Chapter 641: A Diary Spanning Six Hundred Years (5.5k)
Worried about life? Zhao Duan's face showed a bit of solemnity. Turning around and seeing Yuxiu and Jinjian were equally serious, he smiled and said:
"Don't worry, at worst we can just fight that evil god."
It sounded like a joke, but the two women understood his seriousness.
If he really encountered a desperate situation, Zhao Duan would probably have to use the Dragon Soul again...
But, how long has it been since Prince Jing was killed?
If it is driven again, the price will be high... and Zhao Duan no longer has a life and death puppet to replace "Hurt".
Zhang Yan smiled upon seeing this and said:
"I say this to let you know that I am not that weak. If you are really in a life-or-death crisis, I will rescue you."
But is it really that easy to rescue people from the hands of gods?
The four of them made a plan and discussed the details immediately, and then decided not to delay any longer and take action immediately.
"I'll lead the way." Yuxiu said, acting as a guide.
Jin Jian clenched the staff in his hand, his face tense:
"Then let's begin."
A ray of moonlight spread from the top of the staff, quickly covering the three people, and Zhao Duan and the other two figures quickly disappeared.
In Zhang Yan's eyes, the three people quickly fled into the distance.
Zhang Yanyi stayed where he was, motionless, and waited quietly for a long time.
Suddenly, he stepped lightly on the ground with one foot, and the whole person soared into the sky. When he sat cross-legged above the forest, the old Taoist priest looked into the distance calmly and uttered a muffled thunder from his mouth.
At this moment, countless creatures within a radius of dozens of miles heard the low shout, and they all looked up in astonishment and looked in the direction of the sound.
Then, powerful pressures emanated from the old Taoist priest's body, sweeping across the sky like a storm. Dark clouds gathered over the originally clear sky above Xinjiang.
…
Inside Dazhai, in a room filled with the fragrance of books.
Song Zhi sat cross-legged in the middle of the room, throwing several ancient coins in his hand onto the ground again and again, as if he was fortune-telling.
His hair was disheveled, and his purple robe hung down, with his bare feet hidden beneath it.
His eyes were full of worry.
As the patriarch, he was supposed to go on the expedition with the army this time, but before breaking camp, he used the altar to obtain intelligence. However, to his surprise, this time, the power of the gods seemed to be interfered with in some way, and gave answers that were difficult to interpret.
Therefore, Song Zhi chose to stay in the big village to prevent possible accidents.
Suddenly, Song Zhi raised his head sharply, and a deep scolding sounded in his ears. He stood up suddenly and rushed out the door like a leopard.
When he pushed open the door, he saw the remaining Liao people in the village coming out one by one. In the distance, dark clouds gathered in the forest, and a strong aura filled the air.
“Boom boom boom—”
Before he could react, Song Zhi was shocked to find that there was a vibration coming from the direction of Layuan. It was the sleeping Laba God who was startled and reacted.
"Not good..." Song Zhi's face changed drastically. He glanced at Bai Di who was running towards him and said quickly:
"Impose martial law in the main camp. No one is allowed to leave without permission. Blow the horn and summon warriors like Man Gu to defend the main camp."
The girl named Bai Di was stunned for a moment, then nodded quickly. Then she saw the weak clan leader suddenly raised a gust of wind and flew straight to La Garden.
Layuan was not far away. When Song Zhi, wrapped in lavender smoke, landed in Layuan with a bang, he saw a scarlet blood-red meteor rising from the ground, crossing the sky, and heading straight for the place where the abnormal movement occurred.
The gods have awakened!
Go to the enemy uncontrollably!
Song Zhi was horrified. What kind of powerful person could cause the Laba God to attack? Was the existence of that unknown powerful person a threat to Dajiang?
"Chief, the gods have left."
Suddenly, deep in the La Garden, in a forest, a dark-skinned girl wearing a grand, colorful robe and with shoulder-length black hair walked out.
She looked to be about eighteen years old. Although she was a Liao person, her figure was exceptionally "delicate", similar to that of the Yu people. Her eyes were frighteningly black, but her face was expressionless, revealing a mysterious meaning.
Just like the witches who served gods in ancient tribes.
"I know. You should activate the La Garden's formation immediately to prevent any enemies from sneaking in. I will deal with them." Song Zhi said in a deep voice.
The priestess with a miko-like demeanor bowed slightly and said, "Okay."
He raised his head again and watched Song Zhi riding the purple mist and chasing after the Laba God.
The priestess raised her hands, waved them in the air, and muttered something.
Her voice was not loud, but soon the whole La Garden was filled with singing. The light in the La Garden quickly dimmed, from day to night, and gusts of cold wind enveloped the entire area.
