Chapter 85: Playing Tricks

Violent fire energy exploded outward, rippling through the surroundings.

The swamp ground was blasted into a pit over one zhang deep.

Mud was flung everywhere.

As for Yang Xu’s body, it had long been reduced to countless fragments.

He Pingsheng took a deep breath and retracted the earth-elemental shield surrounding his body.

Now, in combat, he no longer felt the same tension as before.

He was calm.

From the very beginning, he had been utterly composed.

He Pingsheng leapt up carefully and landed where Yang Xu had died.

Yang Xu’s corpse was certainly gone.

His robe had been torn into shreds!

Yet the Hundred Treasures Bag lay intact on the ground.

Beside the Hundred Treasures Bag were a small flying sword and a shield, both of middling-grade magic treasure quality.

He Pingsheng took no pity—he snatched up the sword and shield, stowed them in his storage bag, then opened Yang Xu’s Hundred Treasures Bag.

The Hundred Treasures Bag held few items.

Because Yang Xu had spent these days relentlessly searching for him, he had no time to gather rare herbs or treasures; aside from a few garments, his bag contained only a few jade talismans.

And roughly a hundred spirit stones.

Nothing else.

“Take!” He Pingsheng seized the spirit stones without hesitation.

Then came the jade talismans.

A teleportation jade talisman.

A good item—crush it and you’re transported out of this realm.

Taken.

There was also a yellow talisman.

On the talisman were drawn two strange characters; He Pingsheng barely recognized them as 【Tongxin】.

“This… is a Tongxin Talisman?” He Pingsheng was startled.

He had seen such a talisman mentioned in the *Miscellaneous Records of Cultivation*, but never encountered one.

Simply put, it was a talisman—uniquely special.

One entity, two halves.

A single talisman could be split into two parts, each held by a different person; when one was activated, it could transmit a single message and reveal the holder’s location.

Of course, the condition was that they could not be too far apart.

For a Rank-One 【Tongxin Talisman】, the maximum effective range was ten thousand li.

Within ten thousand li, it worked.

Beyond that, it became useless.

He Pingsheng did not know who held the other end of this talisman, but he guessed there was a ninety percent chance it was in Linglong’s hands.

Didn’t this fellow come after me because Linglong ordered him to?

“Hmm…” He Pingsheng stared at the talisman, then smiled faintly.

He decided he would play a trick on Linglong.

……

Within the secret realm!

Another realm!

Linglong, Luoyu, and another disciple were hurrying down from a mountaintop.

“Run fast… hahaha…”

Linglong laughed loudly: “Don’t worry—they can’t catch us!”

“Damn ice-polar immortal sect disciples, daring to bully me!”

“Once we’re out, I’ll have my grandfather come and wipe out the Ice-Polar Immortal Sect!”

Beside her, Luoyu sneered: Your grandfather? Wipe out the Ice-Polar Immortal Sect?

Possible?

At that moment, a Tongxin Talisman hanging from Linglong’s waist suddenly flickered.

“Huh…” Linglong beamed: “Haha… Yang Xu found that bastard!”

Linglong did not stop running; she kept sprinting.

Only after escaping danger did she mount a paper crane and fly off.

In midair, she unfastened the jade talisman—it emitted no sound, but displayed a green dot that blinked steadily.

“Damn Yang Xu!” Linglong cursed: “Why didn’t he send me a message?”

Luoyu, riding the same paper crane, asked: “Found him?”

“Probably!” Linglong said: “Let’s go see… Yang Xu, make sure you keep him alive!”

“Hehehe…”

“When I get there, I’ll make him suffer!”

“Hmph…”

“Dog-like thing—originally just an outer sect laborer!”

“I asked him to brew pills for me, and he acted high and mighty?”

“Today, I won’t rest until I kill him!”

Behind her, Luoyu frowned slightly: “Sister, don’t keep bringing this up.”

“And when you meet him, just kill him outright—no need to torture him.”

“If someone sees, Master Yuning won’t be easy to answer to.”

“What’s the worry?” Linglong gritted her silver teeth: “He’s just a dog from a laborer’s background—kill him, and if needed, I’ll just spend a few days in the Reflection Square!”

“No!”

Luoyu shook her head: “Though he was a laborer, he’s changed now.”

“He’s now a true disciple of Yuning Palace!”

“If you kill him like you did Hao Yun, your punishment won’t be just a few days in the Reflection Square!”

“So, sister… this matter must be kept secret!”

“Don’t let it get out!”

“Hmph…” Linglong sneered: “If killing him can’t be made public, isn’t that boring?”

“I want everyone to know what happens when they cross me!”

“Let’s go…”

Whoosh…

Two paper cranes flew across the void toward He Pingsheng’s location.

Because they were far away, the two paper cranes flew for nearly half an hour before reaching the spot where the Tongxin Talisman flickered.

“What place is this?”

Looking down at the vast swamp, Linglong frowned.

“I don’t know,” Luoyu shook her head.

“Sister… over here… over here…”

The other disciple on the paper crane suddenly spotted something and shouted urgently before landing.

A few breaths later, Luoyu and Linglong also landed.

This was the center of the swamp.

A long branch stood upright on the ground.

On the branch hung several garments.

These garments were the ones He Pingsheng had taken from Yang Xu’s Hundred Treasures Bag.

He had hung them on the branch.

“What does this mean?” Linglong asked, staring at the clothes.

Luoyu said: “Look… there’s writing over there!”

On the fluttering clothes, several lines were written in blood.

“Bring me those clothes!” Linglong ordered the male disciple.

The disciple plucked the clothes down.

On them was written one large line: Beneath the branch is a jar!

Just those words.

Then all three stared at the soil beneath.

The ground below had clearly been dug up.

“Dig!” Linglong ordered the male disciple: “Dig out that jar—I want to see what trickery this is!”

Linglong feared being tricked, so she dared not dig herself and instead commanded the male disciple.

The male disciple didn’t want to dig either, but he had no choice.

He could only grit his teeth and used his flying sword to dig into the ground around him.