The flash of light was just a momentary one, but its power was so overwhelming that not only the others but also Tang Wuke himself was unable to react.
In the early morning, the river water was extremely freezing. Her ankles were frozen blue and white in an instant. Clutching her broken eyeballs and torn hair, she looked up at Yun Xian in bewilderment: "This..."
Yun Xian stuffed half an apple into Taiping's mouth, wiped his hand quickly on his sleeve, ignored Xue Lingxiu's deep breath next to him, and jumped to Tang Wuke's side in a few steps, holding her hand with a serious expression and looking at her carefully.
Spiritual energy. No matter how you look at it, it's still spiritual energy. But the only difference is that each person's spiritual energy will have a different color due to the different attributes of their spiritual roots. For example, Yun Xian's spiritual energy is a faint red glow of fire, but the spiritual light that just burst out from Tang Wuke's hand is clearly pure and without any attributes.
"What is this?" Tang Wuke stuttered. She said confusedly, "I didn't do anything..."
"Don't move." Yun Xian said quickly, "Relax, don't resist."
She mobilized her spiritual power, transformed it into a small beam, and gently probed it into Tang Wuke's palm - this method was actually very dangerous. No one would do this except for close relatives and friends. After all, the most important thing for a cultivator is the spiritual home. Subconsciously, they would violently reject all prying eyes from others, which could easily cause trouble. But Yun Xian had never tried it, and Tang Wuke had never tried it either. They just stood there stupidly.
Yun Xian's spiritual energy penetrated into her palm and was stunned again.
She was clearly able to mobilize tremendous spiritual energy just now, but now her body is empty, without any trace of spiritual roots at all. She is just an ordinary person!
The commotion just now was too great. Not only the cultivators, but even the townspeople had sensed something was amiss. Many auras were rushing towards them. They had to leave that aside for now and change places immediately. Liu Xu caught Yun Xian's eye and immediately picked up Tang Wuke and stuffed him into the cloth bag behind him, whispering, "Hold tight!"
Tang Wuke: “Yeah!!”
Before the black snake was led over, Yun Xian and his group changed direction again. The road became more and more familiar, and they realized that they were near the black shop selling pig's trotter soup. However, in the early morning, only the ruins and cobwebs were left of the building. No one had entered for at least several years.
The door was sealed, and the notice beside it was almost peeling. Qiao Lingshan tried to decipher it. "It basically said that the owner of this restaurant had killed countless people, and when he was arrested by the government, he hanged himself in the restaurant. Since then, it has been seriously haunted, and people are advised not to enter unless necessary."
"I see." He had noticed it before. How could someone who had committed suicide by hanging be so rotten? Yun Xian urged, "Then let's go in quickly."
Xue Lingxiu: “…”
The current citizens of the city are equivalent to countless spies. To avoid them, you can only go to places where there are few people. This place is so plagued by spirits, so naturally there are fewer people coming here. The most dangerous place is the safest place!
Yun Xian stumbled in, her robe covered with spider webs, fallen leaves, dust and clay, it was so dirty that it was colorful and full of spring. Her hair was unusually neatly tied up. Xue Lingxiu had tried not to look at her for fear that she would have a mysophobia attack, but in the dim space, she saw the small ice hairpin in Yun Xian's hair.
He suddenly recalled it suspiciously.
When did this thing become available? Was it available before? Did Yun Xian buy it himself? No. Absolutely not. This person is so lazy that he doesn't even wash his face, so there's no way he would buy a hairpin to tie his hair.
Feng Ye diligently lit the oil lamp, and in the shabby and dusty private room, everyone was finally able to stop again and carefully study the strange phenomenon that had just occurred to Tang Wuke.
Before anyone else could speak, Tang Wuke asked, "Was that spiritual energy just now? Do I have spiritual energy?"
Her eyes sparkled, and her tone was filled with uncontrollable excitement. Yun Xian said, "That was spiritual energy just now. However, I didn't detect any spiritual roots in you."
"Definitely not." Xue Lingxiu pondered, "If there were spiritual roots, they would have been detected in childhood. It's impossible for them to suddenly appear."
Tang Wuke was stunned and looked down at his palm.
"How much spiritual energy do you all have left?" Yun Xian asked first. "I still have about half of it."
Because Jimo Shu let Qiao Lingshan go so madly and she didn't participate in the battle, she only had about two-thirds of her spiritual power left. Xue Lingxiu only helped to cure the snake venom on Yun Xianhu's mouth, so her spiritual power was about the same as Qiao Lingshan's. As for Feng Ye... it's better not to mention Feng Ye. Among all the people present, only Liu Xu had the highest spiritual power.
