Chapter 238 Ancient Xingzhou——
"Are you...are you okay?"
Jing Lan took a look at the devastated battlefield, her throat rolling slightly, and asked cautiously.
Originally, she came out specially to help, but in the end, not only did she not accomplish anything, but she was almost triggered into her own star tribulation by the place. Not only did she not help, but she also caused trouble...
If the star calamity that I just experienced was really triggered, then...
Glancing at the slowly dissipating Sword of Heaven and Earth in the swordsman's hand, Jing Lan felt lucky that her bloodline was so strong that it could even suppress her own star calamity.
It was not until this moment that she clearly realized that the demons in the secret realm were not allowed to leave at will, and that they were basically protecting the demons...
To be honest, she kind of wanted to go back to Wanshou Mountain.
The swordsman held the Shengsheng Fruit that Ji Ruo had just stuffed into his hand, staring blankly at the direction where Ji Ruo left. After a while, he took a deep breath and said, "I'm fine."
The golden light from its feet, which had been radiating faintly, slowly faded.
When Jinglan saw this, she complained in her heart, you were almost sanctified just now, and you are still okay?
But she didn't dare to say so. The sky ruler of Wanshou Mountain was now extremely grateful that when she came out, she did not meet a warrior with a sword. She was also grateful that she had never killed anyone and had no human blood on her body... The warrior only chased her and did not kill her.
The swordsman took a bite of the sheng sheng nut, feeling the medicinal power of the sheng sheng nut spreading in his body and then dissipating, his expression calm.
Jing Lan asked, "Mr. Li, are the Sheng Shen Fruits useful to you? Can I ask the old tree for some more?"
The swordsman shook his head slightly: "Thank you, but it's not necessary."
He had burned the source of his life, and now it was depleted. It was not as if he had suffered any injuries that could not be restored by rebirth.
The life essence contained in the Shengshen Fruit continued to dissipate, and his body seemed to have turned into a big sieve, and the medicinal power could not be retained at all.
"But come to think of it, why is this Shengshen fruit sour and sweet?" The swordsman took another bite of the Shengshen fruit and asked in confusion, "As I remember, Shengshen fruit has no taste."
Jing Lan explained, "This is what the old tree produced specially for little Jiruo. The old tree asked your human scholars, and they said that children like to eat this kind of sour and sweet taste... Little Jiruo should also have spicy flavor."
“…”
The swordsman looked at Ji Ruo's back, and recalled the scene where Ji Ruo had pushed away the thunderclouds of the star calamity by himself. He suddenly smiled and said, "What a miraculous child."
…
"Uncle Gu..."
Ji Ruo stood in front of a human-shaped pile of charcoal, with sadness rolling in his eyes.
At that time, Gu Xingzhou was controlled by the Eye Demon and unable to move, so he was locked by the Star Tribulation and became one of its targets.
Hu Yonglin and other warriors stationed there, including Gu Xingzhou, were all locked by the Star Tribulation. Although they were later brought back by the Sword Master with his sword energy, the Star Tribulation had dissipated at this moment, which meant that all of its targets had died...
Even Xing Jie thought so. Although Ji Ruo found it hard to accept, he had no choice. With a sad face, he took out a handful of white chrysanthemums from the Mirror of All Things and gently placed them in front of Gu Xingzhou.
Luo Xi was also a little sad. She kept switching talents, trying to sense the life breath of Gu Xingzhou, but she could not sense anything.
"Meow~ (Master, can we have the feast again?)" Rosie asked sadly.
Ji Ruo: “…”
The young man sighed. Although he didn't want to accept it, the fact was right in front of him. Gu Xingzhou was already dead.
“Ka-ka~”
Suddenly, the charcoal on Gu Xingzhou's body made a slight cracking sound. Gu Xingzhou quietly opened one eye, his eyeballs rolling around, looking around.
"???"
