Chapter 263: Fragment of an Immortal Artifact
When Gu Mo and Zhuo Suzhu arrived at the Fenghua sect's mountain gate, the sect's grand protective formation was already fully activated, personally overseen by Tan Jingxing at the core.
Sensing the formation's steady operation, the unease in Tan Jingxing's heart eased somewhat. With him, a mid-Nascent Soul cultivator, presiding over this fourth-rank mountain-guarding array, it could easily withstand even a late Nascent Soul True Lord.
As for great perfection Nascent Soul cultivators, those at that level were already seeking the path toward Soul Transformation and rarely struck out.
"A pity. With the Fenghua sect prepared, breaking in won't be easy." A few Nascent Soul True Lords from the Qinghe cultivation realm exchanged transmitted words from afar.
The fact that someone had come to trouble the Fenghua sect naturally pleased the local True Lords. Over the years the Fenghua sect's domineering ways had long incited public anger.
Yet the sect's strength was formidable; other sects and factions had to endure in silence, not daring to make a move lightly.
Now, for some unknown misfortune, the Fenghua sect had first offended Shennong Valley's true disciple, and then their nemesis, the Qinglu Sect, arrived with a powerful ally. Among them, Zhuo Suzhu of the Qinglu Sect had herself become a Nascent Soul True Lord.
Still, one had to admit the Fenghua sect's foundations ran deep. If nothing else, their protective formation surpassed that of many Nascent Soul sects.
Breaking such a formation was exceedingly difficult. So long as they held fast, breaching the Fenghua sect's gate was virtually impossible.
But the reality was that the sect lacked the confidence to hole up indefinitely. The reason was simple—Gu Mo had already stripped them of their wealth.
If the Fenghua sect were besieged for just a few years, they would collapse outright.
Gu Mo, however, had no intention of waiting years. Besides, who said he couldn't break the formation? During his earlier infiltration, along with taking the sect's treasure stores, he had also left something behind.
!!Heaven-slashing!!
With one shard-blade of the Golden Flood Dragon Shears in hand, Gu Mo slashed out. In an instant, dazzling sword-light illuminated the heavens. It struck the formation's barrier, rippling its light curtain layer upon layer.
"What a powerful sword-light!"
Tan Jingxing, while channeling the array to resist it, was shaken. If he had to face this strike directly, he would not withstand it.
Yet amid his shock came a slight breath of relief. Such an attack still could not break the formation.
"Heart-Fire Wildfire!"
Seeing Gu Mo strike, Zhuo Suzhu ignited her heart-fire and charged at the Fenghua sect's gate. At full eruption, her battle strength was not to be underestimated.
Even against a Nascent Soul True Lord's full force, the protective formation held—but the consumption of spiritual energy was tremendous.
Though the array could draw on a fourth-rank spirit vein to recover, that recovery had limits. Anything beyond had to be replenished with spirit stones.
The spirit vein's energy flowed unendingly, but a True Lord's essence was finite. In terms of endurance, no cultivator could match a spirit vein.
"That will do."
Gu Mo spoke to the panting Zhuo Suzhu.
"This…"
She froze for a moment. Though she had unleashed a furious round of strikes, she had inflicted no damage at all on the Fenghua sect's formation.
Deep down she knew such attacks were pointless, yet her hatred for the Fenghua sect compelled her to vent with reckless bombardment.
Of course, besides hatred and fury, she also realized Gu Mo had struck only once at the start and then stopped. Clearly he had other means; she was merely handling the preliminary consumption.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
While Zhuo Suzhu was still stunned, several of the Fenghua sect's formation nodes suddenly exploded. In an instant, the once rock-solid grand array turned unstable, on the verge of collapse.
"What!"
At the core, Tan Jingxing's face changed drastically. He could clearly sense that critical nodes of the sect's formation had been destroyed, rendering the array nearly useless.
Yet he had inspected the formation earlier and found no problems. "Could there be an inside traitor?" The thought struck him immediately.
After all, years ago the Fenghua sect had seized the Qinglu Sect's gate precisely through an inside traitor. It was natural his mind leapt to this.
What he never realized was that the unremarkable "potatoes" buried in the nodes were actually Gu Mo's potato mines, planted before his departure.
