Before Gu Tiannan and his disciple had even subdued the black-robed youth, Qin Sang heard shouts coming from across the mountain, but they did not sound human; rather, they sounded like the howls of a wild beast.
Darting behind a boulder, he looked at the scene in the col and felt a sudden chill run through him.
The black-robed youth was covered in wounds and already at the end of his tether. His flying needle had snapped as well and could only be used to hold Gu Yuan at bay.
What was even more terrifying was Gu Tiannan's current appearance. He had changed beyond recognition; the flesh across his entire body had swollen and bulged, doubling his height. Thick blue veins protruded across his brawny limbs, and his hands and feet resembled beast claws, transforming him into an exquisitely hideous monster.
Harsh growls issued from Gu Tiannan's throat as his blood-red eyes glared at the black-robed youth, filled only with endless madness without the slightest shred of sanity.
From his appearance, not a trace of Gu Tiannan's original self could be seen; he had completely lost his humanity.
Not only did Gu Tiannan move like the wind, his physical body was extraordinarily powerful. His ten fingers were like blades, effortlessly pulverizing massive boulders; purely with brute physical strength, he ran the black-robed youth ragged.
The black-robed youth's attacks could not hinder him in the slightest, striking him as if against solid metal without leaving so much as a mark.
Just as the cat demon had said, Gu Tiannan's destructive power right now was on par with a cultivator at the thirteenth layer of the Qi Refinement stage. Who knew what method he had used to conceal it, for he had previously not shown the slightest trace!
Utterly overpowered by Gu Tiannan, the black-robed youth could hold out no longer. Before dying, he cast a glance toward where Qin Sang and the white cat were hiding. Even across such a distance, Qin Sang could clearly sense the profound hope in his eyes.
*Bang!*
The black-robed youth took a blow from Gu Tiannan's claws across his back and crashed heavily to the ground. Just as he was about to get up, Gu Tiannan snapped his throat with one hand, ending his breath for good.
*Hrrr... hrrr...*
Hunched over, Gu Tiannan panted heavily with a death grip on the youth's neck, his arms trembling violently as if struggling to restrain his instinct for slaughter.
Seeing this, Gu Yuan hurriedly recalled his short sword, darted behind Gu Tiannan, and flicked out several silver needles that sank into the crown of Gu Tiannan's head. "Master!" he shouted.
His reason awakened by Gu Yuan, the blood-red tint in Gu Tiannan's eyes gradually receded, restoring a sliver of clarity. In the end, sanity regained the upper hand. With a series of crisp crackling sounds from his body, he returned to human form, his complexion paler than before.
Gu Tiannan swayed and nearly collapsed, but Gu Yuan caught and supported him.
"Cough, cough... Quick!"
Gu Tiannan coughed violently, his voice exceptionally weak and urgent. "Quick! Harvest the heart!"
Gu Yuan promptly assented. Helping Gu Tiannan sit on the ground, he crouched beside the black-robed youth, plunged his hand into the chest, pulled out a bloody heart, and handed it to Gu Tiannan.
Fresh red blood flowed from the heart, yet the organ itself shimmered with an eerie greenish-black hue.
Gu Tiannan snatched the heart, staring at it with unbridled greed, his gaze burning intensely. Suddenly, he coughed violently, his expression shifting drastically. Channeling spiritual power into his fingertips, he rapidly tapped the heart several times.
The heart convulsed, and black demonic fire abruptly flared up. Refined by the fire, it melted into a pool of pitch-black liquid, which finally condensed into two pills, one large and one small.
They looked just like two medicinal pills.
Gu Tiannan tossed the smaller one to Gu Yuan and could not wait to swallow his own pill.
Gu Yuan took the pill excitedly and swallowed it as well.
After taking the pills, master and disciple sat in meditation to refine them. Before long, a faint flush of color surfaced on Gu Tiannan's face. His prior weakness vanished without a trace, and his entire complexion improved markedly.
