Chapter 27 What She Can Do "I still don't understand."...

“I still don’t understand.” Teng Shao’s face was expressionless, but his tone revealed his doubt. “Since you knew from the beginning that she had ill intentions, why did you help her again and again?”

Gu Xiaozhu remained silent for a while, and did not answer immediately.

Yes, she did have her suspicions from the very beginning; she always tends to think the worst. After all, the secret realm is fraught with danger, and it was strange enough for an ordinary mortal woman to be completely unharmed.

And A Cui's behavior was really deliberate, and she could sense that A Cui's target was Teng Shao.

She hoped to gain Teng Shao's pity and protection by playing the victim and using her outstanding looks.

She could understand; after all, survival is every human being's instinct.

So as long as it doesn't jeopardize their interests, she's willing to help them to the best of her ability.

As for the fact that A Cui was still holding a knife, it was the system that told her that. But even so, she wasn't afraid, since she still had her last defensive magic artifact and a protective talisman on her body, so A Cui's little knife couldn't hurt her at all.

In this situation, she would be even more curious about Acui's choice.

So when Ah Cui didn't choose to hurt her, she felt that perhaps Ah Cui wasn't so bad after all.

At least she still had a shred of conscience.

After thinking about a lot of things, she suddenly felt a bit overwhelmed.

She realized that all her actions were entirely her own decision, without consulting Teng Shao. Would he... be angry?

She looked at Teng Shao again, her tone tentative and cautious: "Are you... unhappy because I helped her?"

Teng Shao paused, his tone slightly puzzled: "Why would I be unhappy? What does your helping her have to do with me?"

He didn't use his things to help that woman, so why is he unhappy?

ah……

It was a bit of a hassle that it took up some time.

But the person I'm annoyed with is that woman, not her.

After listening, Gu Xiaozhu glanced at Teng Shao several times, and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that he didn't seem unhappy.

"Buzz—"

The ground suddenly shook, and even the leaves of the surrounding trees began to fall in a rustling sound.

[Host, the secret realm is about to open.]

“The secret realm may be about to open,” Teng Shao also said at the same time.

Gu Xiaozhu understood, but she quickly became worried again.

After the secret realm opens, the demonic cultivators who were chasing them will definitely go into hiding, and their movements will be restricted in many ways.

so--

This last bit of time will definitely be the best opportunity to pursue and kill them.

Teng Shao had clearly thought of this as well, and his expression gradually became serious.

[Host! Demonic cultivators are approaching!]

Gu Xiaozhu was startled. The fact that the system could detect them meant that they had entered a 500-meter radius around them.

Gu Xiaozhu: Which direction?

[Only the north is vacant; all other directions have openings!]

Gu Xiaozhu froze.

This sounds like a trap, as if they're being deliberately led in that direction.

But time was of the essence. She tugged at Teng Shao's sleeve and whispered, "Someone's coming. The north is vacant, but it could very well be a trap..."

Teng Shao glanced at her, but didn't ask why she knew these things. Instead, he pulled her and ran north.

"But we had no other choice."

Gu Xiaozhu was taken aback.

Indeed, over the past two days, their physical strength and energy have been constantly depleted. Although they managed to escape by sheer luck in the end, Teng Shao always ended up with several more wounds, and his injuries never fully healed, always reopening.

Her talismans and pills are also being consumed continuously, and now there are almost none left.

If they were to run into that group of people again in this state, especially since that group would attack even more frantically, their chances of survival would be very slim.

Staying where you are, or going in another direction, will almost certainly mean certain death.

So even if the vacancy in the north is a trap, they have no choice but to go.

Sure enough, they hadn't been moving for long when they heard rustling sounds behind them, along with several whooshing sounds.

Teng Shao twisted his body and drew his twin swords from his waist, deflecting all the incoming arrows!

"You go first!"

Gu Xiaozhu stumbled as he pushed her. She glanced at him, then gritted her teeth and ran quickly forward.

She knew that staying there would only be a burden to Teng Shao, so the best option was to listen to him and leave as soon as possible.

[Host...I have bad news...]

Gu Xiaozhu asked as she ran, her voice still a little out of breath: "Given the situation, what... bad news could there be?"

There's no road ahead, just a cliff...

Gu Xiaozhu also saw the scenery ahead clearly at this moment. She gradually slowed down and finally stopped ten meters away from the cliff.

Gu Xiaozhu: "..."

She carefully took a few more steps forward and peered down.

