The darkness at the bottom of the well was thick as ink, unable to be diluted. In the dead silence, only the occasional sound of dripping water from above remained, infinitely amplified in the claustrophobic space.
Lin Mu curled up in the shadowed corner of the well wall like a lifeless rock.
The rare Liquor Worm he had just obtained was forcibly stuffed into the leather pouch close to his body. Startled, it squirmed restlessly against his chest. Every minute friction felt like it was challenging the limits of his taut nerves.
The footsteps had indeed faded.
If this were an ordinary sixteen-year-old, he would likely be unable to suppress the ecstasy of surviving a disaster, scrambling out of this ghostly place to flee. But Lin Mu did not move.
Not only did he not move, he forcibly controlled his muscle tremors, held his breath, and didn't even blink.
He understood the natives of this cruel world too well. Especially someone like Gao Xiong, who could climb to the position of Patrol Captain in a wolf's den like the Black Blood Stockade. He was absolutely not the kind of fool who would leave reassured after a single glance.
Paranoia was their instinct for survival; deceit was their habit in hunting.
Although the Heat Source Gu's light beam had moved away, the prickly sensation of being watched on his back hadn't vanished. Instead, as the silence spread, it grew more intense, like an invisible hand throttling his throat.
He is bluffing.
Lin Mu spoke coldly to himself in his heart, his eyes terrifyingly calm in the darkness.
To fight the physiological impulse to gasp for air, he bit down hard on the tip of his tongue, using the metallic taste of blood to stimulate his brain into staying sharp. He slowly reached his right hand into his robes, avoiding the squirming Liquor Worm, his fingertips touching the slumbering Vital Gu in his aperture—the Iron Leaf Gu.
This was the signature Rank 1 attack Gu of the Lin family.
Unlike the Gu Yue clan's dazzling and loud Moonlight Gu, the Lin family's Iron Leaf Gu belonged to the Wood Path. When activated, Primeval Essence would condense into a deep green leaf with finely serrated edges, hard as iron.
Although not as peerlessly sharp as the Moon Blade, it won in silence and concealment. Its flight trajectory was erratic and unpredictable—a sharp weapon for harvesting lives in the dark.
The surface of his Primeval Sea rippled slightly. His sixty-five percent B-grade Green Copper Primeval Essence began to slowly mobilize, ready to strike.
One breath. Ten breaths. Thirty breaths.
Time was stretched agonizingly long in the dark. The rotting stench of the mud at the bottom of the well filled the air. Cold corpse water soaked Lin Mu's clothes, stealing his body heat while completely cooling his restless heart.
Suddenly, without any warning.
A head poked out from the wellhead silently.
No Firefly Gu was lit. No voice asked a question.
Gao Xiong was like a cunning old wolf, doubling back. Borrowing the faint, almost negligible starlight, his sinister, inverted triangular eyes stared dead at the bottom of the well, trying to catch any movement that might have been tricked out by the "silence" just now.
In this instant, their gazes met across the darkness.
Gao Xiong's pupils constricted violently.
He saw it.
At the bottom of this supposedly empty dry well, in the pile of rotting leaves, a pair of eyes covered in mud—revealing only the whites—were staring coldly back at him. There was no panic of a youth in those eyes, only a heart-palpitating dead silence.
"There really is..."
The corner of Gao Xiong's mouth began to curl into a cruel and triumphant arc. The word "someone" in his throat didn't have time to be voiced.
In this moment, Lin Mu, who had long been ready, moved.
In this split second between life and death, all fear, hesitation, and the moral constraints of being a citizen in a rule-of-law society from his past life were thrown to the nine heavens. The instinct to survive took over everything. Lin Mu's brain entered a state of absolute, rational "overclocking."
The wellhead was narrow. The opponent sticking his head in created an absolute blind spot—and the only killing opportunity.
"Go!"
Lin Mu shouted internally. The Green Copper Primeval Essence in his aperture poured out instantly.
In his palm, a ghostly green light flashed and vanished. A palm-sized, deep green iron leaf, its edges shimmering with cold light, formed instantly. It made no sound of breaking the air. Like a fallen leaf swept up by a gale, yet carrying the resolve to cut through metal, it flew from bottom to top, straight for Gao Xiong's fully exposed throat.
Fast. Too fast. And utterly silent.
As a Rank 1 Upper Stage Gu Master, Gao Xiong naturally had defensive methods. But he committed the common failing of all veterans—arrogance. He thought he was catching a turtle in a jar, merely some reckless little thief. He never expected the opponent not to flee, but to have bared his fangs at the bottom of the well like a viper waiting to strike.
Subconsciously, he tried to activate the Hard Wood Skin Gu on his body. A layer of wood-like texture just began to ripple across his skin, but mobilizing Primeval Essence took time.
