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Bai Kai, Lord Huaiyuan, and Nanling Qifeng discussed for a long time but couldn't figure out the specific origin of the portrait sealed in the iron box.
The information that could be deduced from that portrait was simply too little.
Besides being able to see that there were faint Spiritual Energy fluctuations remaining on it, the author was most likely a Psychic, and a woman whose appearance was highly similar to Lu Yibei's left a good impression on that Psychic, prompting him to leave this portrait, there was no more information.
Just as the three were about to give up discussing, Gu Qianqian, who had been unconscious for a long time, woke up.
Dull pain still lingered where her head had been severely hit, making her dizzy, as if the entire world was slowly spinning. Cold iron chains wrapped around her body, perhaps too tightly, causing her hands and feet to ache and feel cold due to poor circulation.
Opening her eyes, she saw only darkness. She was stunned for a few seconds. As her eyes gradually adjusted to the darkness, she discovered that there were three human-shaped silhouettes in the darkness, surrounding her. Through her restricted spiritual perception, she could vaguely feel Spiritual Energy fluctuations emanating from them.
Are... are they enemies? This is bad! Gu Qianqian’s heart suddenly thumped. It was as if she had been splashed with a bucket of cold water while dazed, and her muddled consciousness instantly cleared.
“Sys... Ugh!”
She instinctively opened her mouth to shout, but before she could, a sticky fish tail tightly covered her mouth.
Immediately after, the system’s voice echoed in Gu Qianqian’s mind through a method unique to them.
“Don’t speak yet, there’s a special situation!”
The system said, quickly explaining their current predicament and what kind of monstrous cellmates they had to Gu Qianqian.
Those three combined could be considered 3.329 Calamity-level combat forces!
Hmm! Nanling Qifeng counts as one, Lord Huaiyuan counts as one and a half or even more if he goes berserk, as for Bai Kai, he's only about 0.8.
In short, if Gu Qianqian accidentally let slip and exposed its previous lie, the consequences would be unimaginable.
After listening to the system’s explanation, although Gu Qianqian didn’t understand why it was using the alias Ji Yunpei, she still followed its instructions and introduced herself to the three present, “Hello, seniors, I, I’m Ji Yunpei...”
“Hello.” Lord Huaiyuan responded coldly, seemingly intentionally keeping his distance from Gu Qianqian.
In the darkness, Nanling Qifeng opened his mouth, about to say something, when he heard the voice of his beloved “unworthy disciple.”
“Hehe, Little Girl, you’re finally awake! My name is Bai Kai, as in the ‘Bai Kai’ of plain boiled water. You can call me Xiao Bai Gege, or Shui Ge.”
“By the way, your voice is really nice. Have you studied vocal music or voice acting? And it sounds so familiar! Have we met somewhere before?”
“Could it be in Mountain City? Miss Ji, to be honest, I used to go to Mountain City on business trips a lot when I was younger, so maybe we met many years ago!”
“...” Nanling Qifeng looked in Bai Kai’s direction, wanting to speak several times but ultimately chose to remain silent.
Although he knew that Bai Kai had used similar rhetoric and his rather handsome appearance over the years to charm many women, extracting a lot of intelligence from them and nipping many urban legend incidents and Spiritual Energy attacks in the bud.
However, when he personally witnessed Bai Kai employing his male escort skills, using charm and rhetoric to extract information, he still felt somewhat reluctant to acknowledge this disciple, even wanting to issue a statement that he wasn't familiar with Bai Kai.
It was too embarrassing, simply disgracing the Master!
If others mistakenly believed that the Yumen Sand Sea lineage was full of people like Bai Kai, wouldn't the Yumen Sand Sea's thousand-year reputation be ruined?
“...” After hearing Bai Kai’s words, Gu Qianqian was silent for a few seconds, then weakly asked the system in her mind, “System, is Calamity’s godfather hitting on me?”
You can't even tell something so obvious? You truly are Gu Qianqian! The system muttered to itself, then calmly replied to Gu Qianqian, “No, just ignore him.”
“Oh, oh!” Gu Qianqian nodded obediently, her gaze inadvertently sweeping over the notebook page the system was holding with its fin. Illuminated by the glowing organ on the system’s head, she clearly saw the portrait on it, her pupils trembled slightly, and she exclaimed.
“Huh? Oh my goodness! Why is there a portrait of Calamity here!”
