28 The Valley of No Return (IV)
◎Worried about you◎
The moon was dim, and the shadows of the trees swayed like ghosts in the night wind. Two figures, one black and one white, flashed back and forth in the woods, like black and white pieces playing against each other on a chessboard.
The breath behind him was getting closer and closer. The young man stopped and his snow-white sleeves fluttered in the wind.
"Did he send you here?" He looked at the newcomers calmly. Although it was a question, his tone was extremely calm, as if he was stating a fact.
The black-robed figure landed in front of him, kicking up a cloud of dust. The sword in his hand flashed, and he sneered, "Xie Changyan, you know exactly how you came to sit on the throne of the Lord. Today is the day you'll get your comeuppance."
The tourniquet tied around his shoulder was too tight. Xie Changyan pulled the loose thread off with one hand, leaving blood stains between his fingers.
He raised his eyes coldly and said, "The rest of you can come together."
The black-robed man suddenly laughed and taunted, "Looking at your current state, I'm afraid you can't even hold the sword steadily. Killing you alone is enough for me!"
As soon as he finished speaking, he kicked out with his hind legs, stirring up a large cloud of dust. In a flash, the tip of the sword was right in front of him. The young man's hands still hung at his side, but the long sword at his waist had already leaped out, ruthlessly blocking the oncoming sword light.
As if he had not expected this move, the man in black robe was knocked several steps away by the sword force, and his eyes showed surprise as he landed on the ground.
"I'm sorry to disappoint you." Xie Changyan smiled slightly, and with a wave of his finger, the long sword was hanging beside the man's neck, and a trace of bright red flowed from under the blade.
The black-robed man frowned, and the black cloth covering him moved. He roared, "If you want to kill me, just kill me. Why are you fussing?"
The sword flashed suddenly, and he closed his eyes. The sword only moved slightly and lifted off the black cloth covering his face.
The face under the black cloth looked very familiar.
"You are Lin Xiangxun's man, where is he?"
Xie Changyan was about to sheath his sword when his pupils suddenly shrank and his arm stopped in mid-air.
When the man in black robe was about to put away his sword, he suddenly leaned forward, thrust his neck against the blade, and blood gushed out immediately.
The young man stood with his hands behind his back, gazing at the corpse for a long moment, his peak-like brows drawn lower. He lowered his hand to wipe the blood from the blade. A white shadow flashed in the moonlight, and the figure was gone from the forest.
A mass of black clouds flew rapidly overhead, and wherever they passed, all the grass and trees withered.
Three bright fires rose from the ground, flickering in the darkness.
"Brother, these things are so troublesome. Such a small fire has no effect on them at all." Qiu Yan raised the torch in his hand and drove away the bats that flew over from time to time. He felt his arms tingling. "I really want to set fire to this place."
Just as she finished speaking, a shadow moved towards her. Qu Lingfei half-blocked her and said, "If you're tired, you might as well hide behind me."
"No need..." She was about to refuse, but the torch in her hand had already been taken away. She simply lowered her hand and rubbed her weak arm, "Then I'll trouble you, Senior Brother."
Suddenly, a sword swung across his face. Nangong Xiu waved his hand to deflect a bat spirit that flew towards him, then glared at them. "Hey, you two, can you please pay attention at a time like this?"
Qu Lingfei smiled, then turned serious and said, "Nangong Xiu, wasting time with them like this isn't a solution. Why don't we charge out?"
Nangong Xiu immediately understood what he meant: "That's exactly what I meant!"
Qu Lingfei looked up at the sky intently, and swung the torch in his hand suddenly. The flame drew a fiery arc in the air, forcing the gathered bat spirits back several meters.
He shouted in a low voice: "Run!" Then he took the hand of the person next to him, and with a flash of his figure, he ran towards the depths of the forest.
The three of them ran straight to a cave. There was no trace of the bat spirit behind them, so they stopped to catch their breath.
Qiuyan squatted on the ground holding the sword, muttering, "I don't know how Atang and the others are doing now..."
Before Qu Lingfei could recover from his recent escape, his hand reached out and stroked her hair. "Don't worry, Junior Sister. Atang and Brother Xie are together. Nothing will happen to them."
The girl was stunned for a moment, then raised her head and looked at him. Feeling that he moved his hand away stiffly, she hurriedly lifted up her clothes and stood up, her cheeks slightly flushed.
Nangong Xiu didn't notice the two men's little tricks at all. He roughly brushed the dust off his clothes, cursing a few times. Finally, he looked at Qu Lingfei and said, "Go find someone after daybreak?"
The "people" he was looking for were Li Jintang and Xie An.
Qu Lingfei looked up at the sky and said, "No need to wait until dawn, let's go now."
Being in a place like this, I guess I can't sleep.
The thick, inky night was slowly dissolved by a hint of pale yellow on the horizon. The moonlight filtering through the trees was like ashes scattered by the wind, floating in the darkness.
The boy seemed to be dragging a soulless body, his expression slightly tired. He walked back to the lake. A patch of yellow under the big tree swayed gently in the wind and bounded towards him.
"I just listened to you and stayed here waiting for you." Li Jintang saw the blood oozing from his shoulder. "Then can you tell me what you have been doing?"
Xie Changyan lowered his eyes, his long eyelashes drooping, hiding the emotions in his eyes.
"None of your business."