Ji Ruo's grief came to an abrupt end, and he stared blankly at Gu Xingzhou, who was motionlessly observing the surroundings with one eye.
A few seconds later, Gu Xingzhou chuckled, suddenly jumped up, and shook off the charred clothes on his body. Only a pair of boxer shorts were left on his strong body. He said to himself, "Finally I made it. It was a close call. I almost got killed by a sword... Eh? Ji Ruo? Who are you going to give the flowers to?"
"Ah, this..."
Ji Ruo quickly put away the chrysanthemum and said in surprise: "Uncle Gu, are you okay?!"
"Of course I'm fine." Gu Xingzhou said proudly, "What can a mere star calamity do to me?"
Ji Ruo asked hesitantly, "But, aren't all star calamities endless? Why are you..."
Gu Xingzhou said: "I used the Turtle Breathing Technique to fake my death and tricked him. Xingjie is brainless and it's easy to fool him."
Ji Ruo was stunned for a moment, and said sincerely: "It's great that you are okay, it's a pity..."
He looked at the other charred corpses and sighed halfway.
Gu Xingzhou suddenly shouted, "Everyone, the star calamity has passed, get up!"
Afterwards, one charred corpse after another crawled up from the ground, shook off the carbonized clothes on their bodies, and laughed and talked about how dangerous it was.
Ji Ruo's grief was interrupted again and he couldn't recover for a long time.
Everyone actually used the Turtle Breathing Method to fake their death and deceive the Star Tribulation? !
Of course, not everyone stood up. Some of the garrison warriors were still lying on the ground, motionless.
In this battle, Daxia also suffered casualties, but not even one of them turned into a ghost and rose again.
Ji Ruo and Luo Xi helped collect the bodies. They quietly tore off a small piece of surviving clothing from each corpse and carefully put it back into the Pantheon.
…
Everyone returned to Babao Village, and Gu Xingzhou and Ji Ruo placed the eight statues at the entrance of the village.
Gu Xingzhou once again used the fragments of the Universal Mirror to summon a portal, but the state of the portal was not stable and it was constantly fluctuating.
"The space hasn't stabilized yet... It's a bit difficult..."
The dying swordsman picked up the badge on his chest and examined it for a while, then said, "Then don't send it yet. The signal is almost restored. I'll call someone over."
"OK."
The members of the Spicy Spicy Group, led by Liang Shixian, comforted the crowd, while Ji Ruo took Luo Xi to the land temple.
At this moment, the white cat's power is exhausted, and he is once again unable to appear in the form of the incense god. However, Rosie and the white cat already have a deep bond, so they can communicate.
"Meow~ (Master, my sister said those guys are not dead yet. Their souls are still there. It just takes time to recover... Also, my sister said this place is too yin. After a long time, it will not be suitable for living things.)"
"Is that so?"
Ji Ruo pondered for a moment and said, "I do have a way to deal with those souls, but this evil spirit... Anyway, let's get some incense for Dabai first."
“Meow~ (OK)”
After thinking for a while, Ji Ruo ran to where the villagers were and said, "Fellow villagers, we have survived this disaster thanks to the blessing of the Earth God. Now that the crisis has been temporarily resolved, it is time to thank the Earth God!"
As he spoke, Ji Ruo took out a handful of candles and paper money and asked the confused members of the Spicy and Spicy Group to distribute them.
There had been a torrential rain before, and everyone was soaked. Now everyone was like a drowned chicken, staring blankly at Ji Ruo, not understanding why this guy was still promoting feudal superstition at this time.
The swordsman seemed to be thinking about something. Seeing that no one was taking any action, he took the candles and paper money from Ji Ruo's hand first and said with some difficulty: "The Earth God of Babao Village is indeed effective. It was indeed with his help that I was able to destroy the beast tide just now. I should thank him very much."
Ji Ruo looked at the extremely old swordsman in surprise as he helped him greet the villagers. The swordsman whispered, "Ji Ruo, after the worship is over, I have something to ask you."
