newbobooks Chapter 18: An Empty City
Chapter 18: An Empty City
In the evening, Lin Zhen stopped to make a fire and set up a bonfire. Lin Zhen used chicken blood to draw a circle with the fire as the center of his resting place, and wrote an exorcism spell in the circle before sitting down to rest. Bai Qiong was already tired I had to fall asleep, lying on the ground with Lin Zhen's clothes on.
Looking at the burning flames, Lin Zhen yawned boredly.I thought to myself that living in Tokyo was so lazy that I was a little tired after walking a few steps.Then he thought of Xiao Ling, his junior brother who gave him such a headache, recalling all the past, it can be seen that this junior brother treated him quite well, but why did he abandon him for such a big matter?Is there any reason?
Thinking about it, Lin Zhen felt a little sleepy, so she closed her eyes and prepared to rest for a while
The evening wind was gentle, and the trees made rustling sounds, one after another, as if they were humming.
However, it was midsummer, but there were no cicadas singing, and everything was quiet except for the sound of the wind.
Lin Zhen didn't know how long he had been asleep. He was awakened by the induction of the spell. When he woke up, it was still dark, the fire had been extinguished, and there was a slight chill in the air.
He subconsciously grabbed Bai Qiong's hand, held the sword in the other hand, and held his breath.
Suddenly, he grabbed Bai Qiong and jumped up the tree.
"Boom—" There was only a loud noise, and a huge object had already fallen on the place where he and Bai Qiong were staying.
"Oh, what... what's wrong?!" Bai Qiong was awakened by the loud noise, saw the darkness, and released fox fire with his backhand.
The faint blue flame instantly illuminated the giant, which was the tail of a boa constrictor.
Before Lin Zhen could say a word, in the darkness, a pair of huge green eyes suddenly approached. Lin Zhen picked up Bai Qiong with one hand, and jumped onto another tree before the tree was smashed by the snake's head that suddenly stretched out. Curse and drop the fire talisman.
Flames rose from the ground and burned the tail of the snake demon. In an instant, there was a loud noise, and the snake demon swung its tail and chopped off the surrounding trees.
Bai Qiong has returned to its original form, standing on Lin Zhen's shoulder, surrounded by fox fire, and his hair is standing on end.
The fire illuminated everything, and Lin Zhen, who was standing on the ground, looked up and saw the true face of the snake demon, and couldn't help being stunned.
What a gigantic snake demon, at least a thousand years old!I saw the purple-black scales all over his body glowing coldly, and his eyes, which were as big as three windows, stared straight at them.Lin Zhen guessed that he didn't notice it when he entered the mountain before, so it is very likely that it has been sleeping underground all year round, and at this time it was attracted by something and returned to the ground.
What attracted you?
Lin Zhen's eyes fell on Bai Qiong, could it be that he was attracted by the spiritual light on Bai Qiong's body?I'm afraid it's unlikely, this kind of old monster has thousands of years of cultivation, so he won't be as rare as other little monsters like Bai Qiong.
Bai Qiong gasped and said, "Lin Zhen, you can't beat him."
Lin Zhen also knew that her strength was not enough to fight against such an old monster, so she gritted her teeth and released ten body-binding spells. Taking advantage of the ten seconds before the snake demon was trapped, she picked up Bai Qiong and fled to the north of the forest.
Naturally, the snake demon would not let it go, struggled to release the spell, and rushed to the north, on a rampage, breaking a whole forest of trees.
Lin Zhen took Bai Qiong to hide under the cover of the trees, but after all, he was not as fast as the old snake.I only felt a tightness around my waist, and then a section of snake tail wrapped around my waist and dragged me straight behind.
"You bastard, let me go of Lin Zhen!" Bai Qiong landed on the snake's tail and began to bite, but the snake's scales were too thick, and soon he cut his mouth full of blood, but he didn't let go at all, while using Foxfire was beating the tail of the snake.
