Meng Qiu Zhen's vision blurred and he soon found himself in the white space once more.
Fang Yuan was nowhere to be seen.
"Hmm," Meng Qiu Zhen scratched his chin, "It appears that the main body is not here…oh well we can still begin once the next Dream begins."
Meng Qiu Zhen was not worried, the main body was most likely occupied in a Dream, but the plan didn't need Fang Yuan.
He waited for the next Dream to begin.
~
In a shanty village,
People were moving to and fro.
The village was rather dilapidated and run down, except for the centre which was bustling, compared to the rest of the village at least, at the centre of the town stood an imposing and extravagant house.
The sign read; Wei Manor
It was the residence of the only Gu Immortal in town; the grand duke Wei Ze!
He was in his study room when suddenly, the life tablet Gu of his granddaughter Wei Ling shattered!
Although Wei Ze knew what it meant for a Life tablet Gu to shatter, he was still in disbelief.
"W--w-what h-happened…" Wei Ze was distraught and irreconievable from the news, he immediately got up and used a tracking method to go find Wei Ling, using the Spider Devouring Immortal Gu, as the destination.
Wei Ze also checked Jue Ru's life tablet and found it intact, "There are 2 possibilities none of them good." His face was stern, "The first is that Jue Ru and Wei Ling were attacked and Wei Ling was the first to fall, while Jue Ru is either still alive or on the run…"
But Wei Ze thought this theory was flimsy, "It is unlikely that Jue Ru would still be able to fend off the attackers that managed to kill Wei Ling which leads to the second possibility…Jue Ru killed Wei Ling!"
Thinking of such a possibility enraged the Duke as, even though he used Jue Ru, still regarded her almost as a second Granddaughter.
"I hope it's the former…" he began to pick up speed until he neared a clearing with a large tree.
From Duke Wei's point of view, he saw Jue Ru, a handsome looking man and the decapitated corpse of his granddaughter.
Naturally, he was furious!
"JUE RU!" his bellowing caught the attention of Chen Hong and Jue Ru on the ground floor.
"Is that him?" Chen Hong pointed at the man in the sky.
Jue Ru nodded, as she stood behind him.
The scene did not look good to the Duke, who was further assured that the 2 of them had collaborated in orchestrating the death of his granddaughter.
Normally Duke Wei was a calm and collected individual, known for not letting emotions get in the way of his better judgement…usually.
As he only had one family member remaining, his granddaughter, his love and care for her were unnaturally high, even by grandparent standards.
He would spoil her on a level far beyond what most Grandparents would do for their child, and was even willing to use slightly devious methods for the sake of his granddaughter.
Of course, there was never any proof, how could mortals ever fathom the workings of a Gu Immortal?
But it was suspicious that things always went well for Wei Ling.
And it was all because Duke Wei was using the Spider Devouring Immortal Gu to supplement Wei Ling's lack of talent.
Duke Long immediately activated several Killer Moves and launched them all at Chen Hong and Jue Ru!
Jue Ru cowered in fear but Chen Hong merely smirked.
The resulting explosion shook the earth and alerted everyone in the village.
After all, very few people in their shantytown had the firepower to produce such an impact.
"Are we under attack?"
"Doesn't seem like it."
"Is someone testing out a new Killer Move or sparing? Could it be Duke Wei?"
"Send some people to check it out."
The townspeople were still wary at the chance that it could be an enemy attack, and thus decided to send in the best scouts in the village, all rank 3s, to go check it out.
Were they to have arrived and witnessed the scene they saw it would have been jaw-dropping, because by all accounts Chen Hong and Jue Ru should have been reduced to ashes, yet they were perfectly fine, despite the numerous craters surrounding them.
As the dust settled and Duke Wei noticed their uninjured state, he was momentarily taken out of his anger and instead curious.
"How did they survive?" he was thoroughly bewildered.
Duke Wei fanned his hand to clear more dust and noticed that Chen Hong was holding up a badge.
The badge looked familiar to Duke Wei but he couldn't quite place where he had seen that badge…
"Wait!" Duke Wei exclaimed in shock and pulled out a similar badge with one exception, it had a fourth stripe compared to Chen Hong's three.
"You're a captain in the Human Army!?" Duke Wei stared in disbelief, "How is that possible? You're so young…you're clearly an actual member since the Human Army doesn't hand out honourary positions lower than Head Captain."
Duke Wei was not expecting Chen Hong to be a member of the Human Army, as at his level he would be on the front lines fighting not in this slum hole, thus, Duke Wei didn't even factor in the possibility of the Friendly Fire protection.
Indeed, that was the key to Chen Hong's confidence against Duke Wei.
Even though most of Humanity was unified in their fight against the Variants, it didn't mean all, Human nature had always been flawed and corruptible, some people would inevitably be unable to shove their pride for a grander purpose, which may cause unnecessary loss of talent that the Human army could not afford!
Hence, to prevent this from happening Primordial Origin incorporated a neat trick inside the badges of every Human Army member.
He created an Immortal Killer Move, Friendly Fire, which used the power of Fate Gu to prevent members of the Human Army from intentionally hurting each other.
Of course, Primordial wanted the move to be able to prevent unintentional attacks as well, but Fate Gu would not cooperate on that aspect, even though it was fully within its power.
It was actually this seeming disobedience from Fate Gu that woke Primordial up and made him truly realise the folly and deception of the Heavenly Dao.
