situation
Xu Ya hadn't really thought that much about it.
A flash of light appeared in the distance, seemingly pointing towards the fried chicken shop.
The explosion was so loud that she could feel the mountain beneath her feet trembling slightly. Xu Ya had never seen such a powerful explosion before, just like the gas explosions reported on the news. The live footage broadcast on the news was full of devastation and was too horrible to look at.
Xu Ya panicked upon seeing this and immediately wanted to go to the fried chicken shop to check on the two employees. They were just ordinary people, but she never thought that she could offer any real help in this situation.
Shi Yuzhen's excruciating heart pain subsided, and she quickly recovered and caught up with Yu Mojian as she stumbled down the mountain, injuring Xu Ya in the process.
He reached out and pulled the girl into his arms. In the blink of an eye, Shi Yuzhen was like a beast that hadn't had a proper meal. His eyes were bloodshot. He held Xu Ya tightly and frowned when he saw that her clothes were covered in scratches. He even used a rare scolding tone to say to Xu Ya, "How could you be so reckless?"
Xu Ya knew she had acted rashly. Yes! How could a mortal's speed compare to that of someone who could fly on a sword? She remained silent.
After Shi Yuzhen finished speaking, she hugged Xu Ya tightly, which gave him a real sense of security.
She didn't leave... she just wanted to go to the shop to check on things...
As Xu Ya had predicted, the epicenter of the explosion was indeed Aya's Fried Chicken Shop.
Before the sword even touched the ground, Xu Ya jumped out and quickly walked to the shop to check the situation.
But with thick smoke billowing, Xu Ya hurriedly inhaled a large amount of smoke and immediately began coughing violently. Seeing this, Shi Yuzhen made a blocking spell and immediately covered the two of them with a protective layer.
Inside the protective enclosure, there was no smoke leakage, and Xu Ya's breathing became easier.
The explosion covered an area of more than a dozen shops, with broken wooden stakes and debris flying everywhere. Every two steps, one could hear the wails and cries of villagers amidst the dust.
Xu Ya squinted as she scanned the dusty-faced villagers, trying to figure out who they were. Several low-level cultivators were also spontaneously helping them repair the damaged road section as much as possible.
Based on her memory of the location, Xu Ya found the place, which had become a pile of ruins. She could vaguely see the lintel written by Xu Ya buried under the yellow earth that had been blasted out.
Xu Ya rushed over and pulled out the strip of cloth. She struggled to move aside the broken and crooked wooden stakes that had been blown up, and tried to make her way through the thick smoke.
Everything happened too suddenly. Xu Ya went to Shi Yuzhen's residence after the shop sold out its inventory for the day. At that time, there were no cultivators around, and the villagers were busy preparing dinner. No one expected this disaster.
The aunt was buried under a pile of rubble and kept wailing. Xu Ya heard this and immediately used magic to remove all the items piled up on the aunt. Xu Ya didn't dare to touch the aunt, who was covered in blood and dazed, for fear of causing further harm. She only used painkillers to make the aunt feel a little better.
The aunt slowly woke up, her face bruised from the impact, but the moment she saw Xu Ya, she shed bright red tears: "Boss Xu Ya... thank goodness you're alright..."
Tears welled up in Xu Ya's eyes: "Auntie, are you still in pain? What happened? Where's Ah Xi?"
After receiving pain relief, the aunt's complexion improved considerably. Her red and green face had become numb. She said, "Xiaoya, things are not peaceful anymore. You must stay with the Immortal Master. Ah Xi... he was captured alive by that group of people... They saw that I, an old codger, was useless, so they captured Ah Xi. He was a chicken-shaped but enormous monster...!"
Xu Ya tried to imagine based on the aunt's description: "Deformed? Huge? What does it look like?"
The aunt choked on the blood and said with difficulty, "It was a chicken... a big, big rooster... like that. From a distance, it looked as big as an ordinary rooster. Everyone thought they were seeing things..."