Lin Zhen was so entangled by the snake's tail that she couldn't move, she just felt so tight that she could hardly breathe.But he struggled to stab the snake's tail with his sword, but he couldn't pierce the hard scales at all.Seeing that he was about to be dragged to the snake's head, he looked at the blue evil spirit bead on his wrist, and with a flash of spirit, he took off the bead chain with difficulty, put it on the tip of the sword, and then stabbed at the snake's tail!
The evil spirit bead emitted a blue light, which turned into a beam of light and melted on the surface of the sword tip, penetrating into the snake scales little by little.Immediately afterwards, the snake's blood spattered Lin Zhen's face, and the snake's tail was successfully stabbed by Lin Zhen!
Unexpectedly, the snake demon would suffer pain, and subconsciously let go of Lin Zhen. Lin Zhen was thrown more than ten meters away, rolled on the ground several times, and almost spit out a mouthful of blood.
Bai Qiong also ran over, quickly licked Lin Zhen awake, and said, "Good job! Let's run quickly!"
Enduring the pain, Lin Zhen climbed up, his running speed was not as fast as before, so he had to let Bai Qiong run in front and he followed behind.
But the move just now didn't stop the snake demon from chasing them. After running for a while, there was another sound of smashing trees behind him.Panting for breath, Lin Zhen cast a fire curse with the last of her strength, and threw it behind her, hoping to delay it for a while.
One person and one fox were chased by the snake demon in this way, and ran to the north, because if you go north, the forest will come to an end.
Gradually, Lin Zhen felt that the speed of the snake demon slowed down, but he and Bai Qiong did not dare to slack off at all, and continued to go northward. After running away for an unknown amount of time, the two finally escaped from the forest and accepted To the baptism of dawn.
"Finally... finally escaped." Bai Qiong was out of breath, and the whole fox was about to lie on the ground tired.
Although Lin Zhen was tired, when he heard the sound of "rusting" from the woods behind him, he did not relax at all, picked up Bai Qiong, and went straight to the city gate ahead.
Now that Lin Zhen recalled it, it seemed that the purpose of this snake demon was to drive them to this city.
It was probably Yin time at this time, but the gate of the city was already wide open.Lin Zhen didn't notice anything strange at that time, she just wanted to take Bai Qiong to a safe place.After entering the city, Lin Zhen realized the strangeness here.
There is no one guarding the city gates, the doors on the streets are closed, no shops are open, and no one walks in the streets and alleys. The whole city is like an empty city, standing silently in the faint mist, emitting silk There was a hint of cold air, which made the August day also feel a little cool.
Bai Qiong was stunned: "This...why is there no trace of popularity in this city?"
Beast monsters are the most sensitive to breath, Yan Yi is like this, and Bai Qiong is naturally not bad.Hearing what Bai Qiong said, Lin Zhen's expression darkened, and he said, "Is this an empty city?"
"Could it be that the people here have been eaten by that big snake demon?" Bai Qiong swallowed, "Good guy, no wonder it grows so big."
Lin Zhen took Bai Qiong for another walk, looked around, and then refuted Bai Qiong's statement: "It's not the snake demon. The buildings here are intact. If the snake demon did it, it would not be so tidy."
The streets here, unscathed, look like people haven't woken up or the whole city has left.
Hearing the words, Bai Qiong turned into a human again, and the child's smile disappeared, and he became serious instead: "Lin Zhen, you wait behind me, I'll knock on the people in an inn."
Lin Zhen nodded. Bai Qiong was a monster, and he could handle it no matter if it was a human or a monster.So he stood not far away, watching Bai Qiong carefully knock on the name of an inn.
"Boom boom boom——"
The knock on the door was not loud at first, but it was so clear and abrupt in the silent city, Bai Qiong shook his head, afraid that he would alarm some troublesome guy.
No one answered the door.
So I tried several houses, but no one or a demon came to open the door.
Bai Qiong sighed, frowned and said, "Lin Zhen, we have to leave here quickly, I have a bad feeling, this whole city is like a huge coffin."
Hearing this, Lin Zhen felt a "thump" in his heart, and felt a little nervous. The city gate he entered could not go out. If the snake demon was lying in ambush behind him, he must have thrown himself into a trap.So the two could only walk along the street, remembering the way while walking, looking for another city gate.
