Chapter 219: The Short-Legged Old Man

Walking up to the stone statue, Gu Ning’an looked at the pile of corpses before him and said calmly, “Child, come out. The wolf demons outside are dead.”

Within the heap of corpses, the girl’s body trembled. Knowing that wolf demons could speak, she dared not react at all.

Yet the crushing fear inside her made her tremble uncontrollably.

Since she was hiding beneath the corpses, her trembling caused the bodies piled on top of her to shake as well.

Seeing this, Gu Ning’an let out a long sigh before raising his fingers slightly.

In the next moment, all the corpses covering the girl floated into the air.

The girl’s body also began to rise along with them.

Feeling the sudden change, the despairing girl clutched the incense stick in her hands tightly, shut her eyes, and cried out with all her might, “Universal Immortal!”

However, she waited for a long time, yet the bloodthirsty jaws she feared never came.

As time passed and her emotions settled somewhat, she slowly opened her eyes—only to see Gu Ning’an in his white robes.

A white-robed figure, sword in hand—no folding fan, no wolf-hair brush…

The girl instinctively turned her head toward the stone statue, and the next moment, her pupils contracted sharply!

“Universal Immortal!”

“Universal Immortal, you have finally manifested!”

“The village was struck by a demon calamity! I’ve been calling for you for three days!”

As she spoke, something suddenly came to mind, and she anxiously pointed outside the temple. “The villagers… Universal Immortal, please save them!”

Gu Ning’an put away the Hongchen Sword and said softly, “Child, I am not the Universal Immortal you speak of… just call me Mister Gu.”

“As for the village… you’re the only one left alive. The two wolf demons are already dead by my hand.”

Hearing this, the girl stood there in a daze as if struck by lightning. “I’m the only one left…? Just me?”

“Third Uncle… Sixth Aunt… Father… Mother… They’re all gone!”

“All gone!”

“The demons are dead too~~ Hehe, the demons are dead~”

Her expression shifted wildly between grief and hysteria, and tears mixed with the blood and filth on her face dripped onto the ground with soft plops.

Seeing that she was on the verge of complete collapse, Gu Ning’an waved his hand, putting her to sleep for now.

After three days of relentless fear, the girl had long since reached her limit.

She had been holding on purely through sheer willpower, determined to summon the Universal Immortal to save the villagers.

Now, she had seen the “Universal Immortal”—and the immortal had told her that everyone in the village was dead. Unable to bear the pain, her mind began to break.

Smoothing out the turbulence in her three spiritual souls, Gu Ning’an turned his gaze toward the lingering wolf demon’s spirit at the temple entrance.

“Come here!” Gu Ning’an beckoned, and in an instant, the confusion in the wolf demon’s spectral eyes was replaced by sheer terror.

“Immortal! Immortal! I was wrong!”

“Please don’t destroy my soul!”

“I’ll serve you as an ox or horse! Today’s events—it was all because of those wolves back in the den—”

Uninterested in the wolf demon’s rambling, Gu Ning’an directly searched its soul, then crushed it without hesitation.

From its memories, Gu Ning’an saw the events of three days ago unfold like a flickering lantern reel—the moment the two wolf demons stormed into this remote village and began their slaughter.

Among the fragments of memory, he gleaned several crucial pieces of information.

The most valuable was this:

Less than a hundred miles from here, in a stone cave, there was a pack of demon wolves. Their leader seemed to have cultivated for a hundred years, and beneath it, there were thirteen more demon wolves.

The two wolf demons Gu Ning’an had just slain were the second and fifth in rank.

Second, this wolf pack had actually planned to raid the village for food months ago.

However, they happened to encounter a short-legged old man with a cane. The old man struck the lead wolf with his staff, forcing it to retreat. He then declared that the village was now under the protection of the “Universal Immortal” and warned them never to return.

Having suffered a heavy loss, the lead wolf retreated to the stone cave, intending to recover before launching a second attack.

But when they returned, the short-legged old man was still there.

This time, he struck with full force, breaking the legs of two wolf demons.

Realizing the old man was formidable, the lead wolf once again withdrew with its pack.

After that, the wolves never launched a full-scale attack again. Instead, the lead wolf stationed the second and fifth-ranked wolves nearby, ordering them to keep watch and investigate the true nature of this so-called “Universal Immortal.”

Third, after the Universal Temple was built, the lead wolf led multiple incursions against the village. Yet every time, the short-legged old man would appear out of nowhere and drive them away.

From the wolf demon’s memories, Gu Ning’an realized that this “sudden appearance” was due to a spirit descent technique.

Such a technique required a medium to act as a conduit, allowing the caster to manifest their divine consciousness in distant locations.

This method was highly convenient, but it had severe limitations.

First, the caster’s strength upon descent was not at full capacity—it depended on the quality of the medium and the caster’s own power, determining how much strength could be projected.

More importantly, if the medium was destroyed, the caster would no longer be able to descend.

With this in mind, Gu Ning’an searched the temple. Sure enough, beneath the altar, he found two charred wooden fragments.

Piecing them together, it wasn’t hard to see that they once formed the wooden effigy the short-legged old man had used as his medium.

Since the effigy had been destroyed, the old man was unable to descend when the two wolf demons attacked the village.

The wolf demon’s memories also revealed how the effigy had been burned.

The culprit was a widower from the village.

He had coveted a beautiful woman in the village, and under the temptation of the wolves’ “honeyed words,” he actually burned and smashed the effigy under the cover of night.

The widower believed that by helping the wolf demons, he would win the woman’s favor and take her as his own.

Yet when the wolves finally attacked, they devoured him first—their reasoning being that such a traitor deserved to die before anyone else.

In the end, faced with over a dozen wolf demons, the villagers had no ability to resist—not even the chance to flee.

Their only thought was to run to the Universal Temple and pray for the Universal Immortal’s manifestation to save them.

But in the end, the immortal never appeared.

And one by one, they were torn apart by the wolves.

As for why the girl had been spared—it wasn’t out of kindness.

The lead wolf feared this “Universal Immortal” that had never truly appeared.

It wanted to know if the Universal Immortal actually existed, and if so, how powerful he was. That way, it could prepare accordingly.

Thus, the two wolf demons were left behind to observe the girl offering incense and praying.

The lead wolf had everything planned—if the so-called Universal Immortal was real and the two wolf demons were no match for him, at least one of them could still escape. If things went terribly wrong, at least one of their spirits could flee.

But what it never expected…

Was that both wolf demons never even saw their enemy before being utterly annihilated.

The first was wiped out instantly, without even catching a glimpse of its foe.

And the second—though its soul lingered briefly—revealed the location of the stone cave before being extinguished.