Chapter 31 Muzha, come quick!!!

The air felt as if it were filled with cotton wool; with each breath, it would clump together in my chest like cotton.

Something's not right...

She groped in the dark, took off the bell, and threw it at the boy in front of her.

"You are not Nezha."

The fingers gripping her neck tightened, attempting to break her head.

Ping Yu glanced back and saw that the fish from that year had vanished.

The three of them were separated at some point.

She couldn't think of anything other than a demon that could mimic the appearance and voice of another. But all living things in the world have physical forms, and the "Nezha" before her could not be touched.

During the near-death experience, adrenaline surged, but Pingyu calmed down instead.

What exactly are you?

Meanwhile, on the other side, the boy said the same thing.

He stared blankly at the girl who had pierced through him.

Where did she go?

Pingyu suddenly ran towards him, crying out, "It hurts so much! Why weren't you here?" and then reached out and ripped his heart out.

Strangely, no blood flowed out.

The fish that brings good fortune disappears along with the Qiankun Ring.

Nezha sensed it, but found nothing.

It's as if a person and an object have vanished into thin air.

This is too unbelievable, Nezha thought: Pingyu might not even be able to bite through his skin, let alone use his fingers.

The throbbing in his heart intensified, and the girl's hands seemed to churn and tear flesh apart within his chest. Only illusions could achieve this, but when had he fallen into this hallucination? The only places he illuminated with his firelight were the walls and steps; Nezha couldn't think of a suitable spot to use as the center of the formation.

.

As breathing became increasingly difficult, Pingyu found himself in a dead end.

She had no means of defeating enemies; she was just an ordinary person.

The bell was useless, and the handkerchief was with Nezha. Besides that, she also had…

Oh, right!

Earlier, when they were at the peddler's house, Jinzha gave them a talisman.

The eldest brother is still the eldest brother; he foresaw everything. Nezha wouldn't be by her side all the time. A memory flashed back, freezing on Jinzha's lips, accompanied by an audio recording:

Use this if you encounter danger. The incantation is...

A small piece of the talisman was pulled out by his fingertip and fell to the ground. With his last strength, Pingyu shouted:

"Muzha, come quick!!!"

In an instant, golden light shone brightly, and the talisman disappeared in the light, revealing a circular Bagua formation.

A tall, powerful figure emerged from the light.

Ping Yu first noticed a pair of blue armor, which made the young man appear even more robust and muscular.

His hair was like wolf fur, his eyebrows were like swords, and his eyes were like those of a tiger or leopard.

It was clear that Muzha had arrived in a hurry, as he was carrying a blood-red lion's head.

The location where it landed is a bit off...

Muzha smashed onto Nezha.

The young man was just hunting when he was teleported here in the blink of an eye.

He stared blankly at the lion head in his hand.

The next second, Pingyu saw him look down and exclaim in surprise, "Nezha!?"

"He's dead."

Muzha accepted this fact in less than half a second.

He's not dead at all!

Ping was so angry he wanted to kick someone.

She discovered that Muzha seemed unable to see her.

The young man regarded Pingyu as nothing and paced back and forth on the ground.

The space was cramped, and with Muzha added to the cramped feeling, he threw away the lion head in his hand and squatted down.

Three people were lying on the ground, staggering about.

Besides the younger brother, there was also a fairy-like girl and a round-headed boy.

Beside the girl lay a talisman that had lost its power. Mu Zha immediately recognized it as the teleportation talisman that Jin Zha had drawn during his last visit.

How did it end up in her hands? The young man suppressed his confusion and first checked on the others' condition:

Their faces were all dark and their lips were bluish-purple, obvious signs of poisoning.

His nose twitched, and he frowned.

There was indeed a faint smell of marsh gas in the air.

Pingyu watched as Muzha took out three bottles from his bosom.

He opened the stoppers one by one and placed them under the noses of the three men in turn.

Sniff, sniff...

In an instant, a rich aroma of herbs and plants filled the air.

The suffocating feeling in his throat immediately dissipated, and Pingyu breathed heavily, propping himself up.

She turned around immediately, just as Nezha opened his eyes.

Are you alright?

They spoke in unison.

"I'm fine!"

And it happened at the same time.

