17. Enemy attack again
The three of them and the bird hit it off immediately and decided to pack up and head to the Secret Realm Administration Bureau to apply for training entry qualifications. Time was short, so Tangxi returned to the public training ground to meet her younger sister.
Order is slowly being restored everywhere.
Inside the public training ground, traces of the attack from a few hours earlier remained everywhere. The ceiling, riddled with bullet holes, was repaired and reinforced with three layers of barriers. Student leaders from the logistics and order maintenance teams assisted the students of the Alchemy Department, going wherever needed. Many students, still bearing injuries, rolled up their sleeves and joined the effort to restore the campus as soon as they could walk and jump a little.
When Tang Xi returned to the training ground, Tang Xi Chun had just finished delivering the medicine, and the two met up on the school path.
Tang Xichun couldn't wait to show off her armband, raising her arm high: "Brother! Look! I have the Order Maintenance Group's armband!"
"That's great, that's great." Tang Xi patted her head. "How did you get that?"
"The substitute teacher gave it to me, saying it was an invitation to join the Order Maintenance Team," Tang Xichun said proudly. "Apparently, only the top five freshmen get this badge!"
"Okay, okay." Tang Xi asked casually, "Which department did you get accepted into?"
"Martial Arts Department. I haven't even met my teacher yet; I heard she's injured."
A shadow crossed Tang Xichun's face, but she quickly forced a smile. "However, for now, we have a teacher from the divination department to guide us."
A divination professor teaching martial arts freshmen?
Tang Xi sighed at how strange this combination was, "Congratulations on successfully joining the Martial Arts Department."
Tang Xi smiled shyly.
Tang Xihe: "Next, I'm going to the secret realm."
Tang Xichun was taken aback. "Go to the secret realm? When?"
"I'm leaving right away, just wanted to come see you before I go." Tangxi and You were still worried. "Study hard at school, listen to your teachers, get along well with your friends, don't act impulsively, think carefully and observe more before you make a move, okay?"
Tang Xichun pursed her lips and didn't ask any further questions. "Okay, I'll do my best."
He paused for a moment, then asked, "Brother, I heard our substitute teacher is a 'ghostly' expert. What's 'ghostly'?"
Ghostly beast?
“That’s a good question,” Tang Xihe pretended to think for a few seconds, then pushed up her glasses, which weren’t even there, and threw the question back at her, “What do you think is ‘ghostly’ or ‘absurd’?”
Tang Xichun said disdainfully, "Actually, you didn't know either, did you?"
"..."
Tang Xi turned and left, saying, "You're really leaving now. Focus on your cultivation, but don't push yourself too hard."
"Don't let your guard down!" Tang Xichun clenched her fist. "Just wait, I'll catch up to you in two or three years!"
Tang Xi smiled at her, then left the public training ground without looking back, her figure gradually disappearing into the distance.
Tang Xichun watched that thin figure leave, feeling a little uneasy.
It always happened like this, and she couldn't quite figure out whether her brother cared about her or not. Although her brother had come to talk to her before leaving, he left decisively and without hesitation.
Tang Xichun turned around somewhat defiantly, her movement so abrupt that she almost bumped into someone. "Sorry, sorry... Hmm? Teacher Fu?"
A handsome, smiling man appeared silently behind her. He was dressed in a suit, his hands in his pockets, with several strands of Buddhist prayer beads wrapped around his right wrist. He had a kind face, and his long, narrow, fox-like eyes always seemed to be filled with laughter. "What are you thinking about?"
"Oh, teacher!" Tang Xichun was startled and a little guilty: "Why do you walk so quietly?"
I wonder how much Teacher Fu heard?
“Beichen has to leave for a while, so I’d like to ask you to help me test the Bell Tower barrier. It’s not difficult, just bombard the barrier.” Fu Guyue raised her eyes, her gaze lingering on Tang Xihe’s retreating figure.
"Is that your brother?"
Tang Xichun nodded proudly, "Yes! He's the best to me! I was raised by my brother."
"You two siblings have such a good relationship."
A pale gold flashed in Fu Guyue's pupils, and his gaze changed rapidly: the people who had passed by became transparent in his eyes, and the meridians on their bodies emitted faint spiritual energy points, becoming crystal clear. All the teachers and students who passed by were like moving meridian diagrams, which was a bit eerie.