Gu Yuan even groaned in sheer comfort, opened his eyes, and asked, "Master, how do you feel?"
Gu Tiannan grunted in acknowledgment, checked his condition, and nodded with immense relief. "Fortunate that we obtained this Blood Heart Pill in time, or the consequences would have been unthinkable."
Gu Yuan said indignantly, "That kid was far too troublesome!"
Gu Tiannan sneered. "If not for that cat demon popping up out of nowhere with methods far too bizarre, letting them escape several times, how could we have let him run wild for so long! Right..."
Gu Tiannan suddenly looked back the way they came. Roaring green light soared into the sky, surging like turbulent waves; clearly, the battle within was raging fiercely.
"Has that Qin fellow made any moves?"
"Don't worry, Master," Gu Yuan said, loosening his limbs. "I've been keeping an eye on it the whole time. That Martial Uncle Qin's strength doesn't seem like much, yet he's managed to keep that cat demon thoroughly pinned down. The green light hasn't dispersed once; the two of them have been fighting non-stop. There's no way he could have noticed what we were doing."
Gu Tiannan nodded and surveyed the chaotic battlefield. "Good. Clean this place up first so nothing looks amiss. Don't underestimate him. In my view, the man is deep and calculating, far from simple. Make sure he doesn't spot any flaws."
The master and disciple immediately set to work. Gu Tiannan meticulously erased the traces on the black-robed youth's corpse,
while Gu Yuan slashed around with his short sword to obscure the scene and mask the claw marks Gu Tiannan had left across the battlefield. He asked tentatively, "Master, what about over there? From the look of it, Martial Uncle Qin might end up mutually wounded with the cat demon."
Gu Tiannan glared fiercely at him. "This is Shaohua Mountain territory! No matter how careful we are, it's impossible to erase every trace—an accident nearly happened just now. You dare lay hands on someone from Shaohua Mountain? Tired of living?"
Gu Yuan smiled sheepishly. "Master, you said yourself earlier that we'd have to relocate. Walking away without making a haul leaves me a bit unwilling. If Martial Uncle Qin really manages to kill the cat demon, naturally we won't mess with him. But if he gets killed by the cat demon, things like that happen all the time—it'd just be a matter of inferior skill. Shaohua Mountain couldn't blame us. Besides, Martial Uncle Qin looks well-off. Once we lose Shaohua Mountain's protection, that Sky-Soaring Shuttle could be of great use..."
...
Meanwhile, the man and the cat quietly withdrew.
Still shaken, the white cat said, "When we clashed with Gu Tiannan several times before, he wasn't this terrifying or maddened. Surely Young Master can believe us now. We do not ask that Young Master kill him himself; we only hope Young Master can take pity on the wretched souls Gu Tiannan has slaughtered and report this truthfully to your sect. So long as it is an orthodox immortal sect, they cannot tolerate such a fiend bringing ruin to the mortal world, can they?"
Qin Sang had been deep in thought all along. Hearing this, he glanced at the white cat and said, "Not a single villager from Black Tiger Ravine died. As long as Gu Tiannan isn't a fool, he will definitely realize something is amiss. By the time I bring reinforcements from the sect, he will have fled long ago."
The white cat sighed softly. "Hei Wa couldn't bring himself to do it. The ones he killed were all wicked people."
Qin Sang's brows knitted slightly. He was thinking about Gu Tiannan.
Without a doubt, Gu Tiannan's cultivation was indeed at the thirteenth layer of the Qi Refinement stage.
When Gu Tiannan left the sect, he had only been at the eighth layer of the Qi Refinement stage. Given his age back then, breaking through the bottleneck into the ninth layer could already be called a stroke of luck; otherwise, he wouldn't have needed to conceal his true cultivation out of fear of suspicion.
For him to possess cultivation at the thirteenth layer of Qi Refinement was thoroughly unnatural. It could only be credited to that demonic art!
Chapter 119