Chapter 266: To Lay a Vicious Hand on Him
On her way back to Beast God City, Yu An passed through Qi Yuan City and brought Lan Ying and Xiao Yu along with her.
A few days later, she returned to Beast God City and immediately summoned Ao Yi and Ao Shan.
"Hall Master, you were looking for us..."
Before they could finish speaking, Ao Yi and Ao Shan saw the unconscious forms of Ao Er and Ao Si in the room, as well as Yu An sitting in a chair and drinking tea.
They were both dumbfounded, having no idea what Yu An intended.
"You’re here?"
Yu An lifted her gaze. At the same time, Mo Yan and Feng Xuan struck, knocking them both unconscious.
"Time to get to work," Yu An said, setting down her teacup. She clapped her hands and stood up. "A Yuan, you and the others stand guard for me."
Mo Yan nodded. "Alright, An’an. Rest assured."
Lan Ying stood lookout outside while the other two guarded the room. Yu An took a deep breath and began to extract the Gu Worms from the four brothers’ bodies.
The situation was too complicated to explain quickly, so to avoid wasting time, she had simply knocked out her four brothers to remove the Gu Worms first and explain later.
Yu An’s control over her superpower had reached an extremely high level, but she still worried she might harm her brothers during the extraction. She remained on high alert, not daring to relax or let her concentration slip for even a moment.
Fortunately, aside from a small mishap involving Ao Si, the other Gu Worms were extracted without incident.
Perhaps Ao Si hadn’t been knocked out completely. Halfway through the extraction, the Gu Worm woke up, and its struggles sent a jolt of pain so intense that it brought Ao Si back to consciousness.
He opened his eyes and saw Ao Yi and the others still unconscious. He was instantly horrified. "Hall Master, what are you doing?!"
’What have the four of us done to make the Hall Master turn on us like this?’
Yu An’s entire focus was on subduing the awakened Gu Worm, so she paid Ao Si no mind. Feng Xuan tried to knock him out again, but Ao Si sensed the rush of air behind him and dodged in advance.
"Hall Master, you—you’re actually turning on us! What did we do wrong for you to treat us so cruelly—"
He saw Ao Yi and the other two slumped motionlessly in their chairs and assumed they were already dead.
Looking at Yu An’s stern face (which was in fact a mask of concentration as she dealt with the Gu Worm) and the menacing glares of Mo Yan and Feng Xuan, Ao Si was filled with grief.
’Am I going to die here?!’
Realizing he couldn’t escape on his own, Ao Si started screaming and crying, hoping to attract the guards.
The shouting gave Yu An a headache. She shot him a look. "Shut up!"
Ao Si’s shouting came to an abrupt halt. He didn’t know why, but though Yu An had only said two words, he was terrified, as if he would suffer a miserable death if he didn’t immediately obey!
Seizing the opportunity, Feng Xuan chopped him on the back of the neck, and Ao Si immediately lost consciousness.
For a short while after, the world was quiet. Yu An took a deep breath and finally captured the scurrying Gu Worm, just as she was about to pull it out and crush it.
Mo Yan and Feng Xuan stared nervously at Ao Si, afraid he would wake up again.
Unfortunately, as if their worst fears had been realized, Ao Si’s eyes opened once again.
This time, Mo Yan tried to knock him out immediately, but a powerful burst of spiritual power suddenly erupted from Ao Si, throwing the three people surrounding him—Yu An, Mo Yan, and Feng Xuan—back!
"An’an!"
Yu An was sent flying toward the sharp corner of a table. Luckily, she managed to right herself in time, and with Feng Xuan shielding her, she avoided injury.
Looking at Ao Si, who seemed like a completely different person, Yu An gave a hand signal. Mo Yan and Feng Xuan moved forward at once to subdue him.
His eyes vacant, Ao Si started to fight the two of them.
Yu An guessed that the Gu Worm in his body was controlling him. The other three, Ao Yi’s group, showed no strange signs because the Gu Worms inside them were already dead.
