Book 2: Chapter 26: Removing the Masks
“I have a way to remove the mask!” Gu Hai turned his head, no longer looking at Meng Tai.
“What?” Meng Tai’s expression changed, his eyes darkening with uncertainty.
How can this be possible?
The evil men’s eyes lit up. If it were before this, the evil men definitely would not believe Gu Hai. However, after experiencing the earlier huge battle, they gained much more confidence in him. At this moment, they fully believed Gu Hai.?????e???vel.???
However, how was Gu Hai going to remove the mask?
Gu Hai now ignored everyone, starting to search around the beast arena. He kept turning over the many rocks lying about.
“Milord, what are you doing? Can we help you?” an evil man asked.
“There’s no need. Just stay there and don’t move. Don’t break anything,” Gu Hai said.
The many evil men nodded.
Meng Tai continued hugging the trembling Feng Ling and looking at Gu Hai with narrowed eyes. He wanted to know if Gu Hai was boasting. After all, even he did not know how to remove the mask. Gu Hai only came to know the principles behind the mask not long ago. Furthermore, he was the one who told Gu Hai about it.
There was no way to remove the mask without the correct method.
Gu Hai carefully flipped over piles of stones. Suddenly, his eyes lit up, and joy flashed on his face. However, he quickly turned solemn again.
He extremely carefully pushed aside the surrounding stones, slowly revealing a bronze mask.
“Isn’t that the mask that Feng Ling wore earlier?” Meng Tai said, feeling surprised.
It was not just Meng Tai. All the evil men and the gamblers on the surrounding mountain peaks goggled as they looked at Gu Hai. They did not know what Gu Hai wanted to do.
Then, Gu Hai carefully picked up the mask.
Gao Xianzhi, Chen Tianshan, Scar, and Shangguan Hen rushed over.
A large amount of dust and dirt fell off the mask. Now, a few fingerprints revealed themselves.
“Hey? These marks?” Chen Tianshan exclaimed.
“Although they are blurred, we still can make them out. These are the fingerprints left by Li Wei!” Gu Hai said after a deep breath.
“Li Wei left them? The method of removing the mask?” Shangguan Hen’s eyes lit up.
“However, there are eleven fingerprints on the mask. Which comes first?” Chen Tianshan asked.
Gu Hai pointed to the fingerprints and said, “These three are the first set where Veritable Energy was inserted. These four are the second set. Then, these four are the last set.”
“Oh?” The crowd felt slightly stunned.
“Milord, there is some sort of grease on this?” Shangguan Hen marveled.
Gu Hai shook his head and said, “It is a kind of glue that I concocted. The special characteristic of this kind of glue is that it solidifies on contact with air. It will form a layer of skin on the outside, isolating the rest of the glue from the air. The glue on the inside remains liquid until some force is applied, breaking the skin.
“There is plenty of such glue!” Chen Tianshan frowned.
“That’s right. Such glue is very common. However, it’s fine as long as it is effective,” Gu Hai said as he breathed deeply.
“I understand. Milord brushed a layer of this glue on the mask and let the outer layer solidify while the insides remained liquid. At first, Li Wei did not know about it, so when he quickly touched it, his hand suddenly slipped, resulting in these three elongated fingerprints. The second time he did it, he managed to do it with more control but still slipped somewhat. Hence, the marks are much smaller. On the third go, he paid more attention, and his hand no longer slipped,” Gao Xianzhi said with an excited expression.
Gu Hai nodded.
“Milord is farsighted!” Shangguan Hen immediately said with a sigh.
“Scar!” Gu Hai called out.
“Present!”
“Go to the beast arena’s storehouse. There are a lot of bronze masks there. Bring some over and put them on the Great Feng Mafia Family disciples. We will experiment on them!” Gu Hai said.
“Yes!” Scar answered.
The evil men all rubbed their hands in glee, feeling exceptionally excited.
However, Meng Tai stared at Gu Hai with shock in his eyes. He narrowed his eyes slightly in thought.
