Chapter 1292: Mad Dog

Inside the enormous underground chamber, Yuan Gang did not dare make too much noise for fear of alerting the guards.

Soft "woo... woo..." sounds came from his mouth.

Above him, Jade Silkworms began sliding down along the hanging strands one after another. Slowly, upside down, they crawled onto the cocoon and formed a vertical line along Yuan Gang's back.

Then came the soft rustling of their feeding.

They had begun gnawing through the thick layers wrapped around him.

Once Yuan Gang judged the situation was about right and sensed the Jade Silkworms were continuing their work on their own, he fell silent.

He had been tormented until his hair hung loose and disordered, and he scarcely looked human anymore.

Hua Meiru came almost every day.

Every time she came, she tortured him once.

Yuan Gang had no intention of sitting there waiting to die.

He had tried summoning the Jade Silkworms.

To his surprise, it worked.

Time passed little by little.

Occasionally a guard walked by and glanced in his direction.

At first, the guards would come over and circle him to inspect the cocoon carefully.

Later, once they were convinced he could not escape, they stopped bothering to walk back and forth. As long as they could see him still hanging there, they simply moved on.

Yuan Gang had noticed that weakness.

Now he was exploiting it quietly.

There was no way to tell the passage of time inside the cavern.

He did not know how long it had been.

Within the cocoon, Yuan Gang repeatedly spread his arms and forced the binding apart.

At last, after the Jade Silkworms had bitten through the remaining strands behind him, he could push the entire rear of the cocoon open.

He was already capable of freeing himself.

Instead, he curled his body inward again and stopped moving.

There were guards at the exit.

This was Wushuang Sacred Land.

Yuan Gang did not believe he could escape.

Slowly, he closed his eyes and rested.

He was waiting.

Like a hunter lying in ambush, he waited in silence for his prey to arrive.

He did not know how long passed before footsteps finally came from the passage.

Yuan Gang's eyes snapped open.

He stared toward the entrance.

As expected, Hua Meiru appeared again.

Bandages were still wrapped around her throat.

A smile that was not quite a smile hung on her face as she walked toward him.

When she reached the place where he was suspended, she flashed onto the tall stone nearby and opened one hand.

"Take a look. Do you know what these are?"

Several long, slender steel needles lay across her palm.

Their tips were viciously sharp.

"You have such thick skin, don't you?"

"I'd like to see whether your hide is thicker or my needles are sharper."

"I had these made specially for you."

She toyed with them idly.

"Master gave me three days."

"If you still refuse to agree, then I have no choice."

"Guess what I'll do?"

"Drive them into your body. Pierce your eyes..."

Her smile carried bottomless hatred.

"Do you know why the needles are faintly red?"

"They've been treated with medicine."

"Once they enter your body, the sensation..."

"It will make you wish you were dead."

The needle tips traced lightly across Yuan Gang's face and even brushed his eyelids, as though the slightest wrong movement would send them stabbing straight into his eyes.

After Yuan Gang had bitten apart her throat, her voice had changed noticeably.

It was now hoarse.

Clink. Clink.

She tapped the steel needles together.

"I'll ask you one last time."

"Can you summon the Scorpion Emperor or not?"

Yuan Gang's gaze suddenly shifted behind her.

"Who are they?"

Who?

Hua Meiru immediately turned her head.

She saw nothing.

Then she sensed something wrong.

The sound of breaking air had already come from behind.

She whirled back around, driving the steel needles viciously backward at the same instant.

Yuan Gang had already torn free of the cocoon and was lunging for her.

One of the needles stabbed hard into his forearm.

Puh!

The sharpened steel punched straight through and buried itself into the bone.

Yuan Gang did not dodge.

He was even more ruthless than she was.

Hair hanging loose around his bloodstained face, he looked like a demon breaking free of confinement.

His attack came fast and savage.

The moment the needle pierced his arm, his five fingers snapped over and seized Hua Meiru's wrist.

Then he yanked her toward himself with brutal force.

Hua Meiru was horrified.

She knew how monstrous his strength was.

She knew exactly what would happen if he got hold of her.

Caught off balance, her body pitched forward.

The remaining needles in her other hand stabbed viciously toward Yuan Gang's abdomen as she fell.

Puh!

They sank into his belly.

Again, Yuan Gang did not evade.

He let them enter his flesh and swung his other arm toward her throat.

Her throat again?

The instant Hua Meiru remembered that blood-filled mouth, her legs nearly went weak.

Terror shot through her.

She twisted desperately to evade.