"Oh, right." Qiao Lingshan looked at Liu Xu, who had been carrying the princess from beginning to end, and asked in confusion, "Fellow Daoist Liu, didn't you say you were here to look at the ore?"
Liu Xu scratched his head and said, "The ore, by comparison, isn't that serious. Besides, it's already been delayed for five months, so another delay won't be much more than six months. It's already been delayed, so let's not worry about it so much. Now let's get down to business."
Feng Ye: "It turns out that Fellow Daoist Liu actually knows that he is delaying. I thought he didn't know."
"..." Yun Xian frowned and said, "Are you really from the Sword Sect?"
Why did he say that? Liu Xu was confused and said, "What's wrong? Am I not dressed like that? I just learned a different martial art from Liu Shi."
Xue Lingxiu said briefly: "She is simply praising you."
Willow Catkins: “?”
"Princess, think carefully, has this happened before?" Returning to business, Yun Xian looked at Tang Wuke and asked, "Or, do you still remember the previous generation of princess? Your aunt. Was she also without any spiritual roots, or was she like you, and would occasionally encounter this kind of thing?"
Tang Wuke was confused and said, "No. Never... What happened just now was the first time. I don't have a deep impression of my aunt. At most, I saw her once when I was a child. She was usually playing the piano or reading. I've never heard of her having spiritual energy, nor have I ever seen it."
"Have you seen her after she married the demon cultivator?" Qiao Lingshan asked.
"No," Tang Wuke said, "Once she got married, she couldn't come back. The last news I heard was her death."
Everyone lowered their eyes in thought.
Tangling Country is known to be a land without spiritual energy, yet they had just seen a fleeting flash of spiritual energy in the princess? This was extremely strange and definitely related to the demon cultivator's purpose.
Yun Xian had previously had a fleeting thought: the reason the demon cultivator could tell Feng Ye wasn't the princess the moment they touched her was because the princess possessed something different from ordinary people. But this was puzzling. If the Demon Lord believed the princess couldn't possess spiritual energy, how could he distinguish her from other ordinary citizens? If the Demon Lord believed the princess should possess spiritual energy, then why did he realize Feng Ye wasn't the princess?
The most likely possibility is that there is something special in the county lord's body besides spiritual energy.
Jewelry? She had none on her right now. Bloodline? Could it be royal bloodline? Looking at Tang Yang's appearance, apart from his status as emperor, he looked no different from an ordinary citizen.
In silence, Yun Xian suddenly fell back and said, "I'm so tired."
"Why are you tired?" Qiao Lingshan said, "If you want to rest, just lie down on the stool and take a nap."
"It's not this kind of tiredness. I've been thinking for half an incense stick of time and I'm exhausted." Yun Xian took a breath, sat up suddenly, and said excitedly: "But there are always more solutions than problems. When you reach the mountain, there will always be a way out! How about this, Princess, I will take out that spirit body again, and you can try to use its spiritual energy."
Inn Spirit: "...Hey!! Are you treating me like a stake?!"
Although this spirit was noisy, it spoke the truth. It had previously described Tang Lingren as selfish and self-centered, bullying the weak and fearing the strong. They had experienced her selfishness before, and now her cowardice was even more vivid. Just now, she had been so loud with Tang Wuke, but now, realizing that she might have spiritual energy, she suddenly became unnaturally quiet.
Tang Wuke hesitated for a moment, placed his hand on the spirit, closed his eyes and exerted force!
There is not a trace of spiritual energy at all.
"How could this happen..." Tang Wuke retracted his hand and frowned, "Was that a dream?"
"It's not a dream, don't worry." Yun Xian put the spirit body that exhaled fiercely back into the ring and said, "If a dream could break through the river bank, everyone would be asleep now."
Xue Lingxiu looked at the princess: "Is it possible that she can only use her spiritual power if some prerequisite is met?"
"Spiritual power can't appear out of thin air. Since there's no spiritual root, there must be another carrier." Yun Xian's face was cold, and he said, "I think the reason why the demon cultivators must have the princesses of the past generations is most likely for this carrier."
That makes sense. Qiao Lingshan said, "Yes."
Feng Ye agreed: "Yes."
Willow Catkins: “Yeah.”