As soon as these words were spoken, everyone present's hearts trembled violently.
Bai Kai, “...”
Oh no! This Miss knows Xiao Bei? What if she says something random that makes Lord Huaiyuan and Master connect Xiao Bei with Calamity? Wouldn't that ruin everything?
Lord Huaiyuan, “...”
Calamity... the urban legend on the red wanted list? Didn't they say the person in the portrait was Unmyouki’s wife? How is it related to Calamity now? Is there some unspeakable secret here?
Nanling Qifeng, system “...”
Why so loud? Are you trying to attract that strange person?
Seemingly sensing the intense emotional fluctuations and slightly tense atmosphere among them, Gu Qianqian gradually frowned and weakly said, “Why aren’t you all talking? Did I say something wrong? Could it be... you’re also very afraid of Calamity?”
As her voice fell, an unknown source of dim yellow firelight illuminated the faces of the three.
The firelight cast a sickly yellow glow on their faces, their eyes wide, with a hint of panic deep within their pupils.
Gu Qianqian’s gaze swept over their faces one by one, and she nodded thoughtfully, “It seems you are indeed very scared...”
Just as she was muttering to herself, the system’s voice echoed in her mind, “Behind you, Gu Qianqian, behind you!”
As it spoke, the system deliberately lowered its voice, as if worried about being overheard by someone.
“Hmm?” Gu Qianqian was stunned for a moment, then twisted her body to look behind her, only to see an old face mostly obscured by a dirty, pale beard.
It was that strange person, so close!
He had appeared behind Gu Qianqian at some unknown point, one hand gripping a rusty Phoenix Wing Tang, the other holding a torch supported by the bone of some unknown creature. The torch’s tip was wrapped in a black substance, burning with a dim, faint yellow light, emitting a pungent odor.
Seeing this, the system trembled, then vanished with a “whoosh,” leaving only a notebook page floating to the ground.
He, he wouldn't hit my head again, would he? Gu Qianqian looked at the strange person, this thought popping into her mind.
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She instinctively tried to raise her hands to cover her head, but the iron chains wrapped around her body restricted her movement, and her struggle only resulted in a clang of metal.
However, just when everyone, including Gu Qianqian herself, thought the strange person would give her a “blow to the head,” the strange person merely stood still, his gaze passing over Gu Qianqian’s shoulder and falling on the portrait the system had dropped in its haste.
He gazed at /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ the portrait for a long time, his originally cloudy and lifeless eyes briefly regaining clarity, and then...
Two lines of crystal tears welled from his reddened eye sockets, slowly tracing down his face.
Following this, the strange person’s lips trembled a few times, and with a hoarse voice that sounded as if it had been buffeted by sand for a thousand years, he spoke a sentence that left everyone present bewildered.
“She... they... have returned... finally returned...”
Who are “they”? Does it refer to the author of this painting, or the people in the painting? Why say they have finally returned? Such questions quietly arose in everyone’s minds.
————
As time entered the latter half of the night, the deepening night sky was tinged with red from the firelight on the ground.
Below the city walls of the southern Yumen Pass, the smell of blood mixed with the stench of burnt corpses permeated the air, so thick it was hard to breathe. Mutilated limbs, charred bodies, and puddles of rotting flesh, unrecognizable as to their original form, covered the ground.
The endless army of Shaman King, treading on this “carpet” that seemed to come from some evil god’s palace, appeared completely unconcerned, for a slight distraction could easily make them one of its members. freewёbn૦νeɭ.com
Dragon Tang, carrying the Phoenix Wing Tang stained with blood, sprinted along the city wall’s passage.
The Longxiang Army Armored Soldier beside him seemed to say something, but the incessant sounds of fighting, shouts, vibrating bowstrings, and clashing weapons made it almost impossible for him to hear anything.
“Hooah—!”
A tribal death warrior bypassed the spearmen’s blockade, climbed onto the city wall, let out a roar, and then said something in an incomprehensible language. Immediately after, he swung the scimitar in his hand, recklessly facing the incoming blades, hacking wildly at the surrounding Long Xiang Army spearmen, creating a flurry of arcing light.
However, before his weapon could injure those Long Xiang Army spearmen, Dragon Tang’s Phoenix Wing Tang arrived first. The nearly three-meter-long Phoenix Wing Tang whistled as it swept in, augmented by Dragon Tang’s Spirit Mark, carrying over a thousand jin of force, smashing into the death warrior’s waist and abdomen.