Cities in the Southern Dynasties generally had four gates, east, west, north, and the two of them just entered through the south gate. It stands to reason that if you walk forward, you will always find the corresponding north gate.
However, Bai Qiong and Lin Zhen went around, only to find that they could only go back to the original point. It was like a ghost hitting a wall. They couldn't get out of the section after entering from the south gate.
"Who is so boring to set up an enchantment here?" Bai Qiong snorted, sitting exhausted on the steps of the inn door that he had knocked on before.
Lin Zhen was also exhausted. She fled in a hurry just now and left her pack in the woods. Now she can't even drink a sip of water.I thought that no matter how I came to Longdu, I would encounter strange things one after another, and I really knew it all.
Bai Qiong looked at the sky and wailed, "Isn't it just that I ran away from home? Why are there so many troubles? Am I destined to stay in that icy and snowy place like Xixue!"
Lin Zhen said in a deep voice: "Stop howling, be careful to startle something bad."
Bai Qiong looked at him, rolled his eyes, and suddenly stood up and said, "It's better to make trouble out of them than we don't even know what's hidden in this empty city." Then, without waiting for Lin Zhen's answer, He kicked hard at the door of the inn.
Lin Zhen was startled, Bai Qiong's kick could be said to be full of strength, and the sound was particularly creepy in the empty city.
"Squeak—" The old wooden door couldn't bear the kick of the strange fox, and it was kicked open with a loud noise.
Bai Qiong and Lin Zhen stood still outside the door, looking ready to go, but after waiting for a while, no evil spirits rushed out of the door, and there was no movement around them.
Bai Qiong said: "It seems that it is really empty, Lin Zhen, let's go in and rest."
Lin Zhen grabbed Bai Qiong who wanted to go in, frowned and said, "We haven't figured out what's going on in this city yet, how dare you go in rashly?"
Bai Qiong said: "I hope something will happen, so that we can have countermeasures. If you stay outside, you and I will be exhausted, and any situation will be more or less ominous. Come in and rest, even if something is wrong, it is considered I have some clues about this ruined city."
Lin Zhen didn't expect Bai Qiong to say such a thing. After thinking about it carefully, it is not unreasonable. Probably Bai Qiong's ideas were also cultivated by Yan Jing.He simply followed Bai Qiong into the inn, and saw that the tables, chairs and wine cabinets in the inn were neat and tidy, not even a speck of dust.
The two went upstairs lightly, and found that every guest room was open. At this time, the sky was already bright, and the sun shone through the mist, bringing a trace of coolness into the room. Lin Zhen could not feel any evil spirit.
They entered a guest room closest to the stairs. The room was not big, but it had everything.
The two closed the door, and Lin Zhen checked everything including behind the screen and under the bed, and there was nothing unusual.He sat on the bed, extremely sleepy, and saw that the quilt was folded and placed again, revealing emerald green satin, embroidered on it was not cloud algae or golden phoenix, but a black pattern that looked like a bird.
What's this?Is it a crow?Lin Zhen was surprised, he had never seen anyone embroider crows on the quilt.
When Bai Qiong saw it, he also felt strange, so he ran to other rooms to have a look, and found that the quilts in all the rooms were embroidered with crows.
"Could it be that the crow is the patron saint of this city?" Bai Qiong speculated boldly.
Lin Zhen didn't think so, but her head was so dizzy that she couldn't think of a way out.Bai Qiong poured him a glass of water, "I didn't expect that there is even water and food here, you drink it quickly, I've smelled it, it's just ordinary water."
Lin Zhen was extremely thirsty, but she tested the water with a spiritual technique, and found that it was ordinary water, so she drank it.
As soon as he drank it, Bai Qiong suddenly said: "I heard from the master that Longdu and the vicinity of Longdu were originally the territory of Demon King Ye Yu."
Bai Qiong's eyes were watery, but now they were covered with fear: "It is said that Ye Yu's body is a crow."