Chapter 273 - Headhunting
Taking advantage of the fact that the majority had their attentions drawn to these voices, Gongyi Tianheng’s body flickered and dodged to the side. He did his best to reduce his own presence.
Gu Zuo also kept silent. He vaguely sensed that the present situation wasn’t too suitable.
The meaning within the words of those people…
He wasn’t relieved after thinking about it. Gu Zuo released his psychic power to cover both of them. He used it to shield their qi emissions.
Because the two hid rather quickly, they evaded the gazes of those people for the time being. The martial artists within the crowd who possessed killing intent and qi emissions quickly flew out, and came into view along the street.
Those common people seemed to be used to such happenings. They all carried their things and hid near those stores, giving these martial artists the room to move out.
At the same time, the sky suddenly echoed with several voices that shattered the air. From the fragments, three people appeared above that open space.
Three to five people gathered before each individual.
During this bit of time, three groups had already shown up in mutual confrontation.
Gu Zuo stared fixedly at these people. His throat gulped.
Their strengths weren’t weak.
Those low Immortal Realms weren’t worth talking about. Meanwhile, those three martial artists who’d just shouted at each other had ostentatiously displayed their imposing auras. They had the strengths of mid Immortal Realms.
Three people stood proudly.
A young man who wore a light-yellow, full-body robe said: “Bingchen Guards, how many dregs have you purged?”
Another person who wore a black-colored changpao opened his mouth and said: “Imperial Guards of Zhou, how many heads have you hunted?”
In addition, that person in the sapphire-blue brocade robes raised a question: “Yiyuan Guards, how many weeds have you uprooted?”
Then, they said: “Take them out for inspection at once!”
Gu Zuo furrowed his brows.
Dregs, heads, and weeds… These people were really too arrogant.
Although the little prince in their Sect was very haughty, what he was proud of was his own capabilities. However, he had never belittled others to raise himself up.
Where had these guys come from?
The next moment, Gu Zuo smelled a pungent, bloody stench.
The bunch of deferential people in front of the three all took out and opened the inter-spatial tools in their possessions. Many human heads rolled out, and made separate piles on the ground.
In just a few breaths of time, three piles of human heads had already appeared. Each pile had dozens of heads.
Gu Zuo’s heart was somewhat disturbed.
Most of the eyes of these heads violently bulged from their sockets. It was obvious that they had died with extreme unwillingness. Their injustices rushed straight into the sky. The blood paste that clung to the faces of these heads was like flowing tears of blood.
From those eyes that refused to close in death, grievances and hatred spilled forth, which bled into the surrounding space. After anyone saw this, a type of fury would well up from the bottom of their hearts — This was the influence from those people’s leftover resentments after death.
However, after looking at these three piles of human heads, those people’s expressions were very natural. To these people, it was as if these heads weren’t the lives of real humans, but rather the ordinary items fetched in this competition with the others.
“The Bingchen Guards have eliminated forty-three dregs for a total of forty-three heads!”
“The Imperial Guards of Zhou have hunted forty-one heads!”
“The Yiyuan Guards have pulled out forty weeds, and have obtained forty heads!”
Those three people heard this, and the young man in the light-yellow robes stood straight with his hands clasped behind his back. He sneered and said: “Sure enough, my Bingchen Guards have lived up to my expectations, and have come out on top. The Third Prince defers to providence, and will certainly be addressed as emperor in the future. The other commoners aren’t worth mentioning!”
After he finished speaking, he half-glanced at these human heads. Then, he led those couple of subordinates away while laughing boisterously.
The other two people coldly snorted.
The one in the black changpao had a displeased expression: “Not obtaining first is equivalent to a loss. Move out! Imperial Guards of Zhou, after you all return, you’ll have to explain yourselves to Prince Zhou personally!”
Once he was done talking, he also led this group of people away.
The final ones remaining were the young man wearing the sapphire-blue brocade robes, and the three Yiyuan Guards.
This young man’s expression was unsightly: “Yiyuan Guards, is this the kind of face you’ll give to the great young master? I gave you those spirit weapons, and yet you still couldn’t hunt down a few more heads? Truly, such useless things!”
Each and every one of the five Yiyuan Guards were kneeling on the ground. They bent their heads and said: “Reporting to the Second Steward, we discovered a few corpses in front of the Mist Cloud Region. They were our colleagues. It may be assumed that they had encountered prodigies from the Peripheral Continents. They were beheaded by someone!”
Hearing this, the young man in the sapphire-blue brocade robes, the Second Steward, halted his footsteps. His words carried a trace of contempt: “Prodigies of the Peripheral Continents? How could those ruined lands produce any prodigies? Don’t be ridiculous!”
The five members of the Yiyuan Guards didn’t dare to speak.
After the Second Steward disparaged them, he still closed his eyes in the end. He adjusted his state of mind, and said: “Alright. I will report this matter to the great young master. If there really are others, I’ll recruit some subordinates. I won’t waste the great young master’s energy. He personally went to the Road of Heaven’s Chosen to select talents.”
