CHAPTER 43: SECTION 31: ARE THEY PERFORMING A SACRIFICE RITUAL?

"The Third Gu Huochang Incident..."

Xu Ran narrowed his eyes, the Gu Huochang incident, happening again and again, tirelessly!

The first time, he devoured eight Gu Huochangs.

The second time, he was in the Demigod Kindergarten, protected by Yue Realm cultivators, the safety factor maxed out.

Unexpectedly, the third time, he actually felt the process of Gu Huochang’s evolution from nothing to existence—suddenly ghost pollution appeared at the lake bottom, suddenly ghost pollution gathered together! Nurtured into a ghost creature, with no logic or rule to speak of.

Absolutely disgusting!

Absolutely bizarre!

"No wonder it’s like a stubborn rash, eliminated in one round, capable of resurgence in the next. Ha."

"But since you were born before me, let you become nourishment for the Assassin Mantis."

Xu Ran chuckled internally, using the posture of practicing Mysterious Footwork, he executed a profound body technique, silently deploying the Assassin Mantis into the bushes.

The small Assassin Mantis darted through the greenery, disappearing in a flash, at lightning speed, too fast for the guards to notice!

Carefully counting, Xu Ran had not used his ace move—the Assassin Mantis, for a full two and a half years.

For two and a half years, Xu Ran had been nurturing it with blood.

Blood nurturing plus perfection progress, had long brought the Assassin Mantis’s fire and water resistance to a very high level, as for speed and stealth, it had been reborn and overturned!

Hunting Yue Realm cultivators was easily done, a piece of cake.

Like now, the Assassin Mantis only took a quarter of a second from taking off to cutting into the water surface.

Even more exaggerated, the instant it cut into the water, it only caused a tiny ripple, like a fine needle dropped into the water.

Such a subtle movement, elegantly enough, capable of executing perfect ambush after ambush.

Diving.

Submerging.

"Shift vision!"

Xu Ran halted, moved his thoughts, wholeheartedly controlling the Assassin Mantis, shot like an arrow towards the direction of ghost energy pulsation.

The artificial lake was not large.

The Assassin Mantis instantly arrived at the lake bottom, where the ghost creature was born.

He saw a mass of pitch-black energy body, twisting and writhing, like dough stretching, stretching out a sharp bird-beak, stretching out two vulture heads, stretching out four protruding ferocious giant eyes, stretching out a hunchbacked body like a monkey.

Its skin rapidly turned indigo, it opened its eyes, a crimson tongue thrust out, expression bizarre and perverse.

"It’s actually an indigo-colored Gu Huochang?"

"I remember the first time I saw Gu Huochang, they were only light gray. The second Gu Huochang outbreak, the news pictures showed them as light blue, didn’t expect the third time they’ve become dark blue..."

Undoubtedly.

These things are continuously evolving and upgrading, their strength also getting stronger!

Of course, compared to Xu Ran, who has been insanely disciplined since birth, their evolution speed is negligible, slaughtered with ease.

"What exactly are they doing?"

"Appearing again and again, each time evolving, each time abducting tens of thousands of children, and those children ultimately can’t even be found dead..."

Xu Ran was puzzled.

"Looking at their disorderly behavior, they don’t seem organized. But such large-scale, repeated emergence is too bizarre, always feeling there’s some unspeakable secret."

Xu Ran contemplated, his newly advanced high intelligence made his mind spin faster.

Suddenly!

A flash of inspiration, pierced the darkness, opened up Xu Ran’s thinking pattern, he suddenly realized.

"Could they be subconsciously sacrificing?"

"Hiss—"

"Seems it’s indeed a sacrifice!"

Xu Ran took a breath.

"A group of disorderly born Gu Huochangs, relying on instinct to grab children, sacrificed to some powerful life lurking in the dark...the bodies not found also because they were sacrificed!"

"A logically coherent guess!"

Thinking of this.

Xu Ran felt a chill, he sensed he had grasped the truth.

Yet it was also at this moment.

The Gu Huochang in the process of being nurtured opened its eyes, full of crimson energy looking towards the Assassin Mantis, fear surfacing in its gaze.

Xu Ran narrowed his eyes, coldness spreading in his heart.

It looked at me = It wants to act = It wants to kill me = I act first.

Almost at the instant the Gu Huochang opened its eyes.

The Assassin Mantis launched an assassination!

Bloody blades parted the lake water, sliced through the Gu Huochang that was growing into shape. Gu Huochang’s four eyeballs burst.

Two bizarre heads were simultaneously half-shredded, the semicircular heads spinning as they floated to the surface.

The ghost energy, more viscous than paint, spurted like from an oil well.

"Quickly eat it, quickly eat it, don’t waste the good stuff."

Receiving the command, the Assassin Mantis pounced on the Gu Huochang’s body, devouring all the ghost energy cleanly.

In less than a second, the Gu Huochang’s body was completely devoured.

Dozens of fine details, automatically painted on the Assassin Mantis’s body, meanwhile, the Assassin Mantis’s blades, also acquired a slight metallic sheen.

Feeling the changes in the Assassin Mantis.

Xu Ran nodded in satisfaction, "The energy contained in the third batch of Gu Huochang far surpasses the first! Equivalent to continuously nurturing with blood under perfection progress for a month."

"Well then, should I secretly sneak out of the Demigod Kindergarten and go on a binge?"

Honestly, the enhancement effect of the third batch of Gu Huochang.

Had Xu Ran contemplating a bit.

Sneak out of kindergarten, one could kill Gu Huochang and cultivate Origami, two could search for the truth of Gu Huochang.

"Forget it."

"Better continue to observe..."

"There are so many powerful cultivators in Xia Country, it’s not for a five-year-old like me to investigate."

Xu Ran shook his head and instantly put the Assassin Mantis back into his pocket.