The arm hung above Black Armor Mastiff's head, its fingers slightly spread.
The remaining blood in the gap between the mastiff's teeth was pulled away by an invisible force, turned into a few very fine blood threads, and floated into the dark golden runes on the surface of the arm bone. The runes flashed several times in succession, as if to confirm something. Then the arm sank suddenly, and a gap silently opened in the gravel ground. It got into it and disappeared. The ground closed again, leaving only the corpse of Black Armor Mastiff, whose skull was penetrated, lying at the entrance of the medicine garden.
Qin Tiexin didn't see this scene. He was already running.
Duan Xuan was grabbed by his wrist and followed stumblingly behind. She hadn't fully reacted yet - just a moment ago she was fighting with Black Armor Mastiff at the entrance of the medicine garden, and the next moment Qin Tiexin pulled her and ran wildly without a word of explanation. She had known Qin Tiexin for so long, but she had never seen him run so fast.
"What's going on?" she shouted.
Qin Tiexin didn't answer, but just dragged her into a gravel-strewn path. His speed was too fast, and Duan Xuan was almost thrown away by him several times, but she didn't break away. She knew that Qin Tiexin didn't do meaningless things.
He put Edgeless into the storage ring while running, just to reduce the weight. Duan Xuan caught a glimpse of this action, and his heart skipped a beat.
Wood Phase Steps was operating to the extreme. Qin Tiexin's feet stepped on a series of shallow pits on the gravel ground. Each step landed on the least labor-intensive landing point, but the speed was astonishingly fast. He led Duan Xuan through two gravel slopes, crossed a dry gully, and turned into a half-collapsed stone chamber.
The stone chamber was very small, with a thick layer of dust on the ground. Qin Tiexin let go of Duan Xuan's hands, supported his knees with both hands, and gasped for air. Duan Xuan was also adjusting his breathing, and glanced around the stone chamber. It was empty, without Demon Beast, no monks, nothing.
Qin Tiexin stood at the door and looked outside the stone room again to confirm that nothing was coming, and then solemnly asked Duan Xuan:
"Did you notice what just came out of the ground?"
"I saw it, Gray Shadow, very quickly. I thought it was you who placed a hidden weapon, or other monks intervened."
"No." Qin Tiexin turned around, "It's an arm."
Duan Xuan was stunned for a moment. "Arm?"
Qin Tiexin was about to open his mouth to explain, but suddenly stopped. His pupils shrank suddenly, and his gaze went over Duan Xuan's shoulders and fell on the ground three steps behind her.
The arm just lay there quietly.
It is about five feet long, grey-brown, like a piece of dead wood. The skin is close to the bones, so dry that there is no trace of flesh and blood. The dust on the ground is very thick, and there are only a few footprints that Qin Tiexin stepped on just now and a string of footprints left by Duan Xuan on the ground. There are no new traces to show how it appeared here.
Qin Tiexin's hair stood on end. He was very sure that when he entered this stone room, he scanned every corner of the ground and there was nothing on the ground.
But now it was lying there, three steps away, motionless.
He did not hesitate. His right fist condensed khaki Spiritual Qi, and he punched the stone window behind him. While the gravel and dust were flying, he grabbed Duan Xuan's waist, sent her out of the window, and turned over to follow. Without stopping when he landed, his other hand grabbed Duan Xuan's wrist again, and all his spiritual power was poured into his legs, and Wood Phase Steps started up again in the extreme state.
Duan Xuan was dragged by him to run for a while, and then jumped over a broken wall with him holding her waist. It was not until his arms tightened and held her firmly by her side that she realized that her face was getting hot.
Qin Tiexin's jaw was tense, veins protruded from her forehead, and her eyes were staring straight ahead. His arms were clasped around her waist like iron hoops, so strong that her ribs felt a little tight.
Her face turned red and her voice was very low. "Put me down, I can run by myself."
Qin Tiexin let go of her waist, but did not slow down. Duan Xuan followed his pace after landing, and the two walked side by side through the ruins. Qin Tiexin ran all the way, and even Demon Beast on the roadside could not catch up with his speed.
Until an open ruins of the square appeared in front of him, Qin Tiexin finally stopped, bent down and propped up his knees to gasp for air.
His eyes quickly scanned the edge of the square in every direction. There was no one, no gray shadow, nothing unusual, and there wasn't even any obstruction around. The nearest broken wall was ten feet away. Then he took out Qi Recovery Pill from the storage ring and threw it into his mouth, chewed it and swallowed it to restore the consumed spiritual power.
Duan Xuan stood next to him, secretly moving his ribs that were numb from his grip, and the heat on his cheeks had not completely subsided.
