Linglong Town (V)

Sang Dai murmured, "Su Xuan, in this painting, my mother is wearing the Weisheng family's jade token, so my master must recognize the Weisheng family's seal."

She raised her eyes and looked at Su Xuan: "When Sang Wenzhou brought me back to the Sword Sect, I had that jade token hanging around my neck. My master took that jade token away when I was very young. He clearly saw the seal on the jade token, so he knew my identity very early on."

Ying Heng knew that she was the child of Wei Shengxuan and Bai Yu, and that she was the daughter of an old friend.

"When I was three years old, he, who had never accepted any disciples, took the initiative to ask the Sword Sect to accept me as a disciple. He knew the Sword Sect's conspiracy and knew that I was not the Sword Sect's eldest daughter. When he was there, no one in the Sword Sect dared to take my blood. After he left, everyone lied to me. Only my master treated me like his own daughter..."

As the daughter of an old lover and a lifelong friend, Ying Heng was so kind to her that he almost gave her the best of his heart.

Su Xuan held her face in his hands, completely ignoring the presence of Tan Huai, and leaned over to coax her: "Ying Heng Xian Jun was very good to you, he is not dead, Dai Dai, we are looking for him now."

Sang Dai asked him, "So how could he abandon me and defect to the Sword Sect? He knew very well that if something happened to him, I, Sang Wenzhou's biological daughter, would have a very bad time in the Sword Sect. Cangwu Taoist Temple is also my father's master's sect. He would never massacre his old friends and masters."

If Ying Heng really had bad intentions, he would not have been so good to Sandy during the seven years they were together. There would be no need for him to be so open-hearted to her as if she were his own daughter.

The light in Sandy's eyes became more and more obvious. Although her eyes were red, there was a smile at the corners of her lips.

"Su Xuan, I am very sure that the destruction of the Guixu Spiritual Vein and the massacre of the Cangwu Taoist Temple were definitely not done by my master."

Su Xuan held the swordsman in his arms and gently rubbed his chin against her head: "Yes, I also guarantee that Immortal Lord Ying Heng will not do this."

Even though Su Xuan had never met Ying Heng, he respected this elder of the Sword Sect for being able to teach Sandi to be so kind and strong. Even though he had insulted and cursed the Sword Sect in the past hundred years, he had never slandered Ying Heng.

Tan Huai, who had been silent all this time, walked forward and touched the painting on the stone wall. The canvas was soft, and the ink had soaked through the rice paper. One could vaguely see the great effort that the painter had put in.

Sang Dai stepped out of Su Xuan's arms, and they both looked at Tan Huai.

Tan Huai touched the rice paper, looked up at the couple on it, and said, "Sang Dai, my parents died when I was six years old. My father died of...madness."

"…What do you mean?"

Tan Huai said: "Literally, my father lost control and killed my mother. After he came to his senses, he couldn't accept it and committed suicide in front of my mother's body."

Su Xuan asked back: "How could your father go crazy? I remember that the head of the Fan Dongtan family was a person with awakened spiritual roots at the heaven level."

More than a hundred years ago, there were still a few people with awakened heavenly spiritual roots. The head of the Fan Dongtan family was one of them, as was the previous abbot of the Cangwu Taoist Temple stationed in Guixu Fairyland, Bai Yuxianjun. After the fall of the previous generation, only these new people with awakened heavenly spiritual roots were left in the world. Among the people with awakened heavenly spiritual roots still alive, the only one who is still alive is Ying Heng, who is from the previous generation.

The other six people who have awakened their heavenly spiritual roots are all young people.

Tan Huai looked up at the portraits of his parents and murmured, "I don't know... My obsession is too deep and it's hard for me to make progress. My master told me that my parents are good friends with Lord Wu. Maybe Lord Wu can give me the answer."

He turned around and looked at Sang Dai and Su Xuan, his eyes looking a little bewildered for the first time: "I am here to find the answer, Miss Sang, Demon King, I lied to you, I am not here just to investigate the disappearance of the wandering cultivator."

Su Xuan's little fox eyes narrowed slightly, but Sandy did not respond.

Tan Huai was about to continue speaking when the jade token on Su Xuan's waist suddenly lit up.

The little fox's face was cold, his jaw was pursed, and he opened the jade card with quick movements.

"Liu Lixue?"

There was the sound of something heavy falling from the opposite side, mixed with a familiar groan, and tiles broke, as if something had hit the roof alive.

The three people's expressions changed instantly.

The jade token was broken into pieces.

Before Tan Huai could come to his senses, the two people in the stone chamber had already disappeared.

