Chapter 69 The Evil Shadow of the Holy Tree Hidden Evil in the Cellar
That night, at the Imperial Master’s Mansion.
As expected, Chu Xuanyi invited Ah Jiu into the quiet room, which was filled with all her favorite cakes and a pot of hot milk.
"Ah Jiu, good boy," Chu Xuanyi forced out what he thought was his most amiable smile. "Just have some snacks here and have a good sleep. I'm going to run some errands and will be back at dawn. I'll bring you the best roast chicken from Chengnan Zhangji, okay?"
"Okay!" Ah Jiu, who was happily munching on a piece of sweet-scented osmanthus cake, nodded immediately upon hearing this, mumbling, "Goodbye, sir!"
Chu Xuanyi felt a little relieved at the sight of her innocent face. He left the quiet room and locked the three large locks with a clang, clang, clang. Then he took out the yellow talismans from his pocket, muttered something, and stuck them one by one on the crack of the door.
After doing all this, he sternly ordered the eight Daoist boys standing at the door, who were looking at each other with alarm, "Listen! Even if the sky falls, this door won't open! Don't believe anything the people inside say! Your mission is to guard until I return! Do you understand?"
"We will follow the Master's orders!" the eight Taoist children responded in unison.
After doing all this, Chu Xuanyi finally breathed a sigh of relief, turned around and disappeared into the night.
In the quiet room, Ah Jiu finished the last of her dessert and licked her fingers. She walked to the door, stood on tiptoe, and peeked through the crack. Then she walked to the window and pushed. It was also nailed shut.
She sighed, climbed onto the couch, covered herself with the quilt, and closed her eyes.
The Taoist children outside the door listened for a long time, but there was no movement from inside. It seemed that he was asleep. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
However, about an incense stick later, Ah Jiu, who had been sleeping soundly on the couch, suddenly sat up straight. Her eyes were closed, her face blank, and she slowly walked down the couch as if she were sleepwalking.
She sniffed the air hard with her little nose, and then walked straight towards the solid wall of the quiet room!
Just as she was about to hit the wall, several bricks on the wall suddenly "clicked" and silently rotated inward, revealing a narrow secret passage that was only wide enough for one person to pass through! This was the secret passage that Chu Xuanyi had almost forgotten about, the one he had dug in his early years to sneak out and play!
Ah Jiu closed his eyes and walked with his short legs into the dark secret passage step by step...
Meanwhile, on another street in the capital, Censor Qian, having just finished a "social event," was walking home with two servants, his belly bulging. He had a few drinks and was bragging about his bravery during the autumn hunting trip.
"...Thinking back then, I shouted and that evil spirit was instantly shattered! Imperial Preceptor and Prince? They were just icing on the cake!"
Just as he was enjoying the flute, he suddenly saw a few furtive figures scurrying along the wall not far ahead. The one leading them was actually a petite little girl!
"Hmm?" Censor Qian was half sober. He rubbed his eyes and looked carefully. Wasn't that the emperor's favorite, the little fortune teller Ajiu?
"Something's happening!" Censor Qian's heart, eager for merit, instantly burned with rage. "This woman carries a destiny. She travels late at night. There must be some evil spirit at work! This is a heaven-sent merit!"
He immediately ordered his two trembling servants, "Follow! Hurry up! I will personally slay the demons and protect the divine calculation!"
The night at Qingfeng Manor is eerily quiet.
The moonlight was obscured by thick dark clouds, with only a few pale rays struggling to shine on the dark eaves of the manor.
Two dark figures, like drops of ink blending into the night, landed silently behind a rockery. They were Xiao Yu and Chu Xuanyi. From the shadows behind them, four secret guards also appeared like ghosts, blending into the darkness.
"The Yin energy is very strong." Chu Xuanyi lowered his voice. He held a piece of talisman paper between his fingertips. A faint trace of black energy emanated from the center of the talisman paper. "The source is right below that library."
Xiao Yu looked in the direction he pointed. It was a three-story wooden building, resembling a dormant beast in the night. He gestured, and the four secret guards immediately dispersed, slithering through the shadows like geckos, silently eliminating the several outposts on the periphery.
The two of them flashed by and arrived at the bottom of the library. Chu Xuanyi pulled out a small compass from his bosom. The compass needle spun frantically, finally pointing firmly to a bluestone slab paving the ground in front of the building.
