199: Chapter 199 A Clash Where Both Sides Suffer Losses

Dust filled the air, and the roar of shattering rock echoed for a long time in the night sky over the heart of Mang Mountain.

Gu Shen hovered in mid-air, a wisp of scorching white smoke curling around the knuckles of his right fist. Just now, he had poured the full, ten-thousand-jin might of his Cold Jade Thunder Bone into that strike, smashing straight through the defense of the top-grade Basalt Treasure Shield and blasting Core Disciple Qin Wuyan deep into the rock wall a hundred zhang away.

The surroundings were silent. The remaining Beast Taming Sect Disciples, all injured by the backlash of the grand formation, collapsed to the ground; for a moment, no one dared to look directly at the god of slaughter in mid-air.

Gu Shen's face was as calm as water. Just as he was about to descend to deliver a finishing blow,

suddenly, an overwhelming, churning pain erupted from deep within his internal organs.

The pain came without warning, like thousands of red-hot steel needles frantically piercing between his heart and lungs. Gu Shen's body trembled violently, a thick, metallic tang rose in his throat, and a large mouthful of black blood spurted out, turning into a blood mist that scattered across the sky.

"Cough..."

Gu Shen knelt on one knee in mid-air, the deep cyan toxic Death Qi swirling around him showing signs of disorder.

From the black iron buckle at his collar, Crab's single-machine electronic voice warned urgently: "Master! Large-scale tearing in the visceral tissues! The extremely low-frequency infrasonic resonance damage sustained earlier has passed its incubation period and is currently triggering physical collapse at the cellular level!"

Gu Shen gritted his teeth, forcibly channeling the [Nirvana Star Core] within his Dantian Qi Sea. The rotation of the Star Core ruthlessly suppressed the residual resonance waves that were trying to continue tearing his internal organs, pinning them deep within his bone marrow.

He was very clear-headed.

Sonic attacks were impossible to guard against. No matter how hard his Cold Jade Bone was, it could not protect his soft internal organs in the end. Resisting that cry of the Kui Ox head-on had ultimately resulted in extremely severe hidden injuries.

"Boom!"

The mountain rock ruins in the distance suddenly exploded.

Violent airwaves blew away boulders weighing thousands of jin. A blood-soaked figure rose slowly from the ruins, surrounded by heart-stopping, violent Spiritual Pressure.

Core Disciple Qin Wuyan's hair was disheveled, and his once spotless white robes were already dyed dark red by blood and mud. The Magical Artifact robe on his chest was completely shattered, revealing a dented inner armor underneath, its surface covered in spiderweb cracks, which had barely managed to keep his heart pulse alive.

The Foundation of a great Sect's true Disciple was fully displayed at this moment. If not for this heart-protecting inner armor, Gu Shen's punch just now would have been enough to completely pierce through his chest.

Core Disciple Qin Wuyan held the mountain-shaking bone zither with one hand, while the other clutched his chest tightly. He stared at Gu Shen, who was also coughing up blood in mid-air, his originally gentle face twisted with undisguised, ferocious killing intent.

"Good! A truly well-hidden Body Cultivator!"

Core Disciple Qin Wuyan's voice was hoarse, like sandpaper rubbing together. "Since I, Core Disciple Qin Wuyan, stepped onto the Immortal path, you are the first person of the same rank capable of shattering my Magical Artifact and injuring my Foundation. If I don't extract your soul and refine your spirit today, my title as a Core Disciple will be a joke!"

After speaking, Core Disciple Qin Wuyan spat out a mouthful of essential blood, which landed directly on the strings of the mountain-shaking bone zither.

The bone zither absorbed the essential blood of the Foundation Establishment Cultivator, and its entire body glowed with an eerie red light. The nine earth-vein mysterious tendon strings seemed to come alive, like nine bloodthirsty poisonous snakes, emitting a hair-raising hiss.

"Beast blood boils, zither sound claims lives!"

Core Disciple Qin Wuyan completely abandoned defense, his ten fingers turning into afterimages as he frantically plucked the strings.

Hundreds of blood-colored sound blades shot out from between the strings, weaving into an all-encompassing net of slaughter. Each of these sound blades contained a destructive resonance capable of tearing apart both Divine Soul and Physical Body, sealing off all of Gu Shen's retreat paths.

Gu Shen stood in the Void Realm, watching the blood-colored sound blades filling the sky with cold eyes.

He knew well that it would be unwise to fight head-on right now. The injuries to his internal organs were sapping most of the operational power of the Star Core. If he were to fight to the death with this crazed Sect Prodigy here, even if he could kill him, he himself would end up with a shattered Foundation.

The essence of the path of cowardice lay in seeking advantages and avoiding harm, planning before acting.

"If you want Chen's life, these few bones of yours aren't hard enough!"

Gu Shen shouted, his right hand brushing across his waist.

"Clang—!"

The thunder pattern gold-slaying blade was unsheathed with a roar. The top-grade fierce gold traced a dazzling, deep blue trajectory in the night.

Gu Shen poured all of the remaining thirty percent of the deep cyan true Qi in his Qi Sea into the blade. The thunder magnetic fine sand and the Geng Metal Sword Qi reacted violently, and the space around the blade was torn into fine black cracks by high-pressure electric arcs.

