Although I had no time to look at Xie Jingwen, I heard him being silent for a long time: "Xiaoying, your conditions are too harsh."
Lu Xiaoying said in a deep voice: "I will count to three. If you don't hand over the Thunder Talisman, then we will both die together."
Xie Jingwen said sternly: "Lu Xiaoying, what did you say? You want to die with me? You actually did this for Wu Zhao..."
Lu Xiaoying said resolutely: "I don't want to listen to your nonsense. Once..."
"I'll put it down!" Xie Jingwen put the backpack on the ground without waiting for Lu Xiaoying to say the second word.
Lu Xiaoying uttered two words: "Swear!"
Xie Jingwen begged, "Xiaoying, how could you do this? How can I explain to my superiors the death of so many disciples?"
Lu Xiaoying said coldly: "That's your business. If you don't swear, I will still make you die without a complete body."
Xie Jingwen shouted angrily, "I can swear to let this matter go and not trouble you again, but I must settle my account with Wu Zhao. If you force me again, I will detonate the rolling thunder talisman and perish with you."
While Lu Xiaoying was silent, I shouted contemptuously, "Just do as he says. He's just a clown, what's there to be afraid of?"
Lu Xiaoying said with contempt: "Swear!"
Xie Jingwen's eyes immediately turned red, and he quickly swore a blood oath, then ran down the mountain: "Wu Zhao, if you dare to steal my woman, I will fight you to the death!"
Guo Huaxin, who was hiding in Xie Jingwen's body, also said coldly: "Wu Zhao, I won't let you go either!"
Lu Xiaoying said coldly: "Stop him!"
Monk Shi, who had been waiting nearby, raised his hand and rang out several soul-calming bells, instantly knocking Xie Jingwen to the ground. Xie Jingwen shouted hoarsely, "Lu Xiaoying, you don't keep your word, you will be punished..."
Lu Xiaoying turned a deaf ear to us, picked up the rolling thunder talisman on the ground, and ran towards us: "Get out of the way!"
Ye Jin and I drew our swords at the same time and slashed at each other. After the two blades hit Old Wolf's arms at the same time, the opponent was pushed back several steps by our strength. Ye Jin and I immediately withdrew.
Before we both stood firm, the rolling thunder talisman in Lu Xiaoying's hand had already flown out, and the spherical talisman flew from between Ye Jin and me to the top of the opponent's head, blooming like a flower, and the stacked talismans exploded layer by layer. Rolling thunder also flashed out from the talisman, covering several meters away in an instant, and continuously struck down on the top of the old wolf's head, beating the demon wolf that was difficult to be injured by swords and knives into blood and flesh in a short moment.
It turns out that the Rolling Thunder Talisman is a magical weapon made by rolling several talismans into a ball shape. Once used, it will explode layer by layer. Each talisman can release thunder, and the power will double. No wonder Lu Xiaoying insisted on taking the Rolling Thunder Talisman.
I watched the old wolf howling as it tumbled and crawled toward the bushes. I picked up my knife and wanted to chase it, but Lu Xiaoying pulled me back: "Don't chase it. The Thunder Talisman doesn't distinguish between friend and foe!"
I turned my head in shock, only to see lightning flashing in the distance, pressing down on the old wolf and moving forward quickly. Countless golden snakes were spreading and shaking violently a few meters above the ground, instantly submerging the old wolf's figure. I could only see the grass on the ground lifted by the lightning flying in all directions...
Lu Xiaoying said in a deep voice: "The rolling thunder talisman can form rolling lightning, which can not only crush the opponent, but also chase the target like a ghost until the talisman is used up. At this time, no matter who it is, as long as they enter the range controlled by the talisman, they will be targeted for attack."
Before Lu Xiaoying could finish his words, there was a sudden earth-shaking noise in the distance. Broken branches, fallen leaves, mud, sand and gravel rushed into the sky and scattered in all directions. Although we were more than ten meters away, we still felt a darkness in front of our eyes. A rainstorm of mud, sand and gravel immediately followed. We had no way to avoid it, so we could only protect our heads and faces with our hands and let the mud and sand fall wildly.
When the soil fell to the ground and the lightning dissipated, there was only a two-meter-wide pit left on the ground. The old wolf had disappeared without a trace. I rushed to the edge of the pit and dug in the soil with my knife: "The old wolf ran away! I didn't expect him to be so strong."
Monk Shi grabbed a handful of dirt and said, "The old wolf is seriously injured. Let's deal with that beast Li Jingwen first and then look for him."
When I turned around and walked towards Jie Jingwen, the latter was holding his thigh that was injured by Shi Heshang and rubbing the ground and retreating repeatedly: "Lu Xiaoying, you said you would let me go, you can't go back on your word!"
Lu Xiaoying said coldly: "I said I would let you go, but I didn't say I would let Guo Huaxin go. Leave her here."
Xie Jingwen breathed a sigh of relief and said, "No problem, Guo Huaxin is at your disposal..."
"Bullshit!" Guo Huaxin, who was controlled by Old Lady Dong and the others, shouted at the top of his lungs, "Jie Jingwen, you bastard! I was wholeheartedly helping you, and even lost my home, and you actually betrayed me!"
