061
The air seemed to freeze.
A deathly silence filled the space between the two.
Xuan Qing gave a slight smile: "I just remembered a few fragments."
Jiang Huali looked at him. He was dressed in black, with pale skin, dark eyes, and a half-smile on his lips. He didn't seem nervous or embarrassed at all.
Jiang Huali sat down, her expression unreadable, and slowly said, "Let's throw these two spider demons outside and tie them up. They're a bit of a nuisance."
Big Spider and Little Spider:...
Why don't you just let us go?
The two spider demons were thrown out and bound in a hidden formation.
The room fell silent again.
Jiang Huali picked up the golden leaf on the table, twirled it with her finger, and asked, "What is the connection between these divine trees and the formation?"
Xuan Qing raised his eyes: "The distribution of these trees follows a certain pattern, and the roots contain extremely pure spiritual energy, forming a concealment array in this place."
Even when he first arrived here, he failed to discover the existence of the Nine Nether Soul Refining Array.
But even if he couldn't sense it, this formation couldn't trap him.
When Chihua arrived last night to report, he used the technique of splitting the soul and revealing the image, so he was not blocked by the formation.
Although Xuanqing's true form is here, his special status means that the Nine Nether Soul Refining Array poses no threat to him.
However… Xuan Qing’s dark eyes looked at Jiang Huali, and she might not be able to leave this place safely.
Although she wasn't cursed by the formation, the Nine Nether Soul Refining Formation was an evil formation that drained people's life force. Jiang Huali was just a mortal now, and the longer she stayed here, the more damage her soul would suffer.
Unaware that her life was in danger, Jiang Huali thoughtfully asked, "Is there a way to break this formation?"
"Once we find the core of the formation, we're good to go." Xuan Qing nodded.
That being said, finding the array's core is no easy task. The divine trees here form a concealment array, where the real and the illusory are intertwined, effectively hiding the array's core.
To find the core of the formation, the concealment formation must be destroyed first. However, these trees are ambiguous, and it is impossible to know which one is part of the formation and which one is just a smokescreen.
When Jiang Huali and Xuan Qing were about to cut down the tree, they were stopped by the villagers.
The villagers' eyes were bloodshot, their expressions were crazed and fierce, and they surrounded them layer by layer, holding farm tools in their hands.
"They want to cut down the immortal tree!"
"Stop them!"
These villagers appear to be under control.
Jiang Huali frowned, and before she could say anything to Xuan Qing, a villager swung a hoe at her.
The villagers not only became delirious, but their mobility also improved, with increased speed and strength.
Jiang Huali was unable to dodge in time and was almost hit on the wound on her shoulder.
Xuanqing stood in front of her.
He cast a spell, and the villagers present instantly collapsed to the ground, unconscious.
Jiang Huali wasn't hit in the shoulder, but she got a long cut on her elbow.
She endured the pain, sat down on the spot, took out medicine and gauze from her storage bag, and bandaged the wound.
Xuan Qing turned around, looked at her actions, and pursed his lips.
Jiang Huali bandaged her wounds and, looking at the unconscious villagers around her, urged Xuan Qing to hurry up and cut down the trees.
These trees are not ordinary trees; they cannot be damaged by an axe alone. They require the assistance of spiritual power to be successfully cut down.
When Xuanqing chopped down the eleventh tree, the surrounding atmosphere suddenly changed, revealing its true nature.
An ominous aura filled the sky, ghosts cried out in grievance, and a fierce wind blew. The once clear sky was now so dark it seemed to drip water.
The surrounding villagers remained unconscious, but their skin gradually turned bluish-gray, with winding black lines covering their skin like twisted snakes.
Jiang Huali noticed something was wrong and looked down at her arm.
Several thin black lines were slowly creeping up her wrist, and her skin was becoming stiff and cold.
"..."
Just as she was about to call out to Xuanqing, a pair of hands much larger than hers grabbed her wrists.
Xuanqing channeled spiritual power into Jiang Huali's corrupted arm. The black lines were repelled by the powerful spiritual power, and the arm slowly regained its softness.
"Thank you." Jiang Huali looked up at Xuan Qing and noticed that he didn't look well. "Are you alright?"
