247: Chapter 247 Better to kill a thousand innocent people than let one outsider go free!

[Intelligence 1: Three outsiders forcibly broke into the imperial city of Luoxia Commandery, killing four Peak Vajra Realm military generals on the street.]

[Details: The trio are suspected to be Elders of the Northern Plains Loose Cultivator Alliance. They used their trump cards to forcibly break through the suppression of the world's rules, causing the imperial city to be half-destroyed. They are currently fleeing toward the border.]

[Intelligence 2: The Emperor is furious. He has ordered thirty thousand Black-Armored Imperial Guards to conduct a territory-wide manhunt.]

[Annotation: Rather kill a thousand by mistake than let one outsider go.]

Gu Changsheng dismissed the panel.

The golden characters dissipated into spots of light within his Sea of Consciousness.

He walked to the center of the courtyard and lay down in the worn-out bamboo rocking chair.

Gu Changsheng crossed his fingers and rested them on his abdomen.

The Northern Plains Loose Cultivator Alliance.

Those barbarians really did come in as well.

The spatial vortex behind the Bronze Ancient Door was a random teleportation.

Wen Yuechan had likely been tossed to some remote corner by the spatial turbulence.

These three unlucky bastards, however, landed directly in the heart of the imperial city.

And they still chose to act high-profile in a Spirit-Severing Land?

Gu Changsheng's face twitched as a sneer escaped his lips.

Utterly foolish.

The Heavenly Dao rules of this Grotto-Heaven were tyrannical and overbearing.

Peak Vajra Realm, when converted according to the blood-qi intensity of this world, was equivalent to at least an outside Foundation Establishment Perfection Body Cultivator.

For those three to be able to kill four Body Cultivators instantly, they must have used some extremely precious secret treasure.

Forcibly tearing through the rule suppression in exchange for a brief burst of magic power.

Once a trump card is revealed, one becomes a sitting duck.

Thirty thousand Black-Armored Imperial Guards.

A territory-wide manhunt.

Under circumstances where magic power was completely sealed, never mind three Early Stage Purple Mansion Cultivators—

Even a Master Wufa would be worn to death when facing an army of thirty thousand Body Cultivators armed to the teeth.

Many ants can bite an elephant to death.

This was the most terrifying aspect of a Spirit-Severing Land.

Gu Changsheng's knuckles lightly tapped the armrest of the rattan chair.

The upheaval in the imperial city would inevitably lead to instability throughout Luoxia Commandery.

What he needed most right now was time.

The taiyin submerging spirit jade was gradually assimilating the rules of this world.

As long as he had enough high-grade blood crystals,

He could completely tear through that layer of gray-white chains and regain control of his magic power.

By then, this Desolate God Grotto-Heaven would be his back garden.

A series of hurried footsteps came from outside the courtyard.

They made a dull crunching sound as they stepped on the accumulated snow.

“Master!”

Houzi rushed into the courtyard at a trot, his back hunched.

The tattered hemp clothes on his body had been replaced with thick beast-skin armor.

A brand-new steel longblade hung at his waist.

Having been forcibly elevated to the Blood Tempering Realm by Gu Changsheng last night, the boy now walked with a spring in his step.

But before Gu Changsheng, he remained as submissive as a dog—no, even less than a dog.

Houzi knelt on one knee, his forehead pressed against the muddy ground.

“Master, there's a big business opportunity!”

Gu Changsheng didn't open his eyes; the rocking chair swayed slowly.

“Speak.”

Houzi swallowed hard and lowered his voice.

“After your orders last night, I sent out all those little rascals from the Guard Team overnight.”

“Just as dawn broke this morning, Zhuzi, who was responsible for scouting the old forest in the back mountains, came rolling back with news.”

“In Black Wind Valley, thirty miles from the village, a lone Iron-Armored Earth Dragon was discovered!”

Gu Changsheng's tapping on the armrest paused slightly.

Iron-Armored Earth Dragon.

This thing wasn't anything rare in the outside world, at most a second-tier Yao Beast.

But in the Desolate God Grotto-Heaven, without the support of magic power,

Relying solely on physical strength, this thing was a mobile steel fortress.

“A high-grade Desolate Beast?”

Gu Changsheng uttered four words.

Houzi nodded repeatedly, his head thumping against the muddy ground.

“Definitely high-grade!”

“Zhuzi said the beast is over five zhang long, and its scales are harder than steel.”

“It was scratching an itch in the valley and directly collapsed half a stone mountain!”

“The poisonous gas spraying from the gaps in its scales turned all living things within a hundred zhang into bloody water.”

Houzi looked up, his face full of fanaticism and greed.

“Master, the blood crystal inside that beast is at least top-grade!”

“If we can get our hands on it, your strength will surely rise another level!”

Gu Changsheng's eyelids lifted slightly.

This lackey was quite good at making himself useful.

“Go get it.”

Two plain words.

The fanaticism on Houzi's face instantly froze, turning into a bitter grimace.

“Master, please don't joke with me.”

“That's an Iron-Armored Earth Dragon!”

“Never mind me just entering the Blood Tempering Realm, even if ten Wang Baos were tied together, it wouldn't be enough to fill the gaps between that beast's teeth.”

Houzi kowtowed again.

“Those useless fools in the Guard Team don't even have the courage to approach Black Wind Valley.”

