As Tie Xiong's burly corpse crashed to the ground— yet the caution in the depths of Lin Mu's eyes did not diminish in the slightest.
In the Gu world, even a single sliver of carelessness could be paid for with one's life.
He did not rush to plunder the spoils.
Instead, most cautiously, he once again activated the Metal Rend Leaf Gu, delivering another clean round of cuts to Tie Xiong's remains.
Only after confirming that his opponent's heart and aperture had both been utterly destroyed — that he was dead beyond any doubt — did Lin Mu finally let his Primeval Essence dissipate, as though a great weight had lifted from him.
He leaned against the severed stump of a sheared-off ancient tree, gasping for breath in great heaving gulps.
"Haah... haah..."
At this moment, his face was pale as paper.
Gazing inward at his aperture, that once-profound Primeval Sea had now run utterly dry, its bed laid bare.
Though the Dust Gu was merely Rank 1 and consumed little, barely enough to maintain the fog over the battlefield— in those few breaths, quick as a flash of lightning, he had been forced to run several offensive Gu worms simultaneously at their limit to complete the encirclement.
The strain this placed on his mind and Primeval Essence could only be called terrifying.
A hair's breadth from disaster.
Even as Lin Mu swiftly crushed several Primeval Stones to draw in essence, his mind raced through a review of the battle.
Tie Xiong, as a Rank 2 peak stage Strength Path expert, had possessed an exceedingly tenacious life force.
Had the Rank 2 Stick Insect Gu not rendered extraordinary service at the final moment, this battle would surely have been dragged into a dangerous war of attrition.
The most terrifying thing about the Stick Insect Gu was that it was itself a living Gu worm.
Its thrust relied entirely on the explosive power of its formidable, jointed physical body — without any ripple of Primeval Essence flowing at all.
It was precisely this absolute blind-spot ambush that had allowed it, in the midst of battle, to pierce with utmost stealth through the vital point at Tie Xiong's back!
Having recovered a sliver of Primeval Essence, Lin Mu stepped forward and searched Tie Xiong's remains.
As expected, the aperture was empty.
A seasoned veteran of a hundred battles like this one, in the instant he realized death was certain, had most decisively detonated all of his Gu worms, leaving not even a scrap of residue for his enemy.
Lin Mu was not discouraged in the least.
With a swift stroke of his blade, he cleanly severed Tie Xiong's right ear, wrapped it in a scrap of cloth as proof of military merit, and prepared to turn back and reinforce Lin Wuxie and the others.
By now, the main battlefield had long since entered its white-hot stage.
In the time Lin Mu had been away, one Rank 2 Gu Master had already been encircled by Lin Wuxie and the others, torn apart like a beast, and left lying in a pool of blood.
The two remaining enemy Rank 2 Gu Masters, backs pressed against one another, were bitterly holding on under the pincer of Lin Feng's fierce assault and Lin Wuxie's savage physical onslaught — their bodies already riddled with wounds.
Swish!
A light breeze brushed past, and Lin Mu's figure stepped abruptly out from the shadows, returning to the battlefield without a scratch.
In his hand, he still carried that blood-soaked scrap of cloth.
"You... you finished it off that quickly?!"
Lin Feng had just used a Gu worm to force the enemy back, but from the corner of his eye he caught sight of the unharmed Lin Mu. His pupils abruptly contracted, and a monstrous tide surged through his heart.
That was Tie Xiong!
A Rank 2 peak stage Strength Path warrior renowned across several stockades in the surrounding area!
His combat strength was not even inferior to some of the veteran elders of Black Blood Stockade.
And Lin Mu had actually killed him one-on-one in so short a time — and did not even appear to have suffered any serious injury!
This brat — just what heaven-defying fortune did he obtain in that mysterious shop?!
After the extreme shock passed, no fear of Lin Mu arose in the depths of Lin Feng's heart. On the contrary, an indescribable, fervent greed welled up uncontrollably.
