Chapter 29: Wei Sheng Holding the Pillar (V) “She wants to kill me, I let her kill me…
Even if An Ziliang couldn't read people's expressions, he could still vaguely sense the strange atmosphere between Lian Qiang and Chi Xingji. It was true that the two disagreed because of him, but if he was the cause of the conflict, An Ziliang felt... he didn't seem capable of that.
Judging from their appearance, the two of them were indeed a perfect match, and since they were walking together, it was easy to mistake them. However, throughout the journey, they were almost always walking one in front of the other, never side by side, and their usual words and actions did not seem particularly intimate.
An Chen also sent a few monks with high cultivation levels to accompany them. It was inconvenient for the group to travel through the mountains and forests in a large group, not to mention that with An Ziliang along, their pace was much slower.
The precious young master felt a little ashamed. His eyes fell on Lian Qiang, who was at the front of the team. Although she was alone and frail, she was leading the way.
He unconsciously felt a little admiration for her. However, when he recalled Lian Qiang's repeated rebuttals to him, An Ziliang felt a little depressed again.
Perhaps it was just that he had not met him enough to change his opinion of him... Thinking this way, An Ziliang simply thought about going up to him and chatting him up, but a sudden change occurred at this moment -
"Be alert!" Lian Qiang smelled a strange fragrance in the fresh grass and shouted in instinctive alert!
An Ziliang stepped forward without hesitation, thinking that at least he wouldn't let her face it alone... but someone reacted faster than him!
In an instant, that person crossed the long line of more than ten people and nimbly jumped to Lian Qiang's side.
His movements were so quick that no one could see how he drew his sword, or even if he drew it at all. They only saw his sword-holding hand slowly lowering, as if silently declaring victory - followed by a painful howl from the front.
Lian Qiang was firmly protected by Chi Xingji from beginning to end.
An Ziliang blinked and swallowed hard. Everything had happened so quickly that the group hadn't even had time to react. He suddenly hesitated. In his opinion, Lian Qiang was already very powerful, but what about Chi Xingji? Was he even more incomparable?
The strong wind made Lian Qiang's eyes hurt, but strangely, she still remembered Chi Xingji falling from the sky with his clothes fluttering.
Now is not the time to think about this - Lian Qiang noticed keenly that the strange fragrance had disappeared after the scream, which must be the fox demon having left.
Chi Xingji's injuries hadn't healed yet, so it wouldn't be wise to act rashly. Lian Qiang looked at the figure standing in front of her, her concern stuck in her throat. However, Mr. Yuan's harsh tone softened a bit: "...He's gone."
Her original intention was to signal Chi Xingji that he could leave and no longer need to protect her. But Chi Xingji seemed not to hear her hidden meaning, and glanced at her lightly and said: "Keep going."
"...Okay." Seeing him like this, Lian Qiang turned around and reminded the people he was traveling with, then continued on his way.
The two walked in silence. The mountain road was rugged and difficult to walk on. Even so, Lian Qiang's thoughts couldn't help but wander.
Chi Xingji said he was suffering from the backlash of Heaven's Law. However, Heaven's Law was something so mysterious and profound. How did it restrain him? How did it judge when he had overstepped the boundaries? Seeing how swiftly he had drawn his sword just now, was this backlash not as severe as she had imagined?
Unfortunately, Lian Qiang is not Chi Xingji, and without personal experience, she has no way of telling the difference.
While her thoughts were distracted, Lian Qiang didn't realize that she could faintly smell a strong evil aura at the tip of her nose. She raised her head to peek ahead, but unfortunately bumped into Chi Xingji who had stopped.
"What happened..." Lian Qiang rubbed the tip of his nose that was hurt by the collision and wanted to lean over to see what was going on.
Chi Xingji calmly held his sword in front of her and said, "Don't be afraid."
As the scene unfolded before her, Lian Qiang held her breath. While the scene wasn't particularly horrifying, it was shocking enough. In the woods, several women lay unconscious, enveloped in demonic energy.