However, the moment they saw each other clearly, Pingyu covered his neck, and Nezha protected his heart.

There's still some phantom pain; it might take some time to recover.

In the awkward silence, Nian Youyu cried out in pain, "Ouch! I was walking, how did I end up on the ground?"

After complaining, he looked up and saw Muzha wearing armor.

The boy immediately got up and shouted to the two men, "Young master, Pingyu, the pursuers are coming! Run!"

Pursuers?

Ping Yu saw Nian Youyu looking warily at Mu Zha and knew that he had misunderstood.

"This is my second brother."

Nezha explained.

Mu Zha is not like Jin Zha.

His menacing aura made him easy to misunderstand. Surprisingly, Nian Youyu wasn't scared away; instead, he offered a warning. The boy's tone softened, barely treating him as one of his own.

"You called me here?"

Mu Za asked Ping Yu, who pointed to the lion's head that had been thrown away and sighed, "I just hunted down a male lion and wanted to use it to make a shawl for my master."

"The Crown Prince gave me a talisman earlier, saying that I could summon the Second Young Master if there was danger. Today, Pingyu's life is truly hanging by a thread, so..."

The girl touched her neck as she explained.

She sensed Nezha looking at her and instinctively flinched away.

Is she avoiding me?

Nezha pressed his hand to his chest; the pain from the fake Pingyu tearing his heart apart hadn't subsided. He was also a little angry at being avoided by the girl.

"Second brother, you broke this formation?"

Nezha threw a tantrum and turned to his elder brother, speaking irritably.

The fish was caught in the middle, looking around:

Hmm, why does it feel like the two sides are having a falling out?

Muzha: "There's no formation; you're just poisoned."

He pointed to the porcelain bottles in their hands and said, "When I came, I smelled a stench in the air and saw that your faces were pale and bluish, so I took the medicine bottles to dispel the swamp gas."

The stench was present on the way there, and it became stronger the closer you got to the latrine.

Once inside the wall, the smell becomes fainter than before, and the body ignores it, thinking it no longer exists.

No wonder he was being choked...

Mild hydrogen sulfide poisoning can cause difficulty breathing.

Hydrogen sulfide poisoning does not cause hallucinations.

"Is it just poisoning?" Nezha asked, voicing Pingyu's confusion: "But I saw illusions."

"You all saw it?"

As Muzha asked the question, the three nodded in unison.

Nezha and Pingyu remained silent, while Nian Youyu scratched his head and reminisced: "Sigh, I dreamt that I made a fortune and went to a restaurant for a big meal! I ate until my stomach was so heavy, my intestines felt like they were going to burst... Why are you all looking at me like that?"

Before he could finish speaking, two piercing gazes, sharp as knives, were directed at him.

The young master and noble lady looked displeased, which made him awkwardly shut his mouth.

It's true that fools sometimes have good luck.

"I think it's because of this."

In his haste to get up, Nian Youyu hadn't had time to pick up the money bag. The burlap sack had come undone, and the stone and wooden chips lay scattered on the ground. The stones, in the firelight, revealed some fine lines, a reddish-gray hue.

Nezha understood the meaning of Muzha's words.

"Yin wood disturbs the soul, and cinnabar is found in the stone. When the two are combined, under certain conditions, they can obstruct the flow of qi and blood, suppress the rise of clear yang, and cause the spirit to lose its nourishment, leading to hallucinations."

In other words, anyone who enters this place with chips will die from illusions and swamp gas.

"Luckily, I didn't come in by myself."

Although Nian Youyu couldn't understand the words, he still felt like he had been given a second chance at life.

If they go back now, their prey will likely have been devoured by passing beasts. Being summoned to such a perilous situation suggests that Nezha has important business to attend to.

What are you going to do?

Since Muzha had nothing else to do, and thinking about how he hadn't seen his younger brother in a long time, he decided to stay and help.

"I'm being chased and I'm on the run."

Upon hearing the word "pursuit," Pingyu lowered his head by an inch.

The word "escape" coming from Nezha's mouth is really novel.

Now is not the time to ask questions. The young man stepped aside and said, "Then you can go this way. I just found it."

Behind Muzha was a door.

It turns out they were just one step away from the finish line when the stench overwhelmed them at the last minute.

