"Don't worry, the family is still quite lenient. As long as you haven't made any grave mistakes, the worst you will face is having your cultivation crippled and being expelled from the family,"
Gu Liqing voice was calm, even teasing, as he tried to plant despair in Gu Zhen heart. He wanted to disrupt his will, weaken his spirit, and make him give up resisting.
But Gu Zhen only felt disdain. Trying to shake my will with words like that? You've got to be joking.
His past life had already tempered his soul in fire and death. What was the loss of cultivation? Even death…...was nothing new to him.
"If you think a few words are enough to break me… you're underestimating me way too much."
There was no hint of surrender in Gu Zhen eyes. He pushed his spiritual power harder and harder, trying to break through Gu Liqing spirit control.
Noticing his control wavering under this brat resistance, Gu Liqing placed a hand on Gu Zhen head, preparing to intensify his spirit suppression.
Gu Zhen spiritual sea began to churn violently, as if a raging storm had been stirred within. His spiritual foundation trembled, fissures appearing across its vast spirit landscape.
"You idiot," Gu Liqing hissed, growing impatient. "Keep this up and your spirit will collapse. Once your foundation is broken, your spirit realm will never advance again."
He paused, then sneered, as if recalling something amusing. "Oh right, I almost forgot. You're just an F-rank trash—never had a chance of breaking through the first realm anyway"
As Gu Liqing continued his taunts, Gu Zhen spirit sea roiled violently, starting to tremble with faint cracks appearing.
"You think this will let you escape my control?" Gu Liqing scoffed. "The difference between us is like heaven and earth. Even if your spirit sea shatters, you can't break free"
Of course, that was a bluff.
In truth, if Gu Zhen spiritual sea collapsed, it would disrupt the control—but the backlash could turn Gu Zhen into a drooling fool. And if he returned with a half-dead idiot, the family would absolutely punish him.
Yet even knowing this, Gu Zhen didn't stop.
He threw everything he had into shaking the spirit chains constraining him.
Seeing this, Gu Liqing finally gave up on persuasion and prepared to suppress Gu Zhen with a star skill instead, just in case the boy really did scramble his own brain and ruin Gu Liqing promotion chances.
But just as he activated his skill, a golden light suddenly burst forth from the crumbling ruins of Gu Zhen spiritual sea.
Gu Liqing sensed danger but couldn't pinpoint why. Instinctively, he tried to retreat, but it was too late.
The golden light surged outward along the pathway of his spiritual control and lashed back with terrifying speed.
Boom!
Gu Liqing own spiritual sea shattered in an instant. His body convulsed, blood gushed from his mouth, and he collapsed to the ground in a heap, blood streaming from his seven orifices, his eyes blank.
Gu Zhen was finally free
Gasping for breath, he too spat out a mouthful of blood.
He didn't hesitate.
Glancing at the fallen Gu Liqing, he acted decisively, dragging the body to a nearby sewer.
He activated Star Gathering skill, combined it with Iron Fist, and smashed his fist into Gu Liqing head.
Unable to resist, Gu Liqing skull was pulverized under the terrifying force, blood and bone fragments flowing into the sewer.
Gu Zhen lifted the sewer cover, tossed the body inside, and crushed Gu Liqing phone to pieces.
The area was remote, with no cameras. Besides the Gu family, no one would know he'd done it.
The Gu family sent someone to capture him, only to be killed by a newly awakened star warrior. They'd never admit to such a humiliating loss.
After roughly disposing of the body, he quickly fled the scene.
Shortly after he left, a black car pulled up. With no surveillance, parking there didn't matter.
A middle-aged man in a suit, Gu Wenyuan, stepped out.
After searching and finding no sign of Gu Liqing, he dialed his phone.
But Gu Liqing phone was destroyed by Gu Zhen, so the call didn't go through.
With no one found, Gu Wenyuan returned to the car to wait, dialing repeatedly.
He guessed Gu Liqing had run off somewhere—maybe chasing women, as it wasn't the first time.
But this time, it was early—disappearing before the job was done.
The idea of Gu Liqing being killed by Gu Zhen never crossed his mind.
It was unthinkable.
While Gu Wenyuan waited, Gu Zhen hurried back to the academy.
The outside world was dangerous. Next time he left academy, he'd need to be better prepared.
Back in his dorm, he washed off the blood, took a long shower, and then…...went to sleep like nothing happened.
Elsewhere, Gu Wenyuan was growing more anxious after hours of waiting.
He started circling the area, looking for clues.
But the stench of the sewers kept him from getting too close to the source—and so, he missed the corpse entirely.
Back at the Gu family, Gu Wenyuan reported the incident to Gu Lang.
"Alright, I understand. I'll have Gu Feng check on Gu Yi later and see what's going on," Gu Lang said, not too concerned.
Gu Liqing was a slacker who chased women instead of cultivating, wasting his potential. Gu Lang had no expectations for him.
To mess up such a simple task was disappointing. When Gu Liqing returned, he planned to discipline him.
He never imagined Gu Liqing could have died at Gu Zhen hands, assuming he was off with a woman somewhere.
No one would believe a Realm 2 veteran could fall to a newly awakened star warrior.
The next day arrived.
Gu Zhen stretched lazily in bed, tousled his hair, and recalled the events of the day before.
He wasn't worried about the incident getting out.
The Gu family struck first and had no moral ground.
More importantly, even if it leaked, there was no evidence, and no one would believe it.
Who would buy that a Realm 2 spirit-type star warrior was killed by a newbie?
The only thing he was worried about was the Gu clan seeking revenge.
Inside the academy, he was relatively safe. Outside…..not so much.
He worried about further ambushes.
Who knew if the Gu family would escalate, sending more people to hunt him?
And had Gu Zhen not crushed his skull, there was a risk his memory could've been read—something he could not allow.
Even soul-type skills might extract memories from corpses. But from what Gu Zhen knew of the Gu family, they couldn't afford such experts.
Still, it was a risk he couldn't take.
After pondering it over, Gu Zhen shifted his thoughts to something else—something that might be even more important.
That golden light in his spiritual sea…
It had saved his life. It hadn't harmed him. So it likely wasn't dangerous. But what was it?
Could it help him again? Help him escape this mess?
Gu Zhen wasn't sure.
But he was certain of one thing: that golden light came with him after his time trabel. There was no trace of it in the original Gu Yi memories.
Whatever it is…it's part of my path now.