47. The True and False Fu Guanhong
Bei Chen's journey was interrupted by a howl. The sound was very indistinct, as if it were through a layer of water, and it was hazy and indistinct.
He frowned slightly, finished his practice, and opened his eyes. From an angle he couldn't see, a brilliant, sharp light flashed in his eyes, as if the emblem of the Big Dipper had appeared and disappeared in an instant, and the spiritual energy around him became more solid.
Last night, lying on the waterbed, Bei Chen kept thinking about Jin Chan Lao one moment and Zhu He the next. He turned left and thought about the magic university that had been attacked, and then he couldn't help but think about the "trump card" given to him by Bai Hu.
Half-asleep, Bei Chen suddenly had a very strong urge to meditate and cultivate. Without hesitation, he got up and began meditating, circulating his spiritual energy round and round, from dusk till dawn.
During each circulation of spiritual energy, he found that his five senses had become more acute and acute. Even though the guest room had a crude soundproof barrier, Bei Chen Sui Xing could still hear sounds outside the guest room.
Everything that happened seemed to be under the control of the five senses.
Tangxi and the others went downstairs and moved to the spot where Xuanwu had eaten snacks last night. They talked to Jiutouzhang and then walked out.
Nine-Headed Seal is still there, going upstairs, one step, two steps, three steps... Gui Fang gets beaten up, haha.
How amazing! When spiritual energy fills my entire body, I can control even the slightest changes in the world... No, that's not precise enough. Right now, it's more like I'm perceiving the world around me in some kind of subtle state.
As this subtle perception became more and more refined, just as Bei Chen Sui Xing was about to touch the "threshold" of proficiency, the spiritual energy flowing through his body continuously gathered towards his dantian, and boundless power surged around him.
Now, he could "see" more clearly, not only the outside world but also his own "inside body." He could see his own flesh and blood, the mace formed from the White Tiger's sword energy within his body, and the spiritual energy gathering in his dantian rapidly contracting, gradually shrinking into a very small sphere.
What's this?
Could it be... an inner core?
Can people really refine an inner core? Yes, Tangxi has one...
Bei Chen was completely baffled and decided to wait for Tang Xi to return so he could ask her. Suddenly, he heard a scream.
He quickly stopped practicing and listened intently, but the sound was so short it seemed like a hallucination; it only rang out once and then disappeared.
"Who is it?" Bei Chen asked as he walked out of the guest room.
Glug glug.
When the door was pushed open, it made a sound like bubbles churning in the water.
Bei Chen paused slightly, suddenly recalling that when he landed at Langji Mountain last night, he had vaguely heard the sound of ocean waves.
Unconvinced, he frantically shook the heavy coral door back and forth, and sure enough, he heard that dull bubbling sound again.
Beichen hesitated, then remembered hearing the "Wish Weaver" working in the labyrinth mountain. He decided to tell his companions about his "auditory hallucinations," so he went to the first two guest rooms and knocked on the doors.
"Hey, you chuunibyou (delusional) boy?"
"Did Guifang wake up?"
There was silence behind the door; the ghost's guest room did not respond.
So he stepped back a room, and just as he was about to knock on Tang Xihe's door, he remembered that Tang Xihe seemed to have gone out.
What's going on with one or two?
Bei Chen followed her downstairs in a daze.
The air was so quiet that only the bubbling of bubbles could be heard. Following the sound, I found something stewing in the kitchen with the door wide open. Tender seafood was soaking in a large pot of dark purple broth, and the taste was sickeningly sweet.
"Nine-Headed Seal? Black Tortoise's Little Brother? Hello?"
Bei Chen shouted loudly, and only his own voice echoed in the empty hotel.
"...Where are they?!"
Bei Chen, increasingly enraged, gathered his strength in his dantian and shouted, "Tang Xihe! Gui Fang! Nine-Headed Zhang! Xuanwu! Hey! How could you forget about me! Damn it!"
·
Tangxi and her companions didn't dare go too far. They picked spiritual plants in the nearby forest and felt a sense of healing during the mushroom picking process, a feeling they hadn't experienced in a long time.