He looked back at the painting hanging on the wall, gritted his teeth, and followed after him.

***

Liu Lixue is just a cultivator at the Yuanying realm, a cultivator with awakened Xuan-level spiritual roots. He majors in medicine and his combat power is not strong.

He had no idea what the vine was. He had been able to cut it easily just now, but when he used his spiritual power to activate the folding fan, the vine suddenly went crazy and split into dozens of vines that rushed towards him.

He mobilized all his spiritual power and poured it into the folding fan. The vines grew even crazier. Even after being cut off, the vines could grow rapidly again in a short period of time.

Liu Lixue groaned, pulled away the vine that was stuck on his shoulder and threw it away, then took out the jade token and called Su Xuan when he had the chance.

As soon as the jade token was connected, a vine quickly came towards him. The thick vine hit his chest and threw him dozens of feet away. He fell on the roof opposite and then fell to the ground.

He fell down, covered in blood, coughing and spitting out blood, and struggled to get up to avoid the vines that were hitting him again.

Liu Lixue stood on the ground, looked up and looked at the person standing on the roof.

The peacock's face was pale, his red clothes were torn and tattered, and blood was gushing out and stuck to the clothes.

Several of the curved blades on the fan handle were broken. He was now at the end of his strength and could hardly even stand.

Liu Lixue covered his chest and coughed violently. Seeing this, the vines rushed up together and surrounded him from the east, west, south and north.

He gritted his teeth and tried to hold on to his body. Just as he was about to swing his hand to block the vines that were rushing towards him,

Sword light chopped down from afar, and under the fierce pressure, houses collapsed wherever it passed. Thousands of sword blades rushed forward and cut off all the vines. A man held a sword in front of Liu Lixue.

The black hair was rolled up by the sword, and the slender figure could not stop him, but it always brought endless sense of security.

A black shadow teleported from a distance and struck towards the person standing on the roof. Karma fire entangled the inky black sword, and sparks swirled in sharp arcs in the air.

The man in black who was standing leisurely chuckled, dodged lightly, and retreated a hundred feet away in an instant.

Su Xuan's face was gloomy, and he said almost word by word: "You are looking for death."

He pressed the man in black away from Sang Dai and Liu Lixue. The Qingwu sword was entangled with ancient karmic fire, and every sword movement carried a strong murderous intent.

Sandy did not go forward to help Su Xuan. The vines had just paused for a moment, but there were too many of them to kill them all. She first used her spiritual power shield to block the vines, and heard a suppressed cough behind her.

She turned around quickly and just caught Liu Lixue who was falling towards her.

"Master Liu!"

Sandy caught him, and Tan Huai had also arrived at this moment.

The Buddhist monk cut through the vines on the outside and rushed into Sandy's protective shield, half-crouching beside Liu Lixue to take his pulse.

"Miss Sang, the shield won't last long. I don't know where these vines come from. You go deal with them first. Master Liu, leave this to me."

"good."

Sang Dai handed Liu Lixue to Tan Huai and left Chang Mang behind.

The silk ribbon was wide enough to cover the sky and the sun, blocking both Tan Huai and Liu Lixue inside.

Sandy drew her sword and rushed out of the protective shield. She was about to cut all the vines with one sword, but spiritual power entangled the Zhiyu Sword. She lowered her wrist and chopped down. The vines that were originally killing crazily suddenly stopped, and then quickly retreated and disappeared into the ground.

In the blink of an eye, the ferocious and huge vines disappeared.

He actually ran away.

Tan Huai was shocked: "...When the poor monk came just now, this vine wanted to eat me."

How come Sandy ran away just after she drew her sword and activated her spiritual power?

The vines disappeared into the ground so quickly that Sandy couldn't catch up with them. Only the vine branches left on the ground told them that everything that had just happened was not fake.

Sandy turned around and asked, "Is Mr. Liu in danger?"

"He is a medical practitioner. He just used his spiritual power to press his vital points to protect his Dantian. His life is not in serious danger."

Sang Dai nodded and said, "I will go help Su Xuan. Master Tan Huai will be in charge of this place."

"Okay, don't worry."

Sang Dai jumped onto the roof and teleported over. She could no longer see Su Xuan and the man in black, but she was wearing a silver feather and could sense Su Xuan's presence.

But before he had walked far, the silver feathers at his waist flickered, and Su Xuan's breath was approaching rapidly.

Sandy suddenly stopped, and a man came up to her from a distance.

His silver hair was slightly disheveled, but his clothes were still neat and tidy. He was not injured, but his face looked ugly.

