Thirty: Mutual Destruction, Part Four
"What happened?"
Mingjin and Jiangchao both gathered around.
Jiang Chao, in particular, couldn't believe that the person who had just been chatting with him had suddenly passed away. Swinging rapidly between heavy, soothing, and sorrowful emotions, his frail body couldn't withstand it for a moment, his knees buckled, and he collapsed to the ground.
Having encountered him once before, Mingjin quickly grabbed him. However, for some reason, the moment she grabbed Jiang Chao, she suddenly felt unwell, dizzy and nauseous. Meng Sheng was still checking on Li E's condition when Mingjin put Jiang Chao down. She wanted to cast a spell, but found that she was now lacking in magical power. In her anxiety, she took out the two bracelets she had just put away and used them as a basis to cast a mountain spell.
"The wild goose gradually approaches the rock."
After he finished speaking, a yellowish-brown color spread out around the four people.
Ming Jin suddenly felt the pressure and discomfort in his chest disappear. Jiang Chao, who was lying on the ground, reached out to grab Li E's sleeve. The latter was unresponsive under Meng Sheng's magic, but when the barrier of the mountain magic passed over him, his chest visibly swelled up, followed by a series of muffled coughs.
"He's still alive?"
However, Jiang Chao's joy lasted only a few seconds before Li E suddenly began foaming at the mouth. He got up and glanced at him, only to find that Li E's eyes were rolled back and his field of vision was strange. Jiang Chao called him several times, but Li E remained unresponsive.
Worried that Jiang Chao might follow in Li E's footsteps, Ming Jin quickly pulled him over and laid him on the ground, asking with a mixture of suspicion and curiosity, "Yuan Xi and Chang Qi left the two of you here, and then they left on their own?"
“That Taoist priest Huang said he had urgent business, so he gave us the two gourds and told us to hurry up and get out of the barrier,” Jiang Chao said, slightly out of breath. “However, we felt we were in good condition and saw the evil spirits running away, so we rested for a while.”
"It's probably because the ghostly energy here is stagnant. They just fought against the evil spirits and lost too much of their cultivation. They can't hold on for a while. The most important thing right now is to get them out of here."
That being said, Meng Sheng couldn't possibly take three people back by himself. The fighting on the south side wasn't over yet, but of the group that had infiltrated the north side, apart from Du Gewen who rushed over after hearing Ming Jin's cries for help, the others hadn't even shown up. Who was still at ease these days?
A sudden inspiration struck him. Although it wasn't a perfect solution, Meng Sheng still asked Ming Jin to use magic to quickly summon someone over.
Although he knew the other party would be angry, the situation was urgent, so Ya Zai quickly projected a beam of light outwards. Soon, Ya Zai, who was steadily suspended in the air, heard the sounds from outside.
"Senior sister, listen to me..."
"I won't go back!"
"Come back right now!" Meng Sheng yelled at Ya Zai, "Someone's going to die!"
"What happened?"
Only then did Meng Xi notice the luminous shadows of Ya Zai fluttering their wings around her and Su Huan. Wanting to escape Su Huan's incessant chatter, and considering she wasn't entirely heartless, she turned back into the barrier and quickly reached the high platform.
Because of their insufficient cultivation, and because Meng Sheng was busy casting spells to prolong Li E's life, Ming Jin's mountain magic range also began to shrink. The group could only huddle together to make room for the unconscious Li E. By the time Meng Xi arrived, the group was like adult swallows, crammed into a swallow's nest that was originally meant for incubating eggs.
"What kind of world is this?" Meng Xi walked over quickly, infusing the mountain technique with magic so that he could stand up straight and take a good look at the situation, but he was still muttering, "They actually made an old man over sixty years old come out to work."
How is he?
Meng Sheng didn't care about the quarrel between Meng Xi and Su Huan.
“He was too weak and his emotions were unstable. He was hit by the ghostly energy nearby and fainted. You should be grateful that you can still breathe.” But there were still traces of white foam around Li E’s mouth and nose. Meng Xi didn’t know where to start, so she took Li E’s hand and made him wipe it clean himself. “We have to get out of here quickly. The same goes for you. If we delay any longer, you will also faint.”
