The Path of Immortality: Starts With Creating Water Bear Gu

Chapter 179: Miscalculation

At this moment, Shi Haojun, who was hurrying toward the city, was taken aback as he watched the group of people disappear atop the city walls.

The people of Blackstone City had reacted so quickly. Despite his relentless barrage of attacks, Blackstone City hadn’t suffered a single bit of damage. This was far beyond his expectations.

“Quite lucky! Blackstone City is the first force that has managed to detect the insects in the water. This trick has never failed me before, but it seems useless this time.”

“As expected of the largest city in the Western Lands, full of talented people.”

“But that’s all there is to it. Even with my personal involvement, Blackstone City cannot escape the fate of destruction.”

“The old grudges we share—it's about time we settled them.”

Shi Haojun’s lips curled into a smirk as he squinted slightly, exuding a faint yet deadly aura.

Suddenly, he waved his hand backward. The ground began to tremble, as if countless creatures were stampeding. Strange, inhuman sounds reverberated through the air.

Inside the city, the crowd quickly noticed the city’s protective barrier flickering, accompanied by a series of booming sounds from outside, as though something was relentlessly attacking the defense array.

Everyone’s expression changed. The Gu Kings didn’t dare climb up the walls. Instead, they used their soul power to perceive the situation outside the city. Instantly, their faces shifted in unison, filled with disbelief.

“So many plague corpses—at least a million of them. How many people did he kill to refine so many plague corpses?” Cai Xuan exclaimed in shock.

“This is a huge problem. With so many plague corpses relentlessly assaulting the defense array, how long can it hold? If we only defend and don’t attack, the daily consumption of spirit stones to maintain the barrier is astronomical,” Yao Chen said with a grim expression.

“We can’t let them keep attacking. We don’t have enough spirit stones to sustain such a heavy drain.”

Yan Pojun glanced at the group of Gu Kings and shouted, “We can’t wait any longer. We must take the initiative, head out of the city, and kill Shi Haojun as quickly as possible.”

“Everyone, immediately swallow the poison pills. We will leave the city at once and fight him to the death!”

The Gu Kings nodded, taking out the poison pills they had been given earlier, and without hesitation, tossed them into their mouths.

Yan Pojun and Yao Chen also swallowed their poison pills and quickly began refining the medicinal power within.

From a distance, Long Xuan watched with great interest. Over a hundred Gu Kings ingesting poison at the same time—it was quite a spectacle.

The poison pills worked astonishingly fast. Before long, every Gu King’s face contorted in pain, their expressions twisted with discomfort. The poison’s effects were clearly unbearable.

But they endured the agony, not daring to take the antidote prematurely. They feared that the microbes in their bodies hadn’t been completely eradicated. If they took the antidote too soon, all their suffering would be in vain, and they’d face even greater danger.

Only when they were on the verge of coughing up blood did they finally relent, swallowing the antidotes to neutralize the poison.

Some, more paranoid, feared the microbes still hadn’t been fully killed off, so they gritted their teeth and held on longer. Only after vomiting several mouthfuls of blood did they finally take the antidotes.

Watching this, Long Xuan couldn’t help but twitch his lips. Ruthless. These people were so hard on themselves—they were all truly merciless.

They waited until they were half-dead before using the antidote. Were they really this determined?

After detoxifying themselves, the group of Gu Kings activated their spiritual armor at full strength and swallowed healing pills to adjust their conditions. Yan Pojun then waved his hand and shouted, “Kill them!”

With that, he was the first to leap off the city wall and charge toward Shi Haojun in the distance. The barrier had already been adjusted to allow passage out but not in, so Yan Pojun easily passed through and rushed toward the army of plague corpses.

As he advanced, a sea of flames erupted, consuming countless plague corpses. Despite there being a million plague corpses, they couldn’t slow Yan Pojun down in the slightest. Corpse after corpse was burned to ash, not even leaving a trace behind.

Yan Pojun’s surname, Yan, symbolized fire, and naturally, his abilities revolved around it. The flames he conjured were not to be underestimated.

Since Shi Haojun’s departure, Yan Pojun had become the strongest in the Western Regions. Even though Shi Haojun had his infamous forbidden Gu, Yan Pojun was utterly unafraid, charging straight toward him.

