Chapter 49 Hua Yi and He Zeng Yi
Without waiting for the skeleton to get close, Cang Ming swung his sword to deflect it. Along with the sword, Wei Ci delivered a powerful and sharp fist.
Tian Xinshu focused his attention on driving the skeleton formation made of strange stones, attacking Cang Ming again and again. Taking advantage of the gaps when Cang Ming and Wei Ci joined forces to fight against the skeletons, Lao Guilian quietly slipped over and used the giant hands of the skeletons to cut off the restraints on his body.
"Hold!" Cang Ming unleashed a barrage of swords, each one aimed at Old Ghost Lotus' vital points. Wei Ci, in perfect harmony, filled the void, dealing with the skeleton alone. A single palm strike sent the skeleton shattering.
Taking advantage of the chaos, Li Xianzhen raised her dagger and charged at Old Ghost Lotus. The reassembled stone skeleton extended its bony arms to block her attack.
Li Xianzhen yelled, "Sister, please help me!"
Cang Ming turned around and fought back against the skull with Wei Ci, shouting in frustration, "Li Chongshan and his wife killed my parents. Do you think you can live with your conscience by harboring them? Your current situation is all retribution for them!"
Li Xianzhen was stunned, her face instantly turning pale. She stared blankly at Cang Ming for a moment, then let out a piercing scream and charged at her, knife in hand. "Where did you take them?"
Cang Ming easily turned and dodged, and Li Xianzhen almost bumped into the cave wall. Cang Ming said with disgust: "I don't fight with mortals. Don't let me see you again."
Swish, swish. Old Ghost Lotus ripped off two pieces of gauze from somewhere and swung them over like a wave of sleeves. Cang Ming stabbed with his backhand, but Old Ghost Lotus dodged like a loach, slithering around Cang Ming and heading straight for Li Xianzhen's life.
At that moment, the flow of time slowed down. The whistling wind and chaotic shouting seemed to come from far away. The gauze swam towards Li Xianzhen like a water snake spitting its tongue. Cang Ming watched in daze, his hands and feet frozen in place. In one moment, he wanted to help with his sword, and in the next, he felt that the Li family should be wiped out.
Tian Xinshu shouted, driving the skeleton magic circle to come to the rescue, and without hesitation, he turned around and kicked the strange stone skeleton cleanly. Tian Xinshu was caught in a dilemma and could not get away for a while.
The lieutenant leaped out of the air, spear in hand, stabbing at the gauze while shouting, "No! Master, I'm sorry!" Before he could even begin, the spear had already slipped from his hand. Two pieces of gauze wrapped around the sharp spearheads, charging towards Li Xianzhen. You Xiao closed his eyes in fear, his face filled with pity.
A shrill scream echoed through the underground palace. Echoes overlapped, bouncing back and forth in a buzzing pattern. Old Guilian rolled on the ground, clutching his head, screaming and wailing. Li Xianzhen, terrified, remained unharmed.
Hua Yi, holding a large kettle for boiling water, stood there panting, her chest heaving. The water in the kettle, icy and icy, poured down hard on Old Guilian's head.
The old ghost lotus's paper head was completely disfigured by the water, and the lotus fan on his head was also knocked crooked by the impact of the water.
At the critical moment of life and death, Hua Yi got up and saved Li Xianzhen.
With a clang, the long sword in Cang Ming's hand fell to the ground. She lowered her head and said, "I still can't seek the truth."
Hua Yi stared straight at Old Guilian, a glimmer of hope in her eyes. Ever since Cang Ming had known him, his eyes had never had any spirit in them. This was the first time they shone like evening stars.
Li Xianzhen's eyes flashed with tears, and she shouted, "Good Yi'er! Throw some water on his paper-made head!"
Hua Yi turned around and ran to a corner of the tea room, picked up a pot in one hand, and rushed back with full force. He seemed to have truly found his soul through revenge, and would never be broken or weak again.
