: Gu Master Li Jiuqu

2025-03-28 Author: Gu Zhenren

The first champion duel was underway.

At the edge of the battlefield, both Sun and Ning were riding the Thousand-Mile Roaming Dragon, quietly observing the battle from the dragon-head cabin.

The Blood Shadow Cave Lord, who had previously given them trouble, was now facing off against Lei Qingyang, a righteous Nascent Soul cultivator from the Two Pouches Kingdom.

"If Lei Qingyang has no means to see through it, the Blood Shadow Cave Lord, relying on his true and false clones, can firmly maintain the upper hand," Sun Lingtong commented.

Ning Zhuo nodded slightly. He agreed with this assessment.

"I've learned something!"

"It seems I need to master a method to see through disguises next."

"Previously, Sect Leader Lin Bufan suffered because the enemy's illusion techniques were extremely powerful."

Sun Lingtong muttered, "Xiao Zhuo, you want to learn too much."

Ning Zhuo, unusually missing the subtext, nodded deeply with a serious expression: "Yes, I'm still too young. There really is a lot I need to learn!"

Sun Lingtong opened her mouth: "Don't forget, you have me covering for you. My Spirit Eyes can see through many falsehoods."

Ning Zhuo smiled: "It's good to have you, Boss. But I still need to learn some things, just to be prepared."

"However, considering your talent, Boss, maybe I should postpone this learning plan."

"Learning how to disguise myself and create clones first is also possible."

Sun Lingtong: "..."

As the two conversed, the Blood Shadow Cave Lord and Lei Qingyang exchanged several more rounds of attacks, remaining evenly matched.

Suddenly, Thunder Master Lei gave a sharp shout. The Sky-Piercing Thunderbolt Sword pierced through the blood mist, and violent thunder energy shot out in all directions, exposing the Blood Shadow Cave Lord's true form.

This scene caused a stir among the cultivators of both armies.

Within the Thousand Peaks Alliance, most people's expressions changed. In contrast, cheers erupted from the Two Pouches Kingdom camp.

In the previous exchanges, Lei Qingyang had gradually been forced into a disadvantage precisely because he couldn't distinguish the real from the fake.

Now that he had found a way to locate the true body, it meant the battle situation was about to change.

The Blood Shadow Cave Lord's true body was struck and heavily injured.

Blood light erupted around him, transforming into a hundred-zhang sea of blood.

Nine gigantic blood pythons soared from the blood sea, stirring up towering blood waves. Their massive mouths gaped open, spewing countless Yin Thunderblood Bolts.

Both armies fell silent, holding their breath, knowing the most critical clash had arrived!

Seeing his opponent launch an unprecedentedly fierce assault, Lei Qingyang decisively bit the tip of his tongue.

A mouthful of essence blood sprayed onto the Sky-Piercing Thunderbolt Sword, causing ancient thunder patterns to appear on its surface.

The Sky-Piercing Thunderbolt Sword flew high into the air.

Lei Qingyang then sent his thirty-six Evil-Warding Thunder Jades flying around the sword. Using the Thunderbolt Sword as the core, he rapidly constructed a formation.

Finally, he gripped the Thunder Marsh Gourd and released a massive amount of thunderclouds once more.

The thunderclouds enveloped the thirty-six Evil-Warding Thunder Jades and the Sky-Piercing Thunderbolt Sword, rapidly expanding and soon pushing back the blood sea to occupy half the battlefield.

Divine Ability – Nine Heavens Thunder Bright Body.

"Nine Heavens Thunder Prison, open!"

Lei Qingyang shouted sharply, using his divine ability to draw down the thunder of the nine heavens. Countless lightning bolts shot from all over his body, rising upwards into the thunderclouds.

The thunderclouds churned incessantly, emitting rolling thunderclaps, and quickly transformed into a temporary thunder pool.

The Blood Shadow Cave Lord's blood pythons and Yin Thunderblood Bolts were all annihilated in the thunder pool's eruption. The blood sea was evaporated until only a three-zhang core area remained.

Lei Qingyang shouted again, unleashing thousands of lightning bolts, and in one go, completely obliterated the stubbornly resisting core of the blood sea.

