Chapter Twenty-Two: War
"Oh, so you're allowing us to buy one spirit stone, but not letting us buy two? How unreasonable. What do you want to be unreasonable about?" Gu Yun said with a cold smile.
"In that case, let's... surround him and show him the power of our Six Harmony Sword Formation!" Lin Shan now also knew that things couldn't be settled peacefully, so they might as well fight it out. He believed that with their six-man Six Harmony Sword Formation, they wouldn't be without a chance to win.
As soon as the words fell, the six people surrounded Gu Yun, each holding a lower-grade spirit sword in their hands. They formed the Six Harmony Sword Array, and as soon as the array was formed, the six people's momentum suddenly surged, and they charged towards Gu Yun crazily. This is the benefit of an array, once it is formed, it is no longer a fight against people, but a fight against heaven and earth. Therefore, not many people will allow others to form an array when fighting against them.
But Gu Yun was different, he had now experienced the benefits of battle and also wanted to see the power of the few moves he had just cultivated. He knew about the Six Harmony Formation, which took six people as its foundation, sealing off all directions - front, back, left, right, up, and down - of the opponent. When attacking, they would launch their moves simultaneously, adding up their strength, capable of killing an opponent one realm higher than them. Moreover, when any one person was attacked, they would also be subject to attacks from several others at the same time.
The six of them immediately launched a fierce attack, the strongest they could muster. A rain of swords descended, with over a dozen sword auras emitted from each person's blade, all converging on Gu Yun.
Looking at the hundreds of sword auras that were about to kill him, Gu Yun took a deep breath and injected the dragon-shaped true energy in his body into Mo Yan on his hand. The knife was released, and a three-meter-long fire-red dragon-shaped virtual image roared out. It was the "Qian Tian Yi Ji" (Heavenly Strike) that had been improved by Gu Yun, but now it was renamed "Shen Long Po Kong" (Dragon Breaking the Void). Unlike before, this dragon-shaped virtual shadow did not charge forward in a straight line after transforming from a shadow slash. Instead, it rotated around Gu Yun and swallowed up all the incoming sword auras before disappearing along with them. Watching the dragon-shaped virtual image disappear together with the sword auras, Gu Yun shook his head slightly, somewhat dissatisfied. The power was still not enough; otherwise, it would not have disappeared together with those sword auras.
But Lin Shan and the other five people felt completely different, they stared blankly at Gu Yun who easily broke through the hundreds of sword auras they released with just one move. Even if their master was surrounded, they had never seen him break through so easily when they used this move, let alone that their master was only in the middle stage of Body Union cultivation. What they didn't know was that Gu Yun, who was already in the middle stage of Body Union cultivation, had killed one person and his primordial spirit was still there.
Looking at the six people, Gu Yun smiled lightly and said: "Now it's your turn to try and take my move." After finishing speaking, he struck again, but this time it wasn't just one dragon-shaped illusion. Over a hundred red, meter-long dragon-shaped illusions burst out in all directions. This was the improved second move, which Gu Yun had renamed "Dragon Dance in the Sky". Once fully mastered, these dragon-shaped illusions could dance freely in the sky, but controlling them required an enormous amount of spiritual energy. With Gu Yun's current spiritual energy, he could only control the direction of the dragon-shaped illusions to change slightly. Even so, it was still terrifying - over a hundred dragon shadows shot out in all directions, and each of the six people faced more than a dozen dragon shadows attacking from various angles.
At this moment, the subtlety of the formation was revealed. Facing the incoming dragon shadow attack, the entire formation suddenly rotated violently, deflecting all of Gu Yun's attacks. Over a hundred dragon shadows shot out from the formation in all directions, wreaking havoc on an area of about 50 meters in diameter. The surrounding trees were all snapped in two, and the ground was scarred with deep gullies.
The eight people who were picking herbs immediately retreated to the back, stopping only when they were a hundred meters away. They stared blankly at the destruction caused by Gu Yun's attack. Just now, they had wanted to protect him, but it turned out that he was such an expert. It seemed that they had indeed underestimated themselves. However, they did not know that if they had not tried to protect Gu Yun, Gu Yun might not have been able to help them now.
Watching Lin Shan and the six others dispel all of his attacks, Gu Yun was slightly surprised. In his opinion, it would have been good enough if they could break through half of his attacks. Back then, even when Li Jinyang was in a merged state with him, they were only able to break through half of his attacks. Now, his attacks were much stronger than before, yet these six Nascent Soul stage cultivators, along with an array formation, were actually able to dispel all of them. It seemed that he had indeed underestimated them.
The six people didn't stop after dodging Gu Yun's attack, but instead continued to circle around him, getting faster and faster. Gradually, Gu Yun could only see what seemed like faint shadows moving around him, the speed was too fast, it had already reached the point where his eyes couldn't keep up.
Moreover, the sword energy that was even more rapid and fierce than before also came from all directions towards Gu Yun, making it rather difficult for him to cope. However, this intensity of sword energy could not cause any damage to his robust body, only leaving a faint white mark on his skin, but his clothes had become tattered like those of a beggar.
