Stupa Elixir Art (1)
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Blue-black eyes? And long bronze hair and a golden ancient sword. Aren't these the same features as Yu Wentuo, the one the fat man described as the number one swordsman in the world? Could it be that Yu Wentuo was the one who ruined Guiguzi's plan back then?
Li Wei believes this is highly likely.
It seems that Yu Wentuo had thwarted Guiguzi's plans years ago. And in six days, he will return as the Grand Tutor of the court. Assuming that the reincarnators cannot eliminate the demonic energy within the townspeople, they will inevitably have to side with Guiguzi and fight against Yu Wentuo together.
Li Wei gasped. Given the current situation, it seemed impossible to stand on the same side as Guiguzi anymore. Perhaps the Main God had arranged this mission so that the reincarnators would discover Guiguzi's existence within these few days and unite with him to defeat Yu Wentuo. If his deduction was correct, this was the safest mission procedure.
Of course, the reincarnators could join forces with Yu Wentuo, but their mission is to ensure the townspeople's survival. Will Yu Wentuo then unleash a massacre because the townspeople's illness has become incurable and the demonic energy cannot be eradicated?
If that's the case, the mission will still fail. Therefore, the key is still how to eliminate the demonic energy within the townspeople.
It seems theoretically feasible to devour them one by one using demonic energy, but Guiguzi wouldn't allow it. The only solution is to kill Guiguzi, which would solve the problem at its root.
The remaining problem is more complicated. In order for the townspeople to survive, Guiguzi must be killed in the remaining six days. Otherwise, if Yu Wentuo arrives, although he can easily defeat Guiguzi, the townspeople will probably not survive either.
Of course, one could also choose to communicate with Yu Wentuo and persuade him, or directly defeat him by force. However, the former is highly uncertain, and the latter is too dangerous. After all, Yu Wentuo is someone who could injure Guiguzi; his combat strength is definitely not to be underestimated.
Li Wei frowned and thought for a long time, but couldn't come up with a solution.
Just then, Li Wei felt a sharp pain in his lower abdomen, and his body arched like a shrimp. Seeing this, Xue Lian'er quickly stepped forward to support Li Wei, anxiously asking, "Brother Wei, what's wrong?"
Li Wei was already sweating profusely from the pain. He tried to suppress it with his true energy, but it was like pouring hot oil on fire; the pain only intensified.
Xue Lian'er stamped her feet anxiously, but remained calm. She quickly helped Li Wei into the thatched hut and let Li Wei lie down on the bamboo mat to rest. She then quickly went out and found a large pile of herbs of various colors, which Li Wei swallowed.
"These are all pain-relieving herbs that Lian'er found. Although I don't know their names, they are incredibly effective. Brother Wei, are you feeling better?" Xue Lian'er held Li Wei's hand and kept calling out to him.
Li Wei did not answer.
The herbs he swallowed transformed into a stream of heat that flowed into his internal organs, which did alleviate some of the Pain. However, Li Wei soon realized that his mind was becoming somewhat hazy.
He could hear Xue Lian'er's cries, but he was unable to respond; his body seemed to be out of his control.
Just as Li Wei was wondering what had happened, a figure suddenly appeared in Li Wei mind.
Li Wei was stunned.
Upon closer inspection, the man looked exactly like himself, except that he wore a long blue robe and a scholar's cap, exuding an indescribable air of nonchalance. When he saw Li Wei, he chuckled, then clasped his hands in greeting, saying, "Greetings, young man. Wei Bin is right."
Chishui Town.
Zheng Yutong wore a cloak that covered her face and a coarse cloth gown, making her look just like one of the townspeople. After walking around several streets, she arrived at the inn where she had stayed before.
Because of the fierce battle the previous night, the place was a complete mess. The innkeeper and waiter were cleaning up the rubble and broken wood with worried expressions, sighing from time to time. It seemed that they depended on this inn for their livelihood, and now that the inn was destroyed, they would have to find another way to make a living.
Zheng Yutong observed for a while but found nothing.
"Li Wei must have lured Guiguzi away from here to fight last night, otherwise there wouldn't be any rubble left here. I'll follow the traces and I'm sure I'll find something." Zheng Yutong made up her mind, walked to the corner of the wall, looked around to make sure no one was there, and then jumped onto the roof to carefully observe the traces.
Sure enough, it was clear that many houses had damaged roofs to some extent. Following these signs, Zheng Yutong quickly reached the outskirts of town and arrived at a valley.
The signs of battle here are very obvious: broken stone pillars, dried-up pools of water, dozens of deep pits, and some barely noticeable bloodstains.
Upon seeing the bloodstains, Zheng Yutong's heart skipped a beat for no apparent reason.
She hurried over and carefully examined the bloodstains on the ground. The bloodstains had dried and were dark red, but as a seasoned reincarnator, Zheng Yutong still had some ability to distinguish bloodstains.
