Chapter 34: Feels like an arrow in the knee.
Long Aotian scratched his head, "Then what is this figure called?"
The corners of Shi Xia's mouth twitched as she explained, "This icon, Jianghu people call it Emergency Exit."
"Huh?"
That's right! That figure on the door was nothing but Emergency Exit sign. Every building on Earth must have one. Although the words ‘Emergency Exit' weren't written on the door, the door's appearance and the icon was enough for anyone to understand what it meant. All the door was missing was the word ‘EXIT' on the side!
-_-|||
She thought it was an IQ based question, but the icon painted on the door instantly lowered her impression. Is this not clearly telling others this door is safe in a roundabout way?
The IQ of the owner of this immortal house was questionable. How much did he want people to come in the end?
"Let's go!" Shi Xia was a little tired and directly pushed open the door.
Behind the door it was white and a formation was faintly seen drawn on the ground, it was a teleportation formation. The three of them walked straight in, only a flash of white light flashed in front of them and before the view in front of Shi Xia could change, Zhen Bing immediately pulled her to the side.
"Be careful."
In the next moment, a sword full with spiritual energy plunged directly into the place where she had just stood.
Shit! Where is the promised safe exit?
"Someone's here." Zhen Bing's voice sank, and Long Aotian also swished out his sword with a wary face.
Only then did Shi Xia realized that there were two people standing on the ground a few meters away in front of them. The people who were standing before them were familiar, they were none other than Ji Han and Lu Yi.
"It's you guys again!" Lu Yi looked at Shi Xia's group with a surprised face, a trace of panic flashed in her eyes. She tightened the sword in her hand and scornfully said, "You guys are actually still alive."
"Yes, let you down, right?" For this person, Shi Xia had no good impression or thought. She was originally still a little scared seeing them here, but when she saw that out of four only two of Lu Yi's group were alive, not to mention their wretched appearance, she felt braver. Compared to them, they seemed to have struggled harder, blood stains were seen on their clothes, and they seemed seriously wounded too. It seemed their journey here wasn't as smooth as theirs. Without saying, Shi Xia could understand what happened to the other two out of the four.
"What a scumbag to be able to live so long." Lu Yi coldly snorted, looking at them with a face full of disdain.
"That's right, just wondering ……what the other two people of your group are doing? How come only the two of you…… scumbags are left." She deliberately asked in a roundabout way, but the meaning was obvious. Everyone of her group, including herself survived, then who is the real scumbag here?
Naturally, Shi Xia dared to say such provocating words because there were only two people in other party's group. Not only that, the remaining two were badly injured too. If Ji Han is a Golden Pill Stage cultivator, then her precious spirit animal, Zhen Bing is a sixth-rank demonic beast. Not only that, they have one more person in her group, so ……WHO is there to fear ah! WHO!
"You ……" Lu Yi's green face immediately turned white and she angrily glared at Shi Xia. Grabbing the sword in her hand, she was about to rush over, but was pulled by Ji Han next to her, who gave her a warning look.
"My Senior Sister is young and is unaware how to respect people, please forgive me on her behalf." Ji Han smiled with a polite face and bowed towards them, as if he had completely forgotten how he wanted to kill Shi Xia and her little followers before.
This Ji Han is a far-sighted person, in a glance, he understood that the current situation wasn't in favour to him.
Shi Xia also didn't want to drag the past conflict and get entangled more with them, so she simply thought of skipping past them. But Ji Han immediately reached out and stopped their way.
"Three daoist friends wait!" Ji Han said with a smile, "We all know that this Immortal Palace is really dangerous, one mistake and it will be the end of our life. One more person means getting stronger even if it's a little. Since we met here by chance, why don't we put aside our own prejudices and search for treasures together?"
Before Shi Xia could respond, Long Aotian immediately voted against it, "Benefactor, don't listen to them. That woman is too cunning, she almost killed us last time."
