Chapter 248: The Outer Rings – Funneling Idiots, Extorting Assassins, and Free Soul-Marking Treasures

"I must admit, whoever designed this rotting hellhole definitely had a dramatic flair for theatrical intimidation," Gu Fan chuckled, his voice shattering the heavy silence, "Though the glowing green moss is a bit too tacky for my personal taste. Feels like someone tried too hard."

On the other hand, Song Yan stayed tucked against his chest as they began advancing through the glowing green ruins, sticking to the deep shadows of the collapsed stone buildings. Gu Fan wanted to observe the environment properly before charging blindly into anything.

As they walked, he rapidly assessed the architecture and the flow of the toxic mist. His eyes narrowed as he activated the Eye of the Void shatterer.

And it was then he saw a network of thousands of vein like things running deep underground. It means that they were nowhere near the true center. They were still stuck in the vast, sprawling outskirts.

"Look over there, Miss Song." He pointed casually at a gruesome sight a few dozen meters ahead.

A small cluster of freshly slaughtered corpses in the pristine blue robes of the Azure Sword Sect. Bodies mangled. Blood completely drained. The glowing moss was already greedily drinking what was left.

"Those righteous idiots loudly declared they would purify this dungeon," Gu Fan sneered, highly amused. "They rushed through the outer rings high on their own moral superiority, and now their corpses are fertilizing the moss. Really drives home the lesson: blindly charging forward only gets you a quick, pathetic death."

Song Yan looked at the sight in front of her and even her calm, collected facade trembled a bit. She had spent most of her life behind the Song Clan walls. She has somehow forgotten how cruel the cultivation world can be.

Gu Fan sensed the uneasines in her, and he squeezed her waist, pulling her against his hip while he analyzed the thick purple mist slowly rising from the dead cultivators.

"See how the mist is drifting away from the bodies and moving deeper into the city?" he murmured into her ear. "This outer part of the ruin is a very efficient funneling array."

"A funneling array?" Her voice shook.

"Yes." Gu Fan smiled maliciously, genuinely impressed by the design. "It’s built to herd all the arrogant livestock straight toward the deeper, more important sections. Forces everyone to walk into the slaughterhouse like good little offerings."

"So this is a trap?" Song yan looked at him and asked.

"Only for the arrogant ones," Gu Fan smiled as they continued moving silently for another hour until the sudden sound of a fierce battle echoed from a ruined plaza ahead.

Gu Fan pulled Song Yan into the dark cover of a collapsed building, pressed her back against the cold stone wall, and pinned her there with his body.

In the center of the plaza, three female cultivators in tight black leather and dark purple veils were fighting for their lives, back-to-back.

"Black Moon Palace," Gu Fan muttered, Seems like they got separated from their main group as well.

They were surrounded by a pack of horrifying mutated Demonic Shadow Beasts. They were towering, rotting panthers made of dark mist and jagged bone.

One beast swiped its massive claws and tore a deep, bloody gash across a disciple’s shoulder. She screamed.

Gu Fan completely ignored the panic. He lazily caressed Song Yan’s thigh and sat back in the shadows, perfectly content to let the Black Moon women expend their Qi, bleed, and grow desperate.

The wounded woman staggered but still drove a glowing dagger into the beast’s misty neck. The blade sank in with a wet hiss, yet the creature barely flinched.

Another Shadow Beast lunged from the side and clamped its jaws around her calf, yanking her off balance.

She stabbed downward repeatedly, black blood spraying across the cobblestones, but the beast only bit harder until bone cracked.

The second disciple spun and flung a volley of poison needles. Several buried themselves in a beast’s glowing purple eyes.

The creature shrieked and thrashed, slamming into a collapsed pillar and bringing down a shower of stone.

Before she could celebrate, a third beast raked its claws across her back, shredding leather and flesh in one brutal swipe. She dropped to one knee, still swinging, but her movements had already slowed.

The third and strongest of the three women moved like a shadow herself, weaving between the beasts with twin curved blades.

She severed one rotting foreleg cleanly at the joint, then rolled under a second beast and sliced open its underbelly. Dark sludge poured out. For a brief moment it looked like they might hold.

Then two more Shadow Beasts dropped from the ruined rooftops behind them.

One slammed into the strongest woman from behind and drove her face-first into the ground.

The second clamped its jaws around the already wounded disciple’s throat and shook her like a rag doll.

Her dagger flew from her hand. She clawed at the misty muzzle, choking on her own blood, eyes wide with pure terror.