The people behind them were a few steps behind them. When they arrived, they were also shocked by the scene before them. An Ziliang was even more pale and retched repeatedly. It was Lian Qiang who called out to them first: "Don't just stand there, saving people is the most important thing!"
Everyone suddenly woke up, scrambling to break the seal. Lian Qiang also took the initiative to explore how the evil spirit had sealed them, but with just a slight infusion of power, the evil spirit that enveloped them dissipated, and the woman fell straight down.
Lian Qiang quickly caught her and, after a careful examination, found nothing unusual about her. She repeated the inspection several times, with the same result. Although slightly disturbed by the demonic aura, the woman had some spiritual power and, once she regained consciousness, would be able to overcome it with a little practice.
A vague idea formed in his mind, and when Lian Qiang checked other women, the conclusion was the same.
Lian Qiang was puzzled. Since ancient times, demons have harmed humans either to eat them to increase their strength or because of a grudge in this life. This fox demon captured them but didn't hurt them, which was certainly a good thing, but he didn't want the former. Could it be that he came for revenge?
But An Chen said that they had kept to themselves before...
Just as Lian Qiang was pondering, a fellow cultivator spoke up: "No more, no less, exactly fifteen people, exactly the number who were captured..."
He was halfway through his words when he suddenly heard the sound of something heavy falling behind him. Everyone looked over and saw that An Ziliang had fainted from the shock.
Everyone was at a loss for words. They were already short on manpower, and now they had to assign someone to look after him. Fortunately, the missing girls were all safe and sound, and everyone felt relieved, even walking with a lighter step.
Lian Qiang, however, was not affected by this atmosphere and was still feeling anxious. She instinctively wanted to discuss the next steps with Chi Xingji, but the moment she looked at him, her eyes met his.
Regardless of the previous rift between the two, Lian Qiang walked towards him and briefly expressed her suspicions. Chi Xingji nodded, "I thought so too. Things may not be as simple as they appear. The fox demon took the initiative to stir up trouble. Will it let us go so easily now?"
Lian Qiang hesitated and asked, "Could it be that your sword strike seriously injured him, so that he can no longer cause trouble?"
However, Chi Xingji shook his head slightly under her gaze: "I was holding back at the time, just wanting to force him back temporarily."
No matter how much you speculate, it's not as good as seeing it with your own eyes. Moreover, since you have decided to help, you should intervene to the end. The moment the two of them looked at each other, they knew each other's thoughts tacitly.
Chi Xingji took the initiative to negotiate with the others. Judging from their expressions, they clearly felt that they were too nervous. However, since the strength Chi Xingji displayed was too overwhelming, no one was willing to raise any objections and they just followed the two of them.
The others went down the mountain first, leaving only Lian Qiang and Chi Xingji to go and investigate. The two continued to climb the mountain for a long time and detected some demonic aura, but it was very weak.
After going a little deeper, Lian Qiang realized something was wrong: "Is he running so fast?"
Chi Xingji did not answer, but responded by speeding up. After walking for a while, they finally made a breakthrough - there was a cave hidden in the deep forest. The two of them groped their way in cautiously. There was no additional formation to stop them, but the cave was empty.
Lian Qiang secretly thought it was an offense and took the lead to step into this completely unfamiliar area.
Although this fox demon used a natural stone cave as its lair, the furnishings within were similar to those of a simpler human dwelling. It was not surprising for a powerful demon with increased intelligence to imitate human habits. What was more surprising was that the cave even contained a substantial bookshelf, much larger than the couch itself.
Lian Qiang picked up a volume at random, which contained some local chronicles and a few volumes of strange stories.
Judging from these furnishings, the person living inside doesn't look like a monster, but rather a traveler who loves traveling.
She wanted to look through something else, but Chi Xingji suddenly whispered, "Not good!"
He was about to release his spiritual energy to investigate the surroundings when Lian Qiang grabbed his arm and nodded firmly at him, "I'll do it."
Without further ado, Lian Qiang closed her eyes, her demonic energy dissipating as she calmly scanned every blade of grass and tree here. The mountain wasn't high, but traversing it would be quite exhausting for her.
Gradually, Lian Qiang felt powerless and had to bite her lower lip hard, trying to use the pain to cheer herself up.