He seemed to be completely exhausted. He sat down facing the lake very slowly and closed his eyes quietly, as if the cool breeze blowing from the lake could make him feel more comfortable.
There was a sound of clothes rubbing beside him. He opened his eyes and saw the girl sitting next to him with her skirt lifted up.
"Xie An, are you really not afraid of death at all?"
She blinked and asked this unreasonable question.
The young man tilted his head slightly, his eyes fixed on her for a moment: "What do you think?"
Li Jintang couldn't guess what he meant. She hugged her knees and said, "You've lost so much blood, why did you still want to fight with others?"
The other party was silent for a while, with the corners of his eyes slightly curved, as if laughing at her naive words just now.
"Are you waiting to be beheaded?"
"If you can't fight, just run away," she said matter-of-factly. "Running away is for self-preservation and it won't bring shame on you."
Are all the protagonists in the storybooks like this? No matter whether they can win or not, they have to fight to the death to win.
He stopped talking, and she didn't ask any more questions. She lowered her head and fiddled with the things in her hand. After a while, she handed him a new tourniquet.
"This is different," she whispered, "When daybreak comes, there will be no more bleeding, and no more pain."
Without waiting for him to reach out to take it, she gently hung the tourniquet on his shoulder, then stood up and sat under a tree farther away from him. "I won't peek. Go change the dressing quickly."
There was a rustling sound behind the waist-high bushes, but there was clearly no wind. Li Jintang stood up suddenly and reached for the dagger at his waist.
It can't be some kind of monster...
She bent down to pick up a few stones, suppressed her panic, and took the initiative to raise her hand and threw one of them out.
“Ouch!”
"Brother, are you okay?"
This voice is so familiar...
It was Qu Lingfei and the others! She was delighted, but before she could even call out, she saw a sword push aside the bushes, and the other party shouted, "What monster is here... Atang?"
Qiuyan said half of her words and then froze there, as if she couldn't believe it. Finally, when the girl stepped forward and wanted to hug her, she hurriedly put away her sword.
"Atang, why are you here?"
"We..." Li Jintang was about to answer when he suddenly noticed that there was someone next to him. He turned around and saw that the person who was sitting quietly by the lake had walked over to him without him noticing.
He just lowered his head slightly and looked at her. She could tell that he didn't want her to tell anyone what had just happened.
"We were chased by the bat demon for a long time, and we ended up here," she said succinctly, omitting the part about the flower demon and Xie Changyan's inexplicable departure and then bringing up his old injury. "Sister Qiuyan, how did you find this place? I was planning to look for you at daybreak."
After she said this, she felt that the gazes focused on her seemed to fade a little.
"We stumbled upon this place by accident—Hey, have you also been possessed by the bat spirit?" Qiu Yan asked curiously, "These things really are everywhere."
"It's not just everywhere," Qu Lingfei suddenly interrupted them, "it's more like a haunting presence."
Dust rose up again without wind, the sky was dark, and the strange cries circled around and around, as if there was no end.
Are these things still on patrol?!
"There are too many of them. We can't kill them all." Qu Lingfei waved his sword to block for a while, and finally retreated to the crowd helplessly.
"They don't dare approach the lake," Xie Changyan said, his eyes glancing across the surface before he walked away. "Jump in."
"But Brother Xie, you..." Qu Lingfei hesitated to speak.
The young man's eyes flickered, and his gaze passed lightly over the girl. He smiled slightly and said, "Miss Li taught me how to swim a long time ago."
Li Jintang was stunned for a moment when his name was suddenly called, then looked at him in confusion: "When did I..."
Before she could finish her words, the breath of the bat spirit behind her was getting closer and closer. She grabbed the raised rock on the shore with one hand and jumped in with the others. The cold lake water instantly soaked her whole body.
After a while, she exerted some force with her arms, supported the big rock and floated slightly out of the water, revealing a pair of eyes looking out.
It was quiet all around, and the dense woods could not block the red at the end - the sun was about to come out.
Li Jintang climbed up the shore wet, and reached out to pull everyone up one by one.
"Where's Xie An?"
There was no one else in the lake, and her heart tightened - she clearly had not taught him to swim. Did he say that just to avoid worrying everyone?
"Thank you, brother." Qu Lingfei turned his head and looked in one direction, surprised: "What's wrong with you? What's wrong with you..."
Upon hearing this, Li Jintang quickly turned around and saw that he was still standing there in good health. He felt relieved at first, but then he noticed that he was not wet at all. He couldn't help but ask curiously, "Xie An, are you... okay?"
He has been standing alone on the shore for so long, so wouldn’t he be the target of the bat demon?
"Don't you want to ask me why I didn't go into the water?" The boy's back left the tree trunk, and his steps were not as unsteady as last night.
"Yes, Brother Xie," Qu Lingfei didn't realize who he was talking to and quickly interrupted him, "How come you're still standing on the shore?"
Xie Changyan did not answer, but his gaze lingered on the girl for a long time, as if waiting for her to respond.
"Isn't it good that you're okay?" Li Jintang didn't understand why he was so obsessed with this question. She raised her head slightly and met his downcast eyes. "I was worried that you would be like last time, but I didn't expect you to be so capable that you're not even afraid of the bat demon."
As if he had not expected such an answer, the young man was slightly stunned, and the coldness in his eyes gradually disappeared.
He clearly had a better way, and they would be safe if they just stayed on the shore, but he deliberately asked them to jump into the water. But she just wanted him to be safe, right?
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