After Qin Tiexin's breath completely calmed down, Duan Xuan asked, "What is it that makes you so scared?"
Qin Tiexin looked back at the way he came from, and then looked around in all directions around the square. When there was no movement, he breathed a sigh of relief, "It's an arm. The arm just now was in the stone room, just three steps behind you. I don't know how it got in. It's like it was already there."
He turned around and looked at Duan Xuan: "So I don't have time to tell you, I'm sorry."
"It's okay." Duan Xuan avoided Qin Tiexin's eyes, "What arm? An arm makes you so scared?"
Qin Tiexin wiped the sweat from his forehead. "It's very long, about five feet or more. It's gray and black, and as dry as firewood. But it can move."
Duan Xuan's expression suddenly became a little strange. She opened her mouth, closed it again, hesitated for a moment and then asked, "Is the skin very tight, and there are... golden runes on it?"
Qin Tiexin was stunned. "How do you know?"
Duan Xuan did not answer. She looked over Qin Tiexin's shoulders and opened her lips slightly. Qin Tiexin followed her gaze and turned around very slowly.
The arm lay quietly on the ground three steps behind him.
The same posture, the same position. The ground was intact, with no cracks and no new marks from the soil. It just lay there, like a piece of dead wood that had been randomly discarded. There was no movement from the shoulder joint to the fingertips. The dark golden runes on the surface glowed with a very faint golden light under the gray-brown skin.
Qin Tiexin pulled Duan Xuan behind him. Edgeless took it out from the storage ring, held the handle of the knife with both hands, and pointed the tip of the knife at the arm. At the same time, he took out a stack of protective talismans from his arms, activated them and patted them on himself and Duan Xuan. Three layers of light blue spiritual power barriers spread out around them.
Duan Xuan did not show off, and retreated directly behind Qin Tiexin, pressing one hand on the hilt of the sword. She could feel the Qi and Blood in his body running rapidly, but the hand holding the knife was very steady, without any trembling.
"I'm blocking you, you go first." He lowered his voice and spoke every word very firmly.
"If... I can't come out, you go find--"
Duan Xuan's hand reached out from behind him and slapped him on the mouth so hard that he choked out the second half of his sentence.
"What are you talking about?" She let go of her hand, "If you want to fight, we will fight together, if we want to walk, we will run together. Wherever you go, I will go."
Qin Tiexin didn't try to persuade him any more. He took Duan Xuan and slowly backed away, one step, two steps, until he was ten steps away from the arm before stopping. He took out three Teleportation Talisman from the storage ring and stuffed them into Duan Xuan's hand.
"Use it if the situation is not right, don't hesitate."
Then he really focused his attention on that arm.
This is the first time he has observed it in a completely standing state. From the shoulder joint to the fingertips, it is very complete, and even every phalanx is intact. The fracture is at the top of the shoulder, and the cut surface is neat and almost smooth, as if it was cut off by something extremely Sharpness.
Qin Tiexin did a quick visual inspection of the length. His own arm from the acromion to the tip of the middle finger is about three feet and eight inches. This arm is at least one and a half feet longer than him, more than five feet. If the owner of the arm maintains normal human proportions, then this person's height is close to one foot and six inches.
The skin is tightly attached to the bones, as if it has been dried and shrunk after all the flesh and blood has been drained. The skin is covered with runes, each rune is as small as a corn, and a very weak golden light shines from deep in the skin. The runes grow from inside the skin, as if some kind of blood power is directly imprinted on the body surface. The runes are densely packed from the broken shoulder to the tip of each finger, with no gaps or breaks, like a one-piece magic circle.
It lay motionless on the ground, like a dead tree.
But Qin Tiexin can feel that it is alive.
The runes under that layer of skin slowly faded away at an imperceptible speed.
What on earth is this??
At this moment, the image of Qin Tiexin in the underground palace square suddenly flashed through Qin Tiexin's mind - Devil King Ye Cang was hanging outside the mountain-protecting formation and said those words in an understatement.
"Hand over Ancient Witch Arm. That is not something that a small sect like you can own."
Iron Spine Sect's whole family of five hundred and seventy-eight people sat in the center of the formation, True Person Iron Bone turned into fly ash, and two Nascent Soul True Lord came all the way to seal the mountain and leave a seal.
Ye Cang destroyed the entire Iron Spine Sect just to find something called [Ancient Witch Arm].
Now, a five-foot-long gray-brown arm suddenly emerged from the ground, chased him all the way here, and lay motionless on the ground ten steps in front of him.
A layer of cold sweat broke out on Qin Tiexin's back, and an extremely absurd idea broke into Qin Tiexin's mind.
"Isn't this..." he swallowed, "The one [Ancient Witch Arm] that Ye Cang is looking for?"