Huan Zhong didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He sighed. Just as he was about to speak, he found Kong Hou had a terrified expression, as though she had discovered something scary.
Following Kong Hou’s gaze, Huan Zhong found the fiendish energy that had been driven away came back, and was even stronger than before. It covered the sky and ground, shrouding everything in darkness.
“Why is it like this?” Kong Hou looked around dazedly, seeing the flowers and trees sway in the fiendish energy, their vitality being sucked away. Her smile turned into panic.
“Calm down, do not overthink.” Huan Zhong tapped Kong Hou’s head with spirit energy so she would calm down. “Let’s first go to the eye of the formation.”
“I told you before, this formation cannot be solved,” the evil cultivator said urgently. “If you go now, other than having the fiendish energy infect you, what is the use? This formation is formed in the mortal world—the fiendish energy has been lured out of the hearts of the humans here. The talismans, the divine talismans, they are all useless against it.
If the divine talismans of the cultivation world were effective against this formation, why would the formation masters of the evil cultivator world spend almost a century on this?
Orthodox cultivators first cultivated the mind before the body. Fiendish energy could easily draw out mental demons. If orthodox cultivators were entangled with mental demons, the evil cultivators would win. But he was unlucky and would die with this formation.
Before coming to the mortal realm, master said to him that orthodox cultivators were fake gentlemen and liked to rescue those in danger and hardship. if he encountered orthodox cultivators in the mortal world, pretend to be weak and stupid. Let them know of the existence of the formation, and tell them not to go. Orthodox cultivators had a bad problem. If they were told not to go, they would go.
Powerful cultivators who died in terror were the best food for the Withering of Ten Thousand Bones Formation.
“Everything in the world will engender one another and subdue one another.” When Kong Hou’s emotions calmed down, Huan Zhong looked coldly at the evil cultivator. He took out his flying sword, carried Kong Hou onto the sword and flew away.
“Our master does not like evil cultivators, especially ones that think they are smart.” Lin Hu sighed. “Tell me, what should I do with you?”
The evil cultivator opened his mouth. His mouth filled with the taste of blood. He did not have the chance to talk again—because a sword stabbed through his throat, and his spirit platform was destroyed by a burst of spirit energy.
He fell from the clouds into the bottomless river, his body merging into one with the fiendish energy and sinking into the black river water.
The moment before he died, his mind was filled with the thought that orthodox cultivators were liars.
##
Huan Zhong and Kong Hou travelled southeast. Kong Hou saw the fiendish energy spouting like a tornado above an enormous city. The city was filled with the taste of death, the soldiers pushing wagon after wagon of corpses out of the city to be buried in pits.
Behind the city gates, people screamed and cried, their anger rising into the sky.
“Mother… mother…” A barefoot child shouted as he chased after a wooden wagon. His clothing was so dirty its color could not be seen. His face was covered in mud. He reached out, wanting to pull the corpses covered by an old cloth on the wagon.
The soldier pushing the wagon had a tired and numb expression. Seeing the child chase them, he stilled and then stopped the child, saying in a hoarse voice, “Go back, do not fuss.” He saw too much death every day, so much he already had no ability to pity others. Not only the people were trapped in this city, so were soldiers like him. Half a month ago, ten thousand soldiers had come here. Now, only eight thousand were left. The survivors had burned those two thousand soldiers with their own hands.
Death never stopped. Maybe when all the people of the city died, the death lingering in the city would disappear.
Hearing the cries of the child, the guard continued. Under the cloth, an arm hung down, swollen and black. But no one was frightened seeing this arm.
Who in this city had not seen the corpses after dying of the plague?
Crying, sighs, cursing, prayers.
These sounds shrouded the city and waited for its death.
Kong Hou jumped off the flying sword. As she steadied herself, she saw an old person fall down near here. She moved forward, wanting to support him, but someone pulled her sleeve.
“Older sister, don’t go.” A child with a large head and small body looked straight at her. “He’s already dead.”
This pair of eyes which should have been innocent showed no emotion when speaking of death, as though he was talking about eating breakfast.
Kong Hou’s voice trembled. “What if… he’s still alive?”
“Then he is about to die,” the child said. “I saw, you can fly.”
Kong Hou’s throat felt blocked. “Mm-hmm.”
“You are a martial expert?” The child’s calm eyes finally lit up. “You can leave here?”
The wind blew by Kong Hou’s face. She looked at this city shrouded in black mist and didn’t speak. A cold item was shoved into her hand. She looked down and met the child’s bright eyes.
“This jade is warm in the winter and cold in the summer—it is worth cities. It is true, I’m not lying!” The child explained, trying to prove the jade was real, “My grandmother was a junzhu of the previous dynasty; she was of imperial blood.”
