Clap, clap, clap...
A slow round of applause broke the silence.
Zhao Zonghan, whose face had originally been livid, clapped as he looked at Jiang Ye with an extremely mocking gaze:
“Bai Zhirou, I have to admit, you are very smart.”
“But—”
His tone shifted, and his expression instantly became twisted and savage:
“It is precisely because of your cleverness that you will get everyone killed!”
Zhao Zonghan covered his face and laughed maniacally, as if he had lost his mind:
“We were clearly planning to let you off! We would have let you kill those two wolves to complete your mission and call it a day!”
“Why? Why did you have to stick your nose where it didn't belong? Why did you insist on investigating?!”
The atmosphere in the clearing instantly dropped to sub-zero temperatures.
A chilling, murderous aura filled the air.
The Sword Peak disciples drew their swords, locking their gazes tightly onto Zhao Zonghan.
Boom!
Jiang Ye slammed the thirty-thousand-jin greatsword into the ground and leaned lazily against the hilt.
His tone was flat, even carrying a hint of urging:
“Oh, please, do elaborate.”
Seeing Jiang Ye's nonchalant attitude, Zhao Zonghan was taken aback for a moment before laughing loudly:
“Hahaha! It seems you are quite confident in your own strength!”
Snap.
Zhao Zonghan raised his hand and snapped his fingers crisply.
In an instant, the air in the village seemed to completely freeze.
The couple who were still caressing the gold ingot and giggling froze mid-motion.
The little boy's sobbing was abruptly cut off.
Everyone looked over in shock and doubt.
They saw the old man's originally vacant eyes instantly get covered by countless blood-red threads.
The red threads acted like needle and thread, stitching his eyelids together bit by bit.
The old man suddenly threw his head back, and countless blood-red threads surged wildly out of his throat.
He let out a beast-like roar and spun around, baring his fangs and claws.
Right after that, the woman looked at the old man. Confusion filled her eyes at first, followed quickly by sheer terror.
Countless blood-red threads gushed from her eye sockets, forcibly stitching her eyes shut.
She opened her mouth to scream for help, but what surged from her throat was a massive, writhing clump of red threads.
And it wasn't just them.
In the distance, the rows of tightly shut doors in the village collapsed with a crash.
Figure after figure, spitting red threads from their mouths with their eyes stitched shut, marched forward with distorted steps, densely surrounding everyone.
The Sword Peak disciples felt their scalps tingle with dread as they retreated repeatedly in fear.
“W-What... what are these monsters?!”
Jiang Ye tilted his head, his eyes shining as he looked at the village full of mutants:
“Oh, there are red-haired monsters too?”
He turned to look at Zhao Zonghan. There was no fear in his voice, only the enthusiasm of a fellow practitioner exchanging experiences:
“Are you guys raising Gu? This playstyle has some depth. How long is the infection period? What's the level cap?”
Zhao Zonghan's manic laughter froze on his face.
He stared at Jiang Ye as if looking at a lunatic.
No, this reaction is all wrong! At a time like this, shouldn't you be absolutely terrified and denouncing my demonic ways? Are these supposed to be your lines?!
In his mind, Bai Zhirou also gaped in shock:
“Senior... what do you mean by Gu?”
Jiang Ye casually explained, “Probably some kind of Gu insect they're raising. I'll have to study it further to know exactly what it is.”
“Aaaaah! Help!!!”
Just then, a pig-slaughtering shriek echoed from the distance.
A bald monk, wearing nothing but a pair of bright red underpants, was running for his life toward them, his feet stepping on phantom lotuses.
It was none other than Monk Du'e, who had gone to perform a memorial service for Widow Liu.
He rushed in front of everyone like a streak of lightning, pointing toward the east of the village as he panted heavily:
“M-Monsters! Widow Liu turned into a monster, and she can't be killed...”
He had just turned his head when his voice cut off abruptly.
Four red-haired monsters, spitting red threads from their mouths, were staring dead at him.
