Chapter 397: Between the Rain Curtains

A local fox named "Linglong" said a single sentence that plunged everyone present into silence; even Yuan Hao Zhenren, who had seen much and weathered many storms in his life, was momentarily stunned. After an indeterminate time, Erin (a very long string) instinctively raised her hand and poked Hu Li's tail beside her; only when a loud "crackle" sounded from within the latter's fur did this eerie silence break.

"Hey, don't shock me—" Hu Li retracted her tail while snapping back to her senses (normally she was the one with static electricity shocking others; now she finally became the one being shocked), turned her head to stare into Linglong's eyes, and asked, "Did you just say that immortal is named Yun Qingzi?!"

"Yes, yes," Linglong, startled by the reactions of the crowd before her, did not know what was going on and thought she might have said something wrong. "That voice said so itself; both my great-uncle and I heard it..."

"Wait, let us sort this out," Erin quickly raised her hand to interrupt the other, speaking while wearing a thoughtful expression. "What you mean is, you and your great-uncle saw some illusions, heard a voice that said it was named Yun Qingzi, told you that this place held a 'opportunity,' and then the two of you just came, right? Then... did he give any proof? You believed him just like that?"

After the small doll's words fell, Yuan Hao Zhenren beside her also nodded: "This matter indeed makes us doubt; on what basis did you believe the words in the illusion? Furthermore, under what circumstances did you see those illusions?"

Linglong's expression showed some dullness and confusion; she seemed to have suddenly developed doubts during the process of recollection, speaking with particular uncertainty: "We... suddenly saw illusions and heard a voice one day; it seems to have been a few days ago? No... I don't remember clearly... I don't know why I believed it; thinking back now, it is truly strange, but at that time my great-uncle and I moved without hesitation; I..."

As she spoke, her expression grew increasingly dazed and vacant, her mind clearly falling into turmoil. Seeing this, Yuan Hao Zhenren immediately reacted, raising his hand and pointing directly: "Clear Spirit!"

Yuan Hao Zhenren's voice was not loud, yet the two words seemed to contain supreme power; in an instant, countless layers of dense, vast, and majestic secret texts and spells struck directly into Linglong's mind. With a "boom" of a phantom explosion, the jade-faced golden fox girl instantly woke from that trance-like state where her reason had been polluted; even the fog that seemed to have shrouded her heart for days was suddenly dispelled. Her expression changed several times in succession, and fear for the consequences soon surfaced.

Watching the changes in expression on the golden fox girl's face, Yuan Hao Zhenren knew his judgment was correct.

"The two of you had your minds polluted by Yun Qingzi's consciousness," he said in a deep voice. "Fortunately, it was discovered early, and your great-uncle sensed the danger at the critical moment; otherwise, by now the two of you would most likely have become 'death soldiers' just like those black-robed cultivators."

Hearing this, Erin beside him immediately widened her eyes: "Ah, you mean all those people in black clothes were serving Yun Qingzi because their minds were polluted like this?"

"It is hard to say 'all,' but judging by the situation, at least a part of them were," Yuan Hao Zhenren said with a solemn expression, while turning his gaze to the red-robed girl before him. "Did you see Yun Qingzi's illusion at the Taixu Lingxu?"

"No, it was at Taiyou," Linglong answered hurriedly.

"... More or less the same; Taiyou is very close to Taixu Lingxu," Yuan Hao Zhenren nodded, then asked again, "What about the specific time? You can't remember at all?"

"I can't remember; I just recalled a bit now, and I feel these past few days have been in a daze. Although speaking and acting seemed to have no problems, it just... didn't feel like my own personal experience," Linglong scratched under her ear, still trying hard to recall the events of these past few days. Then she suddenly pressed her lips together. "Ah, I seem to remember a bit; at that time my great-uncle and I should have been watching the news. I still remember a message popping up, saying... the Thousand Peaks Lingshan temporarily sealed its mountain-protecting formation due to a large-scale mechanism failure!"

Zheng Zhi, who had been listening quietly beside them, reacted first at this moment: "Ah, was that when the Demon-Suppressing Tower had an incident?!"

"Yes," Yuan Hao Zhenren nodded, his expression seeming to have clarified many things. "In this way, the matters correspond with each other."

Linglong blinked her eyes, seeming for a moment still unable to grasp the situation.

Yuan Hao Zhenren then explained to her the events that had occurred in recent days at Taixu Lingxu, Taiyou, and other places—of course, he did not mention matters involving the internal secrets of the Demon-Suppressing Tower, but only spoke of some information that could be made public.

The more Linglong listened, the more shocked she became; hearing the end, she finally realized something belatedly, looked up at Yuan Hao Zhenren with some dullness, and asked, "Wait, you... who are you people?"

"You finally remembered to ask," Yuan Hao Zhenren heard this and could not help but show a slight smile on his face, pointing to himself. "Thousand Peaks Lingshan, Yuan Hao."