The city lord took the lead, and the other Gu Kings followed closely, leaping off the walls and rushing into the field of plague corpses, sending more of them flying.

Witnessing this grand spectacle, Long Xuan’s eyes lit up with excitement.

A battle between over a hundred Gu Kings—what a magnificent sight.

Such an epic and thrilling scene was rare. The opportunity was priceless, and there was no way he was going to miss it.

Saying this, Long Xuan took out his image Record Gu, determined to capture the battle on film.

Even the image Record Gu, upon witnessing such a large-scale fight between Gu Kings, widened its eyes in excitement. Without Long Xuan’s urging, it eagerly employed its best techniques to record the event.

Long Xuan, still watching from afar, remained calm and even entertained, enjoying the show as if it were a leisurely spectacle.

He wasn’t worried in the slightest, showing none of the tension that others wore on their faces.

It wasn’t because he was particularly confident in the battle’s outcome, but rather because, even if Blackstone City were truly on the brink of destruction, he could always escape through his Spatial Cottage. With an escape route ready, he had no reason to panic.

The Gu Kings of Blackstone City were intent on a swift victory. The battle instantly escalated to a fever pitch.

As the Gu Kings joined forces, they cut a wide path through the sea of plague corpses, easily obliterating the opposition.

However, the number of corpses was overwhelming. Before long, the path behind them, which they had cleared, was once again filled with plague corpses, who crazily surged toward the surrounded Gu Kings.

Soon, the first scream of agony echoed through the battlefield.

A Gu King, whose spiritual armor wasn’t thick enough, had his defense breached by mutated microbes in the air. The microbes drilled into his body, causing him to collapse in pain, clawing at his own skin.

As soon as he fell behind, the swarm of plague corpses swallowed him up instantly.

All the Gu Kings felt a heavy weight in their hearts. Was there already a casualty this early?

A poor start was never a good sign.

But the fall of the first Gu King was only the beginning. Shortly after, another Gu King’s spiritual armor was breached, and he collapsed to the ground, letting out horrifying screams of pain.

This time, the one who fell to the ground was surprisingly a mid-stage Gu King, causing everyone's expressions to change.

"To be able to instantly break through the defenses of a mid-stage Gu King... this is bad. It must be the Plague Demon Gu. The Plague Demon Gu is likely in a form so small it can't be seen by the naked eye, and it can easily tear through the defenses of a mid-stage Gu King. This thing is basically unstoppable in killing people."

Someone in the crowd suddenly shouted. Just as his voice fell, another mid-stage Gu King let out a scream, and everyone's scalp went numb.

There was an invisible force slaughtering people within the crowd—how could anyone defend against it? It's completely unsolvable.

Fortunately, the thing hadn’t grown to its peak state yet. It could only break the defenses of mid-stage Gu Kings; otherwise, the first to die would have been those at the peak of the Gu King stage.

What was even more terrifying was that, at that moment, a large group of Plague Corpses with the aura of Gu Kings suddenly emerged from the corpse horde. Three of them even emitted the aura of peak-stage Gu Kings.

Under the onslaught of these Gu King-level Plague Corpses, the hundred Gu Kings were instantly scattered, split into multiple battlefields. This development was like adding fuel to the fire, making the situation even more dire. Soon, the crowd was filled with more cries of agony from the Gu Kings.

The appearance of Gu King-level Plague Corpses was extremely dangerous. Don’t be fooled into thinking that Plague Corpses are easy to deal with just because they can't control Gu insects.

You should know that the air is now filled with mutated insects, meaning none of the Gu Kings can release their external Gu. In such conditions, releasing Gu insects would be a death sentence.

Without the ability to release their external Gu, the only option was to engage the Gu King-level Plague Corpses in hand-to-hand combat. However, brute strength was the strong suit of all zombies, making them formidable in close-quarters combat.

In an environment filled with tiny insects, even a minor scratch could spell death for anyone. Who would dare engage in close combat with a mighty Corpse King under such circumstances?

Thus, the scene unfolded where a single Corpse King was chasing down a group of Gu Kings, scattering their ranks. Every Gu King was forced to fight on their own, and there was no way to form an encirclement around Shi Haojun.

