“Huh?” Gu Hai suddenly opened his eyes.
Rustle! Rustle!
Gu Hai’s body suddenly lost support, and he felt like he fell into a sandpit. Beside him, Xiaorou could no longer hold on, fainting.
When Gu Hai looked around, he saw ants covering everything, like a vast sea.
Gu Hai’s expression changed. He happened to see Xiaorou’s final expression of release.
When Xiaorou saw Gu Hai wake up, she could no longer hold on. Despite her tears, she had a faint smile on her face.
“Xiaorou!” Gu Hai exclaimed.
Gu Hai reached out and caught Xiaorou.
Boom!
Gu Hai’s Veritable Energy suddenly erupted, creating a shock wave that instantly blew the surrounding ants away.
The flesh on Xiaorou’s tail tore, dripping with blood. Many ants stuck to her bleeding tail, greedily eating her drying blood.
“Evil creatures!” Gu Hai glared.
Carrying Xiaorou with one arm, Gu Hai used his free hand to send Veritable Energy to the front. However, this Veritable Energy was not a continuous stream of Veritable Energy. Instead, it turned into countless tiny Veritable Energy stones, seemingly forming the layout of a Go board.
Boom!
Gu Hai exquisitely positioned the Veritable Energy stones, and a saber qi suddenly shot out.
A careful look would discover that the layout of the Veritable Energy stones was that of the Heavenly Saber Death Match Gu Hai experienced not long ago. However, his Veritable Energy was still too weak.
Although his Veritable Energy was too weak, the unleashed saber qi was incredibly ferocious.
Boom!
The saber qi shot straight out. Everywhere it passed, it crushed countless ants.
Gu Hai suddenly stomped his foot, then ran down the path the saber qi opened, fleeing far away.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Leaping in rapid succession, Gu Hai escaped with the unconscious Xiaorou.
Xiaorou was weak, so she could not stop the sea of ants. However, Gu Hai was different. As a peak Third Layer Innate Realm cultivator, he could reach the summit of a mountain peak with a few bounds.
When lowering his head and looking down, he saw the overwhelming number of ants gathered in the valley.
Gu Hai’s expression turned cold. Then, he looked at Xiaorou’s tail.
Slap! Slap! Slap! Slap!
Gu Hai quickly helped Xiaorou clear off all the ants on her bleeding tail. Then, he promptly took out some medicine from the compressed space in his authority token to apply some medication carefully on Xiaorou.
“Ah!” Xiaorou unconsciously let out a painful cry.
Looking at Xiaorou’s tear-smeared face, Gu Hai appeared touched. “If you cannot save me, you don’t have to push yourself.”
Gu Hai gently applied the medication on Xiaorou. Based on the scene before him, he could guess what happened earlier. He even could guess why so many ants came.
The Go board on the tiny white crystal in his forehead space had operated continuously, sending out a strange energy. That was probably the cause of this problem.
After Gu Hai applied the medicine on Xiaorou, he patted her head before turning to look at the surging sea of ants again. Then, a cold look flashed in his eyes.
Stretching out his hand, Gu Hai took out a spirit stone.
Crack! Crack!
Gu Hai shattered the spirit stone, turning it into countless shards.
“Evil creatures, although you are not sentient, I am not happy about this!” he said coldly.
Then, he took a portion of the spirit stone shards and wrapped his Veritable Energy around them, forming a Go game.
Boom!
The energized shards immediately blazed with a fierce fire.
Bang!
Gu Hai tossed out this ball of fire, which shot out like a flaming bullet.
Sizzle! Sizzle! Sizzle! Sizzle! Sizzle!
The flaming shards immediately burned many ants, and the fire continued to spread.
Gu Hai used the small shards to maintain a Go ritual array connected to his Veritable Energy. This immediately created many fireballs. Under his control, the various fireballs fell like a meteor shower, falling from the sky and surrounding the surging sea of ants.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
A great fire blazed. As fire continued to rain down from the sky, the Go ritual array intensified the flames. As long as the spirit stone shards did not run out of Spiritual Energy, it would generate endless fire.
Rumble…!
The ant corpses also burned up. The countless ants wanted to flee, but they were too slow. The surging flames soared up, covering the entire valley in a great fire. Carefree Valley turned into a large furnace in the blink of an eye. As the fire soared up, it even turned the sky red.
Now, there was a sea of fire.
Perhaps due to the medication stimulating her wounds, Xiaorou woke up in pain but still in a daze.
The instant she woke up, she saw Gu Hai burning the sea of ants.
Although it was not worth doing, Gu Hai still did it.
Xiaorou looked blurrily at Gu Hai. When she saw Gu Hai safe, she smiled. When she saw Gu Hai taking revenge for her, burning the sea of ants, she smiled even more happily.
“Benefactor, thank you,” Xiaorou cried out weakly.
“Xiaorou, you are awake. This is great. Use this spirit stone!” Gu Hai immediately took out another spirit stone and gave it to Xiaorou.
“There’s no need. Benefactor, Xiaorou’s life is worth nothing. I do not need this spirit stone, and I won’t use it. As long as Benefactor is safe, it is fine,” Xiaorou said weakly.
“As long as I am around, I will not let anything happen to you!” Gu Hai consoled Xiaorou, hugging her.
Xiaorou lay in Gu Hai’s embrace as she looked at the great fire before her. A dazed look appeared in her eyes.
