Longevity: Starting as a menial servant in the Green Wood Sect

Rumble!

A muffled, thunderous roar echoed through the underground cavern. The blood pool, which had been murky and churning with purplish-black poisonous bubbles, was now being violently stirred by an invisible hand, forming a bottomless, enormous vortex.

At the center of the vortex, the Nine Dragons Demon-Suppressing Cauldron, which had been dormant for three hundred years, suddenly erupted with a dazzling azure light that changed the color of the heavens and earth.

The light was no longer the faint flicker of before, but rather like a volcano that had been accumulating for thousands of years erupting in a single day, carrying an ancient, desolate, and extremely domineering dragon's might, instantly breaking through the layers of restrictive light curtains above the blood pool.

"hold head high--!!!"

Nine deafening dragon roars rang out simultaneously, the sound waves spreading outwards like tangible ripples.

Those Corpse Puppet Sect disciples who were originally gathered around the blood pool, frantically trying to repair the formation, were caught off guard by the dragon's roar. Before they could even scream, their bodies shattered like porcelain, and then exploded into a cloud of blood mist with a bang.

Even the Foundation Establishment stage elders were shocked by this sudden change, their blood and qi surged, their protective spiritual light trembled violently, and they had no choice but to retreat in terror.

"What's going on?! Why has the cauldron spirit fully awakened?!"

The gray-robed elder's face was deathly pale, his eyes filled with disbelief.

Just then, a figure enveloped in a dense blue light shot into the sky from the boiling blood pool vortex like a cannonball!

That's Gu An.

At this moment, his clothes were torn to shreds, revealing a muscular upper body covered in cyan-gold patterns—temporary protective runes formed on his body by the fusion of his Wood True Qi and Dragon Qi. His long hair danced wildly, and his eyes flashed with cyan light, making him resemble a Wood War God emerging from ancient mythology. The intertwined aura of malevolence and vitality surrounding him forcefully repelled the surrounding bloodthirsty aura.

"Shen Wan!"

Gu An, who was in mid-air, let out a loud shout.

His gaze instantly locked onto an inconspicuous shadow in the corner of the cave—the spot where he had previously sent Shen Wan to lie in wait using telepathy.

With his shout, the shadow twisted violently.

A red figure shot out like an arrow, it was Shen Wan who had been preparing for a long time. Although her face was still pale, her eyes were frighteningly bright, and she tightly gripped the broken jade pendant that Gu An had given her, which was imbued with the aura of the Nine Dragon Cauldron.

"then!"

While in mid-air, Gu Anren swung his right hand sharply, and a long, cyan spiritual energy rope was instantly thrown out, precisely wrapping around Shen Wan's waist.

Then, he exerted force with his arm and, using the momentum of his forward thrust, actually pulled Shen Wan into the air and threw him hard at the mouth of the Nine Dragon Cauldron, which was floating in the center of the blood pool and spewing blue flames!

"You lunatics! What do you want to do?!"

The scarred foreman below finally realized what was happening and felt a chill run down his spine as he watched this scene.

The Nine Dragon Cauldron is a dead zone connected to the earth's veins, yin fire, and spatial turbulence. A living person who enters will be instantly shredded to pieces. Are these two trying to commit suicide?

However, Shen Wan's movements in the air were unusually light.

Just as she was about to fall into the cauldron, her hands frantically formed hand seals like butterflies flitting among flowers, and she uttered a string of obscure and incomprehensible ancient syllables.

"Using the power of Heaven and Earth, with the Wood element as the guide, the Dragon Soul returns to its place, and the teleportation begins!"

As the last word fell, the broken jade pendant in her hand suddenly shattered, turning into specks of starlight that merged into the cauldron.

hum!

The Nine Dragon Cauldron trembled violently.

The nine bronze dragon shadows that had been spewing out their breath haphazardly seemed to receive some kind of command. They all turned their heads around and stopped attacking. Instead, they joined together, forming a rapidly rotating blue halo above the mouth of the cauldron.

Inside the halo, space began to distort violently, and countless star-like runes could be vaguely seen flashing and jumping within it.

Spatial passage!

"Oh no! That's a teleportation array! They're trying to escape!"

The gray-robed elder, a man of great experience, immediately recognized the origin of the halo. His eyes widened in fury. "Stop them! We cannot let them take away the secret of the Nine Dragon Cauldron!"

"How dare you, you brat!!!"

Just then, a furious roar filled with boundless rage and murderous intent, like a thunderbolt descending from the heavens, pierced through the thick rock layer and exploded throughout the cave.

Boom!

The rock wall above the cave collapsed without warning.

A colossal hand, the size of a house and entirely composed of viscous blood plasma, tearing through the earth with a terrifying, suffocating pressure, hurtled towards Gu An and the Nine Dragon Cauldron, which were suspended in mid-air!