“For this matter, I must beg you to step in personally, Master.”

Step in personally?

Gu Changsheng sneered in his heart.

He hadn't gone through the trouble of cultivating these natives just to find work for himself.

As a superior, doing everything personally was the way of a fool.

A truly smart person only sets the rules and lets their subordinates risk their lives.

“I only look at results.”

Gu Changsheng sat up straight.

The bamboo chair stopped swaying.

An invisible pressure instantly enveloped the entire courtyard.

Houzi shuddered, cold sweat instantly soaking through his beast-skin armor.

“Master! It's really not that I'm afraid of death!”

“The Guard Team only has thirty people in total, and we don't even have weapons that can pierce that beast's scales!”

“Going there is just suicide!”

Gu Changsheng stood up.

His blue-black dharma robe fluttered in the morning breeze.

He walked up to Houzi and looked down at the trembling native from a height.

“Killing a brainless beast doesn't depend on brute force.”

Gu Changsheng raised his right hand.

At the tip of his index finger, a faint wisp of green blood-qi circulated.

This was a combined attack Formation he had deduced last night using that sliver of restored Wither-Bloom Magic Power magic power, combined with the blood-qi rules of this world.

It was derived from the Spirit Gathering Formation.

In the outside world, this Formation was used to gather the Spiritual Qi of plants.

But after being modified by Gu Changsheng—

It had become an extremely domineering method for extracting and gathering blood-qi.

“Look up.”

Gu Changsheng barked coldly.

Houzi subconsciously tilted his neck back.

Gu Changsheng tapped a finger on Houzi's forehead.

Boom!

A massive flow of information, mixed with violent blood-qi circulation routes, crashed into Houzi's mind.

The faint magic power quietly flowed through the Meridians, disguising that sliver of Wither-Bloom Magic Power magic power as pure blood-qi fluctuations, evading the killing intent of the Heavenly Dao rules.

Houzi let out a shrill scream.

His hands clutched his head tightly as he rolled frantically in the mud.

His brain felt as if it were being pierced by countless steel needles simultaneously.

Gu Changsheng withdrew his finger and stood with his hands behind his back.

“This 'Withered Wood Blood-Draining Formation' requires thirty people to form.”

“You will be the array eye.”

“Once the Formation is activated, the blood-qi of the other twenty-nine people will all gather onto you alone.”

“For a short time, your power will increase tenfold.”

Gu Changsheng's voice was flat, without a single ripple.

“The price is that after the battle, those twenty-nine people will have their blood-qi exhausted and will be bedridden for half a month.”

Houzi stopped rolling.

He panted heavily as he scrambled up from the mud.

The complex and eerie combined attack Formation in his mind was as clear as if it were carved into his bones.

Extracting the blood-qi of companions to achieve one's own great power.

This was practically a Demonic Path technique!

Instead of being afraid, Houzi trembled with excitement.

In this dog-eat-dog Desolate God Grotto-Heaven, the principle of 'better you die than I' was the only hard truth.

As long as he could kill the Iron-Armored Earth Dragon and perform a great service,

What did it matter if a few people in the Guard Team died?

“Thank you for bestowing the technique, Master!”

Houzi kowtowed heavily, his forehead hitting a stone; he didn't even notice the blood flowing.

“I'll go gather the men right now!”

“Before dark, I will surely present the Iron-Armored Earth Dragon's top-grade blood crystal with both hands!”

Gu Changsheng waved his hand.

“Begone.”

Houzi scrambled out of the courtyard to summon the unlucky Guard Team.

Gu Changsheng lay back down on the rocking chair.

This Formation actually had a fatal flaw.

As the array eye, Houzi would bear the violent blood-qi impact of thirty people.

His Meridians simply wouldn't be able to withstand it.

After the battle, he would either die or become a cripple.

But what of it?

When a tool is worn out, one just needs to replace it.

As long as the top-grade blood crystal was in hand, Liuxi Village had plenty of people who wanted to be his dog.

The white mist gradually dispersed.

A ray of sunlight pierced through the clouds, spilling onto the roof of the mud-brick house.

Gu Changsheng closed his eyes, feeling that sliver of Wither-Bloom Magic Power magic power within him slowly but steadily growing under the cover of the taiyin submerging spirit jade.

This feeling of everything being under control—

It was good.

He now only needed to wait quietly for the prey to come to his door.

Time passed bit by bit.

The sun rose high in the sky.

The sound of Shitou getting out of bed came from the inner room.

The little boy pushed open the door, carrying a basin of freshly drawn well water.

“Big Brother Gu, wash your face!”

Shitou called out crisply.

Gu Changsheng opened his eyes, just about to get up.

Rumble!

The ground began to shake violently without warning.

The well water in the wooden basin sloshed frantically, splashing all over Shitou.

The little boy's eyes widened in terror, and he fell onto his bottom.

“Wha—what's happening?”

The old grandfather also rushed out of the kitchen, still holding a spatula.

The vibrations grew stronger and stronger.

It was as if ten thousand horses were galloping toward Liuxi Village.

Gu Changsheng stood up abruptly.

His gaze swept over the collapsed half-section of the courtyard wall, looking toward the village entrance.

His terrifying hearing, tempered by the Dragon Transformation Pool, instantly captured the movement from several miles away.

Heavy, rhythmic hoofbeats filled with an endless aura of slaughter.