Chapter 426 - Little Deputy City Lord, Wake Up, You Can"t Sleep...
"Boom!"
There was a loud roar.
Shadows filled the sky.
When the beam of light shot up into the sky, even the Night Guardian could not sit still.
He immediately jumped up from his seat and looked at Xu Xiaoshou with eyes filled with shock.
"Was that a cauldron explosion?"
If he hadn"t seen it with his own eyes, even if someone else had told him that the City Lord"s mansion was under attack, he would have believed it without even thinking.
"Save the people!"
s.h.i.+ Ti shouted loudly.
He knew of the damage that Xu Xiaoshou"s cauldron explosion would bring, so he could react and protect himself immediately.
However, in order to protect the lives of the people close by, his first reaction was not to fly toward the beam of light.
Instead, he flew up into the sky and pulled down all the people that had been sent flying.
If these people were blasted to the top, there would definitely be no bones left following the explosion blasting.
"Save me!"
Xu Xiaoshou also cried out in alarm.
The power of the condensing method of infernal heavens combined with that of top grade sixth rank spiritual ingredients had obviously exceeded his control in an instant.
But he was lucky.
The explosion attack that "Recoil" couldn"t withstand had instead pushed Xu Xiaoshou out in a parallel direction, causing him to quickly retreat from the scene.
Bang!
With a shattering sound, Xu Xiaoshou"s figure directly smashed onto the wall and was subsequently blasted out of the banquet hall.
He looked at the beam of light in disbelief, as well as President s.h.i.+ Ti, who was fl.u.s.tered, trying to save the flying crowd.
"It"s over."
If this thing exploded, not to mention the banquet hall, even half of the City Lord"s Mansion would be gone!
"Go back!"
At the critical moment, the Night Guardian finally came back to his senses.
He thought of the boasts he had made earlier.
If he could not save the crowd, then he would not have the face to walk out of this place tonight.
"Condense!"
With a shout, the Night Guardian clasped his hands together, and a terrifying power exploded.
He actually encircled the astonis.h.i.+ng beam of light in the air and clamped it down.
"Buzz!"
After saving most of the people, s.h.i.+ Ti"s bounded domain finally covered the area. As for the rest, he was already powerless to reverse the situation.
"Buzz!"
After another layer, the Night Guardian"s bounded domain directly transformed into the shape of a pillar, restraining the beam of light.
The two of them worked together very well at the last minute. One saved the people while the other saved the pillar.
However, the explosion that had been wrapped was still going to explode in the end.
"Rumble..."
The earth-shattering sound finally exploded when the light beam"s energy reached its peak.
The Night Guardian"s bounded domain had suppressed all of this, but the suppression in the narrow area caused the explosion wave to be pushed out one after another before bouncing back.
The cycle repeated itself. At this moment, the damage that the Night Guardian alone suffered could be said to be several times more than the explosion itself.
"Ngh!"
Suddenly, the Night Guardian"s body trembled.
He suddenly widened his eyes, his eyeb.a.l.l.s bulged, and his Adam"s apple moved.
It was as if something unexpected had happened because he had looked down on the situation.
After the soundless fluctuation, the scene fell silent for half a breath.
The energy of the explosion was completely blocked, but the energy wave that had spread out in an instant had swept through the entire place within that short period of time.
Xu Xiaoshou could see everything clearly from the outer wall of the banquet hall. After the energy wave that was visible to the naked eye swept through everyone"s clothes, it directly blew everything away.
"Bang, Bang, Bang --"
The floor, the banquet, the food..
Even the people who had been pulled down to the ground earlier, after barely finding a sense of security, were once again swept away and sent flying.
"Boom!"
The circular outer wall of the banquet hall seemed to have been blasted through from the inside. It suddenly exploded and shot towards the white-robed guards who had rushed over from not too far away. They did not know what had happened, but they knew that the place had been attacked.
With a crash, another group of people instantly fell to the ground.
Xu Xiao was stunned.
He lay face-first on the ground and shrunk his head. As he felt the aftershocks from the ground, his heart was filled with great waves.
"d.a.m.n it, isn"t this a little too exaggerated?"
As far as his eyes could see, the entire banquet hall was gone.
