Chapter 160
Chapter 160
Zhang Xiangyun immediately slid down the wall into the deep pit, rushing toward Luo Fu.
Luo Fu's eyes were bloodshot red, filled with blood vessels, malevolent energy saturating his entire being. He wanted to slap and kick anyone he saw.
Sensing someone approaching, Luo Fu looked over with eyes full of impatience, about to strike. Only after seeing clearly it was Zhang Xiangyun did he restrain himself.
"Calm down first, there's no immediate danger now." Zhang Xiangyun signaled Luo Fu with his eyes that Li Jin Shuang was still nearby.
Luo Fu pressed his right hand against his left wrist pulse, forcing himself to calm down.
Li Jin Shuang didn't come over. She looked up toward the hidden door above, also wondering where Nangong Sui had gone.
Zhang Xiangyun watched over Luo Fu as he calmed down. After the Lan Corpse drug effect passed, Luo Fu was drenched in sweat and extremely weak, lacking even the strength to stand.
Luo Fu slumped against the deep pit wall. Zhang Xiangyun gave him two Energy Recovery Pills to stabilize his breathing, positioning himself deliberately to block Li Jin Shuang's line of sight.
Zhang Xiangyun lowered his voice to ask Luo Fu: "What dosage?"
His question was somewhat gritted through teeth. He thought Luo Fu's action was quite impulsive.
If Hu Gui hadn't escaped but continued fighting instead, it would have been very disadvantageous for Luo Fu. If Situ Jin learned about the Lan Corpse matter, that would be troublesome.
Situ Jin was the Situ family's young master. Getting him to keep quiet wouldn't be easy.
"One mouthful," Luo Fu replied weakly.
After hearing this, Zhang Xiangyun's expression softened somewhat. He patted Luo Fu's back and said: "Rest first."
After speaking, he frowned as well, glancing at his blood-stained shoulder. The wound had torn open, causing him to sweat profusely from pain. Zhang Xiangyun reopened his Mechanism Box to get medicine, treating both his and Luo Fu's injuries.
Li Jin Shuang remained silent throughout.
While treating his wound, Zhang Xiangyun distracted himself by asking her: "You really don't know where Nangong Sui is?"
Li Jin Shuang said: "I don't know."
"How did you two get down here?" Zhang Xiangyun asked again.
Li Jin Shuang said: "I already told you."
Zhang Xiangyun looked up, glancing at Li Jin Shuang standing not far away: "You only said Nangong Sui wanted to find Mei Liangyu. How did she confirm Mei Liangyu was in the Underwater Mechanism City?"
Li Jin Shuang was still looking at the mechanism hidden door above, answering irrelevantly: "Snuck onto the ship."
Zhang Xiangyun examined the Mechanism School clothing Li Jin Shuang wore and was temporarily convinced. He rewrapped his bandages and asked: "Then how did you and Nangong Sui get separated?"
"There were many people on the ship. When that man kidnapped Situ Jin and fighting broke out, the scene was too chaotic, so we got separated," Li Jin Shuang said.
Zhang Xiangyun thought to himself that Li Jin Shuang still had some self-preservation ability. Her sword spirit just now had withstood the Heavenly Gang Earth Fiend Thunder without disappearing. If it were someone else's sword spirit, it would have been obliterated the first time it was struck by purple lightning.
As for Nangong Sui... she could only pray for her own good fortune.
After a while, Zhang Xiangyun thought again that it wouldn't work if Nangong Sui really got into trouble. She was, after all, Princess Nangong of Qingyang, with status and position. If something happened to her while following him, that would be quite troublesome too.
"Since Nangong Sui wants to find Mei Liangyu, does she have some information?" Zhang Xiangyun asked.
Li Jin Shuang answered: "I don't know."
Zhang Xiangyun mentally hissed. Talking with Li Jin Shuang always gave him the feeling of punching cotton.
He tried various ways to strike up conversation with Li Jin Shuang, asking everything he wanted to know before finally quieting down.
Neither Zhang Xiangyun nor Li Jin Shuang thought Situ Jin could catch up to anyone. Sure enough, when Situ Jin returned, he was alone with an unpleasant expression.
"How did it go?" Zhang Xiangyun was first to ask.
"He escaped," Situ Jin answered, looking up at Zhang Xiangyun. "I need to go out and contact the people on the Spirit Bird first. What did you come in here to do?"
"Secret," Zhang Xiangyun refused to answer. "I can enter openly and legitimately, unlike that person who had to sneak around."
Situ Jin looked Zhang Xiangyun up and down with suspicion but was too lazy to bother with him, anxious to go out and find Situ Ling Kui and the others. He walked two steps toward the exit, then stopped and turned back to look at Li Jin Shuang, asking her: "Li Jin Shuang, are you coming with them or leaving with me?"
