Chapter 414 A Decisive Sword (5000, Yesterday's Second Update)

Panicked and disoriented, Gu Zechuan advanced, urging his spiritual power to fly, chasing Su Zhou's steps as quickly as possible, towards the mushroom cloud rising in the distance.

The Gu family's cultivation method was a universal technique from the era of gods and immortals, the 'Taibai Disaster Reduction and Tribulation Breaking Method' derived from the 'Five Emperors' Righteous Path.' Belonging to the metal element, it excelled in combat when combined with Dao armor. Once armored, combat power increased greatly. Therefore, in the current Qingqiu Star, the originally unremarkable Gu family had developed into one of the largest shelters.

However, the flaw of this cultivation method also lay here—if not armored, the strength of those who cultivated this method would be unremarkable, merely capable of strengthening the magical weapons in their hands.

Gu Zechuan was skilled in armored combat, but his swordsmanship was only average. According to the elders, his sword had killing intent and accuracy, but lacked a 'decisive' spirit of self-sacrifice. If he could break through this barrier, then Gu Zechuan could be called the number one of the Gu family in this generation.

But the white-haired youth did not care about this title… Compared to being the strongest, he cared more about the safety and happiness of his loved ones.

"Judging by this, the evil creatures broke through the mountain protection array about half an hour ago… Now, the battle should still be going on inside the shelter!"

Along the way, Gu Zechuan saw many corpses of Gu family cultivators. Most of them had been dead for more than half an hour, probably trying to buy time for the women and children inside the shelter to evacuate.

But the evil creatures that attacked this time were too strong, so they didn't even have time to set up their formations before they all died.

It was all too familiar. The youth could identify everyone from each corpse… Unable to bear looking at them, Gu Zechuan could even call out everyone's name, and when he saw those unresigned expressions, an uncontrollable throbbing came from the depths of his heart.

Unwillingness… regret… self-blame…

As a quasi-Dao family, the aging and growth of the Qingqiu people were slightly slower than normal humans, and their appearance hardly changed before old age. But even so, it could be seen that most of the young corpses were truly young people under the age of thirty.

They were the future of the shelter—and now, they were all corpses.

"Damn it… damn it!!"

Spitting out words from between his teeth, all kinds of painful emotions drove Gu Zechuan to return to the shelter as quickly as possible: "I hope my sister is okay…"

Soon, Gu Zechuan, advancing at full speed, arrived with Tang Yuan at the original entrance of the Gu family's shelter, the side of a small hill covered by trees.

There was originally a natural crack there, like a fissure leading underground, long and hidden, which was also the reason why the Gu family chose this place when they migrated.

And now, a huge pit with a radius of more than 150 meters appeared in its original location—around the pit, in addition to many corpses of Qingqiu people, there were also many scattered black ashes… These were the many evil creatures that Su Zhou had killed with lightning strikes when he arrived here earlier.

But even so, Gu Zechuan couldn't help but close his eyes when he saw the dozens of corpses of Gu family cultivators.

A traditional Qingqiu shelter generally housed an entire Qingqiu family, with a population mostly between seven hundred and fifteen hundred, or even less.

And more than two thousand would be considered a large shelter.

The Gu family's hermitage was one of the largest known shelters, but now it only had a population of just over four thousand… And among these four thousand people, there were only thirty-seven armored warriors, and no more than one hundred cultivators capable of fighting. Even including the reserve force of Qi Refining and Spirit Opening stages, there were only a little over five hundred cultivators in the entire clan.

And just here, including those who might have already been reduced to ashes, the Gu family had lost more than a quarter of their cultivators, most of whom were strong young people in their prime, and even five armored warriors among them.

——Having lost so many cultivators, the Gu family shelter had no future.

At the thought of this, facing the possible bloody scene he was about to see, the disheartened Gu Zechuan even lost the courage to continue moving forward into the shelter—he was afraid of seeing a scene that would make him despair.

"Mr. Zechuan, there is a survivor here!"

And at this moment, Gu Zechuan, who was almost in a trance, heard Tang Yuan's words beside him.