Old Guilian pulled the head off, held it in his arms, and rolled on the ground, shouting, "Good daughter, my dear daughter, you don't care about your father anymore!"
Wei Ci folded his arms and stood aside, watching the excitement with relish. The skeleton magic circle shattered into pieces of stone. Tian Xinshu rushed over and pulled Hua Yi. Li Xianzhen shouted, "Yier, pour it!"
The deputy general swayed left and right, ran around in both directions, and now stood on the side of Lao Guilian, saying to Hua Yi: "No! Master, I'm sorry!" As he said that, he was about to use a spear to pick up the kettle in Hua Yi's hand, but was kicked away by Li Xianzhen.
You Xiao just kept shaking his head and sighed, "Retribution, revenge."
Tian Xinshu looked at Li Xianzhen with resentment and said, "Senior Sister, can you spare his life?"
Li Xianzhen's eyes were blazing with anger: "You are still protecting him? Is he really that good to you?"
Tian Xinshu's snow-white eyes shone with ice crystals, and he stiffened his neck and questioned, "So, your parents didn't even give you a name. Does that mean they're being very good to you? And yet, aren't you still supporting them?"
Li Xianzhen's lips trembled as he said, "I have no choice."
Tian Xinshu said, "Senior Sister, I look down on you."
Li Xianzhen was about to say something else when Hua Yi picked up the kettle and threw it out, soaking the paper head in Old Guilian's hand.
Cang Ming lowered his head to pick up the long sword and said coldly: "Enough, today is the time..."
With a thud, a garish head slammed into Hua Yi's chest, and the fan on her head cut deeply into her body like a knife. Old Guilian pretended to be crazy and threw the head away unexpectedly.
Hua Yi looked down at her chest in disbelief and collapsed to the ground.
Li Xianzhen opened his eyes wide and screamed, but no sound came out.
Hua Yi died after he regained the strength to live.
Cang Ming remained bent over, staring blankly at Hua Yi as she rapidly turned to dust. Old Gui Lian's fan, imbued with a mysterious technique, instantly reduced the corpse to ash. Such a death made it difficult to preserve a complete soul. Perhaps Hua Yi would not become a new ghost in the underworld. Regardless, Cang Ming believed that in the brief moment before Hua Yi's death, his life had reignited.
He watched the tragedy silently, his eyes becoming narrower and deeper, like two deep valleys.
Then, Li Xianzhen rushed towards the headless old ghost lotus like a madman. Tian Xinshu stood in front of her and shouted blindly: "Senior Sister, don't die!"
The old ghost lotus lifted its head from the ground and fled through the layers of stone gates. Wherever its feet stepped, giant lotus flowers taller than a man quickly grew.
Cang Ming pursued him relentlessly, his long sword dancing like raindrops, streaks of sword light streaking across the night sky like a swarm of meteors. Wherever the sword struck, the lotus flowers dodged and fluttered, sometimes dispersing gracefully, sometimes closing behind Cang Ming's back, performing various tricks, making them extremely difficult to kill.
Wei Ci consciously stayed behind, holding You Xiao in one hand while lazily parrying Tian Xinshu's attacks with the other. Li Xianzhen was still kneeling in the cave, desperately gathering dust from the ground with his hands, trying in vain to retain any trace of Hua Yi.
Finally, he severed the last lotus flower in half, but there was no trace of the old ghost lotus. Cang Ming rushed out of the cave in one breath. The sun shone brightly on Tongduo Mountain. Only two incense sticks had passed since he entered the underground palace. The sun's shadow had shifted a few inches, but everything had changed.
There were some mysterious gates hidden within the mountains. Old Ghost Lotus had somehow broken through a gate, and by now he'd been transported somewhere within. Cang Ming didn't dare run around, anxiously pacing in circles. Wei Ci walked out, his hands behind his back, followed by a gloomy-looking You Xiao.
Cang Ming grabbed Wei Ci's sleeve and said anxiously, "Wei Ci, can you take me to chase him? I don't know the way..."
