Chapter 76

As Wang Da leaps for Fang Yuan, three moonblades intercept him in midair. He twists free of two, but the third tears into his left leg and he crashes to the ground bleeding. He calls on the Shadow Follower Gu and flees into shadow, only for an unseen fourth Gu Master to detonate a Flash Blink Gu, whose burst of light strips away his shadow cover and forces him back into human form, leaving the rank two Shadow Follower Gu unusable for three hours. ^{ch. 76}

The fourth Gu Master, an elderly, white haired man who names himself Gu Yue Sou, offers to spare Wang Da’s life if he surrenders. Wang Da refuses, judging that with only twenty percent of his primeval essence left he must kill this newly revealed threat before more Gu Masters arrive. Gu Yue Sou answers by growing his own hair into a spiked white battle armor and firing a pair of sharp quills five to six meters at Wang Da, who dodges and, unable to break the armor with his poison nails, turns instead to rush past him toward Fang Yuan. ^{ch. 76}

A fifth Gu Master intercepts Wang Da with a Rock Skin Gu that turns his arms to thick grey stone. Wang Da judges the heavy rock arms too slow to catch him, but the Gu Master’s Jade Wind Wheel Gu speeds the strike enough to sweep him off his feet, sending him crashing to the ground coughing blood with only five percent of his primeval essence remaining. Even so, he drags himself up and charges again, vowing that if he must die he will take Fang Yuan with him. ^{ch. 76}

Gu Yue Sou’s hair spirals out again, finger thick strands piercing Wang Da’s back, chest, neck, arms, and legs and dyeing his white hair red with blood, but Wang Da forces himself onward regardless. In his path, Fang Zheng activates the Jade Skin Gu on reflex, and Wang Da’s fifty centimetre nails stab a full centimetre into the jade layer before Gu Yue Sou’s needles finally drive deep enough to stop him. ^{ch. 76}

Dying, Wang Da’s vision fills with his last clear memory: killing his own wife for her heart to refine Love Life Separation, her forgiveness as she died, and his own answer that given the chance again he would still do the same. He dies in tears. Fang Zheng, who never recognized his attacker, collapses moments later as the Love Life Separation poison that pierced the jade skin spreads through his body. ^{ch. 76}