After slaying the two monsters, Gu Zuo silently pressed on Gongyi Tianheng’s shoulders: “Big brother, what do you think we should do now?”
Tianheng faintly shook his head: “It looks like this tavern’s owner and guests have already turned into monsters. You and I should go back to our room, and keep watch at the door.”
Gu Zuo also felt that this was reasonable, and waited at the doorway with Tianheng in accordance to his words.
Every time a monster came to attack, the two would exterminate it. Gu Zuo felt apprehension in his heart. After killing those monsters, he would use his psychic power to roll them up, and toss them into that room with the rich merchant and waiter monsters.
Gradually, the night passed. The monsters slowly dwindled until they finally disappeared.
Gu Zuo and Tianheng returned to their room once more.
After another two hours passed, the daylight shined brightly.
Suddenly, a shrill cry echoed from outside: “Dead people! There’s dead people over here!”
Gu Zuo blanked.
This time around, Tianheng wasn’t carrying Gu Zuo on his back. Rather, he pulled Gu Zuo’s arm, and they walked outside together.
At this time, many people gathered at the doorway of that rich merchant. Each person’s expression was different. It looked like they were either frightened or curious.
Gu Zuo looked at the faces of these dead people, and felt a sense of dread in his heart… If he wasn’t mistaken, inside were the monsters he’d seen yesterday with his psychic power! Today, they had transformed back into humans again. What was going on?
Following this, Tianheng also glanced into that room.
There really were a dozen or so dead bodies, and basically all of them had been killed by him and Gu Zuo. Now that those corpses had changed back into human appearances, their deaths appeared very wretched.
Conflicted, Gu Zuo transmitted his voice to Tianheng.
[Big brother, it feels like what we killed weren’t monsters, but rather ordinary people. You don’t think that we were caught in an illusion and had mistakenly killed people last night, right?]
Tianheng shook his head.
[If it was an illusion, they wouldn’t have lasted a single move in our hands with the capabilities of ordinary people. Their wretched and desperate corpses also wouldn’t have been limited to just this.]
Gu Zuo thought about it, and reached the same conclusion, too.
Right. If it was an illusion, a casual move of theirs would’ve directly blasted their bodies to pieces. It wouldn’t have been like what they were seeing now. The wounds on the corpses were exactly the same as what they had caused yesterday.
Then, in other words, these people were humans during the day, and they turned into monsters at night? Was it possible that the ancient city they came to was a den of monsters?!
Last night, Gu Zuo’s psychic power had delivered the sounds coming from the other few rooms. At that time, monsters were fighting monsters in those places. There were some that lived and some that perished. But now, after he got a clear look, Gu Zuo was astonished even more.
The monsters that had died by the hands of other monsters yesterday were still healthy and active! It was like they had never died!
Could it be that only the monsters that perished under the hands of outsiders like them would truly die? No matter how much the other monsters fought each other, was it all actually just a spar?
Afterwards, Gu Zuo lightly pinched Tianheng’s arm. They seamlessly left this place, arrived in front of the tavern owner, and checked out. Following this, they stayed at an inconspicuous area next to the tavern.
Sure enough, not much time had passed before a formation of city guards came to handle the pile of murder cases here. They didn’t discover who the murderer was, and they had no choice but to deal with the corpses.
Soon, a dozen or so burlap sacks were carried out by the others. Packed inside were precisely those dead bodies. Gu Zuo stealthily followed them with his psychic power, and “watched” the city guards carrying away the corpses before tossing them onto a random burial mound outside the city. After that, the sacks were opened, and the dead bodies were casually thrown into a deep pit. Just like that, the matter was settled.
Gu Zuo’s psychic power was cast into that hole. He shockingly discovered that these corpses had once again turned back into monsters! However, it didn’t look like a single one of these city guards who’d tossed the dead bodies inside had noticed…
After withdrawing his psychic power, Gu Zuo told Tianheng everything he’d seen and heard.
Tianheng pondered for a little bit: “Ah Zuo, if one person was pretending, then it would still be credible, but everyone in the city is like this. Perhaps, during the day, they seriously don’t know about their own appearances at night.” Speaking up to here, he paused, “Based on your elder brother’s speculation, it may be assumed that one of the causes has something to do with the Road of Death. This place’s special situation is also unknown. Right now, you and I must leave this place as quickly as possible. As for the matter of these monsters… If any come to attack at night, then we’ll kill them. The rest of the time, if we’re free, it won’t be too late to go out and explore again.”
Gu Zuo nodded his head: “Then, that’ll be okay. The most important point for us right now is still to avoid those people from the Central Continent, right?”
That group of fellows who senselessly went around randomly murdering people…
Tianheng said: “Just so. Let’s move!”
At once, Gu Zuo embraced Tianheng’s neck. The two were like a trail of light mist as they swiftly headed towards the rear of the city.
Outside this ancient city, there was another large road.
This road was very wide, but it wasn’t known how many travelers it could accommodate at one time. There were mountain ranges on both sides of the road, but each and every mountain weren’t lone peaks. They surpassed lone peaks. All of them stuck straight up into the sky like rows of monolithic, steel needles, which stabbed into the surroundings of this road. It was the only path one could take.
No matter where one looked, there were no other roads. Some locations surged with fog, and some places had numerous strange, man-eating plants. It was extremely dangerous everywhere.
Gu Zuo twitched his mouth: “Big brother, this is the real Road of Death…”
Tianheng faintly nodded his head: “It should be.”
Gu Zuo: “In that case, will we arrive at the Central Continent after passing through it?”
Tianheng said: “Probably.”
Alright. In any case, they would traverse this road before anything else!
