Chapter 112 Appetizer

"What...what's wrong? Why are you looking at me like that?" Xiao Wu felt uncomfortable under Qing Bai's silent gaze. He subconsciously raised his hand to touch his face, "...but what's wrong with me?"

Qing Bai looked away and shook his head.

Xiao Wu let out an exaggerated sigh of relief and pretended to get back into the sedan, but Qing Bai blocked her with a calm expression. She wasn't angry at all, but instead said with a grin, "Let's escape now while those who are getting in the way are away!"

Qing Bai's mind moved: "Escape? Where to escape?"

Xiao Wu said without hesitation: "Of course, escape."

After hearing this answer, Qing Bai felt as if time had gone back in time.

I don't know if she saw the reluctance to flee and turn back beneath Qing Bai's complex expression, or if she herself lacked the conviction to persevere to the end, but she didn't even try to persuade him before she began to compromise: "Well, since you don't want to leave, then go into the ancestral hall."

Qing Bai's gaze lingered on Xiao Wu's unremarkable face for a moment, and he actually sensed a subtle sense of regret and resignation in it.

Then, the next moment, Xiao Wu, regretfully resigned to his fate, suddenly pulled down the curtain of the sedan chair. "If that's the case, Master Jiunian doesn't have to hide anymore...right?!"

Looking at the two people who were stacked together perfectly in the sedan chair, Xiao Wu tilted his head in shock and confusion. He shook his hand and the curtain of the sedan chair slowly fell to the ground.

Oh no, it’s late but it’s here.

Xiao Wu: "You...you guys are doing this?"

Although the person who caught the adulterer differed from Qing Bai's expectations, they ultimately reached the same conclusion, fulfilling a hidden regret. So, despite their somewhat awkward position and the unsightly ghost staring blankly from the front, Qing Bai felt no discomfort. At Xiao Wu's question, he raised his eyebrows, his handsome face, always slightly cold, clearly saying, "Can't you see that?"

Well, very arrogant.

In comparison, Jiunian was much more modest and gentle. He first explained in a gentle voice, "This sedan chair is a little small."

Then he kicked with his long legs, and some small sedan chairs were instantly torn into pieces like paper under the invisible leg wind. The walls and roofs of the sedan chairs flew in all directions due to the force. Not only was Xiao Wu in the front hit by the broken pieces of the sedan chair, but the people who had just happily started their meal outside were also innocently affected. Several tables near the sedan chair parking lot were overturned, and bowls, plates, wine and meat flew all over the place, and those who were seated within the attack range were unfortunately hit directly.

For a moment, the sound of porcelain shattering, the muffled thud of broken pieces of sedan chairs and tables hitting people, the screams and wails of pain, and the angry roars of the "Twelve Gods" came one after another.

Jiunian, who caused the riot, was already holding Qing Bai and preparing to leave.

Although Qing Bai didn't know where Jiu Nian wanted to take him, it didn't seem like the direction was the ancestral hall?

Just when Qing Bai began to doubt that his previous judgment was wrong, the first twist suddenly appeared on their way out - a ball of black mist trembled and stood in front of Jiu Nian with a fearless attitude. It had some self-knowledge and did not attack rashly. It only regarded itself as a stumbling block, and it would be considered a meritorious service if it could block Jiu Nian for a moment.

Jiu Nian was indeed stopped for a moment... It was not because the stumbling block was too big or too powerful, but because he was afraid to use his own strength. After all, he was not alone now and had to take care of the weak and pitiful little Lingxi in his arms.

But this brief pause also gave the person who was hit in the face unexpectedly a chance to react.

Xiao Wu raised his hand and wiped his face fiercely. His voice was smiling, but his eyes were as cold as ice. "I was wrong. It turns out that Master Jiunian is also a rude person who will overturn the table at the slightest disagreement..."

When her hand, as white as jade, fell on her face, it was like a child kneading plasticine. It seemed to be without any method, but in fact it changed the position of the flesh and bones very easily. After a few light clicks, her hand was put down again, and the ordinary face of a passerby was replaced by a delicate and somewhat feminine face.