He immediately turned his head, widened his eyes, and looked at the location the other party was pointing at: It was a mound, and a suit of deep blue Dao armor was half-buried in the ground.

"I'm coming!"

Shocked and delighted by this news, and also to divert his attention, Gu Zechuan forced himself to cheer up and flew towards the mound.

He landed on the ground, then used his spiritual power to sweep away the sand and dust, sweeping out a suit of Dao armor with its breastplate pierced through from the mound—the wound was a bloody mess, but just as Tang Yuan said, the person inside still had a weak breath of life.

"Hold on, I'll heal you… Qingshan?!"

Gu Zechuan skillfully removed the helmet of the Dao armor, revealing a Qingqiu person with deep blue hair behind it, and couldn't help but be stunned, because that familiar face was none other than Gu Qingshan, his comrade from the same armored warrior team for many years.

They had carried out dozens of missions together, and both had saved each other's lives. They were true friends in every sense of the word.

Gu Qingshan had already stepped into the underworld with half a foot. His right lung had been destroyed, which was not a fatal injury for an extraordinary person. What truly caused him to be on the verge of death was a kind of icy cold spiritual poison that destroyed the foundation of flesh and blood.

This armored warrior was now in a dying state, and only when Gu Zechuan frantically poured spiritual energy into him did he regain consciousness for a moment.

"Ze…chuan?" he said softly, his blue eyes turning, reflecting the tearful face of his friend.

"It's me… you won't die, I found reinforcements, they are from the Central Divine Court, hold on for a while, wait until the heavenly soldiers of the Central Divine Court arrive…"

Gu Zechuan said tremblingly. He had already disassembled the breastplate of the Dao armor, placed a hand on his friend's wound, and began to input spiritual power, preparing to suppress the poison for him—but that strange icy poison was really beyond his ability to deal with. It would take a lot of spiritual power to barely expel a little.

Knowing his fate very well, Gu Qingshan stretched out his hand and grabbed the other party's wrist. The Qingqiu person with deep blue hair shook his head with his last strength, then looked at the entrance of the shelter to the side.

"Don't waste your spiritual power… Go inside, the shelter… there are still…"

Gu Qingshan's hand had no strength at all, and Gu Zechuan could completely ignore the other party's advice.

However, his fox ears twitched, and he vaguely heard the sound of fierce fighting coming from the depths of the underground shelter. The white-haired youth's movements froze in place.

After a few seconds, Gu Zechuan gritted his teeth. He didn't say a word, got up, and turned to leave.

——That's right, Zechuan, the safety of the shelter is far more important than the life of one of us…

And the blue-haired fox man watched the back of his friend with a gratified look, and slowly closed his eyes.

However, just as Gu Qingshan's consciousness was gradually dissipating.

Suddenly, he felt a cool touch on his wrist.

Then, a kind of ethereal feeling, like his body turning into a ghost, spread from that touch and spread throughout his body.

Suddenly opening his eyes, Gu Qingshan, filled with surprise and uncertainty, suddenly realized that his dying body was no longer in pain—he looked around in shock, but only saw a kind-looking black-haired young man holding his hand, and both of them were in a state like ethereal souls.

"Tang, Mr. Tang Yuan?"

At this time, Gu Zechuan, who had noticed something was wrong, turned his head and also saw this scene in shock.

Whether it was because of the soul transformation or because it was originally like this, the black-haired young man's appearance showed an extremely unhealthy, deathly pale color, but the smile on the corner of his mouth was very warm and kind.

Hearing Gu Zechuan's voice, Tang Yuan nodded slightly, then turned his head to look at Gu Qingshan to the side.

"The minister is here, and you're still dying? He'll be sulking."

Speaking so calmly to Gu Qingshan and Gu Zechuan, Tang Yuan sighed: "It was like this last time—when he went to catch poachers, it just so happened that a spirit deer had already been killed. Because the soul of the spirit beast was too weak, it couldn't be saved even if he tried, which made him sulk for a long time. He had been looking for trouble with the poachers for a while, and even forcibly held several meetings… He's really awkward and troublesome."

"Well, enough said. In short, I roughly understand why the minister brought me here."

"Why?"

