Chapter 116

On the bodies of Gu Feng scattered across the ground, a different kind of aura slowly appeared.

The skill, unexpectedly, burst out a skill.

"Yours." Tang Luo did not touch this wisp of aura; in fact, Li Qing had already dealt with the person.

Li Qing was not polite; she reached out and grabbed, and the aura merged into her palm.

No one asked her what skill she had obtained.

On that side, Zhao Gailun had just prepared to get up, when his neck felt a chill, and the vanished Yunxiao Huan appeared at his side.

His right hand pressed against Gailun's neck; it should have concealed some small weapon.

"Don't move." Yunxiao Huan, who had said he would strike at the right moment, spoke, his palm twitching slightly, and a thread of blood slowly flowed from Zhao Gailun's neck.

Zhao Gailun's body froze, his face showing an angry expression: "These damned traitors! Wasn't the plan to team up against that demon monk Xuanzang?"

In the end, it turned out that only he and Gu Feng actually fought?

And Gu Feng was doing it for the fate fragments, not truly wanting to help the gourd babies.

This deeply wounded Zhao Gailun, this righteous comrade—emotionally, though physically he wasn't hurt much.

"I searched a bit, but couldn't find Liu Jian." Yunxiao Huan said.

At first, Liu Jian had taken the lead, planning to harm with hidden arrows; not only did he not appear as a person, but even his arrow shadow didn't show up, and no one knew when he had escaped.

"He and I feel the same—working with you guys is more reliable." Li Qing gestured to Yunxiao Huan as she said this, also not knowing when these two had gotten together.

If Gu Feng came back to life, he could probably be angered to death once more.

Scheming and calculating, thinking of much, the script was very perfect; however, his true teammates were only the Xuanwu he had drawn himself.

Additionally, adding a righteous comrade Zhao Gailun, who, in dealing with Tang Luo, could barely be counted as a teammate.

Enough to write the word "tragic" on one's leg.

Tang Luo walked to Gailun's side, glanced thoughtfully at Yunxiao Huan, then looked at Gailun: "Try to see if you can wake this gourd baby."

He actually handed the purple gourd to Gailun again.

Yunxiao Huan frowned slightly, but said nothing, withdrew his hand and retreated; faintly, a cold light could be seen flashing in his palm.

"Baby Seven, give me some response." Gailun, heartbroken and in pain worse than a breakup, shouted weakly, lacking strength, and then shook it up and down.

The purple gourd remained completely unresponsive.

"I'll say it—there's no hope left; let's boil it into soup." Tang Luo took back the gourd and said.

"That master." Jin Gang came over, smiling, and said, "Just now, that pale-faced guy said the gourd contains fate fragments?"

This made Zhao Gailun immediately glare angrily.

"Gourd baby! This is a gourd baby! Why are these people so ruthless? Don't you have any childhood?"

Even if you didn't have a childhood, consider the mission!

Without the help of the gourd baby, let alone saving Grandpa, you can't even find where the Snake Spirit is—how to complete the mission?

Zhao Gailun here is a hundred percent win-rate AD—Gods and Demons Walk; this time, his golden body will be broken by this bunch of greedy people.

It's not that Zhao Gailun doesn't want to C, but his teammates aren't contributing, are feeding wildly—what can he do?

"I don't know, want to take a look?" Tang Luo looked at Jin Gang and asked.

"Ha—" Jin Gang scratched the back of his head, laughing sincerely, "Breaking it isn't easy either, right?"

Another gourd withstood Gailun's fatal blow and still didn't break.

It seems only skills can break it open; generally, Gods and Demons Walk won't waste skills elsewhere.

Who knows if danger might suddenly appear?

In the mission world, there's basically no situation for practicing skills; it's only in the real world that one practices, unless one is absolutely certain no danger will occur in the short term.

Now, Jin Gang dare not say that no danger will appear in the short term.

Suddenly, dozens of toads drilled out of this lake; this gourd baby's mission to save Grandpa carries an air of eeriness.

"Still okay." Tang Luo took out the green gourd, directly crushed it, and blood water welled out from between his fingers, dripping onto the ground.

Compared to when Tang Luo first crushed a gourd, the bleeding is far, far less.

"You!" Zhao Gailun startled, there's blood! Sure enough, it's a gourd baby!

Opening his clenched fist, his palm revealed nothing inside; Tang Luo said: "Besides blood, there's nothing, and it's not a gourd baby. Even if it were, it's a dead gourd baby."

Gourd babies call out "Grandpa" as soon as they're in the gourd stage; "from birth" they can fight monsters.

There's no reason for them to show no response in the gourd stage when facing life-or-death danger.

These gourds have been dead objects from the very beginning.

"How could it not be? He clearly can speak; he told us he's a gourd baby, asking us to save his brother together." Zhao Gailun found it hard to accept reality, slumping to one side.

"Indeed, he's a liar." Jin Gang said, "Master, I didn't believe him at the time." He was referring to Gu Feng.

"Oh." Tang Luo remained noncommittal.

There were no fragments inside the gourd, which was within Tang Luo's expectation.

He took off the gourd, left, and then crushed another one; at the same time the bleeding was less than the first gourd, the power stored in the fate fragment was also much less.

