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Chapter 132: Chapter 129: Quelling the Situation
"Boom!"
Gu Jinlai’s figure, following the inertia, landed heavily on the ground.
The weight of thousands of catties caused the ground within several meters to crack instantly, with layers of stone chips scattering and then being swept away by the rolling waves of Qi.
Gu Jinlai shook the fresh blood off the War Sword in his hand and looked towards a distant courtyard.
In the courtyard, Sha Wujin seemed to sense his gaze, his face turned pale, and he immediately sheathed his flying sword.
A wise man does not stand under a dangerous wall.
He didn’t even dare to make eye contact with Gu Jinlai and took off running towards the outskirts of the city at top speed, disappearing hundreds of meters away in the blink of an eye.
Gu Jinlai moved his feet slightly but ultimately stopped.
His movement technique was direct, specializing in explosive charges across barren and even terrain.
In an urban environment as complex as this...
He couldn’t catch up with Sha Wujin.
For a Divinity Transformation Cultivator, most of their strength is invested in Sword Control Technique.
Strictly speaking, Sword Control Technique is a method of assassination that relies on distance to kill an enemy from miles away.
To maximize this distance advantage, almost every Divinity Transformation Cultivator prioritizes the cultivation of their movement technique, beyond Sword Control Technique.
Therefore, any who reach Divinity Transformation are never poor in terms of movement technique.
Gu Jinlai "watched" as Sha Wujin fled, and behind him, Gu Luochen came rushing over, "Patriarch..."
"Elder Tan Qingquan was ambushed by Venerable Daoist Ye Yiren of the Taihe Sword Sect, both perished together, and Elder Sha Wujin has fled Baihe City. To prevent Baihe City from falling into headless chaos, I, Golden Robed Elder Gu Jinlai, will take charge," Gu Jinlai declared without hesitation, and then instructed Gu Luochen, "Take the city! Before Gu Chaoyang leads the army here, no one enters or leaves Baihe City."
"Yes!"
Gu Luochen responded loudly to the command.
While Gu Jinlai planned to brush off the matter with the Purgatory Sect in this fashion, he himself headed to the location of the City Lord Mansion.
There was a surging crowd here, utter chaos.
As soon as Gu Jinlai arrived, a Hugging Pill Master boldly approached, bowed and said, "Elder Gu, this matter is not our..."
"Rumble!"
Before he could finish, Gu Jinlai suddenly accelerated.
Movement technique—Crossing the World.
"Elder Gu, spare..."
The Hugging Pill Master suddenly cried out in panic, trying to withdraw and fly away.
But facing Gu Jinlai, who possessed a Great Demon Body, still maintained his Great Sun True Demon Body state, and had cultivated his Martial Arts to the level of transformation, how could he escape?
"Boom!"
The Void trembled.
Gang Qi and True Qi burst forth.
The Hugging Pill Master was obliterated, armor and all, by a single sword strike.
"A Red Name dares to flaunt themselves before me."
Gu Jinlai leapt onto the mansion roof, looking down from a high vantage point, surveying the surroundings.
Then, he locked onto several targets, charged into the crowd, and set off a bloody storm.
And those who died by his sword...
There were those refining god, hugging pill, and even some at the Gang Condensation and Qi Refinement stages.
This indiscriminate slaughter without any "pattern" led the protector and steward cultivators of the Purgatory Sect stationed in Baihe City to believe that Gu Jinlai was going to massacre the entire city. One by one, they screamed in terror and fled toward the outskirts of the city.
Even some protector cultivators of the Purgatory Sect who originally wanted to submit to Elder Gu Jinlai, the Golden Robed Elder, were no exception.
Half a day later, Baihe City had outwardly calmed down after the chaos.
Even though the population of Baihe City alone was over a million, when Gu Luochen, Gu Qingmei, and ten others, each wielding a "Thunder" Gatling Gun, took up the highest positions, intimidating the surrounding kilometer, and began firing without hesitation, killing hundreds who took the opportunity to cause trouble, the city had no choice but to be quiet.
After all, having just gone through a round of turmoil, the real troublemakers had been hunted down in batches, and the remaining people were relatively honest.
...
City Lord Mansion.
Gu Jinlai listened to Gu Luochen’s report with a hint of surprise on his face, "Baihe City has been taken just like that?"
"It has been taken," Gu Luochen nodded, "To my knowledge, the high-pressure policy that the Purgatory Sect had adopted during their occupation of Baihe City included curfews most nights. Therefore, when the citizens sensed the impending chaos, they immediately hid in their homes, shutting their doors and staying inside. This greatly reduced the difficulty for us to maintain order."
Gu Jinlai listened and though somewhat surprised, felt it made sense.
With the chaos evident in Star State, ordinary people had no choice but to be more watchful to survive.
And indeed, he had carried his sword and wandered through the city for hours, from east to west.
Anyone whose karma was as apparent as blood, known for their heinous crimes, became souls under his sword, bodies torn apart.
With those true "evildoers" no longer able to stir up trouble, even though the likes of Gu Luochen were few in number, they still quickly suppressed the situation in Baihe City.
Of course, his identity as a Golden Robed Elder played a pivotal role.
The grievances between Gu Jinlai and the upper echelons of the Purgatory Sect were limited to the level of elders. To most stewards, and even protectors, Gu Jinlai was the powerful and prestigious Golden Robed Elder of the Purgatory Sect.
Stewards and protectors were the same, let alone the four thousand elite soldiers and six thousand troops guarding Baihe City.
The two elders had a conflict due to their disagreement, what right did these soldiers have to intervene?
And these soldiers had not yet entered the city, so Baihe City couldn’t descend into chaos even if it wanted to.
