At this moment, Golden Seal had led a team of ten people into the warehouse without making a sound.
Upon arriving at the warehouse, Golden Seal smelled something.
"This is..."
"According to the information we received, Gu Jinlai has switched to the Heavenly Master lineage. To put it nicely, the Heavenly Master Lineage works with crafting swords and taming beasts; less kindly, they're blacksmiths and stable boys. It's reasonable for him to store a large amount of wood and coal in the warehouse."
A team member said.
Golden Seal frowned and, out of caution, quickly began to search the warehouse to avoid any potential traps.
In a short while, he found some black granules in one spot: "This is..."
"Firecrackers."
The team member said: "This warehouse is said to have been specifically used for storing firecrackers, so it's quite normal for some leftover powder from the firecrackers."
"Is that so."
Golden Seal said as he glanced around.
There were indeed some raw materials for firecrackers. This kind of thing could scare common folk, but the weakest among the ten of them had already condensed Qi into Gang, and they were protected by True Qi. Such trivial firecrackers were not worth a sneer.
"Playing with these crooked and deceitful things, I thought this warehouse was a trap laid by Gu Jinlai, and we'd been psychologically maneuvered into it. It scared me so much I wanted to smoke a dry cigarette to calm my nerves."
Another team member said.
Although Golden Seal didn't believe that firecrackers could break through their Protective True Qi, which was comparable to wearing Iron Armor, he still instructed cautiously, "Watch out for open flames to avoid igniting the firecrackers and making noise, which would alert Gu Jinlai and lead to our ambush failing."
"Understood."
The team members responded in unison.
At that moment, a light similar to a reflection from a mirror shone from outside.
Seeing this light, Golden Seal immediately said, "The target is arriving soon. Hide and be on alert."
Almost simultaneously, a slight noise came from inside the warehouse.
The team member who wanted to smoke a dry cigarette to calm his nerves couldn't help but look in the direction of the sound, only to see a streak of firelight carrying a smoky scent flashing rapidly in one direction.
"Where did that fire come from?"
This thought had just sprung into his mind when, the next instant, the blazing light suddenly became dazzling, completely engulfing his vision.
A terrifying force compressed the air, bringing with it high temperatures, and struck their bodies like a landslide. Their Protective True Qi, which they prided themselves on, supported only for a moment against this terrifying force before being torn apart.
The high temperature swept over their bodies, igniting their clothing and hair, further roasting their skin into charcoal.
"No!"
Amidst the flames and explosion, Golden Seal's angry roar could be heard. He moved as fast as he could toward a pile of wood that could provide cover.
But...
Taking into account the ignition efficiency and explosion speed of black gunpowder, when Gu Jinlai prepared the warehouse, he deliberately left several places that seemed to offer shelter from the blast wave. In reality, those places...
Were packed with even more black gunpowder.
"Boom!"
An even more furious sound deafened the ears, and the explosion dissipated.
Just as he arrived outside the warehouse, Gu Jinlai clearly saw an endless flash of firelight that even outshone the brilliance of the Sun, followed by a giant fireball that appeared out of nowhere, engulfing the entire warehouse from the inside out.
The air, expanded by the heat, was compressed into visible white waves that swept through the sky and the Earth.
Countless bits of debris, wood chunks, and pebbles from within the warehouse were flung by this sweeping force, like arrows shot from a powerful crossbow, striking out in all directions.
The furthest wood chips were thrown more than a hundred meters away.
Even though Gu Jinlai had deliberately kept a sufficient distance, the impact wave still caused the carriage he was in to feel the strong wind whipping fiercely; if it weren't for Gu Jinlai's weight of over two thousand jin pressing down, it might have been blown away.
"This..."
Su Nanxing, who was usually somewhat subdued, couldn't help but widen his eyes at the sight before him.
This power...
If he, who was at the Peak of Hugging Pill, were caught in the midst of it, he feared he would undoubtedly die.
"This is the power of the Heavenly Master!?"
"Squeak!"
At that moment, the carriage sank heavily.
Then, Gu Jinlai's voice came from behind, "It's time for us to show up and clean up the aftermath. If anyone's not dead, patch them up; if they're dead, see if we can find anything useful."
