This fireball was darker in color and stronger in power, like a blob of flowing magma.
It was not at all like those small fireballs of the Foundation Establishment stage that Gu Changhuai remembered. But how could Gu Changhuai fail to recognize it?
After all, the very first time he had tracked down Mo Hua had been because of those dozen human traffickers burned to death outside Qingzhou City by fireballs.
This black-robed cultivator... was Mo Hua?!
Gu Changhuai looked at the black-robed figure whom Venerable Green Face respectfully called "Master," his heart shaken.
Was this kid really so formidable? He was everywhere. Even here, in the turbulent Qingchou Province, within this heretical maze of a forest, he had managed to come straight to him.
That was more than the weird "formidable" could ever describe.
Before Gu Changhuai could think further, Mo Hua's fireball was already flying at his face.
Gu Changhuai's eyes chilled. He dared not be careless. He immediately activated his Wind-Step movement technique and dodged the fireball. The fireball exploded behind him, and a strange, scorching heat spread outward, the lingering might of it unsettling one's heart.
Gu Changhuai's heart tightened. After so many years, Mo Hua's fireball art had actually "evolved" to this level. And this was only the most basic fireball spell, one cast with a wave of the hand. He remembered clearly that Mo Hua had even fiercer fireballs.
On the other side, Venerable Green Face looked confused.
Just a fireball art?
What was this Master doing? Wasn't he an Unorthodox cultivator? He did not use gu sorcery, incantation arts, invocation arts, yansheng magic, or jiangtou spells. He only used a fireball.
What was that supposed to mean? Although this fireball was indeed different from ordinary ones, tinged with something sinister, a fireball was still just a fireball.
Could it be that this fireball was the "medium" through which the black-robed Master used his ritual arts? Combining spells and ritual arts into one, deceiving people with the spell while using the ritual art to strike when they least expected it. That would indeed be despicable. It was just... he had never heard of such a heterodox school.
Venerable Green Face did not understand, but he could not afford to think too much. The important thing was to kill that dog Gu as soon as possible. With someone helping—even if it was only these strange fireballs—it was better than nothing.
Venerable Green Face's fangs parted slightly, and he continued his assault on Gu Changhuai. Mo Hua, meanwhile, supported from the side with rapid fireballs, pressuring Gu Changhuai.
Gu Changhuai's pressure mounted all at once.
In the old days, when they handled cases and caught people, he had always been the main attacker, while Mo Hua had supported from the sidelines, using schemes and tricks to ensnare others. Now the roles were reversed, and he was the one being "ensnared" by Mo Hua's fireballs. Only now did he deeply realize how "disgusting" it was to be Mo Hua's opponent.
And even so, his current predicament was the result of Mo Hua "holding back."
Mo Hua's fireballs were fast, accurate, and quite powerful. But Gu Changhuai knew Mo Hua well. He knew that Mo Hua's fireball art could be faster, more precise, and harsher still.
He was only holding back because he was attacking "Uncle Gu." Otherwise, not to mention anything else, with Mo Hua's absurdly powerful divine-sense lock, if he truly locked onto him, Gu Changhuai knew he would never escape these bizarre fireballs.
And besides fireballs, Mo Hua had a whole pile of even more disgusting spells.
Gu Changhuai sighed.
No wonder at the Qianxue Grand Competition back then, so many people had shouted, "It's fine to lose the sword debate, but Mo Hua must die!" At the time he had not fully understood; he had thought the Qianxue geniuses were petty. Now that he was experiencing Mo Hua's "poisonous hand" firsthand, he could suddenly empathize.
Indeed, if you have not suffered another's pain, do not urge him to be kind.
With Mo Hua joining in, Gu Changhuai's situation promptly turned for the worse, and the battle took a sharp downturn.
Mo Hua's fireballs were fast and accurate. Although they never hit Gu Changhuai, they perfectly limited his movement, cutting off his paths of retreat like a cat toying with a mouse. Add in a mad dog like Venerable Green Face chasing him from behind, and Gu Changhuai was beset on all sides, bedraggled and constantly revealing openings.
Again and again Venerable Green Face closed in, and again and again Gu Changhuai's life hung by a thread, saved at the last moment by Mo Hua's controlling spells.
Even Gu Changhuai felt a grudging anger in his heart.
Venerable Green Face, on the other hand, was overjoyed. Although the black-robed Master's fireballs had not directly achieved anything, they had allowed him to press close to Gu Changhuai several times. He could even smell the delicious scent of Gu, the lackey.
Spurred by that scent, Venerable Green Face's killing intent surged. He could not help roaring with laughter like a madman, and blood even seeped from his suit of green-skinned, cold-bone armor. His attacks grew sharper and sharper, as if he could not wait to slaughter Gu Changhuai on the spot.
After another hundred or so exchanges, Gu Changhuai was growing more bedraggled by the moment. Pushed back step by step by the fireballs and Venerable Green Face, he finally retreated until he could go no further, into a narrow mountain dead end.
