FIMA Ch161: Heat

The deeper they went into the inner region of the secret realm, the greater the chances became that cultivators would run into one another on a narrow road.

By the time Gu Siyuan and Xie Xueyi caught up, Ji Jinghuan and Xiao Xinchi had just happened to be intercepted halfway.

The four of them had been fighting fiercely, but the moment they saw Gu Siyuan arrive, they almost all stopped at once.

Xie Xueyi’s eyes lit up, and he said spiritedly, “Oh? So it’s you—the one my gege gifted an arm to as a collector’s item!”

Gu Siyuan glanced at him. “Naughty.”

“But I don’t know what regret is.” Xie Xueyi chuckled and shook their clasped hands.

Gu Siyuan said nothing, only slowly rubbing his fingers over his slender wrist.

The hatred in Deng Huan’s eyes as he looked at Xie Xueyi had reached the extreme, but when the corner of his eye caught Gu Siyuan’s coldly severe face beside him, he ultimately held back and said nothing.

“Haha…” Xie Xueyi immediately grew even more pleased with himself, the delight dancing through his brows and eyes as he winked lightly at Gu Siyuan with his right eye.

It was nice having someone to back you up.

The corner of Gu Siyuan’s lips curved upward.

Zhu Buming forced his attention away from Gu Siyuan and quietly said to Deng Huan, “Let’s leave for today first.”

Deng Huan ground his teeth and nodded. A wise man submits to circumstances, and he prepared to turn and leave.

At the side, Ji Jinghuan and Xiao Xinchi also intended to leave. No matter what conflict had broken out between them and Deng Huan and Zhu Buming earlier, with Gu Siyuan now here, all of it could only be set aside for the moment.

Otherwise, what happened next would be impossible to imagine.

Watching the movements of the four, Xie Xueyi gave a cold laugh. “You think you can just leave whenever you want? Is there really such a good thing in this world? This is the Xianling Secret Realm—don’t tell me the four of you think you came here for a spring outing?”

Deng Huan was already burning with new and old hatred alike, and he glared at him immediately. “What do you want?”

Xie Xueyi turned to Gu Siyuan and asked eagerly, “Gege, what should we do? How should we deal with them?”

Gu Siyuan raised a hand and rubbed his head.

But when he turned back again, his expression changed. His ice-cold gaze swept over Ji Jinghuan, Deng Huan, and the others, and he said concisely, “You now have two choices: leave behind your storage rings, or leave behind your lives… and your storage rings.”

All four of them changed expression at once.

Ji Jinghuan narrowed his eyes slightly. “Shixiong, isn’t this a little too much…”

Xiao Xinchi hurriedly added, “Da Shixiong, according to the sect’s instructions, you were supposed to protect us within the secret realm.”

It would have been better if he had not brought that up at all. The moment he did, Xie Xueyi’s anger surged to the limit. He sneered coldly, “Protect you? Do the two of you need protection? When you tossed the cold flood-dragon egg over and tried to shift disaster onto gege, did you treat him like your Da Shixiong? And now suddenly you know how to appeal to old ties?”

“You…” Xiao Xinchi faltered and fell silent.

Gu Siyuan stood with his hands behind his back, his voice cold to the extreme. “Make your decision immediately. My patience is limited.”

None of the four were willing in the slightest.

It could only be said that the Xianling Secret Realm lived up to its name. And within this realm, aside from Gu Siyuan, these few people were among the strongest, so they had indeed collected some good things since entering.

How could they willingly hand them over for free?

What was more, the rings contained not only their gains from this period, but also years of personal accumulation they had brought in from outside.

Deng Huan could no longer endure it and shouted angrily, “Gu Siyuan, if you keep forcing us like this, then if the four of us join forces, you may not necessarily come out ahead!”

“Four people joining hands? You actually have the nerve to say that out loud?” Xie Xueyi first froze, then burst out laughing.

All of them were supposed to be peerless talents of the same generation, top experts wherever they went, and yet now they needed four against one. What a perfect display of guilty cowardice.