Too late.

Yuan Gang's hand had already clamped around her neck.

Cultivators did not normally engage in this kind of suicidal close-quarters grappling.

Hua Meiru was neither accustomed to it nor skilled at it.

Yuan Gang was.

One of her hands had been caught.

Her throat had been seized.

Hua Meiru desperately circulated her cultivation to resist, protecting her vital points while driving her free elbow backward again and again.

Bang! Bang!

Each impact slammed into Yuan Gang's body.

Each time she struck, fresh blood surged from the needles buried in his abdomen.

Yuan Gang still refused to let go.

He jumped.

Both legs locked around Hua Meiru's waist.

He clung to her like a mounted rider.

The two toppled together from the stone and crashed heavily onto the ground.

At the entrance, the guards were bowing in greeting to new arrivals.

Lü Wushuang had come.

Beside her was a hunched old woman leaning on a staff.

Her hair was white.

Her eyebrows were white.

Even her face was deathly pale.

It was Granny Xue.

The sudden commotion made everyone look over in shock.

Rolling across the ground, Yuan Gang desperately tried to wrench Hua Meiru's neck apart.

Hua Meiru concentrated all her magical power on resisting.

Even with his brute strength, Yuan Gang could not finish her quickly.

He had originally intended to hammer her with heavier blows.

Then he suddenly saw Lü Wushuang arrive.

His hand left Hua Meiru's throat and clawed across her face instead.

His fingers hooked like iron.

"HRAH!"

With one furious roar, two fingers plunged straight into Hua Meiru's eyes.

"AAAH!"

Hua Meiru screamed.

Blood burst from both eye sockets.

"Stop!"

Lü Wushuang shouted furiously and flashed toward them.

Yuan Gang had no intention of stopping.

He had never expected to leave this place alive.

His entire purpose was to kill one enemy and make his life worth the exchange.

The agony of her ruined eyes disrupted Hua Meiru's defense.

Yuan Gang seized the opening.

Both arms locked around her neck.

He exerted every shred of strength in his body and twisted.

Crack!

Hua Meiru's head spun around until her face pointed backward.

At the same instant, Lü Wushuang's palm struck Hua Meiru's body.

Her magical force passed through Hua Meiru and slammed into Yuan Gang beyond.

BOOM!

Yuan Gang was blasted away like a meteor.

He struck the stone wall more than ten zhang away.

Rock shattered and collapsed around him as he fell to the ground amid a shower of debris, choking on blood.

Granny Xue stared blankly at the scene.

She had never imagined she would arrive just in time to witness something so mad-dog savage.

Lü Wushuang landed.

Hua Meiru lay twisted on the ground, her face pressed against the stone beneath her.

Blood poured continuously from her mouth.

Her limbs were still spasming.

Whatever else she was, Hua Meiru was still Lü Wushuang's own disciple.

Lü Wushuang immediately dropped to one knee and urgently circulated magic to save her.

It was useless.

The injuries were fatal.

The magical force Lü Wushuang poured into Hua Meiru's body finally stopped circulating.

She withdrew it.

Hua Meiru's violently twitching limbs stiffened once.

Then they went limp.

She no longer moved.

Only blood continued seeping across the ground.

Lü Wushuang's face tightened.

With both hands, she turned Hua Meiru's head back around.

The face that came into view was ghastly.

Both eyes had become bloody cavities.

Her mouth hung open, filled with blood.

Lü Wushuang raised her head sharply.

Her furious gaze shot toward Yuan Gang's position.

Two guards had already flashed over there.

Another person blocked them.

Granny Xue.

Lü Wushuang slowly rose.

"Old hag. What are you trying to do?"

Crash!

After lying in the rubble for a while, the dust-covered Yuan Gang finally forced himself up.

He rasped for breath.

His hair hung loose.

His face was covered in blood.

His waist seemed unable to straighten fully, and his body swayed slightly.

He raised one hand and grasped the steel needle buried through his forearm.

Puh!

With one brutal pull, he ripped it free.

Clang.

He tossed it onto the ground.

Then both hands moved to his bleeding abdomen.

Several chopstick-long steel needles had been driven almost completely inside, leaving only finger-width lengths protruding from his flesh.

Yuan Gang gripped them and began pulling.

"Ngh..."

A muffled groan of pain escaped through his nose.

Blood surged out.

He pulled harder.

Puh!

The needles came free one after another.

Clang.

He threw them aside as though they were nothing.

His legs seemed unable to support him anymore.