Zhang Xiangyun's gaze moved back and forth between the two, eyes slightly narrowed.
Li Jin Shuang seemed to be thinking and didn't answer immediately.
Situ Jin glanced at Zhang Xiangyun from the corner of his eye. Having regained his noble young master's bearing, he said slowly: "Aren't you looking for Nangong Sui?"
Li Jin Shuang then stepped forward to follow.
Zhang Xiangyun didn't stop them, watching the two leave.
Situ Jin led Li Jin Shuang into the Dragon Stairs. After the Dragon Stairs door closed, he said: "Are you familiar with Zhang Xiangyun?"
Li Jin Shuang said: "Not familiar."
Situ Jin nodded, thinking to himself that he knew it. After considering for a moment, his tone carried some comforting meaning: "I won't ask about your reason for coming to Northern Kun City, but you'd better change into Situ family clothes. That way I can explain better."
Li Jin Shuang, standing behind him, looked up with clear, bright eyes.
……
Coiling Dragon Stone Cave.
Xing Chun stepped on the dark river ice, engaging in a battle of wits with the sea fire ahead. Finally getting a bloody nose for his efforts, he returned dejectedly to the stone cave passage, staring at his two unconscious good brothers. Taking a deep breath, he roared with full energy: "Wake up!"
The two unconscious men showed no reaction.
Xing Chun touched his nose and sat down facing them against the stone railing, sighing: "What exactly is that cursed thing? How can such a thing exist in the world? Could it be Strange Fire? If it's Strange Fire, then we're really done for. Do you two understand what Strange Fire is?"
He lowered his head and wiped his face. Before he could wipe twice, he heard a somewhat hoarse male voice respond: "Not really."
Another low, hoarse male voice slowly asked: "What fire?"
Mei Liangyu woke up frowning, his expression cold and weary. Having not spoken for a long time, when he opened his mouth again, his voice sounded extremely cold and deep: "He said it's Strange Fire."
Zhongli Shan opened his eyes and looked at Xing Chun: "Can we still live then?"
Xing Chun looked at them both, tears of joy streaming down: "You finally woke up!"
Mei Liangyu said expressionlessly: "That shout of yours just now would wake even the dead to ask why you're yelling so loudly."
Xing Chun grabbed Zhongli Shan's hand and shook it: "How do you feel? Has your Five Elements Energy recovered? Your hand was broken in the Sea Whirlpool, and you lost your sword too. The bone shouldn't be fractured, move it around."
After speaking, he reached out to pinch Mei Liangyu's face, making a figure "eight" gesture in front of his eyes, asking: "Do you know you were poisoned? But I'm not sure if it's Six Mysterious Wood poison or Silver River Water poison. Mei Mei, how many is this?"
Mei Liangyu lifted his eyelids and said coldly: "One."
After hearing this, Xing Chun gasped and slapped his thigh hard: "It's over, the poison made him stupid!"
Zhongli Shan sat up cross-legged, moving his shoulders and glancing at Mei Liangyu beside him. Mei Liangyu's current aura was cold with a hint of fierceness. This state usually appeared after Mei Liangyu woke up. He and Xing Chun were already accustomed to it and didn't mind.
"It's fortunate the poison didn't make him mute," Zhongli Shan said, then stretched his arms. Hearing a crack, both Mei Liangyu and Xing Chun turned to stare at him.
Zhongli Shan maintained his posture, saying with unchanged expression: "Seems like it's broken."
Mei Liangyu said indifferently: "If you hadn't moved it just now, it wouldn't have broken."
Xing Chun scolded in frustration: "Are you stupid!"
Zhongli Shan leaned back against the wall, fine beads of sweat already on his forehead. Xing Chun helped him reset the bone while cursing, then after cursing Zhongli Shan, he cursed the sea fire trapping them.
Listening to Xing Chun curse this and that, both Mei Liangyu and Zhongli Shan suspected he had been corrupted by Pang Rong.
"We all managed to come out of the Sea Whirlpool alive. We must get out and let Cang Shu and the others know. I still need to go home this year. When I get back, I'll have the steward write this into the family chronicles. My father can record me as an 'unfilial descendant of the Xing family,' but it must include my glorious deed of surviving a Sea Whirlpool!"
Xing Chun became more agitated as he spoke: "But this thing is blocking my path home. It won't let me go back. I've tried all the Nine Schools Arts I know, but not only can't I extinguish it, getting too close will also drain my Five Elements Energy."
"Do you know how I've spent these past few days?!"
After Xing Chun finished speaking angrily, he applied force with his hands, making Zhongli Shan gasp sharply from pain.
"How many days has it been?" Mei Liangyu still leaned against the wall, only bending one leg with one hand resting on his knee, looking up at the flickering flames in the distance.