There was still…ten days left.
There weren’t any monsters on the road.
But what did suddenly appear were people from different forces.
Gongyi Tianheng was carrying Gu Zuo on his back. Suddenly, his figure leaned backwards. At the same time, the spear in his hand shook, and a beam of terrifying qi energy burst forth. There was a fluctuation in the middle of the air. It transformed into three circular arcs, which continuously struck at the person who arrived!
That person grasped two oddly-shaped blades.
Crash! Clang!
Those three circular arcs were neutralized. Soon after, his steps transformed, and his figure lowered. He wanted to chop Tianheng in half at the waist! Tianheng’s body technique changed again, and he immediately pressed down with his spear. At once, the spear curved around, and the spear tip shot out — Directly at that person’s chest!
Originally, that person was going to dodge. If he sacrificed half of his shoulder, then he could escape with his life. However, right at this moment, his figure suddenly stiffened. In a split second, he was impaled by the spear tip. Blood poured from his chest, and he died!
Only Tianheng’s praise could be heard: “The timing of Ah Zuo’s move just now was beautiful.”
Gu Zuo let out a sigh: “Big brother, don’t blame me for acting hastily.”
Tianheng smiled: “This place has dangers lurking around every corner. We take action only to attack the enemy, and not for an impartial competition. How has Ah Zuo made any mistake?”
Then, Gu Zuo showed a smiling expression.
In the past, whenever they were under a group attack, Gu Zuo would certainly make a move. However, when it was a one-on-one battle, he would let Tianheng respond on his own because Gu Zuo believed in his big brother’s strength.
Currently, they had been traveling on this road for more than half a day. From time to time, a new martial artist would suddenly appear from the dense fog or the plant thickets as they walked along the way.
Gu Zuo knew that these people probably came via different routes, but all roads led to the same destination. Ultimately, they would still be traveling upon this Road of Death.
Perhaps it was because these martial artists had previously experienced too many dangers, and maybe there were calculations in each of their hearts — After appearing on this Road of Death, without exception, each and every one of them would attack Tianheng and Gu Zuo in an attempt to kill them. Since it was like this, Tianheng and Gu Zuo naturally struck back.
The people who showed up were usually low Immortal Realms. They definitely weren’t Tianheng’s opponents, but that person just now was a mid Immortal Realm martial artist!
With regards to Tianheng, this mid Immortal Realm martial artist still needed to be dealt with properly. He wasn’t able to exterminate this martial artist with ease. On top of this, a younger generation from such a large organization might’ve had hidden trump cards — Just a while ago, a low Immortal Realm fellow launched an attack while facing death’s door. If Gu Zuo’s psychic power wasn’t keen enough and if Tianheng’s intuition towards danger wasn’t strong enough, that attack might’ve secretly reached them!
As a result, when Gu Zuo saw that the realm of this person was high, after his big brother gained an advantage during the fight, he didn’t take the other’s actions into consideration — In any case, he couldn’t give this guy the chance to take out his trump cards!
Tianheng naturally understood this point.
Thus, he didn’t blame Gu Zuo at all. On the contrary, he encouraged Gu Zuo.
On this Road of Death, fairness and the self-respect of geniuses weren’t important. In order to avoid capsizing into the gutters, one needed to be cautious and prudent to keep on living. That was the most important thing!
Tianheng carried Gu Zuo on his back, and they continued to proceed at flying speeds.
He sensed Gu Zuo’s sour mood, and the edge of his lips curled into a faint smile.
He could probably guess Gu Zuo’s way of thinking, but there was one matter that Gu Zuo hadn’t thought of.
The reason why those people came to attack wasn’t only because they had met with many dangers or because they were scheming. Rather, they had immediately assumed that the two of them were weak and vulnerable.
Tianheng’s realm was only at the peak of Xiantian. This couldn’t be concealed from an Immortal Realm martial artist. As for Gu Zuo, he was a pharmacist. Even though he learned how to use psychic powers, in their eyes, this wasn’t capable of shaking up an Immortal Realm.
Since it was like this, even if Tianheng was a genius who could fight at higher realms, even if Gu Zuo’s medicine refining level was extremely high and his psychic power was powerful, those Immortal Realms believed that they didn’t pose the slightest threat.
Therefore, they wanted to kill these two people to plunder their Heaven’s Eye Stone as well as their medicinal pills — How couldn’t a pharmacist carry some top-notch medicinal pills? Naturally, they had already discovered that they couldn’t automatically recover their true qi in this place. So they could only rely on pills. Granted that the medicinal pills in Gu Zuo and Tianheng’s hands were only suitable for Xiantian martial artists, after robbing the pills, they would take sufficient quantities for it to be somewhat useful.
While Tianheng was thinking, he adjusted his hold on Gu Zuo.
Gu Zuo tightly embraced him again without delay.
The two suddenly turned into a bolt of lightning, which swiftly flashed down the road!
In front of their eyes, another ancient city had appeared.
Tianheng and Gu Zuo had already been rushing for a day and night. After reaching this ancient city, they could take advantage of the daylight to rest. And when it was close to night, they would leave the ancient city from the other road to avoid the monsters that filled the city.
However, just before they were about to enter the ancient city, they suddenly heard someone calling out to them.
“Brother Gongyi! Brother Gu!”
This voice was a little strange, but it was also a bit familiar.
Gu Zuo turned his head around to take a look. This was…Song He?
Compared to before, the present Song He was much more bright and handsome.
T/N: The next chapter happens to be the only double-length chapter in this volume, so the updating schedule won’t be affected much.
Thanks for the corrections, Charysa.
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