At that moment, Wu Youren was genuinely dumbfounded: *What the hell did you do, Old Chen?*
The hundred-odd glowing spheres he saw were merely the vanguard; behind them stretched a boundless expanse of Guizu aura.
The youth sighed and muttered under his breath, "I knew you prepared a surprise, but damn it, isn't this thinking a bit too highly of me?"
He strongly suspected there was a grand knight-level entity in that Guizu aura, but at this point, how could he resign himself without giving it a try?
Silently, he slashed his first strike forward, instantly extinguishing one of the glowing spheres, shattering the human head within along with it.
Even the vanguard were knight corpse Guizu!
Fortunately, before he had even released his inner breath, he had easily slain one, mincing the severed limb inside to pieces.
When they previously encountered corpse Guizu, even the knight instructors' battle qi couldn't mow them down in a single blow—they had to strike several times to finish one off.
It was evident that Daoist qi held a pronounced suppressive effect against the Guizu, far stronger than the battle qi of the knight system.
Wu Youren held back at the beginning of his strikes, knowing that some Guizu were quite intelligent.
After a few cuts, however, he couldn't stand it anymore—the stench was overpowering!
If he didn't mince the limbs inside the glowing spheres, it would have been slightly better. But doing so hindered him from spotting Guizu relics—the sheer number of corpse Guizu was simply overwhelming.
Yet mincing them filled the air with pulverized bits... an utterly unbearable foul stench.
He could hold his breath and shield his body with inner breath, but that was no long-term solution.
Seeing more and more glowing spheres swarming in, he decisively released his inner breath.
A faint red glow appeared along his long saber, with a fluctuating blade qi seven to eight meters long pulsing from the tip.
With a single slash, obliterating one or two glowing spheres was effortless, while heavily wounding several others in passing.
The scorching burn of fire-element inner breath effectively mitigated the rancid, rotting stench.
Unfortunately, an attack of this intensity multiplied his energy expenditure.
As he cut down Guizu, warm streams surged into him one after another, and Wu Youren could speed up his absorption to increase his inner breath.
Soon, however, he realized that the gains... couldn't keep up with the expenditure!
The rapid absorption caused too much waste; in the process of converting experience points into inner breath, much of it leaked out of his body.
Moreover, his body couldn't endure such continuous, high-intensity conversion for long. The hidden ailments that had already been repaired would soon suffer damage again!
In past battles, he could harvest experience points with yields far exceeding consumption. But in continuous combat of this intensity, achieving the goal of "sustaining battle through battle" was out of the question, let alone profiting from it!
Amidst crisscrossing blade light, Wu Youren quickly calculated the cost-benefit ratio of the battle.
He also had to consider that he must reserve enough inner breath to deal with a grand knight Guizu that could appear at any moment! Or other unexpected contingencies.
*Never mind, stop overthinking it. Keep some reserve inner breath in the tank and kill as many as possible for now. If things truly get out of hand, just run.*
Wu Youren knew very well that even if the motorcycle remained undamaged by the battle and could still be used, he might not outrun a grand knight Guizu. Still, when the cart reached the mountain, a way would present itself; he had a few other tricks up his sleeve.
Distracted by these thoughts, an accidental slip occurred—*Holy shit... did the blade qi just mince a crystal to pieces?*
Wu Youren wondered if his eyes were playing tricks on him. Yes, it was too dark; sensory errors were inevitable. Even if it wasn't a mistake, it *had* to be! Otherwise, it would be too infuriating to bear!
Yet the very next moment, at the spot where the crystal shattered, a mass of energy erupted violently, immediately agitating the surrounding Guizu into a frenzy.
The energy released by the shattered crystal wasn't Guizu aura, but it held immense temptation for many Guizu!
"Fuck my life..." Wu Youren felt his Dao heart waver! Not only had he lost several thousand, but the Guizu had grown even crazier!
By now, the surrounding area was engulfed in vast swathes of Guizu aura, and several encampments had been affected. But teams that dared to camp near the foot of the mountain generally had some backbone and decent defenses.
In the distance, military squads were cautiously approaching...
With a massive amount of Guizu aura breaching the blockade, even in the middle of the night, they had to step up and hold the line without hesitation!
However, the speed of these squads was nothing to boast about. Few armies liked night battles, especially against Guizu, whose combat strength at night was far greater than during the day.
One camp under attack by Guizu aura was a military outpost; there weren't many soldiers, but they were relatively elite.
"Damn corpse Guizu," the soldiers communicated during the fight. "Everyone be careful! Don't be stingy with the ghost-dispelling powder!"
"Hey, their fighting spirit doesn't seem very strong. Should we ease up a bit?"
"We can try. Focus on one at a time, don't harm the innocent!"
"What the fuck kind of talk is that? Since when is there an innocent Guizu?"
Those who frequently fought Guizu knew that martial artists with strong vitality were highly tempting to them. But tonight's Guizu felt somewhat different. Although they had breached the blockade and charged out by force, experienced veterans could sense that their aggression was lacking something.