Then, a teeth-grinding sound of bones snapping echoed. The figure of the woman, originally as slender and frail as the original Xiao Wu, rapidly expanded and grew taller like a candy figurine. Some of the extra parts slowly melted into thin air... Or perhaps they weren't extra, and didn't melt into the air, but simply changed shape slightly, remaining in their original position? But some of the parts that had been painstakingly hidden were truly revealed... This person was actually a man in disguise!

Even as someone pointed at him and called him rude, Jiu Nian didn't even glance at him. His expression remained calm and composed, neither arrogant nor impatient. His gaze settled quietly on a section of the ancestral hall's eaves, visible from behind the black fog blocking the road. It was so impressive that it seemed to pierce the darkness. A small ridge beast crouched on it. Although the two ends of the ancestral hall's ridge were firmly held in the mouths of two curled-tail dragon heads, it still showed a faint sign of collapse.

Qing Bai was a little curious. Jiunian came to the giant locust tree in pursuit of Sui Jing...so he didn't catch him for so long because he didn't expect Sui Jing to be so shameless and have no bottom line that he actually turned into a woman to avoid being hunted down?

As for why Qing Bai was so sure that this person was Sui Jing, was it perhaps because of the intuition that they had the same origin as the legend?

When he'd disguised himself as Xiao Wu, Qing Bai had instantly recognized him as not Xiao Wu, but he'd assumed it was just another demonic entity from the Juhuai region, one of the Twelve Gods, playing tricks. He'd secretly marveled at how much more effective his tactics were than those false gods, whose images vanished into nothingness. When he changed his appearance, Qing Bai mistakenly thought he was the mysterious ghost official who'd forced them into the Juhuai region, a master of his disguise. But when the disguise was completely removed, and a single glance revealed all of Qing Bai's suspicions, all of them resolved into one single statement... He was Sui Jing.

It was obvious that he had only heard of the name of the flint mirror.

Qing Bai was not the only one who felt a sense of belonging to the same clan. Sui Jing, who had just freed his body and revealed his true face, also raised his eyebrows and focused his gaze on Qing Bai. While looking at him carefully, he said "no wonder" twice, as if he was a little surprised, or as if he had finally figured something out.

Qing Bai felt a chill run down his spine from being looked at by his gaze, which was as if he were examining a dead object. Just as he was about to say something, he saw him lightly avert his gaze and said to Jiu Nian in a tone that was unclear whether it was a discussion or a negotiation: "You and I have worked together for a thousand years, and including the last time, we have only fought twice..."

Qing Bai, who seemed to be completely ignored by the clan leader: "..."

He retracted his previous words, "This method is three times more clever than those false gods who turn into waste mist when separated from the statue."

Such an obvious and crude psychological tactic...

Not only did Qing Bai not feel indignant about his disregard, he even leaned back, putting all his weight on Jiu Nian, as if he was watching a big show.

Sui Jing's gaze seemed completely fixed on Jiu Nian, not even a glance from the corner of his eye going towards Qing Bai. However, he paused suspiciously, "Although you severely injured me last time, you also crashed into the Samsara Platform and fell into a coma for many years. It was a loss for both of us, and neither of us benefited. Now that you've helped me escape from hell today, why are you still pursuing me?"

Help him escape from hell?

Qing Bai couldn't help but turn his head to look at Jiu Nian. Seeing that he had no expression and his eyes didn't even change, he instantly understood that Sui Jing was not talking nonsense.

But Jiu Nian must have his reasons for doing this... Maybe he wants to release the person so that he can really kill him?

After all, according to Yin Weihuai, the old ghosts in the underworld valued Sui Jing, who had been the leader of the Lingxi clan for a thousand years, very much. Even the serious crimes that deserved to be fryed in oil a thousand times, such as colluding with the Ghost King, causing cholera in the underworld, and exterminating the Lingxi clan, were nothing more than being trapped in hell under an assumed name.

