Zhuo Yu rushed to the black archway. The material of the archway was unknown, like jade but not jade, like rock but not rock, dark and dull.
Under the black stone beam, there was a person hanging upside down, with his body tightly bound and mouth sealed by white silk thread. It was Zhuo Yu's fellow apprentice Xiao Changge.
Just as Zhuo Yu was about to move forward, the ground beneath his feet suddenly cracked, and a small clump of green cattails rushed out, blocking his steps.
That was Xiao Changge, who was trapped in mid-air, trying his best to use his spiritual power to remind him not to get close.
Zhuo Yu stopped, looked ahead, and his arms were burning with flames.
"Hey, you're in this state, yet you still have time to care about others. No wonder there's such a comfortable forest scent, what a lovely guy." A woman was lying on the dark archway, her arms folded, looking down at Xiao Changge who was hanging under the gate tower and speaking in a tender voice.
She had willow-shaped eyebrows, phoenix eyes, and a beautiful face. She was charming, soft, and gentle, looking like a peerless beauty in her twenties.
But when she slowly stood up on the archway, the lower half of her body was a green insect abdomen, and four slender insect legs stepped on the top of the archway. She had wings on her back and a pair of swords hanging on her waist, which was strange and beautiful.
It turned out to be the female demon from the legendary Mantis tribe.
The demon woman crawled down the vertical stone wall, drew out her long knife and pressed it against Xiao Changge's neck. She licked her red lips, looked up at Zhuo Yu, and said with a smile,
"You are brothers from the same sect, right? Come over here, or I will cut his neck."
Zhuo Yu sneered: "Are you mistaken? Although he and I are from the same sect, he is the person I hate the most in the sect. You want me to save him?"
The girl from the Shilong tribe blinked, looked down at the prey she had just caught with great difficulty, then looked up at the human standing leisurely in the distance, as if she was thinking about whether his words were credible.
"If you don't do it, let me do it for you." Zhuo Yu condensed a red fireball with one hand and attacked the banshee without hesitation, without caring about Xiao Changge who was under her knife.
The banshee hesitated for a moment, the blade left Xiao Changge's neck, and swung the blade to split the oncoming hot fireball. Her four hind legs bounced in the air, the two blades crossed, and attacked Zhuo Yu.
Zhuo Yu's body was surrounded by fire dragons, and his fists were fighting Shi Meng.
The Shilong Clan is naturally good at using swords. Their movements are strange and their swords are like phantoms. Even Zhuo Yu finds it extremely difficult to deal with such a crazy sword phantom.
He seemed to be in a mess and fired fireballs in all directions, and almost every time they missed the target. He could not catch the unusually agile figure of the demon at all.
A female demon holding two swords appeared behind him, raised the swords to his neck, and showed a smug look, "Haha, I got it again, you are mine too."
Before she finished speaking, vines quietly grew on the ground, climbing up and wrapping around her waist, dragging her to the ground. In an instant, countless vines surged up, intertwining and tightly wrapping around this agile demon.
Zhuo Yuji held the Hunyuan bag in the air, and the fire dragon left his body, accurately spewing high-temperature flames at the banshee on the ground.
A piercing scream came from the raging fire, "Liar, ah, cunning human. You lied to me."
The fire banshee flapped her wings, broke free from the vines, and fled in panic with flames all over her body, stumbling into the black archway.
Zhuo Yu walked to the archway. He had secretly burned the ropes during the fight. As expected, after Xiao Changge fell to the ground, he used the moistening technique to help him at the critical moment.
Xiao Changge's arms were tied behind his back, and he couldn't speak, sobbing anxiously. Zhuo Yu squatted down and cut the restraints on his mouth and untied the restraints on his body.
"Go, go quickly!" Xiao Changge shouted anxiously as soon as he was able to speak.
At this moment, they were standing under the black archway, but they had just entered half a step. Zhuo Yu looked up and saw that the scenery around him had changed drastically. The green mountain valley road outside the gatehouse suddenly disappeared, leaving only a vast expanse of white. Inside the gatehouse, a solitary tower stood tall, the ground was charred, the whole world was endless, and everything he saw was gray and black.