In reality, the most common tasks students receive are picking spirit fruits, searching for crystal mines, or helping a certain demon in a certain area with something. Tang Xihe, taking advantage of the original work, often led people on tasks at school, earning the reputation of a "task master." The most difficult task she led was Lang Yuehua's deciphering of the Moon Wolf Clan's totem code.
Since taking on the mission, there has never been a moment of peace and quiet. Now, in this rare moment of solitude, Tang Xi feels a strange emptiness in her heart.
I feel a little uneasy without Pipi around.
But actually, from the moment he stepped into the blessed land, Pipi became very quiet. He couldn't get a word in edgewise and couldn't understand what was going on, so he simply didn't speak. I wonder how well that guy's transformation technique is going.
Then there's Beichen. Although he has brute strength but doesn't know how to use it or control the strength of his spiritual power, his mindset remains consistently open and carefree, as if he has no worries at all.
Gui Fang... At first, I thought he was a gloomy guy, but I didn't expect that he was the most talkative one along the way. He talks a lot and is also very cunning. He has a sharp tongue but a soft heart.
besides……
Tangxi looked down at her palm.
An unchanging self.
Tang Xihe had almost forgotten her original world. When she was a child, she was punished for something and knelt in the yard. Without any warning, she suddenly "got it" and realized that she was living in the world of a novel.
It sounds unbelievable, but it's true. As Tang Xihe nervously took her promotion spot and was led into the secret world along with a group of strangers, hoping that "Is there a mission for me?", she spotted the tall and strong Beichen Suixing on the ark and realized that "the story of the novel is about to begin."
However, the current development is completely out of touch with the original work.
Were those plots just my own imagination...?
Impossible. If it were just a figment of my imagination, how could I possibly lead people on a mission so smoothly? The location described in the original work is exactly the same as in reality.
Let's think back to the beginning.
The abandoned building, Pipi, the sweet potato shop owner, the bookstore owner, Xuan Yingxian, Guang Boshi, Qin Xiuluo, Qingxin Di, Yao Yuqian... When Beichen was attacked at school, he already knew how to use "Summoning the Star Lord", which is where the problem lies.
--etc.
There's a very subtle thing I've overlooked!
"Click".
Tang Xi paused on the fallen leaves, then suddenly took a deep breath and performed a front flip. A sharp, long stone needle struck the tree stump beside him with a "snap." Had he reacted even a fraction of a second slower, the needle would have pierced his head.
After the somersault, Tangxi immediately crouched down, trying to hide herself in the bushes, and cautiously looked around. The Divine Coral Tree trembled violently in pain, its head of silvery-red leaves falling in a rustling sound.
No suspicious auras were detected within a hundred meters. However, further out, beyond the barrier of the Wandering Inn, Tangxi sensed two different auras fiercely clashing.
Who's fighting?
He plucked the stone needles from the trunk, and the silent, weeping sacred tree shed its strange and wonderful leaves.
The spirit tree, lacking common sense, could not speak, but it could feel pain. Tangxi touched the scar on the tree with her palm, poured in spiritual power, and left a gray phoenix-shaped emblem on the scar. Then, carrying the stone shuttle, she cautiously approached the direction where the auras clashed.
Going any further would mean crossing the boundary.
Tangxi and the mountain foot approached step by step.
One of the auras suddenly burst forth with intense spiritual power, as if it were desperately trying to find a way out of a desperate situation. It suddenly unleashed a powerful spiritual force, and even though Tangxi was far away, she could still feel that aura as heavy as Mount Tai, yet profound and intense.
The aura rushed towards Tang Xihe's direction, then suddenly stopped, turned at an incredible angle, and quickly disappeared.
!!
That's the direction of the Wandering Inn!
Tang Xi was about to give chase when she suddenly turned serious and threw the stone shuttle in a certain direction.
With a "ding," a clanging sound, more than a dozen stone shuttles flew out of the deep forest and went straight for Tang Xihe's face.
Tangxi dodged the attack, and a mechanical and strange sound approached from the deep forest. She didn't know if the person was injured or what, but just by listening to the sound, it sounded like a drunk person struggling to move forward.
Upon recognizing the person, Tang Xi took two steps back in surprise.
"Fu Guanhong?"
No.
