The effeminate man snapped open his folding fan, the purplish-black weapon exuding a sickening scent of blood.
More noticeable still was the heavy fragrance of rouge clinging to him.
The scent made even the cane-leaning crone crease her brow.
The rouge on this man smelled heavier than on a young maiden.
Sensing her gaze, the man turned his head with a faint, mocking smile. "I know what you are thinking, but I advise you not to say it to my face.
"My cooperation with your two families is only temporary. Do not think I wouldn't dare kill you."
The old man with his hands clasped behind his back gave a cold laugh. "Yu Chang'an, you truly are as cold and ruthless as the rumors say.
"Your clansmen were slaughtered to the last, yet you remain entirely unperturbed."
Swaying with an affected grace, Yu Chang'an veiled his face with the folding fan, his laughter slightly shrill.
Rocking back and forth in mirth, he sneered with faint tears at the corners of his eyes. "Clansmen? What does their complete extinction have to do with me?
"It only annoys me slightly that the clan's secret was exposed—they severed my path forward, after all..."
With that, he lightly flicked a slender finger toward Lu Hengtian's chest and mocked, "Clansmen? Family ties?
"We've lived for thousands of years, and all of us live only for ourselves. How are you two any different from me?
"We are all devils here. Why pretend to be saints before me?!"
Yu Chang'an daintily lifted the hem of his robe and looked down with a sneer.
"When your favored grandson was killed right before your eyes, your hatred wasn't even as great as when your realm was seized.
"Calling me cold-blooded? We're cut from the same cloth.
"Enough, it is time to strike.
"I'll take on two of them alone. Hurry up with the rest."
With those words, the slender Yu Chang'an stepped forward.
In a flash of teleportation, he arrived above a volcano blazing with green flames and knitted his brows.
He raised his foot and gave a light stomp—
*Rumble!*
A torrent of berserk power unleashed itself, the force of shattering space causing the colossal volcano, spanning over eight hundred zhang, to suddenly collapse!
The green flames dimmed, teetering on the verge of total extinction, while boulders the size of houses tumbled down the crater.
*Boom! Crash!*
A muffled detonation erupted from below, followed by an old man's furious roar.
"Damn it! Who dares disturb my alchemy?!"
"I will make you pay for this!"
*Boom!*
A soot-blackened old man shot up into the void.
His burly physique bore no resemblance to an alchemist's; he looked more like a body-tempering pugilist.
The old man had a snow-white beard framing his face and stood well over eight feet tall.
His alchemist robes were tied around his waist, exposing a muscular, strapping torso.
When Yu Chang'an caught sight of his face, he froze for an instant.
"Gu Lie?"
With smoke rising from his hair, the blackened-faced old man peered closely at the intruder.
Recognizing him, he gave a harsh snort of contempt.
"I was wondering who it was. Turns out it's you, you fake broad.
"So many years have passed, and your face has certainly gotten a lot younger, but that foul reek on you is still hard to mask...
"To be honest, I've wanted to ask you for a long time: is that rank stench on you from a fox?
"Or... did you slice off your manhood and can't shake it dry? Hahahahaha!"
Gu Lie planted his hands on his hips and barked insolently, seemingly oblivious to the dangerous gleam surfacing in Yu Chang'an's dark, gloomy eyes.
The murderous intent in Yu Chang'an's icy glare practically condensed into solid substance!
Snapping his folding fan shut, he stared fixedly at the old man and said in a chilling voice, "In all these years, you are the first who has dared say such things to my face!"
"Today, I will—"
Gu Lie waved an impatient hand, his clenched fist half the size of a human head.
*Crack, crack, crack!*
He popped his knuckles with sharp snaps and scoffed, "The first?
"What, do you know you're too repulsive, so you hide away where no one can see you and never speak to anyone?
"Figures... If you actually showed your face, someone would've said it to you long ago."
A flash of light gleamed from the storage ring on his finger, and a pair of savage-looking, dark-gold knuckledusters slipped over his hands.
The knuckledusters' wicked spikes were as long as thumbs. The old man rolled his neck.
"My talent for alchemy may be mediocre, but I know my way around my fists."
The corner of Yu Chang'an's mouth twitched, and he cursed inwardly,
*What kind of lunatic cultivates body tempering for thousands of years, only to turn around and take up alchemy?!*
Gu Lie sneered, "That was my very first furnace of eighth-grade pills, and you blew it up!"
*Thud!*
Before his voice even faded, the void caved inward with a terrifying curve, followed by the crisp sound of shattering glass.
The sky spanning hundreds of zhang beneath the old man's feet collapsed like fragile porcelain.
*Whoosh!*
The howling gale of his punch sounded like the shriek of vengeful ghosts, tearing jagged fissures across space.
With his beard and hair bristling like an enraged lion's mane, the old man's eyes burned with chilling bloodlust.
Heaven only knew how difficult it had been for him to refine a furnace of eighth-grade pills!
For a mere martial brute to sit still and calmly manipulate primal energy as fine as hair to concoct pills...
And it had been right on the verge of success...
The more Gu Lie thought about it, the angrier he grew. Flames suddenly flared from his knuckledusters.
The raging inferno coalesced into two fiery lion heads, and his fist drove toward Yu Chang'an with shattering force!
Yu Chang'an slammed his folding fan against the old man's fist.
*Clang!*
The metallic ring of clashing steel rang out, and a wave of numbness surged straight up Yu Chang'an's arm.
The momentum of the old man's punch was barely checked as it veered downward toward his abdomen!
Twisting his frame, Yu Chang'an retreated dozens of zhang in a flash, but the old man was just as fast, sticking close to him with a relentless barrage of attacks!
***
Inside the Gu clan's dungeon!
Tang Ru's expression grew grim beyond measure.
A moment later, a black-robed man stepped up beside Tang Ru and reported in a heavy voice, "The Gu clan's realm is surrounded by a barrier, and two vermilion cloud boats have arrived!
"Three Mahayana Realm cultivators, along with eight Body Integration experts and over twenty in the Void Refining Realm!
"One of them is an effeminate man I haven't seen before, and he has already clashed with one of our Mahayana realm alchemists."
Tang Ru stared at the image Gu Chuan had brought back, his eyes narrowing sharply.
"Lu Hengtian! Zhu Ying!"
"It really is those two families. I still don't know who that other man is.
"What could they possibly want by showing up at the Gu clan?"
Tang Ru's thoughts spun rapidly, and soon the enemy's true objective dawned on him!
*Gulp...*
Tang Ru gritted his teeth, his face turning thoroughly unsightly.
By now, Gu Chuan and his men had captured everyone in the Gu clan who had leaked Li Guanqi's whereabouts—more than a dozen individuals had been turned.
Yet the memories of these people seemed to have been wiped clean. Discovering who they had leaked the information to was now pointless anyway.
The enemy was already at their door.
However... knowing full well that Li Guanqi, Gu Changsheng, and the others were away, they had deliberately chosen this moment to strike at the Gu clan...
"Ye Feng and the others!"
Tang Ru immediately thought of Ye Feng, Cao Yan, and Xiao Chen, who were still in the middle of breaking through to their next realms...
If the three of them were captured, they would inevitably become hostages to shackle Li Guanqi!
When that time came, knowing Li Guanqi's temper, he would walk straight into the trap even if he knew it was one!
Chapter 895