What do you mean by saying that the corpses I sew are all ominous creatures?

Qianji stared intently at the black willow-leaf dagger that flashed through the air before disappearing back into the darkness.

He swallowed, his voice a little dry:

"That's not a flying sword...that's...a willow-leaf dagger. And this murderous aura..."

Lu Yan, who was sitting in the center of the formation, suddenly opened her tightly closed eyes.

She stared at the area outside that had been instantly cleared away, a look of disbelief flashing across her pale face before a slight smile appeared on her lips.

"It's him." Lu Yan's voice was a little hoarse.

I withdrew my mental energy, allowing the bone needles and scalpel to return to my side.

However, just as I was about to take a step towards that crumbling golden light barrier, the cool aura between my brows suddenly began to flash wildly without warning!

An unprecedented sense of crisis instantly enveloped my heart!

There was no killing intent, no sound of air being torn apart, and not even the swirling black mist around them was disturbed in the slightest.

But the piercing pain, like a thorn in my back, truly told me that death was already clinging to my back.

In a moment of sudden inspiration, I didn't have time to think at all.

Relying entirely on the terrifying physical instincts granted to me by the Mountain-Shaking Force, I stomped my right foot hard on the waterlogged bluestone slab.

"Snap!"

The hard bluestone slab was shattered by my foot.

Using this violent reaction force, my body was forced to shift half a foot to the right.

"laugh--"

A very faint sound brushed past my ear.

I felt a slight chill on my left shoulder.

The dark jade-colored lightning and fire protective aura that even the Shadow Sect elder's poisoned short blade couldn't leave a mark on was easily sliced ​​open like a thin sheet of paper at this moment.

Immediately afterwards, the sturdy raincoat was ripped, and a thin line of blood spread down my left shoulder.

The wound wasn't deep; it only cut through the skin and didn't even damage the muscle.

But the moment the wound reopened, an extremely cold and insidious aura tried to penetrate my meridians along with my blood.

The evil core within my body suddenly trembled, and the inner energy of thunder and fire attributes instantly surged to my left shoulder.

The malevolent energy, imbued with the power of thunder and fire, forcefully drove away the invading chill, and the bleeding from the wound stopped.

I stopped, turned around, and looked at the spot where I had just been standing.

A person wearing a gray long robe and a white mask was standing there quietly.

He held a slender, soft sword in his hand, its entire body jet black, almost blending into the surrounding black mist.

If I hadn't seen him standing there with my own eyes, even if I had sensed it with my cool aura, that spot would have seemed like just a wisp of air.

Looking at this person who seemed to be non-existent, I gripped the scalpel tightly.

At the same time, dark jade-colored malevolent energy began to quietly gather at my fingertips.

……

Meanwhile, in the old city of Jiangcheng, in the lobby on the first floor of Tingyuxuan.

The torrential rain outside continued to pound on the roof, but the atmosphere inside was so oppressive that it was hard to breathe.

Li Qing sat in the armchair, toying with two worn-out Five Emperors coins in his hand, but his eyes were fixed on the antique clock on the wall.

The monotonous ticking of the second hand sounded particularly jarring in the silent hall.

Jin Wanliang paced anxiously back and forth, cold sweat pouring down his forehead.

"Li Qing, it's been ten minutes, why haven't we heard a thing from Brother Chen's side?"

Jin Wanliang stopped and rubbed his chubby hands together.

"The communications are down too. Could he really have died at Jinxiu Garden?"

"Shut your mouth."

Li Qing didn't even look up. Although his tone was still somewhat casual, his eyes had become as sharp as knives.

He slammed the five-emperor coins in his hand onto the table and stood up.

"That kid Chen Yang's life is tougher than a cockroach's."

A corpse-stitching master at the Core Formation stage wouldn't be so easily defeated inside.

Ten minutes without any news—this was the pre-arranged signal we had before setting off.

Li Qing walked to the corner of the hall, grabbed the black box full of feng shui artifacts, and carried it on his back.

"This shows that the formation at Jinxiuyuan is indeed troublesome, and he is most likely trapped in it now."

But this also means that, in order to deal with him, the other side must have focused most of its elite forces and attention on him.

Li Qing turned his head and looked at Jin Wanliang with an unprecedentedly serious expression.

"Fatty Jin, I have to go out and get to work now."

I have fully activated the formation of Tingyuxuan. As long as you don't go out, ordinary evil spirits will definitely not be able to get in.

Remember two things: First, find the safest place to stay and don't go anywhere else.

Second, that snake egg on the second floor, you have to protect it for me, even if it costs you your life.

If that thing malfunctions, those willow spirits could raze our Jiangcheng to the ground.

"Oh my goodness, I know, I know! I'll treat those snake eggs like royalty, okay?!"

Jin Wanliang wiped his sweat and nodded repeatedly.

"Li Qing, you better be careful. If neither of you comes back, I, this fat man, won't live to see tomorrow morning either."

Li Qing nodded and said no more.

He carried the black box on his back and picked up the keys to Jin Wanliang's Mercedes-Benz from the table.

Then he pushed open the heavy wooden door of Tingyuxuan and plunged into the vast rainy night.

The Mercedes-Benz roared through the streets and sped off toward Jinxiuyuan in the west of the city.

Unbeknownst to Li Qing, just as his car drove out of the old town and turned onto a relatively wide main road, a gray figure was quietly following him.

The torrential rain and strong winds seemed to have no effect on the figure.

He moved like a ghost between the rooftops and lampposts on both sides of the street, each leap covering a distance of tens of meters.

Its speed was in no way slower than a Mercedes speeding through the rainy night.

If Li Qing could see the middle-aged man's face, he would probably recognize him immediately.

This person was the guardian of the Nine Provinces Cauldron who had displayed terrifying strength and wielded a fragment of the Nine Provinces Cauldron during the battle in the ancient town's underground palace.

He still had the same unremarkable face of a middle-aged man, but there was a kind of indifference in his eyes that regarded everything as straw dogs.

The middle-aged man stared calmly at the taillights of the Mercedes-Benz ahead.

At the same time, he suddenly exerted force with his feet, shattering a piece of glazed tile.

He swooped down from mid-air, intending to intercept Li Qing and his car at the intersection ahead.

However, just as he was about to pass over the intersection, his previously indifferent gaze suddenly narrowed sharply.

He abruptly twisted his body in mid-air.

He abandoned his attack on the Mercedes and, like a weightless leaf, floated lightly into the puddle in the middle of the intersection.

A tiny ripple spread out from beneath his feet.

The Mercedes roared past him a few dozen meters away, and Li Qing had no idea that he had just narrowly escaped death.

The middle-aged man didn't chase after him; his deep eyes were fixed on what lay ahead.

In the very center of the intersection, the traffic lights were malfunctioning, leaving the surrounding area completely dark.

But in the pouring rain, there stood a chubby figure.