Tianjin, starting with unorthodox methods to achieve immortality

Chapter 290 Sneak Attack

The streets of Chang Le City were bustling with people.

There were many more people on the street than before.

Pedestrians thronged shoulder to shoulder, their faces painted with white makeup swaying in the hazy sunlight.

The flower on his chest swayed slightly with the rhythm of his steps, its red color becoming even more dazzling. Chen Mo walked ahead with his hands behind his back, his expression indifferent, as if the hustle and bustle of the street had nothing to do with him.

Behind him were Shi Hu and two others.

The fat man changed into a light blue short jacket from a clothing store. The size was not quite right, and the fabric stretched across his belly, creating a horizontal groove.

The woman and the baby-faced man followed closely on either side, their self-scanning constantly scanning the activity on both sides of the street. Although their hands were not on their weapons, their shoulders remained tense.

Did you encounter any other teams?

As they turned a corner, Chen Mo suddenly spoke.

Shi Hu took two steps closer and replied in a low voice, "Senior, we encountered a group of people on our way here."

"Who is it?"

"Like a local feng shui master."

Shi Hu guessed, "They saw us too, but they didn't say anything and just walked away from us."

"Judging from the direction they went, it seems they were also trying to avoid the city lord's mansion."

"Um"

Seeing that Chen Mo didn't seem displeased, Shi Hu grew bolder and took another half step forward, tentatively speaking, "Senior, I have an idea, but I don't know if I should say it."

"explain."

"I just heard from the local residents that the city lord's birthday is in three days."

"They say the city lord's mansion will open its gates wide, and anyone who comes to offer birthday wishes, whether or not they are a local, can go in and have a cup of birthday wine."

"I'm thinking, if we wait until that day to go in, we can openly enter through the main gate without having to climb over the wall or hide from the guards, saving us the trouble of..."

'

Chen Mo stopped and turned around to look at him.

"They said three days? Are we just going to wait here obediently for three days?"

Why follow the other person's pace?

"This is a realm of ghosts, aren't you afraid of being scammed?"

Shi Hu opened his mouth, but found he couldn't answer.

"Do you really think that day was the city lord's birthday?" Chen Mo looked at him. "Even if it was, would the guards have been more lax than they are now?"

Shi Hu's forehead was covered in a layer of cold sweat.

He wasn't stupid; after Chen Mo's two sentences, he immediately understood.

If he were the city lord, whose mansion is usually tightly guarded and closed, but on the day of the birthday banquet he opens the gates to all visitors, is that opening the door to welcome guests, or opening the door to close the net?

Of the guests who came to offer their congratulations, how many of them managed to leave unscathed?

"This junior is dull-witted, thank you for your guidance, senior."

Chen Mo didn't say anything more, turned around and continued walking forward.

Shi Hu and the woman exchanged a glance, both seeing a trace of lingering fear in each other's eyes.

As you walk to the end of the street, your view suddenly opens up, and a huge square unfolds before you.

The bluestone-paved ground extended to the front of the city lord's mansion and then abruptly stopped.

The square was deserted; even the fair-faced pedestrians with red flowers kept their distance, none daring to approach.

Chen Mo stopped and looked up at the mansion in front of him.

A towering, dark black wall rose abruptly from the ground, reaching a height of over three zhang (approximately 10 meters).

The wall surface is as smooth as a mirror, with no visible brick or stone seams.

Looking up, you can see a stone beast crouching every few steps on the wall.

Coiled snakes, crouching pixiu, and other strange beasts whose names I don't know, each with a different posture and a ferocious appearance.

The main gate consists of two large vermilion doors, as red as congealed blood.

The door knocker is made of two bronze animal heads holding rings in their mouths. The animals' eyes are half-open and half-closed, and the corners of their mouths are upturned, with an arc that is exactly the same as the smiles of the pale-faced pedestrians on the street.

A huge plaque hangs above the gate, with gold characters on a black background, reading "City Lord's Mansion".

On either side of the plaque hangs a white paper lantern, with faint, blurry patterns visible on the paper that, upon closer inspection, resemble the outline of a person's profile.

Even though there was no wind, the two lanterns were swaying gently.

Chen Mo could sense that there was something behind those two tightly closed doors, and more than one thing.

