What Liu Liu had flung out seemed to be a small paper talisman, or perhaps a tiny piece of cloth. Since everyone’s attention had been focused on the Laughing Maitreya in the center of the arena, none of them managed to see clearly what it actually was.
When the crowd finally noticed what was happening in that direction, they saw a sudden violent gust of wind rising, carrying Mei Qing and Liu Liu, and then the two were abruptly hurled forward toward a large stone slab not far away, upon which was inscribed the three characters “Thousand Gold Cure.”
“Where do you think you’re going!” Although the crisis had erupted unexpectedly close at hand, Zhang Shisan and Master Ku reacted swiftly. Zhang Shisan lashed out with a long, pale red stream of energy, while Master Ku swung his Buddhist robe, wrapping the energy sphere surrounding Mei Qing and Liu Liu in it.
Yet to everyone’s shock, the combined attacks of these two peerless experts were casually repelled by the energy sphere. The sphere merely trembled slightly before accelerating even faster and slamming into the stone slab.
It was as if a stone had been thrown into water, rippling outward in waves. Mei Qing and Liu Liu seemed to dive straight into the stone like they were entering water, vanishing silently without a sound. Their residual images shimmered like ripples for a few moments before settling down again, leaving behind only the cold, hard slab of stone in the eyes of the onlookers.
“Qing!” Bi Zhen, witnessing this scene, was startled. Without further concern for her struggle with the Laughing Maitreya, she retracted all her magical artifacts and flew to the stone slab. She examined it left and right but could find no crack or crevice. She had no idea how the two had vanished into it.
Zhang Shisan and Master Ku were both deeply alarmed. They knew exactly how powerful their joint attack had been. In the entire world, there were only a handful of people who could rival them. That their combined strike had failed to intercept Mei Qing was something hard to believe, even if spoken aloud.
Liu Liu was merely an ordinary person, his cultivation skills practically non-existent. Otherwise, the two would not have ignored him so easily. But the magical artifact he had used just now—where had he obtained it, and what was it? How could it be so powerful?
Still, both understood that this was not the time to dwell on such matters. Thinking carefully, it seemed that from the very beginning, someone had been secretly plotting against Mei Qing, step by step luring him into this trap. What was the reason? What was the ultimate goal? Even if a few people racked their brains, they might still be unable to figure it out. The priority now was to find a way to break the trap and rescue the people inside.
The two shared an unspoken understanding and wasted no time. They immediately launched another joint attack, repeating their previous tactics—one extended his long strip of energy while the other swung his robe sleeve. They approached the Laughing Maitreya from both sides, who was trying to escape.
The Laughing Maitreya, seeing the sudden change in the battle, had no intention of delaying. He wanted to seize the moment when Bi Zhen withdrew to make his escape. But these two old men were quick-witted indeed. Before he could act, they had already come at him from both sides again. With their top-tier cultivation abilities, their simultaneous attack was something no one could easily withstand.
The Laughing Maitreya wore a look of panic on his face. He barely managed to block Zhang Shisan’s energy strip when he was immediately ensnared by Master Ku’s robe sleeve, which wrapped around his waist and sucked him entirely into the sleeve, vanishing from sight. At that moment, a cacophony of sounds erupted, echoing chaotically around the area. It seemed that the hidden crowd nearby had sensed something was wrong and were now surging forward in alarm.
Bi Zhen paid no heed to any of this. Grabbing onto Zhang Shisan, her eyes brimming with tears, she urged him to quickly find a way to break open the stone and rescue Mei Qing. Meanwhile, Master Ku stood silently to one side, clearly indicating he would once again be the one doing the hard work. Zhang Shisan was nearly driven to distraction but dared not complain to Bi Zhen. With a bitter expression, he began inspecting the stone from all angles, calculating and deducing. In his heart, he sighed, “No wonder people always say that clever folks end up serving the clumsy ones. Indeed, learning any skill brings its own burdens—how bitter indeed!”
Liu Liu was in a daze. Just moments ago, he had simply followed the sudden voice that had appeared in his mind—the instructions from the Immortal. He had mimicked the guidance precisely. When he saw the whirlwind carrying him toward the giant stone, he had been so frightened that his heart nearly leapt from his chest. He tightly shut his eyes and dared not move a muscle.
Fortunately, the violent collision and pain he had imagined never came. His body seemed to strike something soft, and then he felt his feet touch solid ground—he had passed through and arrived at another place entirely.
His heart full of unease, Liu Liu forced himself to suppress his fear and cautiously opened his eyes, only to be startled.
The surroundings were an endless, boundless dark sea. Black waves lapped against the sand, producing wave after wave of low, rumbling sounds. Beside him stood a tall mountain peak. This mountain was peculiar—it resembled a massive stone pillar, extremely steep. Particularly on the side facing the sea, it seemed as if it had been split apart by axe and knife, forming a sheer cliff. On the black stone wall, there appeared to be some kind of inscriptions. They were strange, ancient characters written in seal script. Although Liu Liu barely recognized a few of the characters, he could not decipher the meaning of these ancient writings at all.
The wind howled over the sea, shrieking past the cliffs and producing strange, eerie echoes. There was no other sound. Looking around, everything was pitch black, directionless and disorienting. Liu Liu could not help but tremble with fear, not knowing what to do.