"Su Xuan?"

"Daidai, leave first." Su Xuan grabbed her hand and teleported towards Liu Lixue.

Sandy asked in confusion: "Didn't you go after him?"

"He ran away, just like last time, tearing open the space and running away."

They didn't know how a cultivator could tear open space out of thin air. Even a cultivator who was transcending tribulation couldn't do it. This kind of magic hadn't been heard of in the cultivation world for tens of thousands of years. The man in black wasn't using a formation.

Su Xuan held her wrist and took Sang Dai back to Liu Lixue.

Tan Huai was transmitting spiritual power to the unconscious Liu Lixue and was surprised to see the two people coming back.

"Didn't you go chasing that guy? Why are you back so soon?"

Sang Dai had a blank expression on her face, while Su Xuan's face was obviously gloomy, as if he had seen something very bad, and his eyes were as heavy as dark clouds covering a city.

He said coldly, "Let's go back first."

Tan Huai's heart sank, seeing Su Xuan like this, he knew something must have happened.

Su Xuan bent over and carried Liu Lixue on his back, then lowered his head to look at the broken vines on the ground.

"Take a few."

Tan Huai nodded, bent down, picked up several and put them away.

By the time they teleported to the inn, it was already past midnight and a new day had begun.

Su Xuan placed Liu Lixue in the room, then sat beside the couch with his head down and rummaged through the Qiankun bag on his waist.

Liu Lixue always carries a lot of pills with him. He clearly had them on him tonight, but now he has nothing.

Su Xuan asked: "Did you see Liu Lixue's Qiankun bag on the ground just now?"

Sandy shook her head: "No, I looked around carefully before I left, and there was nothing but broken vines."

The three of them were silent for a moment, and then they all said in unison: "He took it away."

Liu Lixue is a famous medical practitioner in the four realms. The elixirs he developed are extremely valuable, and he always carries some with him as a backup.

The peacock's bag was filled with elixirs, and the man took his bag away...

Tan Huai asked tentatively: "He wants to save people?"

Liu Lixue does not develop poisons or harm people's lives. Most of his pills are for improving cultivation and saving lives. But looking at the aura around that man, it is impossible to tell the depth of his cultivation, which means that he is very powerful. Liu Lixue's pills should not have much effect on his cultivation.

Then the only way left is to save people.

Sang Dai took out some pills from her Qiankun bag and handed them over: "Young Master Liu gave me a few bottles of pills before, but I haven't eaten them yet. Give them to him first."

"good."

Sandy and Tan Huai looked at each other, neither of them knowing what to say.

Tan Huai whispered, "I'm sorry. I wanted you to go to the City Lord's Mansion because I wanted to investigate this matter. I had selfish motives, but Master Liu suffered as a result."

Su Xuan responded in a deep voice: "It has nothing to do with you. We were going to investigate anyway. That person's goal is Liu Lixue's elixir. Even if we don't go looking for him, he will come back to find us."

Liu Lixue's life is safe. A medical practitioner knows best how to protect his vital points. Although he has serious injuries, they are only flesh wounds. He will not fight without regard for his life like Sang Dai and Su Xuan.

Tan Huai still felt guilty and could only think of ways to do something.

"I will stay with Master Liu tonight, you guys go and get some rest."

Sandy looked at him and asked, "Master Tan Huai, I have something else to ask you."

Tan Huai was stunned for a moment, and responded subconsciously: "Miss Sang said."

Sandy asked, "Do you know what the agreement between the six of them is?"

Tan Huai paused while turning the Buddhist beads, and Su Xuan also looked over.

Sandy asked again: "Tan Huai, do you know what happened between them? Did your master tell you about these things?"

Tan Huai lowered his eyes slightly, his Adam's apple rolling, and he slowly turned the Buddhist beads one by one.

"Tan Huai?"

"...Yeah, I know a little bit."

"Please go ahead."

Sandy's tone was firm, and she was determined to get an answer.

Tan Huai raised his eyelids slightly and looked at the two of them.

He knew that he couldn't fool them about this matter, and he felt that there was no need to hide it from them, so he slowly said, "My parents died when I was six years old. Ying Heng Xianjun once passed by Fandong when he was exorcising evil spirits. He stayed overnight at my house, and I had dinner with him."

"At the dinner table, they talked about the past. I heard a few words. They met at the Heroes' Gathering. The last Heroes' Gathering was held in Linglong Town. Wu Hanshu was the person in charge at that time. Ying Heng, my parents, and your parents all came to participate in the Heroes' Gathering. My parents met and fell in love at the Heroes' Gathering, and it seems your parents met and fell in love at the same time."