Staring blankly at this scene, Gu Zechuan subconsciously asked.

And Tang Yuan just smiled faintly.

Then, Gu Zechuan's eyes gradually widened—he saw that as circles of light gray spiritual power rippled around the black-haired young man, spreading in all directions, after a few seconds, around the entire Gu family shelter, next to all the corpses of Qingqiu people, there appeared one after another bewildered and confused souls who had lost their minds.

Those were all the souls of the dead.

Tang Yuan's spiritual power spread, touching them, but this power not only did not cause them to dissipate, but instead stabilized their gradually dissipating bodies, and even instinctively moved closer to the pale young man.

"After all, he's a member of the Spirit Controlling Tang family… Although most of the Tang family are not good people, but sure enough, no matter what power and talent, as long as it's used in the right place, it can always do some good and make up for some regrets."

Slowly pulling back all the souls and gathering them around him, Tang Yuan smiled and motioned for Gu Zechuan to continue moving forward: "Don't stop here. Although the minister is strong, he's only one person. He can certainly eliminate the enemy, but he may not be able to protect the civilians… Go and help him."

"…Thank you very much!"

Taking a deep breath, clenching his fists, Gu Zechuan stared at his comrade, whose body was temporarily no longer deteriorating due to spiritual transformation and was saved, and then looked around at the souls that were gradually approaching.

He bowed deeply to Tang Yuan: "I will remember your great kindness in my heart!"

"You're welcome."

Tang Yuan just shrugged at this great gift. He watched Gu Zechuan turn around and fly towards the depths of the underground shelter, then muttered to himself softly: "Just as the minister said—this is what everyone would do."

"Speaking of which, if the minister brought me here just to preserve the souls and break through the barrier… then I'm too much of a tool, aren't I?"

Naturally, Gu Zechuan didn't hear this complaint.

At this moment, having already gone deep underground and arrived at the outer wall of the shelter, he could see that the defensive barrier that originally surrounded the shelter had been blasted open.

The defensive wall of the Gu family shelter was a layer of silver rock, which the Gu family had used metal-attributed spiritual power to soak into the rock shell, gradually enriching the surrounding metal, turning it into a naturally formed, nearly indestructible spiritual iron alloy rock, and using it to roughly wrap the entire shelter.

The hardness of spiritual iron alloy rock was so high that if it were not difficult to use for refining weapons, many people would probably use it as weapon material—but now, such a nearly indestructible shell had been blasted open with a huge gap of about 40 meters in radius, and lava was still flowing smoothly at the edge of the gap.

That was precisely the effect of the 'Ground Drilling Thunderball', a common siege weapon used by evil creatures to break through shelters, originating from the Bing Fire Thunder Method.

It could be seen that there were many defensive works and Daoist magic arrays built both inside and outside the gap, but these defensive works were now all destroyed, and there were a large number of evil creatures and Qingqiu people's bodies around them.

And behind the gap, inside the shelter, which had lost power and was already pitch black, there was still a series of intense collisions and sonic booms.

Without hesitation, Gu Zechuan immediately prepared to enter it.

But suddenly, in the earth ahead, the white-haired youth sensed a terrifying pressure.

"Demons!"

That was a roar—Gu Zechuan heard Su Zhou's soul sound vibrating in the spirit world.

After that, an incomparably terrifying power, like a heavenly tribulation, mixed with an almost materialized spiritual pressure, spread in all directions.

Whether it was evil creatures or ordinary Qingqiu people, they instantly lost any combat power, either falling unconscious or falling to the ground, with no one able to stand upright.

Even if he was not the main target of deterrence, and was only affected by the aftermath, Gu Zechuan still felt a burst of dizziness and almost knelt down.

——I can't fall here!

But… a kind of unwillingness.

A belief originating from the depths of his heart, a desire to help others, a determination not to give in, kept his legs straight and he persevered.

Then, no longer trembling, Gu Zechuan, looking up into the shelter, saw a dim ice-blue light spot fleeing in a sorry state in front of a huge cyan-purple light ball on the inside of the shelter, and was rushing towards the exit at high speed.

That was an evil creature with the strength of a high-level Human Immortal, and was surprisingly agile and swift—it had been severely injured by Su Zhou, but had not died immediately.

