After escaping death this time, Gu Fuyou was extremely tired. After sitting by the fire for a while, his eyes seemed to be glued and he couldn't open them, so he leaned against the sword and closed his eyes for a while.
After an unknown amount of time, the frost on Zhong Michu's body melted and the water vapor evaporated. His eyes slowly opened, and when he opened them he saw the cave ceiling covered with ice and rocks. He still didn't know what had happened.
He closed his eyes and meditated for a while before remembering what happened before he fainted.
Zhong Michu opened her eyes again and sat up. The clothes covering her body slipped off. She held them with one hand. She glanced at someone nearby and subconsciously called out, "Gu Fuyou."
She tilted her head to look, and saw a person sitting by the fire, wearing only underwear and pants, with her shoes taken off, revealing her tight waist, slender calves, and well-proportioned feet. Her skin was originally pale, and the heat from the flames gave it a warm red hue.
The man's forehead kept drooping a little, and he dozed off in a daze, looking like a cute and naive person who wanted to sleep but didn't dare to.
Zhong Michu was stunned for a moment and couldn't think of whether to continue speaking.
Gu Fuyou was awakened by that shout. He sat up straight and rubbed his eyes with one hand: "Senior Sister Zhong."
Her voice was full of sleep, and it seemed that she was not fully awake yet.
She looked at Zhong Michu and saw that he was half-leaning up and looking at her. Then she realized that the sound she heard was not an illusion and that Zhong Michu was really awake.
Gu Fuyou was delighted and woke up completely.
Although Gu Fuyou saw that the frost on Zhong Michu's face had completely disappeared, she was bleeding from her mouth and nose, which was really scary. Now her face was very pale, so he was worried and asked, "How do you feel? Are you feeling better?"
Zhong Michu handed her the clothes on his body and said, "It's okay now. You, put on your clothes first."
Gu Fuyou felt relieved after hearing her say this. When he took the clothes and was about to put them on, he saw Zhong Michu pursed his lips and turned his head slightly.
Gu Fuyou originally thought that since both of them were girls and there was no one else around in this haunted place, it would be okay to take off their clothes to save people and it was not something to be ashamed of.
She thought that maybe Zhong Michu strictly abided by the etiquette, rarely interacted with others, and was thin-skinned, so he would feel uncomfortable even if they were all girls.
Although she understood what she was thinking, she felt reserved and embarrassed when she saw Zhong Michu's expression, and hurriedly put on her underwear.
The coat was still under Zhong Michu. She hesitated for a while and said, "Senior Sister Zhong, please..."
Zhong Michu followed her gaze and realized that her clothes were also placed under him. He moved hastily and Ah Fu fell out of Zhong Michu's arms with a thud.
Zhong Michu gave her the clothes. Gu Fuyou took the coat, dusted it off and put it on.
Ah Fu was originally freezing to death due to the frost on Zhong Michu's body. He finally warmed up a little and fell asleep, but was woken up again and kept shouting.
Gu Fuyou picked him up and was surprised to find that Ah Fu had opened his eyes. He didn't know if it was an illusion, but he seemed to have grown bigger.
"Senior Sister Zhong, Ah Fu has opened his eyes, look."
Afu rolled his eyes, staring at Fuyou with a watery look on his face. He opened his mouth and called out twice.
It felt like calling for his mother. He stroked Gu Fuyouxi's tiger twice, and wanted to turn Ah Fu over to show Zhong Michu.
Ah Fu kept barking and rubbing against Gu Fuyou's shoulder, making a lot of noise.
Zhong Michu frowned slightly when she saw the blood on Gu Fuyou's shoulder. She knew it was caused by the wound on Gu Fuyou's shoulder. She just saw that it had scabbed over, but she still asked, "How is the wound on your shoulder?"
Ah Fu clung to Gu Fuyou's shoulder and refused to get down. No matter how Gu Fuyou tried to coax Ah Fu, it was useless. When he heard Zhong Michu talking, he said, "Ah? Ah! It's okay now."
Zhong Michu reached out his hand, grabbed Ah Fu's neck and pulled him over.
Ah Fu, who was still making a fuss, immediately calmed down when he got into Zhong Michu's arms.
Gu Fuyou: “…”
Once Ah Fu stopped making noise, the cave became very quiet again. The awkwardness he felt when getting dressed seemed to come back again, making Gu Fuyou unable to speak.
The two were silent for a while, and Zhong Michu said softly: "Thank you for saving me."
Gu Fuyou counted on his fingers and said, "What's the big deal? Senior Sister Zhong has saved me several times. If we have to fight, I should be the one thanking you."
Zhong Michu shook his head and said, "When I saved you, it was easy and simple. But when you saved me, you risked your life, which was even more difficult. It's different."
Gu Fuyou felt embarrassed by her serious words, and even his smile became shy: "After all, it was me who dragged you to Xianluo, which caused you to get into all these troubles. I hope you don't blame me."
Zhong Michu stroked Ah Fu's fur. Ah Fu curled up on her lap and fell asleep again with a snore: "Did you break the formation?"
Zhong Michu recalled the situation at that time. The two of them entered the ice room in a daze. When she was about to come to her senses, she was hit by the restriction. Her legs were frozen and she fell to the ground. Gu Fuyou was hit again and again, but it only took a moment.
If Gu Fuyou had brought her out directly at that time, it would have been too late. Before they even reached the door, the two of them would have been affected by the formation and turned into ice statues.
However, she was safe and sound at the moment, which must be because Gu Fuyou chose to break the formation first and then bring her out.
