Chương 83: Precarious balance
Bao Zhi signaled to the Wondrous Inspiration Pagoda, taking one last look at his opponent's unconscious body.
"This person was quite impressive, having a good grasp of sword path. Even the double edged inheritance's moves were just as precise in his hands as its creator's."
"I remember, back in my time Wen clan captured a notorious demonic figure who cultivated sword path with their immortal gu house."
"Within a decade, Wen clan's sword prodigy emerged with the double edged inheritance, cutting off He Shan's mountain peak in a single strike as a show of strength."
"Hehe. It's not hard to see the connection in hindsight. Wen clan extracted the captive's inheritance and cultivation secrets. It was long speculated they had some peculiar methods to deal with their targets."
"The genius of Wen clan was called Eccentric Sword Jiao Feng, if I remember right."
At this moment the Wondrous Inspiration Pagoda arrived and picked up Bao Zhi.
He took the controls of the gu house and maneuvered it to crush the unconscious Wen Jiao Feng.
But he lost control authority over the immortal gu house and it suddenly stopped.
"I won't let you!" Jue Shi sternly objected. "You cannot use this gu house as you wish. Using it to fight is off limits."
Jue Shi scrutinized his actions in the tense atmosphere.
The two of them locked gazes.
"So be it." Bao Zhi nodded with understanding recognizing Jue Shi's bottom line.
"As expected. He didn't intervene until it could cause further damage to the gu house." - He thought to himself.
This contingency has crossed his mind before. Bao Zhi didn't hinge his plans on external help.
Wen Jiao Feng's threat was greatly reduced already, killing him wasn't strictly necessary and wouldn't have brought Bao Zhi additional gains.
Wen Jiao Feng's immortal gu were destroyed. His threat has been greatly diminished.
Immortal gu were very precious and hard to come by even for gu immortals.
An average gu immortal did not posses an immortal gu matching their rank. The rank six Xu Lian and Wen Yun were such examples, without any immortal gu.
If Wen Jiao Feng decided to recover his gu, it would take a considerable effort.
One needed many resources and time to try and painstakingly refine immortal gu. The successful refinement chance was often less than one percent!
Could Wen Jiao Feng afford such a luxury while inside the enemy's territory?
What worried Bao Zhi more was the unknown that Jue Shi represented. To his surprise, he couldn't gleam any information with his human qi sensation in his probings.
"Where did this Jue Shi come from? While both clans are vying for supremacy and fighting for their lives, his semblance is still as a pond. His only concern seems to lie with this gu house."
"It is not strange after all. A rank seven gu house can serve as a great reassurance. Many clans lacking rank eight power, can substitute it with a rank seven gu house."
Bao Zhi was clear on one thing, he could only borrow the gu house's strength thanks to his alliance agreement with Qinyang.
"I'm not sure on which terms she was allowed use of this immortal gu house. But it clearly shows her close relation to Jue Shi."
"But what is the connection of these two? Are they master and disciple, or family?"
At this moment, time was of the essence, he stopped his wandering thoughts.
With control once again in his hands, he steered the gu house up into the sky and sped ahead.
Wen Jie's figure soon appeared in their vision, with the rank eight immortal zombie far in the distance behind her.
The Wondrous Inspiration Pagoda was flying straight towards them.
Jue Shi noticed the unconcealed and overbearing aura of rank eight.
"Not good! Rank eight is not something we should provoke. Bao Zhi wants to use me to match up to the rank eight immortal zombie!" Ju Shi thought.
"I told you not to fight! The gu house is already in a bad condition." - Jue Shi anxiously reminded, ready to take over at any moment.
"There won't be any fighting." Bao Zhi raised his hand to placate him. "Observe."
Bao Zhi suddenly stopped the gu house in mid air.
He started to shake it left and right, back and forth as if an invisible giant was strangling it.