Xiaorou was a snake spirit and did not like fire. However, she did not feel any hatred or dislike for this great fire before her. Instead, there was just simple, foolish delight, as this was the fire set by her benefactor, the fire her benefactor set to take revenge for her. This great fire looked even more intoxicating to her than any other beautiful scene.
“This sea of fire is very pretty!” Xiaorou said weakly. In her weakness, she seemed like she would fall asleep again.
Gu Hai’s expression changed. He knew that Xiaorou had suffered severe injuries, nearly losing all her blood. She could die at any moment. Then, he turned his head and goggled at the sky. “Cloud beasts? The Century Lifespan Immortality Peach Tree? Golden immortality peach? Perhaps…perhaps your injuries will heal after you eat the golden immortality peach?”
Gu Hai extended his hand, holding a golden Go stone.
——
High in the sky:
Rumble…!
The intense cloud beast battle continued. However, there were no longer just a few cloud beasts anymore; more than one thousand cloud beasts had gathered in the sky. Furthermore, all of them looked extremely huge.
The nine-headed snake continued to stand guard in front of the Century Lifespan Immortality Peach Tree. Now, it was gigantic, having grown to two kilometers long. There were also three hundred allied troops behind the nine-headed snake.
“Roar!”
The nine-headed snake roared. Then, the cloud beasts guarding the Century Lifespan Immortality Peach Tree roared as well, presenting a ferocious sight.
“Humph! Even if you outsider cultivators can find the golden Go stones, do you think I alone am blocking you? The elders might not be willing to make a move. However, there are still the ordinary natives of this world. They are all reserve Heavenly Go Pavilion disciples. However, as they are not Heavenly Go Pavilion disciples yet, they can help me. Humph! Come on! Bring it on!” Ninth Young Master roared ferociously from the nine-headed snake’s head.
These three hundred cloud beasts reached one thousand six hundred meters long; all were strong cloud beasts. A native of this independent world stood on the head of every cloud beast, following Ninth Young Master and glaring at the surroundings.
There were seven hundred cloud beasts in the surroundings, scattered in small groups and surrounding the center.
However, these seven hundred cloud beasts were smaller. The largest one was a winged dragon only one thousand six hundred meters long. The other cloud beasts were even smaller.
Naturally, it was Gao Xianzhi standing on the winged dragon’s head. The dozens of people behind him had formed a temporary alliance. Everyone formed groups of dozens and prepared to charge at the nine-headed snake’s army. At the same time, they did that to prevent others from consuming their cloud beasts.
Everyone stared at the Century Lifespan Immortality Peach Tree in the center.
There was another large group, one led by Elite Hall’s Meng Tai. Meng Tai stood on a large dragon that was slightly smaller than Gao Xianzhi’s winged dragon but not by much. More importantly, this group had the most people, more than three hundred.
The other groups all had experts standing on the cloud beasts. At this moment, everyone looked to the center with greedy eyes.
“Everyone!” Meng Tai shouted.
Then, everyone looked at Meng Tai.
“If we all fight on our own, we will eventually lose to the nine-headed snake’s army. How about we attack in full force, taking them on together. Then, we split the Century Lifespan Immortality Peach Tree after we destroy the nine-headed snake’s army?” Meng Tai shouted.
“Great!”
“Alright!”
“Great!”
Many roars rang out.
“Roar!”
Countless cloud beasts roared together, starting another huge battle.
Rumble…!
The surging cloud beasts charged at the center, rushing towards Ninth Young Master.
“Kill!” Ninth Young Master shouted.
“Roar!”
The cloud beasts of Ninth Young Master’s subordinates also roared together.
Rumble…! Rumble…!
A huge wanton battle started again.
Loud sounds rang out in the sky, echoing in all directions. Nearly everyone in this independent world watched this huge battle.
——
On a mountain peak in the independent world:
The Great Light Sovereign Deity watched quietly, holding a five-colored scepter.
“Great Light Sovereign Deity, there’s still no sign of Queen Wa!” one of the black-robed men reported worriedly.
“Continue searching, and continue watching. She will appear!” the Great Light Sovereign Deity said.
“Yes!”
“Are there any movements from the Heavenly Go Pavilion’s side?” the Great Light Sovereign Deity asked indifferently.
“There is none. After the initial unrest, the first elder suppressed the Heavenly Go Pavilion disciples. The Heavenly Go Pavilion disciples can only watch and not interfere.”
The Great Light Sovereign Deity smiled coldly and said, “They are not allowed to interfere? That’s fine. The first elder? That old fellow is really patient!”
——
In a plaza in the Innate Puzzle World:
Bodhisattva Lian Sheng and the black-robed first elder stood quietly in the plaza, watching the battle in the sky.
“That’s the Century Lifespan Immortality Peach Tree. Are you really not going to interfere? Can you really bear to lose it?” Bodhisattva Lian Sheng smiled.
The black-robed first elder remained silent for a while. Then, he asked, “Bodhisattva Lian Sheng, are you here to see my Heavenly Go Pavilion make a joke of itself?”
“I don’t have that kind of leisure time. However, that earlier five-colored divine light should be from the Great Light Sovereign Deity, right? How did you end up offending him? He shouldn’t be in the Innate Puzzle World, should he?” Bodhisattva Lian Sheng said with a frown.
“The Great Light Sovereign Deity? The World-Spying All-Seeing Eyes? To think that the High Cloud Ritual Array could not block his pair of all-seeing eyes. Humph, how am I to know what he wants?” the first elder retorted coldly.