Chapter 136: Every Grass and Tree a Soldier

The stone slab made a muffled "kak" and snapped shut tight.

The chill of ancient, stale earth underground was completely sealed inside.

Zhang Jun had just straightened up, brushing grass scraps and mud from his hands.

Before he could catch his breath, a weight slammed down on his head!

A blast of icy, dead‑heavy pressure crashed down, enough to freeze a person's soul!

That force held no trace of life, stiff and unyielding, pressing him down relentlessly.

In the courtyard, he and Lin Xue were locked in place by that force.

Lin Xue's body stiffened almost at the same instant.

The faint color drained completely from her face.

In her mind, the gray‑robed figure chanting over an icy altar overlapped with the slow‑sweeping old man she'd just seen in the courtyard!

Inside that gaunt frame lurked something that could scare the guts out of a person!

The two snapped their heads up.

On the courtyard wall, a dusty gray silhouette had appeared at some point.

It was the same old man who had been sweeping during the day!

But now his presence felt completely different from the frail, swaying old man he'd been earlier.

His frame was still hunched, as if a breeze could topple him.

Yet the aura emanating from him had wholly changed.

No longer murky decay, it was now focused and sharp—like a deadly blade hidden in rotten wood; just standing there made hearts tremble and bones chill.

This unfathomable force was more violent and direct than the jolt felt at the cellar entrance moments before.

He stood on the walltop.

His whole being seemed to merge with the night, indistinct from it.

The wall, the shadow, and he appeared as one inseparable whole.

Beneath his gray robe, what showed was not frailty but a blade—an ice‑quenched blade hanging at his throat.

Down below, the two of them were no different from ants crawling on the ground before him.

The pressure grew heavier.

The air turned thick as melted syrup, making each breath a strain, chest tight, bones creaking.

The pure Yang qi in Zhang Jun's dantian was provoked by that external hardness and began to spin wildly.

A surge of scorching heat rose from his belly, racing through his meridians, defiantly opposing the invading cold and weight that sought to pierce his marrow.

He spread his feet slightly, lowered his stance, and his whole body tensed like a fully drawn bow, ready to explode at any moment.

Lin Xue stood beside him, her body held even straighter.

A layer of profound Yin cold qi rose from her, a faint icy‑blue halo swirling around her, almost too pale to see.

Moisture in the air that touched her froze into tiny ice shards.

That killing cold also pushed back against the old man's oppressive pressure.

One cold, one hot—two opposing forces held their ground in the tiny rundown courtyard, neither yielding.

The old man seemed oblivious to their resistance, or rather, he didn't even consider it worth noting.

His withered lips moved, emitting a hoarse, grating sound like sandpaper being rubbed.

"Medicine Sect forbidden grounds— intruders … die."

The voice was low, flat, without inflection.

Yet its meaning was a death‑sentence carved in stone, each word striking like an ice‑pick straight into the heart.

The killing intent was thick and direct, with no subtlety.

Zhang Jun's heart hammered—this old coot was terrifyingly strong!

Going head‑on would surely be disastrous.

He suppressed the urge to fight, speaking in a steady voice to buy time and look for an opening:

"Sir, we didn't mean to intrude. We're investigating a friend's murder; all the clues led here, and we had no choice…"

Before he could finish, the old man seemed too disinterested to listen.

The finger protruding from his gray robe, thin as dry twig, twitched almost imperceptibly.

"Shasha—"

Something strange happened at once!

The knee‑high weeds in the courtyard sprang to life!

Countless withered yellow and verdant green blades twisted together, intertwining, and in an instant turned into hundreds of thin, green shadows the size of a palm and as thick as a finger.

Like a nest of disturbed venomous snakes, they clung to the ground, silent yet terrifyingly fast, shooting straight for Zhang Jun's and Lin Xue's ankles and calves.

As the grass shadows stirred, a cloying, sweet, strange fragrance burst forth.

That scent slipped into their nostrils, making their heads feel heavy and their limbs go numb, unable to muster strength.

Dark arts! This old coot is using nothing orthodox!

"Watch out!" Zhang Jun shouted.

The pent‑up pure Yang qi inside his body could no longer be contained—it exploded with a boom!

A wave of scorching heat, terrifyingly hot, surged outward from him in all directions!

The incoming green grass shadows were hit by the heat wave; their tips instantly scorched, turned yellow, wilted, slowed dramatically, and their attack fell into disarray.

Just that instant!

Lin Xue moved!

She didn't hesitate at all, and the Profound Yin internal force in her body surged out.

It turned into a visible icy-blue cold current, closely following Zhang Jun's heat wave, directly sweeping over those grass shadows that had been forced back and were a bit disordered!

"Crack! Crack!"

The bone‑aching cold swept past, and the remaining grass shadows were instantly frozen.

A layer of white frost formed on their faces, then, like fragile glass, they shattered everywhere, turning into icy grass fragments.

That cloying strange smell was also considerably diluted by this bone‑piercing cold.

This was the first time the two of them had cooperated so clearly and proactively.

One yang, one yin, one hot, one cold, with no gap between them, they actually managed to temporarily break the old man's wicked move!

On the walltop, that old man's originally deadpan face showed a faint flicker of movement for a moment, but it immediately disappeared.

He seemed about to make a move—

Just then!

Outside the alley, a sudden light but urgent footsteps sounded!

It was mixed with the sound of an engine starting and the sound of wheels pressing on the ground!

The sound came from afar, growing nearer; it sounded like quite a few people, rushing quickly toward this small courtyard!

The old man's movements abruptly stopped.

The terrifying aura that had pinned down Zhang Jun and Lin Xue loosened just a tiny bit, extremely briefly.

He slightly tilted his head, as if listening to the commotion outside.

Now!

Zhang Jun had no time to wonder who was coming outside; survival instinct let him seize that fleeting opening!

"Go!"

He gave a low shout and grabbed Lin Xue's wrist.

He exerted force with his feet, shooting forward like an arrow released from a bow, toward the direction opposite the sound coming from outside the alley!

Lin Xue's reaction was also frighteningly fast; being pulled by him, she turned her Profound Yin internal force and pushed her movement technique to the limit.

The two turned into two blurred pale shadows, clinging tightly to the darkness at the base of the wall.

In a few leaps they passed through the Moon Gate and rushed into the rear courtyard.

Without pausing, they scrambled over another, lower courtyard wall and plunged headfirst into the deeper, darker, maze-like alley.