novelraw Chapter 366: Trapped
Chapter 366: Trapped
“Turn back? What is there behind me? Behind me lies the endless Sea of Demons! Don’t lecture me anymore! I’ve had enough!” roared Duan Tianwu furiously.
As he looked ahead, he saw a swarm of Gu Kings suddenly appear. His expression grew darker, finally realizing that he had fallen into a trap. Over a hundred Gu Kings had ambushed him in advance, lying in wait.
At that moment, he belatedly felt sharp pain emanating from his chest. Staring at the lightning sword impaled in his heart, his mood plummeted.
Being struck in a vital spot was troubling enough, but the thunderous power unleashed by the sword was absolutely lethal for him.
This kind of lightning possessed a force that repelled evil, causing immense harm to someone like him who practiced demonic cultivation and relied on demonic Gu Insect. The lightning rampaged through his body, wreaking havoc and severely damaging his internal organs.
Especially devastating was the condition of his Demon Devouring Gu. Struck head-on by the Evil-Bane Divine Thunder, it was on the brink of death. He could no longer draw upon its power.
Only the resilience granted by the Little Strong Gu kept him alive, preventing immediate death.
Otherwise, such injuries would have claimed the life of anyone else already.
Gritting his teeth through the excruciating pain, Duan Tianwu mobilized all his strength to suppress the Evil-Bane Divine Thunder running amok inside him.
By then, the swarm of Gu Kings had already closed in. He gritted his teeth, pulled the Evil-Bane Sword out of his chest, and wielded it against the oncoming enemies. “You cowards!”
Duan Tianwu bellowed in rage, unleashing the aura of a late-stage Gu King. As the chaotic battle began, he quickly killed a Sword King from the Sword Cleansing Pavilion, severing their spirit sword and ending their life with a single strike.
Lei Wan's pupils contracted in shock. “Duan Tianwu has already advanced to the late stage of Gu King! That’s incredibly fast!”
The gap between mid-stage and late-stage Gu King was enormous. At this stage, Duan Tianwu could hold his ground against even peak-stage Gu Kings, making him much harder to deal with.
“His body is invaded by Evil-Bane Divine Thunder; he won’t last long. Don’t give him a chance to recover! Everyone, attack with full force!”
With Lei Wan’s command, he manipulated a barrage of thunderbolts, charging at Duan Tianwu like a god of thunder.
The Evil-Bane Divine Thunder inside and the external Heavenly Punishment Thunder strikes left Duan Tianwu spitting blood repeatedly under Lei Wan’s relentless full-force attacks.
Even the blood he coughed out crackled with flickering thunderbolts.
The chaotic battle among the hundred Gu Kings caused catastrophic destruction. Entire walls collapsed at the battlefield’s center, and Gu Kings occasionally crashed into buildings, demolishing them.
Above, bolts of Heavenly Punishment Thunder descended, indiscriminately obliterating everything below. Entire sections of the Buddha Temple turned to ruins. The small pavilion from before had disappeared entirely, while monks fled in panic with terror-stricken faces.
Some monks fell victim to stray attacks from the Gu Kings, dying miserably as they fled. The entire temple was thrown into chaos.
To prevent Duan Tianwu’s escape, the Buddha Temple activated its defensive formation, encapsulating the area in a barrier.
Not only was Duan Tianwu unable to escape, but even the ordinary monks were trapped within, crying for help in vain. They could only retreat to distant corners of the battlefield, watching the chaos unfold with bated breath.
Among them was Long Xuan. Dutifully obeying Duan Tianwu’s order to stay at the back, he observed the battle from afar with keen interest.
Despite facing a hundred Gu Kings, Duan Tianwu held his ground, often cutting down a Gu King with ease.
Now equipped with a Sword Bone body, he wielded the Evil-Bane Sword with unstoppable might.
Under his sword, the Gu Kings fell like weeds. In a short span, an uncountable number of Gu Kings had perished by his blade. Duan Tianwu was utterly consumed by bloodlust.
Long Xuan clicked his tongue in astonishment. Even though Duan Tianwu was gravely injured by the Evil-Bane Divine Thunder and unable to use the Demon Devouring Gu’s power, his Sword Bone body and unique physical constitution allowed him to navigate the battlefield of Gu Kings, slaughtering them with impunity.
Only Lei Wan, Pavilion Master Ren, and Qin Manyuan could contend with him, while the other Gu Kings couldn’t last a single move against him.
The dominance of his Sword Bone body was evident—it allowed him to massacre opponents of the same level as if they were nothing.
Long Xuan’s expression grew solemn.
He noticed that Duan Tianwu’s fighting style resembled his own. The Gu insect, spiritual techniques, and physical techniques Duan Tianwu employed were entirely unfamiliar, as if originating from a different world.
His swordsmanship, capable of instantly killing opponents of the same level, was undoubtedly extraordinary. Yet, its origins were entirely obscure, and Long Xuan had never heard of such a technique before.
Even the cultivation method that granted an endless Spiritual Sea was unheard of.
Everything Duan Tianwu used seemed to be uniquely his, including his modified Little Strong Gu, which made him seemingly immortal. Despite his vital injuries and severely damaged internal organs, he simply wouldn’t die.
However, all Gu insect had their limits and restrictions. The ability to heal injuries inflicted by the Evil-Bane Divine Thunder required an enormous amount of mysterious energy, which was not infinite.