In this scorched earth, there stood a black dead tree with gnarled branches, and on the trunk stood a man leisurely.
The man had long, slightly curly hair draped over his shoulders, and a hazy robe draped over his body, the tail of the robe shifted from solid to illusory, like billowing smoke floating with him.
He stretched out a pale arm and slowly stroked the Banshee of the Ozark Clan crawling beside his legs.
"Disciples of Guiyuan Sect? I really miss them." The man supported his chin with one hand, and dangled one leg from the tree branch. He looked at the two people in front of the gate with interest and said lightly, "It's rare for brothers to have such a good relationship."
Zhuo Yu thought he was not a coward. Compared with the disciples who were protected in the mountain gate all year round, his master often let him go out for training. Even if it was a huge and terrifying monster, such as Cen Qianshan, a notorious demon cultivator, he never felt afraid.
But at this moment, from the first moment this man uttered a sound, he felt as if he was suddenly thrown into a frozen pond that had been frozen for ten thousand years. The fear from the bottom of his heart froze his body and clenched his heart, making him almost want to kneel down and beg for mercy.
"Hunyuan Bag? So you are Senior Brother Danyangzi's disciple? Senior Brother is such a person, how dare he accept a disciple like you who has a fiery mind." The man sitting on the tree raised his hand to Zhuo Yu, "Come here, let me take a look at you."
His voice carried an unknown bewitching power, solemn and intimidating, and was irresistible.
Zhuo Yu knew something was wrong, but his body was out of control, as if he was trapped in a dream. He moved his feet with fear and trembling, slowly walking towards the man.
A golden medicine cauldron was suspended above his head, casting a brilliant light that could drive away evil spirits. Zhuo Yu was illuminated by the clear light and shuddered, waking up from his nightmare.
"Senior brother, come back." Xiao Changge slowly stood up and stood behind him, summoning the sect's secret treasure to protect his mind.
The man on the black tree smiled faintly, "Can Kongji, that bald monkey's petty tricks, really protect you?"
…
Mu Xue and Cen Qianshan followed Xiao Jin to a temple.
"Here, I found it here." Shan Xiaojin jumped in front of the threshold and pointed the temple to Mu Xue.
Since entering the Great Joy Hall, there are sculptures or painted poems in front of every temple door here.
For example, in the Temple of the Goddess Cai that Mu Xue had entered before, there was a red-dressed lady riding a dragon above, and a white-faced man sitting a tiger below. This reflected the secrets of the Lady Cai taught in the temple, which was a dual cultivation method dominated by women.
In other temples, there may be men who are strong and upright, while women who are submissive and gentle. This must be a method of dual cultivation with men taking the lead.
There are also those where two tigers chase each other, a peach is divided and a pair of beautiful women stand side by side, and the place where travelers are tortured. Even the demons and ghosts have their own methods. Therefore, there are numerous temples of all sizes, one after another.
The temple door that Shan Xiaojin brought Mu Xue to made Mu Xue feel a little bit of resistance and disgust. On the vermilion lacquered door was a painting of a demon king from purgatory. The demon king had red hair and flew into the sky, with a bloody mouth and a skull necklace hanging around his neck. He sat on a black dead tree and leaned forward to reach out his hand.
There was a black archway amidst the clouds and mist at his feet. In front of the archway was a sea of blood and corpses. A man was kneeling naked in the sea of blood, holding his companion's heart in his hand, offering a sacrifice to the devil.
Inside this temple, the light was dim and the vision was unclear. There seemed to be gusts of cold wind, and it was unknown how deep it was.
The moment they stepped into the palace, Mu Xue vaguely heard a woman's soft sigh behind her. Looking back, there was no one behind her.
A breeze blew up the yellow sand on the empty road. It was quiet and deserted.
Only in the temple of the Ca Nu Jue, a warm light still shone from the door. It seemed to be consoling Mu Xue to return to the warm and fragrant house, to throw away all the shackles and worries, to enjoy the charming and charming man, to taste the tenderness and sweetness when they were entangled with each other, and to experience the joy of the great increase in cultivation of yin and yang.
