senior
The two were engrossed in their work and no one was following them. Xu Yi looked at Wu Zi and asked, "Wu Zi, what's wrong?"
“Oh,” Wu Zi shook his fingers, which were numb from the cold, and said to Xu Yi, “The well rim is octagonal, and each side is engraved with the Bagua (Eight Trigrams). Also, cinnabar was added when the well rim was built, which is quite special. We have to go down and take a look.”
"Okay, I'll go. You wait for me upstairs."
“Alright,” Wu Zi said. Although he was reluctant to let Xu Yi go alone, the situation below was quite special according to Xu Yi’s description. Xu Yi, being of the same kind, was indeed more suitable to go down and investigate than he was. So he could only hold Xu Yi’s arm and solemnly instruct him: “Be careful. If you encounter any problems, call me immediately.”
"Hmm," Xu Yi nodded, and was about to go downstairs when she realized that Wu Zi was still holding her hand and hadn't let go. Wu Zi looked at her with eyes full of worry: "Be careful."
Xu Yi felt a warmth in her heart, and nodded with a smile: "I understand, I will be careful."
Xu Yi descended along the well wall, sliding straight to the very bottom of the well. The space below was much larger than the well opening. Xu Yi searched for a long time but couldn't find anything unusual. Realizing that he was now in the bottom of the well, he simply reopened his Ghost Eye.
After circling around, they found the bottom of the well to be very clean, but how could the bottom of a well with a corpse be so clean? This actually indicated that something was wrong.
But at the bottom of the well were only some pebbles and vines, nothing else... Right, the vines... Xu Yi focused his mind and opened his divine eye to look at the vines, only to discover that a faint yellow light was faintly emanating from beneath the lush green vines...
Xu Yi unconsciously moved closer. She slowly parted the dense vines and saw the outline of a loving face beneath them. She closed her divine eye, and before her was the skeleton in the very center from last night.
Xu Yi quickly called to Wu Zi, "Wu Zi, come down quickly."
Upon hearing Xu Yi's call, Wu Zi immediately jumped down. As he approached Xu Yi, he saw the skeleton of a fellow cultivator beneath the vines.
Xu Yi tilted her head and told Wu Zi, "The skeleton in the very center last night was that of this old man."
After Xu Yi finished speaking, she parted the vines on the skeleton's left shoulder, where there was indeed a ring of teeth marks, still black at the moment, but not as exaggerated as Xu Yi had seen last night.
“This is it,” Xu Yi pointed to the teeth marks on the skeleton’s left shoulder: “Last night I was investigating this skeleton to see if there was anything there, and it was this that forced me out.”
"It?" Wu Zi asked, "Is it some other will?"
"No, it doesn't seem like a formed will. It's more like a murderous aura that instinctively repels any force that it doesn't get along with."
Wu Zi frowned, took out a jade flute from his bosom, and began to play it on the skeleton.
Xu Yi heard a melodious flute tune, carrying an alluring power. Xu Yi remembered that before she was sealed in the desolate mountains, she had also heard a tune with this same power. This was...
"A summoning melody?" Xu Yi looked at Wu Zi, who nodded slightly. The summoning melody continued, and after a moment, a black energy emerged from the teeth marks and condensed into the shape of a leopard, which pounced on Xu Yi and Wu Zi...
Wu Zi quickly pulled Xu Yi away and continued playing his tune, but the leopard ignored him completely and roared at Wu Zi, not only interrupting his music but also causing him to cough up blood.
Blood trickled down Wu Zi's lips, staining Xu Yi's heart red: "Wu Zi..." Xu Yi's eyes involuntarily darkened...
“I’m fine…” Wu Zi quickly shook Xu Yi and repeated, “I’m fine.”
The ghostly aura in Xu Yi's eyes had just faded when the leopard leaped upwards, and with a roar, the bottom of the well changed its appearance...
The surroundings had transformed into the open space Xu Yi had seen the previous night, now filled with countless dazed spirits, completely surrounding Wu Zi and Xu Yi...
Wu Zi acted decisively, throwing the mirror, a magical artifact, upwards. The mirror flew upwards, and after a moment, it spun and cast sunlight down, but the light only covered a small area, completely failing to cover the surrounding area...
Xu Yi already understood what Wu Zi was going to do, so she quickly condensed her ghostly energy into more than a dozen black mirrors, reflecting the beam of sunlight in the center onto every aspect of the area to suppress the surrounding spirits. Wu Zi saw this and quickly stopped her: "Xu Yi, let me do it."
The sunlight, amplified by the reflection of the magical artifact, reached the mirror Xu Yi had condensed with ghostly energy, instantly thinning it considerably... Xu Yi felt a sharp pain in his heart, as if countless extremely thin, red-hot needles were piercing his body...
It hurt so much that Xu Yi wanted to retreat and avoid its sharp edge, but she knew what had happened last night. Those souls, tainted by the black malevolent energy, would immediately lose their minds. If those mindless souls were to fully awaken, they would all rush towards Wu Zi immediately...
Perhaps because the mirror was formed by Xu Yi using ghostly energy, the yang energy in the sunlight was somewhat lost after refraction, and it was never enough to completely suppress all the surrounding souls... Gradually, some souls began to shake their heads... Cold sweat dripped from Xu Yi's forehead... The current situation was urgent every minute and every second, and there was no time to lose, so he ignored the stinging pain in his body and said to Wu Zi, "I can hold on for a while. You should find a way out as soon as possible and get away first."
