Chapter 64 - Going Home
The broom swept across the black rock ground that had melted and solidified, covered with cracks and scorch marks, sweeping the last bit of metal debris from the Red Phoenix into the corner.
Uncle Chen's movements were still slow and stubborn, as if the shocking sword strike that had just destroyed the divine ship and frightened away the Mahayana monks had only brushed away a tiny bit of insignificant dust.
He was hunched over, his cloudy old eyes fixed on the ground, and he kept repeating in an inaudible voice: "Dirty... Really dirty..."
The monotonous sound of sweeping the floor, like a timpani, dispelled the confusion and shock of the survivors and brought everyone's thoughts back to the devastated reality.
"Cough cough..." Xie Zhao coughed up a small mouthful of light golden blood foam from Tie Niu's huge palm after it grew bigger. The cracks on the Jinghong Talisman Pen were shocking, but his peach blossom eyes flashed with the light of surviving a disaster. He weakly tugged at the corner of Tie Niu's clothes, "Tie Niu... put me... down..." He tried to cover up his injuries with his usual teasing, but his voice was broken.
Tie Niu carefully put him down and let him lean on a relatively flat black rock that had been swept clean of dust by Uncle Chen.
The huge body squatted beside Xie Zhao, like a protective mountain of flesh, and said in a muffled voice: "Second Brother, you take a rest! I'll watch, nothing else can get close!"
The burns on his back were still hideous on his bronze skin, but he didn't care. He scanned the surroundings with a vigilant gaze, especially the wreckage of the "Ke CP" ship, of which only a twisted skeleton remained after the crash.
Luo Hongyi silently walked over to Xie Zhao's side. Her beautiful face remained pale, but her eyes had regained some of their former laziness and sharpness. She said nothing, simply pulling a small, emerald-green jade bottle from her bag. Uncorking it, a refreshing, plant-like scent filled the air. Without a word, she pinched Xie Zhao's lips open and poured the emerald-thick liquid from the bottle into his mouth.
"Ugh... cough cough... Luo Hongyi! What did you give me to drink?!" Xie Zhao was caught off guard and choked, rolling his eyes. The liquid was icy cold at first, then transformed into a mighty warm current of vitality, madly rushing into his almost exhausted meridians and shattered soul, forcibly suppressing the backlash of the Burning Life Talisman Blood! The effect was extremely domineering, clearly not an ordinary item.
"Shut up!" Luo Hongyi's face was cold, and her red lips were tightly pursed. "'Jade Heart Cream', this life-saving stuff is only used up drop by drop! If you keep talking nonsense, I will poison you and make you mute!" She spoke fiercely, but her actions were full of unquestionable strength, making sure Xie Zhao swallowed every drop.
After doing all this, she raised her eyes and looked at Chu Linyuan, who was leaning on a sword and regulating his breathing not far away, with a complicated look in her eyes.
The black robe on Chu Linyuan's chest, soaked with ice-blue blood, was particularly eye-catching. His face was pale, and the golden dragon pattern extending from his right arm to his cheek was dim. However, after Chen Bo's sword strike, the aura around him miraculously began to slowly calm down and condense.
Su Tang picked up the photo stone that had fallen on the ground. There were still traces of tears on her little face, but her psychic eyes were surprisingly bright.
She quickly checked the image stone and found that the core rune was not broken, but the energy was exhausted.
She wiped it like a baby, then looked at Uncle Chen who was sweeping the floor. Her mouth opened, but she didn't dare to go up to interview him. She just whispered to Bai Xiaolu, "Xiaolu... Uncle Chen... was he... a god just now, wasn't he?"
Bai Xiaolu held the listless Moon-Eating Rabbit in his arms and nodded calmly. His clear eyes looked at Uncle Chen's hunched back, then at Chu Linyuan, and whispered, "Rabbit said... that gray light just now... was delicious... but... too expensive... I can't afford it..."
The Moon-Eating Rabbit cooperated by burping weakly, spitting out a faint space ripple, and its ruby eyes looked at the broom in Uncle Chen's hand with desire and fear.
Chu Linyuan slowly opened his eyes. Deep within his icy gaze, the turbulent waves had subsided, leaving only a deep, icy chill and a hint of... an indescribable complexity. He looked at Uncle Chen's back.