He led the three of them eastward along the base of the wall, and they went around into a secluded alley.

After walking for about the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, they had surrounded the city lord's mansion quite thoroughly.

The further Shi Hu walked, the colder his heart grew.

The mansion was at least three times larger than he had imagined, with the outer walls alone stretching for countless feet.

There were no uneven surfaces on the wall to climb over, not even a drain.

What made him even more uneasy was that he saw at least three side doors during his circling, each with the same vermilion lacquer, copper nails, and animal head door knockers, each tightly closed, and each exuding the same chilling aura.

They finally stopped in a secluded alley.

The alley was very narrow; two people walking side by side would feel cramped. At the end was a sealed wall, and on the ground were piles of broken tiles and jars left over from who-knows-when.

To the left is the outer wall of the city lord's mansion.

"Let's go in from here."

At the other end of Chang Le City, Jian Yin squatted at the corner of a narrow alley, leaning against the damp, cold brick wall, his breathing extremely shallow.

Outside the alley, the streets of Chang Le City were still bustling with people, their footsteps rustling.

"President Jian, has that thing left?"

Behind me came a young man's low voice, trembling with barely suppressed emotion.

Jian Yin did not answer, but simply peeked her head out from around the corner and glanced at the street.

Those hunched figures had already moved to the end of the street and slowly turned into another alley.

Only after the last figure completely disappeared from sight did Jian Yin slowly exhale a breath of stale air and raise his hand to wipe the cold sweat from his forehead.

"I'm gone."

The three people behind him collapsed at the same time.

Zhou Zihuan, who was in his early twenties, sat down on the ground with the back of his head against the wall, panting heavily.

A section of his left sleeve was torn off, revealing three parallel scratches on his forearm. The edges were starting to turn black, and the blood that seeped out was dark purple.

Zhao Mingcheng, dressed in gray, took out a small porcelain bottle from his pocket, poured out two pills and put them into his mouth, then looked down at his wound, his brows furrowed into a knot.

"Master," he looked up at Jian Yin, "Brother Zhao's injury needs to be treated quickly. That monster's claws are filled with corpse poison. If we delay any longer, we won't be able to save this arm."

Jian Yin grabbed Zhou Zihuan's arm and looked at it for a moment. He then reached into a small, yellowed coarse cloth bag, plucked out a pinch of dark red powder, and sprinkled it evenly over the three scratch marks.

When the powder touched the blood droplets, it hissed and emitted a small wisp of white smoke.

Zhou Zihuan's face turned pale with pain, and he clenched his teeth so tightly that he couldn't make a sound.

"Bear with it."

Jian Yin's hands were steady; he pressed the powder firmly before releasing his arm.

He then casually tore off the ripped sleeve, quickly shredded it into strips, and tied it tightly around the upper arm above the wound.

The corpse poison isn't too strong; it can be suppressed for now.

Zhou Zihuan gritted his teeth and nodded, then stood up by leaning against the wall. His left arm hung limply at his side, and the tips of his fingers were beginning to turn slightly blue.

"President Jian, what do we do now?"

Jian Yin leaned back against the corner of the wall, tilting his head to look at the street outside the alley, his expression uncertain.

They were incredibly unlucky this time; the eight of them got separated as soon as they entered the Ghost Realm.

After finally finding the three of them, they encountered several monsters with human faces and rat bodies.

Upon first encounter, Zhou Zihuan was injured by their claws.

If he hadn't reacted quickly and leaned back half an inch, that claw would have ripped into his heart.

Finally, the four of them managed to escape the enemy's pursuit by relying on a concealment formation to hide their figures and aura.

Jian Yin was now at a loss as to where to go next.

When they first entered the Ghost Realm twenty years ago, it was just a wasteland with nothing inside.

Unexpectedly, twenty years later, a city called Chang Le City appeared out of nowhere, with hundreds and thousands of residents wearing white faces and red flowers.

This change is definitely related to Xuan Yin Zhai.

Has Gu Yunzhou's strength grown to this level?

While he was struggling with this decision, he suddenly heard a loud bang in the distance.

The sound came without warning, like a muffled thunderclap from the ground, causing the bluestone slabs underfoot to tremble slightly.