As the lightning dissipated, only a single blood pearl remained floating in the air where the blood sea's core had been.

Lei Qingyang narrowed his eyes, about to employ another technique to destroy the blood pearl as well.

The next moment, the blood pearl suddenly erupted, transforming into a blood streak that shot straight towards him.

The blood pearl was too fast. Countless watching cultivators showed shock, unable to clearly see what happened in that instant.

At the critical moment, Lei Qingyang's body suddenly radiated electric light, carrying him sideways to the right.

The blood streak grazed his neck, leaving a long wound, then stopped high in the distance, transforming back into the Blood Shadow Cave Lord's true form.

The Blood Shadow Cave Lord panted heavily, utterly exhausted.

The wound on Lei Qingyang's neck had already stopped bleeding. He turned slowly, his robust physique causing his Daoist robe to flutter. His voice was as steady as a mountain: "You have lost."

The battlefield fell into silence.

Even Sun and Ning felt that Lei Qingyang, who controlled the temporary thunder pool, indeed held a significant advantage and had grasped the momentum of victory.

Although the Blood Shadow Cave Lord's desperate counterattack just now was shocking, its effect was minimal, clearly showing the Blood Shadow Cave Lord was already showing signs of fatigue.

However, the Blood Shadow Cave Lord laughed heartily: "No, I have won."

As soon as he finished speaking, poisonous blood, blue and exceptionally foul-smelling, overflowed from the corner of Lei Qingyang's mouth.

Lei Qingyang hurriedly used techniques to suppress the toxin.

But the toxin erupted within his body at this moment, surging like a mountain torrent or tidal wave, difficult to restrain.

Lei Qingyang's aura plummeted straight to rock bottom.

The thunder patterns on his palm disintegrated because of this, and the temporary thunder pool became impossible to maintain, instantly breaking apart into thirty-six Evil-Warding Thunder Jades and one Sky-Piercing Thunderbolt Sword. As for the vast thunderclouds, they were completely consumed and vanished.

Lei Qingyang gritted his teeth, crushed a jade pendant at his waist, and immediately summoned a bolt of lightning.

The lightning enveloped him, piercing through the sky as he swiftly returned to the Two Pouches Kingdom camp.

Zhao Xi and others hurried to meet him: "Quick, treat Thunder Master Lei's injuries!"

Lei Qingyang waved his hand in refusal: "The first champion duel is a matter of great importance, yet I lost. I have no face to burden you all to expend your magic power to heal me."

"I can handle it!"

"From now on, I can only rely on you all."

Lei Qingyang staggered off the city wall and went into seclusion to heal his injuries.

On the other side, the Blood Shadow Cave Lord was also greatly depleted, with little strength left to fight. He weakly returned to his formation, eliciting a wave of cheers.

The cheers reached the Two Pouches Kingdom camp, sounding particularly grating.

Zhao Xi frowned deeply. As the leader, he had to face the current predicament and solve the immediate problem.

"Losing the first champion duel puts us in a bad situation. We absolutely cannot lose the second one!"

Zhao Xi looked around at the Nascent Soul cultivators beside him, hesitating, when another cultivator flew out from the Thousand Peaks Alliance.

This person's appearance was quite terrifying.

His body was hunched like an old ape, his skin corpse-blue, covered with honeycomb-like pores. Countless black maggots squirmed in and out of the pores, eating rotten flesh and then spitting poisonous silk to repair the body.

He had no hair on his head; instead, it was covered by a semi-transparent membrane. Beneath the membrane, one could see three leeches swimming in his grayish-white brain matter, a nauseating sight.

His nose bridge was rotten and pierced. In his eye sockets, instead of normal eyeballs, were embedded two poisonous wasp nests. Green phosphorescent fire flickered within the hexagonal holes of the nests.

"This old man is the Gu Master Li Jiuqu. Hehehe, who will come to die?"

As he spoke, the corners of his mouth tore all the way to his ears, revealing a mouthful of jagged black teeth. His tongue was parasitized by a large patch of sickly green moss, the purpose of which was unknown.

"Li Jiuqu?!"