Mortal gu worms started to fly and fall away form the damaged parts as loose tiles of the pagoda. But this was merely a superficial loss, an immortal gu house contained countless mortal gu.
Bao Zhi even activated Warp Perception immortal gu to add to the appearance, but the effect was very mild due to the distance.
Jue Shi gritted his teeth without intervening.
Bao Zhi exercised restraint in his actions, he had yet to cross Jue Shi's bottom line just by doing this.
"How annoying!" - The immortal zombie's deep voice resounded in the air.
He swung his arm nonchalantly.
Woosh!
Bao Zhi stopped shaking the gu house at once and immediately flew away at top speed in the same direction.
Wen Jie: "..."
Bao Zhi's sudden and unpredictable actions took Jue Shi and Qinyang by surprise once again.
But seeing Wen Jie's reaction, they soon connected the dots.
Qinyang: "Oh, I understand now."
Bao Zhi cooperated with the immortal zombie in order to deceive Wen Jie of its strength, making her estimations surpass the immortal zombie's genuine ability.
He simply had to do this.
On the surface Bao clan had shown an overwhelming hidden force, but the reality was wholly different.
Bao Zhi was relying on deception and turning the opponents power and speculations against themselves.
He sighed in his heart.
The immortal zombie failed to take out the mastermind wisdom path gu immortal, now Bao Zhi's best option was to flee.
The longer he stayed the more mistakes would occur, the more clues Wen Jie could gather. This would lead to a fatal mistake when facing a wisdom path gu immortal.
Bao Zhi knew how to tackle such a situation.
Giving away no clues, or better, giving false clues to lead his enemy astray.
Bao Zhi could feel it deep in his heart, extending his forces further in this situation would only lead him to disaster.
The immortal zombie was especially ill suited to engage in a fight against Wen Jie. It did not have any immortal gu, not even a soul in his body, only a remnant will was controlling it.
Wisdom path had ample methods to deal with a will.
A rank eight immortal zombie shouldn't be sacrificed in such a senseless way!
If these weaknesses were exposed, Wen Jie could recover the situation because nobody could directly oppose her.
Wen clan's invasion was stopped in its tracks and Bao Zhi successfully turned the situation around for the moment.
* * * * *
Western Desert, Earth Cave
It was common knowledge, the gu world had ten great earths. All were unique and mysterious in their own ways.
Central continent had Earth Abyss, a dark underground world of enormous size. Earth Abyss had over a hundred layers, each home to an untold number of strange beasts and plants.
Northern Plains had Earth Trench, a gaping chasm. It's width wide enough to swallow cities, its depth unfathomable. The uneven walls of Earth Trench were home to many living organisms and rich in precious resources.
Even though people have been exploring these depths for millions of years, nobody knew the true extents of these natural wonders and what secrets they held.
Earth Cave was a great earth located in Western Desert. It was a maze of tunnels and chambers, some narrow and long, some so spacious one would forget the ceiling above wasn't the night sky.
Some time ago inside one of Earth Cave's tunnel.
"How much longer do you need?" An irate whisper asked in the darkness.
The voice came from Yuhun Kuang, who guarded his partner in this dangerous location.
"I told you already, no need to ask so often. I can only search blindly at this point."
Kong Guying replied curtly, he was getting anxious at the lack of results.
"How could I give an estimate for something that might not even happen?" Kong Guying thought to himself in frustration.
"If only you asked me to join sooner, I could have traced back the spacial ripples. But now there are no clues left for me to investigate."
The two immortals in the depths of Earth Cave were here for a long while now, clearly not giving up on their goal.
"Can you not find it? What use do I have for you then?" Yuhun Kuang's expression was tense.
Kong Guying continued activating his investigative killer move, probing the space in front of him without saying a word.
"This Yuhun Kuang is just as the rumors said, greedy and impatient." He was afraid of agitating Yuhun Kuang.
"I should not have associated myself with the demonic path." Kong Guying lamented his past decision to accept Yuhun Kuang's offer and help him infiltrate a blessed land.