As he spoke, Gu Jinlai, who stood over one meter ninety, nearly two meters tall after donning heavy armor, exited the carriage. He hung a two-meter-long Giant Sword on a specially designed slot on his back, then took a step forward.
But having walked only a few steps, he already felt the burden of two thousand jin weighing upon him.
Just at this moment, within the flames, it seemed as if a shallow, three vibrant clusters of red light flickered, breaking out from the fire at varying speeds either quickly or slowly.
"You go stop that one, I'll deal with the remaining three,"
Gu Jinlai directed Su Nanxing towards a direction, as the Spiritual Explosion Skill was triggered, and in the next moment, his own spirit seemed to be stimulated to its utmost, continuously merging his spiritual sense into the War Armor and War Sword he wore.
The spirit within the armor and sword was awakened.
Instantly, the load of the two-thousand-jin War Armor and War Sword on him began to decrease continuously.
One thousand five hundred, one thousand, eight hundred, six hundred, four hundred...
In the blink of an eye, the weight of the War Armor and War Sword under this Spiritual Explosion dropped from two thousand jin to under two hundred jin.
This weight still affected agility but no longer hindered movement.
Observing the direction from which the three clusters of red light were breaking out of the rolling fierce flames and thick smoke, Gu Jinlai's "heavy" body pushed forward, and the small stones and wood chips he stepped on were directly crushed into dust.
Very quickly, a trail of red light carrying fierce flames burst out of the thick smoke, and before it had a chance to see the outside environment, a Sword Gang had already blasted out.
"Bang!"
This Hugging Pill expert of unknown identity was directly killed by the blast of Gang Qi.
The commotion ahead seemed to alert the other two clusters of red light, one of which, upon approaching this direction, let out an angry roar, "Gu Jinlai!"
Gang Qi erupted.
A fierce light like a whip tore through the dust and flames, boldly slashing towards him.
It was the Golden Seal!
At this moment, this battle-hardened Peak of Hugging Pill master was charred black all over, his eyes wide open carrying a murderous aura that seemed capable of turning all things in the world into a bitter winter.
Had their squad ever suffered such a crushing defeat since its establishment?
Even when they ambushed Refining God, the losses had not been this severe, but now...
Were they nearly annihilated by Gu Jinlai, a Hugging Pill who had fallen from the status of Refining God!?
"Die!"
Amidst the roar, the Gang Qi unleashed by the Golden Seal grew even stronger.
In response, Gu Jinlai didn't even look, his heavy sword raised in his hand and slashed down.
What appeared light in his hand, the War Sword, when swung, emitted a sound like a peal of thunder.
The weight of over a thousand jin accelerated to the speed of sound in an instant, forming a hurricane and an air blast visible to the naked eye in the void.
"Boom!"
The Gang Qi slashed out by the Golden Seal shattered the air waves, jolting Gu Jinlai's body first.
But...
The defensive power of carbon steel armor, even at under a hundred jin, could match that of top-grade Treasure Armor, and now it was piled up to a thousand jin...
"Clang!"
The Gang Qi collided with the Treasure Armor on Gu Jinlai's body, emitting a sound like the ringing of a grand bell.
The feeling was like using an improvised bow and arrow to shoot a knight fully clad in plate armor.
In the end...
The Gang Qi splattered.
That attack only made Gu Jinlai's figure sway slightly.
"How..."
The expression of the Golden Seal, mixed with boundless rage, suddenly froze.
In the next instant, the War Sword slashed out by Gu Jinlai, like a fly swatter hitting a fly, packed with a terrifying force that made one tremble, harshly smacked onto the body of the Peak Hugging Pill master.
"Ah..."
"Bang!"
This Peak Hugging Pill master had no time to scream before his form burst into a cloud of blood mist.
Then, he was sent flying back at a speed even faster than his arrival.
The thick smoke billowed, and the flames blazed fiercely, but they were torn apart by the hurricane stirred up by this one sword strike, creating a vacuum of space free of smoke and fire.
Before he hit the ground, his bright red light had already vanished.
"Not a bad strength."
Gu Jinlai glanced at the sword mark on the Treasure Armor, "It nearly pierced one-third through my Treasure Armor."