Chapter 51: Surpassing

When Lin Ling heard this news, his mind went blank with a loud buzz, and he blurted out without thinking.

His voice was loud, but the surrounding chaos drowned it out beneath cries for help and shouts—no one noticed.

After a moment to compose himself, Lin Ling looked at Fang Yue with a complex expression.

"Are you absolutely certain the head hanging at the Chen Fu gate was Chen Mu's?"

"I saw it with my own eyes!"

"..."

Lin Ling fell silent for a while, then let out a deep sigh.

"I never thought he'd end up like this. But at least that bastard knew he had only a few years left—he left behind a secret manual and taught it to you, preserving his legacy; otherwise... it would've been truly tragic."

Outside sects and clans, ordinary martial cultivators only prepare secret manuals and leave legacies when death is near and their yang lifespan is nearly spent.

Otherwise, they typically teach their disciples through direct instruction and example.

After all, crafting a secret manual is not easy.

Many martial arts techniques require the expenditure of yang lifespan to write a manual capable of transmitting true transmission.

Now that Chen Mu is gone, in a certain sense, Fang Yue is Chen Mu's sole true disciple.

Theoretically, whether out of years of camaraderie or personal ties, Lin Ling has an obligation to look after Fang Yue.

Even though Lin Ling greatly dislikes Fang Yue.

During their conversation, the villagers to the north had mostly scattered, hiding behind Fang Yue and the guards.

Lao Yang and the other Deputy Captains led the Guard Team forward to gather nearby.

Xiao Hu and Niu Niu had also wanted to blend in, but remembering how the 【Lìqū Guǐ】 struck with blows exceeding 100 Blood Points, they stayed quietly among the crowd.

Now, the crowd ahead had cleared entirely, leaving only chaos in the aftermath.

Under the glow of the Guard Team's Human Souls' Soul Torches, Fang Yue looked out.

He saw a pile of corpses lying across the road ahead.

A small portion had died from being trampled in the crush—their bodies still intact.

The rest had truly been killed by the Guǐ.

Their corpses lay scattered and broken along the outermost edge—the first to be struck.

All of them were mangled, as if their bodies had been instantly sliced apart by sharp blades, dying in fragmented states.

Many of the corpses still bore expressions of final terror and Zhenjiu on their faces.

Seeing the condition of these corpses, Fang Yue's pupils instantly contracted.

This was exactly like the death pose of Shi Wuliao at the Chen Fu gate!

It's him... it's the Guǐ from Chen Fu!

Without showing it, Fang Yue tried to slip quietly into the Guard Team's ranks, but Lin Ling seized his hand.

"It's coming!"

What? Why warn me now?! I'm not fighting that monster!

Everyone else was staring at him; the villagers' hopeful gazes locked onto him with unyielding intensity.

Fang Yue let out a bitter internal laugh and forced himself to stay put.

Huh—huh—huh—

The night wind howled.

The scene fell utterly silent, like the calm before a storm.

The Guard Team stood at the ready; behind them, the villagers held their breath, the only sound the faint crackle of the Soul Torches.

In this profound stillness, a light footstep suddenly sounded.

Tap...

Tap...

Tap...

The footsteps came at intervals, each landing with a feather-light touch, giving the impression of a leisurely stroll through the countryside.

But with each step, the next one grew louder, as if the distance had suddenly been halved.

"It's wearing embroidered slippers—the material is far superior to the maid Guǐ's."

Lin Ling whispered: "It must be the Guǐ you said was in Chen Fu! Don't panic! I know Chen Mu—he wasn't the type to wait for death. Even if he was killed, he must've dealt it a heavy blow. Together, you and I can kill it!"

Fang Yue was about to respond when a melodious singing voice suddenly rose from ahead.

It was sung in an operatic tone, the notes drawn out long.

"The night..."

Beneath the night, a white-clad figure stepped lightly from the darkness, gradually emerging.

"Like water..."

Amid the lingering opera notes, sudden slashes appeared on the road ahead of the figure—swiftly spreading forward, one after another.

Each slash sank ten inches into the earth, deep beyond sight.

"The moon..."

Before anyone could clearly see the figure's face,

it blurred—like teleporting before everyone's eyes—and suddenly advanced a great distance, stopping nearly a hundred meters from Fang Yue.

"... Like frost."

Almost the instant it stopped, the already mangled corpses around it split apart in a flash—blood sprayed high into the air, forming a light Blood Rain.

Beneath the night, amid the crimson, the slashes carved the path, broken limbs littering the ground.

The figure smiled faintly—eyebrows like smoke, lips like jade, saintly as a painting.

The Blood Rain fell, but halfway down it was sliced clean in two, splitting apart to avoid the graceful figure in the middle, splashing down on either side with a clatter.

Within the Blood Rain, the graceful figure stepped forward, a white lotus rising from the mud—untouched by a speck of dust, bewitching and uncanny.

Most importantly… her eyes were clear as a mirror!

The scene fell utterly silent.

Everyone stared at the graceful figure in terror, unable to utter a single word.

Gulp…

Lin Ling swallowed, his face ashen to the extreme, his whole body trembling, as he forced out four words with great difficulty.

"Black Grade… mid-tier!"

Fang Yue stared blankly at the graceful figure before him, recognizing the origin of the uncanny.

"…Lady Chen?"

The graceful figure was none other than Lady Chen, whom Fang Yue had met once before.

Only now, she seemed like an entirely different person—elegant and bewitching, radiating an indescribable, terrifying pressure.

"It is Lady Chen!"

"No! It's Lady Chen under Possession!"

"How many uncanny have invaded tonight? It's too terrifying! Too terrifying!"

"If Lady Chen is here, then where is Chen? Why isn't he here?"

No one dared think it through. In Gu Yue Cun, Chen was like a belief, a symbol.

Apart from the unfathomable Lord Han, the person everyone trusted most and had the most contact with was Chen.

They could not accept the thought that Chen might already have been killed by the uncanny.

As if to drive away that thought, under the crushing pressure, a Deputy Captain suddenly roared and charged at Lady Chen.

"No…"

Fang Yue didn't even have time to react before the head of the charging Deputy Captain slid off and dropped to the ground with eerie smoothness.

Then came the torso—like a set of building blocks collapsing, the body was split into seven or eight pieces, scattered across the ground.

A Deputy Captain of Gu Yue Cun, without even a shred of room to struggle, died just like that—without rhyme or reason, without a sound.

Silence.

A terrifying silence.

Even the sound of breathing seemed to freeze.

Everyone stared dumbly at the corpse on the ground, legs as if filled with lead, throats as if struck mute, still not daring to move a muscle, not daring to draw a breath!

Fang Yue, his neck stiff, very slowly and with great difficulty turned his face to look at Lin Ling beside him.

The next instant, his heart gave a start.

It was the first time he had ever seen Lin Ling show such a loss of composure.

He saw Lin Ling as if a basin of cold water had been dumped over him, his whole body trembling.

Cold sweat streamed down his forehead, his eyes wide with terror, his mouth dry and parched.

As if sensing Fang Yue's gaze, Lin Ling shook his head stiffly and silently, a small motion.

He couldn't tell…

He could not make out the uncanny's attack trajectory!

That meant one very simple thing.

The moment this uncanny struck, he would end up just like that Deputy Captain—as silent and senseless a corpse on the ground!

Black Grade mid-tier?

No, a gap in strength like this was no longer a matter of Black Grade.

That thing… was absolutely an uncanny that stood above Black Grade!

The disaster that would wipe out the village was tonight!

That's it for today. Adjusting my schedule, saving up drafts, starting tomorrow I'll try to fix the update time.

(End of chapter)