"A rooster?"
“Very big…very…” the aunt said with certainty, “as tall as the shop, and its beak is very sharp. It came rushing over and just randomly poking, and its target was clear. It was coming for our shop.”
The aunt's eyes filled with fear as she recalled the scene: "Later, several monks who had bought fried chicken came to help. It was no match for them and rushed over to grab me and Ah Xi... Yes, yes, it could talk! Finally, it flung a gunpowder cannon out of its beak and it exploded..."
When Shi Yuzhen arrived, she used her spiritual energy to help the cultivators repair the thick ash on the street. She then captured several cultivators and questioned them about what had happened.
The cultivators clung to the hems of their clothes like little chicks. Ever since publicly murdering his master in front of the cultivators, Shi Yuzhen's behavior over the years has been utterly lawless. Not to mention cultivators at the Nascent Soul level like Shi Yuzhen, the cultivators immediately obeyed him and told him everything.
Shi Yuzhen also heard about the strange scene that Xu Ya had heard, and couldn't help but frown.
The monster was a bizarre, giant rooster that descended from the sky and rushed towards Aya's Fried Chicken Shop. It not only destroyed all the decorations in the shop, but also tried to capture the employees. Under the obstruction of the cultivators, the giant rooster was no match for the crowd and could only retreat with the smaller child.
The younger child the monks were talking about was Ah-Xi.
Xu Ya stood up, her eyes meeting those of Shi Yuzhen behind her.
Xu Ya said, "I'm going to find him." Find whom? Find Ah Xi and rescue him.
If Shi Yuzhen had seen Xu Ya thinking about someone else normally, she would have been furious. But now, seeing Xu Ya, this fragile parasitic vine, accurately express her inner desires, Shi Yuzhen seemed to finally find a sense of authenticity.
He had always disliked that brat who worked at Xu Ya's shop.
But at that moment, he nodded, and he heard him reply, "I will go with you."
The commotion at Aya's fried chicken shop still caused a sensation in Yunmeng Immortal Marsh. Now, Aya's fried chicken has become an indispensable food for many cultivators during their cultivation.
Upon hearing that Aya's Fried Chicken Shop had been attacked, all the cultivators came down the mountain to check. Surprisingly, An Jiaze, who had been in seclusion for a long time, appeared at this moment, standing far behind the cultivators and watching the commotion.
Standing in the center of the crowd, Zhan Zhengzhen and his companions frowned upon hearing the details of the incident, looking worriedly at the two who were preparing to investigate: "How could such a strange thing happen? A giant rooster? What is its purpose in taking Ah Xi away?"
Zhan Zhengzhen was worried about Xu Ya and subtly reminded Shi Yuzhen, "Could it be that they're targeting you again? Don't you really need us to accompany you on this trip?"
Shi Yuzhen had also considered this situation. After a moment of silence, she said, "If it's coming for me, then I should go and meet it. Your following will only allow the person in the shadows to do something even more unpredictable. There's another very strange thing, which is that 'Aya Jia' fried chicken shop. We will investigate it together on this trip."
Zhan Zhengzhen hesitated, as if he wanted to say something but then stopped.
Cai Wenle voiced his concern: "What about Junior Sister? Will she be in danger going with you alone?"
Xu Ya, unusually serious, said, "Thank you, Senior Brother Cai and Senior Brother Zhan. Ah Xi is my shop assistant, and I am responsible for his personal safety. I must go there in person, especially since this strange phenomenon is directed at my shop."
Zhan Zhengzhen and the others did not understand the logic that "since A-Xi became Xu Ya's shop assistant, her personal safety would be her responsibility."
As they listened, the two felt something was off, and they couldn't help but steal a glance at Shi Yuzhen, who stood behind Xu Ya with no expression on her face.
