Chapter 36: Chapter 36: Siege
"How could this happen..."
The sudden shock left several disciples by Bai Yang's side stupefied, their faces filled with fear.
Even the Hugging Pill disciple was no exception.
"Gu Jinlai, you... you actually..."
He pointed at Gu Jinlai, but his voice shook uncontrollably.
"I don't know what you're talking about! Who is Gu Jinlai? It's not me, stop talking nonsense."
Gu Jinlai denied vehemently, but then seemed to remember something and looked coldly at the remaining disciples, asking sternly, "Which one of my disciples kicked the injury?"
The atmosphere at the scene stiffened.
Aren't you the one who said you're not Gu Jinlai?
They didn't need to answer.
As soon as he asked, several disciples couldn't help but cast their gaze toward one of them.
It was Wu Tong, at the peak of Gang Condensation.
Feeling Gu Jinlai's gaze locking onto him, Wu Tong's heart trembled. He tried to vent the fear in his heart by shouting fiercely, "Gu Jinlai... the reinforcements from Heavenly Grass Pavilion are on their way. If you flee now, you still have a chance to live. Wait..."
Before he could finish his sentence, a powerful force burst from under Gu Jinlai's feet, causing the ground where he stood to suddenly sink.
The floor cracked, and in an instant, countless dust particles and debris floated and shook, and the next moment were turned to dust by the exploding power and scattered in all directions.
At this acceleration, Gu Jinlai's body pounced forward to kill, his entire being exuding a deadly aura as if a terrifying devil, bearing down on Wu Tong with suffocating pressure.
The terrifying aura immediately provoked a cry of despair from Wu Tong, a direct disciple of Bai Yang and at the peak of his Gang Condensation cultivation.
His Gang Qi burst forth as he exerted all his strength to slash with his sword, tearing through the air with a sharp Sword Qi.
But that Sword Qi, as soon as Gu Jinlai's sword came down, shattered like a bullet through glass, bursting apart and flying in all directions. The heavy sword, unstoppable, hit his sabre next, breaking it, and the violent force continued unabated into Wu Tong's body...
First his sword-wielding wrist, then his entire arm. By the time the heavy sword had slashed, half of his body shattered completely.
Like a watermelon smashed by a sledgehammer.
Blood sprayed everywhere.
"Run! Run for your life!"
"Why did we have to provoke this devil when we were doing just fine!?"
The remaining disciples saw this scene, and their mental state collapsed. They couldn't hold on any longer and screamed in terror, scattering in all directions.
But just then, three groups of reinforcements appeared in the night ahead, each group consisting of over a dozen people, with the weakest among them being in the Qi Refining Realm and several in the Hugging Pill.
"Causing trouble all the way to our Heavenly Grass Pavilion? Haven't you heard where this is?"
"Surround him! Daring to make a mess in our Heavenly Grass Pavilion, no matter if you're a Refining God Immortal or even a Divinity Transformation Great Master, today there's only one way out for you—death!"
The reinforcements from Heavenly Grass Pavilion arrived with overwhelming force.
Compared to the Xuanwu Sect and Dragon Sparrow Manor, Heavenly Grass Pavilion might have fewer top-level masters.
But as an organization centered around Alchemy, their funding and connections are unparalleled by any other.
With abundant funds, plus self-produced elixirs, Heavenly Grass Pavilion had numerous Hugging Pill Masters, Gang Condensation, and Qi Refinement experts. Regularly stationed at the Sect were over thirty Hugging Pill experts, a number comparable to the entire forces of cities like Lingxiao City and Sunset City, augmented by hundreds of Gang Condensation and Qi Refinement...
It wasn't just empty talk about besieging a Refining God—surrounding and killing even a Divinity Transformation was possible.
Seeing the two groups of over forty people arrive, the few who had wanted to flee regained their will to fight.
"Reinforcements have arrived, our reinforcements are here!"
"Hold him off! Avenge the master!"
"For killing in our Heavenly Grass Pavilion, the blood debt must be repaid in blood!"
One by one, they revived their fighting spirit and resumed their movement techniques, not seeking to confront Gu Jinlai head-on, but just to stall him for a moment longer.
Gu Jinlai swept his gaze across.
The three groups of reinforcements came from three directions, cutting off his routes of escape.
However, what caught his attention wasn't that point, but rather...
Among the three teams, one was mainly yellow and light red, another was similar, with a bright red light, but yet another had three bright red lights. In the darkness of the night, they were as conspicuous as blazing candles.
