As that blood-stained head tumbled to rest in the mud, the dense forest — once brimming with the aura of death and savagery — fell in this moment into a suffocating dead silence.
Deep within those dim tree shadows, Lin Mu was walking slowly into the battlefield with steady, solid strides.
The grey robe on his body had long since been torn to tatters, and the wound on his abdomen, deep enough to expose bone, was still seeping horrifying black blood outward.
Yet that pair of pitch-black eyes was like an abyss of extreme cold, radiating a corporeal, deterring pressure.
"How… how is this possible?!"
The gauntlet woman fixed her gaze unwaveringly upon that head belonging to the masked man, her pupils contracting to the size of pinpoints in this extreme horror.
As his partner, she knew the masked man's strength better than anyone.
That was a top-tier assassin who could be called invincible at Rank 2! Were she to duel the masked man one-on-one, she absolutely would not last past thirty moves.
Yet now, the masked man was dead — dead at the hands of some green brat!
There was no time to think it through. Within the mind of the already terrified-witless gauntlet woman, there now remained only one word—
Run!
Without any hesitation, the gauntlet woman did not even dare leave behind a single parting threat. The Primeval Essence within her aperture burned frantically, as though heedless of her very life.
Rank 2 — the Phantom Gu!
Rank 2 — the Shadow Split Gu!
"Swish, swish, swish!"
In an instant, four identical figures of the gauntlet woman — real and false impossible to distinguish — burst forth across the field without any warning, each carrying an air-rending shriek as they fled frantically for their lives toward four utterly different directions of the dense forest!
"Roar?!"
Lin Wuxie, who had just been preparing to once again swing that pair of blazing, charred-black iron fists and fight her to the bitter end, was left utterly dumbfounded by this sudden splitting of bodies.
He stood in place, eyes scarlet, and for a moment did not know which direction he ought to pursue.
Meanwhile, Lin Mu, standing not far off, looked at those four figures fleeing in panic, his gaze still cold and deep, brimming with confidence.
"Trying to run?"
Lin Mu let out a cold snort, and a gust of airflow abruptly surged within his aperture.
"Poof!"
Greyish-brown dust exploded thunderously in place, and Lin Mu's figure instantly vanished into the dust, following close after one of those figures in a pursuing-and-killing posture!
Within the dense forest, once again there remained only the rustling sound of leaves.
However.
Just a quarter of an hour later.
"Whew…"
Accompanying an exceedingly faint surge of airflow, at the very spot where Lin Mu had just disappeared, his figure actually, exceedingly bizarrely, surfaced once more.
Only, the instant he appeared, Lin Mu's body abruptly swayed. His face had already turned as pale as faded gold leaf, without the slightest trace of color.
"Thud."
Lin Mu no longer even had the strength to stand, and dropped straight down onto his backside into the blood-soaked mud.
With trembling hands, he swiftly drew out a large handful of Primeval Stones and frantically crushed them, greedily drawing in the Primeval Essence within.
Lin Mu gasped in great mouthfuls, and felt a slight sense of good fortune as well.
In truth, during that life-and-death struggle with the masked man just now, he too had reached the point of spent ammunition and exhausted supplies.
That bone blade of the masked man's was simply too sharp. In order to utterly destroy that great weapon, Lin Mu had fought at close quarters, all but draining every scrap of Primeval Essence within his aperture.
Had it not been for the fact that in the final, exceedingly brutal close-quarters melee, the Jade Tendon Gu's counter-damage overbearing body played the decisive role, forcibly shattering the masked man's heart meridian, then who would laugh last in that death-match was truly still uncertain.
His walking out just now, forcibly holding on to a single breath while carrying the head — even deliberately mobilizing the last sliver of Primeval Essence to use the Dust Escape Gu to feign pursuit — had been nothing but an empty-fort stratagem!
Had the gauntlet woman not been frightened out of her wits, had she chosen just now to fight to the death, staying behind to probe Lin Mu's true state…
Then I would have had no choice but to deploy my final trump card.
Lin Mu glanced at the existence at the side of his neck, and lingered no further.
But fortunately, he had won the bet.
With the masked man's utter death, that Heal-Forbidding Gu, which had all along been attached to the wound on Lin Mu's abdomen preventing its recovery, finally slowly dissipated like water without a source.
"Wound-Healing Gu, rise."
A ball of gentle green light finally flowed anew at the wound, and Lin Mu's ghastly-pale complexion, along with the slow recovery of his Primeval Essence, gradually regained a trace of human color.
He drew a deep breath, rose to his feet, and with some regret glanced at that head of the masked man's on the ground.
These two not only coordinated with tacit understanding — the Gu worms in their hands were a complete combat system as well.
Lin Mu sighed inwardly to himself.
Such a pity. The Gu world had always been cruel — with a Gu Master's death, those refined Gu worms would also instantly self-detonate under the command of the host's subconscious.
To capture the spoils, one had to either annihilate the opponent in an instant, before they had time to so much as stir a thought, or possess the exceedingly rare Forced Seizure Gu.
This feeling of gazing upon a mountain of treasure yet being unable to take it into one's own pouch was truly a thing of regret.
Reining in his emotions, Lin Mu turned his head and began to survey this ravaged battlefield.
