Chapter 105 Chapter 105 Mutual Eating and Cunning
Lin Xinghuo rode the giant caracal at lightning speed, and unexpectedly ran more than two thousand miles.
Fortunately, Wu Nian had achieved great success in his training, his claws stepping on purple lightning, allowing him to navigate with ease. Lin Qiyun, swept by the yellow wind and turbid air, also entered the Snow Province in a flash.
"Something's wrong, the weather has changed." Lin Xinghuo tightly grasped the thick fur on the caracal's neck, straightened his hunched back, and looked up at the rolling black clouds that suddenly appeared and surged like huge waves.
An unholy wind, swirling with dust, swept across the cliff face, blinding those on the ledge. It felt as if they'd inhaled half a bowl of dirt into their lungs, their faces darkening and turning purple from the suffocation. Even a cough couldn't come through their stomachs, as if the suffocation was threatening to kill them. The giant caracal, which had been lagging behind and not pressing them, suddenly caught up in a flash of lightning. A cool breeze, mixed with a flash of green light, caressed their faces, and those holding their breath or rubbing their eyes a couple of steps behind felt much better.
"Ring the gong! Time to go home! What a horrible weather! It's just warming up and it's snowing again!" The burly man, who was nearly blown off the cliff by a gust of sand and dust, swung his earthen spear onto his back, grabbed the hand of his old brother who rushed over to grab him, and spat a mouthful of sand on the ground. His voice was a little shaky: "Go! Go!"
Halfway down the mountain, the sturdy man rolled up his sleeves, the hair on his dark and strong arms stood on end, and the sweat on his back soaked his jacket.
"What's up, Brother Neng?" four or five burly men, all wearing the red sleeves of forest rangers, panted and asked Huang Neng. Huang Neng was the nephew of the former captain of Huangtun. Ever since the fires that unleashed the zombie plague that nearly wiped out the village decades ago, Huangtun had spontaneously formed a forest ranger team, though it wasn't called that before. The ranger team consisted of ten men, all of them the strongest and bravest in the village, a group that had been passed down for decades and generations.
Regardless of generation, the leader must be not only courageous but also cautious. Huang Neng's temperament and skills were reliable, and the team members respected him. But Huang Neng's face was frighteningly tense. He had just felt a chilling, cold wind pierce him, a fishy and foul smell that filled his lungs like dust... If it hadn't been for the warm breeze that followed, that evil wind would have been fatal! But the others, just two or three steps away, were blinded by the wind and sand.
"...The weather is bad. I'll use the loudspeaker to tell everyone in the village not to go up the mountain for half a month!" Huang Neng didn't elaborate.
"To Liangshan!" Lin Xinghuo, who saved Huang Neng's life in time, had a very tense face. She could only roughly guess the route just now, but now she was very familiar with this not-too-high mountain - it was the place where the seven fox families destroyed the village and the Jin family set up the first victory coffin. People nearby called it Liangshan, and those who were far away just called it Wuliang Mountain, the "Wangliang" of ghosts and monsters.
The red light on the trace talisman in his waist bag suddenly grew brighter. Lin Xinghuo pressed the waist bag with one hand, his fingertips turning white.
The tip of Wu Nian's thick, long tail, curled around Lin Xinghuo's waist, caressed her. "He's starting to avoid people!" Previously, they hadn't dared to chase and stop Lin Qiyun. Partly because they wanted to know his destination, and partly because they wanted to chase him to a less-traveled area to avoid harming innocent people. Fortunately, the firepower of the Third Detachment of the Special Brigade finally injured him, and Lin Qiyun himself fled, avoiding the public.
Originally, it looked like he was trying to escape, but at this moment, the wind he was blowing was not that fast, and there was even a hint of "leisure" in his movements. Knowing that there were pursuers behind him, he actually had the leisure to send filthy, bloody and sinister energy to harm ordinary people!
Wu Nian's furry tail tightened, and the thought flashed through the minds of the two men at the same time: "Be careful!"
