“Thud!”
“Mmph! Mmph! Mmph~”
A battered, bruised lump of a figure was tied up like a maggot on the ground. A white-bearded, immortal-looking old man whimpered with pleading eyes, a wad of grass stuffed into his mouth.
Beside the old man stood an elegant youth clad in white, his features as pristine as snow. With long, clean, slender fingers, he slapped a talisman onto the old man. Securing his topknot was not a hairpin, but a paintbrush.
The youth possessed fair skin and the clean, refined look of a scholar.
“You. Lied. To. Me.” The fourteen-year-old youth lowered his gaze, his brow furrowed as he spoke slowly, emphasizing each word with grave seriousness and anger.
“Mmph!” Spare my life, young hero!
The old man on the ground begged for mercy, though he couldn't form words.
The youth's graceful, snow-pure brows twitched. Rolling up his sleeves, he went right back to punching the old man in the face.
Though the youth looked like a frail scholar at first glance, the moment he flexed his arms, dense, sculpted cords of muscle rippled beneath his skin, creating a wild contrast. A gentle, refined face combined with ruthless, bone-crunching fists—if not for the wrong gender, he would have seemed like a musclebound Barbie.
At the very least, Wen Li sucked in a breath of cold air when she witnessed this scene.
Though she was still some distance away, she could clearly see that the youth wasn't using any spiritual energy to deliver the beatdown. Relying purely on the brute force of his muscular build, he was still thrashing the Mid-Stage Foundation Establishment cultivator into the dirt.
A body cultivator—a fair-skinned jock.
This level of conditioning was something she could never have achieved by chasing Yao Dai up and down the mountain for a month; it had to come from years of rigorous training since childhood.
Perhaps because of her shock, Wen Li landed openly and stood there watching without any attempt to hide. Catching sight of her, the youth halted his fists and turned to meet her gaze.
【Ding! Congratulations on unlocking the third villain: Gu Linshu.】
【Gu Linshu comes from vast generational wealth. He is the only son of Gu Feiyuan, sect master of the Wangyue Sect, the foremost sect in Zhengyong Kingdom, a Third-Grade Cultivation Kingdom in the Northern Province. Raised from infancy to be polite and refined, he carries the air of a delicate scholar. He is utterly obsessed with swordsmanship yet possesses zero talent for it, while having an exceptional genius for talismans. Cherished by his parents and granted boundless resources, he was born with a golden spoon in his mouth, destined to become a talisman master and lead a blissful life marrying his true love.】
【Alas, on the day of his wedding, he inexplicably suffered a cultivation deviation. With his own hands, he slaughtered his beloved and his parents. When he regained his senses and found the entire sect massacred by his own hand, Gu Linshu went completely mad, straying into the demonic path and becoming reviled by the righteous sects. To uncover the truth behind what happened that day, he ruthlessly slaughtered countless people, growing heartless and cruel. Ultimately, consumed by vengeance, he fought the Sacred Scion of the Kunlun Domain—the male protagonist favored by the Heavenly Dao—only to be killed, his soul ripped away to serve as the key to open the Divine Mound Ruins.】
What a plot. Wen Li looked at the elegant youth before her. Forced to kill everyone he loved with his own hands... what kind of cursed, twisted storyline was the damn Heavenly Dao writing?
“Are... you... here... to... save... him?”
His fists remained clenched as his clear eyes fixed on Wen Li.
Wen Li waved her hands hurriedly. “No, I'm just passing through.”
The kid spoke so slowly with deliberate pauses—could he be a stutterer?
“What did this old man do to deserve such a beating?” Folding her arms, Wen Li strolled over.
Looking at the strange black-cloaked woman, Gu Linshu answered honestly, “He... took my money... to accept me as a disciple... and teach me sword... swordsmanship.”
At this point, his agitation caused his stuttering habit to show.
“You old bastard, where are your morals?! Swindling a kid out of his money!” Wen Li fumed upon hearing this. It was bad enough that Xie Tinglan had just been snatched from her, and now someone else was not only failing to pay her, but actually trying to scam money!
Scamming Gu Linshu's money was basically scamming her money. Unforgivable!
She rolled up her sleeves and delivered two extra punches to his face.
“Mmph!” I don't owe you anything, what does this have to do with you?!
The old man's eyes burned with indignation.
“Smack!”
“Mmph mmph!”
Wen Li followed up with a vicious slap, knocking him out cold this time.
Peace returned to the world. Wen Li looked at Gu Linshu, who reached up to her shoulder.