She first pinched a little with her fingers, then brought it to her nose and smelled it. After that, she stood up, her face already icy cold.
She could smell Li Wei's scent on the bloodstains.
Without a doubt, the bloodstains belonged to Li Wei. Based on the traces of the fight around them and her knowledge of Li Wei's special skills, Zheng Yutong quickly deduced the details of last night's battle.
Clearly, Li Wei lured Guiguzi here, then unleashed his full power, using the Ink Dragon's Protection and Mirror Image in battle. The Ink Dragon's combat strength was formidable, but it was no match for Guiguzi's wondrous Daoist arts, leaving him in a passive and defensive position. At this moment, the Mirror Image turned the tide, reversing the situation, and Li Wei now held an absolute advantage.
The battle lasted for more than ten minutes, and then, judging from the crater-like marks that appeared on the ground and surrounding rocks, Zheng Yutong knew that this was not Li Wei's special skill, but rather the Daoist technique of Guiguzi.
This is a large-area attack technique, not intended to injure Li Wei, but to eliminate the problem of the Mirror Image.
Sure enough, after that, the scales tipped in favor of Guiguzi. Of course, during this process, Zheng Yutong was very puzzled as to why Li Wei did not use Shifting Forms and Changing Positions to escape. However, after she found four iron nails with Yin talismans pasted on them in four different locations in the valley, she realized that Guiguzi must have set up a formation during the break in the battle last night. It was this formation that prevented Li Wei from escaping by Shifting Forms and Changing Positions.
Back in the valley, Zheng Yutong continued to squat on the ground, then quickly walked to a stone wall.
The most bloodstains are found here.
There were dark red bloodstains on the stones and grass, but besides Li Wei's scent, there seemed to be a faint other fragrance mixed in with the air.
Zheng Yutong is also very familiar with this scent.
Picking up some blood-stained dirt from the ground and smelling it, Zheng Yutong realized that the blood wasn't from Li Wei, but from someone else.
"Is it a woman?" Zheng Yutong frowned, and immediately thought of someone.
"It's her?"
Zheng Yutong then jumped onto the stone wall, which was covered with cracks. At a glance, Zheng Yutong recognized that this was an effect that only Li Wei's unique skill, "Shockwave Fist," could produce.
On the stone wall, there was another person's bloodstain.
At that time, besides Li Wei and the woman, only Guiguzi remained at the scene. Could the bloodstains on the third person have been left by Guiguzi?
The trail ended here, and the battle seemed to have ended in an instant. However, there was no more blood or corpses, indicating that the battle ended here, and very suddenly.
After much thought, Zheng Yutong could only come up with one possibility: Li Wei had used Shifting Forms and Changing Positions to escape. This was the only explanation. In other words, at the most critical moment, Li Wei found a way to break the Guiguzi formation, successfully escaped, and took the woman with him.
Upon reaching this point in her analysis, Zheng Yutong suddenly felt a pang of sorrow.
The woman who appeared here was the one in white. Zheng Yutong had remembered the woman's scent the first time they met. It's said that men are sensitive to fragrances, but in fact, women are even more sensitive, especially to the scent of a love rival.
Shaking her head, Zheng Yutong suppressed her discomfort and only showed a slight smile, "As long as Li Wei is alright, that's good. Although Guiguzi is cunning, Li Wei is the strongest among us. I knew he would be fine."
Zheng Yutong breathed a sigh of relief, feeling as if a weight had been lifted from her heart.
Now that she was sure Li Wei was alright, she felt relieved and there was no point in continuing to investigate. Just as An Hei had said, Li Wei's survival skills when he was alone were unmatched, and he also possessed several special abilities. Basically, if he wanted to escape, no one could catch him.
Although Zheng Yutong felt relieved, she couldn't be happy. From all the signs, the woman in white had clearly come to help Li Wei; otherwise, if two top experts had attacked Li Wei together, Li Wei would likely be dead in the valley long ago. It was because of the woman in white's appearance that Li Wei escaped, and the woman was clearly also seriously injured, perhaps even trying to save Li Wei. The thought that she wasn't by Li Wei's side when he needed help most, but another woman had risked her life to save him, filled Zheng Yutong with unbearable bitterness. She especially regretted listening to Li Wei and leaving first that night; if she had insisted on staying, she could have helped in some way.
It was too late to say anything now. Zheng Yutong mustered her spirits and decided to return to Chishui Town, hoping to find new information there.
Unbeknownst to Zheng Yutong, after she left, the air beneath the stone wall suddenly distorted, revealing a small array, and sitting cross-legged within it was none other than Guiguzi.
Watching Zheng Yutong's departing figure, Guiguzi sneered, then swept his sleeve and put the dozen or so Yin talismans used to set up the formation on the ground into his sleeve. He then transformed into a cloud of black mist and followed her.