As the elder brother, Muzha naturally couldn't let his younger brother take risks. He gripped the handle and pushed the door open.

There were no mechanisms, traps, or ambushes behind the door.

Some of them are decorated with "gold for the king's gate and white jade for the king's hall".

It is a magnificent palace in the heavens, with gold piled up to the size of a bushel.

If you hadn't seen it with your own eyes, who would believe that such extraordinary wealth existed beneath the golden night fragrance? The entire room was filled with gold, pearls, and precious stones, piled up and placed on the floor like rubble.

Even Pingyu, the daughter of a wealthy family, had never seen such a spectacle.

While I was stunned, I heard a crackling sound beside me.

The other three looked toward the sound. Nian Youyu held up a sack and poured out all the chips. Wood and stone were incompatible with gold and jade. The boy shouted, "The mouse is stealing lamp oil!" and plunged headfirst into the gold, stuffing it into the sack.

Pingyu also bent down and picked up a piece of gold.

"It's real gold."

She pinched it a couple of times, and it felt right.

The girl looked around, her doubts deepening: "It's just a casino in a small town, how could it really amass so much gold?"

The jade has excellent translucency, making it a rare find on the market.

She muttered to herself, "I'm even thinking of taking some back to make jewelry for my mother."

"Take it." Nezha rolled up a few pieces of gold with his Universe Ring and replied, "This casino owes us."

Muzha was also dazzled by the gold and jade. When he heard the two say that this place was a "casino", he shook his head and denied it: "Impossible, our family's silver savings are only a little more than this."

Li Jing was the general of Chentang Pass, and his family wealth was not much greater than that of this gambling den.

"I remember you said you were here to earn some extra money."

Li Youyu had completely transformed into a fish, swimming in this gold. He filled his bags and raised his head: "Why aren't you taking anything now?"

"I think you should take less." Nezha scoffed when he saw that he couldn't even drag the burlap sack. "No one will help you then."

"These are all my precious things, I can't bear to lose a single piece!" Nian Youyu wailed, and Ping Yu felt that he was practically obsessed with money. Then, as if joking, he added, "Could it be that Yan Erlang isn't crazy... that the God of Wealth from outside the mountains really gets all his money from the casinos?"

Nezha suddenly remembered something and turned to Pingyu, saying, "I have something to say..."

At the same time, he and Muzha had a meal together.

A voice could be faintly heard from outside the door, sounding like the old woman: "They must be inside, don't let them get away!"

Found!

Presumably, it was the man who had been knocked unconscious who woke up and went to warn others.

Nezha had no choice but to shut up and instead said, "Let's find the exit first."

Look here!

From the moment he entered, Nian Youyu had been searching the place, having already explored most of it. He brushed aside a few gold bars and beckoned a few people over.

Where the boy stood, there was a stone slab. Its structure was distinct, and its unusual nature was immediately apparent. Nian Youyu stroked his chin and analyzed, "I think this looks like a cellar."

"Stop talking nonsense, let's open it first."

Nezha held the Universe Ring in his hand as a crowbar, pressing it against the edge of the stone slab and beginning to exert force. However, the stone slab was deeply embedded, and even with Nezha's innate superhuman strength, he could not pry it open.

After staring at Pingyu for a while, he suddenly said, "Are you using the wrong force?"

Nezha: ...

He changed from prying to pushing.

Just as Ping Yu had said, the stone slab moved easily.

The whole house began to shake and tremble, and the gold on the ground began to bounce.

The disturbance stopped after only a few breaths, and the room remained as it was, as if no mechanism had been triggered.

"Huh? Is this just a joke?"

As soon as Nian Youyu finished speaking, the ground beneath the four of them suddenly vanished.

They both bowed their heads:

Oh no!

The four people paused for a moment in mid-air before plummeting straight down.

The stone slab is put back in its place.

The gold was shaken and forced to cover the mechanism again.

The moment the opening closed, the door was forcefully flung open.

Just one second later, the fishing woman and Pingyu and the others missed each other.

She, accompanied by her thugs and Taoist priest, searched the house: "Where is everyone?"

"Did it escape?" The Taoist looked at the tortoise shell he used for divination and sighed in surprise, "Why is there an extra mark on it?"

