A gentle gaze
The slaughter finally ends after around ten minutes. Fang Yuan summons Woman’s Heart Immortal Gu. It rises glowing with reddish purple light, and every dead woman’s heart bursts free and flies to it, swallowed as inky purple light lumps. The Gu screeches as though overjoyed to be fed. Even once every heart on the field is gone, it is still not full. ch. 694
Fang Yuan calculates that he needs four thousand more women’s hearts to fill it, and notes that a caravan this strong is uncommon in western desert. He flies up and pushes thousands of fireballs into the battlefield below. He finishes with black oil dragons that raze every trace of the site away. He then flaps his light illusion bat wings and flies northeast past several large oases toward a small one. ch. 694
Seen from above, the small oasis looks peaceful and prosperous. Fang Yuan does not hide himself, appearing openly above the cloudless sky over it. A group of Gu Masters rise on sand gulls to meet him, mostly young and rank two, led by their one rank three. The leader stops about three hundred steps away, names the place Zhou Xi oasis under Lan clan control, and warns that the sky above it is a no-fly zone. ch. 694
The leader repeats his warning and calls the flight a provocation. Before he can finish speaking, Fang Yuan flicks a finger and kills him instantly with a rank five level attack. The remaining Gu Masters scream in shock and scatter back toward the oasis. Fang Yuan waves his hands and kills every one of them and their sand gulls in a string of explosions. ch. 694
A siren sounds over the oasis, and the panicking mortals watch more Gu Masters come out of the buildings to face him with open hostility. Calling mortals insects, Fang Yuan summons his hair armor and flies down at the oasis. Lan clan’s Gu Masters warn each other that he is at least rank four and likely rank five, and attack him anyway. His charge does not slow. He crashes straight through their defenses into the clan head pavilion at the oasis center, which collapses instantly despite its defensive Gu worms. ch. 694
When the dust clears, Fang Yuan stands unhurt. The crowd’s shock turns to fury over the destroyed pavilion, until an elderly clan leader walks out and orders everyone silent. The old clan leader bows and offers compensation, calling Lan clan neutral for generations. This draws angry protest from the other Gu Masters, who name elder Lan Duan among Fang Yuan’s dead and demand revenge instead. ch. 694
Fang Yuan tells the old clan leader that at least someone here understands a small oasis must know its place among larger powers. He demands six thousand intact women’s hearts within ten minutes, refusing any hearts from men or young girls. The demand causes an uproar. The old clan leader realizes six thousand hearts would force him to sacrifice his own clansmen, a choice that would cost him his position. He refuses, saying Lan clan cannot help him. ch. 694
Fang Yuan answers that this only makes things more troublesome. He closes the distance in an instant and lifts the old clan leader by the throat. The old clan leader wonders in horror whether this is a Gu Immortal, and begs for mercy before Fang Yuan crushes his neck to powder. He never gets the chance to use his own Gu worms, since Fang Yuan carries mortal Gu that seal and suppress them. ch. 694
The Gu Masters charge in fury at their leader’s death. Fang Yuan stands still and lets their attacks land, meaning to break their morale. A hundred breaths later they stop, and the smoke clears to show his hair armor already regenerating, unmarked. The hair armor is a mortal killer move built from several hundred Gu worms, dozens of them rank five. The attackers’ only rank four, the clan leader, was already dead; fewer than ten rank three remained, the rest rank two and one, their attacks too scattered to threaten him. ch. 694
Fang Yuan tells them their attack could not even scratch him. An icy chill spreads through the crowd despite the desert heat. Someone screams that he is a monster. Morale collapses, and the retreat that follows breaks the whole group. ch. 694
He chases down a female Gu Master and takes her heart with a claw through her back and out her chest. The surrounding Gu Masters, crying that elder Lan Xin is dead too, flee faster still. Fang Yuan’s fireballs and wind blades level the buildings behind them. An ordinary mortal woman begs him not to kill her. Fang Yuan flicks a finger and bursts her head, then takes her heart as he walks past. Woman’s Heart screeches happily on his shoulder, swallowing every heart that meets its conditions, whether from his hand or from the corpses around him. ch. 694
Wherever Fang Yuan walks a slaughter follows. Cleanse Soul is too famished to risk on myriad self, so he uses only mortal Gu in overwhelming numbers, and the killing is no less efficient for it. He chose western desert on purpose, since its oases are islands and a mortal fleeing across open sand has nowhere to hide. Walking through the pool of blood, Fang Yuan looks at Woman’s Heart on his shoulder with a gentle gaze and tells it that this time he will let it eat until it is full. ch. 694