“Bang—!”
With an explosive sound, the person was directly sent flying by a single blow, crashing into a nearby battlements and bursting into a crimson spray.
After the strike, Dragon Tang stood still, holding the Phoenix Wing Tang, breathing heavily. His hands beneath the gauntlets trembled slightly, and dark red blood flowed down the tang’s tip.
Blood, indistinguishable as his own or the enemy’s, slowly slid from his armor, dripping onto the ground with the blood from the tang’s tip, making a “drip-drop” sound.
In the past nearly an hour, he had covered over a hundred li by running on the city wall’s passage, killing nearly a hundred enemies, far more than in any previous battle he had experienced, so much so that he was somewhat numb.
Although he could still easily kill the death warriors climbing the city wall through sheer strength, he could feel a slight sluggishness in the Spiritual Energy circulation within his body...
Composing himself, Dragon Tang looked at the surrounding Long Xiang Army, his eyes filled with unconcealed worry. freeweɓnovel.cѳm
As a Psychic, he was already starting to feel tired. Those Longxiang Army Armored Soldier who had no Spiritual Energy, only slightly stronger physical qualities than ordinary people, were probably about to give out.
...
Nearly an hour had passed since the Shaman King army appeared outside the South of the city gate.
Initially, a group of young Longxiang Army Armored Soldier, relying on their excellent equipment, well-trained coordination, and the strategic advantage of Yumen Pass, suppressed the invading enemies with an almost slaughter-like posture, despite being far outnumbered.
But compared to the defending Longxiang Army Armored Soldier, the Shaman King army had far too many people. Even if they used ten or dozens of lives to pile up, they could build “steps” to drag the Longxiang Army Armored Soldier into the mud and sink them into the abyss.
As time passed, the enemy realized that a forced breakthrough from the South of the city gate was impossible and gradually extended their battle line. The disadvantage of the Longxiang Army Armored Soldier’s insufficient numbers also gradually became apparent.
To prevent harm to the civilians gathered in the North of the city and West of the city, they could only continuously shift positions and block as much as possible, which led to immense physical exhaustion.
Running back and forth, fighting against many, trading injuries for lives with the enemy... Under the influence of various factors, the young Longxiang Army Armored Soldier quickly began to suffer casualties. Even those who were not injured showed signs of fatigue after nearly an hour of continuous high-intensity combat.
Mutilated limbs were scattered on the city wall, and sticky blood stained the ground crimson, emitting a nauseating stench.
The spearmen who had just rushed over from shifting positions, taking advantage of a lull in the enemy’s attack, greedily breathed the air, their heavy gasps rising and falling.
Not far away, a slightly weaker Longxiang Army Armored Soldier even collapsed directly in the corner, lying amidst a pool of blood and broken weapons. A half-bodied enemy corpse lay beside him, its blood-stained head barely a foot from his face.
As he breathed, the air from his mouth and nose exhaled, creating ripples on the blood-soaked ground, causing the corpse's messy hair to sway...
————
How much longer? Why hasn't elder brother returned yet?
Withdrawing his gaze from that armored soldier, Dragon Tang’s mind was filled with such thoughts.
According to their agreement, Dragon Xiang should have appeared half an hour ago, and as long as he appeared with the Longxiang Army Armored Soldier outside the city, these defending Longxiang Army Armored Soldier could temporarily retreat to the rear.
However...
Could it be that something unexpected happened?
If elder brother doesn't return for a long time, and we ultimately can't hold out... Dragon Tang thought uneasily.
Soon, his thoughts were interrupted by the renewed sounds of fighting.
After a brief interval, the Shaman King army outside the city wall moved about one kilometer to the west and launched another attack.
Without time for much thought, Dragon Tang once again raised the Phoenix Wing Tang in his hand and charged forward.
As he advanced, his gaze swept towards the horizon outside the city wall, where a line of dunes met the sky, anticipating the sight of galloping horses.
Then, his eyes suddenly widened.
At the end of his vision, a “monster” carrying a figure entered his sight, galloping towards Yumen Pass.
What the hell is that? Is it a new monster created by the Shaman King?
He hadn't waited for Dragon Xiang and the Longxiang Army Armored Soldier to appear, but instead, an unknown, iron-clad monster, whether friend or foe, had appeared. Dragon Tang’s heart pounded wildly...
