64: Chapter 64 You Look Like a Dead Weasel

The thunder finally passed.

Heaven and earth grew quiet once again, so quiet as if nothing had ever happened.

Only the still-smoking deep pit proved that everything just now was real.

The charred mass at the bottom of the pit moved slightly.

Huang Zu's official robe was shattered, torn into countless pieces of charred fabric scattered across the bottom of the pit.

His black gauze cap had flown off to who knows where, and his body had long since reverted to its massive demonic weasel form.

Most of his fur was charred black, revealing the ulcerated flesh beneath. Blood seeped from those splits, only to be evaporated by the high temperature and coagulate into dark red scabs.

One of his front legs was broken, bent at an impossible angle, with stark white bone shards poking out through the flesh.

Huang Zu opened his eyes, a revolving lantern flashing within his pupils.

He remembered when he was young and still suckling in the nest; a heavy storm was raging outside, lightning ripped a tear across the sky, and the thunder rolled overhead, shaking the earth itself.

He cowered in his mother's embrace, shivering all over, so scared that he peed himself.

That was before he had attained sentience, and he thought he had forgotten it long ago.

Now, he remembered it once again.

After the revolving lantern faded, the still-living Huang Zu stirred.

He struggled, pulling his broken claw out of the mud and propping himself up on the ground.

He lay there, panting heavily, a hoarse sound emitting from his throat.

Looking at the tortoise shell in his hand that had turned to ash, Huang Zu was filled with lingering fear.

Before being struck by the purple lightning, he had pulled out this tortoise shell for protection.

If not for the tortoise shell's protection, he likely would have been in grave danger this time!

Not only the tortoise shell, but also the incense fire he had swindled from dozens of villages in Guanhai County had been blasted away by this bolt of purple lightning.

Huang Zu's incense fire was scattered, his tortoise shell shattered, and he could no longer even maintain his human form.

But fortunately, he had managed to keep his life.

Whenever Huang Zu moved slightly, his wounds would split open further.

Blood seeped from the charred flesh, trickling down his fur and dripping into the mud, staining dark red marks.

Huang Zu pulled out a piece of demonic meat overflowing with demonic aura; this flesh belonged to a Fourth-Turn late-stage demon.

He had obtained this piece of meat purely through various twists of fate and coincidence.

And now was the time to swallow this demonic meat!

Huang Zu opened his mouth, shoved the meat inside, and swallowed it whole without even chewing.

Then, a surge of heat rolled down from his throat into his stomach and exploded.

Huang Zu's body suddenly arched, his limbs convulsing as a painful roar broke from his throat.

He could feel the bones broken by the lightning reconnecting, the flesh burned to a crisp regenerating, and the split skin healing.

Accompanied by all of this was excruciating pain.

But he endured it, his claws digging deep into the muddy ground and gouging out deep trenches.

He, Huang Zu, could not die!

He absolutely could not die here!

The wave of heat surged from his stomach, flowing along his blood vessels to all parts of his body.

The broken bones were pieced back together by an invisible force, emitting crisp cracking sounds.

That bent front paw slowly straightened out, the bone shards retracting back into the flesh as a newborn periosteum wrapped around them, sealing the fracture tightly.

Huang Zu lay in the mud, panting heavily.

Pei Se stood at the edge of the pit, looking down at the charred mass at the bottom.

That was Huang Zu.

Looking at Huang Zu's miserable appearance right now, the corners of Pei Se's lips curled up.

She didn't know what Jiutian Yingyuan Leishen Puhua Tianzun was, nor did she know who had spoken those words into her ear.

But she knew one thing—

She called out, and the lightning came.

She hadn't expected this purple lightning to have such terrifying power, capable of striking a Fourth-Turn great demon into this state!

Noticing Huang Zu's miserable state as well, Qin Ling, however, frowned slightly.

Because in his view, that bolt of purple lightning had struck down from the Thirty-Three Heavens—it was the thunder of Jiutian Yingyuan Leishen Puhua Tianzun.

That being's thunder, let alone a Fourth-Turn, even a Fifth-Turn or Sixth-Turn would be reduced to ashes by a single strike.

Yet this weasel was still alive.

Although he was heavily injured, his bones broken, and his incense scattered, he was still alive.

That Heavenly Venerable's thunder shouldn't have been restricted to just this much power.

That figure was the ruler of all thunder and lightning under the heavens, Jiutian Yingyuan Leishen Puhua Tianzun.

His thunder should have blasted this weasel into ashes, leaving not even its soul behind.

But this bolt of lightning had only managed to seriously injure it.

Qin Ling suddenly recalled that when that bolt of purple light struck down, he had vaguely felt something.

It wasn't the kind of overwhelming, destructive force of a thunderbolt.

Rather, it felt like a sense of powerlessness, as if the very last shred of strength had been used just to strike down that single bolt of lightning.

That Heavenly Venerable's thunder shouldn't have been like this.

Qin Ling raised his head, looking at the pitch-black sky above.

Perhaps something really had happened to the Heavenly Court of this world.

That Heavenly Venerable must have met with disaster as well.

However, now was not the time to ponder these things; Qin Ling immediately focused his attention back on Huang Zu at the bottom of the pit.

Because he noticed that Huang Zu's previously feeble aura was now continuously climbing!

Similarly, Pei Se, standing at the edge of the pit, also sensed that Huang Zu's aura was rapidly recovering.

Huang Zu's injuries were healing—not slowly, but at a pace visible to the naked eye.

Pei Se took a deep breath and unhooked the wine gourd from her waist—the one she had never opened before.

It was brown, a size larger than others, its cork sealed tightly, with several red ropes wrapped around it.

This was the wine gourd given to her by the Demon Slayer Association, and the wine inside was brewed from multiple heavenly treasures.

Drinking it could elevate her cultivation to the Fourth-Turn in a short amount of time.

This wine was also the reason why she had the confidence to hunt down Huang Zu alone.

And now was the time to drink up!

Pei Se untied the red ropes and pulled out the cork.

A pungent aroma of wine mixed with the fresh fragrance of vegetation gushed out from the gourd's mouth.

She tilted her head back and poured the wine into her mouth.

The wine rolled down her throat—not warm, but scorching hot, like a trail of fire burning all the way from her throat to her stomach, before exploding from her stomach and scorching through all her limbs and bones.

Her face flushed red, the veins on her forehead bulging, and her hands trembling, but she didn't stop. She poured the very last drop of wine down her throat and tossed the empty gourd onto the ground.

The potency of the wine kicked in.

She felt her vital energy boiling, expanding, and surging outward from the depths of her body.

The blood and qi that usually slumbered deep within her Qi Sea, unable to be mobilized no matter what, were all ignited by this pot of wine.

They burned, transforming into a fire dragon that rushed out from the Qi Sea, charging through her meridians and breaking past barriers that she usually could never breach.

Her aura exploded.

Her surging vital energy directly broke through the Third-Turn, reaching the realm of the Fourth-Turn!

At the bottom of the pit, Huang Zu sensed something.

He raised his head, his golden vertical pupils staring at the woman standing at the edge of the pit.

His injuries had only recovered by half; his fur was still charred black, his ears had not fully grown back, and his tail was still just a stub.

But he could feel it.

This Third-turn Martial Artist whom he had disdained just moments ago was now at the Fourth-Turn.

Pei Se looked down at him.

Her eyes were shining—the bright glow of someone who was slightly drunk.

"Didn't you ask me what I look like to you?"

Pei Se raised her sandbag-sized fist, her face flushed from drinking.

"I'll tell you now."

She leaped forward, jumping into the deep pit and dashing toward that weasel.

"You look like—"

"A dead weasel!"