Chapter 39: Calculations

  Applause... applause is still continuing.

  Gu Chen looked up and saw a middle-aged man in his late thirties walking towards him, stopping five zhang away.

  This person was all smiles, clapping his hands and looking at Gu Chen said: "Good, worthy of being a child of the ancient family, with only postnatal ninth layer cultivation, actually killed two preheavenly first layer cultivators, good, great..."

  Gu Chen's face changed, full of joy, and he said happily: "Cang... Uncle Canghai, are you here to save me? Why didn't you intervene earlier, I almost got beaten to death by those two guys..."

  This person turned out to be the son of Gu's family three elders - Gu Canghai.

  "Save you......?" Gu Huahai's face turned sideways, a fierce glint shooting out from his eyes, "Me save you? You little bastard?"

  Gu Chen's smile faded from his face, and he looked puzzled as he said: "Uncle Cang Hai, if you're not here to rescue me, then what are you doing here?"

  "You treacherous rebel, what you've done, do you think I'm not aware of it?"

  "Tell me," Gu Cang Hai suddenly let out a stern roar, "was it you who killed He Er?"

  "Ah... no, Uncle Canghai, I didn't harm him, I just stabbed him once... No... no, I didn't even see him, I didn't meet him in the mine, really... Uncle Canghai, save me quickly... *gulp*"

  Gu Chen's expression was extremely terrified, and as he spoke, he spat out another mouthful of fresh blood.

  "I knew it, I saw you kill two innate first-level cultivators, I knew that Gǔ Hé was definitely killed by you, this rebellious thief."

  "Save you? I'd rather chop you into a million pieces and send you on your way myself."

  Gu Chen clutched at his chest with one hand, his expression terrified to the extreme: "Don't kill me... don't kill me... please, Uncle Cang Hai, don't kill me..."

  "Hmph..." Gu Canghai's face was filled with killing intent as he took a step forward.

  "Hiss...... Hiss... Hiss..." Xiao Bai stood beside Gu Chen, his face ferocious, and let out a sharp cry towards Gu Cang Hai.

  "Little beast..." Gu Cang Hai's eyebrows rose, his eyes widened, and he slapped Xiao Bai with one palm.

  "Ah..." Xiaobai let out a sharp cry and swiftly dodged to one side.

  Bang...

  A loud crash was heard, and where Xiaobai had just stood, a palm print about three feet long was slapped out.

  The entire ground is shaking.

  Gǔ Cāng Hǎi is a cultivator of the fifth layer of the Innate Realm, and his cultivation method is called Pán Shí Yìn. It is an upgraded version of the Pán Shí Zhǎng (Petrified Palm) technique that Gǔ Yáng cultivated, which has been transformed into a higher-level technique for advancing to the Innate Realm.

  Xiao Bai dodged to the side, looking at Gu Chen and Gu Canghai with a tense expression. He no longer dared to yell at Gu Canghai. The palm print on the ground was even bigger than Xiao Bai's body. A single slap would turn Xiao Bai into a puddle of flesh.

  Gu Chen looked at the palm print on the ground and his expression became even more terrified, shouting: "Don't kill me... don't kill me... I don't want to die!"

  Gǔ Cāng Hǎi took a step closer to Gǔ Chén, saying: "You little bastard, don't worry, I won't slap you to death with one palm. I'll slowly torture you to death to vent my hatred, and then send you on the road to the Yellow Springs to accompany my He'er..."

  The ancient cyan sea was getting closer and closer, Gu Chen struggled to get up and run away, but only managed to crawl halfway up before falling back down.

  Both hands grasped at his chest, a pained expression on his face, as he stared into Gu Cang Hai's eyes, only endless fear.

  Seeing Gu Chen's suffering, Gu Canghai felt relieved in his heart and burst out laughing. He sneered: "You little bastard, can't even bear this kind of pain? I'll let you experience what real pain is, what it means to be worse off than dead!"

  Gǔ Cāng Hǎi took a big step forward to Gǔ Chén's face, bowed his head and made a claw-like gesture towards Gǔ Chén, laughing: "Is there any other spell on your body? Let it all out for old man, haha..."

  The blue sword rose silently from the ground, shooting out a few meters of sword energy, and shot rapidly towards the back of Gu Cang Hai.