“Since you’ve already awakened, get up. No need to pretend to be dead on the ground anymore,” suddenly came a cold, aged voice from an unknown distance.
“Immortal! Where are you, Immortal? … Are you speaking to me?” Hearing the voice, which was indeed the same one he had heard all along, Liu Liu felt both startled and delighted. Yet, from the tone of the voice just now, he clearly knew it was not addressing him. He had no idea whom it was calling.
Glancing around, Liu Liu was astonished to see that, besides himself, Mei Qing had also entered this place. Even more surprising was that Mei Qing, who had been motionless on the ground, suddenly stood up after hearing the Immortal’s words.
Mei Qing inwardly cursed his misfortune. Actually, when he had been forced into self-seclusion under the ambush of the Laughing Maitreya, besides thinking that Bi Zhen would naturally come to rescue him once she received his message, he had also prepared a few contingencies.
Because Mei Qing had once experienced the suppression of his Golden Elixir, he had some insights into this self-seclusion technique and had left a few small loopholes in his practice.
Suppressing the Golden Elixir meant forcibly separating it from the body’s true energy, while the self-seclusion technique meant completely isolating the entire person from the outside world. However, Mei Qing’s spiritual consciousness had always been different from ordinary people’s. Therefore, while in self-seclusion, he could maintain a tiny thread of consciousness within his Golden Elixir and infant spirit, hidden deep in the cauldron of his body, as a seed for future awakening.
Coincidentally, Mei Qing had been brought to the “Thousand Gold Cure” location by the Laughing Maitreya. This place was somewhat similar to the treasure vault inside the Brocade Guard headquarters he had once been in—it was a place where external spiritual energy was heavily suppressed, making it difficult to use any magical abilities. Previously, under such conditions, he had been affected by the unusual state of the Seven Star Inkstone and managed to break through the Golden Elixir suppression. Now, encountering a similar environment, his infant spirit within his body began to resonate, triggering his spiritual consciousness and gradually gathering and grinding away at the self-seclusion barrier.
However, this process was naturally very slow. It was not until Mei Qing was carried by Liu Liu and crashed into the stone slab that he finally broke free from the self-seclusion. He had only a vague impression of the events that had occurred earlier, particularly the arrival of Bi Zhen, Zhang Shisan, and the others, and his perception remained unclear.
Therefore, upon discovering that he had been brought into yet another new place, Mei Qing did not immediately rise. He even dared not release his true energy or spiritual consciousness, remaining motionless so he could observe the situation first.
Unexpectedly, before he could take any action, he had already heard the aged voice. Although the voice did not specify whom it was addressing, for some reason, Mei Qing instinctively felt that it was speaking directly to him.
Moreover, the voice was strangely familiar to Mei Qing, evoking an inexplicable sense of intimacy and excitement from unknown origins. This feeling suddenly surged into his heart like a rushing river, disturbing his usually calm Daoist mind and causing it to fluctuate violently. Mei Qing became highly alert, a vague sense of unease stirring within him, as if something momentous was about to happen.
Mei Qing took a deep breath and slowly stood up, looking around. What he saw was even more bizarre. The scene seemed eerily familiar, as if he had been here before. In fact, he immediately recalled where he was.
“The Divine Mountain Jieshi! This place… I feel like I’ve been here before… Right, isn’t this the Jieshi Inscription? How could it be here… Ah, the submergence of Jieshi… Why do I feel like I’ve forgotten something?” A sudden confusion clouded Mei Qing’s mind, as if he were speaking to himself or muttering questions to someone else.
“Hehe, remembering something now, aren’t you? Sigh… I didn’t want to think about it, but so many years have already passed,” the aged voice murmured softly.
“Who are you? How do you know what I’m thinking?” Mei Qing felt an overwhelming sense of panic, instinctively wanting to reject something. Suddenly, he raised his head and shouted loudly at the sky.
“Hehe… Who am I? I am you, and you are me. How could I not know what my own body is thinking?” The aged voice spoke calmly, neither mocking nor impatient, yet carrying a trace of sorrow and unwillingness.
“You are me? I am you?” Mei Qing suddenly felt an urge to laugh loudly at the absurdity, but for some unknown reason, his heart stubbornly accepted the voice’s words as undeniably true. This feeling was extremely bizarre, as if his body had suddenly stopped obeying his commands, instinctively revealing many thoughts he could not control.
At this moment, Mei Qing was on the verge of losing control. Unknowingly, purple flames began to burn from his fingers, the top of his head, and his shoulders. Between the flickering flames, streaks of vivid purple lightning continuously flashed and flickered, producing crackling sounds. From a distance, Mei Qing seemed to have transformed into a cocoon of purple fire wrapped in lightning, both eerie and extremely dangerous.
His expression kept twisting, his mind caught in a fierce internal struggle. Countless thoughts clashed chaotically. Within his body, the newly formed infant spirit inside the Golden Elixir also seemed to go mad, struggling violently within the cauldron. This turmoil stirred up his vast reservoir of true energy, causing it to surge wildly outward, forming violent gusts of wind. These winds swept through the surrounding sand and sea breeze, creating several whirlwinds that danced around him unpredictably.
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