This was all thanks to s.h.i.+ Ti"s bounded domain wall. Not only did it stop the people who had been blown away, but it also restrained the spread of the storm, so the explosion could be maintained in such a small area.
Looking back at the place, the only ones who could still stand now were the Sovereigns.
Zhang Taiying was already dumbfounded.
He had only managed to grab the feet of two people who were flying close to him. Just as he was about to make another move to support them, he was momentarily stunned by the explosion.
This scene...
The corners of his eyes twitched.
Wasn"t the Zhang residence also blasted like this that day?
However, now that he was close to the scene, he felt the situation was completely different from the slight earthquake then.
"Xu Xiaoshou... So, this is how the Eastern Courtyard was destroyed..."
He muttered to himself, and his face darkened to the extreme.
Other than the few Sovereigns who stood upright, those below the Master stage were either hanging on a pile of rubble or flying towards unknown locations...
The old alchemy masters were undoubtedly all buried under the rubble.
Of course, those people were still lucky.
The ones who would be the most confused should be the old men who had been swept away from the protective barrier, their cauldrons blown up, and the instant they opened their eyes they were greeted with the scene like the end of the world.
Only Heaven would know that the traumatization from this moment could not be eliminated, and would follow them till their death.
"I have sinned."
Xu Xiaoshou blinked his eyes in embarra.s.sment.
"Even the "condensing method of infernal heavens" shouldn"t go that far. Could it be that the power of that d.a.m.ned old man"s d.a.m.ned Pill Condensation Art would be greater with the use of higher rank spiritual ingredients?"
He should have felt guilt in that moment, but the thoughts in his mind were suddenly connected, as if he had been enlightened, and his eyes lit up.
Right at this moment, a suppressed roar was heard.
"Xu, Xiao, Shou!"
s.h.i.+ Ti, who had protected all of this, had already turned green.
His face was covered in dust, and his voice had even mutated. It was so ear-piercing that it was terrifying.
"Here."
Xu Xiao Shou immediately popped his head out from the pile of dirt, waved his hand, and replied, "Don"t worry, President. I"m fine."
"?"
The scene fell silent.
"Cursed, Pa.s.sive Points +1420."
"Resented, Pa.s.sive Points +1356."
"Feared, Pa.s.sive Points +1020."
"Insulted, Pa.s.sive Points +1211."
"..."
At this moment, the speed at which the Information Bar was flooding was unprecedented. It was even more impressive than the high frequency appearance of the notification "Attacked.".
Moreover, every time the Pa.s.sive Points was updated, it was almost never lower than four digits!
"Cough, cough."
Only then did Xu Xiaoshou realize that he might have misunderstood President s.h.i.+ Ti"s intentions.
"Let"s talk about accountability later. First, we should save the people. I didn"t hope for the furnace to explode. I only wish... Umm? The storm will be over?" Xu Xiaoshou said smoothly.
s.h.i.+ Ti:"..."
In that moment, he had mixed feelings. He really wanted to use the most vicious words to vent his feelings.
However, after searching through his thesaurus, he found that there were no insulting words. He couldn"t bring himself to say them either, and he didn"t know the kind of att.i.tude he should use to face all of this.
"Holy Sh*t!"
The crowd held back for a long time. Finally, there was a voice that was frightened and trembling while still trying its best to express its desire to ridicule. It gathered into those two words, and ended with a tremble.
"This was a f*cking explosion?"
After the sound, everyone finally came to their senses.
"F*ck you, Xu Xiaoshou. Come out here, I"ll beat you to death!"
"You f*cking did this on purpose. What were you refining just now? Explosives?"
"Xu Xiaoshou, where are you? Come out and face your death!"
"Umm, stop being so noisy, move, hey, something of yours is in my mouth."
"I can"t move, my foot is broken."
"Foot? Toe? Oh sh*t!"
"..."
Hearing the curses, Xu Xiaoshou immediately flicked his fingers, releasing some sword energy to destroy the few night pearls on the ground that were still struggling to release some light.
The dark night had finally erased all sins.
The crowd cursed powerlessly, and the scene seemed to have quieted down.
As the wind blew, a sorrowful aura spread, and it brought along an additional sound that did not belong to the hateful crowd.
"Pu, pu..."
"Pu, pu..."
s.h.i.+ Ti"s pupils constricted.
When he heard the familiar sound, his heart seemed to twitch, and it immediately tightened.
