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Chapter 98 The Dragon's Back

Chen Yue sprang up silently from the ground, lightly touched the ground with his feet, and appeared on the branch of a tree next to the camp, looking into the distance in the direction from which the suona sound came.

Upon seeing this, even Chen Yue, with his resolute will, couldn't help but have his pupils shrink slightly.

About a hundred paces outside the caravan camp, on a desolate road, a funeral procession had appeared out of nowhere.

The group consisted of about twenty or thirty people, all dressed in coarse white linen clothes and wearing pointed white hats. They walked forward in silence with their heads down.

At the front, four people carried a thin, jet-black coffin. The coffin seemed extremely light, and the four people carried it with light, ethereal steps.

The people following behind carried paper figures, paper horses, and spirit banners, which fluttered in the night wind.

No one in the procession cried or spoke; only the sharp, eerie sound of the suona, emanating from an unknown voice, echoed continuously across the wilderness.

And the funeral procession's steps were not normal; instead, their bodies leaned slightly forward, their shoulders barely moving, as if they were being pulled by invisible threads, slowly moving towards the caravan camp.

"Whoosh!"

The caravan camp ahead was instantly alarmed, and a large number of torches were hastily lit. The orange-red light dispelled the darkness and illuminated the slightly panicked faces of the guards.

All the guards had already drawn their swords, their blades gleaming coldly, and formed a battle formation, their eyes fixed on the eerie funeral procession that was closing in, cold sweat dripping from their foreheads.

Suppressed screams and sobs came from the camp. Qiu Jin, the caravan manager, stood on the roof of a wagon, his face ashen, shouting something and directing the guards.

The commotion also woke up Shen Dujiang and Hu Shaoyu. Although they were some distance away, martial artists are naturally more sensitive to cold and evil energy, which instantly woke them from their sleep. They looked towards the caravan with pale faces.

On the contrary, Lin Quan, who had no martial arts skills, was completely unaffected by the chilling aura while he was asleep. Instead, he seemed to be soothed or suppressed in some way, and slept even more soundly, completely unaware of the imminent danger.

Chen Yue stood on the tree, his eyes fixed on the funeral procession.

Suddenly, Chen Yue's eyes narrowed slightly.

Just as the funeral procession approached the caravan from one side, at the end of the desolate road in another direction from the caravan camp, another group of figures silently appeared in the thick, impenetrable darkness of the night.

That was a wedding procession!

The group consisted of twenty or thirty people, all dressed in bright red wedding attire, carrying an eight-person sedan chair adorned with red decorations.

Ahead, some people were carrying large red lanterns, some were holding up double happiness signs, and some were playing the sheng and xiao (traditional Chinese wind instruments).

Unlike the deathly silence and eeriness of the funeral procession, this wedding procession exuded an extreme, twisted, and cold joy. The bright red color, set against the dim firelight and night, was so vivid it was almost blinding, as if it were about to bleed.

Just as the wedding procession appeared, as if disturbed by the commotion, the curtain of the sedan chair on the side window was gently pulled open by a slender hand painted with bright red nail polish.

The sedan curtain was lifted slightly, revealing a small side profile of the bride inside, wearing a phoenix coronet and embroidered bridal gown, along with her jade-like hand holding the curtain.

"Buzz!"

Within his sea of ​​consciousness, the Mind-Nourishing Technique, without Chen Yue's prompting, began to operate automatically at an unprecedented speed, and the feeling of coolness surged.

At the same time, the Heart Tiger, which had merged with the martial will of the Tiger Roar Golden Bell Shield, seemed to sense a fatal threat and let out a silent yet violent roar from the depths of Chen Yue's sea of ​​consciousness, shaking his soul.

A strange shock, a mixture of extreme allure, icy stillness, and profound terror and dread, followed Chen Yue's gaze like an invisible poisonous thorn, piercing his sea of ​​consciousness with alarm.

"Don't watch!"

Chen Yue's scalp tingled. In the instant of the Heart Tiger's Roar and the Heart Nourishing Technique's warning, he almost instinctively abruptly shifted his gaze from the corner of the sedan curtain that had been lifted.

Chen Yue dodged it, but many people in the caravan did not have such keen mental perception and reaction speed.

Just as the sedan curtain was lifted, revealing the pale, red-nailed hand and the silhouette of the phoenix coronet and wedding gown, many of the caravan guards and staff who instinctively looked over there caught a glimpse of the scene inside the sedan.

"what!"

"My eyes!"

The next instant, a series of sharp, short screams echoed through the caravan camp.

Those who witnessed the scene inside the sedan chair, regardless of their cultivation level, all had thick, crimson blood slowly seeping from the corners of their eyes.

They covered their eyes with their hands, curled up in pain and collapsed to the ground. Some fainted immediately, while others made incoherent groans, clearly suffering unimaginable damage to their souls.

Just one glance was enough!

"The Red and White Duo—it's the Red and White Duo! Close your eyes! Everyone, look down! Don't look!" A knowledgeable old man in the caravan shouted.

The camp was thrown into chaos instantly, and panic spread like a plague.

"clang!!!"

A deep, resonant sound, like the sound of a great bell, suddenly erupted from the center of the caravan camp.

The sound was solid and tangible, instantly overpowering the eerie suona horn and dispelling some of the chilling cold that penetrated to the very soul.

Chen Yue suddenly turned his head to look.