"...Don't just say 'hmm'. Keep saying something." Yun Xian's expression remained unchanged as he spoke solemnly, "My IQ has run out, so I can only go so far. Please hurry up and add to it."
She had previously wondered if all the spiritual energy of the Tangling Kingdom resided in the princess. But this idea was absurd. First, there had never been such a precedent. Second, while Tang Wuke's spiritual power was strong, it wasn't this powerful. Third, if the spiritual energy of an entire nation were concentrated on a single person, unless that person was a powerful fusion stage expert, an ordinary body would have been shattered to pieces long ago.
Ahhhhh! So annoying!!
"You don't have to be so sincere sometimes." Xue Lingxiu was speechless for a while, then said, "Mingshu is a disciple of Master Mingguang. Master Mingguang has visited Tangling Country before and returned in defeat. He must understand Tangling Country better than we do."
"That makes sense! This is another new idea!" Without information, speculation is useless. Yun Xian stepped onto the wooden stool and asked, "But where is Mingshu now?"
"..." Qiao Lingshan said silently: "I wanted to ask before, how will Senior Brother Su reunite with us? I don't have a token or a sound transmission talisman. Am I just going to sit here and wait for Senior Brother Su to pick it up?"
Yun Xian: "We also have a deep tacit understanding among fellow disciples in Jiange."
Qiao Lingshan: "Come on! You accidentally stepped on Senior Brother Su's foot three times while running away just now!!"
There was another silence.
The man was silent and the woman was in tears. After a long silence, Yun Xian held his forehead and said painfully, "I think we need a better brain."
"It's okay. It's okay." Feng Ye could only comfort weakly, "The Demon Lord's brain is worse than ours."
It had come to such a tense moment, and Tang Wuke looked at her helpless expression and couldn't help but want to laugh.
Everyone was trying to come up with a solution, and she couldn't just sit there and wait for death. Tang Wuke recalled carefully, then raised her eyes and said uncertainly, "Just now, I was just thinking wholeheartedly, if only I had spiritual energy, I could easily deal with that laundry ghost... Just as I was thinking about it, it suddenly appeared."
"Hmm?" Xue Lingxiu asked, "Could it be that if one has a clear wish, one can force out spiritual energy?"
"Not necessarily." Yun Xian scratched his ear and said, "I think every day that it would be great if I had money, but I don't have any money either."
"..." Qiao Lingshan selectively ignored the staggering Yun Xian and said to Tang Wuke anxiously, "Recall your state of mind just now!"
Tang Wuke tried ten times, but failed every time, without exception.
That spiritual energy was just like a flash in the pan, never to appear again. Her hope was shattered just as it emerged, and her expression became dejected.
"Don't be discouraged, I have experience with this kind of thing." Yun Xian patted her slender arm and said gently, "Generally, such powerful strength requires a certain amount of emotional stimulation to be exerted. For example, jumping off a cliff, a life-or-death situation, risking everything, and of course, more often than not, when a teammate dies in front of you, the effect is even more immediate."
Teaching the child bad things every day, Xue Lingxiu said patiently: "I told you to stop reading those story books!"
Before anyone could think about it for long, Yun Xian's ears moved and he quickly stood up: "Something is coming."
"Another person?!" Qiao Lingshan frowned. "There are few people around here, how could someone come here?"
"People from Tang Ling Country won't come here, but others may not." Yun Xian didn't rush out. Instead, he released the broken-arm spirit from the storage ring with a serious look and shouted, "Guo'er, go see what's going on outside."
The spirit roared: "...Who called me Guo'er?!"
Yun Xian placed his hand on its left arm and smiled innocently. The next moment, the spirit drifted away, then drifted back through the wall. He said woodenly, "It's a snake."
Another snake? Didn't Su Chi lure it away? Why is it here again? Could this snake be so strong that even the eldest brother was defeated?
Everyone present had a solemn expression on their faces. Yun Xian took out his sword talisman and Taiping, then held them in front of him. He said, "Everyone, follow my instructions. If a fight breaks out, I'll find an opportunity to take the princess away first!"
Tang Wuke's face turned pale, his hands trembling, and he was once again carried on Liu Xu's back. Everyone was as if they were facing a formidable enemy, and they slowly stepped out of the door.
“…”
Yun Xian looked at the giant black snake outside the door, was silent for a moment, and said: "Brother Snake, I will call you brother for now. If it is offensive, then it is offensive. What I mean is, you don't have to be so dedicated. The demon cultivators don't pay you."