Gu Xingzhou also came over and asked, "Ji Ruo, what's going on with that white cat? Why did Lao Li say that the guy became the local god of Babao Village?"
"this……"
Ji Ruo scratched his head and said, "The situation is a little complicated, but it's not impossible to talk about it... Well, let's go over there and talk about it. Squad leader, you can lead everyone to help maintain order."
"Okay, you guys go ahead and do your work first."
Afterwards, Ji Ruo brought the swordsman and Gu Xingzhou to a corner, and after making sure that there was no one around, he began to tell them about his experience of getting to know the white cat, and how the other party became the god of incense - although Ji Ruo himself was not very clear, it was probably related to the new rules of the secret realm.
When Ji Ruo talked about how the white cat was slapped in the face by Gu Xingzhou in Wanshou Mountain, and in order to take revenge at the moment of death, he relied on the Earth-Turning Dragon Pearl to twist the earth's veins and transfer all humans to the exit of the secret realm to "destroy humans' plans", the expressions on the two people's faces were very interesting.
Later, they heard that after the white cat came to the human world, it was afraid of being discovered and driven out of Da Xia, so it had been careful not to expose itself. The two were speechless.
The swordsman sighed, "This cat demon is unexpectedly simple... Although her starting point was wrong, the result was good. She has clearly made contributions to our Great Xia."
Luo Qian looked confused and looked at Ji Ruo: "Meow~ (Sister has done a great job?)"
Gu Xingzhou also said: "No wonder she is so afraid of me, it turns out that you are the one scaring her, I wanted to apologize to her..."
Luo Xi was shocked: "Meow! (Master, how could you lie to us!)"
Ji Ruo coughed dryly and said awkwardly: "I'm just afraid that Dabai will get angry after knowing the truth... Uncles, let's not talk about this for now. If Dabai hears it, she will blame me..."
"I've heard it!"
The white cat, who was worshipped by the people, once again condensed into the form of the incense god. She looked at Ji Ruo and said angrily, "You wicked master, you actually lied to me for so long!"
Ji Ruo quickly apologized, and after much persuasion, the white cat finally forgave him.
The swordsman and Gu Xingzhou looked at the white cat curiously.
Gu Xingzhou stretched out his hand, intending to touch the white cat: "Is this the God of Incense? Let me touch it..."
The white cat still had a psychological shadow on Gu Xingzhou, so it jumped behind Ji Ruo and screamed, "Master, help me!"
Gu Xingzhou: “…”
Then Gu Xingzhou began to apologize to the white cat again.
The swordsman said, "This... Dabai, right? I am so grateful to you just now. If it weren't for your divine power, I wouldn't be able to accomplish anything even if I burned my life. Thank you."
Gu Xingzhou poked the swordsman and asked, "Old Li, how long can you live?"
The swordsman said unhappily, "Don't worry, I will definitely live longer than you!"
"Really? I don't believe it."
The swordsman drew his sword from its sheath, the sword hummed in formation, and sneered, "I can make you believe it."
Seeing the swordsman draw his sword, the white cat who was about to say something suddenly changed color and quickly used the earth walking technique to drill into the ground. Rosie also had a look of fear on her face and shrank into Ji Ruo's arms, trembling.
The five swords previously had caused too much psychological trauma to the two young guys.
Although it wasn't meant to chop them down, they were so close that they were afraid they would be affected.
Seeing this, Ji Ruo hurriedly tried to stop the fight: "Hey, hey, hey, Uncle Swordsman, don't get excited, calm down..."
The swordsman was pulled by Ji Ruo, sheathed his sword, looked at Gu Xingzhou, and said coldly: "Gu boy, I am giving face to little Ji Ruo, otherwise I will chop you to death today!"
Gu Xingzhou was stunned for a moment, and said unhappily: "You call me Gu kid, and you call yourself an old man? Where's your face? Just because you look old, you can take advantage of your age, right?"