On the muddy ground not far off, Lin Wuxie's arms — which had activated the Burning Flame Gu to hard-block the gauntlet woman — had at this moment already been scorched by his own flame backlash into what looked like two charred sticks of black charcoal.
Yet under his formidable physical foundation, within the cracks of that charred black charcoal, strand after strand of tender pink new flesh — like buds of meat — was at this moment actually squirming and growing out at a speed visible to the naked eye!
This bizarre sight made even Lin Mu unable to help his eye twitching slightly.
"What a monster."
Lin Mu shook his head, and paid no further heed to this underling whose vitality was more tenacious than a cockroach's.
His gaze fell upon that patch of shrubbery on the other side, dyed red with blood.
There, Lin Wan'er lay quietly in the mud like a shattered rag doll, without the slightest sound.
The gauntlet woman's succession of attacks just now had almost all been aimed at her fragile vitals.
Even a dedicated combat Gu Master, having taken that kind of Rank 2 peak stage heavy fist, should long since have turned into a puddle of pulp.
Lin Mu strode swiftly forward and crouched down.
He had assumed this young mistress of the Medicine Hall had already utterly perished, but when his Primeval Essence probed into her body, he discovered an exceedingly bizarre phenomenon.
The Primeval Essence within Lin Wan'er's aperture had already utterly run dry.
But that Rank 2 Life-Hanging Gu, which she had used as her final life-saving trump card, after forcibly burning up all of its own origin to preserve its master, had actually not died.
This dying Gu worm seemed to have produced a bizarre fusion with its host in the direst of straits.
It had transformed into an exceedingly faint membrane of light, tightly wrapping around Lin Wan'er's heart meridian, forcibly sealing that last sliver of her vitality within her body.
"This state…"
Lin Mu withdrew his fingers, his gaze somewhat complicated.
Her body has not died, yet her consciousness and aperture have been utterly sealed. This is exactly like a… vegetative patient back on Earth .
After probing the situation clearly, he rose to his feet and sighed faintly.
"I wonder whether this state, for you, is in the end a blessing, or a crueler kind of torment."
Just then.
"Cough… cough, cough…"
Accompanying a few violent yet suppressed light coughs, a staggering figure emerged from the pitch-black dense forest on one side.
He was alone and solitary, and that once spotless white robe now had nearly half its body soaked through with dark-red blood.
His left arm dangled limply at his side, evidently with the bone inside utterly shattered, without the slightest response.
It was none other than Lin Feng, who had just barely preserved his life amid the gauntlet woman's killing move.
At this moment Lin Feng's footsteps staggered, and that handsome face was now smeared all over with mud and blood.
More importantly, his eyes.
That pair of eyes, which had always carried calculation and ambition, was at this moment terrifyingly hollow, without the slightest trace of luster.
He was like an empty shell that had lost its soul, dragging his ravaged body, inching step by step to Lin Wan'er's side.
"Thud."
Lin Feng's knees gave out, and he dropped straight to his knees into the blood-soaked mud.
He did not examine his own fractured left arm, nor did he pay any heed to Lin Mu and Lin Wuxie at the side.
He only used that one intact right hand, exceedingly gently, tremblingly, to slowly gather up Lin Wan'er's mud-smeared head and lay it flat upon his own legs.
He stared blankly at the face of the girl in his arms — pale, without the slightest trace of color, unable ever again to open her eyes.
They gazed at each other in wordless silence.
There was only the night wind passing through the dense forest, giving off a desolate whimper.
For a long, long while.
This suffocating dead silence was finally broken by Lin Feng's hoarse voice.
"Thank you."
Lin Feng still kept his head lowered, gazing at the girl in his arms, not a single ripple of emotion discernible in his voice.
"You saved my life."
Lin Mu was sitting cross-legged in meditation beside a rock, wholeheartedly recovering his Primeval Essence.
Hearing this, he did not raise his head, and only responded blandly:
"It was my duty."
"Besides, two Rank 2 peak stages… you did your best as well."
Another stretch of silence.
Lin Feng extended his blood-smeared fingers and, exceedingly carefully, brushed aside the disheveled strands of hair before Lin Wan'er's forehead.
He paused, and within those hollow eyes, a trace of hatred like ten-thousand-year cold ice suddenly, slowly condensed.
"I will have my revenge."
Lin Mu finally halted his breathing exercises.
He slowly raised his head and, through the dim moonlight, looked at Lin Feng sitting in the mud and water.
At this moment Lin Feng was in a ravaged state — not only was his face withered, but even his garments were incomparably tattered; he could even be said to be pitiful to the utmost.
"I will avenge Wan'er."
Lin Feng repeated it once more.
This time, he raised his head, and that pair of pitch-black eyes gazed straight at Lin Mu. In his voice there was no longer the disguise and calculation of the past, only a kind of calm that sank deep into the marrow, chilling to the bone:
"To the very ends of the earth, I will find her."
Hearing these words, like blood weeping out.
This time.
Lin Mu looked at that pair of eyes, and rarely, did not produce any contempt in the depths of his heart.
"You will."
Lin Mu looked at him and, exceedingly earnestly, nodded.
Because he could feel exceedingly clearly that Lin Feng at this moment...
seemed to have become, somewhere within, utterly different from the Lin Feng of before.