Chapter Ninety-Nine: Night Walk

Wan Canglong had always been a thorn in Gao Wu’s side.

It was true that Gao Wu liked helping people, and it was true that he was a good man. But he was not exactly broad-minded, and when it came to villains, his hatred and loathing were extreme.

Especially a villain like Wan Canglong, one who posed a threat to him—such a man was never far from his thoughts, not for a single moment.

It was not that he was paranoid, imagining that every soul in the world meant him harm. The truth was, Huang Hai had given him a lesson far too deep to forget.

If he and Song Mingyue had not fought with everything they had, he would have truly died that day.

So it was clear: evil men had to be dealt with quickly. Leave them too long, and trouble was bound to follow.

Gao Wu withdrew his yin spirit and held the Fate Sword in his hand, pondering for a long while, but he could not find a suitable person to test it on. Calculations made in the abstract were meaningless.

He silently recited the Vermilion Bird Divine Light Mantra dozens of times. Crimson, blood-red fires of divine radiance blazed and fluttered, refining away every speck of filth and impurity clinging to the yin spirit.

The yin spirit was now as solid as substance, yet exposed to the vast heavens and earth, it would still gather all manner of grime. To a yin spirit, the limitless world was like a great mud pit: rolling in it briefly was harmless, but linger too long, and trouble was inevitable.

Only by purifying it with the Vermilion Bird Divine Light Mantra could the yin spirit remain clean, and be spared erosion and corruption by outside forces.

Once the yin spirit had recovered, Gao Wu released it again.

The yin spirit could roam up to ten thousand meters away, which meant that with Gao Wu at its center, a hundred square kilometers fell within its range of movement.

Unaffected by light, the yin spirit was difficult to deceive so long as there was the presence of living beings.

Before long, the roaming yin spirit discovered two snow wolves. By spring, their fur had turned gray, and patches of hair were still falling away, exposing their lean ribs. Only their eyes remained a foul green, full of darkness and savagery.

The two snow wolves were hunting for prey and had not noticed the yin spirit at all.

That was mainly because the yin spirit carried no scent, no shadow, no heat or cold, and only when Gao Wu actively circulated source power would there be any fluctuation at all.

Let alone two snow wolves with little intelligence—even a master of martial arts would have been unable to detect it.

The only flaw was the Fate Sword, which floated in the air in a rather uncanny way. But snow wolves would never pay attention to a dead object like that.

Guiding the yin spirit, Gao Wu drew the sword with ease. The Fate Sword became a streak of cold light, splitting left and right, and the blade pierced straight through the heads of both snow wolves, severing their nervous centers as well.

Fully merged with the yin spirit, the Fate Sword’s execution of the Cloud Piercing Sword art was truly exquisite and ethereal. Not even a sound came from the strike, only a faint flash of cold light.

The two snow wolves did not even know what had happened before they died on the spot.

A trace of blood had stained the Fate Sword, but before Gao Wu could even clean it away, the blood vanished on its own. Through the yin spirit, Gao Wu could clearly feel the weapon absorbing that blood...

The thing left behind by the Death Angel, though refined by the Vermilion Bird Divine Light Mantra, had not truly disappeared. Instead, it had merged into the Fate Sword.

Gao Wu understood this very well. After all, the yin spirit and the Fate Sword had fully fused, and he could sense the slightest change in the sword.

But he had no idea that this thing could drink blood.

To test the Fate Sword’s change, Gao Wu thrust it deep into one of the snow wolves.

Sure enough, the wolf’s corpse quickly shriveled. In no time at all, only a wolf pelt remained. Its surface was dry and dull, looking as though it had been wind-dried for decades...

Looking again at the Fate Sword, there was no visible change. Nor did the yin spirit draw any power from it.

He tested it on the other snow wolf as well, and got the same result. The sword still showed no real transformation.

After two trials, Gao Wu had a rough understanding of the situation.

The thing fused into the Fate Sword could absorb flesh and blood; as for why there was no change after the absorption, it was probably because the flesh and blood were too low in grade.

If it were higher-grade flesh and blood, perhaps it could raise the sword’s rank.

Gao Wu then used the Vermilion Bird Divine Light Mantra to temper the Fate Sword several more times, and after confirming that the weapon itself had no problem, he finally felt at ease.

The sword’s transformation was a little eerie, but if one treated it as a tree, it became much easier to understand. Absorbing flesh and blood was simply another form of energy conversion, much like photosynthesis in plants.

If one did not understand the principle, it would seem miraculous. In truth, it was only a plant’s instinct.

To test this special change in the sword, Gao Wu guided the yin spirit to roam the hundred-kilometer radius for much of the night, killing nine snow wolves and collecting nine wolf tails as trophies.

Aside from that, the sword had no further change. Of course, Gao Wu also tried empowering it with the Vermilion Bird Divine Light Mantra. With one strike, the flesh where the snow wolf was hit was charred into carbon, and the power was terrifying.

The stench of scorching burn drifted everywhere on the mountain wind. Gao Wu had no choice but to dig soil and bury the mangled corpses.

The next morning, when Yang Ru, Han Yang, and the others woke up, they all faintly smelled burning, though none of them paid it much mind.

Low-level exotic beasts had very little intelligence; only humans used fire.

After breakfast, the group packed up and continued onward. They walked all the way, but did not encounter a single person.

If it were not for the locator showing that many companions were nearby, Yang Ru, Han Yang, and the others would have thought they had taken the wrong road.

In the afternoon, the group came face to face with two snow wolves at a distance of only a hundred meters.

Han Yang and Yu Rulong drew their bows at the same time. Their heavy bows, with a draw weight of two hundred kilograms, shot one snow wolf dead on the spot.

