81: Chapter 81 The Substitute Golden Puppet? Kill Without Hesitation

"Boom!" The instant the roof shattered, the purple-robed Daoist on the right slashed out a seven-zhang sword aura with his sword fingers.

The blood-gold light in Gu Han's pupils surged violently.

He used the Heavenly Prison Steps to twist and turn three times in mid-air, each maneuver perfectly evading the trajectory of the sword aura.

On the third turn, he suddenly drew his blade.

"Overestimating your own abilities..." The Daoist's cold sneer came to an abrupt halt.

The moment the blade aura was blocked, Gu Han swooped down like a falcon, his five fingers forming a claw to strike at the opponent's crown.

"Puchi!"

[Slaughtered a sinful person, plundered 155 remnants of fate]

"Another one about to die." The remaining two pursuers paused slightly.

They hadn't seen how their companion died; they only saw the headless corpse of the purple-robed Daoist falling.

"This child is strange!"

The large man in gold armor in the center suddenly whipped out a nine-section steel lash. The moment the runes on the lash lit up, a flood dragon formed from Spiritual Qi emerged.

The flood dragon transformed from the nine-section steel lash roared as it tore toward Gu Han.

The blood-gold patterns in Gu Han's pupils flared, and the heavenly prison chains shot out from his spine like thirty-six vicious dragons, strangling upward.

"Clang!" The sound of metal clashing shattered the glazed tiles of half the street.

Gu Han used the momentum to backflip into the shadows of the teahouse.

Three wisps of Heavenly Prison True Qi hidden in the darkness detonated simultaneously, causing the teahouse beams to collapse and forcing the large man in gold armor back three steps.

"Little Beast!"

Seven bone-rotting centipedes darted out from the black-robed elder's sleeves, but they suddenly stiffened upon touching Gu Han's afterimage.

Those "centipedes" were actually the soul-chasing arrows he had fired earlier, and the tails of the arrows were all bound with nearly transparent chains.

The soles of Gu Han's boots shattered the window lattice as he twisted his body like a ghost.

The instant his fingertips brushed the arrowheads, Heavenly Prison True Qi poured along the chains and into the elder's Meridians.

The black-robed elder's right arm suddenly exploded into a mist of blood. Amidst his screams, Gu Han closed in and clamped his hand onto the elder's crown.

"If an old dog only has this much ability, don't go around mimicking others."

The moment his five fingers tightened, spiderweb-like gold patterns appeared on the elder's skull.

An alarm bell rang in Gu Han's heart, and he violently threw the person toward the lunging flood dragon.

With a "boom," the elder's body turned into a sky full of gold powder, each grain engraved with miniature Talismanic Incantation.

"A Substitute Life Gold Puppet?"

Gu Han sneered and wiped the bloodstain from his cheek.

"The Imperial Astronomical Bureau is certainly willing to spend a fortune."

The large man in gold armor suddenly tore apart his breastplate, revealing a dragon-shaped blood jade embedded in his chest.

The Dragon soul sealed within the jade opened its vertical pupils, and the floor tiles of the entire street instantly turned to powder.

Gu Han pushed his Heavenly Prison Steps to the limit, yet he was still blown back over ten zhang by the shockwave, only stopping after his back collapsed a wall.

"To be able to force this official to use the Reverse Scale Blood, you have enough reason to be proud."

Each step the large man took caused dragon-claw-shaped cracks to appear on the ground.

"Unfortunately..."

The voice came to an abrupt halt.

Gu Han's blood-stained finger was pressed against his own glabella, with a drop of ink-jade-like blood bead suspended at his fingertip.

That was the life essence blood he had secretly extracted when he clamped onto the elder's crown earlier.

Curses of the same origin as the dragon-shaped blood jade appeared on the surface of the blood bead.

"Unfortunately, you are going to die."

A cruel arc curled at the corners of Gu Han's mouth.

"Be a good person in your next life!"

The blood bead shot out, and the blood jade on the large man's chest shattered in response.

"Ah!"

Amidst the screams of the Dragon soul devouring its master, Gu Han suddenly spun and slashed his blade.

The bronze blade collided with a bone claw reaching out from the Void Realm, the sparks illuminating an old face covered in corpse spots.

"Finally willing to show yourself."

"Lord Envoy of the Imperial Astronomical Bureau."

"Or should I call you the Royal Old Ancestor?"

Gu Han pressed his blade down three inches, forcing out the ghostly green flames dancing in the opponent's eye sockets.

"Or should I call you... a corpse raiser?"

The withered palm suddenly split open, and a crimson centipede crawled out.

As the insect's mouthparts opened and closed, it emitted a girlish giggle.

"Young Master, you have such a cruel heart to destroy three of my Incarnations in a row."

