15 Linzi (VIII)
◎Why does he still hold a grudge◎
The moonlight reflected on the young man's face, and his expression seemed to ease. He immediately sheathed his sword and said coldly, "Qu Lingfei has brought her back just now. You don't have to worry."
"That's good, that's good." The girl lowered her head and murmured to herself, her hand unconsciously pulling down his sleeve. She raised her head, her eyes lingering on him: "You are not hurt, are you?"
“…”
He didn't answer, but leaned down slightly, feeling her breath around him.
After staring at her for a moment, Xie Changyan sneered, "You're already struggling to escape danger, yet you're still worrying about the safety of others?"
Li Jintang wasn't used to being so close to a man, so she instinctively leaned back. Her grip on his hand loosened, and her sleeve immediately fell, its wrinkles visible in the moonlight. Just as she was about to speak, he slowly said, "Miss Li, just an hour ago you said you could save yourself. Why are you relying on others now?"
Her eyelashes trembled slightly, and she saw a faint curve on his lips, and there was a hint of sarcasm in his words.
The girl lowered her eyes and placed a stone in his palm. She then stepped aside a few steps and gestured towards a large tree in front of her. "Put some force and throw the stone towards the tree trunk."
Xie Changyan tossed the stone aside, not understanding her intention, but somehow obeyed and flung it out, hitting the tree trunk. With a loud thud, the vine hanging from the branch suddenly fell, sending dust flying everywhere.
He paused, then listened to her chattering explanations sideways: "Look, I've already cut a line on it. If the bear monster had pounced on it just now, it would have crashed into the tree trunk, and these thorny vines would have knocked it unconscious..."
Li Jintang gestured with his hands for a long time before finally stopping. He turned to look at him and spoke slowly, "So, even if you hadn't come, I could have gotten away."
As soon as she said this, she felt something was wrong. How could she say such ungrateful words when someone had come to her at the risk of their own life? She added, "Thank you for coming to save me, Xie An."
Xie Changyan glanced at her calmly, then straightened up and looked away. After a while, he heard his voice in a deep voice: "Now that you have filled your stomach, you might as well go back early."
Li Jintang was eager for him to say that. Upon hearing this, he immediately opened the map in the fortune book and pointed to the fork on the left: "Go this way."
The two returned to the camp, where the other three were already waiting. Qiuyan ran over as soon as she saw her, took her hand, looked her up and down, and said with a face full of self-blame, "Atang, you're not hurt, are you? It's my fault. I shouldn't have dragged you out."
Li Jintang shook his head, with no blame in his eyes.
"Let's rest here for a while. We will set off at dawn tomorrow." After Qu Lingfei said this, he held the sword in his arms, leaned his head against the tree trunk and closed his eyes, breathing deeply.
After fighting with the bear monster just now, everyone was exhausted both physically and mentally. They found a piece of open space to lean on and fell asleep.
After a day of running around, Li Jintang felt sore all over. As soon as he sat down, sleepiness came over him like a tide.
She rubbed her eyelids that were fighting and forced them open, fearing that a monster would attack her at night if she fell asleep.
"Baby, go to sleep, I'll watch over you."
The voice of the fortune book suddenly rang out, which was quite discordant in the dark night. Li Jintang was startled and worried that she would wake everyone up. When she was about to reach out to cover its mouth, she remembered that only she could hear it, and she immediately breathed a sigh of relief.
She asked, "Aren't you going to sleep?"
He flipped a page in the fortune book and said proudly, "I am a god, I don't need to sleep."
"Okay," Li Jintang thought for a moment, then felt overwhelmed with sleepiness, so he whispered, "Thank you for your hard work."
At night, the mist rose again, covering the treetops like a light veil. The girl slowly closed her eyes, and was startled to see her sister again just before closing them. She knew it was an illusion and wanted to wake everyone up to be on guard, but she felt a pain in her neck and immediately lost consciousness.
"Sir, I just fed them some healing pills. They will wake up in no time."
There was a rustling noise in my ears, like someone was moving something heavy and the object was hitting the floor.
Li Jintang's fingertips moved slightly. When she opened her eyes, everything in front of her was still hazy. She could vaguely see several figures walking back and forth. She was about to raise her hand to rub her eyes, but she felt a pain in her wrist and could not pull it out.
When the scene in front of her gradually became clear, she looked carefully and saw three or five strong men carrying wood on their shoulders and coming towards them. There were also a few wooden boxes scattered on the ground.
She lowered her head and saw that a rope covered with thorns was tied tightly around her twice, tying her to the pillar and making her unable to move.
The two monsters who came over seemed not to notice that she had woken up. They were carrying buckets of water that were almost overflowing. Li Jintang saw this and quickly held her breath and turned her head away to avoid the pain of the cold water.
After waiting for a long time, the expected cold feeling did not come. Instead, I heard a loud splash. A hole appeared under the wood for no reason, and the water inside flowed out.