Zhan Zhengzhen had previously acted as a relationship mentor, having been questioned about her love life by Shi Yuzhen. He was already quite aware of Shi Yuzhen's bluntness back then, and was long past the point of being shocked by Xu Ya and Shi Yuzhen's openness about their relationship. He had once had a strong liking for Xu Ya, but…
Xu Ya cares so much about her shop assistant, Ah Xi, yet Shi Yuzhen can still remain calm; she's truly ruthless.
After questioning the two men about their plans, and seeing that they had a preliminary plan, the others stopped talking about following them and simply told them to be careful.
Xu Ya didn't bring any luggage, only her spirit bag, before setting off with Shi Yuzhen.
Shi Yuzhen had gone out more than once, and each time she wanted to take Xu Ya with her, but Xu Ya always stammered and made excuses to avoid the invitation. Now that she was finally able to go out with Xu Ya without any interference, she never expected this situation.
With Ah-Xi's whereabouts unknown, Xu Ya felt panicked and her mood involuntarily plummeted.
Shi Yuzhen rarely showed concern for Ah Xi; perhaps she was more concerned about Xu Ya: "It will be alright."
Following the instructions of the villagers and monks, the giant rooster darted eastward at an extremely fast speed.
Upon hearing this, Shi Yuzhen initially judged that it was probably a monster that someone had deliberately kept in captivity.
Why a giant chicken...? This is somewhat of a subtle and inexplicable connection to Xu Ya's fried chicken shop.
Shi Yuzhen immediately connected it with the "Ayajia Fried Chicken Shop" that the cultivators had mentioned before.
Before leaving, Shi Yuzhen found out the exact locations of those shops.
Unable to catch the giant, strange rooster that had snatched it away, he planned to take Xu Ya to check out the so-called fried chicken shop first.
But the further east you go, the stranger things become.
There was a mountain road outside the fairyland that could still be traveled by sword, but when they reached the county town area, the vehicles of the current government's legal and religious monks were openly displayed in front of the people, so the two had no choice but to stop riding their swords and walk into the county town.
Yu Zhen had visited this place many times, but this was Xu Ya's first time here.
Upon arriving here, Shi Yuzhen already sensed that something was wrong.
It's not late at night, so why is the fog so thick, as if we're on the summit?
Shi Yuzhen felt displeased. He had originally intended to coax Xu Ya in this relatively lively street, but the current atmosphere just didn't seem right.
Shi Yuzhen still vividly remembers the experience of the reinforcement operation back then, and she doesn't like the feeling of someone watching her intently from the shadows.
Xu Ya also sensed something was amiss. Although she had never been to a county outside of Xianxiang, she had always heard cultivators who came to buy fried chicken mention it, and many of these outsiders would give vivid and detailed accounts.
The current situation here is not quite the same as what they described.
In an instant, the giant rooster confessed without being asked, and fell from the sky again. Its huge and ferocious chicken foot was not like an ordinary chicken foot, but like a human arm covered with bulging veins, and its nails were extremely sharp, tightly gripping a comatose and ragged person.
—It's Ah-Xi!
Xu Ya clenched her fists, not daring to make a move rashly.
Ah-Xi was bleeding profusely and had fallen into a coma. Her body was folded and hanging under the giant rooster's sharp claws, her cheeks were already rubbed raw and bloody, as if she had been dragged a long way on the ground by the giant rooster.
The giant rooster seemed to possess intelligence; it made a face remarkably similar to a human's and peered at Xu Ya. Once it recognized her, it launched an attack without regard for anything else.
Knowing she couldn't hold Shi Yuzhen back, Xu Ya quickly used a concealment spell to hide in the shadows, waiting for an opportunity to help Shi Yuzhen save people.
The giant rooster's view was obstructed, and he could only vaguely make out a figure with an air of otherworldly grace.
A fierce battle between a man and a bird.
The bird's beak was like a sharp sword, slicing fiercely through the air, but Shi Yuzhen neutralized every single one of its attacks!
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