7 Strange Room
"Does it still hurt?"
"Lord, be careful!"
The golden light pierced down like a sharp blade, and the fine cracks that appeared in the weak parts of the barrier quickly spread out. Suddenly, it seemed as if countless black shadows were shaking and colliding inside, followed by a huge shattering sound, and the barrier completely collapsed.
Along with the countless points of light that dissipated in the air, a large group of monsters with extremely strong demonic powers rushed out.
Xie Changyan raised his hand and swung his sword, knocking down the monsters in front of him. Suddenly, he heard a scream behind him. He turned around and saw a large pool of blood on the ground. The person lying on the ground was twitching his hands and feet. He squeezed out a few words with difficulty: "My lord, I...cannot accompany you to find Xuanyu."
He frowned slightly, and shot out a faint barrier from his fingertips, surrounding the two of them.
"Can you hold on?"
"My Lord, please flee quickly," he said, as if he had used up his last bit of strength. "The barrier...can't hold out for much longer."
This was indeed the case. The evil spirits hit the barrier in waves. Xie Changyan turned his back and stabbed them with his sword. Blood gushed out wherever the sword passed.
"Puff"
The young man froze suddenly. The cold laughs behind him now sounded like ghostly voices. He stretched out his palm to push the person behind him away. The moment the sword was pulled from his chest, his body shook violently and his face turned pale.
"Lin Xiangxun," Xie Changyan raised his hand to wipe the blood from the corner of his mouth. The opponent had almost used all his spiritual power in this sword attack. The excruciating pain was like a bloody mouth opening wide, threatening to devour him. "How long have you been coveting this position?"
Lin Xiangxun laughed heartily, looking up at the sky. He looked nothing like the man who had just been injured and was on the verge of death. "I'm almost dead, so there's no need to ask so many questions, right?"
As if he could no longer hold on, Xie Changyan suddenly spat out a large mouthful of blood, half-knelt on the ground with one hand, and his consciousness was almost hazy.
The other party approached with a triumphant smile, bent down and took the thing from his waist.
In the sea of blood, he recognized that it was the fragment of black jade that he had found with great difficulty.
All that remained in my ears was the roar of the monster.
After a long time, the young man stood up by supporting himself on the ground, raised his hands with all his strength, and drove away most of the monsters.
He didn't expect that someone would come to rescue him.
Since she came to me on her own initiative, I might as well make full use of her before leaving.
When his injuries gradually healed, he left quietly in the rainy night and returned to the place where he had broken in.
The barrier on that area has been repaired.
Thinking of this, he lowered his hand, and the spiritual power gathered at his fingertips dissipated.
Breaking this barrier is no easy task, and it would be impossible without sacrificing half of one's cultivation. Furthermore, the Xuanyu has not yet been found, so how can one give up?
But I haven't figured out the terrain of the demon world yet, so where should I start looking? Just as he was thinking this, he suddenly heard a burst of chatter not far away. He hid to the side and saw a man and a woman walking side by side. They were Qu Lingfei and Qiu Yan.
Qu Lingfei said, "Don't worry, Junior Sister. As long as you haven't lost the treasure given by Master, it's not too bad."
As he said this, a chill ran down his spine. "When Master gave this to us, Uncle-Master tried to stop us. If we had really lost it, I'm afraid we wouldn't be able to return to our sect."
Qiu Yan sighed to herself and said, "I think this treasure of Master's is not accurate. It's said to increase a person's spiritual power, but how come it can't even defeat a few monsters?"
"How dare you talk about our teacher?" Qu Lingfei's eyes widened, and his words were full of reprimands. "Maybe we're not using the right method..."
Xie Changyan stopped where he was and watched the two men leave.
He turned out to be from the fairyland... He thought to himself, when did the fairyland have such a treasure?
He pondered it secretly and already had the answer.
Since the last great war between immortals and demons, the jade-like Xuanyu has been shattered into fragments. The immortal realm controls three of the pieces, while the rest reside in the demon realm. I've also heard that the fragments are interconnected. If we can find one, wouldn't the others be easily within our grasp?