  Suddenly, Gu Cang Hai's face changed greatly, a chill ran down his spine, spreading throughout his body, an extremely dangerous feeling enveloped him instantly, and his body leaned to one side.

  But it's too late...

  Qing Lian Jian pierced through Gu Cang Hai's left shoulder and back, causing Gu Cang Hai to let out a mournful howl.

  At the same time, Gu Chen suddenly lost all his fearful color on his face and shouted loudly: "Eat the talisman away..."

  In an instant, two talismans flew out of Gu Chen's hands.

  A Taiyi charm...

  A Fire Seal...

  A loud thunderclap sounded, and the Taiyi charm transformed into a bolt of lightning that struck Gu Canghai's body.

  Then, the fierce fire talisman transformed into a ball of flames and pounced on Gu Cang Hai's body, instantly igniting.

  Gu Cang Hai had already made preparations for defense, and even if Gu Chen used his talismans, Gu Cang Hai still had countermeasures ready.

  However, a sudden shot of the Qingli sword from behind disrupted his plan. Gu Canghai was pierced by the Qingli sword and flew backwards. This time, Gu Chen made use of the Taiyi symbol and the fierce fire symbol, blasting Gu Canghai directly.

  Gu Chen patted the ground and sprang up nimbly, where was there any shadow of injury?

  "Rebel thief......" Gu Canghai spat out a mouthful of blood, let out a loud roar, and with his innate true energy stirring, the flames formed by the Li Huo symbol were instantly extinguished.

  However, Gu Cang Hai had already been burned to a crisp all over his body and no longer had the proud and aloof image he had before.

  A bullet hole in the right chest, blood gushing out of the wound and onto his back.

  The corners of his mouth were stained with blood, and Gu Canghai was already seriously injured.

  "Rebel, I will tear you into a million pieces!" Gu Canghai let out a thunderous roar and slapped his palm down.

  However, Gu Canghai had just extinguished the flames and didn't see where Gu Chen was. He slapped his palm at an empty space, hitting a large tree the size of a millstone.

  A loud "crack" sound, and the big tree was struck down by a single palm of the "Petrified Rock Seal".

  Gu Cang Hai had just struck out with a palm when he heard the sound of something cutting through the air from behind. Without needing to turn his head, he knew that the flying sword was coming again.

  He raised his hand and threw it at the incoming Qing Li sword. A giant sword with a yellow sword hilt slashed over.

  Suddenly, he felt his arm tighten, and more than half of the congenital true energy in his body weakened. Gu Canghai lowered his head to take a look, only to find that a long rope had wrapped around his hands, and soon, it had wrapped around his entire body.

  After being ambushed by Gu Chen, even his shadow was not seen, Gu Canghai was once again outsmarted by Gu Chen.

  Gu Canghai had just woken up from the flames of the Li Huo symbol, when Qing Lixian's sword caught his attention. Gu Chen picked up the Ling Suo left behind by Liu Qing and threw it at Gu Canghai, instantly wrapping him up in it.

  Ancient Cang Hai's innate true energy weakened, the yellow flying sword's power greatly reduced, was chopped to one side by Qing Li Sword. Ancient Chen's innate true energy surged, Qing Li Sword's blade edge swelled again, speed suddenly increased, once more rapidly shot towards Ancient Cang Hai.

  Gu Cang Hai was bound by the Soul Locking Chain and suffered severe injuries, his entire strength being completely sealed.

  Hmph...

  In the horrified gaze of the ancient Cang Hai, Qing Lie's sword pierced through his heart in an instant.

  The yellow flying sword suddenly fell weakly to the ground.

  "You... actually... didn't get hurt?"

  "You... actually... reached the Innate Realm?"

  Gu Cang Hai spoke his last two sentences, blood gushed out of his heart, and the expression in his eyes suddenly dissipated. Then, his body went limp and fell to the ground.

  "Squeak squeak squeak..." Xiao Bai saw Gu Chen safe and sound, suddenly let out a cheer, and jumped onto Gu Chen's shoulders.

  But looking at Gu Chen, Xiao Bai was puzzled. Why was he seriously injured and vomiting blood just now, but now there is no sign of injury at all?

  For human cunning, Xiaobai doesn't understand now.

  Gu Chen looked at Gu Cang Hai's corpse and did not rashly walk over.

