Chapter 286: The Gu Caster Must Also Taste the Gu Poison
"No—"
Yu An heard Tian Fu’s voice, but she let go anyway. When the explosion sounded, she found her body was gradually turning transparent.
’Oh, so that’s the fatal weakness.’
As Tian Fu pulled her from the Illusion Realm, Yu An chucked a few more gas canisters down with a CLANG CLANG CLANG.
She had plenty of them in her storage space, so blowing a few up was just like clearing out inventory and setting off fireworks.
Outside the Illusion Realm, Tian Fu was so furious he could have spat blood. But he couldn’t speed up Yu An’s extraction and could only watch helplessly as the ancestral hall was blown to bits.
Not just the part above ground, but the part below, too—a deep crater was blasted right into the earth!
The strange, sweet-and-acrid scent from before grew stronger, making Yu An’s head spin.
Another explosion went off. Something underground seemed to have been blasted out, but before Yu An could get a good look, her figure vanished.
"Yu An! Yu An!"
A flash of white light, and Tian Fu appeared before her. His eyes were bloodshot and his face was twisted in a savage expression, as if he were looking at a long-hated nemesis.
"So it was you... It was you who did it..."
Yu An furrowed her brow slightly. She didn’t quite understand what Tian Fu meant. ’What does he mean, "it was me who did it"?’
’What did I do?’
But Tian Fu didn’t answer her. He struck with a killing blow.
Yu An quickly retreated to dodge, and at the same time, several leaves appeared at her fingertips, WHIZZING toward Tian Fu.
The leaves seemed to have eyes of their own, heading straight for Tian Fu. He leaped into the air to dodge most of them, then swatted the rest away with his weapon.
However, when he landed, he saw a smile playing on Yu An’s lips.
"You..."
Before he could finish, a vine suddenly wrapped around his calf, and he felt a faint sting.
Tian Fu thought Yu An was about to unleash some ultimate move, but he didn’t expect her to just poison him.
He instantly sneered. With a stomp of his foot, he shattered the vine.
"Trying to poison me?"
Tian Fu scoffed, "A pity, but I’m immune to all poisons."
"That really is a pity," Yu An sighed, feigning disappointment. "And here I went to the trouble of researching several highly venomous plants. I really thought the aconite toxin would be enough to kill you."
’So Tian Fu really is immune to poison. No matter. I never expected ordinary poison to kill him anyway.’
’It’s perfect that he’s focused on the poison. He’s always inflicting Gu on others; it’s time he felt the pain of being afflicted with a "Gu" himself.’
Seeing that she was ready to fight again, Tian Fu clasped his hands behind his back and chuckled softly. "Forget it. I won’t fight you myself. I’ll let them deal with you."
He had only wanted to trap Yu An in the Illusion Realm, but seeing her blow up the ancestral hall brought back some rather unpleasant memories.
In his memory, an arrogant, brazen girl hovered in mid-air. On the ground below, his most precious possession had been blasted into fragments too small to ever be pieced back together.
She had nearly exposed his secret and almost caused the Tian Family to slip from his grasp.
How could he not hate her for it?
He changed his mind. He would kill Yu An, just not with his own hands.
On the empty ground, several figures flickered into view, quickly solidifying.
When she saw their faces clearly, Yu An’s palms clenched into tight fists. "Tian Fu, what is the meaning of this!"
"No meaning at all," Tian Fu said, a rare smile on his face. "I just want to watch a good show."
He smiled again, a sinister and malicious grin. "Kill them, and you can leave this Illusion Realm. Conversely, if they kill you, they can leave this place too."
He swept his gaze over the four small figures surrounding Yu An. "You are the lingering obsessions of your childhood selves, trapped in this Illusion Realm to suffer in an endless cycle. And yet, your original bodies are out in the world, marrying and having children, living happily."
Seeing the grim expressions on the faces of Mo Yan and the other three, Tian Fu continued unhurriedly, "Kill Yu An, and I will help you leave the Illusion Realm, replace your original bodies, and be reborn. How about it?"
He was certain the four obsessions would act. After obtaining this small Illusion Realm, he had to expend a great deal of effort to gain control over it because their lingering obsessions were so deep and their resentment so heavy.
Seeing Tian Fu’s sinister smile, Han Li opened his mouth to curse him.
’Where did this old crafty bastard come from, trying to sow discord between us and the Female Master!’
’Our resentment is heavy, but that’s only because we were driven to it by being unable to get out and find An’an!’
Every time they escaped the Tian Family, they would be sent back to the very beginning, their memories of the escape erased.
Though the four of them lost their memories, the resentment remained, growing heavier and heavier over time.
Tian Fu may not have been the one who trapped them here, but now he was trying to manipulate them into attacking Yu An.
’In Han Li’s eyes... this was unforgivable!’
When they appeared, Lan Yin was holding a steamed bun. Seeing that Han Li was being completely clueless and had missed Yu An’s subtle glance, he shoved the bun directly into Han Li’s mouth.
"Mmph mmph mmph—"
Han Li’s eyes widened. He pulled the bun out, and just as he was about to tell Lan Yin to stop treating him like a trash can, Mo Yan, who was beside him, spoke up.
"We can get out?"
His face was filled with uncontrollable joy. "We can really leave this godforsaken place?"
Feng Xuan’s hands were trembling with excitement as well. "We can really be reborn and even replace our original bodies?"
"Of course," Tian Fu nodded. "I will help you."
Han Li, belatedly realizing what was going on, also pretended to be excited. Watching the four of them, an idea suddenly popped into Tian Fu’s mind.
The four of them thought they were the temple’s Guardians, but in reality, they were the Divine Hall Spirits. They had lost their memories of being Divine Hall Spirits after reincarnating.
The current Divine Hall Spirit was actually a fake he had created. If Mo Yan and the others were not inside the temple, the temple would experience problems, perhaps even collapse entirely.
That was why he had forcibly kept Mo Yan and the other three here in the name of the Divine Hall Spirit. Even if they were just avatars, they could stabilize the temple.
Unfortunately, a fake was still a fake. If he could get his hands on the real ones, who would want a counterfeit?
And so, the thought of winning the four of them over to his side was born.
"Just kill her," Tian Fu said, pointing at Yu An. "Kill her, and I will take you away from this place."
Mo Yan’s breathing grew heavier. When he looked at Yu An again, his eyes were filled with viciousness.
It was the same for Feng Xuan and Lan Yin.
Han Li, however, was a bit more transparent. He hadn’t seen the look Yu An had given them, so he didn’t know what their plan was. Of course, even if he had seen it, he might not have understood it.
Therefore, he planned to just go with the flow and slack off, waiting until both sides were ready to strike the old schemer before he made his move.
That’s right, "old schemer" was the nickname he’d given Tian Fu, because Tian Fu always maintained the appearance of an old man and had a sinister smile.
"But," Lan Yin suddenly raised a doubt, "we’ve tried everything we can think of to escape this place, but nothing works. Who are you that you can just take us away?"
"You also said you can help us replace our original bodies," Lan Yin continued, "but you don’t look all that powerful to me."
"Don’t tell me," he said, sizing Tian Fu up and down, "you’re just making empty promises to trick us?"
"Yeah, yeah," Han Li finally managed to get a line in. "If you’re really that amazing, why don’t you just do it yourself? We may be talented, but we haven’t been cultivating for nearly as long as you have... ah, no, I mean, as you."
"I think you have a point," Yu An, who had been watching the show, chimed in. "He’s probably just using you."
"Once he’s done using you, he’ll get rid of you. Cast you aside like a broken tool, burn the bridge after he’s crossed it..."