Seeing that Jiu Nian ignored him, Sui Jing felt annoyed and disgusted, but he still maintained his polite demeanor and sighed with a hint of regret: "Forget it, if I had known that Master Jiu Nian had both innate magical powers and acquired faith, it would be natural for Wu Chen to look down on small spiritual beasts like us."

"Even ants try to survive. This time, even if it means we all die, I won't let you take my life so easily."

As Sui Jing's last word fell to the ground, a cold wind suddenly blew up in the threshing ground. Qing Bai suddenly realized that the wailing and roaring outside had disappeared at some point. The whole space was so quiet except for the whistling wind, as if there were only the three of them.

However, this silence did not last long.

"Where are the Twelve Gods?" Sui Jing took two steps back and shouted, "Return to your positions immediately!"

The wind in the threshing yard suddenly became stronger. After a burst of noises including horses neighing, cows mooing, chickens crowing and dogs barking, the three 'walls' made of bamboo poles and red cloth in the sedan chair parking area finally gave way. The red cloths were lifted up by the wind like crazy, leaving only a few bare bamboo poles lying all over the ground.

But in the blink of an eye, the eleven gods outside were really summoned by Suijing with a loud shout, and they surrounded Jiunian and Qingbai in the order of the zodiac.

Once something reaches a certain scale, it will be very imposing. A ball of black fog can still be called "waste fog", but it is different when twelve balls of black fog form a circle and roar towards the center. Qing Bai looked at the twelve gods around him who had transformed into giant states representing their respective zodiac signs, and were surrounded by yin energy and black fog, sweeping towards them. He felt as if he was being swallowed up. He even smelled the unique stench of beasts in the cold wind blowing in his face.

Although the aura of the twelve gods looked formidable, Sui Jing, who was outside the circle, did not hold out much hope for them. He sighed in an erratic voice, "Master Jiunian is Master Jiunian. He has only been chasing me here for a short time, and he has already broken most of the twelve zodiac formation. I admire you... but it's a pity that these beasts are just appetizers. Master, please don't worry too much."

Qing Bai looked at the black mist of the Tiger God in the Yin position, which was more than a circle smaller than the other eleven gods, and obviously more ethereal, without even a ferocious tiger shape... So this was the intention of Nine Years who had occupied the Tiger God's sedan chair and destroyed the Tiger God's statue, and then sent the black cat out to the banquet as the Tiger God.

As expected, Jiu Nian did not miss the flaw created by his own hands. He seized the opportunity, swung his long sleeves, and flew towards Yinwei with Qing Bai in his arms.

When the nine years really passed, the weakened Tiger God could not even act as a stumbling block, and it really disappeared like mist just like its appearance.

Since it is a formation of the twelve zodiac animals, it is natural that all will prosper and suffer together. After the Tiger God dispersed, the other eleven gods were much weaker although they did not disperse immediately. However, Jiu Nian did not get rid of them immediately. As Sui Jing said, these beasts were nothing more than mountain spirits and monsters in the name of the twelve zodiac animals. As long as he freed up his hands to deal with them, it would be easy for Jiu Nian to catch them. What was more important at the moment was obviously Sui Jing who had run away again.

After the battle, a chilly wind blew through the threshing ground, causing the air to swirl in disorder. However, Qing Bai's gaze was fixed on the main gate of the ancestral hall. "Did he use the cover of the Twelve Gods' black fog to escape into the ancestral hall while he was speaking?"

Tsk, their clan leader is not only cruel and ruthless, but also has the ultimate skill in running away.

It was obvious that Jiu Nian thought the same thing. Without saying a word, he led Qing Bai through the door. The moment they passed the threshold of the ancestral hall, Qing Bai suddenly felt a weight on his waist. A dark shadow, crossing countless obstacles, flew over and grabbed his trouser leg with unwavering determination. Qing Bai's hand subconsciously reached down and felt a plush feeling suddenly fill his palm and fingertips...

In this critical situation, Qing Bai couldn't help but feel lucky that he had borrowed a hairband from Jiu Nian and used it as a belt, otherwise...