  After a long time, he saw the body of Gu Canghai not moving at all. Gu Chen controlled Qingli Sword to slash his neck again, and after another short while, Gu Chen walked to the side of Gu Canghai's body.

  It can now be confirmed that Gu Cang Hai is really dead and absolutely did not fake his own death.

  "Do you know? Those two small roles are not in my eyes at all, the one I am waiting for is you?" Gu Chen said, standing beside the corpse of Gu Cang Hai.

  "If it wasn't for you secretly following me, how would I have ended up with those two idiots, pretending to fight for so long without using my innate true energy?"

  "Alas... I've been reborn, originally wanting the Gu family to prosper greatly, but unfortunately, opposing each other is still opposing after all."

  "I thought it would take the last bit of spiritual energy from the Spirit-Sealing Charm to deal with you, but unexpectedly, you saw me kill two First Heaven stage cultivators and still look down on me like this?"

  ……

  Gu Chen reached out with an empty hand and grabbed it, the storage bag of Gu Cang Hai immediately sucked over, took a look inside, took out the spiritual stone, saw that there were no useful items in the storage bag for him, all poured out, put the spiritual stone into the storage bag, hung on his waist.

  Soon, Gu Chen searched Liu Jie and Liu Qing's storage bags again, taking out all the Ling Stones. The magical instruments and techniques inside had no effect on Gu Chen.

  On the side, two large pits were dug out. Gu Chen buried the bodies of Gu Cang Hai and Liu Jie Liu Qing in the two pits respectively, destroying all clues.

  He put the Soul-Searching Bead into the Qiankun Ring, Gu Chen swallowed a pellet of Itching Numbness Dan and transformed into an old man with a face full of numbness, released his flying sword, Xiao Bai sat on his shoulder, and flew towards the sky.

  With swift and fierce winds accelerating, Gu Chen's cultivation was only at the first layer of Xiantian Realm, but his speed was on par with that of a late-stage Xiantian Realm cultivator. Whenever he encountered other Xiantian Realm cultivators, they would keep a safe distance from him.

  An extremely ugly old man, with a flying speed of Innate Realm late stage, no one is willing to provoke such a person, nor is anyone willing to deal with such a person.

  ……

  Gu Chen flew with his sword every day, half of the time searching for Ling Hua and Zhu Hu, and the other half persisting in cultivation.

  Compared to his own training, finding the Linghun Flower and Zhu Hu is secondary. The crisis of the Gu family's downfall weighs more heavily on Gu Chen than the struggle for the position of Patriarch.

  Therefore, daily practice is indispensable.

  In the blink of an eye, half a month had passed, and Gu Chen's innate true energy was even more dense than it was half a month ago.

  Yīnghún huā and Zhì Hǔ have still not been found.

  For half a month, Gu Chen searched the entire eastern wilderness for thousands of miles, but saw no signs of Yīnghún Huā or Zhuī Hǔ anywhere.

  The Yinhun flower is the flower of death, and the place where it grows must be a dead zone, where no living thing can survive except for some special species that are as toxic as the Yinhun flower.

  The tiger likes to live in the underground molten fire, and its exit must be at a certain volcanic outlet. However, within a radius of thousands of miles, there is not a single volcanic outlet in sight.

  Gǔ Chén knew the whereabouts of Yǐn Hún Huā and Zhēng Hǔ, but in his previous life, Gǔ Chén had already been a high-ranking cultivator at the Mìng Quán level when he ventured into the Eastern Wilderness over 100 years ago.

  That is to say, the Linghua and Zhuohu that were known in the previous life, are they still there after more than a hundred years?

  Even if there were, those places would be completely off-limits to Gu Chen.

  Gǔ Chén's knowledge, in this northeast direction, more than 200,000 miles away, there is a volcanic cave, inside which lives the Blazing Tiger. However, even if Gǔ Chén uses the Swift Wing Cloak to speed up, his flying speed would only be comparable to that of a late-stage Pre-Heavenly Boundary cultivator, able to fly more than 3,000 miles in one day.

  More than 200,000 miles away, even if the imperial instrument flies at top speed, it will take nearly two months to arrive. There are still more than four months before this year's clan trial. If nothing unexpected happens, Gu Chen can fly over, snatch the inner elixir of Zhu Huo, and barely make it back to the Gu family in time for the clan trial.