"Uncle Gu, please stop talking. Uncle Swordsman's current condition..."
Gu Xingzhou said, "I know. We are afraid that old man Li will suddenly pass out and never wake up, so we chat with him to keep him awake."
“…”
To be honest, I think you want to piss off the swordsman to death.
Seeing the swordsman preparing to draw his sword again, Ji Ruo quickly stopped him and tried to change the subject: "By the way, Uncle Swordsman, come to think of it, I don't even know your name. I can't keep calling you Uncle Swordsman, can I?"
The swordsman hesitated for a moment and said, "My name is Li..."
Ji Ruo looked expectant.
After a while, Ji Ruo saw that the swordsman didn't seem to be ready to continue talking, and was immediately confused: "Is this the end?"
The swordsman was a little sad: "...Well, my name is just Li..."
"Come on, what's the point of having a single name, Li?" Gu Xingzhou mercilessly exposed: "This guy just forgot his own name. He practiced swords so much that his mind was full of swords, and he forgot his name a long time ago."
The swordsman blushed and said in defense, "What do you mean by forgetting your name? I still remember that my last name is Li! Names are just code names. All I need in my life is a sword... You're exposing my past, you bastard, look at the sword!"
"Come on! I'm afraid of you!"
Gu Xingzhou rolled up his sleeves and said, "Old man Li, don't accuse me of bullying you. I'll show you how to do it, too!"
So, the two of them started fighting in front of Ji Ruo like hooligans. Neither of them used any strength, it was just a pure hand-to-hand fight.
You punched me and I kicked you, and soon both of them were covered in bruises.
Ji Ruo originally planned to stop him, but Gu Xingzhou secretly gave Ji Ruo a look, telling him not to stop him.
Then Ji Ruo saw that Gu Xingzhou's young appearance was becoming older at a speed visible to the naked eye, and his thick black hair was quickly turning gray.
Li had burned his life source earlier, so although he didn't seem to be hurt at this moment, his actual condition was extremely bad. As a high-level warrior, his five senses and six perceptions were abnormally dull. By the time he realized something was wrong, it was already too late.
"Gu Xingzhou, you——"
I feel my depleted life force being rapidly replenished and my condition recovering.
Gu Xingzhou laughed loudly and punched Li in the eye socket, saying, "How dare you be distracted when fighting with me? Hahahaha! This is the same for the Heaven Realm!"
Li did not resist and let Gu Xingzhou's punch hit his eye socket. One of his eyes turned purple and swollen on the spot, and Li was knocked to the ground.
Gu Xingzhou was in power and showed no mercy. He pressed Li and kept hitting him with fists, which made Li even more silent.
"Great! Hahaha!"
Soon, Gu Xingzhou could no longer fight and lay down beside Li, saying happily, "I haven't had such a good fight in a long time!"
Li asked in a deep voice: "Why?"
"Why why?"
"The source of your life..."
At this moment, Gu Xingzhou's appearance also became old, but 'Li' was much younger than before. The life source that he had burned before was replenished by Gu Xingzhou using a secret method, and the source of the replenishment was Gu Xingzhou's own life source.
"My new martial arts skills are amazing, aren't they?" Gu Xingzhou sat up and said, "Old Li, you looked so cool when you just killed millions of demons with your sword. When I enter the Heaven Realm, I will try this move too."
"But the source of your life..."
"Hey, isn't it just half a life? I'm not far from upgrading, I can make up for it then." Gu Xingzhou patted Li's shoulder and said, "Before, you drove me here with the flying sword, and you said I got it for free without paying for the journey, but now I'm paying for it.
Besides, if it weren't for you, I would have died in the star calamity. Good brother, you have half of my life, so feel free to use it!"
－－－－－－－A side note－－－－－－－
There should be one more chapter before twelve o'clock. I miscalculated. There is still a little plot left before the third volume ends...