On the roof of a blue-canopied carriage in the center of the caravan, two figures were standing.

One of them held an object in his hands. The object resembled a miniature set of chimes, with a dark bronze color and densely engraved runes on its surface.

Beside Yan Li stood another elderly man, whose aura was no less powerful than Yan Li's. At this moment, his face was flushed red, veins bulged on his forehead, and his right hand was tightly gripping a small hammer, also made of ancient bronze.

The hammerhead was pressed against the small bronze bell in Yan Li's hand. Clearly, the earth-shattering bell ringing just now was the result of the old man striking it with all his might.

With just one strike, his breath became unsteady and his face flushed, clearly indicating that he had expended a great deal of energy.

The sound of the bell transformed into visible, pale golden ripples of sound, rapidly spreading outwards from the bronze bell in all directions.

Wherever it passed, the gray-black mist that had quietly spread out without anyone noticing quickly melted away and dissipated.

The sonic ripples moved extremely fast, sweeping past the eerie funeral procession and the bright red sedan chair with its curtains lifted in the blink of an eye.

Under the impact of the pale golden sound waves, the mourners, the wedding procession, the black coffin, the bright red bridal sedan chair, and even the pale hand and the silhouette of the phoenix coronet and embroidered robe—

Everything, like the reflection of a stone thrown into water, distorted and rippled violently!

Immediately afterward, under everyone's watchful eyes, the two strange teams, along with the piercing suona horns, vanished without a trace, like flowers in a mirror or the moon's reflection in water.

The wilderness returned to silence, with only the howling night wind and the heavy breathing and suppressed sobs rising and falling from the caravan camp.

Many guards and staff collapsed to the ground, drenched in cold sweat, pale-faced, gasping for breath, their eyes filled with boundless fear.

Those with blood trickling from their eyes were hurriedly helped up and given medical treatment.

Shen Dujiang and Hu Shaoyu had silently appeared under the tree where Chen Yue was, looking up at him with lingering fear on their faces.

Shen Dujiang wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, looking at the two figures standing atop the wagons in the distant caravan camp, especially the small bronze bell in Yan Li's hand, which had now dimmed. He let out a long sigh of relief: "Following this caravan was the right decision! They really did have a trump card to deal with this kind of thing; that bell must be an extremely powerful spiritual weapon!"

Hu Shaoyu nodded repeatedly, his voice trembling with lingering fear: "Yes, if we had traveled alone, we would probably have been the ones to encounter the Red and White Duo tonight."

Chen Yue leaped gently down from the tree, his eyes filled with solemnity.

After a brief period of chaos and medical intervention, the caravan camp did not choose to remain in place until dawn.

On the contrary, under the command of Yan Li and the old man, the guards mustered their spirits, quickly packed up, and decided to set off immediately under the cover of night and travel through the night!

Clearly, the appearance of the red and white demons had made the caravan realize that this place was extremely dangerous, and they dared not linger for even a moment longer, even though they had just scared away the evil spirits with the help of the bronze bell.

Seeing this, Chen Yue and his three companions naturally dared not delay in the slightest.

Shen Dujiang and Hu Shaoyu quickly harnessed the carriage, woke up the still-sleeping Lin Quan, and planned to continue following the caravan.

At least when encountering similar evil spirits, it provides an extra layer of protection.

Visibility is extremely poor when traveling at night; the moonlight is obscured by clouds, and the starlight is dim.

Neither the caravan in front nor Chen Yue and his group behind dared to move too fast.

The sound of horse-drawn cart wheels rolling over the rough dirt road was exceptionally clear in the silent wilderness. Everyone was on edge, weapons in hand, guarding against any unknown dangers that might lurk in the darkness.

Every rustle of wind, every cry of an owl, sends a shiver down one's spine.

Fortunately, the rest of the night passed peacefully.

As the first rays of dawn appeared on the eastern horizon, gradually dispelling the heavy darkness, the tense nerves of both the caravan ahead and Chen Yue and his companions in the carriage behind couldn't help but relax slightly.

Time slipped away quietly amidst vigilant travel, brief resupply stops in towns, and daily cultivation.

In the blink of an eye, thirteen days have passed.

During this period, the caravans ahead entered three towns of varying sizes to rest and resupply.

Chen Yue and his three companions maintained a tacit distance, and there was no further communication between them. However, after the night of the Red and White Duo, the caravan seemed to have lowered its guard against the four tails at the back.

On this day, the official road underfoot became noticeably wider and smoother, paved with bluestone and rammed earth, wide enough for several horse-drawn carriages to pass side by side.

The flow of people and vehicles has increased significantly, and it no longer feels as deserted as it did a few days ago.

The scenery along the road gradually changed from barren hills to cultivated fields and scattered villages.

The chilling atmosphere that permeated the air seemed to be diluted considerably by the increasing population and open terrain.

Hu Shaoyu sat on the carriage shaft, squinting as he carefully examined the terrain beside the road and in the distance, his face gradually revealing an irrepressible excitement and joy.

-

He suddenly pointed to the horizon ahead, his voice trembling slightly with excitement: "Look! Ahead! Tianzhou Prefecture! We've finally arrived!"

Everyone looked in the direction of the sound.

In the far distance, where heaven and earth meet, the outline of a magnificent city suddenly appears.

Even though it was still more than ten miles away, the scale of the city was already breathtaking.

The towering city walls, like the spine of a giant dragon, meander and stretch as far as the eye can see.

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