200: Chapter 200 Ambush from Ten Sides

In the heart of the Ten Thousand Mang Mountains, toxic miasma surged like boiling water.

Towering ancient trees intertwined, blocking the starlight from the sky completely. The forest was filled with the lingering scent of rotting leaves and miasma that never dispersed.

Gu Shen stepped on his thunder shadow boots, his figure weaving through the tangled forest like a ghost.

After traveling about thirty miles, a sudden abnormality arose in his abdomen. The infrasonic aftershocks left behind by the Kui Ox's mournful cry finally erupted within his internal organs.

His Qi and blood surged in reverse, and a mouthful of black blood mixed with organ debris spilled from his lips, splattering onto the moss-covered decaying wood.

Gu Shen stumbled, wiped the blood away with the back of his hand, and leaned into a naturally formed crevice between rocks.

The Cold Jade Bone emitted a dull hum deep beneath his skin. Inside his Dantian Qi Sea, the Nirvana Star Core spun crazily, and the deep cyan True Essence transformed into countless fine threads, tightly binding his heart meridian and lungs, forcibly suppressing the constantly collapsing cellular tissue.

"Master, the internal bleeding has exceeded the self-healing threshold for carbon-based organisms. The environment here is harsh, and various unknown biochemical toxins are attempting to invade the wounds."

At his collar, the Crab, which had transformed into a black iron button, transmitted an extremely subtle bone-conduction frequency, "I suggest immediately ingesting high-energy medical supplies and entering physical dormancy."

Gu Shen's eyes were half-closed, his gaze icy.

Dormancy was no different from seeking his own death. That Core Disciple Qin Wuyan of the Beast Taming Sect was certainly no ordinary person; after suffering such a huge loss, he would definitely use the Sect's foundations to set up a dragnet. The perimeter of the Mang Mountain had become a death trap; even a moment's stay could invite disaster.

With a shift of his consciousness, Gu Shen extracted a drop of essence white dew (Medium) from his Storage Ring.

He tilted his head back and swallowed it.

The warm and vast vitality dispersed in his abdomen, turning into sweet rain that nourished his withered and damaged meridians. The heart-wrenching, twisting pain subsided slightly, barely stabilizing the defense line of his internal organs that was on the verge of collapse.

Suddenly, an anomaly appeared high in the sky.

"Skree—!"

A bird's cry that could pierce metal and crack stone tore through the night sky, penetrating the heavy toxic miasma and reaching the forest floor.

Gu Shen looked through the branches in the rock crevice, gazing up at the firmament.

He saw more than a dozen red-feathered Spirit Beasts with wingspans of nearly two zhang circling high above, a hundred feet in the air. These were the Beast Taming Sect's renowned scouting Spirit Beasts, the Red Flame Golden Eagles. These beasts had eyes as sharp as torches, capable of seeing through ordinary concealment illusions.

They clutched specially made Formation disks in their sharp claws, projecting thick, deep blue beams of light downward, like giant brooms, sweeping back and forth across the vast mountain forest.

Wherever the light beams swept, even a low-level Yao Beast rat hiding deep in the soil would have its Qi and blood fluctuations exposed instantly.

"The net from above is already cast, and the net on the ground is not far behind." Gu Shen understood the situation clearly.

Sure enough, a faint, complex rustling sound came from the distance of the forest.

With the multi-threaded perception of the AI Crystal, Gu Shen clearly sensed that several miles away, over a hundred Beast Taming Sect Disciples wearing starry Daoist robes were forming a tight Crescent Moon Formation, pushing forward in a fan shape.

Pathfinding in front of them were dozens of peculiar Yao Beasts that resembled earth dogs but had long snouts—the Spirit-Scent Armadillos. These beasts crawled close to the ground, constantly twitching their nostrils, possessing a near-pathological sensitivity to the residual spiritual power fluctuations and bloody scents in the air.

The Spirit Beasts in the sky locked onto their Qi, while the scent-tracking beasts on the ground searched for bloodstains.

Once a super Sect like the Beast Taming Sect got serious, the hunting resources they revealed were enough to make any Loose Cultivator despair.