Xiao Yu stepped forward and flicked his finger. A barely perceptible gust of wind blew through the cracks in the stone slab, blowing away a few wisps of dust and revealing an extremely hidden latch. He reached out and pressed, and the bluestone slab, weighing a thousand pounds, slid silently to the side, revealing the entrance to a bottomless tunnel.
A cold smell mixed with the smell of earth and blood hit me in the face.
The two exchanged glances and slipped in without hesitation. The tunnel was deep and deep, its walls inlaid with phosphorus stones that emitted a faint green light, making the entire passage seem eerie and ghostly.
At the end of the tunnel is a huge underground cave.
When they saw the scene inside the cave clearly, even Xiao Yu and Chu Xuanyi, who were used to seeing mountains of corpses and seas of blood, couldn't help but shrink their pupils.
In the center of the cave, a gigantic plant, nearly five or six feet tall, grew! It was completely black, without a single leaf. Only countless vines, twisted like blood vessels, intertwined and tangled, formed a gigantic, hideous tree shape.
This is the "holy tree" of the Withered Vine Religion!
Even more terrifying was the fact that dozens of translucent, grayish-white cocoons, each over a meter tall, hung from the black vines. Through the thin walls of the cocoons, one could vaguely see the outlines of human figures curled up inside, some of them twitching slightly.
Beneath the sacred tree, a dozen or so followers of the Withered Vine Cult, dressed in black robes, were kneeling around a pool of blood, muttering to themselves. In front of them, a tall man wearing a Yaksha mask, holding a black banner, stood quietly.
"They are using the blood of living people to ripen the holy fetus!" Chu Xuanyi's voice was as cold as ice.
Xiao Yu's eyes were filled with murderous intent, and his hand was already on the hilt of the sword.
The two exchanged glances, and a plan was formed instantly - Xiao Yu would deal with the strongest guardian, Chu Xuanyi would use thunder magic to break their ritual, and the secret guards would be responsible for dealing with the rest of the believers.
Just when they were gathering their energy and preparing to launch a thundering attack!
“Hey——!”
A thunderous roar that shook the world and shook the mountains and rivers suddenly came from outside the manor and exploded in the silent night sky!
"Listen carefully, you monsters in this village! I am Qian Rulong, the Imperial Censor! I have been ordered by the Emperor to subdue this monster! You are completely surrounded by the net I have laid. Surrender immediately, and you may be able to keep your body intact! If you dare to resist, I will destroy you both physically and spiritually, and you will never be able to escape rebirth—"
This loud roar not only alarmed all the guards in the manor, but also made everyone in the cellar freeze instantly.
The Yaksha-masked guardian suddenly turned around, his eyes blazing with murderous intent. The other cultists also stood up and drew the scimitars hidden in their robes.
Xiao Yu and Chu Xuanyi, who were standing at the tunnel entrance, had dark faces.
Chu Xuanyi's teeth were clattering as he squeezed out a few words: "Qian! Ru! Long! I will definitely stuff him into my alchemy furnace and refine him for a full forty-nine days!"
Xiao Yu's face was so gloomy that it seemed like water was about to drip out of it. His plan was completely disrupted and the sneak attack turned into a violent attack!
"Kill!" He no longer hesitated, and uttered only one cold word. His figure was like an arrow shot from a bow, and with a sharp sword light, he rushed straight towards the Yaksha guardian!
"Set up the formation!" Chu Xuanyi also made a prompt decision. Several talismans flew out from his hands and turned into golden electric snakes, shooting towards the panicked believers!
A sudden encounter erupted in the cellar! Sword energy surged, lightning flashed, and the entire underground cavern shook violently!
Outside the manor, Censor Qian, accompanied by two servants and a few guards from the Imperial Master's Mansion who had followed them, was surrounded by a dozen manor guards who had arrived upon hearing the noise. He struck a self-proclaimed cool pose, brandishing a firewood stick he'd snatched from a servant, and shouted in a timid voice, "See?! My divine power has thrown the demons into disarray! Why don't you surrender immediately?"
In response to him, there were more than a dozen machetes flashing with cold light.
The entire Qingfeng Manor was in complete chaos.
Amidst this chaos, no one noticed a small figure in twin buns, eyes closed. Like a tireless mole, it followed the increasingly strong "stinky radish smell," bypassing all the battle groups and diving headfirst into the unguarded cellar entrance...
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com