56 Ancient City (XI)
◎ He raised his hand and placed it on the girl's waist, gently embracing her.◎
"What on earth are you going to do?" Li Jintang was a little annoyed and glared at him angrily, "I said I want to go back..."
It seemed to have started from the moment he killed those two demons just now - although they did not have good intentions, she still couldn't help but feel afraid of him.
She had no idea what the person in front of her was trying to do.
"What can you do if you go back?" He suppressed his smile and looked at her gravely. "With your level of cultivation, it's better to stay here and smash the statue with me instead of going back and causing trouble."
"Smash... the statue?" Li Jintang was confused. The anger in his eyes just now turned into confusion. "Why smash..."
"If you still want to save them, don't ask any more questions." He raised his hand, broke open a door, and walked in without any courtesy.
After hesitating for a moment, Li Jintang decided to follow in - no matter what Xie An did, he would not frame them.
"Where is the statue?" After entering the house, she looked around in confusion.
Xie Changyan didn't answer. He walked straight to a wall, stared at it silently for a moment, then raised his hand and pressed lightly on the wall. The next moment, the wall slowly moved, revealing another world.
Li Jintang hurriedly followed, but the scene before her made her stunned for a moment.
This place looks exactly like the backyard of the inn that was accidentally discovered yesterday...
"Xie An, how did you know there was a secret door here?" She found it a little unbelievable.
"Guessed." He gave an answer that he knew she couldn't believe.
The statue in the courtyard was identical to the one in the inn. Li Jintang gripped the dagger in his hand and tilted his head to look at him. "Will smashing it directly help?"
He lowered his eyes and glanced at her, but did not answer. His white sleeves were suddenly blown up by the wind, and several golden lights flew towards him. In a blink of an eye, the statue that had stood majestically just now turned into rubble on the ground.
"You can obviously handle it yourself," Li Jintang put away the dagger and looked at him helplessly, "Why did you drag me over?"
The young man, his hands behind his back, stood in a white shirt amidst the mess on the ground. He tilted his head slightly and said casually, "I like it."
“…”
*
There was a sound of killing on the street. Qu Lingfei was surrounded by several citizens in the corner. He was not careful and a bloody mark was cut on his hand by a sharp weapon.
He felt a slight pain and quickly raised his hand to brush away the city dwellers. He asked in shock, "Are you really going to kill me just for the statue?"
He had just given in again and again and had never resorted to any brutal action, but unexpectedly these people became more and more aggressive and showed him no mercy.
"Who told you to stop?" Si Yun laughed. "You can only blame yourself for being unlucky. Anyone who sees the statue will die."
"Then you should be the first to commit suicide," Qiu Yan stuck out her tongue and said with a smile, "Is there anyone here who hasn't seen this? Why don't you kill everyone at once? That way you can show your unwavering loyalty to the city lord."
Si Yun was not annoyed by her provocation. Instead, he sneered, "You're still trying to show off your eloquence even when you're about to die. You're truly a good disciple from the Immortal Realm."
"Miss Si, something bad has happened..." A panicked voice came from behind.
"So..." Si Yun frowned impatiently. Before she could finish her sentence, her eyes suddenly widened and she grabbed the person over with one hand, "What have you been doing?!"
Half of the man's face was nearly rotted away, blood streaming down his shirt. He trembled as he spoke, "The statue... the statue was destroyed! I just heard some commotion over there, and when I arrived I discovered the secret passage had been opened. But before I could even see the intruder, I was... struck in the face by a flying rock."
"See, retribution has arrived!" Qiu Yan seized the opportunity to bandage Qu Lingfei's wound. Hearing this, she chuckled and said, "You used the statue to do such evil things that even the gods couldn't stand it."
"It's not a deity." Qu Lingfei glanced around and saw that the figure in white had indeed disappeared. He frowned and uttered a word with difficulty: "It is..."
The rest of the words were swallowed by a loud bang. Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked back. They saw several houses collapsing in a random manner. Rocks were flying everywhere, but fortunately no one was injured.
Si Yun's pupils trembled slightly, as if even if someone stabbed her from behind with a sword, she would not notice anything.
"Miss Si," someone in the crowd shouted, "I'll go report this to the City Lord!"
"Don't go!" Si Yun shouted immediately, "If we go now, what else can we do except cause more trouble to the City Lord?"
"Then..." The man asked timidly and hesitantly, "What do you think we should do?"
"Kill these people," Si Yun conjured a long whip out of thin air and held it in his hand. His voice was much calmer than before, "and then commit suicide to atone for your sins."
The citizens looked at each other in bewilderment. When they heard the word "suicide", they all showed fear on their faces and began to mutter to each other.
"What are you afraid of?" Seeing no one approaching, she lashed out with fury, lashing out with her whip and cursing, "Without the City Lord, do you think you'd still be alive today? You're afraid of death now, but if the City Lord finds out, you won't be able to escape!"
As soon as the words fell, there was some agitation in the crowd, but no one stepped forward for a while. They just pointed at the surrounded people with sharp weapons flashing with cold light.
"Miss Si, that's true, but the City Lord's motives for saving us weren't pure," one person bravely stepped forward and said, "Besides, haven't we sacrificed enough for him over the years?"
When he spoke, the crowd retreated a little, and scattered voices rang out:
"Yeah, let's not even talk about whether we can kill them or not. After finally accomplishing a great deed, only to then commit suicide out of fear of punishment, what kind of fool would be willing to do that?"
"When the City Lord finds out, do you think you'll still be alive?!" Si Yun gritted his teeth and issued an ultimatum: "Anyone who can take their heads, I will plead with the City Lord to spare his life."
"You are really loyal to you. I envy you so much." The young man appeared here silently at some point. Wherever his white clothes passed by, everyone's sharp weapons retreated and no one dared to take action for a while.