Late foundation building!

Li Tianxing, the deputy sect leader of the Blood Blade Sect!

He finally made his move.

The power of this palm strike sealed off all the surrounding space, even causing the air to explode from the compression.

Gu An felt his bones cracking and popping, as if a mountain was pressing down on his shoulders. His spiritual power, which had just broken through to the fifth level of Qi Refining, was as shaky as a candle flame in the face of this pressure, and even moving a finger became extremely difficult.

This is the crushing power of a higher realm!

In the face of such a powerful figure, all skills and calculations seem pale and powerless.

"Three breaths!"

Shen Wan, who had already fallen to the edge of the cauldron and was doing his best to maintain the formation's operation, let out a trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth and shouted mournfully, "The formation needs three breaths to fully activate! Stop him!"

Three breaths!

Time that usually passes in the blink of an eye now feels like three centuries.

Gu An's eye sockets ruptured, and blood flowed down his cheeks, but a mad flame burned in his blue eyes.

Block? Block with what?

I'll risk my life to stop them!

"Old ghost! If you want my life, you'll have to break two of your teeth too!"

Gu An roared, no longer holding back.

He slammed both hands on the storage pouch at his waist, his divine sense surging out like a storm.

Splash!

Hundreds of low-level talismans—fireball talismans, ice cone talismans, vajra talismans, explosion talismans…—flew out like a rain of flowers. These were all the treasures he had accumulated over the years, and now he detonated them all as if they were free!

"Explode! Explode! Explode!"

Boom boom boom boom boom!

Multicolored magical light exploded in mid-air. Although the power of a single spell was not great, the spiritual energy turbulence generated by the simultaneous explosion of hundreds of talismans actually managed to block the giant blood-red hand that was grabbing at them for a moment.

But that's not enough!

The giant crimson hand paused only slightly before scattering the countless talismans and continuing its downward grasp.

"go!"

A flicker of pain crossed Gu An's eyes, and he shook his hand away again.

This time, what flew out were more than a dozen jade bottles with sealing talismans and black iron balls.

That's a concentrated form of "Tai Sui Mist," a "high-level bone-corroding poison," and a Yin Lei Zi (a type of poison) bought from the black market!

Bang bang bang!

Poisonous fog filled the air, and dark thunder roared.

The entire cave instantly turned into a highly poisonous swamp.

Although the giant blood-red hand was powerful, when it came into contact with these highly toxic substances that specifically defiled spiritual energy, its surface emitted a "sizzling" corrosive sound, and the originally solid blood light dimmed a bit.

One breath left!

Li Tianxing's true form had already passed through the rock strata and appeared above the cave.

He looked at Gu An, who was still putting up a stubborn resistance, his eyes filled with cruelty and mockery, as if he were looking at a slightly stronger ant.

"A mere trick! Die!"

Li Tianxing pressed down with one hand, and the giant blood-red hand suddenly accelerated, its five fingers closing together, about to crush Gu An along with the Nine Dragon Cauldron.

There's no way to avoid it!

Gu An was still three zhang away from the mouth of the cauldron. Under this pressure, those three zhang were an insurmountable barrier.

"Aaaaah! Open it!"

Gu An roared to the sky, and the Yi Wood True Qi within his body, which had just merged with the dragon's energy, burned wildly.

Instead of attacking Li Tianxing, he did something that surprised everyone.

He suddenly pulled out the black token he had tricked from the Corpse Puppet Sect disciple, as well as the second-tier corpse pill he had dug out from the armored corpse.

"Dragon's Might! Corpse Fiend! Chaos ensues!"

Gu An poured all his spiritual power into the two items and then slammed them hard towards the "Ironclad Corpse Forest" that was originally used to guard the cave!

The dragon's might from the Nine Dragon Cauldron, mixed with the baleful aura of the high-level corpse pill, created an extremely strange fluctuation at this moment.

This fluctuation might be just a suppression for the living, but for those armored zombies who have no intelligence and act only on instinct, it is the strongest provocation and summons!

"roar--!!!"

"Roar roar roar—!!!"

In an instant, the hundreds of armored corpses that had been motionless around the cave seemed to be stimulated from the depths of their souls, and they all let out a deafening roar.

The red light in their eyes suddenly surged, breaking free of their chains. Like a pack of mad beasts, they charged toward the center of the cave without distinguishing friend from foe!

Even the few second-tier armored zombies that had been guarding the shadows lost control under the stimulation of this fluctuation.

confusion!

Absolute chaos!

The horde of hundreds of armored corpses, impervious to swords and spears, instantly overwhelmed the defenses of the Corpse Puppet Sect disciples and disrupted Li Tianxing's aura lock.

"Damn it! How could these beasts have gone out of control?!"