  But how can there be no accidents? The deeper into the Eastern Wilderness, the stronger the demonic beasts are. After entering the 100,000-mile mark of the Eastern Wilderness, even demonic beasts at the Divine Sea realm's fetal stage would appear.

  In the territory of the demonic beast during the fetal period, how can one fly for tens of thousands of miles without being attacked by the demonic beast? Facing the divine sea boundary's fetal period demonic beast, even escaping is a huge problem for Gu Chen.

  Moreover, venturing twenty thousand miles into the Eastern Wastes, there exists a Soul-Beckoning Devil Beast that can easily annihilate Gu Chen.

  That scorching tiger beyond twenty thousand miles away, Gu Chen didn't even think about it.

  Gǔ chén húi xiǎng zhe qián shì de jì yì, yǒu yī zhū yǐn hún huā, xiàn zài dào shì yǒu kě néng cǎi dé dào, cǐ zhèng dōng fāng jiǔ wàn yú lǐ chù, yǒu yī gè chù fāng yuán bǎi lǐ de sǐ wáng shān mài, nèi yǒu yī fāng yuán shí yú lǐ de sǐ gǔ, míng kū xīn gǔ, gǔ nèi cùn cǎo bù shēng, kū xīn gǔ zhī zhōng, qián shì gǔ chén jiù fā xiàn guò yī zhū yǐn hún huā.

  That one stem of Soul-Calling Flower was exactly the one picked by Gu Chen, now the time is more than a hundred years earlier than when he saw the Soul-Calling Flower in his past life, don't know if the Soul-Calling Flower has grown or not?

  Venturing deep into the Eastern Wastes for over 90,000 miles, encountering a demonic beast from the Divine Sea Realm is as likely as meeting one from the Pre-Heavenly Realm within a thousand miles. Unless you reach the extreme point, it's extremely difficult to encounter them.

  No need to encounter the divine sea boundary demon beast, with the swift feather cloak in hand, as long as that Nai Meng Hua has grown, the hope of getting it is very high.

  At this thought, Gu Chen had the idea of going to pick that soul-guiding flower. He wouldn't do things that would lead him to his own death, such as going to the Blazing Tiger twenty thousand miles away. However, he also wouldn't give up on things that gave him hope.

  It's still about 90,000 miles away from the Valley of Dry Souls. The ancient aircraft can reach it in a month if it flies continuously. If it flies at full power every day, it can also make it within a month.

  Rather than searching aimlessly like this, it's better to head straight for the target point and hope for a bigger harvest.

  Afterwards, Gu Chen flew towards the east, no longer making pointless searches, and headed straight for the Valley of Withered Souls.

  Gu Chen didn't fly with all his might either, flying a distance of about 2,000 miles every day before stopping to cultivate.

  Taking the Yuanling Dan internally and having the Ling Stone absorb externally, Gu Chen's growth of his pre-heavenly true energy every day is extremely fast. At this speed, it won't be a problem to break through to the second layer of the pre-heavenly realm in just over a month or two.

  Although it's hard to encounter a divine sea boundary demon beast on the way, the eastern desolate 90,000 miles is actually a gathering place for pre-heavenly boundary late-stage demon beasts. If one can break through to the second layer of the pre-heavenly boundary along the way, the safety of picking the soul-guiding flower will be even greater.

  Gu Chen was very careful every day when flying, and there were monsters appearing in front of him, he would avoid them in time. Unless it was unavoidable, he wouldn't fight with the monsters. In a day, it was rare to have a battle between Gu Chen and the monsters.

  After flying continuously for a month, Gu Chen had already penetrated more than 600,000 miles into the Eastern Wilderness. In that month, he only encountered demonic beasts ten times. He killed six of them in the early stage of the Pre-Heaven Realm. As for the demonic beasts in the middle stage of the Pre-Heaven Realm, Gu Chen used his Swift Wing to speed up and escape quickly, and he was safe and sound all along the way.

  After flying for half a month, when they were only ten thousand miles away from the Valley of Dry Souls, Gu Chen's cultivation indeed broke through to the second layer of the Pre-Heavenly Realm. It took him only two months to advance from the first layer to the second layer.

  Entering the second layer of Xiantian Realm, I headed towards Kuanghun Valley, and my hopes grew a little stronger.