159: Chapter 159 Acting Must Be Realistic

In the dark, damp sewage pipe, the airflow was like a frenzied beast, slamming into their backs and thrashing wildly.

"Boom—" A muffled, thunderous sound came from behind, and the metal pipe walls beneath their feet vibrated violently, growing scorching hot, as if they were inside a cannon barrel.

Gu Yan didn't look back; with his left hand, he hauled Jiang Wanrou along, and with his right, he gripped a protruding rivet on the pipe wall, using it to propel himself forward.

Debris and dust, mixed with a foul-smelling gust of air, nipped closely at their heels.

"It's collapsed... everything has collapsed..."

Jiang Wanrou felt her stomach churning from the jolting; she could only clutch the Pill Furnace in her arms tightly, her face deathly pale as she listened to the apocalyptic sounds of collapse behind them.

"It's not over yet." Gu Yan suddenly stopped.

This was the middle section of the pipe, and also the core node of this sewage System.

He released Jiang Wanrou and closed his eyes. The blood river bead that had already merged into his body was currently trembling slightly within his Sea of Consciousness, resonating with the remaining Formation of the entire Fallen Demon Valley.

Through the connection with the blood river bead, he could clearly see the magnificent underground palace behind them disintegrating.

Huge stone pillars snapped, the dome collapsed, and Lin Canghai's corpse along with the evidence covering the ground were slowly buried.

"Not broken enough." Gu Yan opened his eyes, his pitch-black pupils reflecting the darkness deep within the pipe.

Since he wanted to frame it as a "Qi Deviation leading to a backlash and self-detonation," the commotion had to be even bigger—big enough that no one could piece together the truth from the ruins.

He raised his right hand and clenched it fiercely toward the Void Realm.

"Detonate."

In his Sea of Consciousness, Gu Yan detonated the final three spiritual power circuits that the blood river bead had left behind beneath the palace foundation.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

The earth convulsed three times, as if its heart had suddenly stopped.

Immediately following this, an eardrum-splitting explosion traveled along the pipe.

A scorching shockwave swept through instantly, blasting Gu Yan and Jiang Wanrou out of the pipe opening like cannonballs.

"Cough, cough, cough..."

Jiang Wanrou fell onto the gravel-strewn beach. Ignoring the pain in her body, she lay on the ground, coughing violently and spitting out a mouthful of dust-filled saliva.

She lifted her head and looked behind her in terror.

The two black mountain peaks, which looked like fangs, had now shrunk by a chunk.

The originally bottomless valley was collapsing, and a massive pillar of dust shot up into the sky, reaching the clouds and dyeing the gray sky an earthy yellow.

The core area of the Fallen Demon Valley was gone. It had completely turned into a massive sinkhole.

"Now it's clean."

Gu Yan crawled out from a pile of rubble and brushed the dust off his hair.

He watched the smoke and dust filling the sky, his eyes as calm as if he were watching fireworks that had just finished.

Lin Canghai, the elite of the Lin clan, and that underground blood river palace filled with sins had all turned into the dust of history.

Even if a Nascent Soul old monster came, they wouldn't be able to find a single trace of evidence in this pile of ruins.

"What... what do we do now?" Jiang Wanrou looked at the desolate scenery around her, feeling somewhat at a loss.

Although they had left the core area, they were still on the outskirts of the Fallen Demon Valley.

Such a huge commotion must have already alarmed the upper echelons of the Yunlan Sect; perhaps the Sect Master was already on the way.

"What do we do?" Gu Yan turned around and looked Jiang Wanrou up and down.

Although she was in a disheveled state, covered in dust, she didn't have any obvious wounds, only a few scrapes. Her pale face, caused by the overexertion of spiritual power, actually made her look somewhat pitiful.

"Too clean." Gu Yan shook his head and strode forward.

"What?" Jiang Wanrou was stunned.

Rip.

Gu Yan didn't waste any words; he reached out and tore open her expensive Su Yun dress.

The cuffs and hem instantly turned into tattered rags, revealing her fair skin and several bruises underneath.

"Ah! What are you doing!" Jiang Wanrou exclaimed, instinctively trying to cover her body.

"Don't move." Gu Yan's voice was cold and hard.

He crouched down, grabbed a handful of red mud from the ground, and unceremoniously smeared it on Jiang Wanrou's face, neck, and the exposed skin.

The originally cold and noble Pill Pavilion Chief instantly turned into a beggar who had just escaped from a refugee camp.

"Lin Canghai was a Golden Core Cultivator. For him to go mad and self-detonate, it's a miracle we managed to escape alive."

Gu Yan stood up, examined his masterpiece, and nodded with satisfaction: "Since we are fleeing for our lives, we have to look the part. Dressed so neatly, are you going on a spring outing?"

Having said that, he aimed at his own chest and delivered a fierce punch.

Pfft.

A mouthful of blood sprayed out, staining the collar of his clothes red.

Gu Yan didn't stop. He picked up a sharp piece of gravel, carved several bloody gashes into his left arm and thigh, and then knocked his forehead with just the right amount of force until blood flowed down his brow bone into his eyes, making his entire face look ferocious and terrifying.

Jiang Wanrou watched, dumbfounded. This person... he was even more ruthless to himself than to his enemies.

"Remember the lines."

Gu Yan threw away the bloodied stone, his aura instantly becoming weak and listless, as if he might stop breathing at any moment.

"We were tracking the traces of the Demonic Path and entered this place by mistake."

"We discovered that Lin Canghai was using living people for blood sacrifices."

"He was caught by us, flew into a rage out of shame, and wanted to kill us to silence us, but ended up suffering a backlash in his cultivation, experienced Qi Deviation, and detonated the entire underground palace."

Gu Yan walked to Jiang Wanrou's side, reached out to wrap his arm around her shoulder, and leaned most of his weight onto her, his voice as weak as a candle in the wind:

"And we... are the survivors who barely escaped with our lives."

"We are also the only eyewitnesses."

Jiang Wanrou felt the weight pressing down from Gu Yan, as well as the heavy scent of blood. If she hadn't seen him full of vigor while self-mutilating just moments ago, she would have almost believed that he was truly on the verge of death.

"This... will anyone really believe this?" She felt a bit unsure.

"What the truth is doesn't matter." Gu Yan leaned into her ear and whispered: "What matters is that the Sect needs a truth to convict the Lin clan. And this truth that we are providing is exactly what they want to hear the most."

On the distant horizon, several incredibly powerful streaks of light were approaching rapidly. Those were the Sect's flying boats and the experts from the Law Enforcement Hall.

"They're here."

Gu Yan's body went limp, and he completely collapsed onto Jiang Wanrou, closing his eyes, leaving only a tiny slit to observe the sky.

"Cry." He squeezed a word out through his teeth: "The more miserable you cry, the better."

Jiang Wanrou's body stiffened.

She looked at the flying lights approaching from afar, then looked at this man in her arms who was playing dead, took a deep breath, and prepared her emotions.

The next second.

"Help me—!!"

A shrill, miserable cry rang out across the desolate gravel beach; anyone who heard it would feel heartbroken, and anyone who listened would shed tears.

Gu Yan silently gave this Pill Pavilion Chief a thumbs-up in his heart. This acting skill—she could win an Oscar.