Chapter 143: Rendezvous
As those faces opened their eyes one by one, Xuan Xia felt completely numb.
Not to mention being stared at by so many pairs of eyes, it was truly excellent nightmare material.
And that wasn’t all; the centipede clinging to the tree trunk suddenly flipped over entirely, with its back and belly switching directions.
It adjusted its posture, clinging tightly to the tree trunk, just like dozens of heads stacked together, or like that wild tree covered full of heads on its trunk.
And those heads were staring at them; after a few breaths, the faces began to change expressions—joy, anger, sorrow, delight—each face with a different expression.
It was also after the expressions changed that Xuan Xia suddenly felt she heard millions of human voices, like millions of people howling and wailing in grief; her eardrums were even hurt by the crying sounds.
With a thought, she immediately pinched out a segment of the Five Thunders Spell.
Lightning appeared together with the flashes in the sky, targeting straight at the centipede ahead.
However, this centipede covered in human faces clearly had some intelligence and even knew to dodge the lightning.
But the lightning was slightly faster than it; soon, several bolts of lightning wound around the centipede along the tree trunk.
Once entwined by the lightning, the faces on it froze for an instant; with this pause, those howls and wails vanished in a moment, giving Xuan Xia some peace.
It was at this time that Ren Tongjin flung out a red thread.
That red thread was just like the one that had encircled the Illusionary Scenery entrance before, with a small bell strung on every segment.
At this moment, as the red thread was flung out, bell chimes rang out; soon, as if it had a spirit, it circled around and tightly bound the centipede to the tree trunk.
Ren Tongjin shouted at the same time, “Hurry and go.”
He actually had no intention of clashing head-on with the centipede.
Xuan Xia was puzzled, but Ren Tongjin didn’t forget to pull her along; she could only run after him.
The two ran madly upward without looking back.
After running who knows how long, Ren Tongjin stopped first; Xuan Xia followed suit and stopped too; the two adjusted their breathing while vigilantly scanning the surroundings.
The surroundings were completely quiet; the trees and grass leaves didn’t move an inch, and even the rain had stopped at some point.
After confirming it was temporarily safe, the two looked at each other.
Xuan Xia asked him, “Why run? What if that was the evil spirit controlling this Illusionary Scenery?”
Ren Tongjin was very certain, “It wasn’t; that was just Summer Insect Fungus.”
Summer Insect Fungus?
Xuan Xia belatedly remembered what this thing was.
Who knows which Mystic Sect ancestor gave it this name; the so-called Summer Insect Fungus was actually just a composite of malevolent spirits, no different from a swarm of ants clinging to carrion.
The strongest one leads, the rest follow; moreover, this Summer Insect Fungus has no fixed form and can endlessly absorb malevolent spirits, growing one segment for each one it attaches.
Like the one just now, that could be considered very powerful, having attached so many; no wonder Xuan Xia heard millions of voices grieving together.
Summer Insect Fungus isn’t all that powerful and isn’t too hard to deal with, but it’s just troublesome to handle, after all, it’s attached too many malevolent spirits.
Thinking of this, Xuan Xia finally understood why Ren Tongjin had run.
“You don’t know about Summer Insect Fungus?” Ren Tongjin saw her silent for a long time and thought she didn’t know what Summer Insect Fungus was, so he looked at her suspiciously.
People from the Mystic Sect couldn’t possibly not know these basic things.
“Of course I know.” Xuan Xia said irritably, “It’s just a composite of malevolent spirits.”
“Mm.” Ren Tongjin didn’t know what he was suspecting either; clearly, he had just seen her cast the Five Thunders Spell with his own eyes.
The next second, it was Xuan Xia’s turn to suspect him, “Did your Spirit Control Technique point the wrong way? Are they really in this direction? Can’t avoid encountering Summer Insect Fungus?”
Ren Tongjin fell silent.
Speaking of direction, after this bout of running, they no longer knew if the direction was still correct.
After a staring contest, Xuan Xia suggested, “How about you try again?”
Ren Tongjin: “…”
They’d already come this far; he had to try even if he didn’t want to.
Ren Tongjin wanted to pick a leaf again, but Xuan Xia stopped him and took out a talisman paper from her bag and handed it to him, “Better use this.”
At least the talisman paper’s color was brighter and should work better than a leaf.
Ren Tongjin took the talisman, looked at it twice, then cast the spell again.
Soon, the talisman paper rose into the air, shooting straight toward one direction on the mountain top, but only for an instant; as if it hit something, the cinnabar runes lit up brightly, then it burned up completely.
See, it was indeed much better than a leaf.
Ren Tongjin started coughing dully again; Xuan Xia withdrew her gaze from the talisman paper and looked toward him.
Fortunately, he just coughed for a bit and had no other issues.
After coughing comfortably, Ren Tongjin pointed ahead with a hoarse voice, “Let’s go,” signaling Xuan Xia to go first.
The two silently headed straight toward the mountain top; after arduously climbing a stretch and pushing aside the tree branches and weeds blocking their line of sight, a winding path suddenly appeared ahead.
She could tell it was a path only because there was a wooden pole beside the path, with a lantern hanging on it that was about to go out but hadn’t yet.
In addition, there was some huddled mass under the wooden pole.
As soon as Xuan Xia saw that dark shadow, she heard a few faint sobs.
This sobbing sound appearing so inexplicably in the quiet atmosphere really made one suspect if there was another Summer Insect Fungus.
However… Xuan Xia heard a familiar feeling in the faint sound.
She couldn’t help but relax and walked toward that lantern pole.
The closer she got, the clearer the sobbing became; no kidding, this low whimpering was because it was being suppressed.
Xuan Xia walked right up, but the person immersed in emotion didn’t notice her.
After waiting three seconds and confirming this fool still hadn’t noticed her, Xuan Xia couldn’t help but speak, “Aren’t you embarrassed?”
Qu Xingxuan hiccuped and choked.
The next second, he looked up at Xuan Xia in near disbelief.
Unfortunately, his eyes were blurred with tears, so he couldn’t see clearly.
Qu Xingxuan lowered his head and wiped his eyes roughly, then looked up again; this time he saw clearly.
But he started doubting again; could it be that he was hallucinating?
But even if it was a hallucination, Qu Xingxuan still asked, “How are you here?”
“Guess.”
Qu Xingxuan: “…”
Just as he was struggling whether to guess, his line of sight glanced over, and he saw Ren Tongjin again.
At this, Qu Xingxuan somewhat came to his senses.
He couldn’t possibly hallucinate Ren Tongjin!
Thinking this way, Qu Xingxuan shot to his feet.
“You’re really here!” he exclaimed in disbelief.
“Yeah.”
Qu Xingxuan blinked, momentarily not knowing what to say.
The surprise came too suddenly, to the point that his tears were about to well up again.
Ren Tongjin had to interrupt his emotions, “Why are you here alone? Where are the others?”
Qu Xingxuan held back his tears, his expression darkening; then he pointed backward.
Ren Tongjin followed his pointing and looked toward the end of that winding path.
Unfortunately, the night was too dark in the distance, so he couldn’t see clearly what was at the end.
Ren Tongjin then said, “I’ll go take a look.”