But Ji Jinghuan and the others could not care about that now. They only wanted to resolve the crisis in front of them.

His face darkening, Ji Jinghuan said, “Shixiong, if you push too far, then even if I must temporarily cooperate with people of the demonic path, I will still draw my sword against you.”

A faint smile touched Gu Siyuan’s lips as he looked at him with cold disdain. “I look forward to it. Perhaps the final battle from two years ago will finally be staged today.”

The moment those words fell—

Ji Jinghuan’s face instantly turned ugly.

Even now, this man would not miss the chance to deliberately mock him?

In the next instant, the sword in Ji Jinghuan’s hand shot upward. A sharp blade-light burning with blazing fire energy slashed mercilessly toward Gu Siyuan. This was precisely one of Taixuan Immortal Sect’s core legacy arts: Ziyang Fentian Gong.

At the same time, Deng Huan and Zhu Buming also refused to retreat and attacked Gu Siyuan together with their own methods.

Deng Huan still used that soft sword coiled around his waist.

Zhu Buming’s attack style, however, was very unusual. His own body sat in meditation on the spot while he summoned a tall bronze corpse and sent it charging toward Gu Siyuan.

“Gege…” Xie Xueyi called out nervously, wanting to rush up and help.

“No need to worry. Just hold back the last one.”

Gu Siyuan rejected the idea. His demeanor remained relaxed throughout, without the slightest attempt to dodge or evade, as though the three people before him were not among the very strongest experts in the secret realm, but merely three little rabbits bouncing around.

As his words fell, the sword in his hand flew free and shot through the air, carrying brilliant star-filled sword qi and a terrifying shriek as it stabbed forward with unstoppable momentum straight at Deng Huan.

Deng Huan looked at that sword and burned with rage.

Only a few days ago, it was that very sword which had severed his left arm.

And now, the sword was being overbearing to the extreme. It had no intention of blocking the attack aimed at its master. Instead, it only moved more forcefully to kill him outright.

The meaning was perfectly clear: Gu Siyuan was telling him that this casual sword strike of his would absolutely be faster and stronger than Deng Huan’s own sword. Before Deng Huan could reach Gu Siyuan and stab him, Gu Siyuan’s sword would kill Deng Huan first.

Not only were there old and new grudges between them, the near-blatant humiliation hidden inside that exchange infuriated Deng Huan beyond measure.

But he had no way to deal with it. He could only retreat—otherwise he would definitely die beneath that sword.

At the same time, Zhu Buming, who had been sitting in place controlling the bronze corpse, suddenly spat out a large mouthful of blood and rolled on the ground clutching his head.

The bronze corpse that had been attacking so fiercely under his control had, at some point, completely lost all response and now stood there stiffly without moving.

Zhu Buming’s eyes were filled with disbelief. “My bronze corpse… how is this possible? The spiritual imprint on the bronze corpse…”

Ji Jinghuan saw that the people who had charged with him were now reduced to only himself, and his expression changed in alarm.

And at that moment, Gu Siyuan’s Zhaixing Shou was already prepared. It met him head-on in grand and open force, ten thousand stars descending with the might to crush the heavens.

Palm and sword met.

The starlight was brilliant, making Ji Jinghuan’s already handsome face appear even more striking—but in the next moment, his entire body was blasted flying backward through that radiance, blood spraying all along the way, while the sword in his hand dropped helplessly to the ground.

“Gu Siyuan—!”

A thunderous crash.

Two furious cries.

Ji Jinghuan, and in the distance Deng Huan who could no longer withstand the sword’s assault, were both smashed into the ground—body and pride shattered together—dust flying everywhere and nearly carving out clear human-shaped pits.

Silence fell over the entire place.

One against three, and yet three peerless geniuses had ended in such a brutal, miserable fashion.

Xie Xueyi, who had still been planning to rush in and help, immediately grinned and ran over to Gu Siyuan. “Gege, the way you fight is getting prettier and prettier, and cleaner and cleaner.”

Gu Siyuan’s expression softened slightly, and he lowered his eyes to look at him. “If you like it, I’ll teach you next time.”