"If you send someone to repair the statue now, maybe it's still in time," he said, smiling as he stopped a few steps away from Si Yun. "If it's too late, you'll just be beheaded."
"It was you?" Si Yun pointed at him with a trembling hand, the whip in his hand. Compared to anger, his eyes were filled with more fear. "How...how did you do it in such a short time?"
The positions of the statues were completely random, and it was impossible for an ordinary person to find all the secret doors in such a short time, unless he...
"Could it be that you are also doing this for..."
"They're just a few stone statues, not worth mentioning." Xie Changyan's smile vanished completely. "Is killing us more important, or is the thing inside the statue more important?"
"Brother Xie, you..." Qu Lingfei finally recovered from his shock and said, "We've been traveling together all this time, and I'm only now realizing how extraordinary your strength is."
But Si Yun ignored him and swung the whip in his hand, shouting angrily: "Kill them!"
Suddenly, a crowd of people gathered. Qu Lingfei immediately retreated to Qiu Yan's side and said, "Junior sister, hide behind me."
"What's there to hide for?" Qiu Yan avoided his hand and stood in front, staring straight at Si Yun and speaking word by word: "I'm telling you, not only will we destroy these harmful statues, but when the city lord arrives, we'll send him to hell too!"
"Who wants to send me to hell?"
A cold voice suddenly sounded, and it was impossible to tell from which direction it came. The sky, which was cloudless just now, suddenly darkened, and a black-robed figure stepped into the air, appearing in everyone's sight like a black dot against a pure white background.
Except for those five people, the rest of the citizens knelt on the ground in fear, kowtowed continuously, and muttered: "Welcome to the city lord..." There were also intermittent cries of "city lord, spare my life" mixed in.
So this was the city lord who had made them willingly accept death? Qiuyan's heart trembled. She had just spoken ill of that man. Hadn't they heard him? Well, if they had heard, then so be it. With so many of them here, how could they possibly be afraid of him?
"Ayun, what trouble have they caused?" The black-robed man landed lightly, his toes tapping the ground. Facing the crowd of citizens, he smiled faintly and said, "How many times have I told you not to be rude to passersby?"
"Yes, City Lord," Si Yun knelt on the ground, and suddenly raised his head when he heard the words, saying: "I have failed in my duty. They...they gave the statue to..."
"Guess why I came?" The city lord sighed, "I knew it a long time ago."
Si Yun felt a sudden sharp pain in her knees. Her expression changed involuntarily, but she endured it silently. "I hope the City Lord will punish me."
"Punishment?" The city lord frowned slightly, his tone light and airy, yet it made the listeners' hair stand on end. "You lost the statue, so I have no choice but to make a statue of you."
From what he said, it seemed a bit regretful.
Turning people into statues? Li Jintang had never heard such horrifying words before, and even imagining it became difficult. Although he had just smashed the statue to protect himself, was this a single act that would harm the entire city?
"They're so loyal to you, but are there any other people like you?" Qiuyan couldn't stand it any longer. This sentence gave her goosebumps. She immediately sneered, "Killing people for a few statues, and even killing people... killing people... I thought you were some kind of living Bodhisattva, but you turned out to be a vicious snake."
"Shut up!" Someone spoke up, but Si Yun got angry for some reason. "The city lord wants to kill or chop people up, so when does it get to be an outsider's turn to criticize?"
Qiuyan was speechless for a moment—why had she just spoken up for these people? They had killed countless innocent people with just a few statues.
"So there's a girl among you," the city lord finally turned around, no longer showing his back in a black robe. "She's quite brave, no less courageous than the men under my command."
Hearing him compare his junior sister to this group, Qu Lingfei frowned, quite displeased, but he didn't get angry. He just smiled and bowed, saying, "We were just passing through, but we couldn't resist your warm hospitality. Now it seems that we can only fight to the death."
"Little brother, I think you're quite pleasing to the eye." The black-robed man folded his folding fan and leaped out suddenly, as fast as lightning. "Then I'll deal with you first!"
Qu Lingfei raised his sword to block, but was forced back repeatedly. Nangong Xiu was about to step forward to help, but was restrained by the besieging citizens.
"Senior Brother!" Qiu Yan was shocked and angry. She just wanted to go forward to help, but Si Yun waved a long whip in front of her to block her, and she couldn't get away at all.
The force grew stronger and stronger, and Qu Lingfei felt his arms nearly give out. Just as the fan was about to slit his throat, a flash of golden light suddenly flashed across. The young man's white clothes rustled as he grasped the fan between two fingers and instantly dragged the man aside.
"Thank you, brother. Thank you very much." Qu Lingfei had escaped death and couldn't even speak clearly at this moment.
The city lord didn't pursue them, but simply stood there watching them. It wasn't clear who he was looking at. He tilted his head, a look of confusion, as if he wasn't quite sure: "It's you?"
"Go help them." Xie Changyan said calmly. After Qu Ling flew away, he suddenly felt as if a thick fog was rising in front of his eyes, and his vision was confused for a moment.
The poison took effect. He closed his eyes and didn't worry about whether the other party would take the opportunity to attack him. He used his spiritual power to force the poison out.
"Xie An!" The girl's voice suddenly rang in my ears.
He suddenly opened his eyes, and a very strong white light came straight at him. His body shook violently and he was pushed aside.
"Xie An, are you okay?" Li Jintang ran over anxiously, waving his hand in front of him, "Can you see who I am?"
"Junior sister?!" However, this voice did not come from Qu Lingfei.
The young man raised his eyes coldly upon hearing the voice, and saw the man in black robe looking at him absentmindedly. In that instant, he raised his hand and put it on the girl's waist, gently embracing her.
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