“What do you want me to do?” Holding the thumbnail-sized jade, Kong Hou asked softly.
“Wait here!” The child ran into the room behind him and quickly came out with a bunch of swaddling clothes. “Take her, even to be your servant. As long… as long as you raise her and give her something to eat.
“My sister doesn’t eat much; Father says my sister is like my mother. My mother eats very little each time, really.” The child feared Kong Hou would not agree, his eyes turning red. “Please take her away. I promised Father to take care of her.”
This child of eight or nine was as thin as bamboo, his voice trembling in fear, but still spoke of wanting to protect this month-old infant.
Kong Hou touched the child in the swaddling clothes. Weak breathing, entangled in fiendish energy. She didn’t even have the strength to cry. If she stayed in this city, she probably wouldn’t live another day.
Seeing Kong Hou silent, the child knelt down and kowtowed to Kong Hou. “Please, I beg you.”
“Stand up.” Kong Hou heard the sound of the child’s forehead hitting the ground and bent down to pull him up. “A man will kneel for heaven, earth and his parents, and not easily for any others.”
She had never held a child before so she did not dare to move too fast. Seeing the child’s eyes still stuck on the swaddling clothes, Kong Hou turned back to look and saw Huan Zhong walk over. “Huan Zhong, come help me.” The child was too soft. She feared she would use too much force and make this already weak child even weaker.
Huan Zhong: “…”
Staring at the child in Kong Hou’s arms, Huan Zhong reached up rigidly and took the soft round ball into his own arms.
The swaddling clothes seemed to be falling down?
The child was going to fall?
Would children be comfortable in this position?
When Lin Hu arrived, he saw Master standing like a statue next to Miss Kong Hou, supporting something using a powerful wave of spirit energy by his feet. He frowned. Was this an evil talisman that would explode upon movement?
He quickly walked forward and looked over to Huan Zhong’s side. Then he immediately took three steps back silently in hope that Master did not discover him.
“Lin Hu.” Huan Zhong looked at him expressionlessly, his side profile still perfect and flawless.
Lin Hu said, “Master, I will go to the eye and look.”
“You have the bloodline of the yao; you are not suited to go near the eye of the fiendish energy.”
Lin Hu said, “No, the minuscule bloodline effect is not important.”
Huan Zhong did not speak and looked at him with expressionless eyes.
Kong Hou did not notice what Huan Zhong and Lin Hu were saying. She rubbed the swollen spot on the boy’s forehead and returned the jade to him. “I return this to you. Your mother left this to you, I cannot take it.”
The boy shook his head. “I am not lying to you, the jade is very valuable. Please accept it.”
“I will rescue your sister.” Kong Hou held his face. If he continued to shake his head, it would fall off. “I won’t just save her—I’ll also save you and everyone in the city.”
The boy stilled, “Are you… a doctor?”
“I am not.” Kong Hou forced a smile. “I am a distant relative of your grandmother.”
The boy frowned. “But Mother said to me Great-Grandfather was a junwang and Grandmother’s relatives were all members of the previous imperial family. You…” Father rarely mentioned the previous imperial family in front of Mother, but in private when teaching him to read and write, he said the members of the previous imperial family were mostly arrogant and extravagant. When the present emperor took the throne, the people all clapped in joy, and many villages even invited troupes to sing for three days and nights.
The previous dynasty had such a bad reputation. This young older sister looked so beautiful. Why did she state a connection with the previous dynasty? Wasn’t she making trouble for herself?
The boy said in a small voice, “Older Sister, leave. Even the imperial doctors His Majesty sent cannot do anything against the plague. Don’t stay here and get buried as well.”
“So young, do you know what getting buried is like?” Kong Hou stood up and looked back. She found that the baby had moved from Huan Zhong to Elder Lin’s arms. She took out a bottle of spirit fluid and put a drop into the girl infant’s mouth.
“Huan Zhong, I am going to fly to look above the eye.” Kong Hou took out the Concealment Umbrella she had received from the secret realm and raised it above her head. “You and Elder Lin wait here for me.”
“I will accompany you.” Huan Zhong stopped her and said. “Do not go alone.”
Kong Hou slowly shook her head. “Just wait below for me. Huan Zhong, I need to repay what the Ji family owes the people.”
“I will repay along with you.” Huan Zhong took the umbrella from her hand and looked warmly at her. “You accompany me to search for medicine over mountains and rivers, I accompany you to defeat this formation. Please?”
Kong Hou looked dazedly at him and couldn’t speak.
Huan Zhong suddenly bent down and leaned against her shoulder before quickly moving away.
Kong Hou was puzzled. “Huan Zhong?”
Huan Zhong pressed his lips together, his face slightly red. “I thought of a new way of playing cute.”
“You…”
His eyes reflected Kong Hou’s puzzled expression. “Pretty please?”
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