?Gu Zhen stood in silence for a moment, stunned and in disbelief, his usual confident smile slowly fading, stuck in the half-broken smile and shocked expression.

As his face became completely serious the next moment, he leaned it forward instead of the laid back posture he had at all times, his eyes becoming sharp as he looked from under his eyebrows.

“I must admit, you pulled one over me…

But did you really think that you would succeed?

Did you really think there was no way this moment would come?

Now what are you going to do?

Or do you think!… that there would be no consequences?!!”

Gu Zhen’s normally calm and collected voice became colder, and menacing.

The volume of his words increased with every sentence, until an emotion almost no one ever saw him exhibit even as he incinerated people who disappointed him became apparent in his demeanor.

Anger.

This situation was not at all what he imagined the outcome of their ‘game’ would be.

It was the humiliation that he could not get past.

Gu Zhen acutely realized how ridiculous he looked at this moment.

Toying with an opponent, only to realize that the opponent did not care even a little, and only played along, fueling an illusion of what he himself wanted to see.

Wu Long’s silence only further fueled that anger, as his gaze became more and more menacing.

“You don’t even care how I figured it out, do you?!?!!!”

He then shouted at the top of his lungs, his fists clenching as hard as possible while his face distorted into a grimace, his thunderous voice resounding through the surroundings, as grass and leaves of nearby trees dried up and went up in flames.

The mansion behind Wu Long’s back was instantly enveloped by a visible barrier of the Grand Formation the part facing Gu Zhen more apparent as it lost almost all transparency, offsetting the heat that rose around him.

Gu Zhen knew.

He could tell.

He knew the answer to his question even as words were leaving his mouth.

But he was still unable to reconcile that fact, unable to acknowledge that there was someone for whom being superior, and being recognized as superior, did not matter, unable to stop himself from asking.

He had to know for sure.

“No, I don’t”

Wu Long didn’t lie, making it painfully obvious to Gu Zhen that the games were over.

His voice wasn’t mocking.

It was sincere.

“Hhhhh~”

An exasperated, almost hissing breath came out from the Alchemy Tower Master.

Fury that could no longer be translated into words blinding his vision as any sounds no longer could reach his ears, and he closed his eyes, lowering his head and becoming silent while Wu Long calmly looked on, not breaking the silence either.

Gu Zhen’s hands then relaxed as he breathed out.

“But you failed…”

After some time, he said in a low voice, almost a whisper.

“…you failed in the end.

You were not able to gain enough time to grow stronger…

Even if you managed to partially cut out the Six Kingdoms from the conflict… you cannot be naive enough to think that you could win with only that…

No, you had to become strong enough to rival me, or at least to matter in the fight between me and that old man to influence the outcome!”

The volume of his voice slowly rose, as the flames raging around grew, along with the flames in the eyes that opened up again and looked at Wu Long with a venomous gaze.

“It was impressive, I admit.

You almost got me. There I was, thinking you rescued Frozen Garden Palace to make allies…

And the way you made it look like you lost there…”

He clenched his hand again, raising it up and turning his head to the side while closing his eyes and grinding his teeth, as if not finding any way to express his frustration at remembering that moment when he left the Winter Forest thinking he won.

“I had to know… I had to remember you were a Dual Cultivator…

But how should I have known you could cultivate with so many women in higher Realms than you in such a short time?

Aren’t even Dual Cultivators supposed to be restricted by Yang Root limits?

Or what? Do you have some kind of rare physique?

What’s your cultivation at now? Foundation Building? Core Formation? Higher? Come on… everything is over now, isn’t it? You can brag!

Ah! But you can’t, can you?! Because it is still not enough to fight me! Isn’t that right?!”

He spoke feverishly, as if trying to show how much he figured out.

But seeing Wu Long still look at him with the gaze that gave him an eerie feeling, he almost growled.

“Say something! Damn it, answer me!!!”

His shout resounded through the surroundings. But there was still no response.