Lin Xinghuo's left hand clasped a stack of talisman paper. With a slight movement of his fingertips, the talisman paper fanned outward, its light shimmering with intricate and mysterious power. With a flick of his right wrist, the wide emerald bracelet on his wrist transformed into a spiritual whip. The tenderest, finest vine of his own life spirit, bearing the pill-like candle dragon gall, snaked upward like a spirit snake, wrapping itself around the whip in the blink of an eye. The whip's green faded, its azure glow flickering as its willow leaves unfurled. At first glance, it resembled a willow whip, but closer inspection revealed that the blades had already shone with energy. The entire spiritual whip resembled the scales of a dragon, incredibly sharp and agile.
The foul yellow wind that enveloped Lin Qiyun indeed slowed down at the place where the victory coffin was located. The high-speed rotating vortex twisted and folded half a circle strangely, and it seemed that the person hidden inside turned half a circle stiffly and glanced at the pursuers behind... A foul-smelling black and red fog spread out from the yellow wind vortex like a breathing tide.
Long before the yellow wind stopped, Lin Xinghuo had already unleashed his talisman paper, creating a wall of steel, forming an inverted bowl that trapped Lin Qiyun. A closer look revealed a shimmering light in the grass and dirt where the yellow wind had emanated. Clearly, the barrier was a perfectly sealed sphere, leaving no room for a single flaw. Simultaneously, Wu Nian and Lin Xinghuo's bodies rippled with radiance, aglow with spiritual light, their very hairs armored. Another barrier, forming an even larger circle, enveloped both opposing forces, severing them from the outside world.
"Woo woo... hehe hehe... hehe..." The yellow wind and the blood mist were both imprisoned by the restriction, but the vortex did not seem to panic. It allowed the wind to emit bursts of jackals' laughter, foxes' shouting, crows' cries, and wolves' howls. The blood mist inside was rolling, trying to fill the restriction.
Wu Nian slapped the thundercloud with his paw pad, and the small restriction was surrounded by purple lightning. The blood mist in the sea of blood immediately became thinner, and a wolf-like howl was heard.
"Good, good, good! That's really amazing!" The vortex stopped for a moment, and Lin Qiyun's voice sounded, with ups and downs in the tone of opera.
"Lin Qiyun?" A light bulb went off in Lin Xinghuo's head, and he suddenly shook his head: "Jin Kun!" Are you Lin Qiyun's father, Jin Kun?
"'She has a high nose bridge, which contrasts with her cherry-like mouth, her teeth are like jade, and her lips are like pearls. She is neither thin nor thick... Such women are rare in the world. This is the kind of graceful lady that gentlemen love.'" The previously gentle and humble tone became frivolous and strange. 'Lin Qiyun' hummed an opera and suddenly laughed: "When I first met Mr. Lin that day, I felt that the ladies in the palace could not compare to him in terms of appearance. I was only ten years old at that time and really didn't know what to say... Until more than forty years later, I heard a new opera from Yan Ji. What was it called - "Flower as Matchmaker"! Yes, that's it, but it really is what I want to say... Tsk tsk tsk tsk, what a pity, Mr. Lin is a man after all! The woman I married later who gave me a good daughter was more suitable for this play..." He spent a lot of gold to find that woman, a beauty who had half of Mr. Lin's appearance. She seemed to be a lady from a good family. He almost wanted to help her become his principal wife back then. Using her eldest daughter as a coffin weight, the ungrateful man became resentful and resentful. He could not have any more sons than the woman he resented, and could only drown every one he gave birth to. It was because she couldn't give birth to daughters afterward, leaving him with only his only daughter to use as a coffin weight, not even a backup. If the next two or three children were useful daughters, he would have been willing to make her his principal wife.
"My eldest grandson, I kidnapped the most learned man in the entire Snow Province and spent three days and three nights pondering over this beautiful name. 'Kun', brilliant and glorious!" The vortex suddenly stopped and parted, revealing a hunched figure named 'Lin Qiyun', with the left side of his head scratched as if by steel claws. "I'm not Kun'er, but the name wasn't given to him in vain! My grandson is truly blessed. Not only did he attract half a black fox, but he also gained a new demon... Great, great, fill my new coffin! It's not impossible to find a new way for my grandson to make a living."
