Chapter 373: Cat Tracks, The Net, and Turning the Tide

"Burning lutes to boil cranes, a reckless waste of natural treasures."

Kunpengzi was admiring his own masterpiece when he suddenly heard Zhou You utter these eight words.

Zhou You pointed at the battlefield and analyzed, "Martial Masters each have their secret techniques and ultimate moves; when used off-the-cuff in life-or-death moments, these unconstrained, spontaneous actions often yield unexpected results."

"But to manipulate them as puppets, they lose all ability to adapt and are reduced to mere suicide bombs—a waste."

Commander Chen, Yu Jiuzhang, and the Xishan Lone Peak were currently displaying an invincible, sweeping mode that nothing could stop.

The enemies facing them included both Intermediate Martial Masters and Advanced Martial Masters, but even though they were all second or third-rate goods, the gap between them was not that large.

If they had been in a state of free will, they might not have lacked the strength to fight.

However, under Kunpengzi's manipulation, they were left with only one method: self-detonation of their Qi and blood—simple and brutal.

Just think of how many winters and summers, how many days and nights of bitter training a Martial Master must endure to achieve their status, only to end up as meaningless consumables.

"Are they even worthy of being called natural treasures?"

Kunpengzi stroked his beard and sneered, "You likely haven't seen the true essence of the Martial Dao, which is why you treat these mediocre people like treasures. Let me ask you, have you ever seen a Martial Saint?"

Naturally, he had not! Thousands of years before Zhou You's time, the last Martial Saint in the world had passed away, leaving only Grandmasters to gallop and reign supreme in the world.

His heart skipped a beat. Had he seen a Martial Saint? Just how old was Kunpengzi? "I have seen a true Martial Saint. Although we share the word 'Martial,' I can tell you responsibly that a Martial Saint and the common masses below the level of a Martial Saint are two completely different species."

Kunpengzi pointed casually at Commander Chen and the others, "Martial Saints sit high on divine thrones; these goods are merely dust beneath those thrones."

Even though, as a member of the Golden Immortal Dao, he looked down upon the path of the Martial, hearing Kunpengzi's tone, he felt immense awe toward Martial Saints as well.

To be called a Saint in the Martial Dao requires not only strength but also recognition of one's status and position.

"Would you feel heartache for dust falling to the ground?"

A Martial Saint, you say? Zhou You nodded, "Kunpengzi, do you want to know who I am?"

"Now I tell you, I am your enemy. Whatever you want to do, I will oppose you. I will kill your people, I will help your enemies, and the entire purpose of everything I do is to kill you."

He pressed both hands onto the tabletop, "Did you hear that?"

The Kunpengzi opposite him listened, then nodded and said, "Since it has come to this, you have already invited your own death."

Suddenly, a cat's meow came to his ears.

Upon hearing this meow, the hairs all over Kunpengzi's body stood on end, and cold sweat streamed down his forehead.

He had no time to pay attention to Zhou You and turned his head to look in the direction the sound came from.

Zhou You also looked over. It's you, Daju.

A fat orange cat streaked across the battlefield, its agile and swift movements forming a sharp contrast with its obese physique.

This cat was none other than the old employee raised by Zhou You's family, the retired granary manager, the orange cat Dafei.

This fat cat had slipped out of the convoy when they were moving out of the city, and its whereabouts were unknown; he hadn't expected it to appear near the battlefield.

According to Zhou You's guess, it was highly likely that this gluttonous cat had been stealing salted fish from a resident's house and had unfortunately been exposed when the battle spilled over.

However, Kunpengzi's reaction to seeing the fat cat was too strange.

"A Demon?"

Kunpengzi's gaze was filled with suspicion and uncertainty as he stared at the orange cat disappearing from sight, finally letting out a sigh of relief.

Thank goodness it wasn't!

If it really were a Demon, things would be serious—it would be beyond his control.

Ancient Demons were terrifying existences that had once flourished, and even the Golden Immortal Dao would tremble before them.