"Don't worry, am I such an unprincipled person?" Shi Xia patted his shoulder and assured. She still remembered what happened to the fire fox last time. Besides, Zhen Bing was standing right next to her, so how could she possibly cooperate with his enemy?
"This fellow Daoist, it is reasonable if you don't want to agree with my proposal. Because we have offended you in the past after all. But since the three of you are fine, why do you need to hold a grudge?" Ji Han smiled more and more politely as he spoke, "Besides, this Mu Xuan Immortal Mansion has countless treasures, and we can get a lot of benefits from working together. If we can escape with our limbs intact, why do we need to hold grudges? If you don't believe me, how about this ……"
He took out a yellow bottle from his pocket and offered to them, "This is the elixir we got in the stone room before, there are three fifth-grade golden pills inside, I'm willing to give it to you three."
"Senior Brother!" Lu Yi's face instantly darkened and she couldn't help but call out. Her eyes reluctantly looking at the bottle in his hand.
Ji Han, however, ignored her and continued, "This pills are the token of our goodwill, what does Fellow Daoist think?"
Shi Xia couldn't help but ask Zhen Bing who was standing next to her, "What do you mean by fifth-grade golden pills?"
"The fifth-grade golden pill helps a cultivator to form their Jindan quickly and easily." Zhen Bing explained, before adding a sentence with a look of disgust, "Useless thing."
"Oh." So it was for forming the Jindan, no wonder Lu Yi was so anxious.
Ji Han, this person was good at calculating and manipulating people. He has already formed his Jindan, so these pills were no use to him. So he was willing to oh-so ‘geneorously' give it to them. If it was replaced by the pills that would help him jump a few realms, he would have never taken them take out.
Unfortunately, he had to be disappointed. Long Aotian is a martial arts cultivator, so these pills were useless to him too. And she, due to having a poor health as a child, injections and medicine were her everyday snacks. Just the sight of a medicine is revolting to her, whatever he has, she didn't want to have it.
"We don't need pills." Shi Xia replied as a matter of fact, "Not to mention forming a Jindan, I wouldn't take it even if it helps me forming a Yuanying."
"Xia Xia, that's called Nascent Soul*." Zhen Bing corrected her.
[T/N: Yuanying means ‘having a baby' or ‘forming a baby'. Forming a ‘Nascent Soul' is similar to giving birth to your pure self inside your heart through the process. The process is difficult to explain. But ‘Yuanying' and ‘Nascent Soul' are considered the same thing. For more information, click here.]
"Oops, I don't care about such details!" Anyway, the meanings were the same. "We didn't want to start a conflict with you guys in the first place, so you don't need to please us at every turn. As long as you guys don't want to seek death and hinder us, we won't do anything to you either."
"Daoist friend why do you think we would want to harm you?" Ji Han was determined and continued to persuade them, "If you don't need these golden pills, if we find any new treasures on the way, I promise that I will let you have them."
Shi Xia became amazed at his undying determination. She said that she wouldn't go bother them as long as they don't come to find trouble with them. Why the hell is he behaving as if they need his help?
When she was busy figuring out this mystery, Long Aotian, who was standing on the other side of her opened his mouth.
"You can say that lightly." Long Aotian coldly snorted and said in an exasperated voice, "That Senior Sister of yours almost killed us in the forest. We were kind enough to save her, but she harmed us instead. Are you guys worthy of our trust even after this?"
"Fellow Daoist, I am sincere in my offer, then why do you need to hold a grudge about what happened before?" Ji Han continued to persuade, "Daoist friends, why don't you just state your demands directly? As long as you all can clear your past grudges, I will try to satisfy you, okay? Even if you want to settle the previous score with my Senior Sister, I will never interfere!"
"Senior Brother!" Lu Yi had a face of disbelief.
Ji Han turned around and gave her a cold look with warning in his eyes. Lu Yi could only grit her teeth and swallow back her retort.
Even after he said that, Long Aotian wasn't persuaded, he coldly snorted and turned his head away.
Shi Xia's eyes sank, she point behind them, directly revealed the reason why Jin Han was hellbound in persuading them, "I see. You are requesting us to cooperate because you can't open that door."
