29 The Valley of No Return (V)
◎Fell into a trap◎
At this time, the dense gaps between the trees could not block the sunlight, and the sky was already bright. Everyone rested for a while, and when their clothes were almost used up by the spiritual energy in their bodies, they prepared to set off.
Nangong Xiu shook out the map and suddenly exclaimed, "Huh?" in surprise, "This map..."
Qu Lingfei immediately put his arm around his shoulder and came over: "How's the map?"
A corner of the map was black, and even after wiping it several times with his hands, it wouldn't come off. Nangong Xiu's expression suddenly changed. "Could it be that the kid surnamed Tian did something to it yesterday?"
"If he really did something, can't you see it?" Xie Changyan smiled faintly, with some sarcasm in his words.
However, this person didn't hear anything at all. He nodded thoughtfully and said, "Never mind. It doesn't affect the route at all. It's just a little dirty."
"Wait a minute," Li Jintang stood on tiptoe and stared at the map for a long time. When he mentioned the word "route," he quickly reached out to take the map: "Can you show it to me?"
"Atang, did you see anything?"
She took the map and carefully held it in her hands, flipping through it. Hearing Qiuyan's question, she turned around and pointed at the three characters "旡归谷" on it, saying, "Do you think this '旡' is a bit strange?"
"Strange? What's strange about it?"
"This map was drawn with spiritual power, but if you look closely, you'll find," Li Jintang's fingers gently traced the strokes of the character "旡." "The extra stroke on the left side of the character '旡' uses a different spiritual power than the rest of the characters on the map. Clearly, they weren't created by the same person."
After saying this, she noticed that everyone's expressions changed slightly. She paused and continued, "I guess the black stain was accidentally rubbed by the monster, but this word was indeed written by Tian Heng."
After she finished speaking, she raised her hand to remove the extra stroke, but then her brows slightly frowned, her fingers froze, and she looked a little embarrassed - the spiritual power of the person who wrote it was higher than hers, and with her cultivation level, she naturally couldn't remove it.
Just when he was in an awkward situation, a hand suddenly extended out, and as the fingers slid, the excess spiritual power on the map was dissolved, and the word "旡" suddenly changed into "无".
She looked up and saw that the boy had withdrawn his hand and was looking at her indifferently with his eyes lowered.
The three of them widened their eyes and gasped in disbelief.
So Tian Hengshun's original intention in following the map yesterday was to tamper with the information on it, and then deliberately let someone search it and hand it back to them, so as to lead them down the wrong path?
"The Unreturning Valley is much more dangerous than the No Returning Valley," Nangong Xiu snorted and said angrily, "This guy wants us to die here!"
"I think this place is quite peaceful during the day, but I'm afraid some monster will come out at night," Qu Lingfei said, calming down first. "Why don't we leave first and settle the score with that Tian guy later."
The map was no longer useful after being altered, but fortunately, the valley remained relatively normal during the day, with no monsters blocking the way. Li Jintang reached out and tapped the fortune book. They had almost formed a tacit understanding. With just one tap, the fortune book jumped up and turned the page, and a pale blue light painted a map of the valley.
"I still remember some of the way here," Li Jintang touched his nose and lied again, "Everyone can follow me."
After she finished speaking, she felt someone's gaze resting on her. She turned around, but Xie Changyan just turned his eyes away, and their gazes met and then separated.
Well, this made her feel even more guilty.
Fortunately, the three men did not suspect anything and just followed her all the way. They felt that the road in front of them was becoming more and more familiar, and the sunlight above their heads was becoming hotter and hotter. It was obvious that they were almost at the end.
"Damn it! When I get out of here, I'm going to skin that bastard alive!"
Qu Lingfei squinted at him and said with amusement, "Brother Nangong, you've been saying this all along. It's better to be careful now. No one can predict whether there will be danger ahead."
Before he could finish his words, there was a "crack" sound under the feet of the person next to him, like the sound of something breaking.
Just as he said it, Nangong Xiu froze and dared not move. He slowly lowered his head to look at what he was stepping on.
"It's just a piece of vine," Qu Lingfei laughed. "Brother Nangong, I think you're being too tight..."
Before he could finish his words, the vine that was stepped on suddenly stretched out and quickly wrapped around the waists of several people.
Qu Lingfei cried out in alarm and quickly jumped away: "Everyone be careful!"
These things came at her fiercely, and had some thick and long thorns on them. Li Jintang dodged one by leaning sideways, and another one came at her seamlessly. She hurriedly drew out her dagger to block it, and the blade hit the hard thorns, producing some sparks.
"Thank you, brother," Qu Lingfei, sweating profusely, turned around and shouted, "Do you have a way to break this evil thing?"
Xie Changyan glanced at him and said concisely: "Cut its roots." After that, the long sword was unsheathed and stabbed straight into the ground. With two bangs, the roots buried underground were all cut off.
The vines suddenly seemed to have been hit by a needle and stood still without moving. Li Jintang looked at the vines hanging in front of him in shock. Before he could block them, he quickly took a few steps back and moved away from the thorns.
"Could these things also be set up by Tian...Tian Heng?" Qiu Yan was also frightened by the sudden change. Now that she was out of danger, she couldn't help but stamp her feet and curse a few times.
"He doesn't have that ability," Xie Changyan looked around and said with a smile, "Instead of planning how to get revenge after he gets out, it's better to think about how to save his life right now."
Everyone was stunned by these words. Qu Lingfei asked curiously, "Brother Xie, what do you mean by that..."
Suddenly there was a violent shaking, his face turned pale, and he swallowed the rest of his words.
