Chapter 777 — Frustration and Disappointment

This was what Yang Ce found most baffling. By any reasonable accounting, the Right Elder was no fool—far from it. He was a cautious, cunning, devious man, which was precisely why Yang Ce had been duped by him time and again!

Yet this time, the Right Elder had actually explained why Lin Ce's Mighty Spirit Gu had failed against his Vajra Gu. Did that not amount to confessing his own weakness? Either the Right Elder still held other cards in reserve, or there was something wrong with his intellect!

The odds of the Right Elder being deficient in intellect were next to zero. Every sign suggested the man was not merely shrewd—he was exceedingly shrewd. That was exactly why Yang Ce could not help but ask outright.

"Since I've told you the reason, naturally I'm not afraid." The Right Elder seemed to have anticipated the question. His brows lifted slightly as he said coolly, "Never mind Lin Ce's Mighty Spirit Gu, which is shackled by the Vajra Gu—even a complete Mighty Spirit Gu, entirely unconstrained, would have no effect on me! So I advise you to stop wasting your effort. If you have the time, you'd do better to hurry up and cultivate that initial-stage Vajra Gu for me!"

"Why?" Yang Jiyan asked, bewildered. "Isn't the Mighty Spirit Gu the natural bane of the Vajra Gu?"

"I said it before—the Vajra Gu inside my body is not really a Vajra Gu anymore. I have refined it into an evil Gu. Originally it was an incomplete version of the Vajra Gu, but through my blood sacrifices, the incomplete Vajra Gu in my body has come to match the effects of the complete version—and now it has surpassed the complete Vajra Gu!" said the Right Elder. "So even the Mighty Spirit Gu is useless against the Vajra Gu in my body. It has become something beyond the Vajra Gu—a new, super Vajra Gu!"

"Oh? If that's so, why do you still need us to cultivate a Vajra Gu for you? The one in your body has already become a super Vajra Gu—so what use is a weaker Vajra Gu to you?" Yang Minlan was even more baffled by the Right Elder's answer.

"You're not wrong, but my incomplete Vajra Gu has one flaw: it must be fed with blood sacrifices, which is far too troublesome. If it goes for a time without blood sacrifice, it loses its efficacy. That's why I want the complete Vajra Gu—with it, I can merge the two into a true super Vajra Gu. Only then will I reach the true state of great perfection!" The Right Elder, for once, did not conceal the reason and laid it out for Yang Ce.

In truth, the Right Elder had nothing to fear from Yang Ce and the others. His super Vajra Gu was a little troublesome, but it could still crush them utterly—even if they consumed the complete Mighty Spirit Gu, they would be helpless against him. That was why the Right Elder did not scruple to tell Yang Ce the truth.

"So that's how it is!" Yang Ce exclaimed in sudden understanding, though a bitter note crept into his words. Once again they had pinned their hopes on a decisive confrontation with the Right Elder, and once again it had ended in failure. Could it be that all their efforts truly amounted to nothing?

Yang Juehuan's heart was filled with deep unwillingness, yet he was utterly helpless. The Right Elder had a way to counter the Vajra Gu—it posed no danger to him at all. And the Mighty Spirit Gu, the one hope everyone had placed such faith in, was useless too. At this moment, the Right Elder was simply an invulnerable monster!

"Enough. I should be going. I hope that the next time you call me here, you will have genuinely succeeded in cultivating the initial-stage Vajra Gu. Otherwise—well, my patience has its limits. Don't mistake my repeated leniency for mercy. The only reason I spared you is that you pose no threat to me whatsoever, and if I weren't counting on you to cultivate the Vajra Gu for me, do you think you'd still be alive?" The Right Elder gave a cold snort. "Be a little smarter. Stop doing foolish things!"

With that, the Right Elder turned and strode toward the helicopter, started the engine, and departed amid a roar of rotors...

Naturally, the Right Elder assumed that Yang Ce and the others could not possibly succeed in cultivating the initial-stage Vajra Gu, so he left without so much as a glance back. What he did not know was that cultivating the initial-stage Vajra Gu posed no difficulty at all for Heng and the others—with Yang Juehuan's glasses assisting them, a single attempt would suffice!

But no one said a word of this to the Right Elder, for none of them were willing to hand over the initial-stage Vajra Gu to him. And so, under the gaze of everyone's disappointment and helplessness, the Right Elder departed from the Medicine Valley...

"Alas!" Yang Ce heaved a deep sigh and sank to the ground in helpless frustration, his eyes full of dejection. "So it still doesn't work..."

"If this doesn't work, we'll find another way. We'll always think of something!" Liu Yu consoled him. "Boss, the Right Elder may be formidable, but we shouldn't lose heart. We should grow braver with every setback!"

Yang Jincong gave a faint smile. That was easy to say, but sometimes saying a thing and truly doing it were two different matters. The complete Mighty Spirit Gu had been everyone's sole hope. In their eyes, the Mighty Spirit Gu was certain to prevail over the Vajra Gu, so after they decided to have Lin Ce consume it, all their thoughts had turned to how Lin Ce would manage once he remained here at West Star Mountain Village. It had never once occurred to them that the attack on the Right Elder would fail!

And now, Lin Ce could not leave the Medicine Valley—but neither could the rest of them! Everything had come full circle back to the starting point, and for a moment, no one could bring themselves to accept it.

"Find another way? We've already tried every method we have. Even the Mighty Spirit Gu is no match for the Right Elder—what else can we do?" Yang Ce was truly disheartened now. He had never been so desperate, but at this moment he felt a genuine sense of powerlessness!

He truly did not know what else could be done, or how to do it! Because every method worth trying had been tried, and the Right Elder remained unharmed—while one of their own would now be trapped in Phoenix Cry Valley forever, unable to leave!

Though no one had been killed or wounded, the loss could hardly be called anything less than devastating. At least, in Yang Juehuan's heart, it was a wound that would not close.

Hearing Yang Juehuan's words, the others fell silent as well. Yang Yanzhou's reasoning was sound, after all, but none of them took up the thread—after all, the more they talked, the more disheartened they would become.

"Don't think too much for now. Go back and rest—everyone's exhausted. Whatever there is to deal with, we can talk about it once we've rested!" Lan Ling walked over and spoke to Yang Ce in a consoling tone.