Chapter 193: Trapping Strategy, Ancient Temple, Wall Paintings (Please Subscribe)

"That bunch of evil cultivators, do they really think these little tricks can cause me any trouble?"

Watching the evil monsters swarm over, attempting to drown and devour him, the High Envoy felt a bit irritable, but immediately realized that his state of mind had been slightly disrupted by the small accidents happening one after another on Du En's side.

He paused, quickly calmed himself, and laughed again.

"I really must congratulate Changqing; this time you've managed to find a thousand-mile steed, no longer those old, inferior donkeys that just made up the numbers like before."

"So, I suspect there is definitely more to it than this..."

Before the words had even faded, the Eight-Trigrams Pagoda, the stronghold where Du En and the others had been staying, suddenly lifted into the air as a whole and flew violently toward him.

The High Envoy's reaction was still a bit too slow; currently surrounded by a swarm of evil monsters, he had no way to block this sudden attack.

And so, with a loud boom, the Eight-Trigrams Pagoda landed upside down not far from the High Envoy, crushing several evil monsters.

Tang Yiping, who had been struggling to deal with the evil monsters, couldn't help but let out a cry, and was then flicked away by the High Envoy's sleeve, rolling far off into the distance.

"Looking at it this way, I was wrong before; what the Grudge-Spirit is fixated on is not the depths of the ruins, but you. This really is the biggest surprise."

The evil monsters were silenced and perished, simply vanishing into thin air; the composed High Envoy turned his head to look at the upside-down Eight-Trigrams Pagoda.

The bottom of the pagoda had become the top, and Du En was standing right there.

As bait!

"Chomp, chomp, chomp~"

Since the evil monsters had been lured over, then naturally, the Grudge-Spirit had already followed.

When Du En and the High Envoy were in the same place, it didn't have to struggle with a choice, so it manifested directly at this moment, grabbed Du En, and began to gnaw, a sight that left Tang Yiping, who had just climbed up from his rolling state, feeling terrified.

Someone as strong and fierce as Du En had been killed in an instant, without a shred of strength left to resist, and was swallowed whole—how terrifying this Grudge-Spirit was!

It was something human power could not oppose!

"Sigh~ It's a Life-Substitution Puppet."

The High Envoy couldn't help but feel a bit of regret at this moment for having thrown Tang Yiping away just now.

No matter how one thought about it, Du En would never send himself into the mouth of the Grudge-Spirit!

So, when he had previously proposed this strategy of trapping the beast, in order to solve the difficulty, Meng Changqing had taken out this rare treasure to replicate a Du En, used to feed the Grudge-Spirit.

It finished eating quickly, remained sluggish for a moment, and then suddenly shrieked!

It was enraged!

It realized it had been played!

Responding to this invisible shriek, the Eight-Trigrams Pagoda suddenly trembled, and layers of concealment methods were triggered and revealed; it hadn't been cracked by the High Envoy's previous attack at all—it had been completely pretending to be broken, with the goal of using it now to temporarily trap him and the Grudge-Spirit together.

Now, let's see if he can still successfully expel the Grudge-Spirit!

"Troublesome..."

The High Envoy's smile faded, and he became completely serious.

Tang Yiping inexplicably felt a sense of oppression; he subconsciously pressed himself against the ground, not even daring to lift his head.

Those evil monsters, which should have been frantically twisted and only thinking of eating people, were also like frightened rabbits, all bowing their heads and shivering incessantly, easily killed by the armored soldiers who were the only ones unaffected.

Everything naturally stemmed from the fierce battle between the High Envoy and the Grudge-Spirit!

"They're fighting! They're fighting!"

Meng Changqing hadn't expected things to go so smoothly either, and couldn't help but feel a bit excited; the reason was also very simple: "Now, when the final battle with him comes, my win rate has jumped from thirty percent to seventy percent!"

"Can't the Grudge-Spirit kill him?"

Du En had already returned to the center of the team, guarded by those around him, and asked in response.

Suppressing his excitement, Meng Changqing shook his head and said: "If the duration is long enough, he would certainly die, but the Eight-Trigrams Pagoda was rebuilt after all, and it simply can't hold out for that long. And as long as it is shattered, he will be able to use his old methods to temporarily expel and repel the Grudge-Spirit."

"I see." Du En nodded, having gained a deeper understanding of the High Envoy's strength, and asked again: "Why were you so excited just now?"

The point of this question was actually very simple.

It was that Meng Changqing was surprised just now, meaning he hadn't expected it to succeed so easily.

In other words, under normal circumstances, the High Envoy would not fall for this kind of strategy.

So, upon hearing this, he appeared grave, even carrying a sense of wariness, and answered quite vaguely: "I suspect someone is interfering in the dark, hindering some of my and his judgments."

"Oh?"

"... I only just noticed this myself; I need to sort it out properly. Once we reach the new stronghold and I've finished self-checking, I'll tell you in detail."

Meng Changqing seemed still a bit uncertain, but he proceeded with the arrangements based on this: "After this time, he must have noticed it too. In this way, I'm afraid the final battle will start sooner than expected, because if that is truly the case, neither of us will choose to continue entangling ourselves. So you all must hurry to rest and recover; you cannot afford to be negligent."

Fu Yong and the others agreed.

Du En, however, was deep in thought.

Amidst their various emotions, they arrived at the previously reserved stronghold, an inconspicuous small hillside with only a few crooked, withered trees left, and on top of the hill, there was a small temple.

It looked very small, about the size of a small shed, but after actually stepping inside, the scene changed abruptly, and a vast, empty temple appeared before them instead.

"This is a ruin building with lingering profound mysteries?"

"Yes, it's a self-contained space. You can look around; everyone, attend to your duties."

As Meng Changqing spoke, he went deep into the temple; various arrangements were triggered as he stepped forward, and combined with the original lingering mysteries of this place, it was sealed off tightly.

Fu Yong and the others naturally obeyed orders and skillfully went about their various tasks; seeing no need to intervene, Du En went to a corner and carefully and cautiously sorted out his own situation.

"The situation is normal; at least when I self-checked, I didn't find anything unusual. Moreover, he only mentioned himself and the High Envoy, not anyone else, so..."

While deep in thought, Du En took a bit of recovery pill to restore his magic power and some physical fatigue.

Once the recovery was complete, he looked up and, with his divine sense sweeping over, discovered that the others were each performing their duties and operating steadily; even Fu Yong had a gap to take a brief rest.

With nothing to do and feeling light, Du En stood up and began to walk around.

He was still quite curious about this ten-thousand-year-old building with lingering mysteries.

Compared to the buildings in other parts of the ruins, there was a light source inside this temple, emitting a soft, clear light. Looking closely, he discovered it was seeping out from the walls; it wasn't Meng Changqing's previous arrangement, but something it possessed inherently.

Because of this light, a rough inspection or a peek with divine sense could not see things clearly.

Only when Du En walked over to the wall did he finally see the situation clearly.

A mural!

From the four walls to the temple dome, unique and special pigments were used to paint a long-standing scroll; the moment he saw one corner clearly, he was instantly immersed in the whole, as if he had arrived in the ancient past.

(End of chapter)