Chaotic Times and Disasters: I Hunt Down Martial Arts Masters and Become a God

After an unknown amount of time, Fu Qing suddenly opened his eyes, sat up, and took a while to recover his senses.

He lay on the haystack, the wounds on his chest and right rib still throbbing, but the Gu poison surging from his internal organs had been suppressed by the warm medicinal vapor, as if wrapped in a thin green film, temporarily unable to penetrate deeper.

He tried moving his arm; the bone wasn't broken, and the meridians weren't damaged. The [Blue Overlord's Robe] was still working, and the wound was healing much faster than normal.

Although he can't yet wield a knife and fight to the death, his mobility is no longer severely impaired.

A very faint buzzing sound came from outside the cave.

Fu Qing leaned against the stone wall and walked out of the cave. Leo was lying on the ground, using his paws to poke at his bronze hammer that had been cracked by the giant python's tail.

Suwen sat on a flat rock at the entrance of the cave, holding a copper plate in her hand.

The ancient medicinal runes that were densely packed on the copper plate were now all dull and lifeless, and several fine cracks as thin as hair had appeared on the surface.

Suwen was intently using the faint medicinal aroma emanating from her fingertips to repeatedly brush over the cracks, as if she were polishing a delicate piece of jade with sandpaper.

"My lord!"

Leo tossed the bronze hammer aside, propelled himself forward with all four legs, and charged towards Fu Qing in three quick strides, baring his teeth in a wide grin.

"You can actually stand up! I thought you were going to die!"

He circled Fu Qing several times, his wet, large nose nuzzling against Fu Qing's face, full of surprise.

"Your health and vitality recover so quickly, even faster than the demon bodies of our race!"

"Stay away from me." Fu Qing raised his hand and pushed his lion-like face away.

"I'm so excited! The blood you vomited was grayish-white, it looked like the blood of a dead person, I thought you weren't going to make it!"

"A curse?" Fu Qing glanced at it sideways.

The lion was taken aback, then chuckled twice, walked to the cave entrance and lay down again, its two front paws holding the bronze hammer close to its chest, its ears standing straight up.

Fu Qing walked over to Su Wen, who was still focused on repairing the bronze plate and didn't even look up.

Fu Qing stood there for a while, then coughed lightly and finally broke the silence, "This bronze plate... can it still be repaired?"

"It should be possible."

Suwen paused for a moment, then continued to infuse the medicinal energy.

"The crack isn't too deep. It can be repaired by using medicine and warming it for a period of time. However, the Five Elements Barrier cannot be activated again in the short term. Forcibly activating it will completely destroy the copper plate."

"That's good."

Fu Qing stood for a while longer, then sat down on the stone next to her.

The two remained silent for a long time. Leo lay at the entrance of the cave with his eyes closed, listening intently, his tail tip unconsciously tapping lightly on the gravel ground, the rhythm getting faster and faster.

Finally, Fu Qing didn't hesitate any longer and spoke directly.

"That secret technique... you said before that it was just a method of medicine, but I am not a practitioner of medicine and do not understand so many rules. You saved my life, so you are mine. No matter where you go in the future, I will protect you."

"It's not because you're useful to me, it's because I want to be good to you. I'm not an ungrateful person, I won't let you down. You've followed me for so long, from Ironblood City to Jingjing, from Jingjing to Southern Frontier. I understand your thoughts, and you understand my feelings too."

Su Wen paused for a moment, without looking up, "Your life was a research sample for me. I saved you this time because you still have research value, and you also saved my life..."

"Secret practices are just secret practices, like acupuncture, medicine, and medicinal baths; they are merely methods. Don't overthink them."

"Um."

Fu Qing noticed the redness around her ears but didn't expose her. "Will we have to continue drawing blood in the future?"

"Yes, the seventh-generation medicine still needs a large number of samples... I'm very interested to see how your Gu poison and remains will react."

Su Wen stood up, put the copper plate into her medicine pouch, and with her back to Fu Qing, spoke in a calm voice.

"Let's go, before it gets dark, let's see if we can climb back up the mountain stream."