The spiritual energy within his body surged violently, and the chaos caused by the instability of his bloodline was even more intense. Xuan Qing almost lost control, his eyes shifting back and forth between gold and black, and black scales seemed to be faintly visible on his collar.
"It's nothing." After a while, Xuan Qing's slightly hoarse voice finally came through.
He forcibly suppressed the strange sensations in his body, his eyes darkening. He didn't have much time left; he had to find it as soon as possible...
Xuan Qing did not let go of Jiang Huali's hand, but instead used a teleportation technique on her.
The surrounding space distorted for a moment, and the next second, the two of them appeared in Grandma Li's house.
Xuan Qing pushed open the door to the room they were staying in, and what came into view was a blood-red array engraved in the center of the room, which was in operation.
Jiang Huali frowned: "Is the core of the formation here?"
They've actually been living on this Soul Refining Array all along?
"Hmm." Xuan Qing responded to Jiang Huali while drawing his all-black sword and making a cut on his hand, the bright red blood dripping onto the formation.
In an instant, a bright red light shone, and black mist filled the air. Jiang Huali seemed to hear the wails of countless wronged souls. Just as the formation was about to collapse, a man in black suddenly appeared out of thin air in the room.
The men in black immediately attacked them.
However, Xuan Qing casually waved his hand, and the spiritual energy he released swept the man in black ten meters away, smashing a hole in the wall.
The formation completely collapsed, and a large crater appeared in the ground where the formation had been located.
It was pitch black, and I couldn't see how deep it was.
Jiang Huali stood right next to the pit.
Xuan Qing stood behind her and casually uttered a single word: "Jump."
"Jump?"
Before Jiang Huali could react, she was pushed down.
No way—
She didn't want to die!
Xuan Qing knew she was still useful, so he wouldn't let her die. Before she landed, a wisp of spiritual energy gently supported her, allowing her to stand steadily on solid ground.
After calming her racing heart, Jiang Huali looked at Xuan Qing with a blank expression.
I can't see it clearly.
It was pitch black all around. Jiang Huali felt her wrist being pulled up, and then she was pulled forward by this force.
As I walked, I gradually saw a glimmer of light.
Someone is talking.
"The formation... is destroyed... relocate..."
Faint conversations drifted over, and the two stopped, standing in the shadows and looking ahead.
Through a half-open stone door, Jiang Huali saw a person wearing a black cloak. The person had a fairly handsome face, but it was stained with malice, giving off an unsettling, sticky, and cold feeling.
There was another person standing opposite the cloaked man, dressed in white and wearing a mask, so his appearance was not clear, but it could be seen that he was a man, and he was talking to the cloaked man in a low voice.
The two seemed to have broken off negotiations. The cloaked man became increasingly agitated, and finally, with a dark expression, he turned away and moved to the other side.
Jiang Huali changed her angle to make it easier to peek.
Xuan Qing had already released her wrist and was now standing in front of her.
The surrounding light was dim. Jiang Huali gently grabbed Xuan Qing's sleeve, reaching over his broad and tall shoulders to track the cloaked man's movements.
The cloaked figure walked to a corner, lifted a piece of black cloth, and revealed the person who had been covered.
Jiang Huali tightened her grip.
—It's Yu Tian!
Feeling a tug at the corner of his sleeve, Xuan Qing looked down at his sleeve, then looked up and met Jiang Huali's serious expression.
Jiang Huali's mind was racing. So Yu Tian really was underground. Was that cloaked man the real culprit?
Yu Tian was unconscious at this moment, and his condition looked very bad, as if he was just hanging on by his last breath.
The cloaked figure held a dagger and slashed Yu Tian's wrist.
Fresh blood gushed out.
The cloaked figure collected the blood into a glass bottle, fed Yu Tian a pill, and casually sprinkled some hemostatic powder on her wrist. The bleeding stopped hastily after a while.
Then, the cloaked man handed the glass bottle to the man in white, saying in a hoarse, mocking voice, "This is the last bottle before we get the secret treasure."
The man in white seemed somewhat dissatisfied, but ultimately compromised.
Jiang Huali tugged at Xuan Qing's sleeve again.
Xuanqing turned to look at her.
