Before Eluojue finished speaking, the sharp blade of the Long Cherished Heart sword had already reached his front.
This concerned Su Yang’s life and death. Gu Feidi had no time to care about his own injuries as he drove his sword moves violently to attack Eluojue.
“Hmph!” Eluojue narrowed his eyes slightly, raising the bone staff in his hand to ward off Gu Feidi’s strikes. With a heavy backhanded shake of the bone staff, he dissipated all the power from within Gu Feidi’s sword move.
In spite of everything, he’d received Su Yang’s palm strike earlier without any defense and the internal injury was considerable. With this pair of moves, he couldn’t help muffling a cough and another trickle of blood seeped out from the corner of his lips.
Gu Feidi still didn’t fall back. He flipped his sword over and struck at Eluojue again.
Eluojue held Su Yang in one hand while manipulating his bone staff in the other and was still able to fight Gu Feidi to a draw.
However, Su Yang was already unconscious from the double effect of the Cold Pond Ice Spirit and the Half Withered Red, and couldn’t endure delaying any longer……
Gu Feidi’s eyes were already red from his anxiousness, but he was helpless and incapable of snatching Su Yang back from Eluojue.
Just then, two masked men attired in Black Feather Army Shadow Camp uniforms, hauled in a grey-clothed body through the door of the White Witch Tower.
Eluojue’s gaze fell upon the blood-covered corpse of the grey-clothed man and he laughed all of a sudden.
“Eluoying, my dear nephew.” He deflected Gu Feidi’s strike and raised his eyebrows. “Don’t you want to turn and take a look? Your Lesser Jade House’s classmates have attempted in vain to kill me and seize power……What’s the result?”
Gu Feidi’s throat trembled slightly. It was clear that he was somewhat shocked.
But he couldn’t be distracted to care about Luo Yin under the present circumstances——Su Yang’s life was hanging by a thread. He must and could only concentrate on the battle with Eluojue and snatch Su Yang back as soon as possible!
Slowly, Gu Feidi’s sword strikes became more powerful and dominating. It was obviously a manoeuvre he was well-versed in, but he’d implemented a completely different momentum than before.
Press ahead determinedly and leave no room for retreat.
The pain of injuries don’t matter; there’s nothing to fear about death.
Compared to watching helplessly as Su Yang fainted and his breathing weaken in Eluojue’s hands, there was nothing else in this world that could make him feel fear.
But Eluojue was too powerful.
Even when Gu Feidi pressured him all the way, he was still able to handle it with ease.
The longer the battle dragged on, the more harmful it was to Su Yang. Gu Feidi was overwrought, his attacks becoming increasingly impatient and slowly losing structure.
Eluojue raised his hand to lightly and skillfully obstruct Gu Feidi’s moves. He sneered and said, “……It’s over.”
At the last syllable of his sentence, an extremely sharp scimitar blade impaled him through his chest.
Even Gu Feidi was shocked on the spot by this abrupt change.
Inconceivable emotions rose on Eluojue’s face as he swayed, staggered and turned his head to look behind him.
Luo Yin was covered in injuries and bloodstains. He’d been a corpse not a moment ago. Right now, he was steadily holding the hilt of the scimitar and staring coldly at Eluojue.
He said softly: “Shu fu.”
Then he wrenched the blade out.
Gu Feidi hacked off Eluojue’s wrist that was holding onto Su Yang with a single swipe of his sword and hurriedly pulled the latter away, hugging him tightly.
An assassin in Shadow Camp uniform next to Luo Yin instantly stepped forward, tore off his mask and said, “Are there any Heart Warming Pills left? Put it in his mouth. He requires immediate acupuncture, no delays!”
Gu Feidi was somewhat panic stricken as he looked up at Luo Yu, who’d rushed over at some point, and nodded vacantly. Only then did he react and immediately opened the silk brocade pouch beneath Su Yang’s coat and took out the porcelain bottle containing the Heart Warming Pill.
Suddenly, there were sounds of hand-to-hand fighting.
Luo Yu turned his head in astonishment and saw Eluojue, who was clearly heavily injured and dying, still had the strength to fight back. He was fighting Luo Yin and another Shadow Camp soldier.
Gu Feidi stuffed the Heart Warming Pill into Su Yang’s mouth, clenched his teeth and tightened his grasp on the Long Cherished Heart sword. He then turned around and stood guard in front of Luo Yu to protect the two of them from Eluojue.
Eluojue was on the verge of insanity at that moment.
His face was teeming with faint white lines and even his eyes were covered with a layer of white tentacles. He looked as if he was a demon.
But the gash on his chest that had been slashed open by the scimitar no longer bled. A bunch of white tentacles wriggled out from the opening, helping him to temporarily repress the mortal wound. Even his severed wrist was sealed by coils of tentacles.
