Chapter 184

Fang Yuan recognizes the voice and its cause: the Heaven Earth Magnificent Sound Gu. It is a rank five area-of-effect sound Gu that can mute its user if overused. This is only Tie Xue Leng testing it, at a fraction of its strength. An explosion follows, and the blood river python breaks the surface. Its head is the size of an elephant, with scarlet gold spikes above its eyes. Fang Yuan half recalls a clan legend of a first generation leader killing such a python long ago, and wonders if this is that same beast. ^{ch. 184}

A small masked figure descends from the ceiling, carrying the Righteous Gu. It is a mind Gu that only the truly upright can wield. Its pressure cows the bats and even lowers the python’s head, but leaves Fang Yuan untouched. Tie Xue Leng is shocked by the immunity and cries out in surprise. Only a rare kind of person resists the Gu even after real crimes, one whose demonic nature runs so deep that sin feels natural rather than wrong. He resolves to deal with the greater threat first, and finish Fang Yuan later. ^{ch. 184}

A mysterious crane-borne letter had warned Tie Xue Leng of a blood calamity building in Gu Yue village. He brought his daughter, set her to investigate Jia Jin Sheng’s death as a cover, and came to root out the source himself. At their first meeting, he had implanted a Shared-sense Gu on Fang Yuan on instinct. It was one success among more than ten such attempts, and it has let him sense Fang Yuan’s surroundings since. He calls out to First gen Gu Yue, accusing him of hiding for nearly a thousand years to plot this. The pond gives no answer. The blood river python lunges at him instead, and dodging sends it crashing into the cave ceiling under its own momentum. ^{ch. 184}

Fang Yuan is caught in the crossfire as debris rains down. His foothold on the softening red soil gives way. He clings to the wall with the Chainsaw Golden Centipede and a badly weakened pair of Thunderwings. He notices the wings drawing less and less primeval essence from him even as they fail. He places this as the blood frenzy Gu’s corruption at work. He puts everything into staying airborne, but falls into the blood lake regardless. The Sky Canopy Gu’s armor and swimming skill from years by the Eastern Sea in his previous life let him dodge house sized boulders. Smaller debris still strikes his armor and drains his essence with every hit. Tie Xue Leng’s Righteous Gu keeps the confused bat swarm off him, but the fight above is a rank five contest he has no way to affect. He scans the wall for a way out. ^{ch. 184}