"Damn it!" Yan Poming's face changed drastically. The difficulty of dealing with Shi Haojun far exceeded his expectations; it wasn't as simple as he had imagined.

The appearance of the three peak-stage Gu King Plague Corpses chilled his heart even more. The Plague Demon Gu could actually create and control zombies of such a level?

The strength of the Plague Demon Gu was too exaggerated. Even a reduced version of it was proving extremely hard to deal with.

If the weakened version of the Plague Demon Gu was already this powerful, just how terrifying would it have been during the Age of the Gods? He couldn't even begin to imagine.

That such an overpowered Gu insect could exist in this world—it’s no wonder it reduced the human population by half during the Age of the Gods.

Yan Poming felt an ominous premonition. The appearance of the three peak-stage Gu King Plague Corpses had completely caught him off guard, and this unforeseen change was beyond deadly.

At the moment, including himself, they had only four peak-stage Gu Kings, and these were meant to deal with Shi Haojun—they couldn’t afford to spread them thin.

Whether one-on-one or two-on-one, it was impossible to defeat Shi Haojun. There was no need to even think about it.

As a result, those three peak-stage Gu King Plague Corpses would remain unchallenged. This unexpected development completely disrupted his plan, and if he wasn’t careful, he might truly perish here today.

And that Plague Demon Gu, rampaging uncontrollably, was completely invisible. No one could see it, let alone control it. Its strength far exceeded his expectations.

How could this world allow the existence of something so destructive to balance? Yan Poming realized he had underestimated the Plague Demon Gu, and his overconfidence was his downfall.

His face grew darker.

The plan had changed. He had thought that if he could just figure out a way to counter the Mutated Domain, eliminating Shi Haojun would be a piece of cake. He even conservatively estimated that he had an 80% chance of success.

Now, it was like a slap to the face. There wasn’t even an 80% chance; they’d be lucky if they had a 20% chance! His arrogance and ignorance were to blame.

But now wasn’t the time to dwell on it. He forced himself to stay calm and quickly shouted, "It is everyone's duty to eliminate evil and uphold justice! All late-stage Gu Kings, hold off those three peak-stage Gu King Plague Corpses! The rest of you, follow me and attack!"

With that, Yan Poming unleashed a sea of fire, burning away the Plague Corpses in his path as he charged toward the figure in the center of the corpse horde.

"If you want to capture the leader, first capture the king." This was the only solution he could think of to break the situation.

He could only hope to quickly take down Shi Haojun, which would cause the Plague Demon Gu to die and the corpse horde to lose control.

Otherwise, the situation would be dire—not only would a large number of Gu Kings die, but Blackstone City itself would face the danger of collapse.

The other three peak-stage Gu Kings shared his thoughts. They knew that the only way to break the deadlock was to eliminate Shi Haojun quickly. After carving a path through the corpse horde, they charged toward him.

"Ants trying to shake a tree—foolish and overconfident!"

Facing the encirclement of four peak-stage Gu Kings, Shi Haojun showed no intention of fleeing. Instead, he sneered and charged toward them.

With a tug of his insect pouch, fourteen peak-grade Gu insects flew out toward the four of them.

For someone who frequently slaughtered entire cities, he had access to the wealth of countless cities. Refining a large swarm of peak-grade Gu insects was no trouble at all.

Moreover, the peak-grade Gu insects he refined weren’t just ordinary peak-grade Gu insects. Supported by the wealth of so many cities, each of his peak-grade Gu insects required materials numbering in the tens of thousands.

If you thought Shi Haojun only had the Plague Demon Gu as his trump card, you’d be gravely mistaken.

Every one of his peak-grade Gu insects was beyond extraordinary. With the immense resources he had, no ordinary person could replicate such a feat.

It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that his ten-plus peak-grade Gu insects were invincible across the Western Continent.

To make matters worse, under the Mutated Domain, none of the Gu Kings besieging Shi Haojun could use their external Gu insects. This was truly deadly.

How could the task of besieging Shi Haojun be accomplished under these conditions?

All the Gu Kings' faces changed upon witnessing this, realizing the severity of the situation. They quickly dispatched over ten late-stage Gu Kings to rush toward Shi Haojun, while a large group of mid-stage Gu Kings held off the three peak-stage Gu King Plague Corpses. The battle was quickly spiraling out of control...