However, what Fu Guyue wanted to see was not the spiritual vein. His gaze drifted to Tang Xihe, who had already walked away, as if admiring a beautiful piece of jade.
—Tangxi and her body actually have an inner core… no, there are other things as well.
Tang Xichun took a step back and said, "Teacher, if there's nothing else, I'll be going now?"
The gold in Fu Guyue's pupils faded, and she smiled broadly, her teeth visible but her eyes not.
"Tang Xichun, what does 'ghostly' mean?"
"...I don't want to know right now."
·
Achoo!
Tang Xi sneezed violently. "Who insulted me? It wasn't you, was it?"
"It wasn't me! My mouth was busy!" Pipi's voice rang in my mind: "Tangxi, what are those round, brown fruits? They're so delicious! But the shells are so hard, they made my mouth hurt!"
"Don't eat all the snacks, leave some for me." Tang Xi said helplessly, "Can you be a little more vigilant? A small part of those evil spirit masters are after you, and you're in a very dangerous situation right now."
“That’s why I should enjoy life to the fullest!” Pipi said matter-of-factly.
Ever since Pipi learned how to transmit sound, Tang Xihe's mind has never been at peace. Moreover, perhaps due to the influence of Pipi's primordial spirit, he can even sense what Pipi is eating. The snacks stored in his storage ring are rapidly decreasing, leading Tang Xihe to suspect that Pipi is actually a money-devouring beast.
As I was walking on the school path, a ragged man came towards me. He was bending over, holding a ceramic bowl, muttering to himself. He walked unsteadily, not looking where he was going at all. His whole body was tense, as if he was looking for something, or perhaps a little neurotic.
Tang Xihe intended to walk around this person, but every time he took a step to the left, the person would mutter and take another step to the left; every time he took a step to the right, the person would take another step to the right, as if deliberately blocking his way. Tang Xihe simply stopped to see what was going on with this person, when suddenly the other person, shaking the ceramic bowl in his hand, rushed straight towards Tang Xihe, his muttering growing louder and louder.
"The antidote is within a hundred meters! The answer is right next to you..."
Just as they were about to collide, Tang Xihe spun around, thinking she could avoid the other person. Unexpectedly, the other person's ankle twisted, and like a boneless clay figure, he leaned towards Tang Xihe, and the two collided.
"Ouch!"
The man fell flat on his back, dropping the bowl he was holding, which rolled out with two small objects. The impact seemed to snap him out of his daze; he sat on the ground, supporting himself with his hands, wearing exaggerated sunglasses, his mouth slightly open, looking as if he had just woken up and hadn't quite recovered.
"Where am I? How did I get here?"
A gray-black school uniform, from the divination department... Aren't most students in the divination department supposed to be refined and aloof? What's up with this guy?
Tang Xi picked up the two dropped dice and the ceramic bowl and returned them to the other person, asking, "Are you alright?"
He glanced at his palm and noticed that the dice were oddly shaped, not square hexagons, and felt heavy, like bone, and were even warm to the touch.
—It looks like a living thing.
Tang Xi was startled by her own thought, and quickly threw the two dice into the bowl, then shoved them into the man's arms. "Hey friend? Are you alright?"
"Ah... thank you, I'm sorry, I wasn't watching where I was going."
The other person clutched the chipped bowl in their arms, looked down, and let out a soft exclamation. "What happened? It's untied?"
"What's been solved?" Tang Xi asked.
The man didn't answer. Instead, he dusted himself off, stood up, and carefully examined Tang Xihe, muttering to himself, "Something's got something. So the answer lies in randomness..."
What's going on?
Tang Xi was completely bewildered and just wanted to leave as soon as possible. Suddenly, she realized that the person looked very familiar and his voice sounded very familiar.
The image of Pipi in her mind stopped munching on her snacks and seemed to realize something, saying, "That voice sounds familiar? Isn't it the man who cheated you out of money?"
!!
Tang Xihe scrutinized him closely. He wore exaggerated sunglasses, had a scraggly beard, and was dressed in tattered clothes, yet he looked effortlessly stylish… After a moment of silence, Tang Xihe pointed at the man in sunglasses and whispered, “Master liar!”