"So it's really him!"

"I never thought he was really hiding in the Thousand Peaks Forest."

"Terrifying! This man is a Gu Master, primarily cultivating the 'Myriad Maggots Immortal-Corrosion Art'. To practice this method, one must hollow out their own bones and fill them with larvae of the Immortal-Corrosion Maggots, nourishing them with their own essence blood. The corrosive bone venom secreted by the maggots can dissolve magical treasures and also devour the enemy's flesh and blood to replenish the host."

On the Two Pouches Kingdom side, the cultivators discussed incessantly, their expressions all quite grave.

In terms of reputation alone, Li Jiuqu was notorious, a wanted criminal in multiple cultivation kingdoms, far more infamous than the Blood Shadow Cave Lord.

Due to the lenient environment of the Thousand Peaks Forest, Li Jiuqu had hidden here.

Now, in the second major battle, he made his first appearance, catching the Two Pouches Kingdom off guard and also surprising the Thousand Peaks Alliance.

This was because Li Jiuqu had concealed his identity before joining the battle; even they hadn't known.

Lu Hongtu was also kept in the dark. Seeing Li Jiuqu now, he instinctively glanced towards Lord Long.

Lord Long sat expressionless in the main seat.

The second major battle was crucial, especially concerning the Dragon King's Giant Wood Mountain. The entire Dragon King Temple attached great importance to it. Lord Long had primarily invited Young Master Shengxu, while Li Jiuqu had been heavily hired by other temple priests of the Dragon King Temple.

"Hehehe, are you deaf or dumb? Can't you understand this old man's words?"

Li Jiuqu issued his challenge again.

Without a doubt, Li Jiuqu was a powerful enemy!

The many Nascent Soul cultivators of the Two Pouches Kingdom looked at each other, finding it difficult to decide for a moment.

Zhao Xi also hesitated. In his view, whoever went up had no guarantee of victory and might even lose their life!

Just then, someone stepped forward voluntarily: "I will fight him."

All eyes immediately turned to the speaker. Dressed in black robes with a myna bird perched on his shoulder, it was none other than Mo Yechen.

Zhao Xi: "You..."

Mo Yechen smiled faintly: "Lord Zhao, fellow comrades, rest assured for now. I am volunteering to fight, not seeking death, but because I have some confidence."

"Of course, if anyone among you has greater confidence than I, I, Mo Yechen, will willingly yield."

No one spoke up.

Zhao Xi nodded helplessly, watching with worry as Mo Yechen flew out from the city wall.

Li Jiuqu had already issued his challenge twice, chipping away at the morale of the Two Pouches Kingdom army twice. They couldn't let him continue.

Li Jiuqu versus Mo Yechen.

"A fool volunteering to die. Hehehe, then I'll start by killing you." Li Jiuqu's black robes billowed, and all the pores on his body emitted cries like those of a baby simultaneously.

The cries were shrill, piercing straight into the heart, unsettling magic power and affecting the mind.

Mo Yechen remained motionless. The myna on his shoulder had starlight shimmering in its pupils and suddenly let out a clear cry that pierced the heavens.

With this cry, the myna immediately revealed an aura at the Nascent Soul level. Its cry overwhelmed the weeping sounds, scattering countless silver rays of light across the battlefield.

"That bird is actually a Nascent Soul level demon beast!" Ning Zhuo exclaimed in surprise.

Sun Lingtong's expression also changed slightly: "Back then, I didn't see its true depth."

Previously, Du Tiechuan had dispatched four armies to actively invade the Thousand Peaks Forest, using this to probe the enemy's military deployments.

After Ning Zhuo used a talisman to teleport to the Red Flower Camp, helped Mu Lan shoot Di Lu, and defeated the Ancient Moon God, the myna had relayed the order to retreat.

Therefore, Sun, Ning, Mu Lan, and Zhang Zhongyi had all encountered this myna once before.

Li Jiuqu's body swayed slightly.

His crying technique was suppressed. Annoyed, he took out a magical treasure.

The Immortal-Corrosion Poison Basket!