Wei Ci said leisurely, "General, why worry? The magic circle in Tongduo Mountain is powerful. With the old ghost's level of Taoism, he will definitely not be able to escape by teleporting. And the master behind the scenes has already left Tongduo Mountain--"
"Because Tian Xinshu is back, and the master doesn't want to publicize his identity, he quietly retreated!" Cang Ming followed Wei Ci's thoughts and speculated without thinking.
Wei Ci smiled and said, "That's right. So, Old Ghost Lotus is weak and alone. We only need to guard the road out of the mountain, and we don't have to chase him in the upside-down magic circle."
Cang Ming recalled, "I remember there was a big river flowing around the mountain here. Tongduo Mountain was surrounded by water on three sides, with only one side open to the outside. That was the road we came from."
You Xiao asked tentatively, "So, should we just block that road? Old Guilian is afraid of water, so he probably won't take the water route."
"That's right!" Cang Ming slammed his fist into his palm and made a decision, "Then we'll just go and wait for him! No need to interrogate him this time, just arrest him!"
Wei Ci gently straightened the spring flowers on her head and said softly, "Well, take a rest first, you are too tired."
Cang Ming suddenly relaxed, feeling exhausted as if she had lived for hundreds of years. She looked behind Wei Ci and asked, "Where are the three of them?"
"Oh, that one." Wei Ci casually threw out three puppets, "Here."
“…”
The three puppets were thrown to the ground, spinning dizzily. Tian Xinshu's puppet was a miniature white snow sculpture, little changed from her usual self. The deputy general was charred. Li Xianzhen's puppet was a hunchbacked woman with white hair and bloodshot eyes.
Cang Ming squatted down and looked at Tian Xinshu, sighing: "It seems that she is not an accomplice of the real murderer behind the scenes, and she has not killed anyone. She is just used as a shield by Old Guilian." Cang Ming felt suffocated when he thought about how he smashed her palace every time.
You Xiao also squatted down and looked at Cang Ming. Cang Ming was silent in front of Li Xianzhen. You Xiao said, "Master Taoist, you don't have to feel guilty."
Cang Ming thought of Hua Yi and covered his face with his hands. "When Old Ghost Lotus wanted to kill Li Xianzhen, I didn't save her. Before Hua Yi was killed, I was careless and not vigilant. I harbored hatred and took my anger out on others. I can't become a god."
"Well, Master Daoist, have you ever played with crystal marbles? When I was a kid, I ground them into many facets so they would land where I wanted them." You Xiao recalled, holding his face thoughtfully. "That way, they wouldn't roll around when they landed. Each tiny facet of the marble refracts light differently. It's truly magical."
Cang Ming looked at You Xiao, not understanding what he meant. Wei Ci gave You Xiao an unhappy look and walked over to squat in front of Cang Ming.
The three of them squatted for a moment, and You Xiao said, "I think this marble is like a person. You feel differently when you see different sides of her. That lady may have some good sides, but you just happened to see her ugly side, so it's understandable that you don't want to save her."
Cang Ming slowly turned his head to look at You Xiao and said sincerely, "You Xiao, it's great to have a kind friend like you."
You Xiao said: "Of course!"
Cang Ming stood up, and Wei Ci immediately put his arm around her, shielding her from the wind. Cang Ming said, "Let Tian Xinshu and Li Xianzhen go."
Without asking any questions, he waved his hand and the three puppets began to spin on the spot.
With a bang, white smoke billowed, and Tian Xinshu's tall figure and Li Xianzhen's aging back staggered under the scorching sun, both of them dizzy. The deputy general was still shouting, "My king, what are your instructions?"
Cang Ming and his group had already walked towards the only way out of the mountain, leaving them far behind. Cang Ming thought of Hua Yi's face for a while, and then felt deeply sorry for Tian Xinshu.
Just as I was thinking about it, I suddenly heard someone behind me shouting, "Stop, I have a deal to make!"
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