"Alright." Wu Zi gritted his teeth, quickly began chanting the incantation, and the peach wood sword flew out of his arms, spinning in the direction of the mirror. When the light reflected from the mirror completely covered the peach wood sword, giving it a bright yellow hue, Wu Zi quickly grabbed the hilt with one hand and reached out to Xu Yi with the other, shouting, "Xu Yi."
Xu Yi quickly offered her hand, but Wu Zi's hand was extremely hot, making Xu Yi flinch. Wu Zi looked at the increasingly active souls around them, grabbed Xu Yi's hand, and the next second, they were carried out of the well by the peach wood sword covered in yang energy.
Once she stood still on the ground, Xu Yi looked up at the sunlight overhead. The blinding light, carrying a scorching heat, shone on her, gradually dissipating the ghostly energy around her. Her head spun, and she collapsed straight down...
Before she closed her eyes for the last time, Xu Yi only saw Wu Zi holding a black umbrella and nervously trying to pull her away...
“Xu Yi…” Wu Zi held a black umbrella in one hand and Xu Yi in the other, anxiously checking on her condition, when he heard Fen Yu’s voice: “Tsk tsk… She, a vengeful ghost, was willing to use her primordial ghost energy to help you in the middle of the day. It seems this girl has fallen deeply in love with Brother Wu…”
"You've been outside the whole time?" Wu Zi asked through gritted teeth.
Fen Yu raised his hypocritical smile and said perfunctorily, "I didn't even have a chance to help Brother Wu before I came out. There was really no opportunity for me to do anything!"
Looking at the unconscious Xu Yi in his arms, Wu Zi felt a pang of heartache. To make matters worse, he had encountered a wicked person with magical powers in such a harsh and complicated place. He was both in pain and angry, so he said to Xu Yi's shadow, "Help."
As soon as Wu Zi finished speaking, Xu Yi's shadow transformed into a monstrous black aura, shooting towards Fen Yu like a sharp arrow... Fen Yu opened his eyes and quickly turned to the side, but was still grabbed on the shoulder by Xu Yi's shadow...
Fen Yu stared wide-eyed at the golden-yellow cultivation technique flowing from the wound: "Brother Wu, you have quite the skill!"
"It's your choice to stand by and watch, I can't force you. But if you dare to set your sights on me and Xu Yi again, I'll let it devour you little by little..."
"Eat me?" Fen Yu scoffed, but after a moment his face turned deathly pale. He pointed at Xu Yi's shadow and asked tremblingly, "What is it?"
"Yes, that's it."
"The Imperial Observatory gave it all to you?" Fen Yu's question was filled with resentment and jealousy. A mix of emotions, culminating in an unyielding politeness in his unwilling gaze: "Brother Wu, you're overthinking it. I just wanted to see your abilities; I had no other intentions..."
"You'd better not have it." After saying that, Wu Zi deliberately looked down at Fen Yu's feet.
With a glance following Wu Zi, he saw the golden cultivation technique seeping from his wound fall to the ground and be caught by a small black shadow, which then disappeared into the shadow... After the shadow that had swallowed his cultivation technique floated on the ground, it returned to Xu Yi's body.
Fen Yu looked at the shadow beneath Xu Yi, as if he were seeing a cold-faced demon. He involuntarily got goosebumps. Then, staring at the shadow, he cupped his hands to Wu Zi, leaving behind a furious "Farewell," before turning and leaving.
Wu Zi appeared calm and collected, but a thin layer of cold sweat still broke out on his back...
But at this moment, the most important thing was Xu Yi. Wu Zi put Xu Yi into the jade hairpin he had specially made before, put away the black umbrella, and said to the shadow at his feet, "Let's go back to the inn."
Unexpectedly, the shadow beneath his feet went straight for Wu Zi's feet and swallowed the martial arts technique from the sole of his foot. Wu Zi quickly took two steps back and begged for mercy, "Ancestor, ancestor, I was wrong, I misspoke. I'll go back with Xu Yi now, please do as you please, alright?"
Then the shadow slowly merged into Wu Zi's shadow.
Wu Zi breathed a sigh of relief, secretly lamenting that he had inadvertently forgotten about his ancestor's temperament.
Now that he remembered, Wu Zi walked very carefully on his way back, afraid of accidentally angering the creature under his feet again. Strangely enough, it never reacted at all under Xu Yi's feet...
When Xu Yi opened his ghost eye on the surface, he was scorched by the sunlight. After going down to the bottom of the well and using ghost energy to condense a mirror, he was stung by the yang energy reflected from the magic artifact for a long time. So when he came out and encountered the sun again, he immediately fainted. When Xu Yi woke up again, it was already night. He saw Wu Zi standing alone by the window, sighing...
He went over and asked Wu Zi, "Wu Zi, what's wrong?"
“Sigh,” Wu Zi sighed again, “According to my speculation, the skeleton we saw today might be that of the senior I told you about. The senior was probably severely injured by the leopard demon before he died, and the leopard demon left a murderous aura on the senior’s left shoulder with its full killing intent. That’s why the senior was buried in such a strange way. As a result, something happened later, and the sealed well was opened, which brought all the unconscious ghosts around it together.”
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