Although the person in front of me looked like Fu Guanhong and even had a similar voice, our temperaments were completely different.
The person's face was deathly pale, her lips and nails were bright red, and her pupils were lifeless, as if she were blind. She wore a dark brown round-necked robe with gold bells hanging from it, but the bells made no sound, probably because they were stuffed with cotton. She seemed unable to walk normally, one hand holding onto a tree trunk... or rather, she was glued to the tree, leaning to one side as she looked at Tang Xihe. When she was still, she resembled a delicate doll hidden in the bushes, peering at someone with empty eyes.
It was a hundred times more terrifying than when Gui Fang Wu Di first dragged him to Teacher Qin's office for tea.
She gently raised her other hand, and several thin, needle-like objects floated in her palm. Upon closer inspection, they were the very same stone shuttles that had almost pierced through Tangxi and Taiyangxue earlier.
The woman's unfocused pupils stared at Tang Xihe, her eyebrows curved, and her bright red lips curled into a smile. "Oh? A completely unfamiliar face. Do you know me, Fu Guanhong?"
"...You are not her."
Tangxi was filled with doubts.
This person looked exactly like Fu Guanhong, but had a somewhat eerie air about him. "Who are you?"
"I am who I am."
The woman gave an irrelevant answer, pointing to the tip of her nose, forcing a smile at the corners of her mouth, her pupils dull and lifeless, and squeezing her eyes together, trying hard to make her eye bags form a smile, like a strange doll learning human behavior.
"Hey, did you see a baby elephant run by?"
"How could there be an elephant here?" Tangxi retorted instinctively.
wrong.
What was that aura that ran towards the hotel just now?
Is it the 'elephant' she mentioned? Is she tracking a monster?
"Oh dear, I've lost them again... But since we're already here, let's get some business done."
The girl put away the stone shuttle in her hand, showing no intention of chasing the monster anymore. She didn't seem to want to fight it either. The hand stuck to the tree trunk remained firmly in place, and her body swayed back and forth without any sense of balance.
"I need to speak with Xuanwu. Is he here?"
"...Not here."
Tang Xi said stiffly, "Anyway, you won't get anything good from looking for Xuanwu, please leave."
"What's the rush? Are you worried I'll set off a signal flare? But I'm not wearing my research institute uniform."
She murmured to herself, then suddenly jerked her head back. "Wait, you fought her?"
"...What?" Tang Xi didn't understand. "With Fu Guanhong?"
She knew Fu Guanhong.
"It's nothing... Since Xuanwu isn't here today, could you please pass on a message to him?"
She looked at Tangxi for a while, then pretended to turn and leave, like a sticky rubber figure. When her feet didn't move, her hands would stick to other tree trunks, and when her hands didn't move, her feet would swing to other places. Her limbs had to work together to hold onto something to move. She stumbled and bumped her way away, and her voice gradually faded into the distance.
"Tell him that the Qilin is very weak and that we should hurry. He will understand."
What nonsense is this?
Tang Xi chased after them, "Hey, you know what a Qilin is? What did you do to the Qilin? What are your motives?"
A faint, distant laugh echoed from the dense forest.
The wind rustled, the shadows of the trees swayed, and Tang Xi couldn't help but shiver.
How eerie.
Tang Xi and her companion carefully sensed the girl's presence for a while longer and realized that it seemed to have disappeared. So they turned around and headed towards the hotel.
What if the 'elephant' that just flew away was a dangerous thing? That would be terrible.
"Oh, by the way, there's something else I should remind you of."
A light, airy voice suddenly sounded from behind.
!!
Tangxi was on the verge of a meltdown when she heard the sound and felt a weight on her shoulders as a pair of cold hands pressed down on them for support.
The faint whisper sounded almost right behind his head, and with all his skill, he didn't even realize when the girl had gotten close!
The hem of her dress fluttered down, and the girl placed her hands on Tang Xihe's shoulders, supporting him weakly as if restraining him from behind. She whispered in Tang Xihe's ear, "There's something you definitely don't know."
you?
Tangxi felt a tightness in her throat.
She knew we were hiding at the Wandering Inn!
"Although Xuanwu has the appearance of a child, each generation of Xuanwu has the characteristic of 'negligible aging'."
