A heart-pounding chase was unfolding along the narrow mountain trail winding through the canyon.
"Run faster, run faster!" A tiny figure clinging to the top of Hong Yi's head screamed in a panic.
"It hurts, it hurts, it hurts! Stop pulling my hair!" Hong Yi howled in pain.
But the little person paid him no mind. His tiny hands instinctively clamped down tighter on Hong Yi's hair as he whipped his head around to look behind them.
"Oh no! It's already catching up! Hurry, hurry! If you don't go faster, it's going to eat us both!" the little person shrieked, terrified.
"I'm trying!" Hong Yi gritted his teeth, pouring everything into driving his movement Gu. Unfortunately, his cultivation was too weak — only Second Transformation, High Stage.
Of course, for someone his age, that level of cultivation was already quite impressive.
Since the Gu Refining Assembly, Hong Yi had stumbled across several small opportunities, so his cultivation speed far outpaced that of the average person.
But in the face of this life-or-death crisis, Second Transformation, High Stage simply wasn't enough. Bearing down on him from behind was a Fifth-Transformation wild golden-horned centipede.
The creature was enormous, its body as thick as a giant python. A sharp, hardened horn jutted from its head. It tore along the mountain path, hundreds of legs hammering the ground in rapid succession, its massive body twisting as it moved with terrifying speed.
"We're dead! It's right on your butt!" The little person's face had gone deathly pale — his soul was practically fleeing his body.
"All or nothing!" Hong Yi could feel the centipede closing in, practically breathing down his neck. His hair stood on end. With no other option, he activated his only killer move.
It happened to be a movement-type killer move.
But he'd only recently obtained it. He hadn't had many chances to practice.
When activating a killer move, the odds of success and failure were roughly even.
A killer move required at least two Gu insects to combine. The more Gu involved, the more complex the activation sequence, and the harder it was to execute — though the power was correspondingly greater.
The movement killer move Hong Yi possessed was assembled from nearly ten ordinary Gu insects.
Don't compare Gu Masters to Gu Immortals — for a Gu Master, that was already quite a lot.
Killer moves weren't easy to train.
Sometimes a failed activation could even harm the user or damage the Gu insects.
So normally, Hong Yi practiced this particular move with extreme care every time.
But in this life-or-death moment, caution was a luxury he could no longer afford.
At his current pace, shaking off the centipede was impossible. Death was certain.
The only option left was to risk everything!
"Come on, activate — you have to work!" Hong Yi screamed in his mind.
But wishes are sweet and reality is bitter.
Activating a killer move demanded absolute concentration. Some moves even required a completely stable environment, free from any disturbance.
When Fang Yuan used killer moves, they came naturally to him — that was because he had five hundred years of experience from his previous life to draw upon. Hong Yi, on the other hand, was a complete novice.
To make matters worse, he was in mortal danger. On one hand, he had to watch the road ahead — the mountain trail was littered with rocks and potholes. He was sprinting at full speed; one stumble and it would all be over.
On the other hand, the golden-horned centipede was right on his heels. The thunderous rumble of its pursuit was a constant roar in his ears, the aura of death threatening to engulf him entirely. How could Hong Yi not be affected?
The only people who could remain unaffected in such a situation — who could maintain absolute calm in the face of death — were grizzled veterans who had long since stopped caring whether they lived or died. Hong Yi might reach that state someday, but for now, he was still far too young.
"It's catching up! It's catching up!" The little person on his head was screaming again, eyes wide with horror as the monstrous centipede thundered after them, closing the distance with frightening momentum.
The centipede's body was massive and heavy, hundreds of legs stomping the earth. Its grotesque mandibles gaped wide, spewing saliva, aimed squarely at Hong Yi's back as it lunged for the kill!
The little person let out a piercing shriek and clamped his eyes shut.
Although he had wings on his back, they'd been damaged earlier and were completely useless for flight.
This expedition into the mountain cave had been a success — he'd managed to steal the Fifth-Transformation Gu material known as Hundred Flowers Dew. But the cost was earning the undying hatred of the golden-horned centipede that guarded it. With no way to escape on his own, he could only cling to Hong Yi and pray that his speed would be enough.
But the pain he'd braced for never came.
He opened his eyes, his face a mask of disbelief.
For some reason, Hong Yi had actually dodged the centipede's bite.
But in the next instant, the centipede was coming again.
The little person's heart hammered wildly, but understanding was dawning.
Every time the golden-horned centipede tried to bite Hong Yi, it unconsciously reared its head upward.
This motion lifted its head a good eight feet off the ground, pulling half a zhang of its body into the air before crashing back down.
When the centipede reared up, many of its legs left the ground, and its speed dropped sharply.
Meanwhile, Hong Yi was still running — at the same pace as before.
So every single lunge ended in a miss.
"What a dumbass!" The little person burst out laughing, euphoria flooding through him — the wild joy of snatching survival from the jaws of certain death.
Humans were the most intelligent of all creatures. Wild Gu insects had extremely limited intelligence; every movement was driven by pure instinct.
"I go to all this trouble to save your life, and you call me a dumbass?!" Hong Yi was less than thrilled.
"I wasn't calling you that! I was talking about the centipede, you dumbass!" the little person shot back.
Hong Yi seethed. "You're the dumbass! I told you the centipede was dormant, that there was nothing to fear — just steal the Hundred Flowers Dew and leave. But no, you had to let out that scream!"
The little person puffed out his cheeks. A flash of guilt crossed his eyes before vanishing, replaced by embarrassed anger.
He opened his mouth to retort — but then his eyes bulged wide, his face frozen in horror.
The golden-horned centipede behind them, having failed to bite Hong Yi time and again, had switched tactics. Now it was using the golden horn on its head.
This wasn't because it had grown smarter.
Over the ages, golden-horned centipedes regularly encountered prey too large to swallow whole. In those situations, they used the golden horn on their forehead to slice their meals into manageable pieces.
Snapping its jaws to devour was instinct. Ramming its horn forward was also instinct.
The golden-horned centipede lunged viciously, dipping its head low, the golden horn thrusting forward — closing in fast on Hong Yi's... well, his rear end.
There was no helping it — that was the height it was at.
"Dummy, run faster!" The little person, witnessing this new peril, was shaking so hard he could barely keep his grip on Hong Yi's hair.
"Still calling me a dummy?!" Hong Yi shouted, and then his voice shot up to a shrill pitch — like a rooster having its throat suddenly squeezed. The sheer panic, the utter unpreparedness, and of course, the soul-rending pain.
The golden horn had pierced into Hong Yi's backside.
Despair washed over the little person. This time, they were absolutely finished.
But in that very instant, Hong Yi's speed suddenly surged.
He shot forward like a bolt!
It turned out that in the moment of his scream, the searing pain had triggered a flash of insight, and he'd activated the killer move perfectly for the first time.
Hong Yi escaped the danger.
"You're bleeding! You're bleeding!" The little person stared at Hong Yi's backside and screamed in alarm.
The centipede's golden horn had been embedded in Hong Yi's backside, but with that sudden burst of speed, the two had been torn apart.