The two demons were startled. A green demon with thorns on its head bared its teeth and claws and said fiercely, "That kid is awake. It seems he is the one who caused this trouble. I will send him to see the King of Hell right now!"
A four-eyed demon, completely burnt yellow, tapped his horn and cursed, "The master told us to keep an eye on him, and now you've killed him. Are you looking for death?"
The green demon felt pain, and he put his hands on his hips, his face full of dissatisfaction: "My Lord only said to keep an eye on him, but he didn't say we can't kill him."
"How can you watch after you've killed him?"
"Can't I just look at the corpse? My Lord didn't say whether I want to see it dead or alive."
“…”
The two demons were arguing and seemed to be about to start fighting.
Li Jintang took the opportunity to put her hands behind her back, trying to take out the dagger at her waist. Suddenly, she heard a cough. She turned her head and asked in surprise, "Xie An?"
Looking around, he found himself in an empty house with a green meadow outside. However, Qiu Yan and the other two were nowhere to be seen, and he had no idea where they had been imprisoned.
"Your knife is useless," Xie Changyan said, "You must burn it with fire."
Li Jintang was rubbing the rope with the blade. He was stunned when he heard this. He reached out to touch it, but there was indeed no change at all.
She frowned: "But where can we find fire now?"
Xie Changyan raised his eyes and said, "Hold them back."
The two demons argued for a moment, then quickly turned their attention back to them. The green demon shouted, "Are they all awake? Then quickly carry them to see the master."
"Wait," Li Jintang shouted hurriedly, unable to think of anything else to say. But seeing that the two of them had indeed stopped, he could only say, "My friend just had a fright. His brain is not working properly and he likes to talk nonsense. If you take him away, I'm afraid he will say nonsense in front of you adults."
The two demons said in unison, "What nonsense?"
Li Jintang pondered for a moment and guessed that the two demons were naturally foolish and had great respect for their master, so he casually said, "Even if you did something bad behind his back, he knows everything. If he reveals it later..."
As she spoke, her eyes drifted away, partly because she was looking for an opportunity to escape, and partly because she had belittled Xie An so much that she didn't dare look him in the eye.
The two demons looked at each other, both showing panic: "When have we ever betrayed the master?"
Li Jintang pursed his lips and said calmly, "What you did is naturally only known to you."
Finally, he added, "And my friend."
The two demons had already been frightened by this statement, so how could they notice the loophole in it? The green demon said in fear, "Could it be that when I was delivering the prey to you the other day, I stole a few bites and was seen by this kid?"
"No, no," the four-eyed demon said, his eyes widening as if they were about to pop out. "It must be me who broke the lord's vase yesterday, and that boy saw it."
The green-skinned demon immediately bared his sharp claws and said viciously, "Since that's the case, I don't think he can be kept alive. Let's attack now!"
"If you were to resort to violence, it would be irreversible," Li Jintang said, trying to keep her expression calm. "Your master told us to keep an eye on us, meaning he wanted us to be protected. If anything were to go wrong, how would you bear the responsibility?"
When the two demons heard this, they were half-believing and half-doubting, but they thought that the dead could not be resurrected. If they really killed them, the adults would blame them, and they would not be able to withstand the blame even if they had nine heads.
While they were hesitating, Li Jintang leaned over to the person next to him and asked quietly, "What's going on? Did you start a fire?"
Xie Changyan had been gathering spiritual energy in his fingertips, but he withdrew his hand upon hearing this, and said with a forced smile, "No."
"Forget it," the green demon snorted. "Then tell me, how can we cure this kid's... madness, so that he stops talking nonsense?"
"How could I possibly think when you've tied me up?" Li Jintang sighed helplessly, "This rope has sealed my consciousness. I'm afraid I can't even think right now."
In fact, she had no idea what spiritual consciousness was; she was just making it up.
"Oh!" cried the four-eyed demon. "She's trying to cheat and escape!"
"Then what are you waiting for?" The green-skinned monster raised its claws and pounced on him without waiting for him to stop.
Li Jintang was startled and turned his head away quickly without thinking. The sharp claws brushed past him, leaving a deep mark on the pillar behind him.
She was so frightened that she didn't even dare to move - how did these two suddenly become so smart?
"Alright, alright," the four-eyed demon shouted, "If you really kill him, how are you going to explain this to the adults later?"
Li Jintang slowly moved his body, and suddenly felt a heat on his back. He turned his head and saw a small flame burning beside him.
She was stunned and quickly retracted her hand. The flame cut through the rope and brushed past her hand, but fortunately it did not hurt her.
Her body suddenly felt lighter, and she looked up in surprise, meeting the young man's smiling eyes.
"Sorry," he said calmly, but there was no apology in his tone, "I just learned it and I'm not proficient yet."
Li Jintang skipped over this sentence, his eyes drifting outside. He said, "There must be many monsters guarding the house. We might as well pretend first and not let them see that the rope is broken."
As soon as she finished speaking, the rope that was wrapped around her body fell down lightly. She turned her head and met the eyes of the two monsters with wide eyes.
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