"Go!" Feng Qianjun responded and couldn"t be bothered with Xiang Shu anymore, Xiang Shu was the only one who could seek blessings for himself now. He looped his arm around Chen Xing on the spot and dragged him towards the entrance. At the moment Xiang Shu rushed forward, the two of them ducked below the belly of the black armoured generals" horse and slid right across!
Chen Xing still wanted to look back, but Feng Qianjun roared, "Don"t look anymore!" Then turned Chen Xing"s head back, picked him up, and ran. Within an instant, a distance of a zhang had already been pulled apart, but Chen Xing was still waving at Xiang Shu, "Xiang Shu! Run!!!"
Xiang Shu brandished the scabbard, which gleamed with a brilliant light under the murky sky. The black armoured warrior spurred its horse forward to kill kim, yet Xiang Shu drew a short distance away without facing it. Within the time taken for a short breath, the scabbard spun and got rid of an arm of the soldier that had rushed right in front of him!
The scabbard was forged from pure steel mixed with gold and silver thread and was very difficult to use. However, in Xiang Shu"s hands, it could be used as a soft whip. With just a slight shake, radiant light rays obscured the sky.
The enemies regrouped before turning around to face Xiang Shu. It was dead silent. The warriors, who had their arms and legs cut off by Xiang Shu, began picking up their broken limbs from the floor and reconnected them to their bodies. The areas where their body parts joined together instantly produced soft and wriggling rotten meat that knit the broken sections back together again.
"Who are you people?!" Xiang Shu turned around, withdrew the scabbard, and blocked in front of the valley"s entrance. His eyes were wide open as he roared angrily, "What relationship does Kjera have with you guys?! Speak!"
No one answered Xiang Shu. All he saw was the black armoured general raise his halberd —— it was a signal to charge.
The group of shadow warriors bowed one after another, and along with their skeletal warhorses, they launched a fierce charge!
At the entrance of the Exorcism Department in Headquarters, Chen Xing felt like he knocked into something as he pa.s.sed through an invisible wall.
Feng Qianjun, "What do we do next? It"s all up to you now!"
Chen Xing went underground and looked up at the plaque outside this residence; four large words that were reversed in the reflection of a mirror appeared on the plague, "Everything has One Origin".
Outside the entrance stood another stone tablet, and on it, the words "Han Dynasty Exorcism Department Headquarters" were written.
Chen Xing exclaimed, "Found it! This is great! I knew it"d be here!"
Chen Xing ran quickly into the Exorcism Department. The arrangement of decor inside was almost exactly the same as the description in the books he read, but there was no one in it. Although he knew that only drought fiends remained in the mirror world and that there were no more living people here, he still held onto the last thread of hope as he shouted, "Is anybody here?"
"Is anybody here, is anybody here, is anybody here……"
Only echoes replied to him.
Feng Qianjun looked to his left and right, then shouted, "Are there any magic weapons here? Think of a way to push the enemies back!"
Chen Xing was incredibly anxious; there were still pursuing hordes outside. Even if there are magic weapons in the Exorcism Department, of what use would they be in the present?
Within the main hall of the Exorcism Department, the plaque in the middle was still inscribed with the four reversed words, "Illuminate the Vast Expanse", while a glossy black and heavy sword was placed underneath it. Feng Qianjun went forward to take the sword, but he couldn"t. It was as if the sword had been welded firmly to the sword stand. He ran to the second floor and said, "Oh, this is bad. Tianchi, your Protector"s in a bit of a danger."
Chen Xing followed him up in a hurry, only to see Xiang Shu running crazily in front of the charging enemies as he dashed towards the far away valley.
Xiang Shu understood very well that one could not try to meet a charging army head-on when resisting them, and that he had to at least pull apart a distance between them thrice. Exhaust the strength of the other side first before mounting a counterattack. However, if he continued rushing forward, he would rush straight to the entrance of the Exorcism Department, so he had to start circling around and engage in scuffles with the enemy.