Shi Xia said in an affirmative sentence, not an interrogative.
Ji Han's face stiffened, his polite expression that froze was an unbearable sight to see.
Sure enough, he actually doesn't want to cooperate with them. He was just like his Senior Sister, couldn't open the door and want to take advantage of them to open the door.
"Senior Brother forget it, let's ignore them." Lu Yi said in an annoyed voice as she fiercely glared at them, "The formation isn't recorded even in the ancient books. Senior Brother couldn't open it, there is no way they will be able to open it. Anyway, this is already the last barrier in the depths of the Mu Xuan Immortal Mansion. Whether they can get the treasure or not, it all depends on their ability."
Ji Han's expression sank, he didn't continue persuade Shi Xia and her group anymore. Standing together with Lu Yi, they turned towards the gate behind them that was a few feet away from them.
Only then did Shi Xia finally see the door at the end of the hallway. Unlike all the doors they had seen along the way, this door looked very …… high-grade!
The door was carved with a variety of ancient patterns, like flowers and beasts. The patterns were not much clear, but each were very lifelike and exquisite. The antique copper color looked very old, and the pattern arrangement also looked random, but they vaguely seemed to have their own rules. Especially, in the center of the door, it was lit up with a golden spell formation. Countless legal characters were floating on top of it, looking very complex.
Shi Xia didn't understand what the formation mean, let alone break the formation. She still can't even recognise those minimum legal symbols on the text, let alone such complex formation. No wonder Lu Yi said Ji Han couldn't solve it. The complexity of these magic symbols characters look like they want to bully people.
She looked up and stared at the formation for a long time, but didn't understand a thing.
"How do we break this formation?" Shi Xia asked casually.
"This is not a formation." Zhen Bing next to her, however, suddenly spoke up.
Shi Xia was stunned, "Huh?"
"What! It's not a formation?" A few meters away, Ji Han and Lu Yi who were standing with their ears stretched also heard it and exclaimed in surprise. They were about to come over, but were blocked by the Long Aotian, who had been staring at them like an alert tiger. So Ji Han had no choice but to stand a few steps away and said loudly, "Clearly spiritual energy is flowing from this formation, and it changes rapidly, without a fixed pattern, how is it not a formation? Could it be that ……" he froze for a moment, his eyes brightened as he said, "you can see through the subtleties of this formation?"
The reason why Ji Han had been trying to ask for cooperation was because he knew the other party also had a Golden Pill cultivator. Before, he easily broke the door of ‘Death' and also broke the formation he(Ji Han) laid to capture them. The other party was definitely several stages higher than him, and understands formation creation much better than him. That's why he lowered his head to them and apologised to a cultivator, who was only at the Qi Refining stage.
And it seemed his intuition was correct, the other party only took a few glances and figured out the formation. On the other hand, he had been scratching his head for a long time but couldn't understand a single thing. Regardless of the truth of this statement, he still had the hope that Zhen Bing could break the formation.
Ji Han asked in excitement, "If it's not a formation, then what are those changing spell symbols? Why do they attack automatically when we touch them, do you have a way to break them?"
Zhen Bing didn't give him a look, as if he didn't hear his question at all. His face had the expression that said, ‘Don't want to waste my time on you'. He was completely unwilling to answer the question of irrelevant people.
Instead, he pulled back Shi Xia, who was about to reach out and poke the spell formation, "Don't touch."
"I'm also curious about what this is." Shi Xia pointed to the formation and said.
"A remnant formation." Zhen Bing replied, "It's a false phase formation that's less than half completed."
"False phase?" What does that mean?
"It has no power of its own, at best it can only be considered a blindfold. The real formation is laid behind this formation." He pointed to the spell symbols flying above and explained, "Those spell symbols look complicated, but they are actually useless characters, just flying around for fun."
Flying for fun ……
=.=!
Shi Xia felt just now, those characters flying high and acting mighty became arrows and hit her on the knee.