They saw a crack in front of them rapidly spreading towards them, followed by sharp wooden thorns suddenly popping out from the ground, even more ferocious than the vines just now.
"Oh my, I'm going to die today!"
"Stop talking." Li Jintang reached out and pressed it back to his waist, his hand holding the dagger shaking constantly.
Qu Lingfei shouted, "Everyone, quickly fly your swords! This thing isn't very tall, so we can dodge it by flying."
“…”
Why are you here again...
Were these traps designed to target her alone? Despair flickered in Li Jintang's eyes.
"It's a trap."
The girl turned around suddenly when she heard that and saw that Xie Changyan was still standing there like her, with his sword hanging neatly at his waist.
"Xie brother, we all know it's a trap..."
Qu Lingfei and the other two had already leaped into the air. Qiu Yan bent down and stretched out a hand, slowly manipulating the long sword. "Atang, I'll pull you up."
Li Jintang was still pondering the meaning of the previous sentence. Hearing this, he raised his head slightly, and the shadows of several hidden weapons flying across the sky were reflected in his eyes.
Her pupils suddenly shrank: "Be careful behind you!" After saying that, she hurriedly threw out her dagger to knock it down, but those hidden weapons seemed to have eyes and turned around, leaving her dagger empty.
Qiu Yan was stunned for a moment and couldn't swing her sword to block. Before she could react, a figure suddenly rushed over and pushed her away.
"ah!"
I heard a low shout, and when I looked closely, I saw that Qu Lingfei had actually rolled off the sword, holding his abdomen and groaning in pain on the ground.
Qiu Yan's mind went blank for a moment. She ran to Qu Lingfei and checked his injuries with trembling hands: "Senior brother, you, you..." There was a large pool of blood on the ground. She was speechless, and her voice was already filled with tears.
The hidden weapons flying in the air were knocked down. Li Jintang bent down and picked up one by the tail, saying in horror, "It's poisonous!"
"Atang," Qiuyan turned around and looked at her with tears on her face, her tone almost pleading, "Please save my senior brother, he..." She didn't say anything else, but just made way for the other party to come over.
Qu Lingfei was barely breathing, his face pale and his eyes tightly shut, a sign of excessive blood loss. Li Jintang squatted down and reached into his purse before remembering that he had given all the tourniquets to Xie An.
...Never mind, using spiritual power is also possible.
She stretched out her hand, her fingertips continuously channeling spiritual energy. When the bleeding from the wound stopped, she stood up rather dejectedly. Looking at Qiu Yan's expectant expression, she spoke with difficulty, "I can only temporarily help suppress the wound for Big Brother Qu, but I can't... cure the poison."
Noticing the man's body sway violently, she quickly supported him and said, "Isn't there a town nearby? There might be an antidote for this poison there."
"Yes, the town is so close to this thing, there must be an antidote." Qiu Yan barely managed to steady herself, but this sentence seemed to be comforting herself. After she finished speaking, she was about to bend down to carry Qu Lingfei on her back.
"Go away, how can you let a girl carry someone on her back?" Nangong Xiu had already taken the initiative to carry the person on his back. Qiu Yan was stunned when she heard that, and then smiled bitterly.
Li Jintang stood there silently for a moment, looking at them sadly.
Who knows what will happen if Qu Lingfei's poison is delayed any longer... She dug her five fingers into her palms, and inexplicably felt a little guilty - if she had studied harder in the past, could she have saved Brother Qu?
"Are you feeling sorry for him?"
A voice suddenly rang out from behind her, and she replied without turning her head: "I said before, we are friends..."
"So you're blaming yourself for not being able to heal him?" The young man silently twitched the corners of his lips, his smile very faint. "Since the hidden weapon wasn't yours, why take the blame for it for nothing?"
"You're wrong," Li Jintang said, turning around. His face was expressionless, as if nothing could upset him. Suddenly, she sighed and whispered, "Let's go. Your injuries aren't fully healed yet. You can't stay any longer."
Xie Changyan raised his eyelids—he'd expected her to say something to refute him, but he hadn't expected her to say anything more than these few words. He averted his gaze, feeling bored, and caught up with her in just a few steps.
The town wasn't too far from Wugui Valley, but Qu Lingfei had been groggy on the way, constantly asking for water in his half-conscious state. Everyone had no choice but to stop and search for water. By the time they reached the town, a faint crimson hue had appeared on the horizon.
The few of them randomly found an inn. Qiuyan wiped the blood around his wound, and Li Jintang helped her.
"Atang," she said after finishing the treatment. She turned and looked at the girl. After a long pause, she said, "Nangong Xiu and I will take my senior brother to find a doctor. Tonight... I will let you stay with Fellow Daoist Xie for the time being."
"Why?" Li Jintang didn't feel wronged about being with Xie An. He just said, "If it's just the three of you, what will you do if you run into any danger?"
"I've observed this, and it's just an ordinary town. There's no danger," Qiu Yan hesitated, then said, "but I'm worried Tian Heng will bring more people after us. If we come in too many numbers, it might be too conspicuous. Besides, we can't bring the map with us while we're looking for a doctor, so I'd like you to stay and guard us."
As if she was afraid that the girl would worry, she added, "I have a few more talismans here. If anything unexpected happens, I'll send you a message then, okay?"
Li Jintang pondered for a moment and felt that what she said made sense, so he took the talisman and nodded, saying, "Okay, then you guys should be careful. Xie An and I will be guarding you tonight. You can just take Brother Qu to get treated for his injuries."
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