Chapter 00036: I Am Gong
# I Am Gong
Chapter 36
Novel: Abandon The Universe
Chapter 36 I Am Gong
This was already the sixth day since Lan Xiaobu entered Kunlun Mountain. Compared to Kunlun Mountain, the Ten Thousand Mountains were but a tiny dot.
At this moment, Lan Xiaobu had lost all sense of direction; he could only rely on his instincts to search. This endless, vast mountain range where he was trying to find a flying saucer… just the thought of it made his scalp tingle.
One must know that Kunlun Mountain was unlike any other mountain range; the highest peaks here soared to over seven or eight thousand meters. Apart from snow-capped mountains and continuous steep ridges, there lay endless wasteland…
Had he been a bit too presumptuous to think he could find a flying saucer in such a place in a short time?
Lan Xiaobu found himself secretly admiring Shang Wei. This guy managed to locate a flying saucer in just four to five months; that was quite impressive. Perhaps it was luck, but luck could be quite formidable too.
Staring at the undulating snow peaks beneath his feet, Lan Xiaobu sighed. He needed to establish a direction first, then head toward it searching. Otherwise, it was like looking for a needle in a haystack.
Lan Xiaobu strained to recall in which direction Shang Wei found the flying saucer on Kunlun Mountain.
"Are you looking for something?" An abrupt voice startled Lan Xiaobu, who was deep in thought. He instinctively took a few steps back.
"If you back up any further, you'll fall." The voice was calm and unhurried, resembling that of an old acquaintance chatting amicably.
It was only then that Lan Xiaobu saw more than ten meters away from him stood a man he hadn't noticed until now. The man seemed to be in his forties or fifties, dressed in a yellow robe. Curiously, he had his hair tied up in a bun, looking like someone from ancient times.
Could this guy be a few hundred years old? It was hard to say, perhaps he cultivated in Kunlun Mountain and had surpassed the Innate Realm.
"Who are you?" Lan Xiaobu asked warily, sizing up the newcomer.
The man in yellow smiled slightly. "I am Gong. I've seen your portrait. You're Lan Xiaobu, right?"
Gong? Such an odd name? However, upon hearing Gong mention having seen his portrait, Lan Xiaobu understood that this fellow was not a high-level cultivator from Kunlun Mountain but an outsider like himself.
Could it be that news of the fallen celestial object in Kunlun Mountain had leaked out? If it had leaked this quickly, perhaps Gong was not the only one who came to Kunlun Mountain.
The portrait he saw should have been a wanted image after Ju Jie’s death, but that wanted notice had been retracted.
"I have a disciple named Shang; Thousand Sounds is his creation."
Gong's words surprised Lan Xiaobu. Did this person have quite the background? He knew about the Thousand Sounds auction; he had participated in it once. Now he understood that the mastermind behind the destruction of his Lan family was, in fact, Thousand Sounds, and the creator of Thousand Sounds Auction was actually Gong's disciple. How impressive was this guy?
Lan Xiaobu contemplated in silence, wondering if it could be possible to eliminate him. After all, they were deep in Kunlun Mountain, and Gong seemed to navigate this place with relative ease, far more comfortable than he was, indicating that Gong was exceptionally formidable. He had to be cautious; he didn't want to be counterattacked.
"Thousand Sounds Auction recently auctioned a medicinal formula in Jin City. That formula was obtained by a merchant, and you forcibly took it, correct?" Gong spoke in a tone that always remained steady.
Lan Xiaobu silently noted that this guy could act remarkably pretentious. Here, amidst the snow peaks of Kunlun Mountain, he was acting as though they were just having a casual chat on the street. If he was so powerful, why did he come here to waste time?
"That merchant owes me something. I reclaim the medicinal formula as repayment; isn't that reasonable?" Lan Xiaobu replied blandly, as if implying that he wasn’t the only one capable of pretense.
Gong nodded slightly. "Naturally, that is understandable. But that formula belongs to Thousand Sounds Auction; you should return it to me."
Lan Xiaobu was momentarily taken aback. He had heard a lot of shameless remarks before, but he had never encountered someone who could express such shamelessness so matter-of-factly.
After a significant pause, Lan Xiaobu let out a sigh and said, "To be honest, I've become quite shameless myself, but compared to you, I have the virtue of someone like Mary. By your logic, everything auctioned off by your Thousand Sounds would belong to you, right? If Thousand Sounds wishes to get something back, it can do so at any time, couldn't it?"
Gong wasn’t perturbed by Lan Xiaobu's words; instead, he said seriously, "That is right. What is auctioned off by Thousand Sounds naturally belongs to Thousand Sounds; is it not others' property? Whether it can be reclaimed depends on whether it can be used. If it can be used, then naturally, the items belonging to Thousand Sounds should be taken back."
"Very well. I completely agree—one should have such principles. You can ask the merchant for it; I must be on my way…" After saying so, Lan Xiaobu turned around without hesitation. While turning, he had already drawn the short knife from his waist and swung it back in one swift motion. Yet, he used only a third of his strength; with lesser force, the speed naturally slowed a bit. Acting like an innocent while concealing his true strength, Lan Xiaobu did that very skillfully.
