The biguijue truly proved immensely useful; the dark shadow's speed plummeted, slowing down the closer it approached.
It was as though a speeding car had suddenly released the clutch and slammed violently on the brakes.
Directly in front of the dark shadow, two faint yellow daggers detonated with a bang, followed immediately by a faint, indistinct wail.
Countless wails had already rung out earlier with the blast of the ghost-destroying mines, but this time... it felt rather different.
Yet at a time like this, how could Wu Youren afford to dwell on that?
Seeing that both the biguijue and flying daggers were working, without a second thought, he loosed two more flying daggers, followed by another two!
Brought to an abrupt halt five to six meters before him, the dark shadow faded visibly while writhing with sheer frenzy.
It thrashed so wildly and with such violent convulsions that it was crazier than a cat that had caught a whiff of catnip.
Yet as the six flying daggers detonated in succession, the frenzied dark shadow dissipated completely within just a few breaths.
The entire process sounded long in retelling, but all in all, it took only a few brief seconds.
Another wave... Wait, why weren't any experience points credited? Wu Youren's heart tightened slightly.
Maintaining his guard, he extended his perception, slowly bent down, and picked up the long saber from the ground.
The commotion he had caused was certainly not small.
Fortunately, the blast of the ghost-destroying mines earlier had caused an even greater reaction, drawing away the surrounding Guizu.
After verifying repeatedly that the entity had completely vanished into thin air, Wu Youren flung two more small daggers just to be sure before quickly stepping forward.
The form of the man on crutches had fully materialized, and remarkably, his face and body were relatively intact.
Wu Youren quickly searched the corpse and found two resentment crystals—likely the man's personal stash.
There were also twelve gold coins; as hard currency, he pocketed those as well.
As for the other remaining items—first-aid kit, firearms, cold weapons, and the like—he abandoned them all.
Worth mentioning was a handwritten booklet inside the man's breast pocket, with the title "Insights on Ability Master Cultivation" inscribed on the cover.
Wu Youren dearly wanted it, but dared not take it—this thing was even hotter to handle than cold weapons.
Looking around, he swiftly tucked the booklet into a crevice between two boulders.
Time was far too precious to him; he had no time to burn the corpse, yet leaving it there was out of the question.
The corpse undergoing Guizu transformation was a secondary concern; it might not necessarily threaten him.
The crux was that he didn't know what kind of monstrosity the man would become once transformed.
Nor did he want anyone knowing he had ambushed and killed a knight.
So he shoved a ghost-destroying mine beneath the corpse, then darted away at full speed.
Another muffled boom resounded. Even with a knight's realm rendering the corpse exceptionally tough, it could not withstand an explosion detonating right against it.
As fragments of flesh flew everywhere, Wu Youren had already concealed his aura once more.
Of the Intelligence Bureau's three knights, he had only eliminated one; two had fled.
If those two managed to break out of the mountains, hostage that he was... even if he survived, he would suffer a fate worse than death!
But could he still catch up now?
By his guess, it was probably a bit too late, but above all, he couldn't panic now; throwing oneself into disarray was the worst thing he could do.
What was done was done, and time couldn't be turned back. Better to face reality.
Wu Youren crept forward for another two or three minutes. Once his immediate surroundings were relatively safe, he abruptly unleashed his perception.
His current perception followed the Daoist system, fully rivaling that of a knight, perhaps even slightly superior.
In particular, his perception was remarkably stealthy, causing far less disturbance than the knight system and making it difficult to detect.
However, he felt it was still far from being called divine sense, with plenty of room for improvement.
In this single sweep, his range exceeded a kilometer, and that was even with him holding back.
The next instant, he swiftly reeled in his perception, having locked onto a direction.
Sneaking his way over, Wu Youren muttered silently to himself, *What kind of thing did I just kill?*
That dark shadow probably wasn't a Guizu; Daoist internal breath was exceptionally effective against Guizu, far superior to battle qi.
But if it wasn't a Guizu, what could it be?
It had to be a spiritual entity, unharmed by the long saber—wait, when using the saber, had he channeled Daoist internal breath?
And worst of all, after killing it, there were no damn experience points!
He glanced at his slightly reddened left palm. Although not scalded, it still throbbed with a faint ache.
At this very moment, his primary consideration was how to keep those two from leaving!
Yet he truly couldn't resist sneaking a glance to see how the biguijue had fared.
The answer was no damage at all. In fact, it had grown increasingly translucent and crystalline, faintly radiating a precious luster, looking more and more like genuine jade.
But the moment the biguijue came out, the surrounding Guizu aura stirred with a slight ripple, so he promptly put it away.
The transformative effect felt even better than the experience points from previous times—could it be that this damned thing had swallowed all the experience this time?
Realizing this, Wu Youren felt somewhat displeased.
Not that he lacked that bit of experience points, but the crux was... the biguijue belonged to this native world!
He didn't mean to look down on the locals, and the jade pendant had aided him through crises many times.
Still, he couldn't help feeling uncomfortable inside, unable to tell whether it was resentment toward his nominal grandfather, or the belief that a golden finger ought to be his own built-in feature.