"Master, the beam frequency emitted by the high-altitude reconnaissance units has extremely strong spiritual power penetration; the nasal cavities of those low-stature creatures on the ground are analyzing the amino acid and iron ion residues in the environment."

The Crab's physical analysis quickly reached a conclusion, "The optical camouflage of Thousand Faces cannot deceive scent tracking. The blood you coughed up earlier has become a fatal positioning beacon."

Gu Shen's expression was cold and rigid, his figure as still as a mountain.

In a flight scenario, what mattered was counter-reconnaissance. Cultivators relied on magic power and blood energy for tracking, so he would break it with the principle of mutual generation and restraint of all things.

He looked around, his gaze settling on a bubbling, rotting swamp ten zhang away.

On the edge of the swamp grew several strange plants that were entirely purple-black and emitted a pungent, foul odor.

"Rot-Bone Grass. The sap is foul and highly toxic; it can corrode the olfactory nerves of ordinary Yao Beasts."

Gu Shen pressed his fingers together like a sword, the edge of his gold-severing saber hidden but not released, and shot a very thin beam of Geng Metal Sword Qi through the air, cutting the Rot-Bone Grass at the root.

With a pull of True Essence, the cut grass landed in his palm.

He did not hesitate to crush the Rot-Bone Grass, allowing the purple-black toxic sap to smear onto his robes and exposed skin. An agonizing, bone-piercing burning sensation struck, but the Cold Jade Bone emitted a faint light, blocking the toxins at the surface of his skin.

Subsequently, Gu Shen leaped into the rotting swamp, submerging most of his body in the foul black mud, leaving only his nose and mouth exposed.

The Star Core's gravitational field contracted to a small space, locking all his Qi and heat tightly beneath the mud.

About the time it takes to drink a cup of tea.

Two deep blue beams of light swept across the swamp where Gu Shen was hiding. The beams lingered for a moment, failed to detect any abnormal spiritual power echoes, and then moved elsewhere.

Immediately after, four Beast Taming Sect Disciples leading two Spirit-Scent Armadillos stepped into the area.

The armadillos smelled the rock where Gu Shen had spilled blood earlier and immediately emitted urgent, low barks. The four Disciples were energized, holding their Magical Artifacts and approaching step by step.

However, when the armadillos followed the scent to the edge of the swamp, the intensely pungent, foul odor of the Rot-Bone Grass instantly rushed into their nasal cavities.

"Woof!"

The two Spirit-Scent Armadillos seemed to have been struck hard, rolling on the ground in pain, with traces of blood seeping from their nostrils, completely losing their ability to track.

"Damn it! This swamp has Rot-Bone poisonous grass, it ruined the Spirit Beasts' sense of smell."

The leading Disciple frowned, waving his sleeves to fan away the unpleasant smell, "That thief was hit by Senior Brother Qin's Mountain-Quaking Zither sound, his internal organs must be shattered, he cannot run far. The clue is cut off here, go search the mountain hollow ahead!"

The four of them led the Spirit Beasts away, cursing and swearing.

When the footsteps faded away, Gu Shen slowly stood up from the mud.

Muddy water slid down his black flood dragon black gold armor, and while his whole body emitted an indescribable stench, his eyes were as clear as a mirror.

The first wave of searching had passed, but this hundred-mile radius was a dead end; the Beast Taming Sect's encirclement was gradually tightening.

"Crab, find a weak point in the defense line."

"Understood. The radar microwaves are interfered with by the dense spiritual power fields in the surroundings, and the effective detection distance is compressed to three miles. Under a cliff in the northwest direction, the enemy personnel distribution is the sparsest, with only three people patrolling."

Gu Shen identified the direction, his figure like a ghost, and merged back into the dark forest.

Along the way, he followed the same method, using various foul-smelling poisonous plants and Yao Beast feces to cover his tracks, brushing past searching teams several times. These survival methods, akin to those of a wild beast, were impossible for those high-and-mighty Sect Disciples to guard against.

After traveling about five miles, his path was blocked.

A rushing, large river cut off his path; above the river was a naturally formed stone bridge.