The smoke was thick and the bottom was nowhere to be seen.

Gu Xiaozhu: "..."

Heaven is going to destroy me!

She turned her head and looked behind her again. In the dense forest, the clanging of metal against metal could be heard continuously, and screams could be heard from time to time. It looked very intense.

"System, can you fly me there?"

"Host, I can't do this..." the system said weakly.

Gu Xiaozhu: "?"

[If it's asking me to chop down a few demonic cultivators, or to help you detect locations and alter other people's weight, I can do that, but...]

[Host, my abilities cannot be used on you.]

Otherwise, I would have covered up your blood problem long ago, instead of going through all that trouble to find the Valley Master in the Valley of Healers.

"How many demonic cultivators can you kill with your current strength?" Gu Xiaozhu asked.

Five or six?

Gu Xiaozhu frowned and pondered for a moment: "What if we paralyze those demonic cultivators, rendering them unable to move for a short period of time?"

[The power is enough to reach all those pursuing them; the effect will probably only paralyze them for four or five seconds.]

[Host, be careful!]

Gu Xiaozhu instinctively turned to the side, and an arrow wrapped in intense demonic energy pierced the sky, almost grazing her body as it flew past.

[Teng Shao couldn't stop them all; some managed to break through.]

Soon, four or five dark figures appeared in the distance. Gu Xiaozhu subconsciously wanted to retreat, but then remembered that there was a cliff behind her, so she stopped in her tracks.

[Host, I can kill all five of these demonic cultivators.]

Gu Xiaozhu swallowed hard as she watched the approaching men in black. "But there are more demonic cultivators than just these. This is just treating the symptoms, not the root cause."

The system's electronic voice sounded again, seemingly devoid of any emotion, yet its words sent a chill down Gu Xiaozhu's spine:

All the demonic cultivators who were chasing me are here. I can kill the five in front of you. And over in the woods...

[The rest of them are there. I can manipulate Teng Shao to self-destruct his golden core. Given his physique and cultivation level, the power of his self-destruction would be the greatest, enough to kill all the remaining demonic cultivators around him.]

The system spoke again, this time with concern rather than its previous indifference: "Host, as long as you do this, you will be completely safe."

Gu Xiaozhu spoke up: "Teng Shao... isn't he one of the important characters in the later plot?" Her voice trembled slightly, "Isn't he... unable to die?"

The system's voice carried an air of matter-of-fact: "He is indeed important, but even without him, we can easily install a puppet in the Demon Realm. As long as the outcome is roughly the same, the process isn't that crucial."

[Moreover, host, your safety is of paramount importance.]

No one's life here is as important as yours.

Gu Xiaozhu then realized that the system was not as energetic, positive, and caring as she had imagined.

The reason He acted that way before was simply because the object of His attention was her.

He didn't care about anyone else except her.

"Little girl, you've been running away with that brat for so many days, you must have used up quite a few magic treasures, right?" A man in black stood not far away, arms crossed, looking at her. The other four did the same, as if they were certain that she couldn't escape.

"I never expected that a mere mortal like you would have so many good things on you," another person said.

"That brat has been taking care of you for so long, you must be quite important to him, right?" a man in black said, taking a few steps forward to close the distance between himself and the girl.

"Why don't you hand over all your magical treasures and cooperate with us to make that brat surrender and die? We might consider letting you go."

Gu Xiaozhu looked at him, her palms almost sweating nervously: "I..."

No sooner had he spoken than a silver crescent blade flew out of the forest, heading straight for the demonic cultivator's face!

The demonic cultivator was startled and barely managed to duck, while Gu Xiaozhu seized the opportunity and quickly said in her mind, "System, strike him down!"

The system did as instructed. Dark clouds gathered, and a bolt of lightning struck down, hitting the demonic cultivator precisely!

The demonic cultivator trembled violently, his flesh tore apart, and he collapsed to the ground, foaming at the mouth.

This scene left the other four demonic cultivators in a state of shock and uncertainty, and for a moment they dared not move.

At this moment, Teng Shao rushed out of the woods covered in blood. His wounds, which had not yet healed, were torn open again, and he even had many new wounds.

Almost the instant he rushed out, he yelled at Gu Xiaozhu, "Idiot, why didn't you run?!"

Gu Xiaozhu choked, then suddenly became a little unconvinced: "There's a cliff in front of me, I can't run away!"

Teng Shao, who had just seen the scenery in front of him, was speechless.