Holding the blade with both hands, he slashed diagonally downward, meeting the sky full of blood-colored sound blades.

"Break!"

The ten-zhang-long thunderous blade light, wrapped in the toxic Death Qi of the Nirvana Star Core, was like lightning splitting Chaos, colliding head-on with Core Disciple Qin Wuyan's blood-colored zither music.

A blinding, dazzling light exploded in mid-air.

The Thunder-Magnetic Force and the infrasonic resonance underwent a tragic mutual annihilation. The violent shockwave exploded in a ring, plowing another thick layer of soil off the already scarred basin below.

Core Disciple Qin Wuyan gave a muffled grunt, his figure retreating repeatedly under the force of the rebound. The mountain-shaking bone zither in his hand, which had drunk his essential blood, finally emitted a crisp sound under the erosion of the thunder-magnetic high temperature, and three of its strings snapped.

Gu Shen didn't fare much better. The residual force of the clash swept over his body, and he coughed up another mouthful of blood.

However, this was exactly the result he wanted.

Borrowing the terrifying airwaves generated by the collision of the two extremely powerful forces, Gu Shen's body flew rapidly backward.

The thunder shadow boots erupted with a cluster of deep blue electric light in mid-air.

Gu Shen's figure turned into an elusive gray afterimage, following the push of the airwaves, and plunged headlong into the depths of Mang Mountain, which was shrouded in thick miasma all year round.

"Fellow Daoist Qin, Chen will remember this generous gift. When we meet again, I will surely return it a hundredfold!"

The hoarse, cold voice came from deep within the miasma, far away, gradually fading, and finally completely dissipating into the boundless night.

Core Disciple Qin Wuyan steadied his figure, standing in mid-air, his face frosty.

He watched with his own eyes as that gray-robed figure merged into the miasma, but he did not rashly pursue. The depths of Mang Mountain were a Forbidden Ground where great demons lurked, and that dense miasma was filled with deadly toxins capable of confusing the mind. With his internal organs damaged and his Foundation unstable at this moment, if he were to force his way in, he feared there might be a risk of falling.

"Escaping with such decisiveness."

Core Disciple Qin Wuyan looked down at the mountain-shaking bone zither with broken strings in his hand, the killing intent in his eyes almost solidifying.

Below, several Beast Taming Sect deacons with lighter injuries supported each other and rose into the air on their Magical Artifacts, stopping ten zhang away from Core Disciple Qin Wuyan.

"Senior Brother Qin, the thief has escaped into the depths of the miasma forest. Should we issue a Sect kill order?" one deacon asked respectfully, enduring his pain.

Core Disciple Qin Wuyan flipped his hand to take out a healing Medicinal Pill and swallowed it, forcibly suppressing the churning blood in his body.

"This Mang Mountain miasma forest stretches for thousands of miles and is filled with poisonous creatures. He was injured by my zither music, and his internal organs must be riddled with holes. Whether he can survive for three days in such a desperate place is still unknown."

Core Disciple Qin Wuyan's gaze was cold as he swept over the collapsed underground river entrance below. "The top priority is to retrieve the Kui Ox cub. Pass the order to all teams: close the formation lines and dig three feet into the ground along the underground river water veins. In addition, mobilize personnel to seal all exits on the outskirts of Mang Mountain and drive tracking Spirit Beasts to start a carpet-like search from the outside in."

"This person's Physical Body is different from ordinary people, and the Puppet he uses also seems strange. If he is truly lucky enough to escape with his life, I will definitely make it impossible for him to move an inch in the western border of Great Yu!"

The night wind whistled, mixed with a strong smell of blood. Core Disciple Qin Wuyan, his white robes stained with blood, turned and returned to the center of the basin, directing the remaining troops to clean up the aftermath.

Meanwhile, deep in Mang Mountain, in that poisonous miasma forest that never saw the sun all year round.

Gu Shen walked heavily, stepping on the wet, foul-smelling layer of fallen leaves.

He swallowed the bloody tang rising in his throat one after another, his face showing a sickly paleness.

"Master, your physical damage is continuing to deteriorate. It is recommended to immediately find a safe anchor point for deep hibernation and cellular reorganization repair." Crab's mechanical voice faithfully performed its duties.

Gu Shen steadied himself against a thick, dead tree, his Divine Sense moving slightly as he took a drop of essence white dew (medium) from his Storage Ring and swallowed it.

The gentle vitality melted, barely protecting his crumbling heart pulse, and forcibly suppressed the continuously spreading sonic hidden injuries into a very small area.

"This Prodigy of the Cultivation World truly has some tricks. Sonic resonance specifically breaks external armor. If it weren't for my solid Foundation, I fear I would have really fallen under that bone zither today."

Gu Shen felt no frustration in his heart, only cold review and deduction.

After this battle, he completely saw through the fatal flaw of the Cyber Iron Guard in the face of the Cultivation World system. No matter how hard the physical shell was, it could not defend against frequency resonance that ignored the medium.

Gu Shen stood up straight, all the magic power in his body converging within.

Like a lone wolf that was injured but still lethal, he merged into the dangerous, poisonous miasma of the deep mountains, utilizing the breath-concealing effect of Thousand Faces.