(six)
Zhang Yifeng looked at the sky in horror. No, this wasn't rain; it was blood, bright red blood. And the blood rain was getting heavier and heavier. The surrounding willow trees instantly grew stronger, and the vines became thicker and more powerful. Zhou Ziqiu was indeed strong, but he was struggling to deal with the branches that surrounded them all, especially since he had to take care of Wen Su, who couldn't free his hands, and Zhang Yifeng, who was powerless. In many critical moments when he couldn't react in time, he could only use his body to block the attacks for them.
Wen Su noticed Zhou Ziqiu's struggle out of the corner of his eye. He raised his hand and pulled the dagger from the compass. With the dagger, he was no longer struggling, but his body suddenly slumped down, and the muscles in his arms bulged to the point of bursting. He gritted his teeth to steady his body and the strength in his hands.
"Here!" Wen Su tossed the dagger to Zhang Yifeng. "Help Zhou Ziqiu!"
Zhang Yifeng caught the dagger, the sharp tip instantly cutting his hand, but he couldn't care less about the pain and struggled to drive the dagger into the tree branch.
The willow branch didn't look like a tree at all; it looked more like a human arm. When the dagger struck it, blood spurted out.
The Five Elements Extermination Magic Artifact, as the name suggests, is meant to use the five elements to eliminate evil. However, the five elements of this artifact do not destroy the demons; instead, they help them.
Now, the first of the five elements, water, has already begun, and it's time for the second element, earth.
Suddenly, the soil on the ground began to flow, as if it had come alive, opening its blood-red maw to try to swallow Zhou Ziqiu and Zhang Yifeng. Zhou Ziqiu raised the tip of his blade and slashed downwards into the center of the vortex formed by the soil. Black energy once again emanated from the blade and seeped into the soil.
Unseen by the public, two powerful forces clashed underground. The surface was affected by the battle, and the violent tremors nearly caused Wen Su to lose his grip on the compass, instantly biting his lip until it bled.
Fortunately, the soil solidified again in an instant.
After the Earth Devouring, came the Golden Illumination. The dark clouds in the sky dispersed, and a ray of golden light poured down from the horizon, shining on the three of them and bringing warmth.
But this is not a sign that it is over; rather, something even more ferocious is on its way.
The golden light was like flames, and the three of them felt their skin burning. Zhang Yifeng even screamed in agony.
"This is an illusion! Hold on!"
Wen Su's face turned bright red, and just as he was about to give up, Zhou Ziqiu quickly wedged the knife in his hand into the gap of the magic weapon, then gripped the hilt and twisted it in the same direction as Wen Su. The slender blade even bent slightly, which helped Wen Su breathe a sigh of relief in time.
With Zhou Ziqiu's help, they quickly reached the last element of the Five Elements Demon Extermination Method: Fire.
The surrounding willow trees began to burn fiercely, the golden flames resembling flowing water, flowing from the willows towards the people.
Without the golden light, Zhang Yifeng, despite the pain, now had some strength. He ran to Wen Su's side and wedged the dagger into the gap to stop the compass from turning.
Wen Su was already at his limit. He was experiencing unbearable pain in his arms and fingers. His face was deathly pale, and large beads of sweat slid down his forehead and onto the compass.
Even though his body was in great pain, his soul remained steadfast.
Finally, just as the flames were about to reach them, the magical artifact seemed to give up and stop spinning. Zhou Ziqiu and Zhang Yifeng quickly withdrew their hands, and Wen Su roared, directly turning the artifact back to its original position!
A deafening rumble echoed around them, and the scenes shifted rapidly like a cutscene, sometimes transforming into an underground hellscape, sometimes into a beautiful heavenly court, sometimes turning the surrounding willow trees into monsters with gaping maws, and sometimes sprouting human faces from the tree trunks, twisting and howling. The scene finally froze at that point.
Wen Su was finally able to lift his hand from the magic weapon. His arm was trembling, blood was dripping from his fingers, and his face was as pale as paper. He raised his eyes and looked at the blood-red scene around him. His voice was cold but trembling: "No wonder this broken willow tree made that kind of noise when it was burned. Soul-nailing willow, soul-nailing willow, hehe."
Just by looking at the faces on these trees, you can guess how many souls have been nailed here.
Zhou Ziqiu supported Wen Su's body. He had also noticed the strangeness of the willow grove, but he didn't know how it was related to the willows in Yu Nan.
After tearing off a piece of fabric from his clothes to make a simple bandage on his hand, Wen Su looked at Zhang Yifeng, who was slumped on the ground, and asked, "Are you scared stiff?"
Zhang Yifeng nodded, surprised that the forest was so terrifying beneath the surface; the faces on it were enough to give anyone nightmares.
"I was too timid. When I was fifteen, my father threw me into a mountain full of ghosts and left me there for a day and a night."
Zhou Ziqiu didn't think there was anything wrong with it. Nowadays, many aristocratic families do this to train their children. But Zhang Yifeng obviously couldn't be compared to Wen Su. He retorted to Wen Su, signaling him to stop talking.
Wen Su clicked his tongue and, as expected, stopped talking. He then looked at the face on the willow tree, but as he looked, he seemed to find it amusing. He even stretched out his finger and was about to stick it into the mouth of the tree that was wailing.
"Wen Su!" Zhou Ziqiu quickly stepped forward and grabbed Wen Su.
“I just want to try it.” Wen Su withdrew his finger and changed the subject: “What do you think would happen if we burned down this forest? It’s already so eerie here anyway.”