The hunched, old figure concentrating on sweeping the floor overlapped and separated from the figure of the "Guichen Sword Master" in the starry sea ten thousand years ago in memory, who was full of vigor and vitality and killed thousands of enemies with his sword, and finally turned into the only reality before his eyes.
He was silent, his fingertips unconsciously brushing over the tassel on the hilt of the Frost Silence sword that was stained dark red by blood.
At this moment, a faint starlight, like a firefly, silently penetrated the surging evil clouds in the God Burial Abyss and landed precisely in front of Su Tang, turning into a small and exquisite jade slip condensed from starlight.
Su Tang was startled and subconsciously caught it. The jade slip felt warm to the touch, carrying a slightly cool aura of the stars. Curiously, she probed her consciousness into it.
A calm and peaceful voice sounded directly in her sea of consciousness. It was Mo Chen from Xingyun Pavilion:
"Miss Su, the star tracks indicate that although the Burning Sky has retreated, the undercurrent continues. The scorching sun's return will surely draw the wrath of the Burning World. The Burial God Abyss is not a place to stay for long. The core of the evil spirit may contain great secrets and great dangers. If you need to temporarily avoid the Starfall Pavilion, hold this jade slip and follow the guidance of the stars. Also, be careful of the likes of Danxia and Tianjian, who may take advantage of the situation to rob you. Take care. - Mo Chen"
In addition to the message, the jade slip also contained an extremely complex route map made up of starlight points, pointing to the secret star field where the Xingyun Pavilion was located.
Su Tang suddenly looked up, her psychic eyes gazing towards the abyss filled with murderous energy. Where was Mo Chen? Her face instantly turned serious, and she quickly shared the contents of the jade slip with all the Guixu Sect members via soul link.
"Xingyun Pavilion? Mo Chen?" Xie Zhao forced himself to stay awake, his brows furrowed. "This guy... is so secretive, that's quite nice! But going to his place for refuge..." He looked at Chu Linyuan and Uncle Chen, "Brother, Uncle Chen... what do you think?"
Chu Linyuan's gaze shifted from Uncle Chen's sweeping figure to the Starlight Jade Slip in Su Tang's hand. His cold eyes were devoid of any emotion. He shook his head slowly, his voice hoarse from the injury, but he said firmly, "Return to the sect."
Those two simple words held undeniable power. Returning to the dilapidated sect deep within the Burial God Abyss, that was their roots, the place Uncle Chen had guarded for millennia, and the last stronghold and... starting point for this group of impoverished souls.
Luo Hongyi snorted coldly: "Go hide under someone else's roof? I can't afford to lose face with that person! I haven't poisoned you enough!" She was playing with a small dark green bottle on her fingertips, and her eyes swept across the sky above the abyss with unfriendly eyes, as if the people from Danxia Sect and Tianjian Sect had already arrived.
Tie Niu scratched his head and said in a deep voice, "I'll listen to my elder brother! Let's go back to the sect! Whoever dares to come here, I'll plant him in the vegetable garden as fertilizer!"
Uncle Chen seemed not to hear everyone's discussion. He had just swept away the last piece of scorched earth tainted with the smell of incineration. He straightened up, and his turbid old eyes swept over the relatively "clean" ruins of the camp. Then he looked at the still messy lava land and the drifting gray dust clouds around him, and muttered dissatisfiedly: "...It's far from enough..." Then, he dragged the broom and slowly walked towards the largest piece of the twisted "KeCP".
His actions silently supported Chu Linyuan's decision.
"Okay! Then let's go back to the sect!" Su Tang clenched the starlight jade slip, her little face glowing with vitality again, "As long as there is life, there is hope! My family! The Guixu Sect survived in despair, and the heroes returned! The live broadcast continues! The target is our old and dilapidated house!" She immediately raised the photo stone and began to record the "returning home" scene in the ruins.
There is no gorgeous flying boat, no huge team.
Tie Niu carefully carried the weak Xie Zhao on his back.
Luo Hongyi walked in front, with a faint poisonous mist lingering on his fingertips, which served as both a warning and to clear the way.
The little white deer held the rabbit and followed quietly behind.
Su Tang held the photo stone and whispered something as she walked, trying to dispel the heaviness after the disaster.