Once buried, potato mines were extremely well-hidden, hard to detect even with divine sense. Tan Jingxing's inspection had been with divine sense, never a hands-on check, so he had overlooked them entirely.
Moreover, the mines required triggering. That part was simple—whenever the array consumed too much power, Fenghua sect disciples would enter the nodes to replace spirit stones, activating them in the process.
"Every man for himself."
With key nodes destroyed, Tan Jingxing knew the Fenghua sect was finished. Without the formation's aid, he was no match for the young man.
Without hesitation, he left behind only those words before fleeing in haste.
"This place is yours now."
Gu Mo said to Zhuo Suzhu, then shot off after the streak of light fleeing from the sect.
"Many thanks!"
Zhuo Suzhu drew in a deep breath. The next moment, disciples of the Qinglu Sect appeared one after another. Today, she would lead them to reclaim the mountain gate that was rightfully theirs.
"Do you truly mean to fight me to the death?"
Tan Jingxing's face was grim as he looked at the youth before him. With Gu Mo having grasped a trace of the mysteries of Metal Escape and Wood Escape, unless Tan had cultivated a top-tier divine ability like Five-Element Escape, it was nearly impossible to escape him.
"It was your Fenghua sect that swore a fight to the death with me. How is that my fault?" Gu Mo's tone was calm, though his vigilance did not waver in the slightest.
For he knew the relic treasures the Fenghua sect had found were all in this man's possession. Who knew whether among them was a powerful ancient artifact.
"Would you spare me if I offered the location of a relic in exchange?" Tan Jingxing drew a deep breath, adopting a posture of compromise.
"Oh? Then let's hear it."
As for the relic site discovered by the Fenghua sect, Gu Mo had yet to uncover any clue.
"That relic lies…"
After a fierce struggle, Tan Jingxing began to speak.
But midway, a vicious gleam flared in his eyes, and suddenly a streak of light shot at Gu Mo. Ever alert, Gu Mo reacted at once.
The golden flood-dragon shears in Gu Mo's hand slashed directly at that streak of flowing light, but his expression quickly changed. The golden shears were actually pierced straight through by it.
At that moment Gu Mo finally saw what it was—just the tip of a sword. Though the fragment carried no trace of spiritual energy, it was abnormally sharp, so sharp that it pierced the spirit-treasure–grade golden shears in one blow. Nor could the true essence shields formed by his mana withstand it.
"Hahaha, die!"
Tan Jingxing's face twisted with a savage grin as he watched the sword tip cutting through everything. That fragment was something he had discovered in the ruins. Though it had long since lost its spiritual power, its material alone was unimaginably solid and sharp.
Up to this day, Tan Jingxing had never found anything capable of resisting this sword tip. He suspected it might very well be a remnant of a legendary immortal weapon.
"Hm?"
But his grin froze almost instantly. The space around Gu Mo suddenly warped, and then that immortal weapon fragment was blocked by a light screen.
"Th-this… how is this possible!"
Tan Jingxing's face was full of disbelief. That was an immortal weapon fragment—even stripped of power, such a fragment should still be an invincible existence in this cultivation world. Yet here it was, stopped in its tracks.
"What a terrifying shard."
Gu Mo reached out and pinched the fragment that had pierced into the light screen. That screen was naturally the barrier of the Nut Formation. At the critical moment, Gu Mo had unlocked his cave-heaven's limits, linking it to the outer great world. The Nut Formation laid out inside his cave-heaven thus appeared outside, enveloping him.
This was the first time the Nut Formation's light screen had ever been punctured. Dozens of tier-3 supreme nuts embedded in the formation shattered instantly, and even tier-4 Little dull had a massive gash torn across his body—all just to resist this one shard.
If not for the Nut Formation—this defense beyond common sense—that blow might have posed a fatal threat. At that moment, Gu Mo was secretly grateful he had not lost his head and stormed straight into the Fenghua Sect.
If the sect's other two Nascent Soul true lords had been present, and Tan Jingxing had ambushed him while he was dealing with them, then if he had been even a heartbeat slower in summoning the Nut Formation, the consequences would have been disastrous.
"Great Sun Golden Crow Sword!"
No time for relief—twelve natal flying swords in his body formed the Heavenly Twelve Sword Fiend Array, bursting forth with blazing Great Sun sword intent. Gu Mo didn't know whether his opponent had more relics like this sword tip. To prevent any uncontrollable situation, all he wanted now was to kill him.