"Rip!" The sound of fabric tearing echoed as Gong moved with the lightness of a leaf, sliding past Lan Xiaobu's side.
He wasn’t mistaken. As he turned, Gong made his attack. That slash had merely torn Gong's clothing, without inflicting any harm.
A sense of dread settled in Lan Xiaobu’s heart; his intuition was correct—this fellow was strong. Since he reached the Meridian Opening Realm, he had not encountered a master of this caliber. Those ruthless members of the Savage Crocodile Gang he had dealt with were a thing of the past. Just now, with only a third of his strength, even if he tried his utmost, he would be lucky to merely draw blood from Gong; he could not hope to deal a lethal blow.
The calmness on Gong's face vanished; he gazed at Lan Xiaobu and remarked, "That formula is indeed of ancient origin. You should be approaching the Meridian Opening Realm, right? At your age, it’s truly exceptional to cultivate to the peak of Bone Refinement Stage, even with the aid of a medicinal formula. Moreover, you are quite clever."
Gong did not mislead Lan Xiaobu; among his few disciples, the one with the highest talent, Yu, only entered the Bone Refinement Stage after turning thirty. He had no doubt at all regarding Lan Xiaobu’s strength at the Bone Refinement Stage, as achieving that level at such a young age was already remarkable. As for the Meridian Opening Realm, there was no chance. Even with the Earth’s Spiritual Qi eruption, that simply was not feasible given how long ago the eruption occurred.
The reason he referred to Lan Xiaobu as clever was that he guessed Gong would make a move as he turned around. Irrespective of whether it was luck, that was quite a shrewd assumption. A regular Bone Refinement Stage cultivator would have probably been severely injured by Lan Xiaobu's earlier blow.
Lan Xiaobu did not respond. In his past life, the realms of Bone Refinement and Meridian Opening had emerged only after the comprehensive explosion of Earth’s Spiritual Qi. This fellow was rather extraordinary; did he already know of the Bone Refinement and Meridian Opening real?
Seeing Lan Xiaobu neither reply nor reduce his guard with the short knife, Gong chuckled lightly. "You aren’t my opponent. If you answer my questions, I might spare your life. The first question—did you rely on the medicinal formula to reach the peak of the Bone Refinement Stage? The second—did you come to Kunlun Mountain to investigate the source of the Earth’s Qi eruption?"
Lan Xiaobu still did not pay attention to Gong. Not an opponent? Heh, one wouldn’t know until they had fought. He suspected Gong had not even stepped into the Innate Realm. If his enemy had reached that level, the earlier slash would not have even reached Gong’s clothes.
Gong sighed. "Alas, since it has come to this, let’s see your strength."
After saying this, Gong took a step forward. Despite being around ten meters apart, with that single stride, his hand was already before Lan Xiaobu. It felt as if he and Lan Xiaobu were merely a meter apart, and just a single step covered that distance.
He then raised his hand, reaching for Lan Xiaobu, who immediately struck again with his knife, this time aiming for Gong’s wrist.
Gong had a faint smile at the corner of his mouth as his wrist twisted to grasp the back of Lan Xiaobu's blade.
But the next moment, he felt something was amiss; an icy killing intent seeped through, and the short knife in Lan Xiaobu’s hand moved faster than he anticipated by several times.
"Poof!" Gong’s wrist chilled; at that moment, there was no way he couldn’t recognize the sinister intent in Lan Xiaobu's previous backhand swing—this was deliberately making him think it was just the Bone Refinement Stage. What could have severed his wrist? Even by surprise, it was certainly not the Bone Refinement Stage but a genuine Meridian Opening Realm cultivator.
Furious, Gong cared little for Lan Xiaobu's life and slammed a punch down. However, he had not pooled all his inner Qi when he prepared that punch just now, so his current furious blow was executed with only seven to eight parts of his strength.
Lan Xiaobu clearly saw Gong's punch coming, but he could not evade it. At this moment, his left hand had exhausted its strength with the blade; he could only unleash a right fist towards it.
Gong was unable to gather his full strength at the moment, while Lan Xiaobu, by cutting Gong’s wrist with his left hand, was in a right punch that could not gather all his inner Qi either.
Boom, crack, crack...
The sound of two fists colliding hurt the ears as bones broke.
Lan Xiaobu flew back like a kite with a snapped string from Gong's punch, spitting out blood as he rolled down through the snow.
Gong's arm also shattered from the impact, sent flying backwards by Lan Xiaobu's punch, with blood trickling from his mouth's corner. He didn’t even glance back at Lan Xiaobu but instead grabbed his severed hand and quickly dashed toward the other side of the mountain.
Meridian Opening Realm! Lan Xiaobu had absolutely reached the Meridian Opening Realm. He hadn’t expected that besides himself, there would be a second Meridian Opening Realm on Earth. Young and possessing a Bone Refinement medicinal formula, Lan Xiaobu would certainly recover faster than he would, but what was even more terrifying was that during their brief encounter, Gong discovered that Lan Xiaobu was exceedingly treacherous, resulting in his decision to retreat first.
(End of this chapter)