Looking at the increasingly strong momentum of Lin Shan's six people, Gu Yun knew that it was time to break through the formation. If not, he would have to fight with his bare body. The ink flame in his hand chopped down, and a three-meter-long dragon shadow burst out from the ink flame in Gu Yun's hand, roaring towards the formation formed by the six people. This time, however, the six people did not immediately deflect Gu Yun's attack. The continuously rotating formation was forced to pause for a moment.
In this brief moment, Gu Yun vanished from their eyes and reappeared beside Lin Shan, who was at the lowest position with the highest cultivation. The Ink Flame in his hand had already reached Lin Shan's head. This was the key to the entire Six Harmony Formation; as long as Lin Shan retreated, the formation would collapse.
Looking up at the incoming Mo Yan, Lin Shan's eyes fiercely contracted. He didn't expect his opponent's speed to be so fast. In a panic, he could only raise the long sword in his hand to meet the attack. The swords clashed, emitting a loud "peng" sound. Lin Shan's long sword had already been shattered into pieces, and he himself spat out a large mouthful of blood. He was heavily sliced and sent flying, with his left arm severely deformed. At the critical moment, if not for the fact that he used the spiritual-level armor on his left arm to block Gu Yun's attack, he might have already been cut in two. The sword was blocked, but his left arm and the armor were destroyed, instantly destroying two treasures that resonated with his mind. Lin Shan's spirit was extremely weak at this moment, and the primordial infant within him was dull and without light. This blow had severely injured him, and he wouldn't be able to recover for several months. Of course, this depended on whether he would have enough time.
At this time, the attack of the other five people finally arrived in front of Gu Yun. Everything that had just happened was too fast, and the five people hadn't reacted yet when they saw Gu Yun disappear from their sight, only to see their senior brother lying on the ground spitting blood. And when their attacks had just reached Gu Yun's face, Gu Yun disappeared again, appearing behind another person at the same time. This person didn't have Lin Shan's high cultivation level, and his defensive treasure was only a precious instrument-level one, so he was killed in one move by Gu Yun. After killing the other four people with four moves, Gu Yun took out a bottle and collected the five Yuanying that had just escaped from their physical bodies.
Watching Gu Yun kill five fellow disciples and collect their yuan infants, Lin Shan's face turned pale as he lay on the ground, pointing at Gu Yun with his hand but unable to say a word. He spat out two more mouthfuls of blood, while Gu Yun didn't let him speak again. After collecting Lin Shan's yuan infant along with the others, Gu Yun began searching their bodies and found six Qiankun bags containing some daily necessities, recovery spiritual energy pills, and several mid-grade spiritual stones. Shaking his head, Gu Yun collected the Qiankun bags and spiritual stones, as well as a few flying swords of spiritual instrument grade, including Lin Shan's broken sword fragments. He burned the daily necessities and the corpses with San Mai True Fire, then headed towards the people picking herbs. Now he wanted to find these people to understand the situation outside; in this wilderness, he knew nothing, and if one day he provoked a massive power, it would be troublesome for him. From the attacks of those few people earlier, he realized his strength was somewhat lacking; fighting alone was fine, but if they formed an array, he would be at a disadvantage.
As Gu Yun walked towards them, Weng Yuan and the others felt a wave of tension. Earlier, they had seen this person behead several disciples of the Six Harmony Gate and even take their belongings, including their primordial infants. In the Cultivation Realm, killing someone might not lead to much trouble, but taking their primordial infant would provoke a large group of people to come after you with the slogan of "exterminating demons". Therefore, even if one wanted to take someone's primordial infant, it was usually done secretly, unlike Gu Yun who did it openly and honestly. Gu Yun was unaware of these things, but Weng Yuan and the others thought he had come to silence them. Seeing Gu Yun's speed earlier, they didn't even have the idea of escaping, and just stood there watching him approach.
Walking up to a few people, Gu Yun bowed his hands to the leading elder and said: "I am Gu Yun, may I ask for your esteemed surname and great name?"
As for Gu Yun's courtesy, Weng Yuan and the others hastily returned the courtesy. Someone with a higher cultivation level than them was paying their respects, which was something they had never encountered before. In the past, those who were more cultivated than them would not even look at them straight in the eye, let alone pay their respects. This was the rule of the Xiu Zhen realm: only those with high cultivation could receive respect, while those with low cultivation, no matter how old they were, had to address others as "senior". There was no concept of "respecting the elderly and loving the young" here, but Gu Yun did not think that way.
"Junior brothers, these are my companions, Li Jin, Qian Liang, Zhang Cheng, Xian Zengping, Zhao Chaoyang, Sun Yun'an, and Xu Pingyang. Thank you for your help just now, but by killing them, you have made an enemy of the Liuhe Gate, which is the largest sect in this area. Be careful, as they are full of experts." Seeing this situation, Wengyuan and the others knew that Gongyang was not there to silence them, so they felt a little more at ease.
