When Bai Xiaochun looked over, he instantly recognized Hou Yunfei. Then, he flickered into motion as he dodged the stone lion and sped toward the hole in the wall.
As of this point, Du Lingfei was now closest to the breach in the wall, with Feng Yan and Bai Xiaochun close on her heels. The fastest of them all was Bai Xiaochun, who was quickly closing the distance between himself and Du Lingfei.
Feng Yan’s face was pale white. The fireball he had just unleashed had taken quite a toll on him. However, after noticing the speed with which Bai Xiaochun was moving, his eyes suddenly flickered with a cold glow, and he held up his hand, within which could be seen a black medicinal pill.
“Junior Sister Du, you have to get word back to the sect! I’ll give you a bit of extra power!” With that, he flung the black medicinal pill down into the space between Du Lingfei and Bai Xiaochun.
As the medicinal pill exploded, a powerful force blasted out, pushing Du Lingfei toward the hole even faster than before. Then, a plopping sound like splashing water could be heard as she burst out.
In contrast, Bai Xiaochun was blocked by the explosion, and was suddenly set upon by the stone lion. Instantly, his eyes turned bright red.
“Feng Yan!!” he bellowed. A wind blasted out as the stone lion pounced. Just as Bai Xiaochun was about to dodge, three Treants closed in. There were now four puppets all attacking him simultaneously, making it impossible to evade.
A popping sound could be heard as his shields glittered brightly and then began to shatter. Even the green shield from the jade pendant faded and shattered. Although the majority of the force of the blow was dissipated, the stone lion was extraordinary, and it’s attack landed fully on Bai Xiaochun’s chest.
The massive force sent Bai Xiaochun flying, his entire body shaking.
“Junior Brother Bai!” Feng Yan cried said. Although a cold smile twisted his lips, his words sounded bitter and lamenting. And yet, he didn’t slow down at all; in the blink of an eye, he passed into the rippling hole in the wall. Just when he was about to burst through to the other side, the young Luochen Clan cultivator let out a piercing shriek, then suddenly exploded into a mass of countless chunks of flesh, all devoid of blood, which then shot toward Feng Yan.
Before Feng Yan could pass through the gap in the wall, the chunks of flesh wrapped around him and began to drag him backward.
Feng Yan let out a roar of rage as he was pulled out. By this point, the hole in the wall was on the verge of closing up completely.
After gritting his teeth for a moment, he then bit down on his tongue and spat out a mouthful of blood, which landed onto his flying sword. The flying sword instantly turned crimson. Instead of shooting out in attack, it then exploded, transforming into a cloud of shrapnel that shot back toward him.
Although it was injurious to himself, the hail of shrapnel also managed to slash away the chunks of flesh which had grabbed ahold of him!
He was now freed, but was also covered in a mass of cuts and wounds. The pain from his mangled flesh threatened to render him unconscious, but he was still able to clench his jaw and shoot back toward the hole in the wall.
Meanwhile, Bai Xiaochun had been slammed by the lion’s paw, sending him tumbling backward, screaming. And yet, even as his scream was still echoing out into the air, Bai Xiaochun looked down in surprise at his chest to discover that, although his clothing was shredded, his skin hadn’t been harmed at all. In fact… he didn’t even feel any pain.
After performing a quick inspection, he confirmed that… although the situation had seemed extremely dangerous… he hadn’t been hurt in the least.
The stone lion’s blow had sent him flying, but other than that, it had done virtually nothing.
Even as his elation grew, the Treants closed in, and one of them punched him in the back. Although he was thrown forward, he felt no pain at all, whereupon he threw his head back and laughed uproariously.
“I can’t believe I’m actually so strong! Fudge! What do I have to be afraid of?!” Enlivened, and now fully confident, he shot into the air toward the gap in the wall, moving with even greater speed than before. In the blink of an eye, he was at the gap.
Feng Yan was now about halfway through the gap, and didn’t even notice Bai Xiaochun and his sudden burst of speed. In his mind, Bai Xiaochun had probably already been killed by the numerous puppets.
Just as Feng Yan was about to free himself, a furious gleam appeared in Bai Xiaochun eyes, and he reached out toward Feng Yan’s shoulder, which was already outside of the hole.
“Free at last!” Feng Yan laughed. But then, he suddenly felt a huge force dragging him back through the hole.
“No!!” he howled. Before he could even see what was dragging him, he felt his bag of holding slip away, and then he was flung deep into the courtyard, away from the gap.
It was only at this point that he saw Bai Xiaochun.
“Bai Xiaochun!!” he howled, eyes bloodshot. However, he was now cut off by the two stone lions. Booms rang out, followed by a miserable scream.
“Elder Brother Feng!!” Bai Xiaochun screamed, simultaneously leaping through the hole in the wall.
Just as he emerged on the other side, the hole finished closing up.
He was now outside, no longer in the courtyard of the Luochen Clan. As for Du Lingfei, she had continued to run as soon as she had emerged, and was now waiting some distance off at the edge of the forest. When she saw Bai Xiaochun appear, she was just about to call out to him when he suddenly began to wail miserably.
“Elder Brother Feng!! Not only did you give me your bag of holding to help me escape, you also held off the puppets. Oh, Elder Brother Feng!”
After hearing Bai Xiaochun’s words, Du Lingfei felt horrible. However, the gap was closed, and Bai Xiaochun was just standing there in grief and indignation, so she quickly said, “Bai Xiaochun, come on, let’s go!”
Not needing any further coercion, Bai Xiaochun began to run, tears streaming down his face. Helping Du Lingfei support Hou Yunfei, they vanished into the forest.
Looking over his shoulder, Bai Xiaochun frowned sadly and said, “Elder Brother Feng, such a good guy….”
Du Lingfei was very upset. She had never imagined that the mission would be this dangerous. Then she remembered Bai Xiaochun’s suggestion to not come to the Luochen Clan, and realized that if they had listened to him, Feng Yan might not have died.
And when she saw that Bai Xiaochun was in so much grief that he was on the verge of beating his own chest, she felt even worse. Finally, she sighed.
“Junior Brother Bai,” she said, looking at him bitterly, “let’s hurry up. If the Luochen Clan has turned traitor, they won’t want the sect getting wind of it. I just tried to send word back, but there’s interference in the area…. Transmission jade slips won’t work.”
Bai Xiaochun shivered, feeling more in danger than ever before.
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Chapter
52: Luochen Betrayal
Meanwhile, beneath the Luochen Clan mansion was a sprawling, underground necropolis. In one part of the necropolis was a lake of simmering blood, filled with countless floating skeletons.
The glitter of a spell formation could be seen surrounding the entire thing, and countless members of the Luochen Clan were prostrating themselves around the lake. There were men and women, youngsters and old-timers, all of whom knelt at key nexuses within the spell formation.
It was with utter solemnity that one by one, they would slice open their right hands and squeeze blood down onto the nexuses, which carried the blood into the central lake.
In the very middle of that lake of blood, an old man sat cross-legged. His hair was long and white, and he seemed threatening without being angry. With every breath he took, the lake of blood bubbled.
Suddenly, the man’s eyes opened, and they gleamed with a blood-colored glow.