Activating the Guiyin Water Thunder Formation

Gu Yang knocked the three iron corpses back with a few punches and led them toward the deeper parts of the forbidden ground's outer ring.

...

In the dark and deep corridor, only the heavy "thud, thud, thud" of footsteps echoed, like a death-knell drumbeat.

Gu Yang moved like lightning, darting through the intricate walls of bone.

He didn't use his full strength to shake off the three peak Rank Two iron corpses behind him; instead, he maintained a teasing distance.

It was as if he were walking dogs.

"Roar—!"

The iron corpses behind him let out furious roars, their massive horse-chopping sabers scraping against the narrow corridor walls, sending out a dazzling trail of sparks.

They had no intelligence, only the most primal craving for the flesh and blood of the living.

This slippery human was right in front of their mouths, yet they couldn't bite him. This instinctive frustration made their already scarlet eye sockets look as if they were about to drip blood.

Gu Yang glanced back.

"Keep up."

...

At a branch hall node in the outer ring.

A massive space with a circular dome.

Eight bronze pillars, each thick enough to require three people to embrace, stood around the perimeter. The pillars were carved with ferocious ghost faces, and the mouths of the ghost faces held ever-burning lamps.

At this moment, this branch hall was not deserted.

More than a dozen cultivators in various attires were gathered in the center. They looked like a temporary alliance of rogue cultivators, but their positioning was actually extremely deliberate.

Surrounded in the middle was an old Daoist with a withered face and deeply sunken eye sockets.

He held a dark red compass in his hand and was muttering words.

Beside him stood a young man wearing a black cloak.

Although the cloak covered most of his face, with that incredibly gloomy aura, who else could it be but Mo Bufan?

"How much longer?"

Mo Bufan kept his voice very low, carrying a trace of impatience.

"Young Master, please be patient."

The old Daoist known as Daoist Xueku did not look up. His voice was as hoarse as two bones rubbing against each other. "The array patterns in this place are a bit strange. They seem to have been distorted by shifts in the earth's veins. The gate of life has become the gate of death, and the gate of death has become the gate of life... This old Daoist needs a little time to deduce it."

"Deduce?"

Mo Bufan sneered, his fingers lightly stroking the newly grown demonic arm hidden in his sleeve. "The monsters in the outer ring have been mostly cleared out. If those hypocrites from the Righteous Path Alliance get ahead of us and ruin the Demon Venerable's grand plan..."

He suddenly looked up, revealing a pair of bloodshot eyes. "You should know the consequences."

Daoist Xueku's withered hand trembled slightly, and he quickly offered an apologetic smile. "Rest assured, Young Master. Only we know the direction to enter the inner hall of the forbidden ground. Those fools will only be blinded by the treasure lights in the outer ring and will never find the real entrance."

As they were speaking.

"Squeltch."

A "rogue cultivator" responsible for keeping watch suddenly swung his blade, chopping a carrion rat that darted out from the dark into two halves.

Black blood splattered.

The cultivator flicked the blood off his blade in disgust. "Such bad luck, it's all just unrated filthy things."

"Be careful."

Someone next to him warned, "This place is very wicked."

This group of people were precisely the elite disciples planted by the Blood River Sect.

Although they disguised themselves as rogue cultivators, the murderous aura of their tacit cooperation could not be concealed at all.

Gu Yang was hiding in a shaded corner a hundred meters away. He circulated his breath-concealing technique to the extreme, making his whole person seem to turn into a patch of moss on the wall.

His gaze swept over the group.

Three at the late stage of Foundation Establishment, eight at the middle stage.

And an unfathomable early-stage Golden Core "Daoist Xueku".

...

Gu Yang's line of sight shifted and landed on the passage entrance on the other side of the branch hall.

There, two figures were also preparing to leave quietly.

A man and a woman.

The man had a pale face and was nervously biting his nails.

The woman had a voluptuous figure, her silver ornaments clinking.

It was Li Qingzhe and the controlled Lan Caidie.

At this moment, Lan Caidie's condition was even more bizarre than when she was outside.

Her originally soul-snatching fox eyes had completely lost their focus, her pupils dilated, making her look like an exquisite but hollow doll.

At the joints of her limbs, a few extremely thin translucent threads could be vaguely seen, connecting to Li Qingzhe's fingers.

Every time Li Qingzhe moved his fingers, Lan Caidie's body would follow with stiff yet precise movements.

"Hehe... good baby."

As Li Qingzhe walked, he reached out and viciously pinched Lan Caidie's exposed waist. His nails dug into her soft flesh, leaving a dark purple bruise.

Lan Caidie had no reaction, not even a frown. She continued to follow him numbly.

"Once I get the Concentric Gu... I'll completely refine you into my natal Gu."

"By then, we'll truly 'merge into one'... hehehe..."

Li Qingzhe's laughter was low and twisted, sounding exceptionally grating in this eerie environment.

The two of them walked very quickly, seemingly also avoiding the Blood River Sect group. They were creeping along the shaded area at the edge of the branch hall toward a secluded corridor in the southeast direction.

Gu Yang's brain worked rapidly.

"I'll come collect your 20 Destiny Points later."

Gu Yang shifted his gaze back to the interior of the side hall.

He glanced at the Blood River Sect group standing in the center of the main hall.

Right above them was an activatable mechanism, the "Gui Water Yin Thunder Array".

He then looked at the bronze pillar closest to him.

The ghost face lamp on that pillar was one of the trigger points for the mechanism.

"Thud, thud, thud."

The footsteps behind him were getting closer.

The three iron corpses had caught up, and the pungent stench of rotting corpses blew in with the wind.

Finish it within three breaths.

Gu Yang took a deep breath.

First breath.

A cluster of ghostly blue "Nine Nether Soul-Locking Flame" ignited on his fingertips once again.

Second breath.

He darted out like a phantom, but he didn't charge toward the center of the hall. Instead, he slid close to the wall toward the area near that bronze pillar.

The Blood River Sect disciples on watch instantly noticed.

"Who's there?!"

"We have a rat!"

Several streams of divine sense instantly swept over.

Mo Bufan whipped his head around, his gaze as sharp as a falcon.

However, it was too late.

Third breath.

Gu Yang raised his hand and waved, shooting a streak of blue firelight at the extinguished wick of the ghost face lamp.

The ghostly blue flame was instantly injected.

"Click."

A crisp sound of gears engaging seemed exceptionally abrupt in this silent hall.

Immediately after.

The ghost face on the bronze pillar seemed to come alive.

Its bronze-cast eyeballs abruptly rolled around, and then it bizarrely curled the corners of its mouth, revealing a mocking smile.

"Hum—"

On the ground, the patterns on the bluestone floor tiles, which had originally been worn down by time to the point of being nearly invisible, suddenly lit up.

It was not a bright spiritual light.

Instead, a layer of thick, impenetrable black water seeped out from the cracks in the floor tiles.

A hair-raising aura of chilling destruction instantly enveloped the entire center of the hall.

Daoist Xueku's expression changed drastically, and the compass in his hand shattered with a crack.

"Not good! It's the Gui Water Yin Thunder! Retreat immediately!"