26: Chapter 26 The Rejuvenated Old Man Gu

A night of wind and rain, a night of slaughter.

As the horizon turned a fish-belly white, the rain gradually ceased, and Luoyun Town slowly awoke from its slumber, a heavy, indelible scent of blood still lingered over the East Street.

The first to wake up and open his door was Old Wang from the tofu shop at the street corner.

He had just removed half of the door panel when he was so terrified by the scene before him, his Soul Flying Away and Spirit Scattering, and with a strange scream of "Mommy!", he fell flat on his butt onto his own tofu stall.

There, in front of the shattered gate of the Gu Mansion, dozens of corpses lay scattered across the street!

These corpses, all dressed in black, with ferocious expressions and miserable deaths, were none other than the Black Wind Stronghold bandits that the townspeople turned pale at the mere mention of!

And the "Gu Mansion" plaque that had hung at the Gu Family for decades was stained with large patches of dried, black blood, especially over the dot of the character "Gu", where there was a bowl-sized hole, as if something had once been nailed there tightly.

The entire scene was like a Hell!

Old Wang the tofu seller's strange scream broke the silence of the morning.

Soon, more and more townspeople were alarmed. They poked their heads out from their homes, and upon seeing the tragic scene on the long street, they all gasped, their faces filled with shock and disbelief.

"Dead... they're all dead?"

"This... this must be thirty or forty people, right? They are all bandits from Black Wind Stronghold!"

"My god! Last night... what on earth happened last night?"

The people's discussion was kept extremely low, as if they were afraid of disturbing some sleeping fierce god.

Soon, even more horrifying news came from the other end of the long street.

"The... the Wang Family... the Wang Family is finished too!" A peddler who had just run over from the Wang Family mansion shouted, his face drained of color, gasping for breath, "The entire Wang Family... they've all been killed! Blood... blood is seeping out from the door cracks!"

This news was like a huge boulder thrown into an already turbulent crowd!

Black Wind Stronghold! The Wang Family! The two major tumors of Luoyun Town, two behemoths that made people turn pale at the mere mention and dare not speak out in anger, had actually... been completely wiped out overnight?!

In everyone's mind, the image of that... figure in green robes, holding a sword, chasing down dozens of bandits alone in the rain last night, involuntarily surfaced!

It was him! It must be him! The Old Ancestor of the Gu Family!

"Im... Immortal... this is definitely an Immortal's method!" an old man who had witnessed last night's slaughter said, his voice trembling.

"That's right! I saw it with my own eyes! Old Ancestor Gu... he didn't even move much, the bandits were like they just ran onto his sword themselves!"

"Not just that! I heard that Old Ancestor Gu was lying in bed dying a few days ago, but overnight, he rejuvenated and became forty years old! If this isn't an Immortal undergoing a tribulation, what is it?"

"No wonder... no wonder the Wang Family and Black Wind Stronghold wanted to cause trouble for the Gu Family. They must have wanted to seize the Old Immortal's immortal fate, and as a result... they kicked an iron plate!"

All kinds of rumors, mixed with awe and fear, fermented and spread rapidly among the crowd.

Gu Yan's image was rapidly deified in the mouths of the townspeople.

From a Cultivator who had luckily obtained an immortal fate, he had become a True Immortal from the Upper Realm who was playing among the mortal world and undergoing a tribulation.

The bloody slaughter last night was also rendered as a "miracle" of exterminating demons.

The title "Old Immortal Gu", no one knew who first called it out, quickly gained everyone's approval.

When the Gu Family's gate was slowly opened at the hour of the dragon, and Shen Qingxue brought servants out to clean up the corpses at the door.

The surrounding crowd "whooshed" and collectively retreated more than ten steps, everyone's face filled with a kind of awe bordering on pilgrimage.

There were even a few timid and superstitious old women who knelt down on the spot, kowtowing from afar towards the direction of the Gu Mansion, muttering prayers, begging for the "Old Immortal's" protection.

Immediately after, several other influential small families in the town also moved upon hearing the news.

The head of the Zhang Family, the head of the Li Family... these figures who were considered to have some status in the town in the past, now all prepared extremely heavy gifts, brought the most core disciples of their clans, and came trembling to the front of the Gu Mansion, handed over visiting cards, and requested an audience.

Their posture was set extremely low, and their words were full of humility and submission.

Everyone knew that from today on, the sky of Luoyun Town had changed.

There would be no more Wang Family, no more Black Wind Stronghold.

There was only one master here.

That was the Gu Family.

Or rather, it was the Gu Family's rejuvenated "Old Immortal Gu"!

Regarding all this, Gu Yan just sat calmly in the study in the backyard, sipping the fragrant tea freshly brewed by Shen Qingxue while listening to the steward's report.

On his face, there was not a trace of smugness or joy.

All this was within his expectations.

In this world, after all, the strong are respected.

When you have the strength to flip the table, you are the rules.

He waved his hand, letting the steward accept all the gifts from those families, but he did not see the people themselves.

He needed to establish prestige, but he did not need to socialize.

Appropriate mystery and a sense of distance could better maintain this hard-won "Divine Might".

When he was the only one left in the study, Gu Yan slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air, expelling all the Evil Qi accumulated from the night's slaughter out of his body.

[Host, congratulations. This wave of novice village bandit-suppression mission was completed quite well.]

In his mind, the System's lazy voice rang out at the right time.

[Among all the novice hosts I have led in the heavens and myriad worlds, this operation of yours can barely be rated a 'B+'.]

Gu Yan raised an eyebrow: "Only a B+?"

[Isn't it?] The System's voice carried a bit of showing off, [I saw the host next door with the "Demonic Lord System", when they exterminate a Family, they directly sacrifice the Ten Thousand Soul Banner, extract the enemy's living soul, and refine it into the main soul within the banner, never to be reincarnated. Not only is it satisfying, but it also increases the Magic Treasure's power, killing two birds with one stone.]

[There are also those with the "Sci-Fi Cultivation System" who directly buried an antimatter annihilation bomb under the enemy's ancestral grave mountain, with a 'boom', within a hundred miles, not a blade of grass grows, clean and environmentally friendly.]

[You, holding a broken sword, hacking one by one, the efficiency is too low, there is no technical content at all.]

Gu Yan's eyes twitched as he listened.

He seriously suspected that this so-called System, its so-called "socializing" on weekdays, was just visiting other Systems to watch the fancy murder livestreams of other hosts.

"Alright, stop blathering." Gu Yan couldn't be bothered to argue with it, "Hurry up, is there any mission completion reward?"

[What beautiful things are you thinking about?] The System snorted, [This was your own revenge, not a mission issued by the System, where would the reward come from? Didn't I just finish watching the livestream replay and happened to come over to give you a 'like'.]

[By the way,] the System's voice suddenly became a bit lewd, [A warm reminder, last night your second wife gave birth to a son with a Spiritual Root, and the first wife's belly is also growing day by day. According to my big data analysis, if this first child is Yellow Grade, the second child... hehehe, the potential is immeasurable!]

[Host, for our common KPI, you must work twice as hard and 'plow' well!]

After speaking, the System's voice fell silent again, apparently having gone to slack off again.

Gu Yan shook his head helplessly.

However, the System's words did remind him.

Yes, having resolved the external threats, the next most important thing was the development of the Family.

And the core of all this was the... newborn who had just brought him the Heaven-Defying opportunity to change his fate.

He stood up, pushed open the study door, and walked towards Bai Linger's room in the backyard.

It was time to go see his... first son in this world.