Chapter 4 Black Mountain Cave (Part 4) What's your name? ...
As soon as he finished speaking, a piercing alarm sounded immediately within his mind.
"What are you saying! Charge! Brave warriors never retreat! Host, you must protect the male and female protagonists and change their fate of dying together!"
A huge question mark slowly appeared above Shi Xianxue's head.
Damn it, there are tons of sword cultivators and talisman cultivators here, and any one of them would be more relevant to her finance major than her.
Can't you be a human being? Didn't you see she was suffering terribly, bleeding profusely, and could die a heroic death from anemia at any moment? How could you save her? By mutating into an octopus and slapping eight little monsters across the face?
While Shi Xianxue and the system were arguing about specialization, Qi Yun Chu had already decided to rush in and stand with her senior brothers and sisters.
Someone called out to him.
Qi Yun Chu turned around in confusion: "Young Master Wu?"
Wu Xiutang leaned against the wall and said lightly, "You can't save them with your abilities."
Qi Yun Chu: "..."
"Going in rashly will only add another skeleton to this dark cave."
The truth is always hard to hear, especially when it's said in such a flippant, almost condescending tone. Qi Yun Chu was in the turbulent phase of adolescence, the kind of person who could be slapped by any passing dog, making her not only sensitive but also easily angered.
So, unsurprisingly, he got angry.
He knew it was fraught with danger inside, but he didn't ask him to come in with him. Wu Xiutang was a powerful sorcerer; if he didn't want to meddle, he could have just left quietly. Not helping and then mocking others was hardly the behavior of a gentleman.
He said angrily, "If Young Master Wu is afraid, he can leave with this young lady. There are no cowards in the Qingyun Sect, and I will not desert my post."
Very well, brave warrior, you're practically pointing your finger at Wu Xiutang and calling him a coward who's afraid of death. You're probably going to be in big trouble.
Shi Xianxue thought to herself, of the three people, one seemed to be a great genius who could only babble, another was a fairy who could make the world pale in comparison but was all show and no substance, and although Wu Xiutang had ill intentions, it could be seen from his solo fight against the Night Hawk Sky Rat Spirit that he was indeed quite skilled.
But a villain is a villain after all. He is unpredictable, capricious, and has no morals. If you anger him, he might kill them when the female lead isn't paying attention and then frame the Corpse Beast.
This argument might cause trouble. We should appease the villain first and rescue the male and female leads.
So he quickly stepped forward to smooth things over.
"Stop!" Shi Xianxue, dragging her injured left arm, squeezed between the two, speaking rapidly like pouring beans, "Everyone, please don't argue, listen to me. I think Xiao Wu is a kind-hearted person and would never stand by and watch someone die. Young master, please calm down. The most urgent thing is to find a way to rescue the immortals, otherwise they will be corrupted and turned into strawberry towers. What do you think?"
She rattled off a whole bunch of things, but Wu Xiutang only caught four words.
Kind-hearted?
He almost wanted to sneer.
This woman is insulting people indirectly.
Qi Yunchu glanced at the grim situation inside and suppressed her anger for the time being: "But I've only seen this Corpse Beast in the Monster Encyclopedia. It only says that it feeds on blood and rotten flesh, is a social animal, and likes cold and damp environments. It doesn't say what its natural enemies are."
These words drew another scoff from Wu Xiutang. Qi Yun Chu's fist hardened, and he looked at Wu Xiutang with displeasure: "Judging from your words, fellow Daoist, you know how to deal with the Corpse Beast?"
Wu Xiutang remained noncommittal: "Give me the Heavenly Thunder Talisman."
Qi Yun Chu was taken aback: "Heavenly Thunder Talisman?"
Why would they need to summon lightning for no reason? Could it be that the weakness of this Corpse Beast is thunder?
The Qingyun Sect is the number one cultivation sect in the world. Sword Dao and Talisman Dao are its top-tier specialties, and naturally, they are also the two specialties most frequently studied by inner disciples.
But he couldn't bite off more than he could chew. He wasn't particularly talented and had limited energy, so he only majored in swordsmanship. Even though he taught talisman-making classes on weekdays, these elective courses didn't count towards his final exam score. He always just got by, and he was content with barely passing the exam.