Or perhaps... a bit of both.
In any case, he still had too many unanswered questions, but without a doubt, now was not the time to ponder them!
Moving a little closer, he confirmed that the motorcycle rider and Sister Hua had ultimately failed to break out!
The two were now trapped by an endless sea of Guizu aura.
When Guizu attacked humans, they had virtually no organization, but they didn't swarm in all at once either.
Such was the situation now: early arrivals joined the siege, while latecomers had to wait in line.
Wu Youren didn't understand the underlying mechanics, but clearly, escaping would be exceptionally difficult for the two.
No, strictly speaking, three people needed to escape—there was one more knight clad in military uniform.
The man held two daggers, one in standard grip and one in reverse, with a thick-barreled long firearm on his back that was likely a shotgun.
Back to back, the three fiercely held their ground against the massive Guizu aura outside.
It was holding their ground, not an all-out bloodbath; all three were at the knight realm, boasting formidable combat power.
The Guizu seemed to realize this as well, refraining from rushing in mindlessly.
Over a dozen knight-level phantom silhouettes circled around the three, mostly posturing, occasionally striking out when an opening appeared.
Scores, even a hundred lower-level phantom silhouettes hovered nearby, eyeing them hungrily.
Watching for a few minutes, Wu Youren found that lower-tier phantom silhouettes attacked with greater frequency.
It seemed as if the high-tier phantoms had decided the three were trapped prey destined not to escape, looking to take them down at the lowest cost.
The low-tier phantoms probably had some awareness as well, but their mindset seemed to be: *If I can tear off a chunk of flesh, it's a win.*
Low-tier phantoms willing to take the risk far outnumbered high-tier ones, though their ends were usually not good.
The lucky ones retreated wounded, while the particularly unlucky were blasted into nothingness.
The three besieged knights made frequent small strikes, rarely unleashing full-force blows.
Yet merely looking at their hyper-alert posture, one could imagine the immense pressure weighing on them, both mentally and physically.
Yet amidst the clash, the three actually had the presence of mind to converse—and crucially, not about tactics.
Sister Hua said through gritted teeth, "I'll remember you. Crouching Tiger Battalion, right? Just wait and see how my Intelligence Bureau settles scores with you lot!"
The twin-dagger soldier replied calmly, "I am executing military orders. Do you know that if I let you leave, the Guizu aura might chase you out of the mountains?"
"We barely managed to contain the Guizu situation within the mountains—do you have any idea how many casualties it took?"
So it turned out the two knights from the Intelligence Bureau hadn't lingered because they didn't want to flee, but because this soldier had forced them to stop!
If the two had slipped in and out quietly, it wouldn't have been a big problem; the military had no desire to provoke the Intelligence Bureau either.
But making such a massive racket and then trying to force their way out made the consequences truly unpredictable.
The soldier had no choice but to forcefully stop them.
"We didn't cause this commotion," the motorcycle rider couldn't help arguing as he slashed several times. "We were just caught in the crossfire."
"I don't care about that," the soldier replied expressionlessly. "Military exigency doesn't reason with you!"
The motorcycle rider answered through clenched teeth, "When our ability master arrives, you'll regret this."
"Ability master? Heh." A look finally showed on the soldier's face as he sneered, "You think the military doesn't have them?"
"He... in all probability, isn't coming back," Sister Hua sighed softly. "Little Wu, are you just going to sit by and watch?"
Wu Youren kept silent; he had not yet figured out how to handle the situation before him.
Even just moments ago, what he had been pondering was: by what means should he claim those two lives?
But now, the turn of events exceeded his imagination.
An extra soldier didn't matter much on its own; the issue was that if the military already knew, silencing witnesses would be utterly pointless.
Of course, whether he could even defeat them in a fight was also a major problem.
But what he worried about most was the situation spiraling out of control.
Even if he lacked the power to control the field right now, he despised that feeling of being swept along by circumstances; it was truly awful.
And once the truth was exposed, he wouldn't even have the luxury of drifting with the tide—the best possible outcome would be fleeing to the ends of the earth as a fugitive.
"You think he might still be alive?" the soldier actually asked.
Wu Youren's heart sank in an instant. *Damn it, how long has it been, and you've already talked about this much?*
"He's not that easy to kill," Sister Hua answered with absolute confidence.
In truth, she didn't harbor much hope either.
It was simply that, being in this line of work, she was long accustomed to thrashing every branch whether there were dates or not!
The motorcycle rider, however, trusted her blindly—a rookie's reverence for a veteran. "Stop hiding. Come on out."
Yet still, no one replied.
"Shift toward the outside bit by bit," the soldier suggested. "Create an opportunity."
The three were currently in passive defense, their hearts rife with despair.
Yet it was impossible that they had zero ideas.
At the very least, up until now, none of the three had unleashed their strongest offensive state; they were all holding back.
This had nothing to do with courage; it was purely tactical. If they couldn't lull the enemy into complacency, how could they hope to escape alive?
Chapter 97