"Be careful, only use your spiritual sense to look at the flame!"
The crowd was still confused, but some of the fellows near the center of the explosion started screaming in agony.
"AH --"
"What the h.e.l.l is that? Ghost fire?"
"Infernal Heavenly Flames?" Xu Xiaoshou jumped in fright and immediately pounced over.
With a breath, he sucked the little bit of leaked flames into his abdomen.
"Fortunately, fortunately, the Red Coat was powerful enough to prevent the explosion. Otherwise, this place would have been filled with Infernal Heavenly Flames, and even s.h.i.+ Ti wouldn"t be able to put out the fire..."
When Xu Xiaoshou thought of the situation where his Infernal Heavenly Flames which could devour anything were to spread throughout half of the City Lord"s mansion, he immediately felt guilty.
At this moment, he suddenly felt his feet hovering in the air.
"Hmm?"
Turning his head, under the hazy moonlight, s.h.i.+ Ti"s earthy and savage face appeared in front of him.
As for Xu Xiaoshou, he was directly hung up by his clothes.
"Whoos.h.!.+"
s.h.i.+ Ti flicked his finger, and a bright flame flew into the sky, finally returning a bit of clarity to this place.
After everyone could finally see with their naked eyes, they looked around the entire banquet hall and collectively lost their voices.
"There was still half of the ruins just now, and now they"re gone?"
"What the F*ck, how is this alchemy? Other people need money for alchemy, but Xu Xiaoshou needs life for alchemy!"
Everyone retracted their gazes in shock and focused their gazes on Xu Xiaoshou, who had been lifted into the air, and had nowhere to hide.
"Hehe."
Xu Xiaoshou responded with his most sincere smile, but he realized that his facial muscles were a little stiff. He immediately put on a fake smile and said, "There"s no need to panic. It"s just a small mistake, Hehe."
"It"s just a cauldron explosion. It"s a skill that every alchemist must have, right?"
He turned around and looked at s.h.i.+ Ti once more. "Right, right?"
s.h.i.+ Ti trembled in anger.
He pointed his finger at Xu Xiaoshou and grimaced with pain. He was unable to utter a single word.
"You call this thing a cauldron explosion?"
In the crowd below, there was finally someone who couldn"t wait to speak up for s.h.i.+ Ti.
Xu Xiaoshou swept his gaze over. "Otherwise? I didn"t do it on purpose. Besides, before I opened the cauldron, I already asked if you guys really wanted to be so close to me. You guys said that it wouldn"t be a problem!"
He looked at the Night Guardian.
At this moment, the Night Guardian had already received all the damage alone.
His hand that was supporting the bounding domain was covered in dust. Even when he retracted it, it was still trembling slightly.
Of course, he wasn"t hit by the explosion.
To be honest, if it wasn"t for the crowd here, this little explosion wouldn"t have been a big deal to the Night Guardian.
His body was trembling only because he felt like he had been deceived.
At this moment, he understood why s.h.i.+ Ti had opened his bounding domain ahead of time and was on guard against Xu Xiaoshou"s cauldron exploding.
This guy"s cauldron explosion was completely different from other people"s cauldron explosion!
Xu Xiaoshou looked at him and imitated his tone before he could speak. "You said it. It"s not a big problem. With your protection, only did I dare to go all out."
"Hmm?" Xu Xiaoshou raised his eyebrows. He wanted to pull a partner onto the same boat.
The Night Guardian"s lips twitched, and the veins on his neck bulged.
This was exactly what he had said before Xu Xiaoshou opened the cauldron.
But at this moment, it sounded like he was mocking him.
Should he protect his face, or should he return the favor and vent his anger on Xu Xiaoshou?
"Yes, it"s not a big problem..."
The Night Guardian spread his hands and looked around. He looked at the expressions of the people who had survived the disaster, and then his gaze fell on Xu Xiaoshou"s face, which made people want to punch him.
"To h.e.l.l "it"s not a big problem"!"
"d.a.m.n it, I"m going to cripple you today!"
The Night Guardian"s face was fierce. He raised his fist and rushed forward.
Xu Xiaoshou: ? ? ?
He was immediately shocked.
He did not expect that Red Coat who was usually quiet and only knew how to nod would actually make a move with such a simple reason, and his temper...