"You're talking nonsense!" Xie Jingwen roared, "If you hadn't been stirring up trouble, why would I have come back? It's all because of you..."
"Shut up!" I raised my hand and slapped Jie Jingwen in the face. "Get out of here right now. I feel sick just looking at you for even a second."
Guo Huaxin wanted to speak, but Shi Heshang grabbed her neck. I said to Old Lady Xiangdong, "Grandma, I leave Guo Huaxin to you. I won't interfere with how to deal with him."
Old Lady Dong said sadly, "Xin girl, many people said that they couldn't take you in, saying that you couldn't keep a grudge ghost! Lao Hei kept you, and we raised you as our granddaughter for Lao Hei's sake. But what about you? How many people have died because of you!"
Guo Huaxin said with hatred in his eyes: "I know that Hei Ye is good to me. You said it yourself, you are only good to me for Hei Ye's sake. I only recognize Hei Ye, if you don't help him get revenge, I will let you die together!"
Old Lady Dong was so angry that her eyes widened: "Well, we are blind!"
After saying this, Old Lady Dong slapped Guo Huaxin on the head. Before the latter could even scream, he turned into a ball of phosphorous fire and floated to the ground.
Xie Jingwen shouted, "Guo Huaxin has been killed by you, can you let me go?"
I kicked Xie Jingwen two meters away: "Get lost—"
Xie Jingwen got up and limped away, but I didn't even look at him.
Ye Jin said in a deep voice: "Why don't you kill him? Keeping this kind of person will only cause endless troubles. He will definitely cause trouble for us in the future."
I laughed contemptuously and said, "From the beginning, I didn't look down on Xie Jingwen. He is not worthy of being my opponent. If I can beat him once, I can beat him a second time. There is nothing to worry about."
Lu Xiaoying whispered, "Wu Zhao, thank you."
"Nothing to thank me for. I am here for the covenant between gods and ghosts." I was telling the truth. The covenant between gods and ghosts was about the cooperation between the two sects. It was not difficult for me to kill Jie Jingwen, but killing him would be equivalent to breaking Lu Xiaoying's oath, which would definitely leave her with a grudge, and that would be equivalent to planting the seeds of disaster for our future cooperation. I think Lu Xiaoying should also understand this.
I looked at Old Lady Dong and said, "Grandma, how many people did you lose this time?"
Old Lady Dong shook her head sadly and said, "Except for me, Lao Chang and Maozi, everyone else is gone. But we don't blame anyone. Our fate should have come a long time ago, it's just a matter of time. It's inevitable!"
"Just like the red robe you are wearing, you must have been very skilled in Taoism back then, but unfortunately, you were robbed and didn't even have the strength to fight back. You were skinned by a hunter. We pretended to be human and bought its skin."
Old Lady Dong looked up and said, "We want to know now whether the things left by that gentleman are of any use. Your employer is missing, what should we do next?"
I whispered, "Perhaps, we should have given up Hengfei a long time ago."
Ye Jin's expression changed and he said, "Zhao Zi, what do you mean?"
I shook my head and said, "Hengfei is the key to the whole thing. Didn't you realize that the old wolf killed people one after another for only one purpose, which was to take Hengfei to where the old wolf wanted him to go?"
"If we had let Hengfei go from the beginning and followed him slowly, perhaps not so many people would have died. Although I thought of this, I never dared to let go. I was afraid that Hengfei would die and that I would violate the rules of the warlock. Even though I knew that Hengfei's life would not be in any danger in the short term, I never dared to try."
I took a deep breath and said, "It was because of my hesitation that many people sacrificed themselves..."
But then Old Lady Dong said, "You don't have to blame yourself. The fact that you didn't abandon Hengfei was actually God's arrangement. Before we escape our fate, God is always pushing us forward, and you can't escape even if you want to."
What Old Lady Dong said was right. When your fate comes, even if you have thought about whether it would be better to change your approach, you will end up taking another fork in the road for some unknown reason. Only after everything has happened will you regret it. This is fate, a fate that no one is allowed to change.
If, Lao Hou had not appeared.
If, Lao Hou hadn’t found Jie Jingwen.
If, I let go of Hengfei from the beginning.
If, Jie Jingwen and I meet, we will work together.
If Guo Huaxin hadn't let Xie Jingwen go...
The fate of the immortals in the mountains might be another outcome.
However, there are not so many ifs in the world. Fate brought us together, which was equivalent to arranging the human calamity for all the immortals. Even if I killed Li Jingwen's men in the middle of the journey and forced him out of the mountain area, he would still turn back in the correction of fate, using a group of inferior disciples to tie up my energy, but using a few masters to bring great calamity to all the immortals.
It was not until then that I realized that since God had made Xie Jingwen the calamity of all the immortals, he would naturally give him a way out.
Didn't I let him go because of my undue arrogance
To put it another way, even if I really wanted to kill him, he might still be able to escape from me due to some coincidences, because he is protected by fate.
Ye Jin, who was originally furious, finally understood what Old Lady Dong and I meant. He couldn't help but sighed and asked, "What about Heng Fei?"
I said in a deep voice: "If I'm not mistaken, Hengfei should also be the doom of that old wolf." (To be continued)