So he followed them secretly and happened to see the two men in such a predicament in the inn. After seeing enough of the excitement, he wanted to help them, but unexpectedly, Li Jintang was also there.
It really ruined his good fortune.
But when she was in trouble, he still helped her. Well, it's not a bad thing to have a doctor with you.
By the way, I also returned the favor.
——
As the sun rose, a misty fog entered the inn, shrouding the people's heads. The four of them sat around the square table, discussing their next move.
Qu Lingfei said, "We are not familiar with the demon world, and this barrier is difficult to break. If we force our way in, we're afraid we'll fall into the hands of the demon."
Li Jintang suddenly remembered the map in the fortune book and hurriedly turned the page, but found that there was only a little blue light left on the page.
She was greatly disappointed when she saw this - how could it forget so quickly?
"Why not ask some of the residents?" Qiuyan said, scanning the surroundings. "They've been here for so long, they must know how to break the barrier."
"I don't think she knows," Qu Lingfei said. Seeing that she looked unhappy, he quickly changed his tone, "But it wouldn't hurt to give it a try. Junior Sister, you wait here. I'll be back soon."
As soon as he finished speaking, he stepped off the wooden stool and walked straight to the counter.
"Atang, why are you eating so little?" They had only ordered three dishes, shared by the four of them, and there was still half left. Qiuyan stood up, took the teapot, leaned forward, and poured her tea.
Li Jintang was flattered and was about to take the teapot to pour himself some tea, but he saw the other person tilt his hand and the light green tea flow into his cup.
She carefully picked up the tea that was almost overflowing and took a small sip.
"No thanks."
Xie Changyan covered the rim of the cup with one hand and moved it away.
Qiuyan withdrew her hand from mid-air, thinking that he just didn't like drinking tea, and didn't think much about it.
"Brother Qu, why did you take so long?" Li Jintang placed his hands on his knees and glanced at the counter. He saw Qu Lingfei looking back, pointing at them with one hand, and saying something to the shopkeeper.
The tea in the pot was almost empty, and Qiuyan had been unable to sit still for a long time. When she heard her question, she simply stood up and said, "I'll go take a look."
"No need," Li Jintang reached out and gently tugged at the hem of her skirt, motioning to the side, "He's back."
Sure enough, Qu Lingfei turned around and waved to the shopkeeper while striding towards him.
"I just asked casually, but as soon as I heard the word 'enchantment,' everyone passing by rushed over with strange looks on their faces." Qu Lingfei had been talking to the man for a long time and was extremely thirsty. He gushed down half a cup of tea before continuing, "The shopkeeper also asked who I was with, and I told him. That's when he told me to come back and wait."
"Why can't you just tell you directly?" Qiu Yan grew impatient and said, "It's just a method. If you know, you know. If you don't know, you don't know. What's the point of waiting?"
As soon as these words were spoken, there was a whoosh sound, and a green light flashed, and a teacup flew out in front of his eyes. Then there was a loud noise from the left. It turned out that the teacup hit someone's abdomen, and knocked two people out one after another.
Xie Changyan's fingers were still wet with tea stains. His expression changed slightly, and he said in a deep voice, "Let's go."
Before they could move, they sensed murderous intent all around them and saw dozens of people holding knives, surrounding them from the front and back.
Qu Lingfei's expression suddenly changed. He slammed his hand on the table and angrily shouted at the shopkeeper, "I just gave you the money. If you didn't know, I wouldn't force you. But now you're bringing so many people to surround us. What's your intention?"
The shopkeeper laughed heartily: "We don't need a reason to kill a traitor." He pointed his finger and said: "Leave no one alive."
Thinking he was being ambushed, Qu Lingfei, enraged, drew his sword and charged forward. Attacked from both sides, he was powerless to defend himself. With two sharp, piercing sounds, the two blades were deflected.
He turned around and raised his chin towards him: "Thank you, brother."
Xie Changyan did not answer. The spiritual power at his fingertips turned into several silver needles. He raised his hand and immediately shot towards the enemy like meteors.
"careful!"