That"s right, this was a fellow who came from the White Cave. How would he obey any human society rules?
"Fu Xing, save me!"
Xu Xiaoshou shouted in a desolate manner.
He bent his waist and abdomen, directly bouncing out of s.h.i.+ Ti"s hand. Then, he bent his body and rushed towards the direction where the Night Guardian had come from, sliding past the side of his waist.
"This speed..."
For a moment, the Night Guardian, who could not react on time, knew that not only had he underestimated the power of Xu Xiaoshou"s cauldron explosion, but he had also seriously underestimated this kid"s reaction and body speed.
He did not intend to use much force in the punch. He just wanted to punch Xu Xiaoshou"s face to help the people vent their anger.
After all, in such a situation, Xu Xiaoshou clearly needed a reason to escape unscathed.
s.h.i.+ Ti was also stunned.
He wanted to grab Xu Xiaoshou as well, but the fellow was like a hedgehog. In that instant, Xu Xiaoshou had bent his body, combined with the irresistible rebound force, even though he was prepared, he still let the boy escape.
"Fu Xing..."
"Fu Xing, where are you!"
Xu Xiaoshou panicked. This place was full of enemies, and Fu Xing was the only one he could rely on.
Hmm?
Wait!
Why didn"t Fu Xing reply?
He suddenly stopped in his tracks.
At this moment, everyone realized that something was wrong.
With such a big incident happening, how could the little deputy City Lord not come out to preside over the situation?
Everyone thought for a moment.
On the eve of the explosion, the ones closest to Xu Xiaoshou seemed not to be the Sovereigns like s.h.i.+ Ti and the Night Guardian.
Fu Xing.
As the host.
He seemed to have no choice but to stay on the high platform?
"Little deputy City Lord..."
As everyone fell silent, the cries of a white-robed guard could finally be heard from the ruins outside the banquet hall.
"Wake up, Little deputy City Lord..."
"You shouldn"t sleep..."
..
..
The banquet hall couldn"t be used anymore.
However, everyone didn"t care about the details. After gathering a few old earth-type spiritual cultivators in the Master stage, they worked together to flatten the ruins. Then, they used the stone tables to restore the banquet till it was somewhat presentable.
No one complained about the City Lord"s Mansion.
It was as if they had encountered the cruel abuse of the same persecutor at the same time. Everyone had a very united strength. Looking at the masterpiece of their own people, they were somewhat proud.
As for Xu Xiaoshou...
Xu Xiaoshou had b.u.mps all over his head, and was sitting on a protruding stone mound.
Beside him was a young lady whose dress was originally white.
Mu Zixi could be said to be the person who was the least disordered at this moment.
Compared to the other people"s dusty faces, her small face could be considered the cleanest.
After all, she had protected herself well in advance.
"Your qualification for the alchemy compet.i.tion is gone," she teased.
"I know."
"That Red Coat and the President should be considered to have shown mercy, right?" The little girl couldn"t help but smile.
"Yes."
"But if it was master... Hmm, I haven"t really seen the Master make a move on you?" Mu Zixi was suddenly stunned.
She was happy to see Xu Xiaoshou suffer.
However, she suddenly thought about it. It seemed that even if Xu Xiaoshou had done some unspeakably horrible things in Tiansang Spirit Palace, he really hadn"t been punished.
"Don"t mention it. That old fellow is dozens of times more powerful than you think. I"d rather he beat me up too."
Xu Xiaoshou covered his face and didn"t let most people see that his injuries had already recovered.
Elder Sang was different from these guys.
If you said he was no good, he actually seemed to be very good.
But if you said he was good, you would feel that the words wouldn"t leave your mouth, as if there was something strange.
Xu Xiaoshou felt that if he really admitted it, he would definitely become the kind of person who would help others count their money even if he was sold by them, and would still only remember the good parts of the other party.
At least until now, he could only feel that Elder Sang"s big game of chess was not over yet.
But judging from the current progress, he could not see anything at all.
"Big brother Shou, are you alright?"
Su Qianqian quietly crept over from the main table.
After Xu Xiaoshou left, she did not want to stay at that table alone anymore.
There were only old men around her. She could not stay any longer. Young people should still play with young people.
In any case, now that everyone had lost their face, there would naturally be no one who would stand up and say that she had done anything inappropriate.