“Fine!!!

You want to show how little you care? Then I’ll show you just what you achieved!

All that effort, and what you gain? You still failed!

No! Not even that, you made your situation worse! Because now that you made a fool out of me, I am going to make you pay!

You will not die so easily!

You will watch everything you hold dear to you perish in the worst ways possible before you do! I might even force you to live with the consequences!

Because that’s what you get when you humiliate your opponent! That’s what you get when you trample on my dignity! That’s what you get when you play with fire! That is what-…”

“Haa~, let’s start the countdown then”

*crackle*

“…what? What do you-… ?”

As Gu Zhen descended into a passionate tirade, filled with his frustration and vengeful thoughts, Wu Long’s calm words spoken in low voice cut through as if a sharp blade.

Gu Zhen’s eyes widened, reflecting a spark of bright blueish white light on Wu Long’s fingertips pointed at himself.

*Crackle!* *BOOOM!!!* *Rumble, rumble*

A deafening sound followed a bright flash of light that enveloped the surroundings, the echoes of the thunderclap reverberating to the furthest horizons.

“H… how-…?”

Gu Zhen’s body had a hole in it around his chest, from whichflames making it up could be glimpsed.

The outer shell that looked like a human, whether it was skin or clothes, started very slowly turning dark and into ashes from feet up as the flames followed the same pattern, the ashes then crumbling away into nothingness.

The alchemist’s flame projection was still looking at Wu Long with wide eyes even as its lower body was withering away, as the latter’s fingertips were singed black, small arcs of lightning dancing on them, sparks of it scattered around in the surroundings.

“We will meet again, but for now, I guess you have bigger problems”

Wu Long lightly spoke, lowering his hand.

—

“Aaaaaargh!!!”

Gu Zhen opened his eyes in a dark, sealed cultivation chamber, and immediately screamed out in excruciating pain, clenching his head that had a small black burn mark in the center of his forehead.

“Aaaah! Aaaaah!! That…!!! DAMN…!!! BASTAAAARD!!!”

He screamed out at the top of his lungs, unable to endure the pain of part of his Soul Sea crumbling.

For someone like him, who rarely had to deal with hardly any pain in his whole long life, such an extreme one was enough to drive him insane.

It was Gu Zhen’s cautious nature that made it fairly easy for Wu Long to get past this situation.

If the Alchemy Tower Master arrived in person, the war would have already started by this point, and Wu Long would’ve had to resort to rather extreme measures to fight him.

A Flame Projection that Gu Zhen used was a safe option to travel outside, since it was very hard to destroy a body of Fire, and even if it was destroyed, it would not affect the main body.

However, it was a vulnerability as well. Since it held part of his Soul in order to maintain connection.

He just never counted on someone in this Fractured World to have a way to actually exploit that vulnerability.

The charge of Annihilation Lightning that Wu Long used, however, was exactly one of such ways, as it obliterated the Flame Projection out of existence along with part of Gu Zhen’s Soul and even dealt damage to the main body.

—

“I was about to cut him in half if he tried anything”

Ye Ling came out of the mansion, sword in hand.

“That would have been a good idea, but the damage it would deal would not be enough to create sufficient time for us”

Wu Long chuckled, turning around to her.

Ye Ling’s Sword Intent was another way to deal damage to Gu Zhen through the Flame Projection, since she now had a cultivation that allowed her to show more of her true power, but it would have been still not as serious as the Annihilation Lightning yet.

“With this we have about two months… maybe one if we’re unlucky and he has a Profound Grade Soul Restoration Pill. Although to be safe we should only count on the second estimate.

He wouldn’t dare move his forces against us in the meantime, since we still have Old Man Zhao on our side, since he doesn’t know he is away, and he cannot join the battle without significant risk.

He will be busy recuperating while we get ready and cut some of his forces down”

Wu Long chuckled, and Ye Ling smiled, shaking her head.

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