"……What's the meaning?"
Tangxi's voice was hoarse, and she dared not move.
"Once Xuanwu's mentality and strength reach the adult standard, his body and abilities will remain relatively stable until the end of his life, when his mortality rate will suddenly increase... Don't be fooled by his child-like appearance, Xuanwu is actually older than Qinglong."
Something sharp lightly scratched Tangxi's neck, deliberately pressing against her taut Adam's apple. He guessed it was a piece of cardamom, or perhaps a stone needle.
"Did I make myself clear? Xuanwu can remain stable for a long time, but its aging is not visible on the outside, and even it may not be aware of it."
Her shoulders felt lighter, and the pain in her neck vanished. Tang Xi turned around abruptly, only to find the woman had disappeared into thin air, leaving behind a faint echo of her voice: "Please take care of yourself, Lord Xuanwu..."
Tang Xi, cold sweat beading on her forehead, exclaimed, "What the hell?"
...
Achoo! Achoo!
Gui Fang sneezed three or four times in a row and said angrily, "Bei Chen is with you, and you're cursing me in your heart again."
"I didn't!" Bei Chen said, holding the conch cup. "Even if I did scold you, it only means you're too deserving of a scolding."
Seeing that Beichen was actually drinking the Heart-Reflecting Water like a beverage, Guifang couldn't help but frown. "Ugh, is this stuff even good? Nine-Headed Chapter, did you secretly give me the worst-tasting one?"
Nine-Headed Octopus, wearing a face mask, awkwardly held up his newly grown blue head: "Nonsense! All three cups of 'Heart-Reflecting Water' are the same!"
Bei Chen paused almost imperceptibly as he put down his cup.
"Nine-Headed Seal, to be honest, I'm not used to your furrowed brow..."
"It'll grow longer!"
The octopus's reproachful voice came from the kitchen, accompanied by its discontented muttering, "So heavy! I'm not used to this new brain. It's squeezing my second head into my neck..."
The sky was a pale yellow, the wind was rising and clouds were billowing; it was nearly noon, and Tang Xi and the others showed no sign of returning. Gui Fang was about to recite a poem to annoy Bei Chen when he caught a glimpse of a figure rushing into the inn from the corner of his eye.
"Where did you go? We've all had the water to drink, except for you..."
Gui Fang paused, then asked seriously, "What happened to your neck?"
"Friends, I've seen a ghost in broad daylight!"
Tang Xihe, unusually serious and terrified, braced herself on the table before hurriedly saying, "I just saw Fu Guanhong, she might have been possessed by something! Where is Xuanwu? Is Xuanwu here?!"
"..."
Gui Fang and Bei Chen exchanged a glance and clapped their hands in unison.
Bei Chen said sincerely, "Wow, Tang Xi is amazing. A cultivator said he encountered a ghost in broad daylight."
"I'm telling the truth!" Tang Xi said urgently, "That Fu Guanhong is acting very strangely! He walks like he's drunk! No, my mind is a bit muddled right now... By the way, where is Xuanwu? When is he coming back?"
"My mind is a mess? Young friend Tang, would you like to see my new brain?"
The voice of the Nine-Headed Octopus came from the kitchen, followed by the sound of tentacles wriggling.
Tang Xi looked up, her breath catching in her throat.
The deep blue head was covered in wrinkles, like a layer of over-dehydrated skin, with black veins pulsating rhythmically and clearly visible. The gaze slowly moved upwards, and three eyes were searching for a target, darting around in their clear black and white sockets, finally settling on Tang Xihe.
Is it pretty?
The nine-headed octopus struck a pose in an affected manner. When it opened its mouth, Tang Xi and Cai finally found the position of its mouth, which was wrinkled and looked like a sea anemone.
It's disgusting; it looks like eyes and a mouth have grown on a human brain.
Tang Xi opened her mouth, but no sound came out. Her mind went blank. In that instant, all her worries and thoughts were overwhelmed and vanished by the new brain of the Nine-Headed Chapter. She felt as if she had seen her ancestor, dressed in a flamboyant manner, crawl out of his grave and dance a social dance.
"Hey Tangxi!"
"Look how scared you've made him! Hey! Wake up! Hey!"
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