Soon, Scar brought over the bronze masks.
“No! Don’t put it on me!” a Great Feng Mafia Family disciple shouted in horror.
Scar placed the mask on that disciple.
“No, no, no!” That Great Feng Mafia Family disciple trembled in horror.
“If he keeps moving, I can’t remove it from him. Knock him out!” Gu Hai said.
“Yes!”
Bam!
Scar attacked, immediately knocking that Great Feng Mafia Family disciple unconscious.
Buzz!
Veritable Energy appeared around Gu Hai, to protect him in case he failed, so that the blast would not affect him.
Everyone stared at Gu Hai. Their hearts raced as they gulped.
Gu Hai made his move according to the principles Meng Tai told him. Then, he stretched out three fingers and placed them on certain spots on the mask.
Buzz!
Suddenly, three streams of Veritable Energy flowed into the mask through Gu Hai’s fingers.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
The mask gave off soft crackling.
“The first set of entries is right!” Scar said excitedly.
Everyone held their breath.
Next, Gu Hai stretched out four fingers and slowly sent a second set of Veritable Energy streams into four other locations on the mask.
Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!
The mask produced more soft crackling.
“The second set is correct!” Chen Tianshan exclaimed excitedly.
Nearby, Meng Tai’s eyelids twitched.
The surroundings quieted. The countless gamblers on the surrounding mountains revealed curious expressions.
What is this group of evil men doing?
Gu Hai narrowed his eyes slightly. Then, he changed the position of his four fingers. After some silence, he took a deep breath and sent another four streams of Veritable Energy into the mask.
Buzz!
As Gu Hai sent in his Veritable Energy, the surroundings became deathly silent, save the sound of raindrops. .h.i.tting the ground.
Crack!
A loud report rang out, and the bronze mask slipped off.
“Hoo-ah!”
All the evil men cheered, the quiet beast arena turning very noisy in an instant. Some of the evil men even danced for wild joy, displaying the excitement in their hearts.
“Have those evil men gone crazy? Why are they cheering and causing a huge commotion?” The surrounding gamblers appeared confused.
Meng Tai stood at the side. As he looked at Gu Hai, his expression turned complicated.
“I got pretty lucky. We succeeded. I will remove all your masks according to your ranks!” Gu Hai said.
“Yes, Milord!” all the evil men roared resonantly.
Gu Hai smiled faintly.
The first was Gao Xianzhi.
Gu Hai followed the pattern, steadily moving his fingers to remove the mask.
Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!
Gao Xianzhi’s mask slipped off.
Gao Xianzhi showed joy on his face. “Many thanks, Milord!”
“Move aside! Move aside!” Chen Tianshan excitedly pushed Gao Xianzhi to the side.
Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!
Chen Tianshan’s mask slipped off.
“Move aside! Move aside!” Scar pushed Chen Tianshan aside to stand excitedly before Gu Hai.
However, Gu Hai looked at Chen Tianshan and said, “Chen Tianshan, go to the Great Feng Mafia Family’s family region and call everyone over. Bring out the captured Great Feng Mafia Family disciples as well!”
“Yes!” Chen Tianshan responded excitedly.
Chen Tianshan quickly left, and Gu Hai helped Scar remove the mask.
After Scar, it was Shangguan Hen.
After the four legates, it was the centurions’ turn. The centurions lined up excitedly before Gu Hai, looking at him gratefully as they waited for him to remove their masks.
“Sob! Sob! Sob! It’s off! It’s off!” Some of the evil men actually started weeping after Gu Hai removed their masks.
Up until now, there had been a sense of disconnect from reality; it felt like a dream. Some of them had long fallen into despair already. They never thought that they could recover their cultivations one day and even remove their masks.
Now, they received all that. Gu Hai had given it all to them. Now, the evil men no longer showed just fear, respect, and reverence when they looked at him but also deep grat.i.tude.
The evil men queued up, waiting for Gu Hai to remove their masks.
