Chapter 78: Borrowing the Soul Gu, a String of Unexpected Events

One hundred and eight talismans were linked together, thunder and fire complementing each other, wind serving as the guide. Lightning and scarlet flames enveloped the land, as though intent on annihilating the entire mountain wilderness.

Once shrouded by the talismans, Pei Huoyu hurled his final Breaking-Restriction Pearl.

Within the floating talismans, two were triggered and shot toward the pearl, quickly neutralizing themselves.

A deafening roar resounded.

The remaining talismans formed into a sequence—thirty-six above, seventy-two below—spinning as they pressed down upon Pei Huoyu.

“Five Elements Sword, go!”

Seeing the talismans descending, Pei Huoyu, forcing his spiritual power to flow, summoned a three-foot sword radiating five colors.

The Five Elements Sword burst forth with multicolored spiritual light, cleaving toward the talisman array.

Another thunderous crash!

From the lower tier of the talisman formation, a dozen talismans flew out, intercepting the sword’s energy and unleashing their own bursts of power.

“Go!” Shen Lian formed hand seals, and the remaining talismans spun, continuously shrinking their area of influence. Vast waves of thunder and fire, driven by howling winds, bore down upon Pei Huoyu.

Thunder rolled and echoed endlessly.

Facing such onslaught, Pei Huoyu used the Five Elements Sword to shield himself, but against the surging thunder and fire, he could withstand no more. The overwhelming energy crashed over him like a tidal wave.

With a metallic clang, the Five Elements Sword was flung aside after blocking the thunder and fire, and a bolt of falling lightning struck Pei Huoyu directly.

Crack!

A five-colored defensive barrier around his body shattered.

Pei Huoyu finally reached his limit—not only did the wounds on his chest tear open, but he coughed up mouthfuls of foul blood. In his weakened state, the Hundred-Spirit Poison began to show its effects.

Just as Shen Lian prepared to act again, ready to employ the Soul Capture Seal, Pei Huoyu, who was plummeting down, let out a furious howl.

“Come out!”

Clutching his head, Pei Huoyu rolled in midair, clearly suffering.

A sudden pulse—a blood-red light flashed. Above Pei Huoyu’s skull, the shadow of an insect, five inches long, materialized.

“A Borrowed Soul Gu!”

Shen Lian instantly recognized the creature.

This man had been poisoned with a Gu!

The insect shadow, cocoon-like, swiftly split open, from which emerged a three-inch-tall, phantom figure.

Damn it, there truly is someone behind him!

That cursed mouth!

...

“It’s you!”

Sensing the miniature figure on his head, Pei Huoyu clutched his head and roared in fury.

A direct disciple of Master Ziyang, known as the True Person of Azure Clouds.

He had suspected it was Master Ziyang who placed the restriction on him, but never imagined it was the old man’s disciple.

But at this point, it no longer mattered whether it was Ziyang or Azure Clouds. The distinction was meaningless.

No wonder he could not control himself, frequently slipping into bouts of madness. With something hidden in his sea of consciousness, how could he not be affected?

Shen Lian stood midair, forming seals as he commanded the talismans to attack Pei Huoyu without hesitation.

Gu-poisoned or not—even if he had mutated, he had to die today.

During his studies of beast-taming inheritance, there were some records about this insect.

It was called the Borrowed Soul Worm. It could hide in a person’s sea of consciousness, and when dormant, even if a cultivator introspected their own mind, they could not detect the worm.

As a weapon for covert harm, the Borrowed Soul Worm was favored by many cultivators, especially those skilled in Gu arts, who would go to great lengths to capture one.

In the hands of a Gu master, using wicked rituals, part of their own consciousness could be fused with the Borrowed Soul Worm, allowing it to hide in another cultivator’s mind.

There it would subtly blend with the host’s consciousness, unconsciously influencing their thoughts and behavior.

Ultimately, if the victim was gravely wounded and near death, the Borrowed Soul Gu could seize control of the host’s body.

This insect was insidious, though it had a fatal flaw: on its own, it lacked any significant offensive power.