As long as he continued to sustain injuries and exhaust that energy, his immortality would eventually fail.
Realizing the precariousness of his situation, Duan Tianwu knew he couldn’t delay addressing his internal injuries any longer. He had to break through the encirclement as quickly as possible to find a place to expel the Evil-Bane Divine Thunder from his body. Continuing to tangle with this group would only spell disaster.
If the battle dragged on and he failed to suppress the Evil-Bane Divine Thunder, the consequences would be unimaginable.
Duan Tianwu dared not linger in battle. With his powerful undying body, he ignored all the attacks striking him and forcibly charged out of the Great Buddha Temple.
Despite the relentless attacks raining down on him, he pressed on, leaving the rest of the Gu Kings unable to stop him.
Seeing him successfully break out of the encirclement, Lei Wan roared in fury, “Duan Tianwu! You can't escape!”
“This is the Great Buddha Temple! Protected by its formation, even Gu Kings can’t force their way through the barrier. Where do you think you can go?”
Lei Wan shouted loudly while pursuing him.
However, just as his words fell, Duan Tianwu raised his crimson Qilin arm high and smashed it against the barrier blocking his way.
With a resounding "boom!", the barrier, impenetrable even to Gu Kings, was shattered by the brute force of the Qilin arm, leaving a massive hole.
Duan Tianwu leaped through the opening and disappeared into the distance.
Lei Wan stood frozen in shock.
It suddenly dawned on him that the Qilin arm possessed the strength of 400 ordinary men. Such an overwhelming force was beyond what most formations could withstand.
“Damn it! Chase him! Don’t let him get away!”
“He’s gravely injured and can’t run far! I refuse to believe he’s faster than me!”
Lei Wan’s face darkened with rage as his body transformed into a streak of lightning, darting through the opening and vanishing with incredible speed.
The other Gu Kings scrambled to follow, but the hole in the barrier was only big enough for one person at a time. Although the temple abbot quickly dispelled the formation, some time was still wasted.
For beings as swift as Gu Kings, even a brief delay could cause many to fall behind.
Seeing this, Long Xuan sensed trouble brewing. With a large number of Gu Kings separated from the main pursuit, the battle could take an unpredictable turn.
After everyone rushed through the barrier, Long Xuan stayed at the rear, following leisurely without haste.
He avoided using the Heavenly Secret Eye to observe Duan Tianwu. Back in the small town, merely glancing at Duan Tianwu through the Heavenly Secret Eye had alerted him. Now, Long Xuan didn’t dare to risk drawing his attention.
The chase continued for a long distance.
Lei Wan and Duan Tianwu’s speeds were astonishing, leaving the others far behind.
Long Xuan grew uneasy. Most Gu Kings couldn't keep up even at their fastest, leaving Lei Wan to face Duan Tianwu alone without backup.
In such a scenario, if Lei Wan were to fall, this demon-extermination mission would undoubtedly end in failure.
Just as this thought crossed Long Xuan's mind, they arrived at the scene.
However, only Qin Manyuan stood there, stunned. At his feet lay Lei Wan’s lifeless body, soaked in blood, his eyes wide open in disbelief, as if witnessing something incomprehensible.
As for Duan Tianwu, he was nowhere to be seen, having escaped beyond the Gu Kings’ perception.
All the Gu Kings stopped, surrounding the corpse with heavy hearts and grim expressions.
“How could this happen?! Duan Tianwu was gravely injured, nearly at his limit. With Lei Wan's immense strength and natural advantage against this demon, how could he be killed so quickly?”
The Gu Kings’ enforcers, overcome with grief and disbelief, rushed forward.
“Damn it! It seems this mission to eliminate Duan Tianwu has failed. If we couldn’t stop him this time, it will be even harder next time.”
“Duan Tianwu has already reached the late stage of the Gu King realm. He’s on the verge of breaking through to the Gu King peak.”
“Once he reaches the peak, he will become invincible. No matter how many forces we muster, it will be nearly impossible to kill him.”
The leader’s face darkened as he punched a nearby tree, shattering its trunk and sending it crashing to the ground.
“Sigh!” Qin Manyuan sighed and said, “When I arrived, Lei Wan had already fallen. I didn’t even catch a glimpse of Duan Tianwu.”
“I didn’t expect Duan Tianwu to strike so swiftly. Even someone as powerful as Lei Wan could be killed in an instant.”
“It’s my fault. If I had been faster, perhaps Lei Wan wouldn’t have fallen,” Qin Manyuan said regretfully.
One of the Gu Kings’ enforcers stood up, looked at him, and said, “You don’t need to blame yourself. Your speed was already incredible. The slowest among all was us. If anyone is to blame, it’s us.”
“As enforcers of the Gu King City, we constantly face death in our mission to eliminate demons. We were prepared for this.”
“Still, we never expected Lei Wan to be the one to fall—especially pierced through the heart by his own evil-bane sword. Such is fate.”
“It’s clear this demon’s strength far exceeds our expectations. We must return with Lei Wan’s body immediately and report this to the Gu Emperor. Duan Tianwu has become a significant threat, and he will soon bring about endless calamity. Everyone, prepare for dark times ahead.”
With those words, the enforcer carried Lei Wan’s body and quickly departed. The rest of the Gu King enforcers followed suit.