Bu Chengzhi's lips twitched. He vaguely remembered Tang Xihe; he was that junior with black hair and a faint aura of demonic energy. After not seeing him for a few days, the demonic energy had intensified, almost as if it were emanating from his dantian.
"You little rascal, I'm not a scammer. Everything I sell is top-quality and made of the real deal! Do you still have the amulet?"
Having lost over a hundred immortal coins, Tang Xi immediately recalled all the details of being scammed, including the small amulet folded into a triangle. "Yes, it's on me."
"That's good." Bu Chengzhi's expression relaxed. "You must keep it. That talisman can help you escape a disaster."
"Wow, that's amazing," Tang Xi said dismissively.
"I'm not joking! Since we've met, I'll say a few more words."
Bu Chengzhi's expression turned serious. "Remember, it's not shameful to borrow help! It's not shameful to borrow help! In this life, you can't sail alone! Only by borrowing help can you get through this ordeal."
Tangxi was startled by her senior brother's sudden serious expression. She saw that he seemed to have changed his personality as soon as he finished speaking, bowing his back and lowering his head, swaying slowly forward while holding the chipped bowl.
Tang Xi couldn't help but glance at him a few more times. "Strange and mysterious."
What calamity could I possibly face?
...
Tang Xi, Gui Fang, and Bei Chen met up at the school gate. With no one around, Pi Pi freed itself from its storage ring, happily circled in mid-air, and darted around above the three of them. "How are we going to get there?"
Gui Fang flicked it on the head: "Behave yourself and don't cause trouble. We're not here to play around."
Pipi covered her head in grievance, her eyes glaring at Gui Fang. Bei Chen kindly explained, "First, go to the Secret Realm Management Bureau, show your student ID, and the staff will use the teleportation array to take us to the entrance of the Secret Realm."
Pipi asked curiously, "Why has entering and exiting the secret realm become so complicated now?"
Tang Xi noticed something in Pipi's words and her gaze sharpened: "Why do you say that? Do you know how cultivators used to enter and leave secret realms?"
“Ah…” Pipi paused for a moment, then silently landed back on Tangxi and her head, muttering, “Yeah, that’s strange, why did I say ‘entering and exiting the secret realm is complicated now’?”
Gui Fang also sensed something was wrong and asked, "Have you lost your memory or not? Try lying again, and I'll pluck your tail hairs to make a dip pen."
"I'm not lying! I really am not lying this time! The oldest memory I can recall is being chased by three people in an abandoned building! It happened not long ago!"
Pipi knew that Gui Fang Wu Di meant what he said, and anxiously spread his wings. "Strange, I can't remember, but my intuition tells me that human cultivators in the past didn't need to go through such trouble to enter and exit secret realms—"
Pipi suddenly fell silent, its wings flapped, and the whole bird pressed itself against Tangxi and its neck, looking startled and stressed, its eyes darting around anxiously.
"How……"
Before Tang Xi could finish speaking, her sixth sense reacted first, and she struck Bei Chen and Gui Fang with two feints, shouting, "Scatter!"
Suddenly, something unexpected happened.
"Buzz—!"
With a muffled, strange sound, the surrounding space seemed to be distorted by an invisible force. Several pitch-black talismans descended from the sky, nailing themselves to the ground around them, instantly forming a huge, pale black barrier that isolated them from the outside world.
Enemy attack!
Even after creating some distance, they still couldn't escape the evil spirit master's barrier. The three were dumbfounded. It was too fast, and so silent; none of them had sensed the evil spirit master's presence!
The barrier wall enclosed the three people and the bird. Tang Xi looked up and saw the evil spirits swarming down in a dark mass.
The number of evil spirits attacking this time was very small, only about a dozen at a glance, but everyone could clearly feel that the evil spirits attacking this time were more dangerous than the previous group.
Tang Xi grabbed the terrified Pipi and yelled, "Go inside!"
Pipi darted into his storage ring in a flash, while Gui Fang spread his arms wide, setting up a "net of heaven and earth" to try and isolate the men in black attacking from above. "Bei Chen!"
"Don't rush me!"
Bei Chen's massive sword, as thick as a shield, was unsheathed with overwhelming force, creating a heavy gust of wind as it slashed at the surrounding barriers.
The dark black barrier wall remained unmoved, without a trace of damage.
The three of them felt a sinking feeling in their hearts.
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