There were cliffs on both sides, and Venerable Green Face and Mo Hua were blocking the only way out.
Having "fled in panic," Gu Changhuai had ended up in this dead end with no room left to maneuver, his face grim.
Venerable Green Face, however, was wild with joy, as if he had found a lamb with nowhere left to run, waiting for the slaughter.
Gu Changhuai cast a glance at Mo Hua in the distance, then his gaze hardened. Drawing a deep breath, he hesitated no longer. He immediately drove the multicolored peacock-feather treasure fan in his hand to its limit.
Inside his dantian, spiritual power surged upward like crystalline fire, and a faint radiance enveloped Gu Changhuai's body.
Then the spiritual power roiled violently, kicking up a terrifying gale. On that gale, blades lined up densely, as thick as feathers—a gorgeous, murderous scene.
It was the Gu family's ancestral Dao art, the Windborne Feather Art.
Venerable Green Face's expression changed again. He felt a tremor of alarm, knowing that Gu Changhuai, with his back to the wall, was desperate enough to use his last resort to fight for his life. He did not know the origin of this art, but from the blinding light on the treasure, the surging crystallized spiritual power, and the dense wind blades bristling in the air, he could tell its destructive power was terrifying.
With that many wind blades, fine as rain, even a Golden Core demon beast might not fare well if struck by all of them.
But Venerable Green Face was a bloodthirsty brute who had survived countless life-and-death fights; his sense of timing was extraordinary. The shock in his eyes lasted only a moment before it was replaced by savage killing intent. His eyes bloodshot, his body like a mad beast's, he charged forward instead of retreating. Both hands sprouted cold fangs and flew straight for Gu Changhuai's heart.
The weaker a Dao art, the faster it could be cast. The stronger it was, the slower. Whenever a superior Dao art or a major killing move was used, the casting was bound to be slower.
How could Venerable Green Face not know that the best way to deal with a cultivator who had such an inherited killing move was to kill him before he could use it? As long as he ripped open Gu Changhuai's chest, tore out his heart, and took his life before the killing move was complete, the move would naturally collapse.
This was exactly why ordinary cultivators rarely employed major killing moves in duels. A major killing move always came with a major opening; if it failed to kill in one blow, the caster might well be the one to die.
Venerable Green Face's judgment was extremely accurate. Gu Changhuai, locked down tightly by him, could not possibly have enough time to perform a superior Dao art. Before his killing move was complete, Venerable Green Face would have already split open his chest.
The situation grew desperate in an instant. Life and death hung by a thread.
Gu Changhuai's Dao art was already like a great roc spreading its wings, spiritual power flying in all directions, churning the whole forest like a mountain-shaking, sea-overturning storm. Venerable Green Face's killing intent condensed to the extreme; his pale, gleaming fangs were aimed straight at Gu Changhuai's heart.
Gu Changhuai's Windborne Feather Art was only half formed.
But Venerable Green Face's vicious fangs, launched later, arrived first. He was about to tear Gu Changhuai open from chest to belly. A cruel smile appeared on Venerable Green Face's face.
At that critical instant, the black-robed Master, who had been supporting from afar, suddenly changed his spell formula. In a flash his spiritual power shifted from fire to water. He grasped at the air.
At almost the same moment, six water-element chains formed a cage, binding Venerable Green Face's enormous body in place.
Venerable Green Face's forward charge was brought to a sudden halt by the water-prison binding. He was startled at first, not understanding what had happened. Then he realized he had been betrayed by a treacherous schemer, and he flew into a rage. In the next moment, the rage turned to great alarm, because Gu Changhuai's Dao art had taken shape even further.
His opening was gone.
At the edge of life and death, Venerable Green Face let out a thunderous roar. His body shook as he revolved his core power to the limit, stretched against the six water chains, broke free, and desperately charged at Gu Changhuai again.
But before he could rush out, Mo Hua, standing afar, raised his hand and grasped at the air once more. Six water chains descended out of nowhere and bound Venerable Green Face again.
Venerable Green Face had an extraordinary natural physique, and his flesh was indeed strong. With another furious strain, he broke free of the six chains. But no matter how quickly he broke free, Mo Hua cast even faster. In the time it took Venerable Green Face to break free, Mo Hua had already taken a step forward and completed his spell formula, calling down the six-chained water prison once more to bind him again.
This water prison was far too fast. Venerable Green Face's heart chilled. He had never imagined that anyone in the world could cast this quickly. Who exactly was this person?
Shock and fury churned in Venerable Green Face's heart. He then struggled with reckless abandon and broke free of a third water prison. But by the time he had escaped the water prison spell, it was already too late.
Although it had been only a controlling spell, with no real power, and had restrained him for only a breath or two, in ordinary circumstances it was completely negligible. But at a life-or-death moment, one or two breaths could be more than enough to cost him his life.