And that ghostly green reaper's scythe had already arrived.
Shhhk—
A terrifyingly faint, tooth-aching slicing sound rang out. It was the unique sound of a serrated iron leaf rotating at high speed, sawing through cartilage and windpipe.
Gao Xiong's stunned expression froze on his face. The skin on his neck, only half-hardened, was sliced open as neatly as fragile tofu. The carotid artery severed instantly.
Scalding blood sprayed like a high-pressure fountain, painting a tragic crimson curtain in the night, even splashing onto the moss of the well wall, emitting wisps of steam.
"Urgh... Cough..."
Gao Xiong clutched his neck, trying to make a sound, but his windpipe was severed, resulting only in a leaking, wheezing rattle.
That Iron Leaf Gu contained Lin Mu's will to kill. It didn't just slice his throat; it embedded itself deeply into the gaps of his cervical vertebrae.
Vitality drained rapidly with the blood. The light in Gao Xiong's eyes dissipated quickly. His body instantly lost balance. Like a heavy, broken sack, he pitched headfirst into the well.
Bang!
The corpse smashed into the mud at the bottom, splashing up countless drops of foul, stinking water.
Lin Mu rolled to the side, barely avoiding the falling body. Warm, salty blood splattered his face, mixing with the cold corpse water and mud already there, sliding down his cheek to the corner of his mouth.
He licked it subconsciously.
Rusty iron.
Lin Mu didn't scream. He didn't vomit. His hands didn't even shake. He looked at Gao Xiong, who was still twitching slightly on the ground, his eyes as cold as if looking at a slaughtered pig.
"If you didn't die, I would have to die. If you want to blame someone, blame yourself for being too responsible. And blame yourself... for blocking my path."
Lin Mu panted heavily, rapidly suppressing the instinctive physiological palpitations rising from his first kill. His heart beat like a war drum, but he knew this was far from a safe time.
Primeval Essence remained at half. Mental state highly excited. Adrenaline soaring.
Like a greedy vulture, he immediately pounced on Gao Xiong's corpse to begin looting. Looting the dead was the fastest, and bloodiest, method of primitive accumulation in the Gu Master world.
First was the Heat Source Gu.
This Gu worm was lying on Gao Xiong's cooling wrist, looking like a red ladybug. With the host dead, losing its supply of Primeval Essence, it became listless, the red light on its body dimming rapidly.
Lin Mu was unceremonious. He forcibly mobilized his Primeval Essence to rush into the Heat Source Gu's body. Because the original owner was dead and his will dissipated, this Rank 1 scouting Gu was suppressed by Lin Mu with almost no resistance and stored in his aperture.
Next was the money pouch at the waist.
It felt heavy in his hand, clinking with a pleasing crisp sound. Lin Mu opened it, his muddy eyes brightening slightly. "Twenty-five Primeval Stones... As a captain, this guy must have extorted plenty. This windfall is enough to support half a month of my cultivation."
Besides the Primeval Stones, there was a black iron token representing his identity, and a steel army knife.
At this moment, the Liquor Worm in his chest seemed stimulated by the heavy scent of blood and began to twist frantically, trying to bore through the pouch to escape.
"Troublesome little thing, I'll deal with you later." Lin Mu pressed his hand to his chest, frowning. His gaze fell back on Gao Xiong's corpse.
A massive problem now lay before him, even harder than the killing itself.
Gao Xiong was dead. A Patrol Captain died in the mess hall's dry well. This was absolutely a major event that would shock the Black Blood Stockade. The mad dogs of the Punishment Hall would swarm over like flies smelling shit, turning everything within ten miles upside down.
If they examined the corpse, they would find the fatal wound was a neat slice at the throat.
The wound caused by the Iron Leaf Gu was very specific. Unlike the smoothness of a blade, the iron leaf had serrated edges, leaving a subtle tearing sensation in the cut. More importantly, the Lin family cultivated the Wood Path, and their Primeval Essence carried wood qi. The flesh around a wound killed by an Iron Leaf would retain faint green wood qi, even showing a strange "withered wood" necrosis.
This was a unique characteristic of the Lin family descendants!
Once the Punishment Hall coroner identified the cause of death as "Iron Leaf Gu," the suspect range would instantly shrink to the family itself. Then, all clansmen with Rank 1 cultivation who lacked an alibi for last night would be investigated.
Lin Mu, a branch family member living nearby who had just received B-grade aptitude, would absolutely not escape!
"I must destroy the corpse and eliminate traces... No, I can't destroy the corpse. Not enough time. And if the corpse disappears completely, the clan will think he went missing or defected, and they'll investigate for even longer. I must make them 'confirm' the killer was an outsider."
Lin Mu's gaze landed on the steel army knife, and the familiar demon in his mind seemed to sneer at him.