Seeing that Qiuyan was no match for his opponent, Li Jintang had no time to pull her away. In a panic, he grabbed the wine jug on the table next to him, blocked her in front of him and swung it hard. The scalding tea spilled on the other person's face, causing him to lose his direction for a moment with the pain. He could only cover his face and scream.
"Run."
Li Jintang grabbed her hand and turned back as he ran, saying urgently, "Don't fight anymore, it's more important to escape."
The two of them ran all the way to an open space. They were now some distance away from the inn. When they stopped to catch their breath, they caught a glimpse of Xie Changyan and the other man following them out.
Before she could even show any joy, Qu Ling rushed over and said, "They've gone to get reinforcements. I'm afraid we can't hold them off. Junior Sister, you two go ahead. Brother Xie and I will hold them off here and reunite with you later."
"Why are you talking so much?" Qiuyan said anxiously, "Why don't we just go together? Why are you staying here?"
"There's a sound of horses neighing over there," Li Jintang said, worried that the two would start arguing. "That must be a stable. We might as well go and borrow a few horses to escape."
"Borrow?" Xie Changyan suddenly said, sneering, "If you said 'rob', it might be more convincing."
There was a cry of killing everywhere: "The traitors are just ahead, don't let them escape!"
So, several people immediately ran to the horse farm and actually stole a few horses from it.
Qu Lingfei took the time to throw out a handful of silver and said, "I'll buy your horses. Thank you very much!"
Li Jintang gripped the reins and felt a tightness around his waist. He glanced at her with concern and asked, "Sister Qiuyan, are you okay?"
"Don't pay attention to me..." Qiuyan's voice was slightly trembling.
Li Jintang raised his hand and struck the horse's back, only to hear the wind roaring beside his ears.
Although she was not good at martial arts, she had been riding horses with her father since she was a child. Over time, her riding skills became quite good.
Li Jintang tightened his grip and slowed down the horse's pace, following closely behind Qu Lingfei and the others without being caught up by the people behind.
They ran into a forest. The wind blew away the leaves, and for a moment the only sound they could hear was the sound of horses' hooves circling among the trees.
I don't know how much time had passed, and I thought I had escaped. But when I looked back, I saw that the group of people were still following me, and I was afraid that their horses were almost exhausted.
Suddenly, everything in front of my eyes went dark. When I ran closer, I realized that it was a steep slope, and there was a muddy swamp below the slope.
Several people pulled the reins tightly, and suddenly thought that if they fell into the swamp, they would just get dirty, but the people behind them would not chase them. So thinking of this, they simply let go and let the horses rush down.
After hearing a few noises, the group of people saw them rolling down and disappeared in an instant. They really stopped chasing them and turned back.
The four people just wanted to escape from the siege of the crowd, but they never thought that this was actually the man-eating swamp which was quite famous in the local area. Once they fell into it, they would be eaten until not even their corpses were left.
——
When their consciousness was in chaos, no one knew who woke up first and then woke up the others. Only then did they realize that they were actually in a meadow.
Looking up again, there was a slope in front of me, and above the slope was a house with black tiles and white walls.
"What's going on?" Qu Lingfei climbed to his feet, surprised. "Didn't we fall into the swamp? How come we're here again?"
He glanced down and saw that there were still stolen goods on his clothes. It was definitely not an illusion. Could this be the situation under the swamp?
"You're hurt."
Li Jintang raised his eyes and looked at the person next to him.
Xie Changyan was in a bad position just now, and he frequently hit branches when he fell. He accidentally cut his arm and blood oozed out bit by bit.
"It's just a flesh wound." He was about to put down his sleeve when someone pulled his wrist away. Following a cold touch, the wound healed.
Li Jintang raised his head, the spiritual power in his fingertips still lingering: "Do you still feel pain now?"
“…”
The young man's hand trembled, and he pulled it back, saying nonchalantly, "It doesn't hurt at all."
Are all the protagonists in the storybooks so concerned about their reputation? Li Jintang glanced at him again, but didn't say this out loud.
The four of them looked around. Apart from the house, the rest was just empty grass.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