"But Changqi is still outside."
As he struggled to get up from the ground, Jiang Chao said with concern.
"Just leave it alone for now, they can still walk."
Meng Xi pulled Li E up with one hand, while Meng Sheng and Ming Jin each supported Jiang Chao on one side. The group quickly took the shortest route out of the barrier.
Even with Su Huan and others taking care of her outside, Meng Xi still couldn't go back.
There's still a captured evil spirit in the city, waiting to question her, but there's no way to bring it out right now. Besides, there might be others facing the same problem, and as a doctor, how can Meng Xi just watch a tragedy unfold?
The sixty-year-old man, who had just joined forces to exorcise the most threatening evil spirit and rescue four young men, was sent back to do more work.
Although he was being worried about, Zhou Wei's situation was much better than Jiang Chao's and Li E's, simply because he had been talking non-stop since entering Yishan in order to save his life, and he still was.
“As expected, Master Ji is truly farsighted,” Zhou Wei said, offering his hand. “If he had given me pills, I would have choked on them halfway there.”
At this moment, he and Huang Jing hid behind one of the remaining pillars, watching Mu Ning and Ji Zhen clean up the mess.
As Zhegui and Gaolang's auras completely disappeared from Yishan City, coupled with the shattering of the barrier, Fengwu's condition deteriorated rapidly, with five long spears formed from ice magic embedded diagonally from his shoulders to his lower abdomen.
It floated in mid-air, showing no sign of fighting.
Seeing that the situation was in their favor, the two decided to observe from the shadows first.
The arrival of the new enemy did not inspire Feng Wu in the slightest. Ji Zhen remained cautious, thinking that the other party might be faking it, and still held his bow, watching Mu Ning gradually approach Feng Wu's flying figure.
"That's it?" Mu Ning asked.
"Isn't this exactly what you wanted?"
As he spoke, Feng Wu pulled the ice spear out of his lower abdomen.
His situation wasn't dire yet, but the wounds on his body didn't heal immediately after the gun was pulled out.
The gun barrel and the gun head broke in two, falling from mid-air and shattering into pieces.
"Although your surrender is beneficial to all of us, it is unbelievable to me that you lost your fighting spirit halfway through, and I look down on you for it."
Mu Ning's blunt words didn't elicit any further reaction from Feng Wu. He simply used both hands to pull out all the extra items from his body and threw them on the ground, none of which could be restored. Even a demon would quickly repair itself after its human form was damaged, because these gaps would at least cause its cultivation to dissipate, which was definitely not a good thing.
But Feng Wu was clearly aiming for this purpose, so much so that the ghostly aura he emitted made Mu Ning involuntarily activate her mountain magic to keep her distance from Feng Wu.
“Don’t expect the enemy to always act according to your expectations,” Bong-wu said quietly. “After all, even our own people don’t do that.”
"It seems you've been quite shaken."
Mu Ning didn't know much about the situation, but he could at least sense the flow of power in the vicinity.
“I was originally ignorant and unaware, and I was just continuing to live according to the orders of others,” Feng Wu said disheartenedly. “Now that they are all gone, there is no point in me being alone.”
"Isn't there another one over there?" Mu Ning pointed to Qianli beside her.
“He is an opponent who meets your expectations,” Feng Wu turned his head to look at him. His human form began to dissipate from the gaps on the outside and inside of him, and therefore the speed of dissipation was particularly fast. “He will be the last one to leave here.”
"Why don't you continue like this, for its sake?" Mu Ning asked.
“Who knows?” Mu Ning’s words sparked a bit of interest in Feng Wu, but he didn’t have the energy to think about it. “I guess I just have bad taste.”
These were his last words.
Soon, another enormous force also dissipated.
This was a rare moment of peace in Yishan City. All the previous strife began to fade away, revealing its true nature.
"Senior Sister, Senior Sister," she called out, her attention focused on watching Mu Ning and Feng Wu's negotiation. Although she couldn't hear what they were saying, she remained so engrossed that she paused her message for a moment. "Senior Sister Yuanxi, Senior Sister Yuanxi."
"What's wrong, Wei Shi?"