Suddenly, a three-foot-long wooden arrow whistled as it flew over, bringing along with it a strong gale as it lodged itself into a tree!
Xiang Shu looked up and saw that on the third floor of the Exorcism Department, Chen Xing and Feng Qianjun each occupied a corner as they operated a grounded repeating crossbow. Chen Xing shouted, "Lure the fiends over!"
Xiang Shu immediately rushed to the front of the Exorcism Department. Chen Xing exerted a lot of strength to activate the mechanism and turn the repeating crossbow. As soon as the two of them pulled the mechanism, a series of arrows shot out in rapid succession. Sharp arrows shot out of the arrow box with a rattle that fell upon level ground beyond the Exorcism Department"s gate like a torrential downpour!
Xiang Shu almost got pierced right through and roared, "Do you even know how to shoot arrows?!"
"Of course not!" Chen Xing shouted, "Don"t be so demanding! Make do a little!"
Feng Qianjun shouted, "I was the one who shot that arrow! Never mind, I"ll come down to help you ba!"
As he spoke, Feng Qianjun jumped down from the third floor, drew his Sen Luo sabre, and went to support Xiang Shu.
At this moment, the two of them finally experienced how formidable Chen Xing"s Iuppiter was; Chen Xing shouted while he operated the repeating crossbow, shooting arrows while spinning around, yet none of the arrows shot out by the repeating cross was shot in vain — no matter where it aimed at and no matter where the crossbow pointed towards, all of the arrows would lodge themselves into the heads of living corpses, and every shot took one head down. The black armoured general was actually stunned, and before the time taken for half an incense stick to burn pa.s.sed, his subordinates had all fallen to the ground.
The general decisively spurred its horse to turn tail and run. Chen Xing operated the repeating crossbow and for his last arrow, he shouted, "Xiu!"
Chen Xing withdrew the crossbow and retreated, but accidentally stumbled in front of the crossbow and grabbed onto the trigger when he fell. The angle of the repeating crossbow deflected, and its arrow shot straight into the sky at an angle. Xiang Shu and Feng Qianjun kept their weapons at the same time; they watched the arc drawn out by the arrow. The general was riding its horse as it rushed out of the valley. The arrow flew over a hundred steps and fell obliquely, then hit the helmet with a "clang", snapping the general"s neck such that its head whirled out into the air.
Without saying another word, Xiang Shu rushed out. The general seemed to realise something and dashed over to grab its head, but Xiang Shu leapt into mid air, spun around dashingly like he was playing cuju, and kicked!
Xiang Shu intercepted the general"s head and sent it flying with a kick. Feng Qianjun chased after him, did a somersault with one hand on the ground, continued the relay by performing another kick, and kicked the head straight into the Exorcism Department.
Chen Xing followed suit and kicked the head rolling down the stairs from the third floor. However, he had just kicked the head when his kick connected with a "clang", and it hurt so much he howled in pain. That helmet was really too hard; it smashed through two staircase boards in a row and landed with a "thud", rousing a cloud of dust.
Xiang Shu and Feng Qianjun retreated safely into the Exorcism Department. The general had become a headless knight and was currently wandering around on horseback outside as it wanted to retrieve its head. Xiang Shu shook his scabbard out, yet the general didn"t come and just left.
Chen Xing went to the center of the hall and grabbed the sword. As he wielded it casually, the heavy iron sword began shining with a white light.
Chen Xing, “?"
A circle of luminous incantation patterns appeared on the ground around the heavy iron sword.
Xiang Shu and Feng Qianjun looked at the sword at the same time. Chen Xing had lifted it without any effort. He looked down at it with a baffled expression before throwing it to Xiang Shu.
Xiang Shu caught it, swung the sword, and briefly brandished it with one hand. Just as he was about to run out to give chase, the headless general had already retreated out of the canyon.
The three of them breathed a sigh of relief at the same time.
Chen Xing strutted over to sit on the couch in the Exorcism Department"s main hall. With open arms and his two legs shaking, he said, "See? Didn"t you still have to rely on me in the end?"