The basket was woven from the vertebrae of cultivators. Inside, it nurtured thousands of poisonous gu: skin-rot bugs, flesh-decay maggots, bone-corrosion centipedes, and so on.

Deep in the basket hid a Maggot Gu Empress, capable of controlling all poisonous insects within a hundred li to form insect swarms.

Li Jiuqu shook the Immortal-Corrosion Poison Basket.

A vast quantity of poisonous insects surged out like a black river.

The insect swarm collided and rubbed against each other, producing a grating metallic sound. The maggots' mouthparts spewed vast amounts of purple mist. Wherever it passed, plants and forests instantly turned to ash.

Mo Yechen quickly flew back, trading space for time.

He still hadn't made a move. The myna on his shoulder flapped its wings and screeched, the sound waves forming semi-transparent ripples.

The insect swarm crashed into the sound waves. Large numbers of poisonous insects popped and exploded, splattering green and yellow slurry high in the air.

"Hehehe." Li Jiuqu grinned ferociously, channeling his spiritual sense into the insect swarm.

The next moment, over ten gu insects flew out from the swarm.

Skin-rot bugs charged ahead, corroding through the sound waves. Flesh-decay maggots rushed around Mo Yechen and self-destructed, creating a toxic aura. Bone-corrosion centipedes tried to burrow into Mo Yechen's body, but the myna swallowed them one by one into its belly.

As soon as they entered the bird's stomach, Li Jiuqu immediately lost his close connection with the gu insects.

This caused the notorious demonic path Gu Master to frown.

Cultivators from both armies who saw this showed varied expressions.

Sun and Ning also saw the trick.

Sun Lingtong blurted out: "No wonder this man volunteered. It turns out this myna has an ability that counters gu insects."

Ning Zhuo nodded, focusing more of his attention on Li Jiuqu: "A Nascent Soul level Gu Master... this is the first time I've seen one."

His heart stirred slightly, his emotions somewhat complex.

For some reason, he seemed to have a different sentiment towards Gu Masters.

Seeing that his poisonous gu were ineffective, Li Jiuqu immediately cast spells to attack the man and the bird.

Mo Yechen finally made his move. With a sweep of his hand, he cast spell after spell to counter, and for a time, the fight was intense and evenly matched.

Li Jiuqu's gu insects opened the eyes of the spectators. Mo Yechen summoned a black tide that devoured light, hiding himself, defending steadily and firmly.

Li Jiuqu's strength was indeed greater, clearly above Mo Yechen's.

But in this battle, Mo Yechen had the help of the myna on his shoulder.

His bird pet was not only at the Nascent Soul level but also possessed an ability that countered gu insects.

Man and bird assisted each other, actually managing to stalemate Li Jiuqu.

Lu Hongtu watched for a long time, then sent a spiritual sense message to Lord Long: "Li Jiuqu is all reputation without substance, unable to even defeat a mere Mo Yechen. Time is tight. Our advantage in Nascent Soul numbers might be lost if the Two Pouches Kingdom sends reinforcements at any time."

Lord Long nodded and immediately ordered the other cultivators to join the battle.

"I am the Demonic Heart Cave Lord! Someone from the opposite side, come out and fight me!"

"Lone Fang of the Pale Moon Tribe is here!"

"This old woman is Green Vine Physician, hehehe, who will spar with me?"

"Gao Cuo arrives, I beg for instruction."

In an instant, nearly ten Nascent Soul cultivators were dispatched.

Zhao Xi's expression turned extremely ugly.

The number of Nascent Soul cultivators on the Two Pouches Kingdom side was far inferior to the Thousand Peaks Alliance. The feeling of having their weakness firmly grasped by the enemy was truly unpleasant.

At this critical moment, a female cultivator stepped forward.

"Outsider barbarians, so arrogant."

"I am a Princess of the Kingdom. I shall teach you all a proper lesson!"

The speaker was none other than Princess Shuang Ling, the Ingenious Princess.

She flew high into the air and released over a hundred flying mechanical fairies that circled around her.

"Come, all of you, together!" Shuang Ling挑衅ly challenged the numerous enemy Nascent Soul cultivators.

She intended to fight them all by herself!

(End of )