abnormal
"Knock knock".
There was a knock on the door.
Inside the door, Nan Yi had wrapped himself up in a fiery red ball. Hearing the sound, he impatiently stretched out his paw and pressed his fox ears down.
When he is alone, he still prefers to use his fox form—because of his reduced cultivation level, it would take him much more effort to maintain his human form.
The knocking seemed determined to displease the fox, for a fiery red shadow flashed by and the fox's entire body pressed against the doorknob.
The door creaked open.
Standing at the door was a spirited Chu Li. When she saw Nan Yi's original form, she seemed to be stunned for a moment, and then gently patted the fox's head: "I'll wait for you downstairs."
Then, they thoughtfully closed the door behind them.
A fox sat on the ground for a while before realizing that he had already gone out with Chu Li and was no longer staying in his house!
He was momentarily annoyed that he had simply opened the door using his fox form—
But what annoyed him most wasn't that—he actually slept very well last night.
He hadn't had such a good night's sleep in ages. Since his injury, he could only sleep for one or two hours at most each night, and sometimes he would even wake up startled.
It was only recently, when he got along well with Chu Li, that he was able to manage to sleep a little longer within the Myriad Manifestations Sect.
But he clearly didn't do anything last night, and he actually slept straight through until morning?
Nan Yi glanced out the window; it was already broad daylight outside, so it wasn't surprising that Chu Li had come looking for him.
By this time, it was already past the time they had agreed upon the day before.
He quickly tidied himself up and went downstairs.
It was just the time when many people were getting up, so there were quite a few people sitting or standing in the lobby of the inn, but Chu Li was the most conspicuous one among them.
Chu Li, who had chosen a corner to wait, seemed to sense something and turned around to see Nan Yi standing between the first and second floors of the stairs, leaning against the railing.
She paused slightly, then stood up.
They arrived at another exit of the city, which bordered the Eclipse Forest.
Chu Li looked ahead and saw that the passage, which was usually unobstructed, was now closed due to the special circumstances.
Two teams of guards stood beneath the closed gate.
"Why can't we leave? We want to go to the Eclipse Moon Forest!"
A chilling glint of light blocked the path of the two cultivators. "The beast tide is approaching. Entry and exit are prohibited."
The two cultivators looked to be young, a man and a woman. At that moment, the girl looked up and said anxiously, "What should we do, brother? They won't let us go out."
"If you want to go to the forest on the other side, you should take another route. This place really can't be opened for the next few days."
A kind guard, feeling sorry for them, pointed them in the right direction.
As soon as the beast tide was discovered, the city lord of Xixin City ordered the gate to be completely closed and forbade anyone to enter or leave. If he opened the gate without authorization...
Not to mention that he himself would be punished, if a beast tide happened to arrive and affect the entire city, he could not bear such responsibility.
"But we must go..." the girl hesitated. She knew the beast tide was approaching, and if they took a longer route, they might run into it right in the middle of it—
Moreover, their younger brother is waiting for the spiritual herb to save his life, and they can't wait that long.
"Can we go out by ourselves?"
The man standing next to the girl suddenly spoke.
Upon hearing this, the girl's eyes lit up, and she immediately looked hopefully at the guards in front of her. If they wouldn't let them open the door, then surely they could go out by themselves?
But the guards still shook their heads. If someone passed by their side and something happened afterward, it would be considered a dereliction of duty on their part.
Moreover, they had already set up numerous traps within five kilometers of the city gate, just waiting for the beast tide, and they couldn't let the two people in front of them ruin it.
What do you want to do in the dense forest?
Seeing that the situation was at a stalemate, a voice suddenly broke in.
Both sides looked in the direction of the sound without prior arrangement.
The first thing I saw was a woman dressed in a simple blue dress, with slightly curved eyebrows and a faint smile in her eyes.
Both sides were momentarily stunned by the newcomer's stunning appearance.
The girl was the first to react, grasping at the last straw: "My brother and I are going into the forest to find stargrass to save my little brother!"
Chu Li understood after a moment's thought: Star-Eating Grass is quite precious and rare, and it's possible that only the Moon-Eroding Forest in front of her can grow some.
Therefore, they had to enter the dense forest.
Since their younger brother needed this spiritual herb to save his life, it was most likely because his body was being eroded by the power of the stars, and he needed to use the Star-Eating Grass to draw out the power of the stars from his body.
In the blink of an eye, Chu Li had almost guessed all the facts correctly.
"There are still a few days before the beast tide, why don't I take you in?"
"And who are you? The city lord has said that no one is allowed to enter or leave this place in the next few days!"
This time, the gleaming spear was pointed directly at Chu Li.
Chu Li simply spread her five fingers, and a jade pendant of excellent quality, gleaming with a faint blue light, fell down. It was then pulled by the rope tied between her fingers, swaying slightly in the air.
"Based on this..." Chu Li didn't want to make things difficult for the guards who were obeying orders, "Can we go out now?"
The guard looked closely and saw that the jade pendant had three large characters painted on it: “Wanxiang Zong”. There were also a few smaller characters painted on the bottom of the pendant, but he had no time to look at them carefully.
