"Buy me three breaths of time."
Lin Feng's voice no longer trembled. Instead, it carried the resolve of someone staking everything on a single throw.
His hand withdrew from his robes, fingertips pinching a gold-leaf talisman thin as a cicada's wing, its surface swirling with a reddish-gold radiance.
The moment the talisman appeared, a terrifying fluctuation spread outward, scorching the very air around it. This was an aura far beyond Rank 2—the full-force strike of a Rank 3 powerhouse.
Rank 3 Killer Move: Golden Sun Shatters Evil.
This was the life-saving trump card his father, a Supreme Elder of the clan, had bestowed upon him before departure. It was his final reliance as a direct descendant.
But this talisman couldn't be activated instantly. It required several breaths to channel the vast Primeval Essence sealed within, and during that process, he could neither move nor be disturbed.
"Ah Zhong!"
Lin Feng looked toward that broad back that had always shielded him. A barely perceptible flash of reluctance crossed his eyes, but in an instant, cold rationality swallowed it whole.
"Lock him down! Don't let him move!"
This was not merely an order—it was a death sentence.
Ah Zhong's entire body shuddered. As a death soldier brainwashed and raised by the clan since childhood, he understood the weight of those words all too well.
But he didn't look back, didn't hesitate. He simply responded in a low voice:
"Young Master, take care."
The next moment, Ah Zhong let out a roar like a wounded beast. No longer caring about the searing agony of the poison fog corroding his body, he forcibly activated his already tattered Iron Skin Gu.
He even burned his own essence blood, causing his depleted Primeval Essence to surge once more.
"Roar!"
He abandoned all defense. Like a maddened bull, he charged straight through Green Snake's steel-melting poison fog and endless poison blades.
"Seeking death!"
A flash of surprise crossed Green Snake's eyes. His poison blade stabbed deep into Ah Zhong's chest, even piercing through his lung.
But Ah Zhong seemed to have lost all sense of pain.
He let the blade enter his body. Using that forward momentum, he spread his arms wide like iron pincers and locked them around the coalescing viper phantom—and through it, directly embraced Green Snake's true body!
"Get the hell off me!"
Now Green Snake truly panicked. As a Demonic Path Gu Master, he had always valued his life above all else. He simply couldn't comprehend this kind of madness—sacrificing oneself completely for another.
He frantically drove his Viper Gu to tear at Ah Zhong's back, even forcing venom directly into Ah Zhong's mouth and nose, trying to make him let go.
But though Ah Zhong's body rapidly festered and dissolved under the venom, those iron arms only tightened further, until the explosive cracking of bones echoed through the air.
A death lock.
A death lock bought with his life.
"Hurry!!!" Ah Zhong sprayed black blood from his mouth, releasing his final roar.
Behind them, the gold-leaf talisman in Lin Feng's hand had burned away completely.
A sphere of golden light, too brilliant to look upon directly, coalesced in his palm. The terrifying heat caused ripples in the surrounding space.
Yet he couldn't release it.
"Damn it! It's too chaotic!"
Lin Feng was drenched in sweat, the hand holding the golden light trembling slightly.
The surrounding ink-green miasma was simply too dense, severely obscuring his vision. Moreover, Ah Zhong and Green Snake were tangled together, their positions constantly shifting as they struggled madly within the fog.
If this strike missed, or failed to instantly kill Green Snake, then once Ah Zhong died completely, they would all follow.
"Position! I need a position!" Lin Feng roared at Lin Mu.
At this critical moment—
"Now!"
Lin Mu, who had been observing the battlefield the entire time, felt a sharp glint flash through his eyes.
The Blood Scent Gu was still suppressed by the poison, but the massive amounts of fresh blood spraying from Ah Zhong's body had formed an unmistakably clear "blood source coordinate" within that murky toxic fog—blurred, but absolutely present.
That was Ah Zhong's burning life, and in this darkness, the clearest possible human beacon.
Lin Mu held nothing back. The last thirty percent of Primeval Essence remaining in his aperture was poured recklessly into the dull gray Gu worm hidden in his sleeve.
Dust Escape Gu—Burst!
Boom!
A muffled explosion.
Centered on Lin Mu, a massive cloud of grayish-brown dust instantly erupted, forming a dust force field with a three-meter radius.
These dust particles were extremely fine and carried the Earth Path's characteristic gravitational properties.
Under Lin Mu's desperate activation, they forcibly pushed aside the wispy poison fog around them in a matter of moments, creating a brief, turbid but interference-free clear channel.
The poison was temporarily blocked by the dust.
The Blood Scent Gu came back online!
In Lin Mu's perception, twelve steps ahead appeared a massive, glaring red mass of light, frantically spurting blood.
That was the coordinate!
"Straight ahead, twelve steps! Kill!!"
Standing within the dust cloud, Lin Mu bellowed with every ounce of strength toward the direction where the blood scent was thickest.
That shout gave Lin Feng direction—and the resolve to fire.
No more hesitation. No more distinguishing friend from foe. No more wondering whether Ah Zhong was still alive.
"Die!!"
Lin Feng's face twisted ferociously as both hands thrust forward.
BOOM—!
That thick pillar of golden light, blazing like the sun itself, carrying heat and sharpness that could melt anything, shot forth along the direction Lin Mu had indicated.
The golden light instantly pierced through layer upon layer of poison fog, striking the two entangled figures with unerring precision.
"No—!!"
Green Snake only had time for a single despairing scream. Those dead-fish eyes filled with terror of death.
Before the absolute might of a Rank 3 Killer Move, his vaunted Rank 2 defenses were fragile as paper.
BOOM!
The massive explosion tore up the earth. The terrifying heatwave instantly vaporized all poison fog and moisture within a ten-zhang radius.
The entire canyon seemed to have been slapped by an invisible giant hand—rocks flew, dust blotted out the sky.
A long moment passed.
When the smoke and dust finally cleared, only a massive charred pit several meters in diameter remained.
Wisps of blue smoke rose from its depths, carrying a nauseating burnt stench.
Green Snake and Ah Zhong, under the searing golden light, had little of their remains left. What remained had instead fused together, impossible to tell apart.
Scattered around the edges were a few carbonized bone fragments and some melted, warped metal pieces, all mixed together.
This was the battle of Gu Masters—brutal, direct, leaving no bones behind.
The underground assassin who had been hiding below all along possessed Rank 1 Peak strength, but witnessing this scene had scared him out of his wits.
He didn't dare show his head, didn't even dare leave a parting word. He simply burrowed frantically through the deep earth, fleeing as far as possible from this group of lunatics.
The battle was over.
"Hah... hah..."
Lin Feng collapsed to the ground in exhaustion, staring at the deep pit with a complicated expression. There was pain at losing a loyal servant, but far more was the relief of having survived the ordeal.
Not far away, Lin Mu lay sprawled in the mud. The Dust Escape Gu's effect had ended. His Primeval Essence was depleted, his entire body wracked with pain—he didn't even have the strength to move a finger.
As for Lin Wan'er, she had long since slumped to the ground, her eyes vacant.
As a healing Gu Master, she hadn't even seen clearly what happened during the battle. She only remembered a flash of golden light, and then everything was over.
Only Lin Mu and Lin Feng.
These two who knew all the hidden details, who had completed their "transaction" and "coordination" on the edge of life and death, looked at each other across the devastated battlefield.
In that glance, there was no joy of surviving catastrophe—only a profound, unspoken understanding.