Nearby, Meng Tai hugged Feng Ling as he rested, quietly watching this scene.
“Gu Hai? Excellent moves. Even though he learned how to remove the mask, he did not get anyone to help remove the masks. He is buying everyone’s hearts.” Meng Tai narrowed his eyes as he looked at Gu Hai.
Indeed, Gu Hai was trying to buy the popular sentiment.
Personally removing the mask and telling the evil men how to remove the masks themselves were two completely different things. When Gu Hai saw the grateful looks the evil men gave him, he knew that he had accomplished his goals.
——
In the Great Feng Mafia Family’s family region:
Five hundred evil men guarded a large group of restrained Great Feng Mafia Family disciples. When they heard the loud sounds in the distance, the evil men all felt very anxious.
“Do you think we can remove the masks?”
“I don’t know. Only Li Wei knows how to remove them. That Li Wei is not a fool.”
“However, Li Wei is a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator!”
“Can Milord force Li Wei to reveal the method?”
“It should be possible. Milord is so strong. All of us were not Milord’s match!”
“However, Li Wei is a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator! The Nascent Soul Realm!”
The group of evil men felt restless and frustrated.
“Look! Someone is coming!” Suddenly, an evil man’s expression changed.
The evil men saw Chen Tianshan approaching in the distance.
Whoos.h.!.+
The evil men immediately raised their weapons against him, showing battle hunger on their faces.
“What’s wrong? You don’t recognize me anymore?” Chen Tianshan shouted.
The evil men heard the loud shout.
“Legate? It’s Legate’s voice!”
“Is it really Legate? Legate’s mask is off?”
“The masks can be removed?”
The evil men immediately burst out in exclamations while goggling.
“What are you looking at? Bring the captured Great Feng Mafia Family disciples and follow me. Milord is helping us remove our masks now. Hurry up!” Chen Tianshan shouted.
“Yes!” the evil men shouted excitedly.
——
At the beast arena:
One thousand-odd Great Feng Mafia Family disciples had been captured and restrained. The evil men watched them with malicious gazes. As long as anyone dared to make any sudden movements, the evil men immediately taught them a lesson.
On the other side, the evil men brought over the stone platform for sealing cultivation. Then, they sealed the cultivations of the Great Feng Mafia Family disciples.
“Taste the feeling of having your cultivations sealed as well! Kekekeke!” The group of evil men took joy in their work.
As this happened, Gu Hai worked on removing the masks.
After Gu Hai removed the mask of the final evil man, he stood in front of a large mirror that he ordered to be brought over earlier.
As Gu Hai faced the mirror, he slowly placed his right hand on his own mask.
All the evil men immediately dropped what they were doing. They wanted to see what the boss they feared, respected, revered, and felt grateful to looked like.
The ten thousand gamblers on the surrounding mountains also opened their eyes wide, wanting to see what the boss of the evil men looked like.
Even Meng Tai stared at Gu Hai.
Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!
Gu Hai’s mask slowly slipped off.
The appearance of a mature man immediately revealed itself to everyone.
“What?! That is—?” Suddenly, a startled exclamation came from a distant mountaintop.
The many gamblers on the surrounding peaks quickly took out portraits and compared them to the evil men’s boss in the distance.
“Gu Hai! He is Gu Hai!” one of the gamblers suddenly cried out in fear.
The countless cultivators on the surrounding peaks immediately erupted in a huge commotion.
Was it really Gu Hai?
The Gu Hai that they had been searching for so long? He was the evil men’s boss?
“I found him! I found him! I found Gu Hai!”
“So, Gu Hai is here. Hahahahaha!”
The countless gamblers’ eyes slowly turned bloodshot as they looked at Gu Hai. Most of them had come to Nine-Five Island for Gu Hai, the Innate Realm Gu Hai.
“I found him! The Century Lifespan Immortality Peach! He has a Century Lifespan Immortality Peach!”
The ten thousand gamblers immediately turned restless.