Chapter 49: The Mountain-Arranging Array That Blots Out the Sky and Sun

Chengkai never dreamed in his wildest dreams that he would end up in the same place as Long Qi.

Although the misunderstanding from that day had been resolved, he seemed to always be at odds with him, even his speech laced with barbs.

Yet, he truly did not know where exactly he had offended him.

Long Qi, for his part, was also extremely frustrated; it truly lived up to the saying that enemies are bound to meet on a narrow road, and he just had to bump into this blockheaded fellow.

In these deep mountains and old forests, having a companion to travel with was indeed much safer than being alone; otherwise, Lingxiang would not have specifically run over to warn him not to explore by himself.

On this point, Chengkai naturally sensed it instinctively.

After all, this was a martial exercise; although there was no threat to life, it would certainly not be as relaxed as it appeared on the surface.

Moreover, he always felt the surroundings were extremely strange. The senior brother had already said before that there were no living creatures like spirit beasts in the array, yet all along the way, he could hear rustling from time to time, as if something were deliberately hanging around toying with them.

As soon as Liu Xia stood firm, he began to search all around.

The place where he landed was very open, not like a place where Spirit Plants could survive, but the sky was blotted out within the Array Formation, making it impossible to identify where he actually was, so he had to bury his head and walk in one direction.

After about the time it takes to burn an incense stick, he saw lush vegetation ahead, which seemed to be a place where Spirit Plants could grow. Liu Xia hurried over, and just as he stepped onto the grass, he saw a bush to the side shake.

Although the spirit beasts had long been driven out of the array, ever since entering, the surroundings had been filled with a strange atmosphere.

Thinking of this, he immediately became alert, drew his Soft Sword to set up a sword stance, held his breath and focused his attention, and carefully probed into the bush.

When he got close, he smashed his left-hand sword scabbard hard into it.

Only to hear an "Ouch," a "ball" rolled out from the bush; it was actually a person, and a woman at that!

The woman was wearing an Outer Disciple's Daoist Robe, but her clothes were tattered; she rolled half a circle and sprawled at Liu Xia's feet.

Liu Xia was startled and retreated two steps, but after waiting for a long time, he saw no movement from the woman.

Having no choice, he went up to help her up, but just as he squatted down, he saw the woman's hands and feet flailing and kicking, while she kept shouting:

"Don't catch me! Don't catch me! My meat doesn't taste good!"

Then she suddenly got up, raised her head, and slammed it into Liu Xia's chin.

Liu Xia felt the pain and couldn't speak; he was knocked into a sitting position to the side, clutching his chin tightly, his face full of pain.

The woman just wanted to run away, but suddenly froze: Did I just hit a... person?

She hesitated and turned her head, and after seeing Liu Xia on the ground clearly, she let out a breath—it really was a person!

"I say, fellow student, scaring people can scare them to death!" She patted her chest to soothe herself.

Hearing this, Liu Xia looked up at the woman before him: disheveled and dirty, it was hard to tell her age, yet one could vaguely see her beautiful features from her eyebrows and eyes.

But...

Such a woman, what was her head made of, to have hit his chin so hard it still ached, while she seemed perfectly fine and was even complaining about him.

He rubbed his chin and stood up, the pain on his face slightly reduced.

"It is not that I wanted to scare you, miss, but you were the one hiding in the grass; how did it turn into me scaring you?" As he spoke, he picked up the sword that had been knocked to the ground.

When the woman heard Liu Xia say this, she was a bit speechless, and when she saw his red and swollen chin, she felt embarrassed.

"I am truly sorry, it is just that I was startled earlier, so I hid. Hearing the commotion when you arrived, I thought that monster had found me." As she spoke, she dived back into the bush, and before long, she took out her own sword and even found Liu Xia's sword scabbard along the way.

"Monster?" Liu Xia asked with a questioning look, "There are no living creatures in this array, how could there be a monster?"

"Who's to say?" The woman handed the scabbard to Liu Xia, "At first we thought so too, but I saw with my own eyes that thing snatching someone away. If I hadn't run fast, I would have lost my life too."

"You?"

"Yes! It was a fellow student from the Orchid Courtyard; we happened to land in the same place." The woman dusted off her clothes, "Here, this sword is mine, but this scabbard is hers. At that time, the monster came too fast, and we only managed to grab each other's scabbards; she disappeared in an instant, scaring me so much that I crawled here to hide."

The newly entered Outer Disciple Residence was named after Plum, Orchid, Bamboo, and Chrysanthemum; since she mentioned the Orchid Courtyard, that person was indeed a woman.

Lingxiang was right; this martial exercise was indeed not a simple assessment.

"What? You say this book was compiled by you, Lingxiang?"

Liu Xia knew Lingxiang had extraordinary abilities, but he didn't expect her to have this talent as well.

This "Record of Herbs" was not something an ordinary person could understand, whether from the illustrations or the annotations; only someone who was knowledgeable and an old hand could write such a medical book.

Lingxiang flipped through it a little, curled her lips, and handed the book back to Liu Xia.

"Not entirely; some parts were likely wrong, and Senior Brother Fuyin made some changes."

That was also extremely difficult!

Liu Xia looked at Lingxiang, not hiding the admiration in his eyes.

But Lingxiang changed the subject.

"I came today to talk about this martial exercise; I have thought it over and feel I must give you all a little reminder."

"A reminder? Could there be some trick to this martial exercise?" Long Qi said, lifting his cup to drink tea; just as he swallowed the first sip, he remembered that this cup had been used by Lingxiang just now.

Thinking of this, his face suddenly heated up, and he glanced at Lingxiang, only to find that she didn't seem to have noticed.

The cup seemed to still retain her fragrance; Long Qi couldn't help but take another sip, feeling his whole body burning with heat, so he hurriedly put the cup down quietly and recited the Heart-Clearing Mantra to steady his mind.

Lingxiang, on the other hand, did not look back at him, but lowered her head and took a stack of Talisman Paper from her sleeve.

"Naturally, it is unusual," she said, dividing the Talisman Paper into four portions, "Although there will be no spirit beasts in the Mountain-Arranging Array at that time, it was not said that there wouldn't be other things. It's better to be safe than sorry!"

"Other things? Oh~" Biaodong thought for a moment and suddenly understood what Lingxiang meant by "other things"—didn't they just encounter them earlier!

She was just about to speak, but was stopped by Lingxiang.

"As a senior sister, can't you set an example and treat this martial exercise assessment fairly and impartially?"

Biaodong didn't say anything upon hearing this, but just glanced at Lingxiang: You are being fair and impartial, so why are you handing out those useless Talisman Papers to them?

Thinking of this, Liu Xia took out the Talisman Paper from his bosom and looked at it.

Could it be because of Lingxiang's talismans that he hadn't encountered any monsters or spirits along the way, even though he always felt the surrounding atmosphere was unusual?