“Mm.” Xie Xueyi nodded hard, smiling till his eyes curved.

But at that moment, Gu Siyuan suddenly pressed at his temple, coughed lightly a few times, and his face turned faintly pale.

Xie Xueyi immediately grabbed him in alarm and hurriedly took out a whole pile of porcelain medicine bottles from his ring. “Gege, gege, are you hurt…”

Gu Siyuan shook his head lightly. “Only a slight depletion of mental force. I’ll recover soon.”

Because of the fusion of two souls after transmigration, his spirit was naturally somewhat stronger than most others, which was why he could forcibly erase the soul imprint on Zhu Buming’s corpse-refining puppet.

But in the midst of such a rushed battle, it had still consumed quite a lot of him—especially when all three of his opponents were top-tier geniuses of this world.

Xie Xueyi looked at him with worried brows drawn together.

Gu Siyuan reached out and pinched his chin, saying mildly, “What are you spacing out for? It’s time to collect our gains now. Let’s hope they won’t disappoint us.”

At last Xie Xueyi smiled. In a spoiled tone he said, “Hmph. If gege had to waste mental energy for this and there’s nothing good in return, then killing them still won’t be enough. We’ll have to extract their souls and refine them into ghost slaves one by one to make up the debt.”

“Agreed. Good idea.” Gu Siyuan nodded indulgently.

He led Xie Xueyi over to stand before those few men, and almost instantly his usual cold sternness returned.

“What are you trying to do?” Deng Huan asked through a mouthful of blood, struggling as he spoke.

Xie Xueyi puffed out his cheeks and smiled beautifully. “Since you chose the second option gege gave you, then naturally we’re here to take your lives—and your storage rings—as agreed.”

Deng Huan, Zhu Buming, and the others changed expression sharply. Their faces, already pale from injury, now lost every last trace of color.

Xie Xueyi sneered. “You brought this on yourselves. If there’s a next life, be smarter.”

Gu Siyuan extended one hand, and the natal sword that had remained nearby after chasing Deng Huan alone returned to his grasp.

Deng Huan’s attitude changed at once. “Gu Siyuan, don’t kill us. Spare us just once. I’m the young master of Hehuan Sect, my father’s most favored and most promising son. If you kill me, once we’re out of the secret realm my father won’t let you go—”

Zhu Buming also hurriedly said, “Right, right, we’ll give you the rings, just don’t kill us. I’m my master’s most prized disciple. If you kill me, my master won’t let you go either. You’ll bring yourself endless trouble—”

Gu Siyuan’s eyes turned icier than ever.

Now he was even more firmly determined to kill the two of them.

Promising, were they?

Then if they stayed alive, when the great war between righteous and demonic paths came in the future, who knew how many righteous geniuses they would slaughter on the battlefield? In that case, wouldn’t cutting them off here be a tremendous blessing?

His sword began to rise—

But at that moment, Deng Huan suddenly pulled out something unknown and flung it toward the faces of Gu Siyuan and Xie Xueyi. Then, drawing on all the spiritual power in his body, he turned and fled at a speed meant purely to save his life.

Gu Siyuan flicked his sleeve, sending out a gust that instantly dispersed the powder.

Then sword light erupted from his hand. Before Deng Huan had even escaped a hundred meters, his fleeing body froze, then split cleanly in two at the waist, blood spraying across the wilds.

When Gu Siyuan turned back to look at Xie Xueyi, he saw that Xie Xueyi had just finished withdrawing his own sword, while Zhu Buming’s corpse lay at his feet.

The two looked at each other and smiled.

Gu Siyuan said, “Who knows what that powder Deng Huan threw just now was. Are you alright? Hurry and take an antidote pill.”

“Mm.” Xie Xueyi nodded, stuffed a pill into his mouth, and then turned excitedly to look at Ji Jinghuan and Xiao Xinchi nearby. He grinned. “Your turn now.”