Gu Han's pupils constricted sharply.

On the carapace of the centipede, the Phoenix crest of the Great Chu royal family was clearly engraved.

"Chu Fengge?"

"Didn't you die in the palace coup a hundred years ago..."

"Clever."

"Unexpected that there is still someone who remembers this palace."

The centipede suddenly exploded, and the phantom of a beautiful woman in palace attire appeared in the poisonous mist.

The phantom suddenly twisted.

A loud noise of chains breaking came from underground, and the entire street block rose and fell like waves.

As Gu Han retreated violently, he caught a glimpse of a shocking scene.

In the giant pit where the original residence stood, a dragon corpse was devouring the remains of Bitter Suffering's golden body.

"So that's it."

Gu Han wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth.

"You want to use the Buddhist golden body to neutralize the Dragon baleful Qi..."

"It is too late to understand now."

Chu Fengge's phantom raised her hand to form a Seal.

Seeing this, Gu Han struck first.

He slashed out several blade auras in succession.

Immediately after, Gu Han took the opportunity to retreat rapidly using the Heavenly Prison Steps, his Divine Sense sweeping over the collapsing granary in the southwest corner; that was the only gap not blocked by the Dragon baleful Qi.

"Want to leave?"

The girlish voice exploded in his ear.

A slender palm pierced through the Void Realm, five fingers hooking toward Gu Han's spine.

The ghostly blue corpse poison on her fingernails was exactly the Rotten Buddha Powder that poisoned the monks of Dabei Temple thirty years ago.

The blood-gold patterns in Gu Han's pupils flared, and he did not dodge or evade, allowing the sharp claws to hit his body.

"Chila!"

Amidst the sound of flesh tearing, five bloodstains deep enough to see bone exploded on his back.

But before Chu Fengge could even sneer, she discovered that her palm was stuck to a drop of burning life essence blood.

It was clearly condensed by Gu Han using his own Heavenly Prison True Qi combined with his own life essence blood.

"Explode."

Gu Han snapped his blood-stained fingers.

Chu Fengge's entire arm was instantly covered in Heavenly Prison True Qi, and her snow-white skin cracked like a dried-up riverbed.

"Ah!!!"

Amidst the shrill screams, Gu Han used the shockwave of the explosion to shoot back toward the granary.

When passing the ruins of the teahouse, he lifted his blade and kicked up the ruins.

"Rumblings."

The dust storm rising into the sky temporarily blocked Chu Fengge's vision.

Gu Han took the opportunity to smash through the wooden window of the granary, and the moment he landed, he pushed the Thousand Illusions Formless Art to its limit, his figure seeping into the cracks of the floor tiles like water.

Three breaths later.

Chu Fengge's phantom hovered above the ruins, her face twisted to the extreme.

"Even if I have to dig thirty thousand feet deep..."

The voice came to an abrupt halt.

She suddenly turned her head to look toward the direction of the Imperial City.

A blinding blood-red light was erupting from the Star Observation Platform of the Imperial Astronomical Bureau.

The twelve strands of national Luck that should have shrouded the capital were now twisting and struggling like living creatures.

"Not good."

Chu Fengge's phantom dissipated instantly.

...

After running out of the encirclement.

Gu Han curled up in the firewood room of an ordinary family's backyard.

He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and swept his Divine Sense over a radius of ten miles.

After confirming that the pursuers had retreated, he felt relieved and left.

He did not have the habit of implicating others.

"Hum."

As blue light flickered, Gu Han appeared in the slums in the south of the city.

Gu Han swept his fingertips across his cheeks, and as the Thousand Illusions Formless Art operated, his facial bones made a fine clicking sound, and in the blink of an eye, he transformed into a hunchbacked old man with a face full of pockmarks.

"This body is quite suitable."

He hunched his back and coughed twice.

Footsteps suddenly came from the entrance of the alley.

Five black-armored guards wearing swords kicked over vegetable baskets, constantly searching for signs of Gu Han.

Gu Han just walked past them, swaying leisurely.

...

"The owner of this courtyard is returning to his hometown, so he is selling it cheaply."

The broker kept introducing it to Gu Han.

"Old man, if you buy it now, you will definitely make a profit in the future."

"Three hundred taels."

"Any more, and I won't take it."

Gu Han looked conflicted, his eyes filled with determination.

The broker suddenly froze.

Then, he kept apologizing and smiling.

"Old man, the price you're cutting..."

Hearing this, Gu Han leaned on his cane and prepared to leave.

He kept mumbling to himself.

"If it weren't for my good-for-nothing son being able to get a wife, this old man wouldn't spend this wasted money!"

"How nice it would be to keep the money."

"Count it every day, and live longer."