Capítulo 77: Battle Against the Ghu Clan
Yaan stood side by side with Aque Li, whilst Zue Yin, and the other three cultivators who had rushed to his side due to their interest in the Spirit Heart, all stood slightly behind them.
Most people kept their gazes locked on Ghu Lin. He was simply too dangerous, most of his victims didn't even understand how they died.
Even Yaan still didn't understand how Ghu Lin had managed to stab him in the chest…after all, at that point, he had been wearing his golden armour!
It was as if the strike pierced into his chest whilst ignoring the armour entirely. Yaan was unable to activate the armour with his current strength, but he had assumed that its incredible material would protect his body. Before Ghu Lin though, relying on a sturdy material alone was apparently ineffective.
When Yaan treated the wound in his chest, he was forced to remove the armour temporarily. Now that he had done what he could for the wound, he put it back on his body. Yaan noticed that Ghu Lin showed a solemn expression when he saw the golden armour; clearly, the city lord had warned him about it.
Yaan was unaware that the city lord had allowed him to take this armour into the inheritance, because he planned on disposing of both Yaan and the terrifying golden armour within the inheritance world. This treasure was simply a calamity waiting to happen in the city lord's eyes, he was unwilling to let it remain in the Ghu Province.
Ignoring Ghu Lin right now, Yaan turned to face Nadda. When Nadda stared back, his ghoulish body trembled and he grit his teeth. He saw the coldness in Yaan's eyes…but beyond that coldness, he saw traces of uncertainty and melancholy.
Yaan was definitely going to clash with the Ghu Clan now, but before that happened, there was something he needed to say.
"Nadda…" Yaan started, as he sighed deeply and looked at the young ghoul with a complicated expression..
"Yaan…my clan, I can't…I didn't know…or else I-"
"I know, Nadda." Yaan spoke quietly, but then laughed as he reminded Nadda of something. "I mean, it's not like I acted alone, right? You were tricked too…"
"Right…" Nadda also laughed, but his voice sounded pained and filled with regret.
The two of them had worked together in Yaan's scheme. They had schemed and profited together, they both used the North Ghu City Lord, and they both causing the downfall of the Yuso Clan. But there was a key difference between them…Nadda was a Ghu Clansman, Yaan was not.
"Nadda, Yaan is the enemy of the Ghu Clan, he-"
"Is he…?" Nadda turned to face Ghu Lin and looked him dead in the eye. There was no fear in Nadda's tone, nor any respect in his gaze. Ghu Lin was his older clansman brother, but Ghu Lin did not outrank him, he was merely the temporary leader for this inheritance exploration.
Before Ghu Lin could retort, Nadda added:
"That scroll was written by the city lord, I acknowledge that…but it didn't say that we need harm, or even capture Yaan…it only said that he extorted some clansmen and schemed against them…but so what? Haven't we all done the same to one another…?"
"But Yaan is not a clansman, and he schemed against a grand elder." Ghu Lin retorted bluntly.
Nadda smiled brokenly. Indeed, that was the case. He actually understood the situation better than Yaan…
The city lord simply stated Yaan's 'crimes' in the scroll, he didn't order them to take action. However, the reason for this was clear to Nadda - the city lord was restricted by the poison oath, he couldn't order his subordinates to bring harm to Yaan. All he could do was leave them with a heavy implication.
Even so…even though he understood this…Ghu Nadda refused to accept this 'order'.
"Ghu Lin, you are the leader of this exploration, but you are not my elder…as for the scroll…nowhere in the city lord's statement did it state that we must kill Yaan…Yaan is…."
"Yaan is what? A friend?" Ghu Lin had a mocking look in his eyes as he stared back at Nadda. "You're a demon, Nadda, you don't have friends. You have no logical reason to support him. If you refuse to battle, the clan will punish you. And if you choose to protect him, then if I don't kill you myself, the elders will surely send you into the 7th barren circle."
Nadda's pale face became a shade paler when he heard Ghu Lin's blatant threat. He opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out.
He turned back towards Yaan dazedly. He wanted to say something, anything, but his mind was a mess, his mouth felt dry, and the words just wouldn't come out.