The remaining two women screamed her name and tried to cut their way through, but the pack had them completely boxed in. Claws and teeth came from every direction. Leather tore. Blood sprayed. Their Qi flickered and dimmed under the relentless assault.

Right as a massive Shadow Beast lunged to tear out the wounded disciple’s throat, Gu Fan decided the timing was ripe.

He stepped out of the alley without drawing a weapon and unleashed a suffocating, bone-crushing wave of his spiritual pressure across the entire plaza.

CRACK!

The overwhelming gravity slammed every Demonic Shadow Beast straight into the cobblestones.

Their fragile rotting bone structures crushed into fine powder. In a single instant the terrifying pack was reduced to a massive pool of useless black sludge.

Gu Fan casually walked across the sludge, ripping the valuable glowing purple beast cores out of the muck with efficient, almost bored movements. The three Black Moon women stared up at him in absolute terror.

"Thank you... for saving us, Senior," the lead disciple stammered, frantically trying to bow while clutching her bleeding shoulder.

"I didn’t save you for free, little girl." Gu Fan sneered, tossing a beast core into his Inventory for a 10X reward before stepping into her personal space. His green eyes stared ruthlessly down at her terrified face.

"I want the artifact you’re using to track the treasures and whatever else is worth finding in this ruin," Gu Fan said coldly, stepping into the lead disciple’s personal space. His green eyes stared ruthlessly down at her terrified face. "Assassin groups never enter a place like this without a proper sensing tool. Hand it over."

"We... we can’t! It’s a strict sect secret!" the disciple protested, loyalty warring with pure fear.

Gu Fan laughed — a dark, malicious sound that chilled her blood. He raised his hand and enveloped his fingers in a terrifying blaze of Purple Nether-Ghost Fire.

"You can either hand the treasure-sensing artifact over right now, or I can burn all three of you to ash, rip it off your charred corpses, and then aggressively violate whatever is left of your bodies. Your choice."

Under the overwhelming threat, the humiliated, heavily bleeding women frantically pulled a glowing jade compass and a small parchment map from their robes and shoved them into his hands before desperately fleeing into the dark ruins.

"Pleasure doing business," Gu Fan chuckled, completely satisfied. He unrolled the small parchment map and the glowing jade compass, studying them for a moment before glancing back at the three heavily bleeding Black Moon disciples.

"Before you run off and get yourselves killed elsewhere," he said casually, "did you actually find any treasure in this plaza, or did you just walk straight into a beast ambush like complete amateurs?"

The lead disciple, still clutching her torn shoulder, hesitated. Blood continued to seep between her fingers. After a moment she answered in a low, bitter voice.

"We found something. A jade box half-buried under that collapsed pillar. It was glowing with high-grade Spiritual Qi. The moment one of us picked it up... the ground opened. The box was swallowed whole by the earth itself. Right after that the Shadow Beasts appeared from every direction. We barely had time to form a defensive circle."

Gu Fan raised an eyebrow, genuinely interested for the first time.

"So the dungeon itself took the treasure back and then sent the dogs to clean up the witnesses. Efficient. I almost respect the design."

He turned as if to leave, already gesturing for Song Yan to follow. The three Black Moon women stared after him with a mixture of relief and lingering terror, clearly ready to disappear into the ruins the second he was gone.

Then Song Yan reached out and lightly tugged the sleeve of his black robe.

Gu Fan stopped and looked down at her.

"What?"

Song Yan did not speak. She simply shifted her dark eyes toward the three wounded disciples standing a short distance away, still bleeding, still shaking, still clearly lost after being separated from their main group. The silent request was obvious.

Gu Fan stared at her for a long second. A complicated expression crossed his face — part irritation, part reluctant amusement.

He let out a long, heavy sigh.

"This is the first time you’ve actually asked me for something, widow," he muttered. "Fine. You three." He pointed at the Black Moon disciples without looking at them. "You can follow us for now. Don’t slow us down. Don’t speak unless spoken to. And if any of you even think about trying something clever the moment my back is turned, I will personally feed you to the next pack of beasts we run into. Clear?"

The three women froze for a heartbeat, then quickly lowered their heads.

"Yes, Senior!" the lead disciple answered immediately, voice tight with both gratitude and fear. The other two echoed her, clearly relieved they would not be left alone and bleeding in the middle of a nightmare ruin.

Gu Fan turned away again, already walking deeper into the glowing green streets with Song Yan still pressed against his side.

"Keep up," he called over his shoulder without looking back. "And remember... One wrong move and the deal ends with all three of you as fertilizer for the moss."