Lin Xinghuo's heart was filled with hatred and rage.
The moment the swirling wind that had been obscuring his body completely dissipated, Lin Xinghuo pulled out a blindingly bright red talisman from his waist pouch and threw it at the small barrier. Before it could reach Lin Qiyun, a flash of fire erupted, and the talisman, ignited in a fiery crimson, instantly reducing it to ash. Within this body of Lin Qiyun was truly his great-grandfather, Jin Kun's grandfather, the true enemy of the murderous fox! The so-called Old Master Jin.
Old Master Jin raised his face, revealing only a blood-red right eye. His left eye and the left half of his face were covered in deep scars. A tangled mass of red lines grew from his severed left hand, which had been chopped off when the special squad attacked him. The blood lines dripped to the ground, wrapping the unconscious person at Old Master Jin's feet into a chrysalis. The chrysalis's abdomen was raised, revealing the face of Xiao Lanqin, who had married Lin Qiyun half a year ago.
Old Master Jin had been speechless for too long, and he seemed to be very interested in talking: "You two know each other, right? This is the girl my good grandson married for me, and I have had some fun with her..."
"Wunian, cut those red lines!" Lin Xinghuo saw the faint red light flashing on those messy blood lines, and turned a deaf ear to Old Master Jin's words. He immediately had another talisman in his hand, and the spiritual whip was winding like a spiritual snake made of leaf knives, and coordinated with the purple thunder of the giant caracal to bombard Lin Qiyun's broken hand.
Old Master Jin in the shell suddenly stopped his interrupted words and snorted sinisterly, "You little beast, you are really smart." As he spoke, the blood mist that had faded in the restriction suddenly surged into an air wave, transforming into eighteen kinds of weapons to block the attacks of Lin Xinghuo and Wu Nian.
It turned out to be a pretense, a bid for time. Lin Xinghuo's defenses were heightened, his talismans like snow and his spirit whip like a dragon, surrounding the entire small forbidden area amidst the thunder of purple lightning.
"You don't want to save her life anymore!" Old Master Jin's right eye bulged out redly, and he gradually lost strength under the attack.
Lin Xinghuo and the caracal clearly wouldn't be fooled a second time, and their attack intensified. Old Master Jin threatened them with Xiao Lanqin, but the blood mist was secretly protecting Xiao Lanqin's blood cocoon. Lin Xinghuo took a moment to examine Xiao Lanqin. At best, she was only six months pregnant, but her belly was more than double the size of the one he'd seen with Wei Layue's triplets. It was like a queen ant, stripped of its limbs and wings, its mouthparts stripped of its feeding apparatus, now used only for reproduction.
However, as the dense blood lines extending from the inside of Lin Qiyun's broken wrist were cut off one after another, Xiao Lanqin's belly seemed to deflate slightly, and the good complexion on her face, as if painted on with wax, finally lost its disguise, revealing a withered and sunken face. She had lost all her former beauty and was no thinner than a skeleton wrapped in skin.
Lin Xinghuo flicked his wrist, and with a flick of his spirit whip, a handful of detoxifying pills, nourishing pills, and pills for dispelling gloom and raising yang... were quietly sent forward by the willow blade. The sharp willow blade moved like flowing water as the pills passed through it. With a few movements of his wrist, the willow blade, enhanced by the candle dragon gall at the tip of the whip, continued to chop at the blood line. Thin vines extended from under the whip, rolling up the pills and stuffing them into Xiao Lanqin's mouth at an extremely fast speed...
"No? No! Not here either?!" Old Master Jin, who seemed to be in a complete slump, suddenly jumped up, and countless blood lines shot up into the sky from the exposed wound on the left half of his face. The blood mist, lightning, talismans, and spiritual whips trapped in the small restriction suddenly exploded!