…
Just as the entire forest focused its attention on the center of the vision, no one noticed that three invisible "intruders" were running swiftly in the forest.
Zhao Duan raised his head and saw a scarlet meteor flying over his head, followed by purple smoke.
The three people on the ground didn't dare to breathe, and they stood still stealthily, trying to minimize their presence.
"The gods have been led away!" Zhao Duan said in a deep voice:
"From now on, we have to race against time. How far is it?"
"It's just ahead!" A little sweat appeared on Yuxiu's fair face. She was riding the wind and running fast, holding a compass in her hand.
A moment later.
The three followed the guidance of the compass and entered a valley. Suddenly, the scene in front of them became dark, and the three stopped in shock.
Zhao Duan looked up at the sky in astonishment: "Why is it dark?"
In the thick "night", the entire forest was plunged into darkness, with only the sparse stars in the clouds above barely illuminating the surrounding scenery.
In front of the three of them was a high fence.
Yes, the "fence wall" covered with vines and connected by wooden logs is three meters high and stretches across the valley like a city wall.
Under the starlight, there is a strange atmosphere.
"It should be a defensive formation," Yuxiu analyzed.
"I did a lot of research to sneak in here. Layuan is a forbidden area for the Liao people, and it has a magic array set up to block the invasion of foreign enemies.
After all, the evil god sleeps in the deepest part of La Garden most of the time. If an outsider intruder only sneaks into the outer perimeter of La Garden and does not go to the core, it will not alarm Great Laba. Therefore, this magic circle is to stop the intruder."
Zhao Duan was not surprised either, frowned and said:
"What's the danger of this magic circle?"
"I don't know." Yu Xiu said frankly, and then, under Zhao's dull gaze, she said as a matter of course:
"I sneaked in during the sacrificial ceremony. I didn't force my way in, so how would I know?"
"..." Zhao Duan sighed, walked to the towering fence, and rubbed his chin:
"Then we can only deal with it as it comes. Let's go in first and talk about it later."
The two women looked at each other and said, "Okay!"
The three of them jumped up, crossed the fence almost at the same time, and landed in the La Garden.
Is this outer wall not dangerous? Zhao Duan felt relieved!
The garden is full of lush vegetation, with intricate main roads and paths. The starry sky is very faint, as if a layer of black gauze is covering the garden.
In front of them was a stone-paved path that meandered and extended deep into the La Garden.
They didn't know where they were in the garden, so they had to walk on the path, constantly changing roads, and walk towards the deepest part.
"rustle--"
In the night breeze, Zhao Duan noticed that this garden had obvious traces of design. On both sides of the road, there were many "fence walls" similar to the outer walls.
There aren't many outside, but the further you go in, the more you encounter.
"It doesn't seem that dangerous."
Jin Jian nervously gripped the staff and walked for a while, but did not encounter any danger. The whole garden was eerily quiet, with no insects chirping, only the footsteps and breathing of the three people.
"No!" When the three of them turned onto a small path again, Zhao Duan stopped abruptly and stared at the messy footprints on the ground in front of him with an ugly expression:
"We've circled back! We've been to this place before!"
What?
The two women were startled and looked carefully, and found that they had indeed been to this place before.
Yuxiu took out the compass, only to see the needle spinning wildly. She breathed silently:
"The compass is not working. It looks like we are lost."
How could a cultivator in this world get lost?
So, the truth is that the three of them were unknowingly deceived by the outer magic circle and thought they were moving forward, but in fact they were going in circles.
"Not only are we lost, but there's something wrong with these fences."
Zhao Duan squatted on the ground and dug up a piece of rubbed soil with his hands, his eyes solemn:
"I suspect these fences could be moved to continually alter the path we take."
Yuxiu nodded, agreeing with this judgment, and said:
"Perhaps, we can force our way over the fence."
She leaped up, but when she was about ten feet off the ground, she was pushed back to the ground by a gentle force.
"We are forbidden from taking off from this place!"
Yuxiu's face changed slightly, and then she put her fingers together like a sword and stabbed at a fence in front of her!
“Whoosh!”
The jade flying sword sank into the fence wall, and then, a scene that shocked the three people occurred:
The flying sword that was supposed to fly forward actually came out from the fence wall behind them!
"Trouble!" Yuxiu's face turned completely ugly:
"We are trapped. I'm afraid that at this point, we can't get out unless we ask Jin Jian to teleport."
Zhao Duan shook his head and rejected it:
"This place is definitely teeming with danger. Teleporting won't guarantee where you'll end up."
"What should we do? We don't have time to waste!"
Anxiety appeared on Yuxiu's pale face.
"Wait for me for a moment."
Zhao Duan thought for a moment, then suddenly closed his eyes and silently called Pei Niannu in his heart.