Jian Yin suddenly looked up and followed the sound.

A dark red mushroom cloud was rising slowly in the sky above the direction of the city lord's mansion.

The cloud was edged with an eerie black border, and a thin black line ran down from its base into a certain part of the city, where it lingered for a long time.

Jian Yin frowned.

That's not right.

He had seen the aftershocks of magical explosions; they were usually instantaneous bursts that disappeared without a trace once the smoke and dust cleared.

But the mushroom cloud in front of us was suspended in mid-air and was not moving. Instead, it was slowly expanding outward, as if new power was being continuously injected into it.

"This is... the formation collapsing?"

Zhao Mingcheng stood up, looking up at the strange cloud in the sky. "Or are some important figures fighting?"

Jian Yin stared intently at the black line connecting the mushroom cloud to the ground.

The black line trembled slightly, and with each tremor, the mushroom cloud in the sky swelled a little larger.

"It's not a battle of magic; someone is breaking the formation."

"Break the formation?"

"Let's go take a look."

He led the three men through two streets, and the closer they got to the city lord's mansion, the more unpleasant the air became.

The air was thick with the stench of blood, mixed with the bitter smell of burnt plant roots.

The pedestrians on the street had disappeared.

The residents, who wore white makeup and red flowers on their chests, seemed to have vanished into thin air, leaving only empty streets and tightly closed doors and windows on both sides.

The street ahead came to an end, and beyond that was the open square surrounding the city lord's mansion.

The square was now completely unrecognizable.

A huge crack split open in the middle of the bluestone-paved ground, with gravel and soil swirling around the edges.

Further away, a large section of the city lord's mansion's high walls had collapsed, revealing the courtyards and pavilions inside.

At the site of the collapsed courtyard wall, thick black smoke was rising from the ground, carrying sparks and ash.

"The foundation of the formation has been destroyed."

Jian Yin squinted for a few moments, then suddenly gasped.

"Someone blew up the entire core of the formation from the inside!"

"From the inside?" Zhou Zihuan asked through gritted teeth. "Doesn't that mean someone has already infiltrated the City Lord's Mansion?"

Jian Yin did not answer, his gaze fixed on the mushroom cloud in mid-air that was still expanding.

At the bottom of the cloud, the black line hanging down was several times thicker than before, and its color was getting darker.

The end of the black line connects to a location in the backyard of the city lord's mansion, where the ground has completely collapsed, forming a huge pit.

Just then, a loud, sharp shout came from the clouds.

It penetrated through layers of ruins and smoke, clearly reaching the ears of everyone present.

"Who on earth is this powerful figure who has ruined my path to immortality?!"

The voice carried barely suppressed anger, yet also a hint of fear.

"The hatred for those who obstruct our path is irreconcilable! If they do not retreat..."

Before the words were finished, a muffled roar erupted from the depths of the city lord's mansion, drowning out the rest of the sentence in the deafening crash of the collapsing ruins.

Jian Yin's pupils contracted sharply: "Let's go! Let's go over and take a look!"

At this time, the backyard of the city lord's mansion had been completely reduced to ruins.

The once meticulously constructed garden pavilions have all been reduced to rubble and broken stones.

The air was filled with the acrid smell of burning gunpowder.

The ground around them cracked open one crack after another, and dark purple roots kept emerging from the cracks, frantically lashing out at the black giant shadow in the void.

Hiding in the shadows, Shi Hu and his two companions felt a chill run down their spines. They bit their lips so hard they didn't scream. After exchanging glances, they all saw the same lingering fear in each other's eyes.

If it weren't for that old monster at the Condensation Realm intervening, they would have had no chance of survival this time.

How could a secular sect leader be hiding so deeply?

Under the watchful eyes of the three, the enormous black shadow puppet was rampaging through the backyard.

Its body was over three zhang tall, completely black as ink, with indistinct outlines, like a human-shaped thick fog, yet it could wield a giant sword over ten zhang long.

With each step, a footprint about a foot deep would appear in the ground, and the cracks would spread in all directions.

When the shadow blade in his hand is swung, a black afterimage is left behind where the blade passes.

The afterimage contained an intense, suffocating aura of menace.