"What do you mean?" The old woman was confused and annoyed. "This is the owner's territory. I don't know if there's any other way out."

"There's just one more person chasing after me, oh dear!" the Taoist priest explained with difficulty. He had intended to pick up the tortoise shell to show the fishing woman, but the hard object in his hand suddenly shattered! He was startled, and just then, a servant arrived outside the door to deliver a message.

The slave lowered his head and said meekly, "The master said he's moving the money away, and the worship ceremony is about to begin."

"They're coming." The old woman twisted her handkerchief and ordered, "Bring in all the new ones too."

The first group arrived and carried away the gold and jade, followed by another group pulling carts. They opened the burlap sacks and poured out their contents like beans. Soon, the entire room was filled. Looking at the glittering gold objects inside, the old woman felt only bad luck.

She patted her sleeves and said, "I don't know how the owner managed to turn this unlucky thing into gold!"

The door was closed, and the room fell silent once more.

Aa ...

Ping Yu and Nian Youyu screamed in agony in mid-air.

Nezha and Muzha were so annoyed by the noise that they had to grab one of them with each hand and cover their mouths.

A small mouth, but it doesn't speak.

The scene quieted down, and they finally landed.

thump!

Four people fell into the water together.

Pingyu thrashed and struggled in the water, splashing around, crying out, "I can't swim!"

Before she could even struggle for a few moments, Nezha lifted her up, saying, "I won't drown you."

After he finished speaking, Pingyu was put down again.

The girl was afraid of water and instinctively tried to splash it. But when she landed on her bottom, she realized that even while sitting, the water didn't reach her chest.

Great, it's a shallow area!

Pingyu relaxed and asked, "Is everyone alright?"

"fine."

Mu Zha simply put away his armor and shook the water off his body like a big dog: "Are you guys really in a casino...? Although flowing water brings wealth, how come there's a river underground?"

"I'm afraid it's more than that."

Nezha wrung the water out of his hair and stood up:

"Look ahead."

He stared ahead, his face pale.

The river is long and wide, without the slightest ripple.

In the distance, a heavy mist hung in the air.

Obscured by the thick fog, some bluish-green fireballs could be seen floating on the surface. They were unevenly distributed, but the damp blue light was enough to barely illuminate the scene within the fog.

The two looked in the direction Nezha indicated:

In the fog, boats of varying sizes were sailing away into the distance.

Pingyu's eyesight was not as good as the two cultivators', so she asked, "What are those dark dots?"

"Heads".

Mu Zha replied, "The ship is full of people."

There wasn't even enough room to stand; several people were nearly pushed into the river. Nezha scooped up some water, letting it flow through his fingers: "Black..."

"It's water from the River Styx."

He said with certainty.

Black water only appears in the Naihe River.

No matter how ignorant Ping Yu was about gods and ghosts, he was still familiar with the term "River Styx," which frequently appeared in various works.

This river is regarded everywhere as the only way to the land of the dead.

She was a little cold and rubbed her arms.

Lost in thought, she suddenly narrowed her pupils, fixing them on a certain spot.

"It's getting foggy……"

The girl's murmured voice drifted into everyone's ears.

As she said, the white mist, of unknown origin, rose slowly along the river's surface. In the blink of an eye, it completely enveloped the shallows. Accompanying the mist was a small, covered boat.

Two green lanterns were placed on either side of the bow of the boat, and a boatman stood in the middle.

He was a man with a face as thin as paper. The boatman asked the group, "Do you need to cross the river?"

Nezha and Muzha looked at each other, then at Nian Youyu and Ping Yu.

The boy carrying the burlap sack was terrified, but the girl nodded calmly.

There was no other way but to cross the river.

“Cross over.”

Nezha negotiated.

"How many people?"

"Four people."

The boatman held up four fingers and announced the fare: "Four gold bricks."

When Nian Youyu heard that money was needed, he hurriedly opened his bag.

"Oh, the money... how did this happen to me!"

The bag was open, and when Nian Youyu reached out to take it, he let out an incredulous scream.

"What's wrong?"

Under the watchful eyes of everyone, the boy raised his hand. The clenched hand gradually loosened, revealing no gold inside, only clumps of fluffy, yellowish-purulent gold dust.

It's all paper pulp.

"The gold... melted."