Li Tianxing's expression changed. The blood-red giant hand that was originally grabbing Gu An had to divert some of its power to suppress the second-tier armored corpses that were rushing towards him.

That one moment of distraction!

My last breath!

"Walk!"

Taking advantage of the spiritual energy disorder caused by the zombie horde, Gu An suddenly shrank his body and used the "Corpse Escape" secret technique recorded in the "Corpse Control Technique". His whole body turned into a gray afterimage and instantly crossed the last three zhang distance.

He plunged headfirst into the azure halo of the Nine Dragon Cauldron!

"Where do you think you're going!"

Upon seeing this, Li Tianxing was furious.

Ignoring the zombies rushing at him, he moved swiftly and instantly appeared above the mouth of the cauldron.

That withered, claw-like hand, carrying a terrifying power capable of tearing through space, viciously grabbed at Gu An's back.

Her fingertips had even touched Gu Anfei's hair!

The chilling sensation of death sent shivers down Gu An's spine.

But at this very moment...

"Buzz—"

The Nine Dragon Cauldron emitted a mournful hum.

The nine azure dragons on the cauldron seemed to have exhausted their last bit of strength, and they all spat out a mouthful of blood essence.

The cyan halo instantly contracted, transforming into an extremely dazzling pillar of light that shot straight into the sky!

Li Tianxing's hand grasped at empty air.

He only caught a glimpse of Gu An's afterimage and a few strands of black hair severed by the strong wind.

"No--!!!"

Li Tianxing let out a roar of resentment.

The cyan beam of light, carrying Gu An and Shen Wan, ignored all the surrounding restrictions and blockades, pierced through the void, and disappeared into thin air.

Only an empty cauldron, its luster faded and its light dimmed, remained, falling with a clatter into the blood pool, stirring up a sea of ​​blood.

The person ran away.

The cauldron is now ruined.

The entire cave was deathly silent.

Only the out-of-control armored corpses continued to emit low growls.

Li Tianxing hovered in mid-air, looking at the empty blood pool. His withered face twitched violently, and his eyes were bloodshot.

He, a dignified late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator and the vice sect leader of the Blood Blade Sect, was actually tricked by two Qi Refining juniors right under his nose!

Not only did they destroy the sacrificial ceremony and ruin the Nine Dragon Cauldron, they even let them escape!

This is an utter disgrace!

"Ahhhhh!"

Li Tianxing roared to the sky, his blood energy erupting like a volcano.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

A terrifying storm of spiritual energy swept through the entire cave.

Those armored corpses that were still going berserk were instantly crushed into dust by this storm.

The surrounding rock walls began to collapse, and huge rocks rained down like raindrops.

"Investigate! Even if you have to chase them to the ends of the earth, bring those two little bastards back to me! I'll tear their souls apart and haunt them forever, so they can never be reincarnated!!!"

Li Tianxing's roar, accompanied by the sound of half the mine collapsing, echoed for a long time deep underground.

……

at the same time.

Thousands of miles away.

Above a desolate primeval forest.

The space suddenly twisted violently, and a streak of cyan light fell like a meteor.

"Bang!"

The sunlight struck a muddy puddle overgrown with weeds, splashing up a large amount of muddy water.

Two figures rolled out in a disheveled state.

Gu An lay in the muddy water, vomiting profusely. The dizziness brought on by the spatial teleportation made him feel as if his internal organs had been turned into a paste.

But he dared not stop for even a moment.

He endured the excruciating pain, struggled to his feet, and cautiously looked around.

This is an unfamiliar dense forest, with ancient trees reaching for the sky and a pervasive demonic aura, clearly far from the territory of the Green Wood Sect.

"I...I survived..."

Gu An plopped down on the ground, looking at his still slightly trembling hands, a bitter smile of relief spreading across his face.

He turned to look at his side.

Shen Wan lay quietly in the grass, her eyes closed, her face deathly pale, and her breath extremely weak. Forcibly activating the teleportation array had nearly exhausted all her energy.

Gu An crawled over and checked her breathing.

still alive.

As long as you're alive, that's enough.

He took out a Rejuvenation Pill from his storage bag and stuffed it into Shen Wan's mouth. Then he lay back on the damp grass, looking at the dappled sky above his head, which was obscured by the leaves.

He risked everything in this battle.

He offended the Blood Blade Sect, the Corpse Puppet Sect, and even the Green Wood Sect probably considers him a dead man or a traitor.

Now, he truly has enemies all over the world and is homeless.

But so what?

Gu An touched his chest, where a heart was beating strongly.

Within his dantian, the Yi Wood True Qi, fused with dragon energy, was radiating vitality, signifying his cultivation at the fifth level of Qi Refining.

"For mortals to cultivate immortality is to defy the heavens and fight against fate."

Gu An closed his eyes, a defiant smile curving his lips.

"As long as you don't die, you'll eventually have your day."