Engulfed in battle with this colossal creature were countless dark purple roots.

Countless roots surged wildly from the cracks in the ground, each as thick as an adult's arm, covered with a layer of slippery mucus, and gleaming with an eerie blood-red light.

The tips of the roots were extremely sharp, like spears, piercing the shadow puppet from all directions.

Black smoke will emerge from the pierced parts of the Shadow Puppet's body, but new black mist will quickly emerge from its body to fill the gap.

The two sides fought fiercely, and each collision caused the ground to tremble.

Each root was severed by the shadow blade, and new roots immediately sprouted from the cracks to fill the gaps.

They came one after another, and were killed without end.

Anyone with eyes could see that although there were many roots, they were ultimately unable to truly suppress the shadow puppet.

The two sides are currently at a stalemate.

A huge pool of blood floated above the city lord's mansion, with thick, dark red liquid churning violently within it, like a pot of boiling blood.

The blood pool was suspended three zhang in the air without any support.

Below, countless thick, dark purple roots connect it to the deep pit where the ground has collapsed.

Gu Yunzhou was immersed in this pool of blood.

His lower body was completely submerged in the pool of blood, while his upper body was naked.

Its grayish-white skin is covered with lines, and deep within the cracks, one can vaguely see that it is filled with dark purple roots.

The vengeful spirit draped over his shoulders and back, the gray-black blanket slowly swaying in the blood mist.

At this moment, Gu Yunzhou's face was terribly gloomy.

The original plan was flawless.

Three days later, the strange tide will arrive, and the fish hiding in the shadows will naturally swim into the city lord's mansion.

When the time comes, they will be like turtles in a jar, and their essence and blood will be the best nourishment for me to break through to the eighth stage.

But to his utter surprise, someone actually dared to blow up the array's core from the inner courtyard.

They didn't use ordinary explosives, otherwise they wouldn't have this kind of destructive power.

Gu Yunzhou could sense that the power that detonated the array's core contained a strange, malevolent aura.

Extremely yin and extremely cold.

That malevolent aura was the real key to destroying the array's core; the explosives were merely an auxiliary agent.

who is it?

When did such a person emerge in Kowloon?

Gu Yunzhou's gaze swept across every corner of the surroundings, trying to find the figure hidden in the shadows.

Below the blood pool, Cen Du and several gray-robed disciples had retreated to the edge of the backyard. Their faces were pale, and their gray robes were torn in several places by the gravel.

They were almost buried in the collapsed underground cave and barely managed to escape.

Cen Du looked up at the roots that kept sprouting, then at the towering black shadow, his eyes filled with horror.

After their sect leader fused with the Sacred Flower, his strength had increased to an unbelievable level.

But the other party was able to fight him back and forth?

Could the visitor be an elder from a major sect in the spirit world?

"senior!"

Gu Yunzhou spoke again, forcibly suppressing his anger.

"I have no grudge against you, senior. Why would you ruin my path?"

"If you have only stumbled upon this place by mistake, I am willing to offer a generous gift and respectfully escort you out of this strange realm, and will not pursue the matter of today!"

His words were already extremely humble.

For a sect leader to say that he would never pursue the matter is practically tantamount to admitting defeat.

Chen Mo stood in the shadows of the attic, a slight smile curving his lips.

Humble and subservient?

It's just a delaying tactic.

He could clearly see that as Gu Yunzhou spoke, the speed at which the roots emerging from the bottom of the blood pool not only did not slow down, but instead became faster and faster.

Several of them were already as thick as buckets, and were silently spreading towards the shadow puppet's feet.

This old man talks about seeking peace, but secretly he's gathering strength, preparing for a fatal blow.

"If you don't believe me, senior..."

'

Gu Yunzhou was still talking.

Chen Mo didn't give him another chance to continue.

His right hand emerged from his sleeve, his index and middle fingers joined together, pointing forward.

The shadow puppet, which was fighting with the roots in the courtyard, paused, and the black mist around it surged violently.

The next instant, the blade of its giant sword turned and slashed straight at the blood pool in mid-air!

The black blade, over ten feet long, sliced ​​through the air with a piercing shriek.

Gu Yunzhou's expression changed drastically.

"You dare...."

'

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