Eluojue’s trapped beast was dying and Luo Yin struggled to contend with the suicidal, maniacal force. As they continued to fight, Luo Yin’s joint assault with the soldier was somewhat disadvantaged.
Gu Feidi shifted his gaze away from Su Yang’s body that was covered with silver needles and landed on the battle. His sword-holding hand was shuddering slightly.
At last, he couldn’t stand it, his feet moved a little and he wanted to step forward to assist.
In an instant, a bitterly cold wind abruptly blustered in through the door of the White Witch Tower.
Su Huaizhu glided inside. Although his complexion was as pale as snow, his eyes were sharp and glinting like stars.
Eluojue gritted his teeth and yelled out: “IT’S YOU! YOU’RE STILL ALIVE! IT’S YOU! YOU’RE THE ONE WHO STOLE MY JIN’ER AWAY——”
He instantly abandoned his fight with Luo Yin, swung the bone staff in his hand and struck at Su Huaizhu.
Scores of white tentacles split through his skin, snaking forward along the bone staff and reached the point of Su Huaizhu’s thin sword in a moment.
Su Huaizhu circulated Half Withered Red and the chilly internal force accumulated at the sword’s edge, slicing off the tentacles.
Once those tentacles had separated from its body, they instantly combusted into white flames and burned itself out until there were no traces left.
As Eluojue and Su Huaizhu confronted each other here, at the other side, Luo Yin found an opening. He lifted the scimitar in his hand and hacked down at Eluojue’s neck——
——but was blocked by Su Huaizhu’s thin sword.
“He has already aroused the Fire Gu,” Su Huaizhu said, turning his head to look at Gu Feidi, “You must be here for the final strike!”
When he heard this, Eluojue bellowed and turned to attack Gu Feidi.
Su Huaizhu swung his sword and sliced off his remaining arm as he yelled to Gu Feidi: “BEHEAD HIM!”
Su Huaizhu reached out and swiftly hauled Luo Yin backwards.
Eluojue’s body swayed a few times until at last, it was unable to sustain any longer and collapsed heavily to the ground.
In a second, an immensely scorching heat wave burst out from his body.
Instantly, a silvery white flying insect the size of a small fingernail crept out of his wound. All of a sudden, it spread its wings and zoomed towards Gu Feidi, hitting his chest at an unbelievable speed.
Gu Feidi’s clothing at his chest had blackened burn holes. The winged insect viciously bored into his chest through his skin and muscle, through flesh and blood until it reached his heart.
“WU——!” Gu Feidi couldn’t help groaning in pain, clutching tightly at his lapels. In a moment, he began to sweat profusely.
The Long Cherished Heart sword fell to the ground with a ‘clang’. He couldn’t withstand it and knelt down, manoeuvring his internal strength to tolerate the extreme pain. He felt as if his body was filled with scalding lava.
A pair of icy-cold hands were placed on the sides of Gu Feidi’s neck and Half Withered Red’s internal force slowly streamed in, drawing a little lucidness back to Gu Feidi.
Su Huaizhu muffled a cough and suppressed the blood in his throat. He frowned and asked Luo Yu: “How’s Su Yang? When can he wake up?”
Luo Yu twisted a silver needle and instantly let out a sigh, “His body’s lost the protection of the phoenix agate and is forcibly circulating Half Withered Red……I’ve done my utmost to prevent his heart from turning stiff. As for when he’ll wake up……”
Su Huaizhu frowned, “But without his help, Feidi will die.”
It was a quagmire at the moment and everyone didn’t know how to resolve this issue.
After some time, Luo Yin broke the silence: “I’ll leave a guard here to defend. I’ll go settle the upheaval in the royal court first……and return later.”
As he watched Luo Yin leave the White Witch Tower, Luo Yu gritted his teeth and said: “We need to take a risk for the current situation.”
Su Huaizhu asked: “How’s it done?”
Luo Yu looked at Gu Feidi and said grimly: “Right now, you must be resolute and channel the scorching heat of the White Firework Gu into Su Yang’s body. Then only would it be possible for the both of you to simultaneously gain an opportunity to live.”
At this moment, Gu Feidi’s skin had been burned red all over and tiny fissures seeping with blood had begun to appear on all his four limbs.
He withstood the excruciating pain and struggled to look up at Luo Yu: “Will……he be able to……endure it……?”
Luo Yu said: “This is the only method.”
Once he’d spoken, he carried Su Yang over to Gu Feidi’s side and pushed them close together. He pinched up one of Su Yang’s fingers, pricked it with a silver needle and held it to Gu Feidi’s lips.
“To control Fire Gu, you must suck some of his blood.” Luo Yu said. Seeing Gu Feidi’s unyielding expression, he urged, “On account of your future, you need to exercise patience and not let your emotions affect your decisions.”