"Have you arrived?"
"You're here. What's up?"
Chi Hui said anxiously from the other end, "We are in the north, and someone has collapsed. He is foaming at the mouth, and his hands are curled up and so hard that they cannot be pried open. Even magic treatment has no effect."
"I'll be right there."
Seeing that the situation here was stable, Huang Jing and Zhou Wei didn't need to worry too much. After leaving a message for Ji Zhen, they hurried north.
"What's up?"
After Feng Wu disappeared, Mu Ning, who had landed, saw the fleeting shadow of the oriole and asked.
"By now, everyone's condition has deteriorated significantly. Although they escaped from the clutches of the evil spirits, they are still being harmed by the ghostly energy in the city, and several people have already fallen into a coma."
Ji Zhen handed a porcelain bottle to Mu Ning, who didn't stand on ceremony. After the tension subsided, he too felt the pressure of the ghostly energy nearby.
Because the cultivator's body cannot allow the ghostly energy to pass through, and the ghostly energy must be connected, it comes crashing down on the cultivator from all directions. At first, everyone was full of energy and naturally didn't take it seriously, but now they have to be wary.
“We still need to keep this in mind,” Ji Zhen said. “Let’s split up now. I’ll go check if there are any fallen cultivators nearby. It’s not worth dying over such trivial matters in the end.”
Mu Ning drank two more bottles and felt somewhat better: "I'll go take a look over there."
After saying that, Ji Zhen put the bottle away and searched down the platform.
Everywhere was rubble, but it was quiet.
For Qianli, this is both the past and the future.
Guo Hao's condition was really bad and he couldn't hold on any longer, so at Zhang Xu's request, Zhuo Yong took Guo Hao, who was unresponsive to the treatment, out of the barrier as soon as possible.
She seemed to say something to Zhang Xu at the end, but there was too much noise around him, and Zhang Xu couldn't remember it.
Qianli glanced at the short sword in his hand.
On the other side, Zhang Xu's condition was also nearing its end.
"In the end, it was just the two of us left." Qianli smiled.
"You're the one who'll die."
Using his sword to brace himself, Zhang Xu stood up from his previous semi-retreat. He could feel himself entering a state he had never experienced before, but he could only gamble that his opponent could not last as long as he could.
“Now that things have come to this, there’s no way I can get away from this,” Qianli said with a particularly relaxed smile. “But I think that with you by my side on the road, I won’t be lonely.”
"Even if I embark on this journey, it won't be the same path as yours."
The short sword shortened Qianli's attack range, so it had to get closer to the opponent's sword formation and receive more sharp impact. But although the sword formation remained, the fierce sword momentum was gone, and Qianli did not need to exert too much strength to increase its speed. With a swing of its arm, it could cut through all the flying short swords.
Amidst a flash of lightning, Zhang Xu raised his sword with a backhand motion, blocking the broken sword that had cleaved down from a thousand miles away.
"It seems I've won."
Responding to the sound, the short sword struck the opponent with force, and the resisting blade instantly shattered like ice crystals, scattering all over the ground.
Zhang Xu's body, having lost its magical artifact, experienced a rapid decrease in reflexes, and he took the final blow from Qianli with his own flesh.
In the end, after rolling several times on the broken city wall, he did not get up again.
"I was the one who stayed until the very end."
A figure flew in from afar.
It was no longer possible for them to be on their side, but Qianli didn't have the strength to resist anymore.
The sword fell from its hand with a loud thud, yet it sounded like the tolling of a bell. Qianli's eyes could no longer discern who the newcomer was, only that he carried a familiar aura.
Why did its sword fall off?
Come back. Come back.
But they completely disobey orders.
Another white figure approached him, taking a few quick steps. But stopped a few steps away and then ran swiftly, covering thousands of miles, all for the sake of Zhang Xu, who had fallen behind him.
Could it really be that I'm all alone now?
Suddenly, Qianli saw the sky.
The cracks in the barrier had widened considerably, allowing the evil spirit to escape freely. Even though it was partially within the barrier, it could already see the sky outside. Unfortunately, it wasn't a good time of year, so the sky was only white.
A bell tolled after a thousand miles had fallen.
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