Xiao Xinchi glared at them with a stricken face. “You’re really going to kill people just to seize treasures? You can’t kill us. Taixuan Immortal Sect’s rules state that killing fellow disciples without authorization is equivalent to betraying the sect.”

Xie Xueyi sneered. “What an idiot.”

At that moment, Ji Jinghuan’s eyes flickered, as though he had made up his mind about something, and one hand moved stealthily toward his storage ring.

Gu Siyuan’s gaze turned cold, and with his next sword strike he mercilessly slashed straight at Ji Jinghuan’s hand.

The danger came too suddenly. Ji Jinghuan instinctively tried to dodge, but how could he possibly be faster than Gu Siyuan’s sword?

Starting from the wrist, his entire left hand was cut off whole, dropping to the ground and rolling several times—and on the middle finger of that severed hand was still a storage ring.

“Ah—!” Ji Jinghuan let out the roar of a cornered beast, unable to believe it.

“Jinghuan!” Xiao Xinchi cried out in anguish.

In Ji Jinghuan’s right hand, however, was the token he had just taken out of the ring. “Gu Siyuan, I want your life!”

A burst of dazzling white light flashed, and a middle-aged man in purple robes stepped directly out of the token. At the same time, an overbearing pressure descended upon the area.

Xie Xueyi’s face instantly turned pale. Even Gu Siyuan felt distinctly uncomfortable.

With a sweep of his sleeve, the purple-robed cultivator changed the color of heaven and earth. The spiritual energy in the area whirled up like a storm and attacked Gu Siyuan and Xie Xueyi.

Taking advantage of that opening, Xiao Xinchi used some special talisman and vanished from the spot together with Ji Jinghuan.

Gu Siyuan had no time to deal with them for now. Sword strike after sword strike poured out from him, vast sword qi resisting the wave of spiritual force crashing down.

“Gege, this is a Nascent Soul incarnation!” Xie Xueyi stood beside him and said urgently. “Ji Jinghuan’s old ancestor truly dotes on him.”

A Nascent Soul incarnation was a technique where a Nascent Soul cultivator sealed a portion of their strength into a spirit artifact by special means. It was generally given to disciples or descendants for protection, to be activated by kindred spiritual energy in times of danger.

However, doing so actually caused a certain amount of damage to the Nascent Soul cultivator themselves, so few people used it.

After only a few exchanged sword strikes, Gu Siyuan could already feel his spiritual power running short.

To directly face a Nascent Soul—even if it was only part of a Nascent Soul’s power—was still somewhat too much for him at his current stage.

Golden Core and Nascent Soul were worlds apart.

He said to Xie Xueyi, “Get clear.”

Xie Xueyi immediately understood what he intended to do and at once used qinggong to dart away.

A flash ran across Gu Siyuan’s storage ring, and all the remaining black spirit bombs inside—roughly two or three hundred of them—were released and blasted toward that Nascent Soul incarnation.

“Boom—!”

A tremendous explosion followed.

Even the sky itself seemed to tremble.

Inside a secluded mountain cave somewhere, Ji Jinghuan was meditating while treating his wounds, one eye on the token beside him.

Then suddenly—

“Crack.”

With a crisp sound, the token shattered before his eyes.

Ji Jinghuan’s face immediately went pale, and he spat out a mouthful of blood.

Xiao Xinchi hurried anxiously to his side. “Jinghuan, what happened?”

Staring at the shattered fragments of the token, Ji Jinghuan’s eyes filled with hatred. “Damn it. Gu Siyuan actually survived. He even destroyed the old ancestor’s incarnation.”

And several hundred li away from them—

Xie Xueyi and Gu Siyuan had also entered a cave. After so many successive battles, Gu Siyuan’s spiritual power was already somewhat exhausted, and he needed to regulate his breathing and recover properly.

He did not know how much time had passed when he opened his eyes again.

The first thing he saw was a pair of bright, slightly reddened eyes.

“Gege…” Xie Xueyi lay across his knees, his cheeks flushed, his pale smooth forehead covered in fine beads of sweat, his breath warm and fragrant. “Gege, have you recovered yet… gege, I’m… so hot…”

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