He steadied his mind and resumed the work that had been interrupted halfway.

"Moyunzi, I allow you to have this name carved on your tombstone. Prepare to die!"

Just as Kunpengzi opened his mouth and the killing move he was brewing had yet to be unleashed, the space before his eyes suddenly went black. "Young people these days are becoming less and less principled. I thought only an old man like me was black-hearted and ruthless, using underhanded sneak attacks, but I didn't expect you to strike even faster than me."

What Zhou You had waved his hand to cast was none other than the treasure he had just refined... the Baile Tianluo.

He drove it with his Tianfu Decipher Confusion, and every silk thread radiated an aura of hunger, eager to swallow the target in one gulp.

The surrounding light was drawn into it, and the environment instantly became pitch black, so dark one could not see their own fingers.

Kunpengzi squinted and recognized it, "The Qi Family's town-clan treasure."

He was greatly shocked; Moyunzi's strength exceeded his estimates. To be able to take a noble family's treasure for his own use—the power hidden behind this could not be underestimated!

He immediately pulled back to retreat, but as soon as he stood up, his two calves felt a piercing pain.

It was the Ice Marrow Finger. Zhou You had exerted force from a distance using Extreme Freeze Cold, freezing the Qi and blood in his legs so he could not exert force suddenly.

Kunpengzi sat back down with a thud, as if he had actively collided with the net of the Baile Tianluo.

With a thud, the countless silk threads of the Baile Tianluo instantly tightened and bunched together, swallowing a living person whole.

Zhou You took four or five breaths, watching as the mass of black silk shrank to the size of a fist.

He stepped forward, wanting to retrieve it, but discovered that after capturing Kunpengzi, the Baile Tianluo was as heavy as a thousand jun, and he couldn't even pick it up.

A faint, arrogant shout from Kunpengzi came to his ears, "Moyunzi, do you really think I don't understand fist-martial arts?"

"This old man is... just wait until I break free, and that will be the day of your death."

It turned out that Kunpengzi knew he couldn't escape, so he had used a technique just before being caught to fix the position of the Baile Tianluo, making it impossible for Zhou You to move or take it away.

The old guy really had many tricks.

Zhou You began to believe that he was indeed an old antique who had lived from the era of the Martial Saints to the present.

Thinking back to the evaluation that the Golden Immortal Dao could extend one's life, could there really be a way to achieve immortality?

After Kunpengzi was trapped by the Baile Tianluo, the battlefield changed immediately.

Almost in an instant, it collapsed.

The rebel Martial Masters of the defending side were like disconnected equipment; the strange light in their pupils dissipated, and after a brief system crash, they quickly rebooted.

What? They had been bewitched by a treacherous person and had actually committed so many wrongdoings?

And they had even gone against the garrison, the City Gate Guard, and the sects, offending every force they couldn't afford to offend.

The rest of his life is as good as over.

There was something even more miserable; the ground was covered in remains and fragments, the traces left behind by the self-detonation of Qi and blood, and those who died did not even have the chance to complain.

"Go!"

A high-level Martial Master turned around decisively, his physical body tearing through the air as he left.

Following his lead, the high-ranking members of the rebel army broke away from the battlefield one after another, with only a small portion who were too deeply entangled unable to escape and thus beaten or hacked to death.

"Why not pursue them? There must be die-hard loyalists among them, right?"

Xishan Duxiu gripped his staff and walked to the side of Commander Chen and the other person.

These Martial Masters were not all innocent; many among them were not puppets, but were genuinely serving the mastermind behind the scenes.

"Recapturing the city is the primary objective."

Commander Chen said solemnly.

At the same time, the four city gates fell, and Chen Yang and Zheng Qing led five thousand elite soldiers to charge into the city like a hot knife through butter.

Seeing that the situation was lost, with Martial Masters either dead or fled and retreating comrades everywhere, the rebels also knew that the situation was lost.

Thus, this city, which had changed hands not long ago, quickly completed its second fall.

Zhou You witnessed this entire scene! (End of chapter)