Gu Feidi shut his eyes and gritted his teeth for a second. At last, he opened his mouth, took Su Yang’s finger and sucked in his practically-ice-cold blood.
Remarkably, once Su Yang’s blood entered his mouth, the White Firework Gu inside Gu Feidi’s body became much more satiated.
“Flood internal strength into his Changqiang acupoint,” Luo Yu directed on the side, “Ascend along the direct vein to the gate of vitality*……”
(*TN : the area between the kidneys, generally regarded as the source of vitality, whose function is to promote respiration, digestion, reproduction, and the metabolism of body fluid)
Gu Feidi hugged Su Yang in his arms and went along with the directions given by Luo Yu to transfer internal strength into Su Yang’s body.
Upon receiving this surge of blazing essence, the Cold Pond Ice Spirit instantly counterattacked, diving along the meridians and crashing ferociously with Gu Feidi’s internal strength. The White Firework Gu was aggravated and gathered some of its scalding power which had been disseminated into Gu Feidi’s meridians and amassed it all in one place to shred against the Cold Pond Ice Spirit.
Just like that, both their bodies became a battleground for these two worldly wonders and acute pain immediately erupted inside them.
Gu Feidi couldn’t help groaning and innately stiffened his arms. Even the still-unconscious Su Yang in his arms also spasmed fiercely.
“Bear with it!” Luo Yu couldn’t assist any further and could only motivate him from the side, “No matter what, you mustn’t pass out. If you faint too……both of you will be lost forever!”
Gu Feidi’s awareness had already begun to falter. But once he heard this sentence, it became the last ray of light he could hold onto.
The maelstrom of agony became more and more severe. Gu Feidi couldn’t hold back and released a muffled cry from his throat. Blood trickled out from Su Yang’s mouth and nose. Subsequently his brows slowly knitted and he emitted several inadvertent sobs.
“Very painful……” Su Yang gradually opened his eyes, his gaze was lax and fat tears rolled down from the corners of his eyes.
He clutched tightly at a lapel within grabbing distance and wailed bitterly: “Hurts a lot aaa……what are you doing……”
When he heard Su Yang crying out in pain, Gu Feidi subconsciously wanted to retract his internal strength, but was jolted by the White Firework Gu that had abruptly turned violent and coughed up a mouthful of blood.
Su Yang’s eyes focused little by little. Upon seeing this, he called out anxiously: “Feidi! What’s wrong with you?!”
“You must help him subdue the White Firework Gu,” Luo Yu said, pressing on Su Yang’s shoulder, “Or else, in less than a quarter of an hour, his body will explode and he’ll die!”
“I……” Su Yang’s heart sank, he was entirely at a loss, “……what should I do?”
“Circulate Half Withered Red into his body and help him suppress the White Firework Gu.” Luo Yu continued to instruct.
Su Yang nodded, swallowed and drove the Half Withered Red technique to fuse with Gu Feidi’s internal strength.
This time, Gu Feidi’s taming of the White Firework Gu was totally different from Su Yang’s taming of the Cold Pond Ice Spirit.
The Cold Pond Ice Spirit originally had no master and wasn’t sentient. Su Yang’s meridians merely needed to harbour it and he’d been lingering on the verge of death for ages.
On the other hand, the White Firework Gu was originally bred within Eluo Ghost Tent’s Great Witch’s body for years. It had been raised on the blood of the royal females and was extremely repellent to those outside Eluo Ghost Tent’s royal bloodline. Therefore, the circumstances that Gu Feidi faced were more threatening than Su Yang’s original condition.
Fortunately, Su Yang possessed the Eluo Ghost Tent’s royal female bloodline and had practiced Half Withered Red. Only with him assisting from the side, was he able to help Gu Feidi resolve the mortal threat.
The business of taming the White Firework Gu was agonising and long-drawn.
Luo Yu sat cross-legged beside them, paying close attention to Su Yang’s and Gu Feidi’s physical conditions.
After Su Huaizhu removed Eluojue’s body out of the White Witch Tower, he stood in front of the tower door to protect the three people inside.
In the distance, the two forces of Eluo Ghost Tent‘s Black Feather Army were battling it out. Luo Yin raised the royal prince’s recovery battle flag and led the army to charge into the palace.
On the Icefield, Gu Ruohai brought Pu Lingyun and Fan Xi to lead Tengyun Pavilion’s and Qianfeng Villa’s elite troops in impeding Eluo Ghost Tent’s fighters and stragglers.
On the southern border, Qin Jianyue and Chi Tong were leading the Imperial army to battle the Left Defense of Eluo Ghost Tent’s Black Feather Army.
……
Lesser Jade House, Veiled Pearl Pavilion.
A shrill laugh emanated from behind a half-closed window.