Mu Xue let go of the hidden reluctance in her heart, turned around and stepped into the temple in front of her. She couldn't let herself be trapped here forever, and she couldn't give up even the slightest clue.
When I stepped into the temple, I found that there were neither sculptures nor pictures, nor any eye-catching martial arts mantras on the walls. In the empty hall, there was only a stone bed and a stone table in the corner.
Rather than calling it a temple, it is more like a cage surrounded by walls, with no windows, darkness without any sunlight, no decorative lights or bright pearls, and even the only stone bed looks mottled and old.
"The note was found here." Xiao Jin said, pointing to a dark corner.
Mu Xue lit a glass lamp, illuminating every corner of the room, and found that the corners of the old wall were covered with words written in cinnabar.
There are poems on defeating enemies, formulas on exorcising demons, mantras for calming the mind, and songs for entering tranquility. Most of them are methods for resisting inner demons and calming the mind.
"I... am going to be..."
Mu Xue found a line of small words carved on the wall with a dagger, and read them with her fingers, "Maybe... I should... end my life."
"What does this mean?" Mu Xue didn't quite understand. "But this at least shows that someone once lived here. Now there are no remains, and no one is seen. Maybe he found a way out."
"Yes, maybe we found it, right here." At this time, Cen Qianshan's voice came from behind.
Mu Xue looked back and saw Cen Qianshan pushing open the stone bed. It turned out that under the bed was a dim teleportation array.
The array was very delicately drawn, and it contained the awe-inspiring power of the laws of heaven and earth. There were many small statues embedded on the array plate to support the array. Those statues inherited the characteristics of the Joyful Hall, all in pairs, with intimate behavior, and lifelike statues that made people unable to bear to look directly at them.
However, now, these magical instruments that support the formation all have more or less cracks from being deliberately chopped and damaged, and have been thrown aside carelessly.
"It's not too serious. With some repairs, there should be hope of restoring the formation." Mu Xue picked up a pair of statues, examined them carefully, and smiled, "Great, there is finally hope of getting out."
…
Cen Qianshan sat on the threshold of the temple, repairing a pair of small statues in his hands that served as magic tools. Although the statues were small, they were extremely delicately made, and the figures' movements and expressions were lifelike. Even the sweat drops on the raised necks were clearly visible.
He was embarrassed to sit with his master and deal with such an ambiguous double sculpture, so he had to sit alone far away outside the door.
This is a mechanism in the divine realm, and it is not easy to repair. Qianji helped him while talking to him quietly.
"Master, are you a little unhappy?"
Cen Qianshan remained silent and just shook his head slightly.
"Are you worried that after we get out, she will go back to the fairy world and won't want us anymore?" Qianji's mouth became a small triangle. "It would be great if we could stay here forever and never go out."
"The human heart is never satisfied." Cen Qianshan was busy with his hands, muttering to himself, "Initially, I just prayed that she could come back to life. As long as she was alive, I didn't need anything else. Later, I began to hope that I could stay by her side like before. Seeing her every day would be a great happiness."
"But now, I am still thinking about it, thinking about it..." He pursed his lips, lowered his head and worked, and said no more.
"Yes, this is a great opportunity, no one will disturb us. You should get the job done and establish a good relationship with the Mu family. Then we can have something to talk about when we cling to the Mu family in the future." Qianji babble.
Its little hand pointed at the pair of statues that were stuck together in Cen Qianshan's hand, and it leaned close to Cen Qianshan's ear and whispered, "Look at the posture of the statues. The man is lying on the bottom, and the woman looks very happy. Do they both like this? Why don't we try this in the fourth step..."
Before it could finish its words, the magic weapon was repaired in Cen Qianshan's hands. Unexpectedly, as if some switch was turned on, the two little figures were able to move on their own, with their lips and tongues touching, their necks intertwined, and they were affectionate and lingering with each other.
Cen Qianshan slammed the statue to the ground with his backhand, and the wretched statue, which was making sounds of joy, broke into two halves again and stopped moving.
"What's wrong? Is it fixed?" Mu Xue poked her head out of the house, picked up the magic weapon on the ground, and scratched her head. "Strange, is it even worse?"