For frontline soldiers, this was a good thing, and no one bothered wondering why—that was for the big shots to figure out.
Guizu aura surged, wails echoed, and a rancid stench filled the air, but the pressure was truly not that intense! As a result, a few soldiers even had the leeway to observe the Guizu situation elsewhere.
"Holy crap, that camp over there was wiped out... wonder if anyone made it out alive!"
"Serves them right. All they cared about was that there are more Guizu relics near the foot of the mountain... bunch of dumbass barbarians, did you think you had the strength for that?"
There were indeed teams that overestimated themselves, and barbarians made up the vast majority of them.
"Who the fuck are you talking about? I'm a barbarian! Did I eat your family's blood food?"
"Cut it out, cut it out... Hey, look! At the center of the Guizu aura, there seems to be a grand knight!"
Hearing this, the men looked over and could faintly see flickering blade light.
"Red—it's red blade qi, right? What cultivation method is that? Could someone actually be practicing Prairie Fire? That's a forbidden method!"
"It's only forbidden for people like us. Among those big shots... whatever, can't speak of it in detail!"
"Is this guy an idiot? With the strength of a grand knight, he should run! Holding his ground like this, isn't that fucking asking to die?"
"If he runs, our pressure will skyrocket. I think this grand knight is great—he takes responsibility!"
"Why does that remind me of someone... that... Guizu-hunting maniac?"
At this moment, the Guizu-hunting maniac was baring his teeth in grimaces. Having fought continuously for nearly an hour and a half, he felt he was nearing his limit.
And the stench was simply unbearable!
The good news was that in such a short time, he had harvested a total of twelve Guizu relics and crystals—a massive haul.
Among them were five crystals and seven Guizu relics... If he hadn't shattered two, there would have been seven crystals as well!
Out of the seven Guizu relics, four were rare, perhaps extremely valuable.
The bad news was that his Fireball Art had no place to be put to use.
In such intense combat, with the Guizu moving erratically, spells truly felt far less practical than a blade.
Not to mention the earth-element Mud and Sand Art; that technique was purely meant for dealing with humans or Guizu-transformed creatures.
Against these erratic, narrow-sense Guizu, it was utterly useless!
Thus, the current battle still wasn't full throttle, leaving Wu Youren with a slight sense of regret.
*Ten more minutes at most!* The youth made up his mind in secret. Once the time was up, no matter the situation, he would retreat!
Whether Chen Quanxu's test yielded results had nothing to do with him—he had truly done his utmost.
For someone determined to breach the lower limits of morality, he felt his actions could practically qualify him as a saint.
As he was calculating in his mind, a tremendous sense of threat suddenly assaulted him.
It was an intensely abrupt sensation, appearing out of nowhere and enveloping him in an instant, astonishingly fast.
Yet at this moment, Wu Youren's heart was surprisingly calm.
Only one thought remained in his mind: *Has it finally arrived?*
Leaving aside whether he could win, the sheer anticipation had tormented him for far too long.
He abruptly unleashed his breath outward, enveloping his entire body, the perimeter around him glowing faintly red.
Then he clicked the master remote control. In a single instant, explosions detonated one after another, roaring together into a deafening cascade.
There were ghost-destroying mines, explosive packs, and mechanical switches that sprayed ghost-dispelling powder...
Those switches in particular sprayed ghost-dispelling powder while emitting strange noises, only to detonate with a roar twenty to thirty seconds later.
Noise attacks were relatively rare, cheap yet effective, and had once been his signature tactic. Recently the word had spread, spawning imitators.
Wu Youren didn't want to leave any room for speculation, so he had added delay fuses for self-destruction.
Regardless of success or failure, he detonated every ambush mechanism.
As for whether there was a second grand knight Guizu, he didn't care to consider it. If he couldn't handle this one, what good was overthinking?
At the same time, the long saber in his hand blazed with red light, the pulsing blade qi stretching over twenty meters long.
The chain of explosions not only alarmed the military outpost camp, but was noticed by camps three to four kilometers away.
Even the defenders along the ridge, desperately rebuilding the blockade line, were stunned. "Who the hell is fighting to the death over there?"
True veterans could basically tell that this wasn't a coordinated hunt against Guizu, nor was it reinforcements pushing through.
It was either a desperate move meant to perish together with the enemy, or a violent burst to carve out a chance to flee.
At the center of the explosions, Wu Youren believed he had considered everything thoroughly.
The suddenly released protective inner breath would allow him to withstand this shockwave.
The ghost-dispelling powder and six ghost-destroying mines could also sow considerable chaos.
Their impact on a grand knight Guizu might not be tremendous, but at the very least, they should hinder the enemy's attack.
However, just as the shockwaves violently erupted, the surrounding yin-cold aura intensified sharply.
A hazy phantom materialized abruptly out of thin air.
It was a colossal hand, over five hundred meters long, clawing downward violently toward the youth at the center of the blast.
Wu Youren swung his long saber, slashing three consecutive strikes toward the sky with blinding speed.
Chapter 199