Fu Qing stood up and patted the dry grass off his body.

Leo climbed out of the cave, shook the dust off his mane, and lowered his limbs so that Fu Qing and Su Wen could ride on his back.

Su Wen sat in front, and Fu Qing sat behind, with a fist's distance between them.

Leo glanced back and chuckled.

Suwen glared at him expressionlessly, and Leo immediately stifled his laughter, jogging back towards the ravine they had come from.

...

At the same time, the defenses of Wan Gu Valley collapsed completely shortly after the High Priest's death.

However, the ancient monsters who had lived for countless years deep within the Valley of Ten Thousand Gu finally made their move.

These old monsters are the true foundation of the Ten Thousand Gu Valley. Some are the grand-uncles of the High Priest, and some are Gu Dao masters who have retired from the previous dynasty. Each of them is a powerful expert above the Golden Body Realm, and their methods are bizarre.

They usually stayed out of worldly affairs and focused on their cultivation, but with the Wan Gu Valley on the verge of destruction, they could no longer stand idly by.

The Yasukuni army suffered an unprecedented counterattack at the valley entrance, resulting in heavy casualties.

Zhang Wukai personally led the charge, slaying several Golden Body Realm Gu cultivators, but he himself was also seriously injured.

At the most dangerous moment, an ancient Gu master who had lived for countless years crawled out from the depths of the earth. His Gu energy was so dense that it was almost tangible. With one palm, he sent Zhang Wukai flying back several feet, causing him to vomit blood.

Just as the Jingjun defense line was about to be breached, a silver spear descended from the sky, its tip piercing the ground, and the shockwave pulverized all the surrounding Gu worms.

A teenage girl with a bun hairstyle fell from mid-air, landing on top of the gun barrel, holding a string of candied hawthorns in her hand.

Gun Goddess Shi Yin Ji – a peerless expert at the second rank of martial arts.

She took a bite of the candied hawthorn, chewed it, then jumped down from the gun barrel, drew her gun, and pointed it at the old Gu King.

"At your age, you're still bullying younger people? Have you no shame?"

The old Gu King sneered and engaged him in battle.

...

After the last third-rank elder of Wan Gu Valley was killed by Shi Yinji, the Yue Kingdom finally realized that the situation was hopeless, and the only remaining third-rank Gu Master led the army to retreat across the river.

The King of Yue sent an envoy overnight with a letter seeking peace, expressing his willingness to retreat to the south bank of the Yangtze River, hand over all the territory on the north bank to the Jing Kingdom, and become a vassal state and pay tribute.

Zhang Wukai stood at the entrance of the Wan Gu Valley, which was filled with corpses, and received the imperial letter. After glancing at it, he ordered his personal guards to send it to the capital as soon as possible.

The entire trip took only four days. The emperor signed the official letter and sent it back.

The battle has finally come to an end.

When the results of the battle were tallied, Jingjun's account showed more than a dozen new prefectures, and Yue Kingdom became its vassal state from then on.

However, the vanguard battalion was also reduced from 8,000 men before the war to less than 2,000.

An Sheng survived, though he had a scar on his face.

Liu Wentong is also alive. He has several new scars on his legs, but he can still walk.

Old Zhao was alive. His pipe stem had been bitten in two, so he shaved off a new one and started puffing away.

Sun Bufan died. He was attacked by a demon in his dying moments when he broke through the last line of defense of Wan Gu Valley and was punched through the heart.

He Shan also died. In order to cover An Sheng's retreat, he single-handedly withstood a fifth-grade Gu cultivator for several breaths.

An Sheng did not piece together his body.

There were also hundreds and thousands of soldiers whose names were recorded in the military merit book and on the monument, but no matter how thick the military merit book was, it could not bring them back to life.

As for Fu Qing and Su Wen... Su Xue asked several wounded soldiers who had escaped, and they all said they saw General Fu being forced to fall into the ravine by two demon generals, and Doctor Su jumped in after him.

When she told An Sheng the news, An Sheng was learning to smoke a pipe.

After listening, he was stunned for a long time, then turned around, walked out of the tent, and ran wildly towards the mountain stream.