"If I’m not mistaken, Xue Wuqing must have infiltrated the military camp, waiting for an opportunity to act. I’ll take Qingmei and four others there. You organize the materials in Baihe City and make a list,"
said Gu Jinlai.
"Venerable Daoist is only taking five people?"
Gu Luochen was startled, then, as if feeling he was suspecting the Patriarch’s capabilities, he quickly added, "There aren’t many bullets left in the short range defense cannons..."
"It’s enough."
Gu Jinlai responded, carrying two short range defense cannons, and headed straight to the camp located to the north of the city.
At that moment, the military camp was also somewhat chaotic.
A few hours ago, the former City Lord of Baihe, Xue Wuqing, had arrived at the camp, moving troops around as if facing a formidable enemy.
But he didn’t dare to lead those four thousand elites and six thousand soldiers to attack the City Lord Mansion and take back Baihe City.
Because...
The "Thunder" and "Red" Slaughter Spirit Artifacts in Gu Jinlai’s hands were too terrifying.
If bullets were to sweep through, the brave and fearless soldiers would fall batch by batch like wheat being harvested.
It was wishful thinking to imagine that they could surround and kill Gu Jinlai like they would other Refining God, even Divinity Transformation Great Cultivators, by using a numerical advantage.
Thus, even though he had taken refuge in the military camp and had many elders, protectors, and stewards who had also fled there with him, he only dared to hunker down and not leave, defending the camp to the death.
At the same time, he sent out Beast Taming signals at the fastest speed to seek help from the Purgatory Sect, waiting for the next move.
...
"How could this be, how could this be, Senior Brother, he..."
Xue Wuqing was sitting in the camp, somewhat despondent.
Thousands of elite soldiers surrounded him in the center, but he still felt no sense of security.
Also in a state of panic was Zhou Yunyi, who, after defecting to Gu Jinlai from Changjun City, couldn’t get by under the suppression of City Lord Zhao Yuhua and had retreated to Baihe.
"How could Elder Tan be defeated? His flying sword has the ’tenacity’ trait; it shouldn’t have been easily destroyed... and along with Ye Yiren’s interference on the side, how could they still not deal with Gu Jinlai?"
Zhou Yunyi said with a worried face.
"I don’t know."
Xue Wuqing was somewhat bewildered.
Tan Qingquan particularly asked him, and others, to investigate Gu Jinlai.
According to the investigation, Gu Jinlai managed to fend off Wuchenzi and the White Elephant of the Cold Moon Sect in Sunset City, but to be precise, it was because they were unwilling to pay too high a price to continue clashing with him.
At that time, Gu Jinlai had already been severely injured by Wuchenzi’s Shadow Sword and was on the brink of death. If Wuchenzi were to strike with one more sword, there was a high probability he could have killed Gu Jinlai on the spot.
However, Wuchenzi was worried his own flying sword’s piercing defense would not suffice and might get shredded by the Slaughter Spirit Artifact in Gu Jinlai’s hands. Therefore, he chose plan B—loot all the resources of Sunset City.
This time, his brother Tan Qingquan, whose flying sword Bai Xi possessed both Breaking the Sky and Tenacity traits.
Ye Yiren’s flying sword also had the Breaking the Sky trait, making the probability of killing Gu Jinlai extremely high, not to mention they had many preparations in advance.
However, it seemed as if Gu Jinlai had anticipated their location, heading straight for the tower where Tan Qingquan and Ye Yiren were, rendering all the preparations useless as they were forced into close-quarters combat.
Thinking of this, Xue Wuqing’s gaze became focused, and then he slammed the table with force, "There’s a traitor!"
He stood up abruptly, "Otherwise, there’s no explanation for how Gu Jinlai could act so decisively and directly target Senior Brother Tan’s location."
"A traitor..."
Zhou Yunyi looked at Xue Wuqing with a somewhat strange expression, "The specifics of your plan were only known to you, Elder Tan, and Ye Yiren. Now that both Elder Tan and Ye Yiren are dead..."
In other words, if there truly was a traitor, that traitor could only be...
Xue Wuqing also realized he had been confused.
He couldn’t possibly be the traitor.
So...
"Gu Jinlai possesses a special method that allows him to accurately detect the whereabouts of Divinity Transformation Great Cultivators,"
declared Xue Wuqing with emphasis.
Then, as if something struck him, he suddenly said, "Back in the battle of Starlight City, it seemed as if Gu Jinlai sensed something, withdrawing early from the huge vortex that was Starlight City. Although it seemed he was focused on taking down Heavenly Grass Pavilion, his departure after the mission was smooth and logical. But when you think about it, someone mysteriously informed us of the Star State Capital’s plans beforehand..."
A glint of light flashed in his eyes, "Could it be that he had a way to detect the hidden Divinity Transformation Great Cultivators, and upon realizing people from Dragon Sparrow Manor had laid an ambush in Starlight City early on, he figured out it was a powder keg, so he attacked Heavenly Grass Pavilion first, then swiftly extracted himself?"
"That..."
Zhou Yunyi found it hard to believe.
But if he thought about it carefully, it was very likely.
"I also connected to the Star State matter based on the ’traitor’ key point. Why are Dragon Sparrow Manor and the Star State Mansion at such odds? It’s because each side believes the other betrayed them!"
Xue Wuqing sneered, "Send this message to the State Mansion right away."
"Will they believe something without evidence?"
Zhou Yunyi asked, puzzled.
"They don’t need to believe it."
Xue Wuqing glanced in the direction of Starlight City, "As long as we give them a direction, so that they lean towards targeting Changjun City and Lingxiao City when choosing their breakthrough tactics, that’s sufficient."