"Tch," Duke Wei was greatly annoyed, "As long as he possesses that badge I can't harm him unless I destroy my own…but then…"
There were too many downsides to destroying his own Badge and leaving the Human Army, without their approval.
Part of Primordial's plan was to also make it impossible for traitors or defectors to leave without punishment.
Not only would one's position be revealed, should they destroy the badge on their own accord, but they would also effectively damage their cultivation and soul!
Never mind the fact that losing up to a stage in cultivation is already a serious wound, but an injury to the soul?
It was tantamount to a permeant scar!
Keep in mind that at this stage, Soul Path had not been made available to Cultivators, and wouldn't be for another 2 Million years!
Getting an injury to the soul usually meant being forever off your peak, destined to rot away.
In some cases, the injuries were so bad that even without doing anything the damaged Soul would keep deteriorating.
But Duke Wei was prepared to give up his life to obtain revenge, after all, he had no longer much purpose in living.
Protect? Who? The villagers? Ha! He only did that to further his own position and strength so that his granddaughter would benefit.
Yet despite his willingness, he knew he can't because if he were to break his badge and injure himself then it was quite likely that Chen Hong and Jue Ru would escape!
Or worse they might kill him!
After all, Chen Hong was a Rank 5 youngster with a Captain's rank, this meant the Human Army thought highly of his potential, most Captains are around twice his age!
All this meant was that Duke Wei could not get his revenge…at least himself.
"This lad is a very strong Rank 5 Gu Master, but he shouldn't be more experienced than the other leaders." Duke Wei had a plan, "They didn't join the Human Army so I can get them to kill this youth!"
"Better yet, is that once the Human Army comes for answers, I can use them as the scapegoats and at most only be accosted a small slap on the wrist, after all, a dead genius is worthless!"
Chen Hong could see the sinister light in Duke Wei's eyes and knew he was planning something, "I've already alerted the Human Army using the SOS feature but the nearest branch is at least a 2 day's journey from here…which means I have to survive for 2 days."
Chen Hong was actually pretty confident in himself since he possessed one of the 10 Extreme Physiques, that correspond with the Path he cultivates, and the fact that he was battle-trained from a young age meant that he had full confidence in fighting someone at his Rank, maybe even 2-3.
And from what he could tell, the people of this village weren't anything extraordinary, except for Jue Ru, even Duke Wei was mediocre in his eyes.
"Just a sack of bones who got lucky," Chen Hong thought to himself, "He doesn't even possess an Immortal Gu, besides the Spider Devouring Immortal Gu that I've kept."
Of course, Chen Hong kept the Spider Devouring Immortal Gu, it was an Immortal Gu!
Even though it was quite a sinister Gu it was still an Immortal Gu!
Chen Hong could easily trade it for a lot of materials of wealth or even a more beneficial Immortal Gu, however, he would have to survive this ordeal first.
"But that aside Jue Ru has told me the rough strength of the village and 2 days head to head might be tough…" Chen Hong scratched his head.
Fighting against those old men who were 'Rank 5' might be slightly challenging, adding that he had to protect Jue Ru didn't help, and what about all the Rank 4s? Rank 3s? 2s? and 1s?
With enough ants, one could bite an elephant to death!
As he thought that, dozens of shadows could be seen jumping out of the trees and landing behind Duke Wei.
"Hmm? Ah excellent the scout team is here, relay a message back to the village for me: 'Gather Xi Long, Nan Feng, Bei Fong and Dong Hai, to come here and tell them its urgent!'" Duke Wei stressed the point with his Rank 6 aura, scarring the scouts.
"Y-yes Duke Wei!" they bowed and prepared to leave but Duke Wei called to them once more,
"Oh and tell them to bring some Rank 4s and some Rank 3s for good measure."
The scouts bowed and left immediately thinking to themselves, "What kind of monster is that kid? For Duke Wei to call everyone powerful out he must at least be an immortal right?"
"Not only that but he called for the Rank 4s and 3s as well, we are basically bringing our entire fighting force to kill this guy how insane…"
"W-what if we lose?" one scout said nervously.
"Shut up!" the scout leader roared at the other scouts, "We have to believe in our leaders and trust that they will be able to defeat that monster, even at cost of our own lives, we've trained for this since the day we joined!"
The other scouts nodded and quickened their pace.
Jue Ru was no idiot and knew the potential danger, "What do we do!?!"
Chen Hong's expression grew dark and serious he spoke in a low voice, "There is only 1 thing we can do…"
At this moment Chen Hong had the bearings of a great hero.
Jue Ru looked at him with sparkling eyes of hope.
"...we….RUN!" Chen Hong picked up Jue Ru with one hand and used a Fire Path Movement Gu to run in the direction of the Human Army branch that was nearest to him.
"Ah…this was not what I was expecting…" Jue Ru's hopes of a manly showdown and epic battle were dashed, and to further add insult to injury she was also being carried like a piece of luggage and not like the princess, that she had hoped for.
But she forwent such childish desires when she heard the enraged screams of Duke Wei.
"GET BACK HERE!"
Happy Easter!!!
Sorry I didn't inform you guys earlier but I took the long weekend off for 2 reasons.
One was of course Easter but it was more an excuse than a reason.
The real reason is that I had an intense writer's block on Friday, and just couldn't put anything to paper.
And I thought that by Monday it would resolve but alas I was still stuck.
Thankfully I should be out of such a block for at least this and the next chapter as I already have an idea pending.