Sandy asked, "So they became friends because they found each other at the gathering of heroes?"

"Yes." Tan Huai said: "It's hard to find a bosom friend. The six of them have a very good relationship and seem to have experienced a lot. Your parents lived in seclusion after getting married, and my parents also settled in Fandong. At that time, I heard them mention the Hundred Years' Agreement——"

Sandy asked, "What agreement?"

Tan Huai replied: "When the flowers bloom, we will meet in Linglong Village."

Sandy immediately thought of the pot of flowers she saw in Wu Hanshu's room.

"That flower takes a hundred years to bloom?"

"In fact, it will take three hundred years."

Sandy was still confused: "Why do we have to make a three-hundred-year agreement? If we are good friends, we can meet whenever we want."

"Miss Sang, this is what I don't understand either. The six of them don't seem to dare to see each other. Your parents have been living in seclusion and have never come out. My parents rarely show up in front of the world. Ying Heng the Immortal lives on the top of Tianque Mountain and never goes down the mountain except to exorcise evil spirits. Wu Hanshu, who used to be unrestrained and carefree, has become even more lazy and stays in the City Lord's Mansion without coming out."

Tan Huai smiled bitterly at this and added, "You said your parents died shortly after you were born, which was 132 years ago. My parents also died that year. Ten years later, Immortal Ying Heng was involved in the destruction of the Guixu Spiritual Vein. Four of the six of them died, one went missing, and one became decadent. I don't think this is a coincidence."

Su Xuan stood up and looked at Tan Huai with his glazed eyes: "So when you sneaked into Wu Hanshu's mansion as a child, it wasn't to hide from your master?"

"Yes." Tan Huai admitted without hesitation: "It was to investigate what happened back then, but Wu Hanshu was very wary and I couldn't get close to him at the time."

Having said that, some things become clear.

Tan Huai turned his head and looked at Sang Dai, and spoke in a slightly softer voice: "Miss Sang, so what happened hundreds of years ago that made six people who were obviously on good terms afraid to see each other? Maybe this is the breakthrough point for you and me."

"Cha Wu Han Shu, is it?"

"Well, the person behind the scenes has too high a cultivation level. We can only start with Wu Hanshu."

Sandy thought the same as he did, and agreed: "I understand, this matter is related to my master, I will investigate it with Master Tan Huai."

Tan Huai clasped his hands together and bowed his head sincerely: "Thank you for your hard work, Miss Sang."

"Master Tan Huai, you're too polite." After responding politely, Sang Dai turned her gaze to Su Xuan standing beside her.

"Su Xuan, what about you? What did you want to say just now?"

Sang Dai knew Su Xuan so well. When he came back, his face was cold and serious. There must be something very important. Something that could make Su Xuan worried must not be a trivial matter.

Facing two pairs of inquiring gazes, Su Xuan turned around and glanced at Liu Lixue. Peacock was lying there motionless, his body full of bloody holes pierced by the sharp thorns of the vines.

Tan Huai asked cautiously: "Master Demon King, is this a serious matter?"

"Look here."

Su Xuan answered calmly, leaning over and lifting Liu Lixue's wrist.

There were still wounds on his wrists caused by vines, and golden spiritual power was flowing out from the wounds, and there was even a thick black aura lingering on that spiritual power.

Sang Dai and Tan Huai's expressions suddenly became extremely cold. It was too dark at night and neither of them noticed the black aura in Liu Lixue's wound.

Su Xuan picked up the vine that Tan Huai had picked up. Although the vine was a little wilted, the thorns on it were still stiff.

Without hesitation, he stabbed his wrist.

"Su Xuan!"

"Demon King!"

Both of them were startled and took a step forward subconsciously.

Su Xuan pulled out the vine, and then...

Originally just a broken vine, it moved for a moment, a thick black gas flowed into its branches, and the withered vine seemed to come to life.

Just before it came back to life, Su Xuan pulled out the vines and ignited the karmic fire to burn it.

The little fox raised his wrist, and black lines appeared on his cold white wrist, moving towards the stabbing wound. A faint black gas accompanied by spiritual power flowed out along his wound.

Sandy was shocked: "What is this..."

Su Xuan said coldly: "This is what I want to say."

Tan Huai was bewildered: "...what?"

Su Xuan asked: "The world of cultivation has existed for tens of thousands of years. Is there any record of a cultivator being able to tear open space and travel thousands of miles away in the blink of an eye without relying on formations or teleportation?"

Sandy and Tan Huai both denied it: "...never."