"Nadda." Yaan finally spoke, drawing everyone's attention.
Yaan's gaze was still as cold as ice. To everyone present, he looked like an emotionless person, or perhaps someone whose emotions had been crushed so severely that he could no longer feel. However, to Nadda, Yaan didn't look emotionless at all…he looked like he was in pain.
As Yaan faced Nadda, ignoring everyone else around him, he presented his comrade…his friend, with a choice.
"Nadda, I know that you can't betray your clan, the punishment will be too severe, you might even be killed. Sticking with me in this situation is a terrible idea, even I can see that. Don't abandon your clan…cultivating alone is much more difficult, I can't ask you to throw that away. I won't try to persuade you to join me, but…Nadda, could you sit this one out?"
As Yaan showed an empty smile, Nadda's long dead heart clenched in pain. He stared at Yaan deeply, before looking at Ghu Lin, the other Ghu Clansmen, everyone else…then back to Yaan.
Even though Yaan's gaze was so cold that others would feel chilled just looking at him, Nadda somehow felt that out of everyone here, only Yaan possessed a trace of warmth.
"Don't fight with me, don't fight against me…just don't fight, Nadda. If you just avoid this battle…if you can do that much for me…then I'll truly consider you a friend."
Yaan sighed to himself after saying this. He knew that he was asking for a lot…to Ghu Nadda, the Ghu Clan was his entire life. It was all he had known, it was all that he had. Whilst asking Nadda to 'do nothing' might seem a bit lacklustre, Yaan knew that this was already a big decision for Nadda.
Friendship required both people to make it work. There was no easy way to go about handling this situation, and no matter what choice Nadda made, he would be suffering some sort of loss. So, Yaan's didn't try to persuade Nadda to abandon his clan. He didn't try to convince him to fight by his side.
For this fight, Yaan just wanted Nadda to stay out of the way. For their relationship to continue, this was the only way forwards.
Nadda didn't say anything. Instead, he clasped his hands towards Ghu Lin, then walked away calmly. When they saw this, the other Ghu Clansmen showed rare looks of surprise.
Nadda had a decent reputation amongst the younger generation in the Ghu Clan. For a demonic figure like him to actually choose friendship over tangible benefits…they simply couldn't understand it.
In fact, many others outside of the Ghu Clan were equally stunned. Ghu Clansmen were notoriously vicious and stubborn, it was unexpected for the second strongest Ghu Clansman present to be moved by a few words.
Even Yaan didn't actually expect Nadda to make this choice…but he was glad that he did. For a brief moment, a hint of a smile passed his lips, but his expression soon returned to normal, and the coldness enveloped his gaze as he turned to Ghu Lin and narrowed his eyes.
"Before we do this, I have to at least ask…would you be willing to wait for eight hours and let me enter the 4th trial?" Yaan suddenly asked.
For a moment Ghu Lin paused.
"You will enter the 4th trial?"
"Right." Yaan nodded.
After a moment of consideration, Ghu Lin shook his head.
"You have too many treasures on you, and there are so many people remaining here…"
"In the end, everything else is just a pretext. It all comes down to greed." Aque Li sighed and shook his head. Yaan also sighed and nodded. It seemed that it was going to be a long night.
BANG!
It seemed like almost everyone charged forth at the same time.
Footsteps echoed, before transforming into countless explosive thunderclaps of charging feet. Spells were shot out immediately and treasures flew through the air. The battle resumed with very little warning, but nobody looked surprised, as if this bloody outcome was inevitable.
Yaan didn't return to the battlefield just yet. Instead, he continued consuming expensive recovery medicines. As he focussed on his recovery, he paid a small amount of attention to the bodies which fell to the ground ahead of him. Whenever someone fell, Yaan took their spatial ring, and on occasion, he stole the rewards from other peoples' kills
He didn't want to fight, but if he was going to be forced back into this insanity, then he at least wanted to benefit from it.
Yaan weaved through the crowd, deliberately avoiding Ghu Lin. Out of everyone in this place, only Ghu Lin filled him with dread. Even in his prime condition, Yaan would struggle against that guy, not to mention now…
"Seriously, how are you still fighting?!" Zue Yin cried out when she saw that before long, Yaan was back up and fighting.
