is this all Wang Hu had on him?”

Gu Changsheng turned his head and looked at the old man, who was still in a daze.

“Does that Vice Captain Wang Bao have many blood crystals?”

The old man was stunned by the question.

He couldn't keep up with this young man's train of thought at all.

After killing someone and hearing about the enemy's background, shouldn't a normal person be scared out of their wits?

Why was this person asking about the other party's assets?

“Wang~ Wang Bao is the Guard Team's Vice Captain; he controls most of the village's hunting harvests.”

The old man answered stutteringly.

“He must have many Desolate Beast blood crystals in his possession.”

Gu Changsheng nodded with satisfaction.

He was just worrying about where to find these things, and now a wealth-delivering boy had delivered himself to his door.

Fleeing?

Not happening.

His mind was now entirely filled with how to empty Wang Bao's coffers.

Just then.

From the direction of the village center, a series of piercing gong sounds suddenly rang out.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Urgent and sharp, they tore through the silence of the night.

Following that were dense footsteps.

Accompanied by coarse cursing and the crackling of burning torches.

A large group of people was holding torches, heading this way with a menacing Aura.

The firelight dyed half the night sky red.

“It's over!”

The old man's legs went weak, and he slumped into the mud again.

“It's the Guard Team! They heard the commotion!”

“Benefactor, it's too late; they've blocked all the paths!”