Upon recognizing his opponents, Gu Jinlai laughed heartily.
"Fiends and specters!"
He didn't even consider retreating. His body slightly bent, and in the next moment, his power burst forth, and he soared into the air.
As the earth cracked beneath him, he shot forward like a cannonball, not retreating but advancing, carrying with him a terrifying howl and storm, charging towards the team with the three red lights.
"Audacious evildoer!"
"You're courting death!"
The Heavenly Grass Pavilion experts scolded as they witnessed this scene. Blade and sword shadows flew, with Gang Qi erupting, all slashing towards Gu Jinlai.
In an instant, sparks flew everywhere.
His Treasure Armor was torn with streaks of sword marks, and areas already scarred with sword cuts now crumbled under the strike of a Hugging Pill Master.
However, Gu Jinlai was indifferent to these attacks. With his immense strength wrapped in fury, he directly charged at one of the Hugging Pills, shattering both the man and his sabre in one fell swoop.
Blood mist filled the air.
His Giant Sword then swept through the air with a sudden 360-degree swing, like an autumn breeze sweeping away fallen leaves. Wherever the sword blade turned, it obliterated all the blade and sword shadows attacking him with its sheer brute force.
Three nearby disciples suffered, two with their Treasure Swords shattered and bleeding from their palms, while another was struck by the sword itself. The immense power slammed into his Sabre, causing it to slash back at him, tearing his own body apart, splattering blood everywhere.
Taking advantage of the sweep, Gu Jinlai's gaze once again locked onto another Hugging Pill.
Then, he took a large step forward...
He accelerated, his power exploded, and he lunged forward again, charging at the Hugging Pill marked by the crimson Karma.
Seeing Gu Jinlai bursting through the crowd, invincible with his War Armor and Treasure Sword, the Hugging Pill grew fearful. Now that Gu Jinlai had targeted him, he retreated without any hesitation.
Gu Jinlai, falling from the sky, missed with his sword, and also heard another Hugging Pill's angry shout, "Form the array, suppress him, don't give him a chance to gather momentum!"
As he spoke, six sharp swords, carrying fierce Sword Gang, slashed towards him.
Just as Gu Jinlai planned to accelerate again, he was struck by the Sword Gang carried by the sharp swords, causing him to stagger.
Seizing the chance, even more practitioners of Gang Condensation and Hugging Pills leaped to attack him. The Sword Gang as sharp as could tear iron roared toward him, shaking Gu Jinlai's body, while the Treasure Swords in the hands of the Hugging Pills struck along the cracks in his armor with the force of thunder.
At a glance, figures, swords, and Gang Qi filled the area.
Overwhelming numbers of people!
More than forty people from Heavenly Grass Pavilion had surrounded him, plus a few disciples from Bai Yang, totaling over fifty.
Among these fifty or so people, there were seven or eight Hugging Pills, a dozen or so at the Peak of Gang Condensation, plus those wandering and skirmishing at the outer edges of Qi Refinement. Even a Refining God Immortal would face a dead end if trapped in their midst!
This was the power of overwhelming numbers!
Even as strong as a Refining God or Divinity Transformation Great Master, they were still flesh and blood. Once they fell into a war of attrition without a way to break through, they could only end up exhausted and dead, and what to speak of Gu Jinlai, who was merely a Hugging Pill master!?
Gu Jinlai looked around at the crowd encircling him.
"With you lot! That's not enough!"
Part of his Divine Sense projected into his spiritual world consciousness, where a clear light quickly infused into the orb he continued to name Crossing the World.
In an instant, countless mysteries regarding this movement technique came flooding in, and his understanding of it ascended to another level.
He had even prematurely grasped the Burst Technique that was said to require the Mahayana Stage to master—Four Seas.
Especially since he was in a state of Sudden Enlightenment and his brain had entered a Super Boost State, he had even calculated a move from the Wanxiang Sword Qi technique.
His True Qi boiled, and the swordsmanship that only his mind knew manifested as an invisible Qing Lian behind him.
In the next moment, the Qing Lian exploded, and dozens of invisible, Wuying sword beams that were astonishing with their speed, stealth, penetration, and continuity howled out, shooting in all directions.
Before a dozen or so Heavenly Grass Pavilion Qi Refinement practitioners, Gang Condensation experts, and Hugging Pill masters could react, they were already penetrated by the formless sword beams.
Within the crowd, a Blood Lotus blossomed.
Tragically beautiful, strikingly vivid, and chilling to the soul.