"I"m fine."
Xu Xiaoshou put down his hand and glanced at the stage. "Fu Xing, how is he?"
"He"s still there."
Su Qianqian covered her mouth and chuckled.
Fu Xing could be said to be the most miserable person on the scene.
The explosion sent him away immediately, but no one noticed him.
When he was finally awakened by the white-robed guard, he screamed.
It was only after s.h.i.+ Ti went over to him that he realized that there were some Infernal Heavenly Flames on the kid...
Hmm, he won"t die.
With s.h.i.+ Ti around, although there were injuries all over the place, there were no casualties, not one.
"You"re Big Brother Shou"s junior sister?"
Su Qianqian turned her head to look at Mu Zixi.
This was the first time she had seen a girl from the Spirit Palace who was about the same height, age, and had pa.s.sable strength.
"Junior sister?"
Upon hearing this t.i.tle, Mu Zixi was shocked. She knew about the three-point agreement between Xu Xiaoshou and Elder Sang, and was just about to shake her head.
"I already know."
Su Qianqian smiled and said, "I"ve already asked my master. Although he didn"t say anything, any discerning person would be able to tell. I really don"t know what"s there to hide."
Mu Zixi was stunned.
Actually, this was also her question.
As long as Xu Xiaoshou"s "Infernal Heavenly Flames" appeared, and as long as someone investigated, they would definitely be able to link him to Elder Sang.
She also didn"t know why her master was trying to hide the obvious.
"That"s right."
Xu Xiaoshou generously admitted it.
At first, he thought that the "three-point agreement" was to protect himself, but later he realized that it was completely unnecessary. Those who wanted to know would find out easily in the end.
But now, after he had some understanding of Elder Sang, he could let it go.
The old man definitely had some unspeakable secret.
The existence of the "three-point agreement" ensured that from an outsider"s point of view, there would always be a gap between him and Elder Sang.
No matter how much he believed it, as long as the two of them did not admit it, there would be none.
And in the world of adults, sometimes, the truth needed to follow certain rules, or rather, evidence.
No matter how obvious the reasoning was, without solid backing-up, it couldn"t become evidence.
Elder Sang was indeed protecting him.
But he was also hiding something.
His "three-point agreement" wasn"t aimed at the people inside the Spirit Palace.
Could it be that it was aimed at the distant... enemy?
"Mu Zixi."
"Su Qianqian."
The two girls seemed to have happily made friends.
Xu Xiaoshou didn"t pay much attention to them.
He s.h.i.+fted his gaze to the newly paved hard soil.
Even though Xu Xiaoshou who was like a ticking time bomb had been excluded, no one dared to open a protective barrier to continue conducting alchemy.
Only G.o.d knew how terrified and horrified the three sixth rank alchemists were towards the fact that they had conducted alchemy beside Xu Xiaoshou.
As a result, the crowd quietly waited for the final result of the Alchemist Master while they healed themselves.
Of course, this silence was only on the surface.
The moment Xu Xiaoshou closed his eyes, he could clearly feel the terrifying power of the curse contained within the seemingly calm banquet hall.
"Cursed, Pa.s.sive Points +1,212."
"Missed, Pa.s.sive Points +1,240."
"Condemned, Pa.s.sive Points +1,123."
"..."
The process of conducting alchemy was broken midway due to the disturbance, and all of the alchemists" emotions were extremely unstable.
When the final results were out and the protective barrier descended, the entire place was filled with a medicinal fragrance.
However, the burning smell that was mixed within was also extremely obvious.
The group of old men had clearly never tried to conduct alchemy under such a state of mind.
The explosion of the cauldrons was a certainty.
However, there were still many stubborn people who managed to form their pills.
Although the quality wasn"t good, it was already a pretty good result compared to other alchemists.
The final champion was taken by Long Dan.
This old fellow didn"t take out the "Great Clarity and Spirit Meditation Pill" from before. Instead, he chose a seventh rank pill.
As for Chen Qi and Li Mingji, who were still persisting on the "Master Pill" and "Extreme Path Pill", there was no doubt that they had all failed.
A sixth rank alchemist was certainly not ordinary.
However, a sixth rank alchemist with an unstable state of mind was still unable to produce a pill that matched his level.