In his eyes, Lin Mu's talent was nothing but that of a mediocrity — he had gained such combat strength solely through shortcuts.
If he, Lin Feng, could completely bind Lin Mu to himself, and through him tap into that Grey Street connection to obtain those obscure, powerful Gu-worm foundations... then what was a mere Rank 2?
Rank 3, even Rank 4, would be within reach!
This wildly inflating greed transformed into an invisible chain, binding Lin Feng completely and firmly to Lin Mu's warship.
Now, far from wanting to eliminate Lin Mu, he felt this was a great fortune he absolutely could not afford to miss.
And across from them, those two White Bone alliance Gu Masters still bitterly struggling — seeing Lin Mu return carrying Tie Xiong's ear — had their psychological defenses instantly and utterly collapse.
"Boss Tie is dead?!"
"Spare us! Young Master Lin Feng, spare us! We surrender..."
The two, faces ashen as death, threw down their weapons and had just opened their mouths to beg for a way to live.
But Lin Mu gave them no chance whatsoever to make a sound.
Pfft! Pfft!
Two streaks of dim light flashed by beneath the moonlight, gone in an instant.
Without any hesitation, and without any mercy, the Metal Rend Leaf Gu swept precisely and coldly across the throats of both men.
Blood sprayed wildly. The two corpses, eyes bulging wide, fell into the muddy water, refusing to close in death.
Lin Mu withdrew his Primeval Essence, his expression cold and detached.
He understood well that the true process of his battle — killing a Rank 2 peak stage cultivator one-on-one — must never be exposed too soon. The deeper the trump card was hidden, the richer the benefits he could reap on future battlefields.
The dead were the most perfect keepers of secrets.
...
Early the next morning, before the great tent of the Military Merit Office, the crowd was packed shoulder to shoulder.
The gaze of every person was seized fast by the Military Merit Board hanging high in midair.
At the most conspicuous position on the board, the name of Lin Feng's squad sat prominently at the very top!
And the achievement recorded under their name was written in glaring words: Annihilated an enemy elite raiding squad. Slew the Rank 2 peak stage Gu Master — Tie Xiong!
"Whoa—!"
Waves of incredulous exclamations erupted from the crowd.
"That was Iron Tower Tie Xiong! They say even several of our stockade's veteran deacons suffered great losses at his hands — and yet he was wiped out by a squad led by Young Master Feng!"
"Young Master Feng is worthy of being the Grand Elder's personal heir. With combat strength like this, he's practically the steadying pillar of our Black Blood Stockade's younger generation!"
For a time, Lin Feng's name once again resounded to the heavens.
On the brutal front lines, where the flames of war raged and survival was uncertain from one day to the next, those so-called "A-grade potentials" became empty, insubstantial things in everyone's eyes.
Only immediate combat strength — the kind that, like Lin Feng, could truly hack off enemy heads and bring the hope of victory — was the sun that the lower-ranking Gu Masters were most willing to follow.
The reputation Lin Feng had lost, plunging to rock bottom with the emergence of Lin Xingyuan, now saw a desperate, dramatic rebound in this moment, warming back completely.
Yet though this illustrious military achievement let him once again enjoy the intoxicating treatment of being the star cradled by the moon, it also thrust this squad — once hidden in the shadows — straight into the eye of the storm, becoming the target of countless pairs of eyes from both sides, friend and foe alike, fixed fast upon them.
A hundred li from the Black Blood Stockade front lines, within the White Bone Stockade alliance's secret command post, the atmosphere was rather oppressive.
Before a great sandtable, the white-haired young lord Li Huang stood with his hands clasped behind his back, reporting the recent state of the war to the various subordinate patriarchs seated around him.
"Several months have passed since the war began, yet this battle line has already been dragged utterly into a quagmire."