Immediately, in the surprised gazes of the two women, red silk threads suddenly extended from Zhao Duan's body.
In the quiet night, an ancient red wedding dress appeared, followed by an ancient woman wearing a dark golden mask and holding a weighing scale.
"This is Senior Pei." Zhao Duan took the initiative to introduce.
Is she Pei Niannu?
Yuxiu and Jinjian looked at each other. They had been following Zhao Duan for a long time and knew more or less that Zhao Duan could visualize an ancient monk.
Well... although it is difficult to understand, the two girls' well-developed nerves made them quickly accept the existence of the sorceress.
"This is what happened..." Zhao Duan quickly explained the situation and said seriously:
"Senior, do you know anything about La Garden? Do you know how to get deeper?"
He hoped the sorceress could give him guidance.
Pei Niannu looked around the quiet garden with a look of nostalgia in his eyes:
"The place where the Great Laba is sleeping... I did enter it once."
Really?
There was surprise in the eyes of all three of them.
But in an instant, Pei Niannu's next words brought them to the bottom:
"However, hundreds of years have passed, and the world has changed dramatically. This place is no longer what it was back then. How could there be a magic circle that has remained unchanged for hundreds of years? If you buy a house, would you not change the locks for decades? Aren't you afraid that someone could crack it and enter and exit at will?"
Zhao Duan opened his mouth, speechless.
Therefore, the entry method you know is outdated...what use is it to you!
Zhao Duan was extremely disappointed.
Just as they were staring at each other, Jin Jian, who had been following quietly beside them, suddenly said, "Xingchen."
"What?" Three faces looked at the young priestess at the same time.
But Jin Jian raised his little face and looked quietly at the night sky above his head, his crystal-ground glasses reflecting the faint starlight.
She murmured, "The stars can show the way."
Zhao Duan was stunned, and then his eyes suddenly lit up!
Yes!
This place can change the terrain and hinder their progress, but it cannot change the stars in the endless deep sky.
The darkness before us is not real darkness, it is more likely that it has swallowed up the light.
The stars hang in the sky regardless of day or night, and appear when the sunlight disappears.
Yuxiu also became excited and said quickly: "Then you try it!"
"Yeah!" Jin Jian nodded vigorously, and then walked in front of the team. Without looking at the road, he tilted his neck and stared at the starry sky without blinking.
Her steps were also extremely strange. Sometimes she moved forward, sometimes she retreated on the spot, and sometimes she turned to a place where there was no road... and then she forced her way into the fence wall.
What surprised Zhao Duan was that when several people followed Jin Jian step by step, after walking for a while, the surrounding scenery never repeated itself.
After a while, a straight, wide road suddenly appeared in front of them. There were high fences on both sides of the road, and it seemed to have no end.
"This is the Shinto Road! It's the main road leading to the God's Detective during sacrificial ceremonies!" Yuxiu couldn't hide her joy.
Zhao Duan's brows relaxed, and he said in confirmation:
"So, we've made it out?"
Yuxiu took out the compass. This time the needle stopped shaking. She calculated the direction and nodded vigorously.
"We have passed the outer area and entered the middle of La Garden!"
Jin Jian also wiped the sweat from his forehead and smiled.
Even Pei Niannu, who was floating behind, looking around with a leisurely attitude, looked at Jin Jian with a look of admiration.
"Jin Jian has made great contributions this time." Zhao Duan smiled and patted the girl's shoulder.
Jin Jian pushed his glasses and said seriously, "Add more money."
"...Okay, whatever you say."
The old-fashioned Pei Niannu's admiration faded, and he shook his head and lectured:
"How can a dignified monk be obsessed with material things? Today's monks are far inferior to those in the past."
Jin Jian turned his head, stared at her, and curled his lips:
"How come you can't show me the way when you're so capable? You still have to rely on me."
“…” Pei Niannu’s eyes became dangerous.
Countless red lines were dancing around, and a chill was rising.
Yuxiu took a deep breath.
Zhao Duan's scalp tingled, thinking to himself, "Little ancestor, why mess with the ancestor when you can mess with anyone else..."
"Ahem, we don't have much time! Next, we should just keep moving forward, right?" He changed the subject.
Pei Niannu snorted and didn't bother with the younger girl.
Yuxiu nodded, and flying swords circled around her:
"Yes, but be careful!"
The female Taoist priest's eyes widened suddenly. At this moment, the vines rustled inside the fence wall on both sides of the group.
The fence wall surged like waves, and then, one after another, dark human-shaped shadows were "spitted out" from the vines!
In the darkness, it was difficult to see clearly, but in the blink of an eye, hundreds of human-shaped black shadows appeared in the long corridor ahead.