Slowly, he backed against the stone wall and leaned there, breathing violently.

When he saw Hua Meiru lying dead on the ground, a savage smile spread across his blood-covered face.

Granny Xue ignored Lü Wushuang and stared at him.

"You're Yuan Gang?"

Still gasping, Yuan Gang replied, "So what if I am?"

"I've already made it worth it!"

Granny Xue's ears twitched.

Her figure flashed.

One hand seized Yuan Gang's arm, and she instantly changed position with him.

Lü Wushuang had lunged toward Yuan Gang and missed.

She landed and spun back toward Granny Xue.

Her finger stabbed toward Yuan Gang.

Her voice was icy.

"Old hag, are you planning to steal someone from my Wushuang Sacred Land?"

"Aren't you afraid I'll wash your Ice and Snow Sacred Land in blood?"

Granny Xue pointed her staff at the blood-smeared steel needles scattered across the ground.

"Steal him?"

"This old woman wouldn't dare!"

"But look at what you've been doing."

"If I had arrived one step later, I'm afraid this man would already have been killed to silence him."

"Since this old woman happened to come across the matter, naturally I have to uphold justice!"

She now suspected Wushuang Sacred Land might already have forced out whatever information it wanted from Yuan Gang and then tried to kill him afterward.

They had simply encountered an unexpected accident before they could finish the job prior to her arrival.

Otherwise, how could everything have happened at such a convenient time?

Lü Wushuang said coldly, "Put him down."

"I guarantee I won't kill him."

"We can leave him for everyone to deal with together."

"Well..."

Granny Xue glanced at Hua Meiru's corpse on the ground.

Then she gave a low chuckle.

In the next instant, she flashed away with Yuan Gang in tow and shot toward the tunnel entrance.

Lü Wushuang flew into a rage and gave chase immediately.

Inside the tunnel, Granny Xue sped forward while dragging Yuan Gang along.

Her staff swung repeatedly.

The moisture in the air condensed in an instant.

Thick walls of ice formed behind her one after another, blocking the passage.

Lü Wushuang came tearing after them.

Several silk ribbons shot from her sleeves, extending and contracting like violent streams of light.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The ice walls shattered layer after layer before her.

Wherever Lü Wushuang passed, flying fragments of ice were pulverized into powder.

The moment Granny Xue burst out of the cave, she dragged Yuan Gang directly into the sky.

Boom!

The ice sealing the cave entrance exploded behind them.

Lü Wushuang looked up.

With a sweep of her sleeves, she shot after them like an arrow.

Everyone on the ground throughout Wushuang Sacred Land raised their heads to watch.

Cultivators burst from the cave behind Lü Wushuang, shouting orders in all directions.

Before long, dozens of flying mounts rose rapidly into the sky with riders aboard and gave chase in the direction Lü Wushuang had gone.

Carrying another person was a burden.

As Granny Xue raced across the sky, Lü Wushuang behind her drew steadily closer.

Granny Xue suddenly cried out and wildly swung the staff in her hand.

The temperature of the surrounding air seemed to plummet in an instant.

Countless snowflakes condensed from nowhere and drifted through the sky.

With a backward sweep of Granny Xue's staff, the softly falling flakes suddenly became a raging storm.

They screamed toward Lü Wushuang like countless spinning blades.

Behind them followed innumerable icicles formed from frozen snow, shooting through the air like arrows.

Lü Wushuang spread both sleeves into the wind.

Several ribbons intertwined before her, spinning rapidly into the shape of a drill.

Her body followed inside that rotating cone of protection.

Crash!

She tore straight through the intersecting storm of ice and snow.

The attack could not injure her.

At most, it slowed her pursuit slightly.

Granny Xue glanced back, then gave a low chuckle.

She looked down at Yuan Gang hanging from one hand, blood still dripping from his body.

"Silly boy, running into Granny today was your good fortune!"

She found it difficult even to imagine that Yuan Gang himself had initiated the attack.

She still believed Wushuang Sacred Land had been trying to kill him to silence him and had simply failed to finish before her arrival because of an unexpected mishap.

Ahead, a vast bank of black clouds stretched across the sky.

Granny Xue shot into it with Yuan Gang.

A moment later, Lü Wushuang followed, silk ribbons drifting around her like an immortal's robes as she plunged into the same darkness.

The clouds blocked all sight.

Only the turbulent wake left by bodies tearing through the mist revealed the route ahead.

Lü Wushuang followed those churning traces and continued the furious pursuit.

[End of Chapter 1292]