As for the ruins' location, it no longer mattered. The other man probably had no intention of telling him anyway.
"You want to kill me? Then don't think you'll have it easy either!"
Sensing the terrifying aura Gu Mo erupted with, Tan Jingxing's expression twisted into madness. He knew there was no escape. Since he was doomed to die, then before death, he would at least bite a chunk of flesh from his enemy.
But unfortunately for him, his desperate counterattack was instantly annihilated beneath the blazing Great Sun. At full force, Gu Mo was someone who had even slain a perfected Nascent Soul cultivator. Though not at his peak now, his all-out strength was still enough to fight a late-stage Nascent Soul.
Against Tan Jingxing, merely a mid-stage Nascent Soul, that was more than enough.
"It's over!"
With the fall of Fenghua Sect's last Nascent Soul true lord, its destruction was sealed. The karmic debt of those years was finally settled today.
Returning to Fenghua Sect, the battle within was still ongoing, but the outcome was already decided. With True Lord Zhuo Suzhu leading the charge, and no Nascent Soul defenders remaining, Fenghua Sect could not withstand them.
As time passed, the fighting gradually subsided. Zhuo Suzhu, Yuan Nia, and the rest of the Qinglu Sect disciples gazed upon their long-lost homeland, emotions welling in their chests.
Some of the elder sect members could not hold back their tears. At last, they had reclaimed their ancestral foundation. Even in death, they could face their forebears with no regrets.
Next would be the rebuilding of the sect. As for Fenghua Sect's disciples, the core members naturally could not be allowed to remain. Only the menial servants were spared, many of whom had originally been Qinglu Sect's own.
These servants had endured years of harsh exploitation under Fenghua Sect. Now that Qinglu Sect had returned, their joy was boundless.
"Senior brother, the Lu clan wants to join Qinglu Sect. Is that possible?" Lu Lingmei asked Gu Mo.
The Lu clan was no longer in immediate danger, but Yuntian Immortal City was not their true place of belonging. Now that Qinglu Sect had been restored, and with Gu Mo so deeply tied to it, Fang Jiaoyan had asked Lu Lingmei to consult him about whether their family might join as a subordinate clan.
To become one of Qinglu Sect's vassal cultivation families.
"They can," Gu Mo nodded.
Though Qinglu Sect had retaken its mountain gate, it remained weakened after such calamity. The Lu clan's addition would help it re-establish control over the region.
For a sect, the main body alone was not enough. It needed affiliated families to manage its vast territory.
Because of the Lu clan, Gu Mo also took the chance to review all cultivation families under Qinglu Sect. Those linked to Fenghua Sect were naturally to be removed.
"Hm?"
Suddenly, one family caught Gu Mo's eye. Its patriarch was named Wu Jinfei.
Seeing that name brought his thoughts back to the days when he was only at the Qi-refining stage.
"Senior brother, someone who claims to be an old friend of yours seeks an audience," Lu Lingmei reported as Gu Mo was lost in reminiscence.
"An old friend?"
Gu Mo paused, then quickly guessed who it might be. "Bring him in."
Before long, a middle-aged man appeared. From his features, Gu Mo could still faintly recognize Wu Jinfei. Time had left its marks on him, for with only third-level Qi refining cultivation, Wu Jinfei had no way to resist its toll.
Wu Jinfei gazed at the still-handsome and radiant Gu Mo, momentarily dazed. Gu Mo's cultivation had soared so high that the years left no trace upon him.
"It's been a long time."
Seeing Wu Jinfei in a stupor, Gu Mo smiled.
"Greetings, True Lord!"
Startled back to himself by Gu Mo's words, Wu Jinfei immediately bowed deeply. The tale of Gu Mo slaying all three of Fenghua Sect's Nascent Soul true lords had already spread like wildfire across the Qinghe cultivation world.
Even someone like Wu Jinfei, a grassroots cultivator, had heard it. When he first did, it had felt unreal.
After so many years stuck at third-level Qi refining due to poor spiritual roots, how could he not feel awed that Gu Mo, once his peer, had now become an exalted Nascent Soul True Lord?
It was simply inconceivable. To Wu Jinfei, even a Foundation-building cultivator was already a mighty figure—let alone a Nascent Soul True Lord.
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