’But just a moment ago, the Gu Worm was on the brink of death and didn’t control Ao Si. So why now...?’
"An’an, Little One is back!"
Lan Ying heard the commotion in the room and was about to ask what was happening when he saw Little One descend from the sky with a man in tow.
As Yu An looked over, Ao Si’s gaze also fell upon Tian Shu’s face. His eyes lit up, and abandoning Mo Yan and Feng Xuan, he lunged at Tian Shu.
Tian Shu leaped back in fright. "Wh-who is this guy?!"
Lan Ying tried to intercept Ao Si, but Ao Si refused to fight him, deftly dodging and making a beeline for Tian Shu.
Unable to dodge in time, Tian Shu took a direct hit from his fist.
’Wait, do we even know each other? He just walks up and punches me!’
’No, not just one punch—he’s pinning me down and beating me to death!’
Just as Yu An was about to separate them, a shadow fell over the area. She looked up and recognized the figure in the lead at once: the Pseudo Beast God, Tian Fu.
She looked toward Little One. "Little One, what is happening?"
Little One nervously tapped its fingers together. "An’an, we failed."
Tian Fu looked down from on high, his tone disdainful. "You’ve recovered your memories, haven’t you?"
When he awoke, he had sensed that Yu An’s memories had been restored. He also knew that of the Gu Worms he had planted in the four brothers’ bodies, three were already dead.
He had seized control of the one inside Ao Si just in time, preventing all of them from escaping his grasp.
With a wave of her hand, Yu An caused thorny vines to erupt from the ground and whip violently toward Tian Fu.
"Get down here and talk," she said coldly. "I don’t like looking up at others."
Tian Fu simply smiled and led his men down to the ground. A commotion of this scale naturally drew the attention of the Beast God Hall’s guards. When they rushed over, they saw the Beast God and the Hall Master in a standoff, looking as if they were about to come to blows at any second.
They looked at one another, momentarily at a loss for what to do.
Tian Fu’s voice boomed, "Guards! Yu An has committed insubordination, conspiring with outsiders to betray the Beast God Hall! Seize her!"
Just as the guards began to move forward, Yu An snorted. "Hah! Tian Fu, what a fine ’thief crying thief’ act! You’re the one who stole my position as Beast God and wreaked havoc in the Beastman World for years, and now you dare to turn around and accuse me!"
The guards were baffled.
’Why is the Hall Master claiming to be the Beast God?’
’So who is the real Beast God? And whose orders should we follow?’
Tian Fu’s heart sank. He had assumed that once Yu An recovered her memories, she would hate him to the bone and conspire with Tian Shu to kill him.
He never imagined she’d recovered that much older memory—the one about being the Beast God. Weren’t those memories supposed to remain sealed forever after the Heart Demon disappeared?
’Why...?’
Before he could figure it out, the aura emanating from Yu An was enough to convince the guards that Tian Fu was the Pseudo Beast God. No longer hesitating, they raised their weapons and charged toward Tian Fu and his men!
A vicious glint flashed in Tian Fu’s eyes. His cover was blown. Still, his mission was mostly complete; he had gathered enough Blood Crystals. The people of the Endless Land were now expendable.
That being said, if he brought the people of the Endless Land back with him, his accomplishments would be even greater.
He had only revealed his identity to these guards. As long as he killed them, he would remain the revered Beast God to the outside world.
With this in mind, Tian Fu waved his hand, and the subordinates behind him rushed toward the guards.
The guards were naturally no match for them, and the ones at the front were quickly injured. Tian Shu sucked in a sharp breath. "Tian Fu, are you insane?! People from the Upper Realm are forbidden from harming those in other worlds, or they’ll be punished by the Heaven and Earth Stone!"
Tian Fu scoffed. "So what?"
’As long as I achieve my goal, who cares?’ he thought. ’Besides, these men aren’t my trusted subordinates. My confidants are on the Divine Mountain, packing up the Blood Crystals.’