After all, a big hearted person like Xu Xiaoshou was the only one of his kind.
Long Dan, who had won the champions.h.i.+p by trickery, did not look very pleased with himself, or rather, it was hard to tell if he was even pleased .
After all, everyone was the same. Other than being covered in dirt, they were covered in soil.
In short, even after excluding Xu Xiaoshou, the atmosphere that was supposed to be joyous and harmonious became extremely strange because of the remnant of his soul.
The pill auction in previous years was directly canceled.
The reason?
The host was still lying on the ground!
Fu Yinhong took over the gang. She looked up at the sky as if she was looking forward to something, but in the end, the person she was looking forward to did not appear.
"The alchemy compet.i.tion has ended."
"The trial for the Way of Spirit Array does not start now."
Fu Yinhong said as she looked at the Night Guardian. "Senior, please announce the rules!"
The Night Guardian stood up and glanced at the silent atmosphere.
"The trial for the Way of Spirit Array is very simple."
"As everyone knows, the rules of the extradimensional s.p.a.ce will establish the terrain within and the birth of special secret realms."
"I will give you a spirit array diagram. This diagram was copied from the rules of the extradimensional array."
"If anyone can solve it... well, it should be said that in the end, the allocation of the remaining White Cave quota will be decided according to the your solving progress."
"The more you solve, the more quota you will get."
"Of course..."
At this point, the Night Guardian revealed a sly smile. "If no one can solve it in the end, the remaining quota will be handed over to the person who can solve this spirit array diagram."
"It doesn"t matter if the person is present or not!"
This time, everyone was shocked.
Originally, they were very happy that they had been able to come into contact with the spirit array diagram of the White Cave ahead of time.
After all, even if they couldn"t solve it, they should be able to remember some of it!
And seeing that it was taken out by the Night Guardian, combined with his words when he invited all the Spirit Array Casters in the world.
This spirit array diagram was definitely an extremely important topographic map of the White Cave. It might even be a map of the central area.
However...
"From what this Red Coat senior is saying, this spirit array diagram will be spread out when the time comes? Those who haven"t arrived will also be able to see it?"
Everyone panicked.
This wasn"t a good thing.
If more people knew about it, wouldn"t the information that they had received in advance lose all meaning?
The Night Guardian looked at the cl.u.s.ters of people who were thinking and discussing together and laughed in his heart.
If it was really so easy for the people who were on the scene that were unprepared like the lot of you to solve the problem, why would I, the Night Guardian, need to say those words about inviting all the Spirit Array Casters in the world?
Even the Red Coat organization couldn"t understand the map completely. Even if there were Spirit Array Casters present, they probably wouldn"t even be able to touch the threshold!
However, they still needed to give some hope, and they couldn"t just say definite words.
"Now, let the compet.i.tion begin."
The Night Guardian took out rows of jade scrolls.
"The Spirit Array Casters who are interested and want to try can come over."
"Remember, only Spirit Array Casters can take it. I don"t have many jade scrolls."
Everyone"s footsteps halted. A large number of people were originally about to rush over to memorize the spirit array diagram.
However, this last sentence pushed everyone back to their seats.
As a result, in the end, only about twenty or so families who happened to have brought Spirit Array Casters came forward full of antic.i.p.ation.
"d.a.m.n it, we missed the first chance. Who knows what we"ll have to give up to get this spirit array diagram later on."
"Yeah, what a loss. If I knew that there would be a spirit array compet.i.tion, I would have invited my old master out!"
"This wave of losses is worth 100 million... Hmm?"
The crowd below was discussing when their voices suddenly stopped. It was as if a saint had kept their mouths shut.
The Night Guardian raised his head in shock and suddenly saw everyone"s eyes converging in one direction.
"Xu Xiaoshou?"
His face instantly darkened. "Why are you standing up?"
"Hehe."
Xu Xiaoshou was no longer afraid of the Night Guardian.
The three punches that this fellow had given him in the face, the kick on his stomach, and the slap on the back of his b.u.t.t..
He even remembered the strength of the strikes clearly.
"What, are you looking down on me?"
Xu Xiaoshou raised his head and puffed out his chest. He walked like a dragon and shouted loudly,
"I, Xu Xiaoshou, am a Spirit Array Caster!"
"If you are not convinced, come and fight!"