It was so densely packed that it blocked the road ahead.
Then, two red lights suddenly lit up at the positions of the eyes in the dark shadows, as if a group of bats opened their eyes at the same time.
"What the hell!?"
"careful!"
“Back off!”
The three were shocked and subconsciously became alert.
Yuxiu seemed to remember something and blurted out, "Servant of God!"
"What servant of God?" Zhao Duan was stunned, and the sword in his hand was already across in front of him.
Yuxiu made hand gestures with both hands, controlled the flying sword to protect her body, and said quickly:
“I just heard that there are two people in the Liao people who can communicate with the gods.
One is the patriarch of each generation, and the other is the high priest who spends his entire life serving the gods deep in the La Garden. Under the high priest, he also controls a group of divine servants who guard the place where the gods sleep.
Zhao Duan retreated cautiously and said loudly:
"Why didn't you tell me earlier? So these things are servants of God? Could they be warriors of the Liao people?"
"You didn't ask," Yuxiu said confidently.
"These things clearly don't look like living people, right? And they're not as tall as the Liao people."
At this moment, hundreds of divine servants suddenly drew their swords at the same time. Then, there was a neat sound of swords being drawn, armor vibrating, and footsteps stomping on the sacred road.
Jin Jian gritted his teeth and suddenly waved his staff. A white ball of light rose up and illuminated the front.
Then, all four of them were stunned.
These servants of God were actually human soldiers wearing armor! Although the armor was old, its style and sophistication were definitely not something the Liao people could create!
"Qiguo Armor!"
Suddenly, Pei Niannu said:
"These are the armors of the Qi Kingdom's Imperial Guards. They are the deceased Qi Kingdom Royal Guards."
Qi? The unified dynasty that was overthrown by the Yu Kingdom six hundred years ago?
The Qi Kingdom's Imperial Guards? Why are they here?
Turned into this weird look?
Zhao Duan was stunned, but these ancient royal guards who had died six hundred years ago did not give him time to react and swarmed over him.
"Get rid of these servants first!"
Zhao Duan shouted loudly and rushed into the crowd with a sword in hand. The flying sword in his jade sleeve and the star-like arrows shot from the golden tablet were also activated.
“Ding-ding-dang-dang…”
The fighting power of these ancient royal guards is obviously not as strong as it was in life, but each of them is fearless and brave. Even if their heads are chopped off, their bodies can still fight.
As a last resort, the three men expended all their strength and dismembered the servant of God, and only then did he stop moving.
Fortunately, with the combat power of the three people in the human world, they joined forces and, although it took some effort, they finally destroyed all the servants of God.
“Huff…Huff…”
After a moment, Zhao Duan leaned on his knife and panted, sweating slightly on his forehead. He spat:
"Have these weird things become zombies?"
Inside the dismembered armor of the servant of God on the ground, there was a body that was as charred and shriveled as wood, like bacon that had been dried in the wind for who knows how many years.
Looking at the "body parts" on the ground, everyone felt uneasy, and even greater doubts arose in their minds.
"Look what I found?"
Suddenly, Jin Jian bent down in surprise and took out a yellowed book from a compartment in a tattered suit of armor on the ground.
Zhao Duan and Yuxiu also gathered over and looked with the help of the light from the top of the golden staff.
There is no text on the cover of this book, which is bound with thread. Although the pages have yellowed after six hundred years, they do not break at the slightest touch, but are preserved exceptionally well.
"It should be like these corpses, sealed in a special environment, so it has not rotted."
Zhao Duan took the book curiously, opened the first page, and then looked at the unfamiliar words with a confused look on his face:
"What is this word? How do you pronounce it?"
Yuxiu and Jinjian were also confused, they were undoubtedly poor students.
Suddenly, Pei Niannu, who was floating behind the three of them, sighed softly:
"This is an ancient tripod inscription, long abandoned. Back then, it was not used by the people of Qi. It was only used in sacrificial ceremonies and was mastered by a small number of nobles.
Not all of Qi's Imperial Guards need to learn it. This person must be a noble son among the Imperial Guards, who would be proficient in this writing."
Zhao Duan suddenly realized, and then said:
"Senior, do you know me? Can you interpret it?"
"Of course I know," the sorceress finally showed her ability this time. She cast her eyes on the page and frowned.
"This isn't a book, it's a diary."
Then she read:
"On October 5, the 31st year of Tianshou, the imperial court was completely defeated. His Majesty the Great Emperor ordered the burning of the entire palace. Before this, we received an important mission—
Under the protection of the Great Qi Army, we will secretly transport the treasures accumulated in the palace for hundreds of years out of the capital and to the border as a hope for restoring the country."
(End of this chapter)
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