Li Huang pointed at the interlocking red markers on the sandtable and said in a low voice,
"Though that old wretch Lin Cang relies on his Rank 4 cultivation to forcefully suppress us on the frontal battlefield, keeping us from advancing a single step past the line, Black Blood Stockade's greatest weak point has already been laid completely bare — their mid-tier combat strength has a severe gap!"
"During this period, we've broken the whole into scattered parts, harassing their grain and supply lines and outer regions again and again. They're already run ragged, unable to attend to one thing without neglecting another. Taken as a whole, our alliance's grand army is nibbling away like a silkworm, ceaselessly devouring Black Blood Stockade's territory whole!"
Upon hearing this report, those subordinate patriarchs below — who had until now been somewhat on edge — instantly showed their delight on their faces.
"Hahaha! Young Lord Li Huang speaks true! What of Lin Cang's Rank 4? Hasn't he still been run in circles by our Alliance Lord Li's 'break the whole into scattered parts' scheme?"
"In my view, this is merely the first venomous scheme, and it's already bled Black Blood Stockade dry. At this rate, I daresay we won't even need to unleash the follow-up killer moves — Black Blood Stockade will fall apart from within of its own accord and crumble into the dust of history!"
The crowd offered one another congratulations and lavished flattery, as though they had already glimpsed the beautiful prospect of carving up Black Blood Stockade's century-old foundation.
Yet seated at the very center of this command post, in the seat of honor, Patriarch Li Mang of White Bone Stockade showed not the slightest trace of joy.
The Li Mang of this moment had grown even more withered than before the war began — gaunt, even, to the point of being unrecognizable, his cheekbones jutting high, his eye sockets sunken deep. Under the dim lamplight, he looked truly like an actual skeleton.
He gazed coldly at that rabble below, drunk on their temporary victory, and in the depths of his eyes there was not the slightest thirst for grand achievements — only a fathomless cold.
"Fools."
Li Mang's withered finger abruptly rapped against the armrest. His hoarse voice, like sandpaper grating, instantly pressed down the clamor of the entire hall.
"Do not be smug and self-satisfied. You must still keep your eyes fixed fast on Lin Cang's movements. Any sliver of a disturbance must be reported at once!"
He knew that old rival Lin Cang all too well.
A hero who had cultivated to Rank 4 could never possibly just sit at home and wait for death.
Sure enough, Black Blood Stockade's counterattack was about to descend with a roar, like the eruption of a volcano.
Merely half a month later, the bitterly struggling Black Blood Stockade finally welcomed a sliver of dawn.
In his early years, when Lin Cang traveled the Southern Border, he had sworn brotherhood with several clans — sworn brothers of life and death.
Though these clans were located in remote regions and were few in number, at Lin Cang's promise, a fresh force composed of over a hundred exceedingly fierce, battle-hardened Gu Masters suddenly thrust into the battlefield like divine troops descending from the heavens!
Though this external aid was small in number, it was like a shot of adrenaline — instantly filling the gap in Black Blood Stockade's mid-tier combat strength and completely stabilizing the defensive lines and morale that had been on the verge of collapse.
With the integration of this fresh force, the original guerrilla warfare evolved utterly into an endless grinding millstone of flesh and blood.
Every day on the front lines, a great many cultivators died — among them not a few Rank 2 peak stage Gu Masters who fell.
Yet beneath this chaos and turmoil, there was one man as cold as an iceberg.
In the rear of Black Blood Stockade, within a concealed underground chamber.
Lin Mu, sitting cross-legged upon a straw mat, slowly opened his eyes.
Within those deep, pitch-black eyes, two substance-like beams of light flashed by, illuminating the dim chamber for even an instant.
He felt the Primeval Essence surging violently within his aperture.
At last, the corners of Lin Mu's mouth curved into an exceedingly satisfied arc.
Having passed through this stretch of time — countless life-and-death struggles, and an exceedingly frenzied accumulation of resources— he had now utterly reached the absolute limit that this realm of Rank 2 could contain.
Rank 2 — the peak stage!