The left half of Lin Qiyun's face was nearly completely destroyed, with dense veins of blood slithering in all directions. A resounding laugh erupted from his throat, and he said sinisterly, "All those coffin maidens, gathered over a hundred years ago, are gone!" Old Master Jin's ashes were similarly suppressed by Jin Kun's Yin Formation. Jin Kun had instructed Qu Xiangjin's mother to use a baby girl to perform a fixed ritual each year. However, there was something Jin Kun didn't know: the so-called "fixed ritual" actually involved using the baby girl's resentment to nourish the Yin Formation. Therefore, the coffin maidens in the victory coffin were a profound tonic for Old Master Jin.
Wu Nian blocked the oncoming blood, staining his fur in several places. Lightning flashed across his body, slightly breaking his thick fur. The giant caracal moved slightly forward, calmly blocking Lin Xinghuo, whose internal energy was unstable due to the backlash of his natal spirit vine. Lin Xinghuo ignored his enemy, sneering inwardly. On their first visit, they had indeed only destroyed the victory coffin, but they had learned from Qu Xiangjin's mother that Old Master Jin would secretly bury a girl in the old mausoleum every year. Naturally, they could not ignore the innocent girls who had been killed. Back in Buxian Village, the two had already sorted out the bones and reburied them, moving them to auspicious locations deep in the mountains.
Not only did they go to Liangshan, but they also reburied the infants and girls who were buried in the place in Qujiatun where Jin Kunbu had suppressed Old Master Jin's ashes, as Qu Xiangjin's mother had said. However, they never found the urn where the thief Jin had been buried.
"Since there is no coffin girl here, I will use a living person to fill the gap!" Lin Qiyun smiled sinisterly, and countless blood lines penetrated the restriction array cast by Lin Xinghuo. While fighting back and forth with the half-fox and the macaque, he had actually half broken the big restriction set by Lin Xinghuo.
The blood lines bursting out from Lin Qiyun's left head were incredibly powerful and violent, shielding the blood lines on his left wrist and the blood chrysalis on the ground. Wu Nian used lightning to shield Lin Xinghuo, saying, "Be careful!" Once these blood lines were severed, they could not regenerate, but the golden thief did not defend himself, which was truly strange.
Just as the great restriction was about to break, and the blood line was severed and more than half destroyed, the left lip on the terrifying half of Lin Qiyun's face suddenly moved and said, "Grandfather, Grandfather! I was wrong! I was wrong! I beg you, Grandfather, to spare Kun'er's life!"
Lin Qiyun raised the corner of his lips: "Good Kun'er, you hid my grandfather's ashes in the bandit village and got so many blood ginseng living basins. You really did my grandfather a big favor!"
The two pieces of flesh on Lin Qiyun's left side trembled as he spoke in a broken voice, "Thank you, Grandfather! Thank you, Grandfather! I will definitely make more blood ginseng basins for you in the future..."
Lin Qiyun raised his right hand and patted his left cheek. "So, Kun'er, you've done Grandpa another big favor. Grandpa only just discovered today how beneficial it is to cultivate the souls of his children and grandchildren! Look, we've gained so much benefit from eating Qiyun... If my great-grandson can eat it, then naturally my grandson can too, and it's even more beneficial!"
There was a scream on the left side of his face, and more blood spurted out from the left side of his skull. Lin Qiyun didn't care and tore off the two pieces of trembling lips that were begging for mercy. He finally broke through the big restriction and made a feint in the direction of Huangtun behind Lin Xinghuo and Wunian, and actually went in the direction of Buxiantun.
Lin Xinghuo used up all the talismans in his hand, and 'Lin Qiyun' pulled out most of the blood line from his left brain to block it, and suddenly fled away in a whirlwind.
Wu Nian's thick tail wrapped around Lin Xinghuo's waist, and with thunderous steps, he hurried after him. Behind him, unseen by Lin Qiyun, the tense nerves of the man and the macaque relaxed slightly.
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The author has something to say: Note:
"She has a high nose bridge, a cherry-like mouth, teeth like jade, lips like pearls. She is neither thin nor thick... Such women are rare in the world. This is the ideal match for a gentleman." - Cheng Zhaocai, Pingju Opera "Flowers as Matchmakers", 1909
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