The two best swordsmen and talisman makers of the Qingyun Sect are now trapped inside by a demon.
Seeing that he suddenly stopped and his momentum had diminished, Shi Xianxue asked, "You don't know how?"
"Who doesn't know how!" the boy roared.
With a blush, Qi Yun Chu took out a teaching book and several blank talisman papers from her storage bag.
"The Heavenly Thunder Talisman is a high-level talisman. I just haven't had time to learn it yet. You just keep your eyes wide open and watch as I draw it after I've taught myself! It will scare you to death!"
Does that mean you still don't know how?
Shi Xianxue glanced nervously at the situation inside the cave. The Corpse Beasts had swarmed onto the barrier like leeches in a mud pit, making it almost impossible to see the people inside. The barrier, powered by spiritual energy, was nearing its end and wouldn't last much longer.
She glanced at the wound on her arm; the bleeding had stopped. Even if those corpse beasts had the most sensitive sense of smell, they still had to obey the Nine-Tailed Fox's orders. As long as she stopped bleeding, they were safe for the time being.
Thinking this, Shi Xianxue also went over to offer him help.
Two not-so-bright heads leaning together, the sight of them exudes a poignant and comical sense of the harder one tries, the more like a slave one becomes.
Wu Xiutang glanced at them from afar, memorized the steps and key points of drawing talismans, and then took the two talisman papers next to them.
He certainly didn't know how to draw talismans, and he had never bought talisman paper or read any files related to talismans. But if he were to place his hopes on these two ignorant fools, he would rather set them all on fire and burn them down.
As Qi Yun Chu screamed in despair, he made his final stroke, and the silver butterfly dissipated into fragments of light that landed on the intricate runes. A dark blue light flashed across the talisman paper.
A faint blue hue was reflected in Shi Xianxue's eyes, and she exclaimed in surprise.
Qi Yun Chu followed her gaze and also showed a surprised expression.
Different sects have different drawing methods and taboos for their talismans. While the incantation ink, incantation paper, and incantation text are similar, the techniques for drawing talismans vary.
For example, the Qingyun Sect first draws a totem, then draws the character for thunder, with five thunders side by side, drawing towards the east. With a clear mind and focused intention, they draw spiritual energy, recite the Heavenly Official's Instruction, and the Dao energy returns to its source, thus completing the talisman.
Therefore, the talismans of the Qingyun Sect are the most difficult to understand. Even with professional talisman masters teaching them diligently every day, it still takes a considerable amount of time to master them.
"Impossible, absolutely impossible!" he barked in shock and envy. "You drew this!"
Cracks appeared in the barrier inside the cave, and screams rose and fell. Qi Yun Chu decisively put away the ghostly talisman in his hand that had no spiritual power reaction, and said flexibly, "Anything is possible. Young Master Wu is exceptionally talented. We can give it a try."
Shi Xianxue: What a god-gifted genius.
"No rush, we're still missing one thing." His voice faded into the wind as he hurled the lit Heavenly Thunder Talisman into the air.
Before Qi Yun Chu could hear what he was saying, a sudden pain shot through the back of his neck, as if he had been bitten by some insect. His thoughts were trapped in a bottle adrift at sea, and he began to float and stagger forward two steps.
He saw himself strike Shi Xianxue's left arm with a palm strike as if he were a madman.
Shi Xianxue cried out in pain, and blood gushed from her bandaged wound instantly. The surging blood droplets turned into blood butterflies with a strange fragrance as they fell to the ground, vying to fly into the cave.
The Corpse Beast smelled the fragrance of blood and could no longer resist the temptation, so it jumped off the barrier.
With a sly smile, Wu Xiutang met Shi Xianxue's astonished expression and slowly finished the rest of his sentence.
"We're still missing one ingredient: bait."
As Shi Xianxue was slammed off the cliff, countless corpse beasts swarmed out of the cave, leaping down the cliff like fish. At the same time, several purple lightning bolts, like infinitely spreading and enlarging tree roots, swiftly snaked their way down the cliff.
Several bolts of purple lightning met in mid-air and exploded into clusters of dark purple lightning, striking the Corpse Beast's body with pinpoint accuracy and quickly detonating its entire body.