Gu Fuyou fiddled with the flames and added two more pieces of firewood. When she asked, he answered casually, "Yeah. Now that I think about it, it was really dangerous. I almost couldn't get out."
Zhong Michu stared at her again, with scrutiny, his light-colored pupils shining like amber glass under the firelight: "How did you find the flaw?"
Gu Fuyou smiled and said, "It's just luck. At that time, you and I were both restricted and frozen, but I saw that Ah Fu didn't have any frost on his body. I wondered what was the difference between Ah Fu and us, why he was not restricted."
"There are two differences. First, Ah Fu is a spirit beast, and we are both human."
Zhong Michu's calm eyes rippled a little, and the hand that was stroking Ah Fu's back slowly stopped. She said, "What else?"
Gu Fuyou said, "Secondly, Ah Fu was just about to be born and hadn't opened his eyes yet. Regarding the first point, there are indeed some formations set up by competing tribes in this world, but they are in the minority, so I focused on the second point. Coincidentally, there is an ancient formation that is similar to the one in the ice room."
"Senior Sister Zhong, have you heard of the 'resentful woman formation'?"
Zhong Michu's brows gradually furrowed, and it was unclear whether he was thinking hard about what kind of formation this was, or why the name of this formation was so vulgar.
Gu Fuyou said: "Or it can be called the 'Stone Lady Formation'."
Zhong Michu's expression suddenly brightened up, and he said, "I've heard a little bit about it."
According to legend, this formation originated from a couple. This couple was a divine couple, both were powerful immortals, and they had sworn to be together forever.
It’s a pity that people’s hearts are fickle. After being together for a long time, they gradually become alienated from each other.
The husband felt bored of looking at his wife Yao Ji's celestial face like Xuannv, so he started to have other thoughts and had another woman outside.
At first, the wife wanted to persuade her husband to change his mind. When her husband went out to meet his lover, she asked two fellow Taoists to persuade him together.
But the husband became angry and ashamed, thinking that there is no man in the world who is not passionate, and many men have three wives and four concubines, sleeping with all the prostitutes. He felt that although he had someone else, he had no intention of bringing her back home. After all, he was the only wife, and he was not too sorry to her.
Instead, she told outsiders about their family affairs. He felt that she had ruined his reputation. All his guilt disappeared, leaving him with a heart full of resentment. In front of his lover and fellow Taoists, he denounced her as a "resentful woman" and even hit her.
The wife was a person who would rather break than bend, and she could not tolerate any grain of sand in her eyes. She tried to persuade him for a while just for the sake of their hundred-year friendship, but ended up parting on bad terms, so she became heartless.
The love was so deep, and the hatred was so strong, that he even had the intention to kill.
The husband has a higher level of cultivation, but his wife is an expert in formations, so she worked hard and set up a formation just for her husband.
The special thing about this type of formation is that it is hidden quite deeply, but the center of the formation is in the most conspicuous place.
The key is to be attracted to the center of the formation as soon as you enter it. Just one glance will trigger the restrictions of the formation, and your body will gradually turn to stone starting from the legs, and eventually your entire body will turn into a stone statue.
The wife used a beautiful woman as the center of the formation. When her husband saw the beauty in front of him, he relaxed a little. The formation was so powerful that he fell into the trap without knowing it. In the end, he was defeated and turned into a stone statue. His wife then committed suicide.
Although the formation was passed down, few people used it because it was insidious and hurt too many people, so no one named it. Instead, it became known as the "Formation of the Resentful Woman" based on the story.
Later, some people thought the name was too vulgar, so they changed it to "Stone Girl Array".
The ice room was full of ice sculptures, with a stunningly beautiful woman lying in the middle. Anyone who entered there by mistake would naturally be on high alert and nervous, wishing to observe all the strange things in that weird place.
The ice platform and the woman in the middle are the most bizarre and the most eye-catching. Even if you just glance at them inadvertently, your attention will be easily attracted. It is absolutely impossible to avoid them.
She and Zhong Michu saw that place, so frost formed on their bodies, and it was because Ah Fu didn't see it that they escaped the disaster.
And those ice statues were all facing the woman. It was obvious that after seeing her, they were caught in the restriction and had no time to escape, and were frozen in panic.
Isn't the arrangement of this formation similar to that of the Stone Lady Formation
Gu Fuyou said: "The Stone Lady Formation is very similar to the formation in the ice room, the only difference is that one freezes and the other petrifies. In this type of formation, all the power is gathered at the center of the formation. This center is the strongest place, but also the weakest place. The attack is the strongest, and the defense is the weakest. Once the center of the formation is broken, the whole formation will collapse."
After saying that, Gu Fuyou looked at Zhong Michu and saw that she lowered her head slightly, her eyelids were slightly closed, her eyelashes were long and thick, and the firelight cast a shadow that obscured her eyes.
Zhong Michu said: "But the center of the formation is not that woman."
Her mind was in a daze at the time and she could not see clearly, but she heard the clinking sound of jade being shattered when Gu Fuyou broke the formation.
Gu Fuyou rested his elbows on his legs, held his face, and said, "The center of the formation doesn't have to be that woman. Anyway, as long as people come in, they will look towards the center. The golden phoenix crown and the emerald feather dress on the woman can be used as the center of the formation. As long as it is eye-catching and can be seen by the intruder, it will be fine."
"How do you identify the center of the formation?"
Gu Fuyou's eyes curved, and he kept it a secret, and asked, "Senior Sister Zhong, have you figured out the identity of that woman?"
As the flames exploded, the wood at the bottom of the rack burned off with a bang.
Zhong Michu raised his head and said, "Qingluan tribe."