At that time, Tang Luo carefully recalled his own process of taking them down, crushing the gourds one by one in order.

As expected, the fate fragments got smaller one by one, and the power stored in them was likewise.

This is why Tang Luo ate several but still couldn't match Nero's fate fragment; of course, Nero's fate fragment might actually be more than one piece, with one piece equaling several normal ones.

But more importantly, the fate fragments in these gourds are weak; by the time of the second-to-last gourd, the fate fragment had already become just "a thread."

The last gourd he carried on his person—Tang Luo was ninety percent sure it contained no fate fragment.

Truly ninety percent, not Gu Feng's self-assumed "eighty percent."

As Tang Luo expected, inside there was absolutely no fate fragment.

As for the other purple gourd, Tang Luo shook it twice, but did not immediately crush it.

This gourd feels no different from other gourds to him, aside from the color.

But Qin Menglan and the others confirmed it is the Seventh Baby among the Gourd Babies, which is quite interesting.

"How did you guys get here?" Qin Menglan asked.

"We followed the trail of a toad, never expecting to stumble into their lair." Tang Luo said.

These toads provided him with a modest amount of merit power, sparking some ideas.

"Really didn't expect that?" Qin Menglan glanced at King Kong, expressing full skepticism.

King Kong looks like someone who thinks with his muscles; the two of them together probably never even bothered to think.

"Don't worry about such details, how about you guys?" Tang Luo asked.

Qin Menglan briefly recounted what they had experienced: they found the river, followed it forward, encountered no natives, but instead met the purple Seventh Baby.

Tang Luo was taken by the Seventh Baby as a major villain, with everyone harboring their own thoughts, they came seeking him.

As for the mission... basically nothing accomplished.

The only clue originally, the Seventh Baby, is now silent as well, like a corpse.

Of the six-person team, one died—Gu Feng; one fled—Liu Jian; one slumped—Gailun; it can be described as dying before achieving anything.

But the remaining members, as far as we can tell, should no longer have scattered thoughts and should be able to properly complete the mission.

"We need to first find the Snake Spirit's lair, gather more information before making plans. Do you remember much of the cartoon plot? It might help." Qin Menglan said, allowing them to relax into "mission completion" mode without worrying about entanglements with other gods and demons.

"I haven't watched Gourd Baby, I just know about it." King Kong said, indicating he only handles the booming.

"Those pirated picture books don't count; the official Gourd Baby has two parts." Li Qing said.

Yunxiao Huan said nothing, merely staring at Zhao Gailun.

This young man is actually still capable of continuing cooperation and completing the mission together.

"The first part is Grandpa growing gourds, the villain is the Snake Spirit and the Scorpion Spirit couple. Right, after the second part, the Gourd Babies gained a weakness they didn't have in the first part."

"Don't think about Gourd Baby anymore." Tang Luo waved his hand, meaning everyone shouldn't obsess over Gourd Baby, "By the way, let's first boil some soup—are you hungry?"

"You really plan to boil this Gourd Baby?" Qin Menglan said, utterly speechless.

Tang Luo tossed the purple gourd up and down: "Of course, you might not believe it if I say it out loud. Crush the gourd into fragments, don't throw them away, coat with flour, even the little demons next door are drooling."

"..."

Everyone tidied up and returned to the cottage.

They pulled out a big pot from inside, added water, brought it to a boil, and under Zhao Gailun's indignant gaze, Tang Luo dropped the purple gourd in.

The gourd sank straight to the bottom of the pot, still showing no reaction.

"Ah Lun, take a look—if there's any reaction, fish it out." Tang Luo said to Zhao Gailun.

Zhao Gailun stared blankly for a moment, then walked to the pot's side, fixing his eyes intently on the gourd inside.

"Alright, let's discuss the Snake Spirit issue now." Tang Luo said, "This is what we need to deal with. Rely on ourselves, not on Gourd Baby—one look and you know it's unreliable."

Qin Menglan and the others all nodded.

After experiencing the Seventh Baby's sudden loss of voice, they also felt the Gourd Baby was unreliable, giving off a strange feeling.

"Does the Snake Spirit have three treasures?" Qin Menglan recalled, "Maybe it's equipment."

Experienced god-demon wanderers are skilled at spotting suspicious equipment-like objects in familiar or seemingly familiar mission worlds, needing a pair of eyes to detect "equipment."

The Snake Spirit in the first part possesses three treasures: the Ru Yi, the Magic Mirror, and the Yin-Yang Sword of Hardness and Softness.

What exactly they're used for, everyone has basically forgotten, but it doesn't hinder the growth of strong interest.

"Possible." Li Qing said, "But we don't even know where the Snake Spirit is. Not only that, the only 'living beings' we've encountered are the Gourd Baby and those strange toads."

After entering the mission, human shadows, ghost shadows, animal shadows, demon shadows—all are extremely rare.

To put it more accurately, this region basically has almost no "living beings."

No fish in the river, no insects in the grass, no birds in the sky, no beasts in the forest.

Despite the lush, verdant trees, there is a peculiar sense of deathly stillness.

Is it the Snake Spirit's demonic aura as a great demon that has driven away the surrounding mobile life?