"So you're fellow Daoists from the Myriad Manifestations Sect. You can leave now. As for them..." The guard's suggestive words were immediately interrupted by Chu Li: "These two are naturally the ones we took out. It has nothing to do with you."
The guard breathed a sigh of relief. It wasn't that he didn't want to verify the authenticity of the two people who suddenly appeared, but rather that in this area, no one would pretend to be a disciple of the Myriad Manifestations Sect.
After all, this place is very close to the Myriad Manifestations Sect, and no one would be foolish enough to do that.
As for why the disciples of the Myriad Manifestations Sect can go out, it is naturally because they are aid workers; if they don't go out, how can they help the city resist the beast tide?
Furthermore, most of the time, before the arrival of the beast tide, some disciples of the Myriad Manifestations Sect would go ahead to scout ahead.
This time, because they needed to bring two more people, Chu Li asked Qinglian to grow bigger, but for some reason, Qinglian was a little stubborn and refused to grow any bigger.
Helpless, Chu Li turned to the other two and asked, "Do you have any flying vehicles with you?"
The ground outside the city was full of traps, so flying in the air would be better. Therefore, they needed to fly to the area between the outer and middle perimeter of the forest before they could land and search for the Star-Eating Grass.
"Yes, yes." The girl rummaged through her storage bag quickly, afraid that if she was too slow, the other party would dislike her.
Although they came in a hurry, they had already prepared the most basic things, and soon they took out a magical artifact shaped like a plate.
When enlarged, it can just accommodate two people.
"How should I address this benefactor?" The girl sat on the round plate, her emotions a mix of excitement and deep gratitude.
If it weren't for this person's help, she and her brother wouldn't know when they would have been able to enter the dense forest to find the Star-Eating Grass.
"There's no need for that address. We just brought you in along. We have our own things to do anyway."
She had originally planned to explore the dense forest today to find out what caused the beast tide to arrive a full six months earlier than expected.
"So we'll leave you here?"
The girl's hand trembled slightly as she looked down at the Star-Eating Grass, which was glowing with tiny lights. She hadn't expected that the other party would lead them directly to the Star-Eating Grass.
"Thank you so much, our benefactor! We'll leave immediately after we pick the Star-Eating Grass!"
Judging from the timing, the beast tide will arrive soon, and she certainly won't cause trouble for her benefactor!
Chu Li and Nan Yi parted ways with the two and continued deeper into the area; their destination was not the outer perimeter.
Even after they reached the middle of the forest, they still hadn't found any trace of the monster.
"It's really strange. If the beast tide is really coming, the forest shouldn't be so peaceful."
In Chu Li's memory, before each beast tide, the forest was always filled with a strong aura of magical beasts, often accompanied by their roars.
“It’s too quiet here,” Nan Yilu’s fox ears twitched slightly. “Normally, a forest with all kinds of creatures wouldn’t be like this.”
Nan Yi had lived in different places before and understood what a normal forest looked like.
Something unusual must be going on. This thought quickly crossed Chu Li's mind, but she wondered if this unusual situation was related to the abnormality of this beast tide.
Chu Li climbed back onto the Green Lotus; she needed to find a higher vantage point to explore.
She reached out and parted the branches coming from all directions, looking into the depths of the forest.
However, the forest was too vast, and even Chu Li couldn't see anything wrong with it for the time being.
She pondered for a moment and decided to take Nan Yi back first. If she were alone, she would most likely explore further.
But she has her junior brother with her now, and if a beast tide is really brewing deep in the forest, she may not be able to take care of him.
"Junior brother, let's..."
"etc."
Nan Yi's expression suddenly turned somewhat ugly, and he grabbed Chu Li's hand, "I think I heard something."
He took a deep breath, and his fox ears, covered in fine fur, twitched a few times.
Chu Li was startled and immediately stopped, standing aside to wait patiently, but her gaze was occasionally drawn to the two twitching fox ears.
Nan Yi closed his eyes and focused all his senses on his ears.
The initially muffled sound began to gradually become clearer—
But that's how it is.
He was certain he could hear strange noises, but he had no way of understanding what they were saying.
He relayed everything he felt to Chu Li.
After pondering for a moment, Chu Li asked again, "Then can you sense where the voice is coming from?"
“They shouldn’t be too far away,” Nan Yi said confidently. The sounds grew clearer and clearer from nothing, proving that they were coming from their direction.
"Let's leave first, and then immediately notify the sect."
If this sound is indeed related to the beast tide, the two of them alone are simply no match for it. The best course of action is to return to the city and spread the word.
Halfway there, Chu Li contacted the sect leader directly—not that she didn't want to contact the person in charge, but mainly because she didn't have a way to do so.
For a sound transmission stone to work, it must contain the other person's aura.
Moreover, she felt most at ease leaving this matter to the sect leader—for some reason, this thought suddenly appeared in her mind.
Chu Li finally breathed a sigh of relief after the sect leader promised to send disciples to investigate immediately.
Right in front of them was the same door they had come out of before. She directly controlled the Azure Lotus to leap in, and as if she had thought of something, she stopped the Azure Lotus next to the guard.
"What exactly made you so certain that there was a beast tide?"
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