Gu Changhuai's superior Dao art, the Windborne Feather Art, had reached completion. Its spiritual power was vast as the sea, and its feather blades were dense as shadows.
What Venerable Green Face saw in his terrified eyes was a sky-covering, airtight edge of blue-green magical light.
Then Gu Changhuai, deathly pale, gritted his teeth and moved his will.
The wind-blade feathers, countless as the sky, surged toward Venerable Green Face like a river bursting its banks. This was a dead end, a cramped space. Gu Changhuai had no way to flee, and in those short moments, neither did Venerable Green Face.
At the last instant, Venerable Green Face could only cross his arms in front of his heart meridian. Then his entire body was swallowed by the flood of dense wind blades, blasted and slashed backward by the wind-attribute spiritual power. His flesh was cut again and again by the fine crystallized winds.
A tremendous explosion and roar echoed through the entire old forest.
The Green Toad Province was a small place. Those bandits and mobs had never seen such a large-scale Dao art and its shocking destructive power. Even the Gu family soldiers, who had followed Gu Changhuai through life and death, looked alarmed. Deep in the old forest, the faint mind-sense watching from somewhere quieted for a time.
Even Mo Hua, in his black robe, was impressed. This was the first time he had seen Uncle Gu, at the Golden Core stage, fully unleash such a superior killing move. The might of a superior Dao art was indeed extraordinarily powerful.
Mo Hua felt a little envious.
Unfortunately, although he was a spiritual cultivator, he was limited by his spiritual root and the built-in circulation count of his cultivation art.
He could only execute quickly circulating lesser Five Phases spells; he could not cast a large-scale, superior destructive Dao art like this.
He did have the Twelve Meridians Taotie Spirit Bone Formation, which solved the problem of spiritual power. But for now, it could only supply energy; it could not solve the problems of spiritual root and the circulation count built into the art.
Circulation count was the threshold for superior Dao arts.
Mo Hua could not get around that threshold, so he had to take another path. His school of spellcraft could not help but differ from others. Earlier, he had not had many opportunities to cast spells. Now that he had arrived in this great spiritual realm, he could study and experiment more.
His mind stirred slightly, and then he looked up again.
The astonishing fluctuation lasted a full cup of tea before the spiritual power of the superior Windborne Feather Art was completely spent. The terrain of the surrounding old forest had been utterly distorted, like the aftermath of a typhoon; everything on the surface had been ground to powder.
As for Venerable Green Face, he had been carried by the flood-like Windborne Feather Art several hundred zhang away.
In the twisted terrain, Venerable Green Face was still standing with his arms crossed, but his body was already broken beyond recognition.
It was as if he had been sliced ten thousand times by countless fine wind blades. His cold-bone armor had been broken into dust. His green skin seemed to have been flayed off, and the flesh, sinew, and meridians beneath appeared to have been ground away.
His heart had clearly stopped beating. There was not the slightest trace of aura on his body. He looked like a mutilated clay-and-wood puppet, kneeling half-upright on the ground.
"Venerable Green Face... is dead." Mo Hua's eyes narrowed.
Gu Changhuai let out a long breath. His face was bloodless, and his fingers were still trembling rapidly.
The men of the Dao Court, after their shock, all sighed in relief, with joy rising on their faces.
"The leader... is dead!"
"Killed by the Dao Court's dogs?!"
The remaining followers of the Green Fiend, terrified beyond reason, went weak in the knees and scrambled backward, desperate to get away from this place.
When the tree fell, the monkeys scattered; all they could do was flee. The Dao Court men, exhausted from the desperate battle, could not chase after them either.
For a moment, the situation was unsettled.
But at that moment, Mo Hua's expression changed slightly. He pressed his fingers together and condensed a fireball, flinging it at Venerable Green Face's corpse, which looked like rotten flesh and decaying earth.
The crowd was startled. But what was even more shocking was still to come.
After the fireball exploded, as flames billowed and spiritual power scattered, Venerable Green Face's corpse did not collapse. Instead, a strange movement began.
First, dull green blood began to flow slowly within his flesh. Something inside his chest seemed to be gradually writhing. Then an unknown pattern began to glow, spreading from his chest little by little over his entire body, repairing his bones, meridians, flesh, and finally his skin.
Venerable Green Face, who had been "sliced to death" by wind blades, slowly came back to life.
His throat sounded like a battered bellows, his voice thick and sticky, soaked in monstrous fury.
"I died... I died again... I died once more..."
Mo Hua's expression stiffened at those words.
Died once more?
This Venerable Green Face... had died many times?
Mo Hua shifted his gaze to Venerable Green Face's body. The mysterious pattern had spread from the chest, writhing slowly, repairing his body, then sinking back into the skin in a flash. It was like a thread controlling flesh and blood.
Or perhaps... a formation?
Mo Hua's pupils narrowed, and his heart jolted.