She could see that his arms, his neck, and half of his face, were all burned black. She knew that the rest of his body was in terrible condition too. Pieces of his burned flesh flaked away now and then, it was a truly horrendous sight to behold.
"The burns aren't the issue." Yaan gritted his teeth. "What sort of poison is this?! Even the Tree of Life Tincture only managed to stabilised it, it won't detoxify at all!"
"Let me look at the poison!" Zue Yin said to him as they both pulled away from the front lines temporarily.
Yaan dug out a drop of the corrosive poison from his chest wound, then placed it onto a talisman which Zue Yin held carefully in her hand. The talisman burned from outside to in, until a black rune was left behind.
"Vital Corrosion Poison! And by the looks of it, you took in about a quarter pound of it! This…"
Zue Yin stared at the rune dazedly for a moment, causing Yaan to sigh. He quickly stabbed past her neck, killing a weaker cultivator who targeted her back in her moment of lost focussed.
"Th-thanks…anyway, this poison will continually drain away your vitality, making it impossible to recover from injuries! It's only because of the Tree of Life Tincture that you were able to temporarily pause it's effect…"
"So then what can I do?!" Yaan yelled out as he continued to slaughter. Even though they had retreated from the front lines, the battle followed them back, it was impossible to completely avoid the bloodshed.
Before she could reply, the two of them were separated.
"Hahaha, how lucky that I met-!"
"I'm busy!" Yaan lashed out crazily, overexerting his energies as he used the Cutting Typhoon Art combined with the Synchronised Pierce Art to quickly kill a 1st Layer Qi Palace Realm vampiric race member, as well as three other Innate Qi Realm cultivators.
Of course, he didn't forget to take the rewards for himself.
After finally finding Zue Yin, Yaan saw that she had gotten herself wrapped up in a dire battle. She was fighting against one of the core Ghu Clan members in this trial, the lazy looking purple-haired girl who only revealed herself after Ghu Lin turned on him.
It seemed that they had been battling for some time since they were both clearly exhausted, but Zue Yin was clearly worse off.
The purple-hair girl turned to face Yaan and slowly reached out with her hand, but just as she seemed like she was about to touch him, his body became oddly blurred.
Before anyone could process Yaan's movement, his sword was already stabbed into her forehead!
However, bizarrely, the purple-haired girl did not die right away…
With the sword still in her forehead, Zue Yin engulfed the purple-haired girl in flames.
Ignoring these flames, Yaan endured the painful burns and continued to push his sword further into her skull. The fact that she was still alive at this point caused him to feel apprehensive.
The purple-haired girl was doing all she could to dispel the flames, and because of this, she noticed Yaan's movement a step too late. After moving in closer using his Agile Sword Arts, Yaan retracted his blade, then swiftly slashed a clean line along her throat.
As her blood flowed out, Yaan's eyes became wide. His gaze became transfixed on the red line which grew larger around her neck as her blood started to flow, and unknowingly, he swallowed a mouthful of saliva.
Why did her blood smell so enticing…?
Before he knew what he was doing, Yaan had already sunk his teeth into the purple-haired girl's throat. As he bit down on her, she remained alive, struggling and thrashing about. As she struggled, she pulled out a dagger and wildly stabbed towards Yaan's back, but Zue Yin quickly prevented her from finishing her concealed attack, then broke her arm before sending a chain of flames into her blood vessels.
As the purple-haired girl's blood boiled, hot crimson fluid erupted crazily from the wound across her throat, allowing Yaan to drain her blood within a short few seconds.
When the blood stopped flowing into his mouth, he abruptly stood up and stumbled, feeling dazed and unsure about what had just happened. Zue Yin tried to ignore his bizarre actions and quickly checked his condition, but as she turned her head, her eyes widened in shock.
"How is she still alive?!" She cried out as the purple-haired girl got back to her feet once again!
Chi
Yaan didn't think too much and plunged his blade through her heart.
Swuchi!
After twisting his sword to widen the hole in her chest, he decapitated her head for good measure. And of course, he took her spatial ring.
At this point, the purple-haired Ghu Clansman was well and truly dead.