The three-inch figure was clearly the consciousness of the one who had refined this Gu.

Thunder roared overhead as the talismans glowed, the powers of wind, fire, and thunder shrinking the circled area ever smaller.

Pei Huoyu crammed a handful of pills into his mouth, but the combined might of nearly a hundred talismans was terrifying. Already wounded, he was struck repeatedly by thunder and fire.

The mini figure atop his head swayed as well.

Shen Lian’s spiritual sense extended outward, ready to employ the Soul Capture Seal at the moment of the final blow, to seize Pei Huoyu’s memories.

To be pursued hundreds of thousands of miles by a mere Foundation Establishment cultivator—he was both surprised and impressed.

He hadn’t expected an extra three-inch figure as a bonus.

And it was clear the two were acquainted.

The tiny figure swept its divine sense across the thunder, wind, and fire, its mental waves hesitant and sluggish.

“Release your sea of consciousness, or you will die with no burial place!”

“Then we’ll die together!”

Pei Huoyu was struck again, blood streaming from his body, but his eyes were suddenly much clearer.

“Haha... So that’s why I could escape alive—it was you all along, manipulating things from behind.”

“Bian Qingyun, it’s you after all. Ruthless as ever.”

“You just want the Five Elements Mountain, don’t you?”

“The Five Elements Mountain is in the hands of the one outside—go claim it yourself!”

“You and that old dog Ziyang are cut from the same cloth—bullies who cower in fear when faced with real strength. Who knows where you’re hiding now, trembling?”

“Pei Huoyu, you court death!”

The three-inch figure cursed in fury, but was powerless.

The Gu’s soul imprint was limited; it could only seize control of the host’s body but couldn’t act independently.

“So you’re also afraid that old dog Ziyang isn’t dead, and want to use my hands to refine the Five-Colored Stone into a magical artifact.”

Blood-soaked and battered, Pei Huoyu laughed bitterly, charging straight into the descending thunder.

He had thought himself lucky, but in the end, he was merely a pawn.

The talisman formation’s power was overwhelming. Though he struggled to withstand it several times, he’d reached his limit.

Grievously wounded and possessed by the soul Gu, Pei Huoyu’s spirit broke all at once.

“The forerunner refines the artifact, the successor reaps the reward, and there are always successors behind... ha ha...”

“Bian Qingyun... you two... ha ha... I’ll be waiting for you below...”

“Pei Huoyu!”

As Pei Huoyu prepared to perish with the falling thunder, the three-inch figure erupted in pitch-black light and dove into Pei Huoyu’s sea of consciousness.

The opportunity was at hand, fleeting and precious.

He’d intended to use Pei Huoyu to refine the Five-Colored Stone into a magical device.

Master Ziyang was cunning and had faked his death more than once.

To secure the Five-Colored Stone artifact peacefully, he had to take another path.

Once Pei Huoyu finished refining it, at the moment of his death, the controller could seize his body and hide deep in the mountains.

Once he was sure the old man was truly dead, he would use another cultivated Borrowed Soul Gu to find the hiding place and claim the Five Elements artifact.

It was a clever plan. But he hadn’t expected Pei Huoyu to be forced to such extremes, trapped under a hundred talismans, with no way to escape.

Thunder crashed.

The talismans engulfed Pei Huoyu completely.

At the same time, ripples stirred in Shen Lian’s sea of consciousness—a ferocious, pale-purple demon’s visage flashed into being.

Thunder battered the earth.

Pei Huoyu’s form was struck by endless lightning and fire; spiritual energy pierced his body, and the light gradually faded from his eyes.

Within his sea of consciousness—

A monstrous demon charged in, plunging into the collapsing sea and voraciously devouring the remaining consciousness.

With three long, razor-sharp claws, it pinned the chubby white insect writhing in the mind’s depths and swallowed it whole.

The Borrowed Soul Gu struggled in vain, but the demon mercilessly crushed it, grinding it to fragments within its body.

Amidst the thunderous explosions, the erupting lightning and fire shattered the surrounding mountains. As the storm faded, Pei Huoyu’s broken bones fell from the sky.