Zhou Ziqiu nodded: "Burn them. There are no such things in the underworld."
"OK."
After Wen Su finished speaking, he drew a Heavenly Fire Talisman on the ground with his dagger. As soon as the talisman was completed, flames spread out from the talisman and climbed up the willow tree from the roots like maggots clinging to bones. The screams and howls of various sounds mingled together in the ears of the two people and the ghost again. Under the flickering firelight, every human face was distorted, some in fear, some in joy, and some in madness. It was a sight that made people feel a chill from the bottom of their hearts.
Zhang Yifeng closed his eyes, not daring to look. Wen Su cast a silencing spell on him so that he couldn't hear the wailing.
Moments later, the land under the blood-red sky turned into ruins, and the screams and howls of the surrounding willow trees, after they were all burned to ashes, still echoed in my ears.
With that, the matter was resolved. Wen Su picked up the Five Elements Magic-Slaying Artifact from the ground and jumped into the pond with it. Zhang Yifeng and Zhou Ziqiu also jumped in.
...
......
"You better explain to me what 'dead' means. What does 'dead' mean? You haven't even looked for me yet, and you're spouting this bullshit about being dead!"
The fat man and the man with glasses stood beside Cui Yongle, not daring to utter a sound. Although they were also angry, they were clearly more afraid of Cui Yongle when he was angry.
Sure enough, people who are usually all smiles can be more terrifying when they get angry than people who are usually irritable.
The team leader in charge of this missing persons case had been scolded by Cui Yongle for a long time. Fatty and Glasses didn't know what the team leader was thinking. The night before last, Wen Su and Zhou Ziqiu both disappeared. When the team leader learned that they had also disappeared by the pond, he took it upon himself to decide not to look for them and directly pronounce them dead because they found their flashlights on the shore.
Upon receiving the report, Fatty and Glasses were so frightened that they immediately contacted Cui Yongle. As soon as Cui Yongle heard about it, he rushed from Guanxing to Yunan. After his plane landed at midnight, he went straight to the scene of the disappearance. He happened to meet the team leader who had come to investigate near the pond where the disappearance occurred, and he pinned the man against the wall and gave him a good scolding.
The team leader hadn't expected the special investigation team leader to be so hot-tempered. He laughed and said, "Don't get so angry. We're still looking for him."
Cui Yongle's eyes widened, and he raised his hand to punch the team leader. Glasses and Fatty rushed to break up the fight, and the surrounding police officers also stepped forward to separate them.
Suddenly, someone in the crowd screamed, "Water! Water!"
What kind of water?
"Holy crap!!"
Everyone turned around and saw bubbles suddenly rise in the center of the pond. A few seconds later, a human head broke through the water.
It was Wen Su, Zhou Ziqiu, and Zhang Yifeng!
Cui Yongle also turned to look at the pond. When he saw Zhou Ziqiu, he pushed everyone aside, rushed to the edge of the pond, pulled Zhou Ziqiu out of the water, and hugged him tightly. The middle-aged man who had been so aggressive just moments before was now crying like a child who had lost his parents.
Wen Su was exhausted from carrying the heavy magic weapon and fainted as soon as he got ashore. Fatty and Glasses quickly called for others to come and help him. A lot of people also gathered around Zhang Yifeng's side, and the scene became chaotic.
However, the chaos subsided quickly. Wen Su and Zhang Yifeng were rushed to the hospital. Cui Yongle was also going to take Zhou Ziqiu to the hospital, but he refused and gestured for Zhou Ziqiu to pick up the magical artifact on the ground.
Cui Yongle stepped forward and picked up the magical artifact that Wen Su had brought out. He turned the artifact over so that the back was facing up, but he suddenly froze and looked up at Zhou Ziqiu in disbelief. Zhou Ziqiu did not know what Cui Yongle had seen, and said in a hoarse voice, "Take this back. This is the core of the formation."
Cui Yongle's feelings were hard to describe. He led Zhou Ziqiu and the others away from the pond.
After a check-up at the hospital, the results came back quickly. Zhang Yifeng was not injured, just very hungry. His parents were overjoyed and took him out to eat. Wen Su, who had fainted, was also not injured, just exhausted. The wound on his hand disappeared after he left the underworld. The hospital gave him an IV drip and he was fine.
Cui Yongle pushed open the door from the corridor into the ward, pointed to the door at Zhou Ziqiu, indicating that he had something to say.
Just now, Cui Yongle went to the corridor to make a phone call. Zhou Ziqiu guessed that Qingdeng might have something to do, so he got up and quietly left the ward.
"What's wrong?"
Zhou Ziqiu stood on the balcony at the end of the corridor, watching Cui Yongle leaning against the railing smoking. Cui Yongle didn't smoke often, only occasionally when he was feeling down. He didn't know what had happened at Qingdeng to make Cui Yongle so upset.
"Did you see what's on that magic artifact?" Cui Yongle asked. He had just gone out to make a phone call to have Qingdeng's trusted confidant in Yu Nan deliver the magic artifact to his hotel. He started smoking because of that magic artifact, and the thought of what was on it made his heart ache.
"Not the Five Elements Gems and Five Elements Runes?" Zhou Ziqiu asked, not understanding what was wrong with these things.
Cui Yongle sighed, took out his phone, and showed Zhou Ziqiu the picture he had taken of the magical artifact. After seeing the photo, Zhou Ziqiu understood why Cui Yongle was acting this way.
"This is...?"
18:57:04
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