Naturally, the five Yiyuan Guards agreed repeatedly.
Immediately following this, the Second Steward departed as well.
Prior to leaving, he still wasn’t too pleased in his heart: “People of the Peripheral Continents… Heh! Once this steward calls them in, it’ll certainly make him realize that even so-called prodigies can’t be compared to a strand of this steward’s hair! Don’t think that those low-grade fleas can capture the great young master’s regards!”
Once everyone left, the common people on the street returned to their original positions, and continued their lives as usual.
Some soldiers from the city gates came over. They packed away the three piles of heads on the ground and dragged them all away. The entire process was straightforward and smooth as if they had done this hundreds or thousands of times.
Gu Zuo didn’t withdraw his psychic power, and Tianheng still kept his presence lowered. The two remained calm, and quietly searched for lodgings at a tavern here.
After paying ten gold, they checked in without a hitch, and entered their own room.
At this point, Gu Zuo let out a breath and wiped away the imaginary sweat on his forehead: “Big brother, can you put me down?”
Tianheng let go of him, and the two sat down on the couch in the room: “Ah Zuo, what did you notice?”
Gu Zuo said, a bit powerless: “I heard their words… It seems like they came from the Central Continent.”
Tianheng’s gaze was serene and deep: “If I haven’t guessed wrongly, these people should be the children of relatively large forces and even of the imperial family from the Central Continent. They came here to select the talents who can return as their subordinates. That unbridled massacre from before must be a filter…”
Gu Zuo also felt that this was reasonable: “In that case, what are we going to do?”
Tianheng said: “We mustn’t draw attention to ourselves. First, we’ll take a look at the situation before anything else.”
The two decided to do this, and stayed in the current tavern for the time being. However, holing up in the tavern the entire time certainly wouldn’t be any good. The road ahead was long. They needed to pass through this ancient city, and hurry to the next location to finally walk out of this Road of Death.
Once the discussion was finished, Gu Zuo and Tianheng sat cross-legged in meditation, and regulated their breathing.
— They had to leave tomorrow.
Deep in the night.
Gu Zuo suddenly opened his eyes.
He heard a rustling noise outside right before the sliding door let out a bang. Something was rushing inside!
Gongyi Tianheng reacted at the same time, and reached out a hand. He scooped Gu Zuo up, and threw him onto his own shoulders: “Ah Zuo, prepare for battle!”
Gu Zuo naturally understood, and tacitly embraced Tianheng’s shoulders. Following that, Gu Zuo fought together with Tianheng against the monster that had just barged into the room.
After that, he said with astonishment: “This place isn’t the outskirts or the countryside, it’s a proper tavern. Why did this monster charge inside? This so-called tavern is too lax in its security…”
After Tianheng slapped out a palm to shatter the attacking monster, he kept watch at the doorway. He replied: “Ah Zuo, things aren’t so simple.”
At this moment, Gu Zuo also got a clear view of the tavern’s circumstances.
Just like the monsters the two had encountered the previous nights, there were similarly many flickering shadows in this tavern. Those things charged into every room, and the sounds of fighting emanated from the rooms.
Gu Zuo felt that something was wrong.
His faculty of memory was very strong. In his impression, the person who checked into the room a few doors over was a common man who was basically incapable of using martial skills. According to reason, the monster should’ve made quick work of the occupant after barging in. So why were the sounds of fighting coming out of that room?
Tianheng’s steps alternated as he rushed towards that direction.
In a split second, Gu Zuo saw the interior’s situation.
In that room, the two sides that fought were actually both monsters!
Both were similarly bald, and both had exposed muscles and tendons all over their bodies. They were likewise incomparably ugly and exceptionally violent. They were like each other’s mortal enemies as they swiftly tore into their counterpart’s flesh.
It didn’t take long for the monsters’ bones to be ripped out or their skin and flesh to be split open.
Gu Zuo’s breath was caught in his throat.
The clothes of those two monsters —
Tianheng said: “The waiter and the rich merchant.”
Gu Zuo nodded his head with difficulty: “When it was daytime, they were obviously still living people…”
This wasn’t a shoot for a horror movie. Could it be that the people in this tavern had all suddenly been infected by a virus in one night? But he and his big brother didn’t have this type of feeling at all!
He wasn’t convinced. If someone really had used poison, they couldn’t have concealed it from the perception of a pharmacist like him!
The next moment, the two monsters that were originally fighting with each other turned their heads.
Their gazes fell upon the bodies of the two humans. Soon after, they unexpectedly abandoned their own fight. Instead, they let out yells, and threw themselves at Gu Zuo and Tianheng!
Subconsciously, Gu Zuo fired two silver awls —
Bang! Bang!
— Which exploded their heads wide open.
Please don’t forget to support the original author.