Jiang Huali gestured, pointing to the unconscious Yu Tian and making a pulling gesture, indicating to Xuan Qing to quickly rescue her senior sister.
Xuanqing had already promised to help Jiang Huali rescue her senior sister, and now that he had received her message, he naturally wouldn't go back on his word.
Xuan Qing gently brushed Jiang Huali's hand aside, and the next second he appeared behind the cloaked man like a ghost, his sword piercing straight into the man's heart.
The cloaked figure reacted quickly, dodging to the side. When he turned around, he saw Xuan Qing's face, and his pupils contracted sharply.
"you--"
The next second, he was speechless because Xuanqing had sealed his mouth.
The cloaked man seemed to have suffered a loss of cultivation and could only use magical artifacts to defend himself. Before long, he was forced to retreat and was beaten by Xuan Qing until he vomited blood and rolled to the side like a tattered sack.
The cloak the man was wearing should also be a defensive magical artifact, but under Xuanqing's sword, it was like a tattered cloth, easily pierced through.
The man in white didn't seem to want to help; instead, he secretly approached the unconscious Yu Tian, intending to take her away.
But Xuanqing discovered it very quickly.
The sword in his hand flew out and pierced the white-clad man's calf. The white-clad man knelt on the ground, blood gushing from his legs.
Jiang Huali looked at the man in white, seemingly lost in thought.
It looks kind of familiar...
Just as Xuan Qing was about to stab the two men to death with his sword, the man in white used some kind of magic weapon and instantly disappeared from the spot, leaving only a small pool of blood on the ground.
The cloaked figure who collapsed to the ground, coughing up blood, opened his mouth as if to say something, but no sound came out.
If Jiang Huali were a little closer, she could make out his lip movements—
Xuanqing, how dare you commit patricide!
Xuanqing naturally knew what he wanted to say, and without flinching, plunged the sword into his heart again.
The sword in Xuanqing's hand emitted wisps of black energy, seemingly absorbing the cloaked man's life force. Once it had absorbed enough, Xuanqing chopped off the cloaked man's head.
The head rolled to one side, its eyes wide open, dying with its eyes wide open.
The scene was truly a bit creepy.
To Jiang Huali's surprise, the cloaked man's corpse gradually turned into a pool of liquid, leaving only an empty cloak on the ground.
With the danger over, Jiang Huali quickly emerged from the shadows and ran towards Yu Tian.
Yu Tian's wrists were covered with wounds of all sizes, as if he had lost too much blood. Jiang Huali rummaged through her storage bag and fed Yu Tian the few healing medicines she had on hand.
After bandaging Yu Tian's exposed wounds, Jiang Huali stood up and approached the cloak.
Jiang Huali used her sword to lift the cloak, revealing a purple crystal lying quietly beneath it.
It's a magic crystal.
"Is this person a demon?" Jiang Huali thought to herself, "Just as I suspected."
One unique characteristic of the demon race is that after they die, their corpses turn into putrid liquid, leaving only a magic crystal.
Magic crystals have many uses, and many people collect them as materials for refining weapons or cultivating.
"Hmm." Xuan Qing nodded, confirming that the person was a demon.
"Demons..."
Xuanqing used his sword as a medium, inserting it into the soil, and formed hand seals, gradually revealing an array centered on the sword.
This is the true core of the formation.
Through the formation, one can see that many mortals are still trapped inside.
However, these mortals did not look well. Some were unconscious, and their condition was the same as that of the unconscious villagers on the ground. Some had already turned into piles of bones.
Jiang Huali saw Xiao Liu among them.
Xuan Qing's face was somewhat pale, but his expression remained calm. He channeled his spiritual energy into the formation, enveloping the person who still had a breath left. The next second, he destroyed the formation's core.
A fierce roar swept past, a sound more terrifying than ghosts wailing and wolves howling. Jiang Huali was nearly injured by the enormous impact, her body torn open by the powerful spiritual energy and soaring resentment.
At the same time, a surge of spiritual energy softly enveloped her entire body.
As all discomfort gradually subsided, amidst the earth-shattering tremors, Xuan Qing teleported over and reached out his hand to Jiang Huali.
Jiang Huali blinked and grabbed him.
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