"About three days, I think? There's no way to accurately estimate time in this place." Xing Chun finished setting Zhongli Shan's arm and immediately deflated, becoming listless. "Now it's my turn to sleep. You two use your brains to think of a solution."
He fell asleep as soon as he said he would, closing his eyes and tilting his head.
Mei Liangyu and Zhongli Shan didn't stop him. The two quietly examined their surroundings, one looking at the stone cave behind them, the other at the sea fire ahead.
"Buddhist School collections," Zhongli Shan said, holding his right arm while slowly scanning the hundreds of small Buddha niches on the stone cave wall, staring at the items inside. "Sutra scrolls, demon-subduing pestles, jade Buddhas, black wooden fish, red kasayas, all rare Buddhist School-related collections."
"People only remember the destructive power of Sea Whirlpools, easily overlooking that Sea Whirlpools also possess transportation power. It's just uncontrollable, and no living thing can leave a Sea Whirlpool." Mei Liangyu stared intently at the sea fire ahead. "There couldn't be a dark river Buddha cave in the sea. If I'm not mistaken, this is inside the Underwater Mechanism City."
Zhongli Shan looked again at the three Buddha statues, his gaze settling on the middle sitting Buddha. After examining it for a long time, he pondered: "Acala, one of the Three Dharma Forms, benevolent countenance. The other two statues seem to be wrathful dharma forms casting techniques, but I'm not certain."
"You understand this too?" Mei Liangyu turned his head.
Zhongli Shan looked down at him, raising an eyebrow: "I know a little."
Mei Liangyu squinted, his eyes saying two words: Still pretending?
"My mother was an orphan who grew up in a rural Buddhist temple from childhood. I heard her mention these things when I was young," Zhongli Shan said without changing expression, looking back at the Buddha statues. "But my mother was an ordinary practitioner. She was just familiar with some sutras and dharma names."
The Buddhist School had been dormant on the Xuangu Continent for hundreds of years. Buddhist temples were becoming fewer and fewer. Even if they still existed in some corner of the world, they would be old and dilapidated.
Hearing these words, Mei Liangyu's mind conjured an image of a purple-clothed woman holding his hand as they walked up stone steps:
Green misty rain shrouded the surroundings, mist swirling, distant mountains layered in emerald, ancient pines dripping with dew nearby, moss growing on the stone steps underfoot, everything damp and moist.
Entering the mountain gate, seeing the golden bell, wooden fish sounds echoing in the hall, Five Elements Energy striking the bell, the sound permeating the entire green mountain.
The hall doors were wide open, blurred figures moving about, curtains hanging in the hall swaying gently in the morning breeze, the candlelight on the incense table seemed shrouded in smoke, seemingly close at hand yet distant as the horizon.
This Buddhist temple was bright red in color, with gilt door pillars and painted beam corridors, vivid yet ancient.
The Yan Kingdom Eldest Princess held his hand and stopped in the courtyard. When he looked up, he saw the towering black pagoda behind them.
It was hidden in clouds and mist, silently overlooking heaven and earth.
Mei Liangyu lowered his eyes, immersed in the partially recovered memories, briefly losing focus.
He couldn't remember everything, but what he had already recalled was enough to make him re-examine his current life.
Zhongli Shan said: "It looks like a Buddhist repository, used for worship or collection. If this is the Underwater Mechanism City, the Mechanism School families might be creating something very innovative related to Buddhist School Nine Schools Arts."
He spoke seriously, but Mei Liangyu could hear the underlying meaning. Zhongli Shan couldn't figure out what connection there could be between the Underwater Mechanism City and a Buddhist repository, no matter how hard he thought.
"What use the Buddhist repository has doesn't matter. What's important is this sea fire burning everywhere." Mei Liangyu stood up, looking up above. On the upper walls of the stone cave were also circles of still-burning sea fire, blocking their escape route.
Zhongli Shan frowned at his words: "How could a Sea Whirlpool suddenly appear? Shouldn't it be fixed in place?"
Mei Liangyu said indifferently: "As long as you're alive, you can witness all kinds of strange events."
Zhongli Shan was quiet for a moment, then turned to look at Mei Liangyu and asked: "What are you angry about?"
Mei Liangyu didn't even blink: "Don't ask. I'm often angry."
Zhongli Shan nodded: "True."
He continued asking: "Is the poison from Six Mysterious Wood or Silver River Water?"
Mei Liangyu said: "Probably both."
Zhongli Shan asked: "Can you survive?"
Mei Liangyu stared at the Buddha statue: "Won't die for now."
Zhongli Shan raised an eyebrow: "You won't die from all this?"
Mei Liangyu slowly turned to look at him, smiling without warmth: "Guess what I'm angry about?"
Zhongli Shan walked past him directly toward the frozen dark river: "Come on, let's go look at the sea fire."