Chapter 168 - Preparation
He was about to brag a little more, but Chu Linyuan had already turned around and walked towards the main hall, leaving only a cold order:
"Clean up the mess. Stabilize the tower's foundation."
Xie Zhao looked at the tall and straight figure in black clothes, curled his lips, and muttered softly: "I'll die if I praise you...Ice slag..."
The last rays of sunset were swallowed by the abyssal clouds, and more bonfires were lit in the square. The underground fire in the smelting area had been extinguished, leaving only the huge furnace emitting a scorching heat.
The first floor of the newly built Talisman Array Tower stood silently in the night, its crimson armor flowing with restrained flames, like a dormant ferocious beast.
Tie Niu contributed several huge abyss hagfish, which were roasted over the fire until they were fragrant and the meat was snow-white and tender.
Su Tang used the juice of newly grown star moss to make a sauce with a unique fragrance.
Everyone gathered around the largest bonfire. The atmosphere was much more solemn than yesterday. The abyss's greedy will, a fleeting glimpse, loomed like a shadow over their hearts.
Little White Deer nibbled at the grilled eel, and the rabbit in her arms also got a small piece, nibbling on it. Her clear eyes still held a hint of uneasiness, and from time to time she would look towards the abyss.
Xie Zhao absentmindedly poked the charcoal in the campfire, the Jinghong Talisman Pen unconsciously turning at his fingertips.
The dancing light of the bonfire flickered on his face, and also reflected the cold profile of Chu Linyuan next to him.
Chu Linyuan sat upright, cutting the grilled fish slowly and methodically, his movements still with a rigid elegance, as if the person whose ears turned red after being secretly kissed last night was not him.
Only Xie Zhao knew that when the light from the campfire occasionally swept across the other person's neck covered by the high collar of the black robe, it seemed that one could still see a very faint trace of thin red that had not completely faded?
This discovery made Xie Zhao feel as nervous as if there was a rabbit in his heart.
He secretly glanced at Chu Linyuan's tightly pursed lips, then quickly lowered his head, pretending to study the fire.
"Second Brother," Su Tang said cautiously, breaking the silence, "What on earth is that thing at the bottom of the abyss? It...it seems to be targeting us?"
Everyone's eyes were instantly focused on them, and even Chu Linyuan paused in cutting the fish.
Xie Zhao put down the fire stick and tapped the Jinghong Talisman Pen on his palm. A rare deep concentration appeared in his peach blossom eyes. "I don't know. But it's definitely not a good thing. The deer said it was hungry, and the fragments of the Burning Sky Valley said it was vicious... It can pollute energy through the abyss barrier, and it can also cause such a strong reaction between the deer and the rabbit..."
He paused, his eyes sweeping over the white deer and the moon-devouring rabbit, "...I'm afraid it has something to do with the rabbit's origin, and even with the key guarded by the deer's parents."
"The key..." Tie Niu repeated in a muffled voice, his huge fist clenching unconsciously, "Then... the thing behind that door... that's it?"
"It's almost certain." Luo Hongyi's fingertips played with a wisp of dark green poisonous mist, her beautiful face looking a little strange in the firelight. "The Burning Sky Valley wants the source fire, I'm afraid it's just a trace of power leaked from that thing. Ha, a bunch of fools who don't know how to live or die, just playing with fire."
"Whatever it is," Chu Linyuan's cold voice rang out. He put down the silver knife and picked up a clean cloth beside him. He wiped his fingers very slowly and carefully, as if they were stained with something unclean. "Become stronger. Seal the door. Or... kill it."
His voice was calm, yet it carried a resolute, unquestionable, cold murderous intent. The light from the campfire fell on the movement of him wiping his fingers, with an almost paranoid focus.
Xie Zhao looked at him wiping his hands seriously, and the love and uneasiness in his heart were suddenly washed away by a strange warm current.
He knew that Chu Linyuan's words, "hiding his feelings in the abyss, sealing his heart in ice," were true. He had frozen all his emotions, including fear, anger, and even the sudden throbbing he'd felt last night, deep within, leaving only his purest goal: to become stronger, to protect, and to crush all threats.
This almost cold concentration has become the most solid support at this moment under the shadow of the abyss.
"Brother, you're right!" Xie Zhao slapped his thigh and pointed the Jinghong Talisman Pen at the night sky. "Who cares what monsters they are? If enemies come, we can stop them with the talisman. If water comes... uh, if fire comes, we can put it out with water! We have a tower! We have talismans! We have dragons! We have star beasts! And... we have Uncle Chen's broom!"
He glanced at the edge of the square and saw Uncle Chen slowly cleaning up the scattered ashes in the smelting area.
The rustling sound of the broom was particularly clear in the silent night.
Chu Linyuan wiped his hands and folded the towel neatly aside. He raised his eyes, his cold gaze passing over the flickering bonfire to Xie Zhao's face, which was slightly aglow with excitement, and then swept over the Jinghong talisman pen in his hand.
"Concentrate." These two cold words seemed to have a hidden meaning.
Xie Zhao's heart skipped a beat as he met Chu Linyuan's bottomless eyes. Beneath that icy lake, he seemed to catch a glimpse of a faint, fleeting feeling... helplessness?
"Oh...oh!" Xie Zhao coughed dryly, quickly put away the talisman pen, sat up straight, picked up a skewer of grilled eels, and started to chew them fiercely, but his ears began to feel hot again.
Chu Linyuan stopped looking at him, picked up the Immortal-Slaying Spear again, and took out a piece of black metal fragment with jagged edges - it was the fragment of the Frost Silence Sword.
A trace of mysterious icy evil energy gathered at his fingertips and slowly poured into the cracks in the fragments. A faint icy blue light flickered on the fragments. Repair and exploration took place in silence.
The crackling bonfire illuminated the diverse expressions of the people. The threat of the abyss hung like a sword overhead, but the bond of fighting side by side and the determination to protect each other burned even hotter than the bonfire in this cold burial ground.
A little fire in one's heart quietly spreads across the prairie under the ice.
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