Xiang Shu"s five fingers convulsed slightly, then he took a deep breath. Feng Qianjun said, "This dear little brother really is amazing, it"s just that……how are we supposed to get out now? Do you have an idea?"
Chen Xing answered, "Let"s take a break, I"m so tired. People have always been the ones to think of a way out. Since we could enter this place, then we"ll definitely be able to go out too."
Feng Qianjun picked up the head in the hall and pulled up the helmet, revealing the indigo blue face inside.
"Be careful, it might bite." Chen Xing reminded.
Xiang Shu frowned and said calmly, "This group doesn"t seem like the usual drought fiends. After their limbs are chopped off, they can regenerate as long as they connect them back together. Why would such monsters appear here?"
Chen Xing thought about it for a bit, then answered, "Legend has it that there were many kinds of drought fiends. The living corpses we saw before this should be the lowest-levelled kinds. This kind of warrior should be of a high level amongst them. Yi? Brother Feng, this face looks pretty handsome ma."
Feng Qianjun took the helmet off and carefully carried the head, which faced the other two. The head was glowering with wide eyes; it kept opening its mouth and making all sorts of expressions, baring its white teeth as it twisted around forcefully with distorted facial features as it wanted to bite someone.
"Invite the head over, let me study it properly." Chen Xing said.
So Feng Qianjun placed the head on the table. Chen Xing picked up a tree branch and poked its mouth. The branch snapped from being bit. He recalled that after he shot the group of warriors in their heads, that group of living corpses lost their ability to move, but as long as the head remained, even if it was separated from the body, the body would still be able to move. In other words, if they were to split this head in half, then the headless knight wandering outside will……
Chen Xing was studying the beautiful man"s nose when a book was thrown onto his face.
"Ai!"
"Is that what you"re looking for?" Xiang Shu was already impatient from waiting. He had rummaged through the warehouse once and found a book that was filled with Han seal scripts. Seal scripts originated in the Qin Dynasty and was generally used during official and formal occasions. It was a distorted font that was difficult to decipher. Nowadays, official script used the common language, and it was already very challenging for Hu people to study the official script, so they couldn"t really understand seal scripts.
"The words here are all reversed," Chen Xing opened the book and said, "It"ll be too difficult to identify. Where did you get this from?"
"A shelf in the bas.e.m.e.nt. It"s half-written." Xiang Shu answered, "Only this book was special, you"ll understand when you see it."
As soon as Chen Xing opened the book, all he saw were simple seal scripts that meandered around like a Qiulong dragon, but it was clearly not inverted like all the other words within the mirror — it abided by the rules of the present world! What does that mean? This book was written here by someone from the present after entering the mirror world!
Although Xiang Shu wasn"t familiar with seal script books, he could recognise that it was unusual from the left and right opening pages of the book. Most of the books on the shelves started from the right, but only this book started from the left.
Chen Xing muttered, "This is a handwritten book from 299 years ago. Who left this record here?"
"Read it." Xiang Shu said.
"Yongping lasted for 18 years, humble me has been in the human world for more than 300 years, and through these hundreds of years, I"ve travelled all over the Divine Land and finally found the Dinghai Pearl in Lake Baikal……Dinghai Pearl? The silence that fell on all magic was destined to be the final destination of all exorcists, and only the Dinghai Pearl alone could still release a surging flood of spiritual Qi."
Chen Xing, "!!!"
"After obtaining this magic weapon, all records should have been destroyed. However, Man proposes, but Heaven disposes; for worldly affairs, eight or nine out of ten attempts would not be successful. To be on guard in advance, this book will be hidden in the Yin Yang Mirror. If something were to suddenly occur……"
"Never mind," Chen Xing muttered, "One can only do one"s best. The vicissitudes of life pa.s.s with merely a flick of the finger, so of what benefit would it be to plot for posthumous matters?"
Chen Xing flipped to the next page, but the last few pages had no words and only simple lines drawn in ink. From the looks of it, it seemed to be a map. His instinct reminded him that the records left behind in this book must have something to do with the silence that fell on all magic.