Hearing a commotion behind him, Teng Shao immediately turned around and used his curved blade to block a demonic cultivator who was attacking him.

Although he managed to block it, he was sent flying and crashed heavily to the ground not far away.

The sound of the body crashing to the ground made Gu Xiaozhu's heart tremble. A deep sense of powerlessness surged into her heart, and strands of despair spread through her.

A fleeting glance at the cliff behind me sparked an idea:

Perhaps jumping down wouldn't be a bad idea?

In this way, the days of living in fear and strife can finally come to an end.

In this way, she can completely stay away from the cultivation world where she has repeatedly experienced stimulation and suffering.

But she quickly dismissed the idea from her mind.

Good heavens, what was she thinking just now?!

Life is still very important, and besides, what if there's a way to break this deadlock?

Breaking the situation...

Teng Shao was seriously injured, and she had no cultivation. The system's abilities were insufficient to kill anyone.

The situation seemed to be a dead end.

She seems incapable of doing anything.

Can't I do anything...?

A sudden inspiration struck her, and she asked, "System, do you have a way to prevent these demonic cultivators from communicating with the outside world?"

Yes, I can temporarily "fence off" this area to disable their communication capabilities.

"Okay, let's begin now."

Although the system didn't quite understand what Gu Xiaozhu was trying to do, it still did as she asked.

On the other side, because of that strange lightning bolt, no demonic cultivator was willing to be the first to approach Gu Xiaozhu, since no one wanted to gamble on whether this mortal could strike a second lightning bolt.

So the rest of the people went to besiege Teng Shao.

More than ten demonic cultivators at the Great Perfection of the Golden Core stage attacked Teng Shao together. Teng Shao was also a ruthless person. After quickly swallowing a few Rejuvenation Pills, he still had the strength to fight them.

"Teng Shao, please hold them off!" Gu Xiaozhu shouted.

Teng Shao didn't ask why, but directly asked, "How long?"

"A quarter of an hour!"

"good."

Gu Xiaozhu: "System, if you have the capacity, please help him as well."

[Good host.]

The other demonic cultivators had naturally heard Gu Xiaozhu's shout, and they exchanged glances, but none of them were willing to be the first to speak up.

After all, a major characteristic of demonic cultivators is that they prioritize their own interests above all else.

[Host, have you come up with a solution? What is it...?]

Before He could finish speaking, the girl bit her fingertip, and bright red blood oozed from the wound, accompanied by the system's scream.

【Aaaaaah, host, what are you doing?!】

"System, give me five talismans." Gu Xiaozhu's calm voice came through.

[Host! You can't get hurt so easily! What exactly do you want?!]

Gu Xiaozhu simply said again, "System, please, give me five talismans. I know you can do it."

[...]

[Task issued: Please take a breath, host.]

Quest Reward: Five Blank Talisman Papers

[Task completed, reward issued.]

This time, the system's perfunctory attitude reached a new level, with a tone that was clearly reluctant.

Five talismans appeared in Gu Xiaozhu's hand. She spread one of them on the ground, recalled it in her mind, and then gritted her teeth and enlarged the wound on her fingertip a little more. After confirming that the bleeding would not stop in a short time, she placed her fingertip on the talisman and began to trace the pattern.

The more the system looked at it, the more familiar it seemed. After completing the final stroke, it exclaimed in surprise: "[This is... the Five Elements Heavenly Thunder Talisman?]"

The Five Elements Heavenly Thunder Talisman is a high-level talisman. It is composed of talismans drawn from the five elements: metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. When the five talismans are combined and activated with thunder-type spiritual power, they can unleash heavenly thunder containing the five elements, with power approaching that of the Nascent Soul stage!

However, the patterns on these five talismans are mutually reinforcing and restraining, making them extremely difficult to draw. Moreover, the spiritual energy poured into the brush when drawing the talismans is not only enormous, but it must also be uninterrupted throughout the entire process, otherwise all previous efforts will be wasted.

But Gu Xiaozhu doesn't need to worry about that.

First of all, she was very familiar with these talismans, since she had designed them herself, so drawing them was not difficult.

Secondly, although she cannot mobilize spiritual power to draw talismans, her blood contains a large amount of spiritual power. In other words, she can draw with her blood and achieve the same effect. As long as the strokes continue, theoretically, the talisman will be effective.

The situation couldn't get any worse; she had no choice but to give it a try.

She would try anything, no matter how small.