There was a fist print on the Dao armor of this evil creature. It had been shattered by the bombardment, but even so, it could be seen that it was covered with dried blood, and a thick bloody aura permeated it. It was impossible to know how many people its master had killed.

"Monster, don't come over!"

At this time, the evil creature's face was full of fear, but soon, this fear turned into ruthlessness.

It stretched out its ten fingers, with each fingertip condensing a Xuanpu Shenguang (Mystic Soul Divine Light) capable of destroying the flesh and blood foundation of a cultivator and causing the flesh to collapse. Then, it launched them without any scruples, even deliberately aiming at the ordinary people who were crying and hiding in various parts of the shelter.

"Stop it!" "Damn it!" In an instant, Gu Zechuan and Su Zhou roared in anger at the same time, their eyes glaring.

It could be seen that the cyan-purple spiritual light was closely following behind the evil creature—although Su Zhou's speed was indeed faster than the other party, he had to block the other party's crazy attacks deliberately aimed at ordinary people, so he was one step slower, and could only watch the evil creature rush all the way towards the exit.

"Get out of the way!"

At this time, this evil creature also discovered Gu Zechuan, who was in a furious state at the exit of the shelter. Being more intelligent than other demons, it immediately used mental intimidation, trying to drive away this ant and prevent it from blocking its path.

Instantly, a thick, suffocating bloody smell, an icy cold killing intent as vast as a glacier, mixed with a spiritual pressure far surpassing his own, pressed towards Gu Zechuan like a tsunami.

Wavering… as if about to collapse at any moment.

But all of this… made Gu Zechuan clench the sword in his hand, and his spiritual power rapidly circulated in his severely injured body.

His thinking at this time was unprecedentedly clear, and he was also unprecedentedly angry.

——There is absolutely no way this damn evil creature can be allowed to escape!

Clenching the cone sword in his hand, his only remaining weapon, at this moment, Gu Zechuan had no other thoughts in his mind. The white-haired youth's emerald eyes seemed to be burning with flames. He stared straight at the evil creature rushing towards him, then raised his sword straight, pointing it forward.

——Cone sword.

A weapon created solely for the purpose of more easily breaking through the enemy's Dao armor and killing evil creatures.

And now, with the Taibai Disaster Reduction and Tribulation Breaking Method operating at full power, and with unprecedented killing intent in his heart, Gu Zechuan felt as if his whole person had turned into the cone sword in his hand, into that single point of sharpness.

Thus, at the tip of that unremarkable cone sword, a point of dazzling sword light suddenly surged!

Instantly, spiritual energy turned into a white rainbow. In silence, Gu Zechuan jumped up, sword striking the demon. The white-gold Geng Metal Sword Qi broke through the atmosphere, carrying a chilling light, resolutely stabbing towards the evil creature!

In the next moment, in the shocked gaze of the evil creature, that unremarkable cone sword pierced through its skin and flesh, right into its forehead.

Then…

"Get lost!"

With a roar, a vast spiritual power erupted, directly blasting Gu Zechuan away—the spiritual power suppression of more than an entire great realm made it impossible for even the youth whose swordsmanship had broken through at the last moment to resist the mad counterattack of the demon.

In just an instant, the violent spiritual power severely injured him. Gu Zechuan, spurting blood, was about to fall into his second coma…

But, the enemy was also held back by him.

"Want to leave?!"

A sinister sneer.

Sensing the abyss-like aura approaching from behind, the evil creature turned its head in despair, and then a hand stretched out and pressed on its face.

Before Gu Zechuan's consciousness entered slumber, his scattered gaze could see that Su Zhou had caught up with the evil creature. He punched through the other party's chest in the first moment, crushing the monster's heart and spine, and his right hand stretched out, pressing on the howling evil creature's head, with five fingers piercing into it, causing spiritual patterns to spread.

Then, there was a crisp sound of something being crushed, and a cold snort filled with anger.

Gu Zechuan fell into darkness completely.

I don't know why, I can't finish writing without staying up late… but I still wrote it out, so I'm asking for monthly tickets.