The air crackled with the sound of burning; unsurprisingly, she would soon become one of those charred corpses.
But thankfully—
Shi Xianxue used both her hands and feet to wrap herself around the body of the person in front of her.
Before Qi Yun Chu struck her down the cliff, her cerebral cortex was greatly stimulated, and she reacted by reaching out to grab him, but unsurprisingly, she grabbed nothing.
Her eyes widened. Just before she fell off the cliff, the bracelet chain around her waist seemed to sense the danger and suddenly activated, extending several feet forward and spiraling forward to firmly bind one of the people around the waist.
Wu Xiutang formed a hand seal, his eyes reflecting a purple light.
Five bolts of lightning were more than enough. Of course, he wasn't doing it entirely to deal with the Corpse Beast. The most important thing was that he was pleased to see Shi Xianxue's panicked face.
She should have died long ago. Compared to being skinned alive, having her bones ground to dust, and being struck by lightning here, at least she's left with a complete corpse.
Tsk, he's really kind.
He had clearly underestimated the woman once again.
When the ghostly thing grabbed his waist, Wu Xiutang swiftly drew his butterfly blade and slashed down. With a clang, half of his hand went numb from the impact. The broken chain was not only unharmed, but the force of its sudden tightening almost severed him in half.
It cannot be cut, and it can activate a protection mechanism after being attacked.
It seems that the broken chain was also taken away when they rescued her.
Wu Xiutang's face was so gloomy it seemed to drip water.
With lightning about to explode overhead and an astonishing number of bloodthirsty monsters behind him, he released the butterfly blade, letting the force of the woman's fall drag him down.
Shi Xianxue's greatest fear in life was insects, especially when dozens of their eyeballs burst out after they were burned, and one or two of them fell off her face; her fear reached its peak at that moment.
Their bodies, intertwined, plummeted rapidly, their hair slapping coldly against her face like raindrops. Shi Xianxue clung to Wu Xiutang with both hands and feet, and saw clusters of purple-blue sparks explode in the sky.
Wu Xiutang suppressed the urge to throw her down and whistled. Suddenly, a huge black shadow with wings burst out from the shadows of the trees, smashing the falling corpse beast into pieces. It then caught the two falling people and quickly dodged and weaved through the dense barrage of lightning strikes.
Wu Xiutang had lost all desire to communicate with this woman who had repeatedly and successfully tricked him. He didn't want to say a word and coldly pulled her off him.
The ground was smooth and wooden, and the bird flew so fast and fiercely that even a gust of wind could make your feet slip.
Afraid of falling, and not daring to pull Wu Xiutang, she could only carefully lie down, the bracelet on her waist making a metallic clanging sound. She found a relatively safe position to lie down, and when she got closer, she realized that what was carrying them was not a real bird, but a wooden crane carved by hand.
With its exquisite and lifelike carvings, and then amplified several times by magical means, it can become a mount for people to ride.
As she was still marveling at the sight, a sinister, unsettling gaze, like a venomous snake, crept up to her waist.
Shi Xianxue turned to the side as if she sensed something and found that Wu Xiutang was staring at the bracelet connecting the two of them with a strange expression.
Long eyelashes obscured his eyes, and the dark pool shimmered with an icy chill.
Shi Xianxue suddenly realized that being alone in a space with the minor villain was obviously more dangerous than being with the Corpse Beast.
Her body tensed for a moment, and she was about to say something to ease the tension.
Wu Xiutang suddenly chuckled softly, the laughter seeming to come from deep within his throat, making his chest tremble and his eyes redden. Shi Xianxue shivered, feeling that he was laughing like a pervert, a mentally ill person whose emotions were extremely unstable, one second laughing and talking to you and the next second drawing a knife to kill.
He was tall and upright, his clothes fluttering in the cold wind. Noticing Shi Xianxue's gaze, his cold eyes slowly lowered, as if two poisoned arrows were hovering over her face.
He stared at her with a malicious gaze, still smiling, but the curve of his lips gradually faded. He sighed softly, "How interesting."
The crane soared upwards through the thin, cold clouds, and Wu Xiutang sat cross-legged beside her, his smile as gentle as a breeze and a bright moon.
"May I have your name?"
A note from the author:
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