Boom, boom, boom!
Thunder exploded, earth and stone scattering in all directions.
Amid the billowing dust, Ying Wu Xie suddenly opened his mouth and let out a roar toward the heavens.
His roar could not be heard by mortal ears, but the three Central Continent Gu Immortals attacking him felt their bodies shake violently, their souls violently trembling wave after wave.
"Bad! This is a Soul Path Immortal-level killer move!"
The three Central Continent Gu Immortals hurriedly defended themselves.
"Retreat!" Seizing the opening, Ying Wu Xie bellowed and led Tai Bai Yun Sheng and Hei Lou Lan in flight.
By the time the Central Continent Gu Immortals recovered, the three Gu Immortals had already vanished without a trace.
"What kind of Soul Path killer move was that? Terrifyingly powerful! For a moment I felt like my soul was about to scatter from the trembling."
"Based on their auras, these three Gu Immortals all come from the Northern Plains. Hiding their tracks, moving in secret—who exactly are they?"
"Yet they appeared within our Ancient Soul Gate's Earth Abyss. Could the earlier super collapse have some connection to them?"
The three Central Continent Gu Immortals had grim expressions as they healed their injuries while communicating through voice transmission.
"I've already relayed this intelligence to the sect. The sect is mobilizing reinforcements."
"Chase! All three of them were hit by my Immortal-level killing move—I can sense it. They can't escape!"
Once the three Central Continent Gu Immortals stabilized their injuries, they immediately set off in pursuit.
After chasing for a short while, the sensory link suddenly disappeared.
The leading Central Continent Gu Immortal was baffled: "Strange! This Immortal-level killer move of mine was only developed a few years ago and has a remarkable tracking effect. Very few people know about it. How exactly did they break free?"
"Immortal Gu are incredibly diverse, and they can be combined to form killer moves. The methods of Gu Immortals are endless and innumerable. Perhaps they just happen to have something that counters your Immortal-level killing move."
"That's possible, but unlikely. In my view, it may not have been broken at all. Perhaps they merely suppressed it temporarily! Or used some method to shield themselves."
The leader of the three Immortals pondered for a moment, then said: "We chased them all the way here, and the Immortal-level killer move's sensing suddenly cut off—there must be something odd. Could they have entered someone else's Immortal Aperture?"
An Immortal Aperture was a small world, fundamentally different from the Five Regions and Nine Heavens.
Fate-defying individuals residing within Blessed Lands or Grotto Heavens could directly evade the Heavenly Spy Tower's detection. If the struck Ying Wu Xie had entered someone else's Immortal Aperture, the three Immortals' tracking methods would naturally become useless.
But entering another Gu Immortal's Immortal Aperture was exceedingly rare in the Gu Immortal world.
First, a Gu Immortal's cultivation of their own Immortal Aperture was of utmost importance, and few would ever allow outsiders inside. Second, this action carried significant drawbacks. The Dao Marks within different Gu Immortals' apertures would interfere with and restrain one another—even repel and deplete each other. The exact losses depended on the specific circumstances.
Generally speaking, when the larger enclosed the smaller, or the more enclosed the less, things remained relatively stable. Even when the smaller enclosed the larger, so long as the gap between the two was not too great, it was still possible to use an Immortal Aperture to contain another Gu Immortal. There would simply be some losses across various aspects.
If an Immortal Aperture was situated within the external world and connected to the ambient qi of heaven and earth, it was essentially attached to the great world of the Five Regions. This made it far more stable than an Immortal Aperture housed within a Gu Immortal's body, and capable of encompassing more and higher-cultivation Gu Immortals.
If a Gu Immortal entering the aperture had too high a cultivation level and too many Dao Marks, they could directly burst the aperture apart. Just like the fragments of the Primordial Nine Heavens, which only permitted those of a certain cultivation to participate in exploration—Gu Immortals with cultivation too high could not enter. Forcing their way in would simply shatter the fragment world.
There was one special case: the Immortal Apertures of Immortal Zombies. Everyone knew that an Immortal Zombie's aperture was a realm of death, with time flowing in sync with the outside world. The internal space was in a constant state of collapse, which could be understood as the Dao Marks within the aperture gradually dispersing and returning to the zombie's body.
Therefore, even if a Gu Immortal entered an Immortal Zombie's dead aperture, it would not trigger Dao Mark depletion. At most it would accelerate the aperture's decay and slightly speed the return of its Dao Marks to the body.
The leader of the three Immortals had long anticipated this situation. That was why he had ensured that Ying Wu Xie, Tai Bai Yun Sheng, and Hei Lou Lan all received his Immortal-level killing move. Thus, no matter who entered whose Immortal Aperture, one person would always remain outside—detectable by his senses.
While the three Immortals' minds churned, a sudden thought struck the leader: "What if someone collapsed their Immortal Aperture, hiding themselves and the other two Gu Immortals all inside?"
"But collapsing an aperture takes time and would cause disturbances in heaven and earth. How could anyone do it so quickly and silently? However… the methods of Gu Immortals are endless and without limit. There is always a sky beyond the sky, a person beyond the person. Perhaps they truly do possess a means of rapidly collapsing an aperture."
The Central Continent Gu Immortal turned the idea over and over in his mind but arrived at nothing conclusive.
Still, that did not prevent him from deciding on a course of action.
"My sensing was severed right here. Rather than chasing blindly, it would be better to remain here, scout the area, preserve the scene, and wait for our sect's Wisdom Path Gu Immortal to arrive and perform deductions," the Central Continent Gu Immortal said.
His proposal was met with immediate nods from the other two, and no one raised an objection.
"They're lingering and not leaving. Looks like they plan to stay." Inside the super Gu formation, Tai Bai Yun Sheng observed the outside and let out a long sigh.
"These three Gu Immortals are the three Seventh Transformation experts the Ancient Soul Gate sent to investigate the super collapse. Master, that you were able to escape at all is already good fortune. Please heal your injuries quickly," Stone Slave urged.
Hei Lou Lan remained silent.
Ying Wu Xie's expression was terrible, his voice rough: "I didn't expect these three Gu Immortals to be waiting right here for me!"
He had already decided to sacrifice a pawn to save the king, but he never imagined that barely after leaving, he would be discovered by these three Ancient Soul Gate Gu Immortals. After a fierce battle where they were outmatched, Ying Wu Xie and his companions had no choice but to retreat back into the super Gu formation.
With the super Gu formation's concealment, the Immortal-level killing moves afflicting Hei Lou Lan and the others temporarily became ineffective.
The three Seventh Transformation experts of the Ancient Soul Gate were currently flying directly above the super Gu formation, but the formation was extraordinary—it not only concealed itself without revealing any signs, but also existed in a phased state, without physical substance, preventing the three Central Continent Immortals from detecting any trace of it.