“You want to learn swordsmanship?”
Gu Linshu nodded. “Mhm.”
Wen Li patted her chest. “Come to me! I don't want your money. I'm not one of those petty crooks who covet worldly possessions. Young man, seeing how remarkable your bone structure and extraordinary your bearing are, you're definitely prime material for the sword!”
Gu Linshu's eyes lit up slightly. Even though this wasn't the first time a con artist had flattered him about having talent for swordsmanship, no one else had ever affirmed his dream of pursuing the sword so enthusiastically. Just as he opened his mouth to speak—
“That's him—Gu Linshu, the young master of the Wangyue Sect.”
Suddenly, four black-robed cultivators swooped down from the mountain peak, reeking of ill intent.
Wen Li and Gu Linshu turned their heads in unison.
“They're here for you, brother.”
“Seems...” Gu Linshu nodded sluggishly, “...so.”
“Run!”
Before the word even fully left her lips, Wen Li scooped up Gu Linshu and shot into the air on her sword.
With a sharp whoosh, a streak of trailing light swept around the mountain peak and vanished from sight.
“Pursue them!”
“What about Old Five? He was knocked out cold!”
“Leave him for now! Capture Gu Linshu first!”
The four cultivators flew off in hot pursuit.
Carried along in their flight, Wen Li kept one eye on the path while listening to the system's navigation. When she spared a moment to glance over, her expression grew bizarre.
“What are you doing?!”
Good grief! Held beneath her arm, Gu Linshu was casually flinging out endless handfuls of talismans, activating them with fluid, practiced ease. A single glance revealed they were at both the Foundation Establishment and Golden Core levels.
A single Foundation Establishment Great Perfection talisman cost at least two thousand mid-grade spirit stones; a Golden Core talisman was worth ten thousand high-grade spirit stones; and a Nascent Soul talisman went for at least two hundred thousand high-grade spirit stones.
The way Gu Linshu scattered them along the path like celestial maidens tossing flower petals was enough to buy an entire small city!
Gu Linshu looked up calmly. “Since you... ran with... with me... that means you... you can't beat them either. I have life-sav... saving... things. Stop running... you're messing up... my aim.”
Right, turns out she was just getting in the young master's way of crushing people with money.
Wen Li slammed on the brakes and halted. “Are you sure you can kill them? All four of them have Late-Stage Golden Core cultivation.”
“Don't... worry.” Gu Linshu nodded.
Wen Li turned around with him, running no longer. She wanted to see for herself what it looked like when someone literally drowned people in money.
The four pursuers caught up. Obviously expecting Gu Linshu to possess talismans and magic treasures, they immediately drew their artifacts to retaliate.
“Boom!”
Watching the Golden Core talismans broken one by one under their combined assault, Gu Linshu pulled the gold-sandalwood-and-jade paintbrush from his hair without batting an eye. Tossing out another talisman, he made a flurry of rapid strokes across it.
The yellow talisman expanded instantly, conjuring a three-meter-tall golden leopard demon beast that pounced toward the four men.
“Roar!”
The faces of the four men drained of color. “Didn't the intel say he only had Golden Core-grade talismans?! How could he have a Nascent Soul one?! The information is wrong, retreat!”
Unfortunately for them, Gu Linshu had no intention of letting them leave.
“Boom!”
“Rumble—”
He tossed out another three talismans crafted by Nascent Soul cultivators in rapid succession. They instantly manifested into three ferocious attacks—Pear Blossom Needles, Giant Sword Technique, and an Overturning Heaven Seal—puncturing right through the four cultivators' bodies in a flash.
“Ahhh!”
The four Golden Core cultivators perished instantly, their corpses crashing to the ground.
Wen Li was stunned by the youth's extravagant wealth and decisive brutality. 【System, didn't you say he was sweet and naive? He just wiped out four Golden Core cultivators in a snap!】
The system was dumbfounded too. Wasn't he supposed to be a sheltered kid who grew up with a golden spoon in his mouth, beloved by his parents? Why was he this vicious?
Gu Linshu landed on the ground, walked over to the corpses, and crouched down.
Wen Li assumed he was going to loot their storage bags. Instead, he merely picked up one cultivator's artifact—a longsword. It wasn't even worth a fraction of the Nascent Soul talismans he had tossed away like garbage, yet he held it like a priceless treasure, unable to tear his eyes away.
Great. A stuttering scholar who's also a fair-skinned jock. Filthy rich and obsessed with swordsmanship.
Rate on N.U.