Linglong blinked her eyes, as if trying hard to think about who "Yuan Hao" was.

After about half a minute passed, she suddenly remembered that the Thousand Peaks Lingshan apparently, possibly, maybe had a "sect master"...

"Oh—" This local fox clapped her hands, suddenly enlightened, then simply rolled her eyes back and fainted.

Erin instantly jumped up: "Hey! This fox has fainted!"

The scene immediately became chaotic; Hu Li quickly reached out to support Linglong, who was about to fall to the ground. Yuan Hao Zhenren took out a spiritual pill brought from the Thousand Peaks Lingshan from his sleeve. Erin (a very long string) waved her hand and muttered, "Why bother with all this effort," then directly jumped onto Linglong, raised her hands while crackling all over with electricity, and shocked her—then the jade-faced golden fox, who originally would have woken up after fainting once, was directly electrocuted into a deep coma by her...

The scene suddenly became as lively as a construction site, filled with the daily vibrant atmosphere of the "Inn" organization.

But amidst this chaos of chickens flying and dogs jumping, Luna still stood quietly in the corner, gazing at the continuous rain curtain outside the old factory like an elegant doll statue. No one knew what was being thought deep within her cold steel body. After a while, she seemed to suddenly sense something, raised her head, and looked toward a certain direction in the half-air.

Yu Sheng rose from the chaotic darkness and opened his eyes just as he was about to return to the living world—at the boundary line between life and death, he saw that the border of the Soul Wilderness was pouring with heavy rain.

A golden-haired girl clad in bright armor was leading her twelve knights, standing in the rain and waiting for him.

"You even came to welcome me?" Yu Sheng smiled; his figure formed in an instant, landed in the wilderness, and walked toward Luna and her knightly order.

"Hey, the little dwarf is really too noisy; she makes noise doing everything. With you not here, no one can control her. I thought it over and decided it was better to come here and wait for you with the knights," Luna said quickly upon meeting him, chattering away. "I was on standby 'outside.' Erin shocked that local fox into fainting, but she herself panicked and screamed wildly. No one beside her dared to reach out; Erin is discharging electricity all over her body now; Hu Li touched her once and screamed in pain..."

"Stop, stop, slow down—you are speaking so fast all at once, I'm not used to it," Yu Sheng quickly waved his hands. He was used to Luna's speed of squeezing out three words in ten seconds; every time he met her in this wilderness, he found it hard to adapt. "What do you mean by shocking the local fox into fainting? What is this 'discharging electricity all over' about? What is the situation outside right now? Also, what is going on with the heavy rain here? You also know I died a bit suddenly this time..."

Luna thought for a moment; she wanted to say that Yu Sheng died quite suddenly in most cases, but recalling that this master of hers had died twice at her own hands, she did not dare to speak up. Instead, she cleared her throat slightly awkwardly: "Ahem, the battle outside has ended; that Hidden Cultivation Society priest is already dead."

Yu Sheng, whose expression had been calm just a second ago, was startled at this moment: "What? Dead?! That difficult opponent... did Yuan Hao Zhenren make a move?"

Luna shrugged: "Erin killed him."

Yu Sheng's expression instantly went dull: "... Ah?"

"The situation is very complex; I didn't quite understand it. Anyway, right after you died suddenly, she was struck by lightning too; she was struck for about half a minute—then she was fully charged with electricity," Luna said expressionlessly, with a calmness born of having adapted to the Inn's life rhythm and achieved sudden enlightenment. "Then she fired a light cannon at that Hidden Cultivation Society priest with a caliber of about two meters... The incident happened very suddenly; she didn't have time to hold back, and no one reacted in time. After the attack, the scene was very clean; we did not find the enemy's corpse."

Yu Sheng pondered for a moment: "Then tell me, is there such a possibility..."

Before he finished speaking, Luna shook her head: "No."

Yu Sheng was stunned for two seconds, then let out a long sigh: "Then it seems there are no survivors... Ah, but we cannot force it; being able to win is always a good thing, after all, it was a rather thorny enemy."

Luna also nodded, then raised her gaze to look at the rain constantly falling over the wilderness.

"The rain started falling just now, at the moment you 'died,'" she said. "I thought you would know what this is about."

"Is that so..." Hearing Luna's words, Yu Sheng muttered to himself, then reached out his hand to touch those raindrops falling from the sky, his expression thoughtful.

The rain fell on his hand, bringing a momentary cold sensation, but no water accumulated; the grass on the wilderness swayed and bent in the rain, its stems and leaves constantly getting wet, yet in the blink of an eye they returned to dryness. And beneath the grass blades, the gray-black earth showed no sign of becoming muddy due to this rain.

This rain seemed like some illusion falling across dimensions, yet it was not entirely an illusion; it interacted with this wilderness, but that interaction was limited and brief.

Yu Sheng frowned; from the constantly falling rain, he suddenly felt a certain kind of... "information."

"... Is this part of 'Shujing'?"

(End of this chapter)