Cold sweat poured down Du'e's bald head as he gave a couple of dry chuckles:
“Ha... haha... This poor monk was just passing by. No big deal, I'll take my leave now. You patrons have fun.”
He turned to leave, but the encirclement of the red-haired monsters suddenly tightened, completely blocking his path of retreat.
Du'e's steps halted, his face turning green.
...
Gu Changqing stared at these innocent villagers who had been turned into monsters. His eyes felt like they would split open as he pointed his longsword toward the sky:
“Zhao Zonghan! Have you all gone mad?!”
“How are your actions any different from those of beasts?!”
“You are even worse than those evil cultivators of the demonic sects!”
Zhao Zonghan looked down from above with a playful gaze, the grin on his face stretching wider and wider:
“Hehe.”
“As long as all of you die here today, who will ever know we did it?”
“Once I return to the sect, I'll just say... the geniuses of Sword Peak died a heroic death under a demon beast attack to protect mortals... How is that script? It's deeply touching, isn't it?”
Before he could finish his posturing, a voice even more arrogant than his exploded:
“Stop fucking posturing.”
Before his voice even faded, Jiang Ye's figure vanished from where he stood.
Weng!
A massive black greatsword had already appeared above Zhao Zonghan's head, smashing down directly!
Zhao Zonghan's pupils shrank. “This crazy woman!”
The Tier Three Early Stage 【Frost Moon Underworld Serpent】 coiled beside him reacted incredibly fast.
Its mouth opened wide, spitting out a blast of deep-blue ice flames that radiated an extreme chill.
Jiang Ye did not dodge or evade.
Upon the Meteorite Greatsword, the dark-red 【Killing Sword Intent】 erupted with a bang.
The moment the ice flame—which was cold enough to freeze true qi—collided with the Killing Sword Intent, it dissolved and disintegrated like winter snow meeting the blazing sun.
Bang!
A loud explosion rang out.
The greatsword slammed directly onto the white python's head.
The white python let out a wail as its massive body was sent flying backward, slamming right into Zhao Zonghan.
The man and the serpent plummeted like a meteor, crashing heavily into a collapsed house and kicking up a cloud of dust.
At the same time, the surrounding red-haired monsters lunged madly at the Sword Peak group as if they had heard a charge bugle.
Although the Sword Peak disciples detested the actions of the Beast-Taming Peak, they did not show any mercy when facing the villagers who had already turned into red-haired monsters.
Sword light flashed.
Swish, swish, swish!
Those terrifying-looking red-haired monsters were easily sliced in half by the sharp sword qi.
Everyone let out a sigh of relief. These monsters had very weak defense, only at the early stage of Qi Condensation, nothing to be feared.
But in the next second, a scene that made everyone's hair stand on end occurred.
For those red-haired monsters that had been sliced at the waist or had their limbs chopped off, no blood flowed from the cuts. Instead, countless blood-red threads squirmed frantically out of the wounds!
The fine threads intertwined and pulled at each other, making cracking sounds.
Within just a few breaths, the severed bodies of the red-haired monsters actually stitched themselves back together.
They scrambled up from the ground, carrying their misaligned and distorted bodies, and threw themselves forward once more, completely fearless of death!
They couldn't be killed at all!
Just as everyone fell into a bitter struggle, two deafening wolf howls suddenly echoed from the Dharma Boat hovering in midair.
Boom!
Two dark shadows charged directly out of the Dharma Boat's concealment formation.
Two giant wolves, even more massive than the previous ones, descended from the sky.
Their fur was nearly pure white, with only a few grey hairs mixed in. Their bodies were like small mountains of flesh, their muscles knotted, radiating a suffocating and fierce pressure.
Tier Three Mid Stage! Tier Five Bloodline!
【Bloodthirsty Wind Demon Wolf】!
The faces of the Sword Peak disciples turned pale, their expressions filled with horror.
Gu Changqing stared fixedly at the two giant wolves, his voice trembling:
“No beast-taming rings, no contracts...”
“You... you are actually cooperating with the demon race?!”
Rate on N.U.