Not here... Not here...
She swept for a long time, but found nothing. The demonic energy was spreading to the limit of her power. Lian Qiang was sweating profusely, unable to hold on any longer. She wanted to stop, but at this moment, she discovered other signs of life!
That's right! She was so overjoyed that she ignored her burden and started to check the number of monks... There were thirty-four monks in total... Thirty-five people!
"He blocked them on the way down the mountain!" Lian Qiang suddenly opened his eyes, and all the evil spirits were withdrawn. His face was solemn, "Get down the mountain immediately!"
She wanted to speed up and rush away, but Chi Xingji held her hand. In a moment, the scene changed and they were already at the foot of the mountain!
They quickly pulled themselves out of his warm palm and stood firm. The monks who had just chatted and laughed with them were now all collapsed on the ground, unconscious. Only a strange figure was still standing in the center, as if admiring his trophy.
——It was the same aura as that night and just now! Even though Lian Qiang had originally felt that there was something hidden, she couldn't help but get angry and asked loudly: "What do you want to do?"
The figure turned against the light, and the half of its face that was exposed showed no pride or anger after the massacre, but only an unchanging look of worry.
He took a step forward, finally revealing his features to the two of them. "Shouldn't I be the one asking you this?"
To be fair, this was an extremely stunning face. Even though he didn't make any expression, his facial features naturally exuded a kind of charm. Even Qiang could imagine a huge fox tail swaying leisurely behind him.
If he just smiled, there would surely be many people willing to give up everything for the beauty, but he didn't smile, and the corners of his lips were tightly tied into a line.
The fox demon took another step towards the two of them. Chi Xingji frowned and took a step forward, his right hand clenched into a fist, as if he was about to draw his sword.
The fox demon showed no intention of attacking. "She repeatedly sent people up the mountain just to kill me, didn't she? I didn't expect that this time she would find you two, who were pretty good helpers, and a bunch of scumbags. They attacked first, but were outmatched, and I killed them in return. You couldn't protect them, yet you still come to ask me righteously what I want to do?"
Only by closing her eyes tightly could Lian Qiang suppress her surging anger. "Although you abducted the residents, you didn't harm any innocent people. I guess that wasn't your intention. City Lord An was also trying to protect his people. It's time to turn back. Why do you allow yourself to make the same mistake over and over again?"
Taking advantage of the gap in their conversation, Chi Xingji took the time to check on the monk's condition and waved to Lian Qiang unnoticeably - meaning that there was no danger to his life.
Lian Qiang secretly breathed a sigh of relief, still maintaining his stance of confrontation with the fox demon. He took another step forward, raising his hands as if about to attack—
In a flash, Chi Xingji appeared behind him at lightning speed, grabbed him tightly with his left hand and scabbard, and forced him to half-kneel on the ground!
With his knees stuck in the mud and his lifeline in the hands of the enemy, the fox demon did not struggle or move, but just endured it all. He raised his eyes and looked at Lian Qiang stubbornly.
His eyes were so clear and bright that Lian Qiang's heart trembled and she almost took a step back.
"Who was wrong first?" the fox demon snorted, unwilling to lose face. "It was An Sijia who broke her promise and betrayed me first. She never dared to meet me. Now that I can't find her, she's sending people to kill me. I ask you, is this how you mortals reason? How can such reason exist in this world?"
"What do you mean by that?" Lian Qiang was stunned by his repeated words. "Who is An Sijia?"
"See, you people are such hypocrites. You were clearly sent by her to kill me, yet you pretended to be so hypocritical that you didn't even know her name?"
The fox demon laughed out loud, but as he laughed, two lines of clear tears slowly flowed from his eyes, "I don't understand, I just don't understand. She wanted to kill me, and I let her kill me, but she didn't even tell me what I did wrong?"
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The author has something to say: Who has no manuscripts saved and still has to update for more than ten days? Oh, it turns out it’s me
Thank you to the little angels who voted for me or provided me with nutrient solution between 2023-04-25 21:00:00 and 2023-04-27 17:00:00~
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