Chu Linyuan, leaning on the Frost Silence Sword, walked in the middle of the group, each step steady and powerful, the bloodstains on his black robe like medals. His cold gaze swept across the abyss, alert for any possible threat.
Uncle Chen was the last one to come, slowly sweeping the path that everyone had walked on, wiping away the traces of smoke and blood bit by bit.
The rustling sound of sweeping the floor, like the prelude to homecoming, echoed in the abyss of deathly silence.
They walked towards the deepest part of the God Burial Abyss, the core area shrouded in endless evil energy.
There, there was their crooked black iron door frame, a "square" paved with gravel, and broken walls washed by the murderous rain - the Guixu Sect that had been swept by Uncle Chen for thousands of years and was called "home" by them.
As they approached the core, the surrounding evil energy grew thicker than ink, swirling and roaring, emitting a terrifying pressure. An ordinary cultivator would be instantly sapped of their minds by the evil energy, transforming into a murderous monster.
But for everyone in Guixu Sect, this violent evil spirit was like a horn of homecoming.
The dormant evil spirit around Chu Linyuan was stirred once more, like a dormant beast awakening, slowly flowing. Far from being eroded, it instead thrived like a fish in water, greedily absorbing the pure, eternal evil spirit and repairing his shattered meridians. The golden dragon pattern on his cheek also glowed faintly.
Xie Zhao lay on the back of the iron ox, and the Jinghong Talisman Pen unconsciously absorbed the escaping evil spirit, and the cracks on the pen seemed to slowly heal a little.
The poison bottle in Luo Hongyi's bag, under the influence of the strong evil spirit, emitted a more dangerous and restrained light.
Even the listless Moon-Eating Rabbit's ruby eyes lit up a little, and it let out a comfortable "gurgling" sound from its throat towards the rolling cloud of evil spirit.
Finally, after passing through the last thick barrier-like evil spirit, a familiar scene came into view.
The crooked black iron doorframe still stood stubbornly, the three crooked characters "Guixu Sect" above it seeming even more worn by the ominous aura. Behind the doorframe, the "square" that Uncle Chen had swept clean, leaving it as pristine as a mirror, was unharmed.
Although the few stone houses that could barely be considered houses were dilapidated, they miraculously did not collapse in the aftermath of the previous Red Phoenix Cannon.
"I'm home..." Su Tang looked at the crooked door frame, her nose felt sore, and she almost cried again.
Tie Niu grinned widely: "Home is still better...it looks better!"
Luo Hongyi's tense nerves finally relaxed a little, and the poisonous mist at his fingertips quietly dissipated.
Little White Deer held the rabbit in his arms, a look of relief showing on his calm little face.
Chu Linyuan walked to the black iron door frame and paused. He reached out, his cold fingers brushing against the rough, cool metal, feeling the familiar traces of evil spirit erosion. He turned back, looking at his companions, each supporting the other, scarred but with a determined gaze. He then looked at Uncle Chen, hunched over, intently sweeping the last specks of dust from the edge of the "square."
Uncle Chen seemed to sense his gaze and slowly raised his head. His cloudy old eyes swept over Chu Linyuan, the glaring bloodstains on his chest, and the scars and fatigue on everyone's bodies. Finally, they fell back to the ground he had swept clean, and he uttered a few words hoarsely:
"Welcome home..."
This time, his voice seemed to carry not only that unchanging obsession, but also a hint of...an indescribable feeling, like watching his own naughty child return from a fight...a resignation and a subtle warmth.
The corners of Chu Linyuan's icy mouth twitched upwards imperceptibly. He withdrew his gaze and gently paused with the Frost Silence Sword.
A condensed barrier of black ice evil energy, imbued with a protective will, slowly rose from him, enveloping the entire ruined sect. The barrier blocked out the violent evil energy from the outside world, as well as all prying eyes and potential threats.
The poor ghosts of Guixu Sect returned to the origin of their nuclear explosion with scars all over their bodies and shocking secrets.
The threat of Fentian has not been eliminated, and the shadow of the Immortal Alliance remains.
But this is their last fortress and also the launch silo for the next nuclear explosion.
The rustling sound of sweeping the floor was like a peaceful lullaby within the evil energy barrier.
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