Su Xuan: "But he can. Moreover, when I fought with him just now, the black energy around him was almost the same as the black energy coming out of Liu Lixue's mouth. So I was cautious and brought back a few vines to test it out and found that it was true."

A previously ignored and incredible idea gradually emerged.

Sandy murmured, "The Way of Heaven has its own laws. All creatures living in the world of cultivation must follow its rules. Even cultivators who have reached the highest level of transcendence cannot ignore the obstacles of space and travel thousands of miles a day. How can he do it?"

Tan Huai replied silently: "...This shows that he is not a cultivator and is not bound by the laws of heaven."

Sandy added: "I can't tell his level of cultivation at all. When I was fighting with him, I felt like he was a bottomless pit that would never get tired. I couldn't even feel the fluctuations of his spiritual power..."

Tan Huai added: "...Maybe he didn't use spiritual power."

He is not a monk and does not use spiritual power. So who is he and what does he use to fight?

Sang Dai and Tan Huai looked at the black air between Su Xuan's wrists. The sharp thorns of the vine pierced into his wrist, like a fuse, drawing out Su Xuan's spiritual power. However, the black air was still entangled with the golden spiritual power.

Tan Huai picked up a broken vine and stabbed himself with it.

The broken vine pierced into his flesh and blood, and Tan Huai's spiritual power was sucked out. The vine madly absorbed his spiritual power.

Tan Huai endured the pain and did not pull out the vine. Sandy stared at it.

They all saw it clearly.

The vine wasn't absorbing his spiritual power, but...

The black energy lingering on the spiritual power.

"Okay."

Su Xuan interrupted him coldly, pulled out the broken vine and burned it clean with karma fire.

"What...what's going on?" Tan Huai suddenly looked at Sang Dai and asked in a trembling voice, "But Miss Sang...I was right just now. The vine didn't hurt you..."

As Sandy drew her sword, the vines quickly moved away.

Mingming was still madly wanting to eat Liu Lixue and Tan Huai, but when she used her spiritual power, the vines seemed to sense something and escaped underground.

Sandy also took out a broken vine, rolled up her sleeves and stabbed herself with it.

Blood gushed out, and Broken Ivy felt the blood gradually recovering, and sucked the spiritual power out of Sandy's flesh and blood.

But unlike Su Xuan and Tan Huai just now, there was not a trace of black air in her spiritual power. The golden spiritual power was clean and pure. The vine didn't seem to like it very much. It pulled out the thorns on its own initiative and became wilted again.

Except she didn't.

The broken vine was taken away by Su Xuan and burned to ashes again.

The room was silent, no one spoke, only the sound of each other's breathing.

Sandy looked at the wound on her wrist blankly.

Su Xuan held her wrist and healed the small wound.

"That black energy... what is it? Why do the three of you have it in your spiritual power, but I don't?"

Sandy never thought that there was anything special about herself before. Apart from the title of a person with awakened spiritual roots of heaven level, she was just an ordinary cultivator like the millions of creatures in the four realms.

She never understood why God wanted to kill her.

Now, there seem to be some answers.

Sandy raised her eyes and their gaze met the little fox's.

[Dade...]

His voice was soft, but she could hear panic.

It was the first time they realized that Sandy was different from any of them, that she had something that they didn't.

"So... He wants to kill me, is that why?"

There may be more reasons than this, but it must be one of them.

Su Xuan leaned forward to look Sang Dai in the eye, his voice solemn and serious: "Daidai, the black aura around the man in black seems to be this. This vine likes to devour it. Once you are pierced by the vine, it will actively draw out the spiritual power in the cultivator's body, and this black aura will absorb the spiritual power of the cultivator. If I am not mistaken, maybe in the entire four realms, except for you, our spiritual power has this black aura."

Sandy closed her eyes and carefully recalled the fight with the man in black.

She suddenly opened her eyes and raised her voice a little: "I remember now."

The man did not use spiritual power to tear open the space, but this black energy.

He doesn't rely on spiritual power to fight, but still relies on this black energy.

As long as there was fluctuation of spiritual power, Sandy could sense his approximate realm. After all, she was also a cultivator in the Mahayana realm. But the man in black did not use spiritual power, so Sandy could not sense his spiritual power fluctuation at all, and thus mistakenly thought he was an unparalleled powerful person.

He does not need to practice spiritual power, nor does he need to follow the laws and regulations of the lower world. He can tear open space with his bare hands and travel thousands of miles a day.

Sandy came up with the answer:

"He does not belong to the four realms. He is not a human, ghost, demon or monster."