The other snow wolf turned and fled. The two of them loosed two arrows, but both missed. Just as the wolf was about to vanish into the dense woods, Gao Wu fired.

With high-explosive powder and an armor-piercing steel-core round, one shot blew the snow wolf’s belly apart. The thunderous report echoed through the forest, even drowning out the wolf’s dying howl...

Yang Ru and the others were startled badly, all turning to look at Gao Wu, who had fired the shot.

“Great shot, Brother Gao!” Yu Rulong praised.

“Not bad, not bad.” Gao Wu was quite satisfied with the shot. To kill a snow wolf from a hundred meters away was very difficult for a pistol.

The Golden Thunderhawk was expensive, and it was indeed worth the price.

The yin spirit’s roaming range was only a hundred square kilometers, but its search range had to be expanded several times over. It had not detected any powerful life presence in this area, which was also why he had dared to fire.

He was strong enough, and his hands were exceptionally steady.

His keen, powerful perception also allowed him to lock onto a target a hundred meters away with ease; even with iron sights, he could hit it effortlessly.

Han Yang was also startled. He carefully said to Gao Wu, “Brother, this secret realm is dangerous. Could we try not to use guns if possible?”

“Sure.” Gao Wu nodded in agreement. The gunshots were too loud and indeed not very safe. If they could avoid using them, they should.

“This gun is gorgeous. Is that a Golden Thunderhawk?” Yu Rulong, being the sharper one, quickly steered the topic back to the pistol.

He was indeed very curious about these two guns. The Golden Thunderhawk was so expensive—where on earth had Gao Wu gotten it?

Mentioning this pleased Gao Wu, and he flicked the pistol elegantly back into its holster at his waist. “Heh, a kind soul gave it to me... and yes, it really is useful.”

After this minor interruption, and having easily killed two snow wolves, Yu Rulong, Song Minglin, and Yang Ru all felt that snow wolves were nothing much after all, and their nerves visibly relaxed.

Generally speaking, an ordinary snow wolf weighed only around fifty kilograms, and even if several wolves grouped together, they would not have the courage to attack a party of people.

Gao Wu’s little team traveled for a full day and encountered no large exotic beasts again. By nightfall, Han Yang chose a hillside location for camp.

There were few trees here, and a broad rock wall formed the back, while the front had a wide field of view. It was an excellent spot.

The hunt lasted a total of four days, and this was only the second day, so Han Yang and the others were not in any hurry.

After dinner, Han Yang discussed things with Gao Wu. He felt that they had already gone deep enough, and that tomorrow they should set up blood bait nearby and try to hunt snow wolves or other large exotic beasts.

Gao Wu had no objection. During the day they had killed two snow wolves, and with the nine he had killed himself, that made an average of two per person—enough to advance.

After all, this place was only so large. Where were there supposed to be so many large exotic beasts?

The reason he had not brought up the matter of hunting snow wolves was mainly because he did not want everyone to grow too lax.

As on the previous day, Gao Wu got up at two in the morning to take his turn on watch. With nothing else to do, he naturally released the yin spirit to roam.

The yin spirit drifted freely through heaven and earth, almost unbound by any material obstacle. The feeling was wondrous, as though he had truly become an immortal.

There was a kind of carefree exhilaration to it, as if the boundless world were his to roam at will.

Even without any special reason, Gao Wu rather liked using the yin spirit to wander. In a secret realm like this, the yin spirit’s roaming also served as an early warning system.

After circling more than half the area, the yin spirit had not found a single snow wolf, nor even foxes or hedgehogs, not even a squirrel.

Gao Wu felt that something was off.

It was one thing if snow wolves were absent—they were exotic beasts, after all. But squirrels and the like should have been everywhere.

Ordinary martial artists could not see them, but the yin spirit could easily see the spirit light condensed by life. To the yin spirit, living things were like flames in the night; they could not hide at all.

Within a radius of several dozen square kilometers, there was not a single small animal. That was far too strange.

The yin spirit roamed the outer circle of a ten-thousand-meter diameter. After twenty minutes, Gao Wu finally discovered a special life field.

Through the distant gaze of the yin spirit, he saw a ball of white radiance releasing intense life light. That life light also carried a strong aura of death, together with an indescribable stench of corruption.

“A demon god?”

Gao Wu’s first thought was a demon god’s believer, because that aura was very similar to that of the Death Angel. Both carried a strong destructive air, and both had a kind of unfathomable depth.

The white spiritual light grew stronger and stronger. From the yin spirit’s perspective, it would not be long before it reached its limit and underwent some further transformation.

This thing was extremely dangerous!

Gao Wu did not know what it was, but through the yin spirit he could sense the peril within it.

Ever since he refined the Death Wings left behind by the Death Angel, the yin spirit had gained a sharper sensitivity to demonic auras as well. This was also one of the Vermilion Bird Divine Light Mantra’s powers.

Gao Wu had originally intended to call for backup through the wireless communicator, but the situation was still unclear, so he decided to go take a look first.

With that thought, Gao Wu entered the tent and roughly hauled Han Yang out. “Something’s happened. You stay here. I’m going to have a look.”

Still half-asleep, Han Yang was about to ask something when he saw Gao Wu put on the crimson face mask and vanish in a flash, already far away.

By the time Han Yang came fully awake, Gao Wu was no longer anywhere to be seen. He stared in bewilderment for a moment, then hurriedly went back to fetch his sword, gun, and other weapons, put on his protective armor, and wake Yang Ru and the others.

Sleep was a small matter. If something unexpected really happened, a moment’s hesitation could cost a life.

Han Yang looked toward the direction where Gao Wu had disappeared. There, the dark forest and trees swayed gently in the wind, as though a thousand or ten thousand ghostly shadows were dancing. Just looking at it made Han Yang’s heart tremble...