The black snake blocking the restaurant outside the door, who knows what it absorbed, has grown two full circles larger than when it first appeared above the palace, blocking out the sky and the sun. The oppressive feeling is so strong that it is suffocating, if only it were not so bruised now.
For some reason, everyone could actually see from a snake's head that its nose and face were bruised and swollen, its black bean-like eyes were beaten crooked, and blood was pouring out from one side, unable to open. There was a deep sword energy seven inches away, and the bleeding had not stopped yet. That was not enough, there was also a circle of circular wounds on the head that looked like they were caused by some bead-like object, and the benevolent Buddha's light shone on them, constantly burning. There were also several other wounds from the swords, shields, and spears. Just by staring at the wounds, Yun Xian could imagine the mental journey of this black snake in this short period of time -
I was beaten up by the eldest brother. Ah, ah, I am about to die! I need to find another soft persimmon to squeeze! Then I was beaten up by the group of young master Mingshu. Ah, ah, I am really going to die! I need to find another soft persimmon to squeeze!
The black snake didn't know whether it could understand what people said, but it could definitely see the three parts mocking and five parts speechless smile in everyone's eyes. It suddenly became furious and hissed and howled towards the sky!
"Do you think we're pushovers? You've taken the wrong path." Xue Lingxiu stood coolly at the back, waving her folding fan. "Yun Xian, you and Liu Xu shouldn't have any trouble dealing with this thing, right?"
It might have been a little shaky before, but since the snake was like this, there was naturally no problem. Liu Xu handed Tang Wuke, who had stuck his head out, to Feng Ye and was about to draw his sword when Yun Xian shouted, "Wait!"
"What's wrong?"
"Don't you think that our current movement is too inefficient?" Yun Xian touched his chin and said, "We can't just sit there and wait for death. We should take the initiative and see if we can find Jimo Shu."
"Yes." Xue Lingxiu asked inexplicably, "But what does this have to do with this snake?"
Yun Xian said, "We still lack a mount."
Everyone: “…”
Yun Xian: "I've never ridden a snake before."
"...May I ask how you're going to make it your mount?" Xue Lingxiu closed her eyes and asked, "Do you think you're going to reason with it?"
"Why can't they be reasonable?" Yun Xian pointed his index finger at the bruised snake head and said, "The demon cultivators are truly unscrupulous. Not only did they hire illegal animal workers, they also forced it to work seven days a week, twelve hours a day! Now that it's been beaten like this, there's no compensation for work injuries, right? It's simply outrageous! On the contrary, if it agrees to be our mount, not only will we have plenty of apples, but we can also rest all day long. It won't be a problem to work three days and rest two days."
The snake slowly lowered its head and roared ferociously again, ready to attack at any moment!
"What you said makes a lot of sense, but it doesn't understand." Xue Lingxiu said helplessly: "If we can reason with monsters, then where is the danger in the Four Directions Secret Realm?"
"Even though it doesn't understand, I can at least show my friendship. Don't hit it if you can. It's not easy to raise a child." Yun Xian slowly sat down in front of the snake head. "Before, when I was in the secret realm, I chatted with a fellow Taoist from the Beast Taming Sect. She said this is the friendliest word in snake language. Hiss... hiss hiss hiss..."
As soon as she said this, the snake actually stopped. Hei Dou slowly looked at Yun Xian, then tilted his head in confusion.
"What!" Qiao Lingshan exclaimed in surprise, "This half-baked snake language actually works!"
Tang Wuke said enviously, "Miss Yun is really amazing..."
Yun Xian was praised, feeling a little proud, and hissed even harder. Finally, the snake's head moved again, circling in front of everyone. Its fangs dripped with saliva, and it slowly opened its mouth: "How is the salary calculated?"
When he opened his mouth, he spoke in a standard and well-articulated manner. Xue Lingxiu's Mandarin was not even as standard as his.
Everyone: “…”
Yun Xian: “…”
Now she knew why the black snake was being beaten. Why didn't she speak human language?! This made her look mentally retarded!
"Just let you ride me and I'll get the apple?" The black snake was so greedy that it tied itself into a bow and rolled over without saying a word, "I don't believe it! Give it to me first! Give it to me first!"
It was a very familiar scene, but she couldn't remember what was familiar about it. Before Yun Xian could stuff the dry little apple into its mouth, a sharp sword energy came from a distance and knocked her hands away.
"Princess." The man walked over slowly and said with a smile, "Follow me for a while."
Yun Xian's brows frowned.
It's you again.
Zhong Changyao!
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