He was a lone immortal. He kept to himself, not pledging allegiance to any forces, nor doing business with the demonic gu immortals like Yuhun Kuang.
Based on Yuhun Kuang's information they should have found the blessed land here.
Yuhun Kuang was also deliberating in his mind right now.
"I already paid you twenty immortal essence stones! Are you trying to extort me by stalling for time? Maybe I should just soul search you, then I would know the truth."
Sensing Yuhun Kuang's chilling gaze on his back, Kong Guying gulped and started to monologue in his nervousness.
"A blessed land's space is a separate realm. Only when it connects to the outside world will it take up space and form an entrance."
"When it is closed off, from the outside it is smaller than a speck of dust. It takes up no space at all!"
This was common knowledge among gu immortals.
"So without knowing its exact location my method can't target it."
"Are you sure the owner of the immortal aperture didn't pick it up and left?"
This idea has occurred to Yuhun Kuang as well. He recalled his experience and why the blessed land should still be here.
When Yuhun Kuang first arrived at the cave, he was in dire straits, having fled from a fierce battle with his enemies. He had no choice but to escape into the depths of Earth Cave to lose his pursuers.
But his luck seemed to hit rock bottom as an ancient desolate bat discovered him just as he sought a hiding place.
Certain of his impending death, he braced himself for the end.
Then, unexpectedly, a massive explosion struck the bat, obliterating it in a single blow.
Although he couldn't see the source of the attack in the darkness, it was clear that the beast stood no chance. One moment it was chasing him, and the next it was blown into a thousand pieces.
The signs of destruction were still evident. Charred and tattered remains of the ancient desolate beast were scattered on the ground in the darkness of the cave.
Kong Guying knew this wasn't something Yuhun Kuang's rank seven strength could achieve.
"At first I thought someone pursued me down here, but behind me I saw a glimpse of a lush green forest in midair. So the attack could only come from that separate space."
Kong Guying nodded. It was a very reasonable conclusion.
"I was in a hurry so I only took the largest part of the beast and returned to the surface."
"When I came back down, the beast's body parts were still untouched. If there really was an immortal who left in the meantime, he would have picked up these rank seven resources."
"The blessed land is still here."
Yuhun Kuang assessed the situation through his own perception.
He lived a life of poverty as demonic immortal. It was in his nature to grasp every opportunity, even if it they were just scraps.
Now he paid a great sum to find and rope in a space path gu immortal, Kong Guying, who was the only space path gu immortal he knew of who wasn't from the righteous faction.
Kong Guying's compensation came from selling those resources in the marketplace of Treasure Yellow Heaven.
Yuhun Kuang spent all his earnings to heal himself and rushed back to this place in hope of an even bigger payoff.
This was the norm for most demonic immortals, living on thin ice, and having to take great risks to not fall behind.
He had to find this blessed land!
Kong Guying sighed.
"Yuhun Kuang, we have been looking for months now. Don't you think we should stop now?"
Yuhun Kuang's eyes twitched.
"I will naturally return ten immortal essence stones to you." Kong Guying shook his head apologetically.
"Don't think you can leave without finding this blessed land first!" Killing intent surged in Yuhun Kuang's heart.
"Leaving with ten immortal essence stones and not producing any results? This Kong Guying really has a thick skin... Wait! Is he just extorting me?"
Yuhun Kuang thought to himself before speaking again.
"Friend, we can talk this out. How about I give you ten percent of the gains when we find the blessed land?"
Kong Guying raised his eyebrows in surprise, but quickly shook his head even more vigorously.
"Please understand, my ability is meager. I simply can't do it." Kong Guying struggled to conceal the panic in his voice.
Yuhun Kuang's breathing was getting rough. He stepped closer to Kong Guying and grabbed his neck forcefully.
"Twenty percent and you can keep your life. This is my last offer, friend."
* * * * *
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