After killing one of the strongest Ghu Clansmen, many on the Ghu Clan side started to feel some trepidation. Their morale had taken a huge hit, because the purple-haired girl was clearly one of their strongest!
Even so, Yaan didn't feel good at all. As the pain in his chest grew worse, he grimaced and grabbed Zue Yin by the shoulder.
"How can I cure this damned poison?!"
"W-well, somehow, drinking that girl's blood helped…" She stuttered, flustered by the sudden close contact.
Hearing this, Yaan's eyes shone as he had an idea.
"Vitality…no, I need the source of vitality - blood essence!" He only now understood why he had the sudden urge to drink that girl's blood; she possessed tremendous vitality, and this vitality had allowed him to recover some of his wounds!
He dove back into the battlefield, but opted to target weaker opponents this time. At the same time, he continually searched through his various spoils of war, trying to find something, anything that could help to cure the terrifying poison that Ghu Lin had afflicted him with!
The poison had spread throughout his body, and it worked by subduing and destroying his vitality. Consuming vitality could temporarily repair and restore the damage, but a permanent fix required something more substantial…something like blood essence itself.
Yaan was still unable to look through normal spatial rings. He hesitated for a moment, but in the end, he knew that he had no other choice. He handed over every spatial ring in his possession to Zue Yin, who showed a stunned expression as she found dozens of rings falling into her hands.
"Find me anything with blood essence or powerful vitality! The stronger the better!"
"I'm busy too you know?!"
Still, she did as instructed. Whenever she found something of use, she passed it to Yaan, who took everything without even thinking twice. What he was doing was risky, but this poison was like a scythe looming over his neck, he didn't have the luxury to be cautious.
Within minutes, Yaan had swallowed dozens of medicines in an attempt to restore his injuries, to regenerate the damage caused by the poison, to remove the poison and to restore his innate vitality. Unfortunately, he was still unable to fix the root cause, all he managed to achieve was stalling for time.
In this time, Zue Yin failed to find anything even remotely half-decent. When he finally lost his patience and turned to her, she presented him with a pill. However, she looked a bit sheepish…
"Put this pill into the hole in your heart that was corroded by the poison…it will drain the poison from the wound…"
"But I just healed that hole over!" Yaan groaned out loud.
"I know…sorry…"
"Tch, fine!"
In the end, he didn't have time to hesitate. Following her instructions, Yaan quickly removed the golden armour, opened his battered robe, then forced the pill through the partially healed hole in his chest. Since the wound had more or less healed over, he was forced to tear open this wound once again, jamming the pill in through the bloody slit of flesh, until it squeezed into the hole in his heart.
Zue Yin's face paled when she witnessed this grotesque act of self-mutilation. In the end, watching Yaan made her feel nauseated, so she turned away and only glanced at him occasionally.
Yaan suddenly gasped for breath, then fell to his knees.
The instant he fell down, Ghu Lin materialised from seemingly nowhere and stabbed towards Yaan's throat with a sleek black blade.
Bang!
However, Ghu Lin's dagger was met with an assault from both sides; a fire dragon from Zue Yin and a water serpent from Aque Li. Both young prodigies launched their spells of opposite elements, though clearly, Aque Li's was much more powerful.
As for Yaan, he found himself caught up in the midst of an explosion between the two spells and was sent flying miserably through the air. Fortunately, he managed to steady himself whilst hurtling through the sky.
For a moment, as he gazed down at the miserable battlefield below, he spotted something. He saw Ghu Lin…vanish into someone's shadow!
Yaan's eyes shone with a strange light. It became obvious now how Ghu Lin was able to slip through the battlefield like a spectre, unnoticed by anyone up until the very moment that he acted. Yaan could use this to launch a counterattack against the Ghu Clan elite if he wanted to do so, however…
Yaan had grown tired of this battle a long time ago. Thinking this, Yaan stared down into the shadow that currently concealed Ghu Lin's presence, then roared out loud at the top of his lungs.
"Ghu Lin, I know that you're hiding in Ghu Clansmen's shadows! Unless you want to continue fighting after having your secret revealed, get out here and discuss things properly!"
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