Villain Master, my disciples all want to backstab me

Chapter 122: Cangwu Abyss (Reward plus 14-15)

Wind hunting.

Bai Yuan stood on the white tiger's back, with one hand on his forehead, looking far ahead from high in the sky.

The end of sight.

It is a valley that stretches as far as the eye can see.

Or, it would be more appropriate to describe it as the "Great Rift Valley".

The valley's sheer size was truly staggering. Seen from the air, it resembled a scar tearing through the earth, stretching across the land. It twisted and turned, stretching for thousands of miles into the misty gray air. Even from thousands of meters above, one couldn't see its entirety.

And near the entrance of this rift.

It is about one hundred and eighty miles away.

There is a small town located there.

At first glance, the town seemed no different from any other ordinary city they had seen along the way. But if they looked a little more closely, they would discover that the houses, buildings, even the doors, windows, and floor tiles, all had a strange sense of deviation, a slightly crooked and uneven appearance.

Moreover, the entire city seemed to be covered in a thin layer of gray. From the houses to the streets, to the trees lining the roads, to the city's rivers, everything was completely still, revealing a deep, dead silence, like a black and white photo frozen in time with an old camera.

As for the residents of the city...

Not a single one in sight.

"Master, that place is..."

Ye Shuang'er had already come to Bai Yuan's side, resting her small chin on her shoulder, and then followed her line of sight. She quickly noticed the strangeness of the small town, and a puzzled expression appeared on her face.

"Ah, that's Cangwu County. It's also the place where I rescued your second senior sister from the Blood Origin Sect twenty years ago."

Bai Yuan said casually.

At this moment, she narrowed her eyes slightly, gazing at the silent buildings in the distance, and images surged through her mind. Some of them came from her past life as a player, while others came from her predecessor's legacy.

That's right. This Cangwu County is indeed not an ordinary county.

But it is a [dead city].

No one knows when it was formed, and no one knows why it was formed.

All they knew was that the city was permeated with a gray, foul air year-round. Anyone who set foot inside would be eroded by the city's yin energy within two hours at most, suffering at best a decline in their vital energy and blood, or even sudden death on the spot.

But he cannot die completely. He will only become a living dead who is sometimes lucid and sometimes confused. He will become a "resident" of that city and will never be able to return to the outside world.

Only some saprophytic organisms such as corpse-eating bugs and centipedes can survive here for a long time - but considering that the life level of these organisms is relatively low, whether they are truly "alive" or in a half-dead state has to be put in quotation marks.

then.

To comprehend the true meaning of the Way of Time, the young "Blood Kite" traveled a thousand miles to this place, spending two full hours in this dead city. As he was about to leave, he happened to encounter the Jiang siblings, who were being hunted by the Xueyuan Sect and the Shentu Clan. Seizing the opportunity, he rescued Jiang Rao.

This is how the two sides came to have this ill-fated relationship as master and disciple.

Perhaps, this can also be regarded as God's will -

Because Xue Yuan had only been here once in his life, and had no idea in advance that the Xueyuan Sect and the Shentu Family were plotting to destroy the Jiang Family, but it just so happened that he met Jiang Rao by chance on this occasion.

If the two parties' schedules are slightly different, there may be no chance to meet each other, and they will become strangers from then on.

As far as she could remember, Xue Yuan had arrived in this dead city in her imperial sister form, encountering many strange and inexplicable things. Some of these events were still fresh in her memory, passed down to Bai Yuan today; others, however, seemed to have been deliberately forgotten. Even if Bai Yuan tried to recall them, they were hazy and unclear, like flowers in the fog.

In short, when he finally got out of here, although Xue Yuan failed to comprehend the mystery of the cycle of life and death as he wished, he did gain a lot.

So shortly after leaving, he successfully broke through to the Spiritual Transformation Realm. He then brought Jiang Rao with him to join the Hidden Moon Sect, taking over the sect from the seriously injured and dying former Sect Master Han Yue. Over the course of twenty years, he earned the illustrious reputation of the "Blood Kite Demon Lord."

now.

Bai Yuan couldn't help but feel a shudder of fear the moment she saw the dead city. It was as if every cell in her body was sending a strong warning to her not to approach that place again, otherwise something ominous would happen.

And Bai Yuan... really had no intention of getting close.

After all, the danger of "Cangwu County" has been confirmed by countless players in "Asking the Immortal".

"Two hours" is basically the longest time a living person can stay in there.

Once this time limit expired, even cultivators at the Spiritual Transformation stage would likely be corroded by the Yin Qi, leading to death or madness. As for Nascent Soul, Golden Core, and even ordinary people who had never experienced cultivation, most wouldn't last even an hour before being swallowed by the city and becoming part of it.

There is a high probability that those who have reached the Return to Void Realm can withstand it.

But it was only a "high probability," not a 100% certainty. This was because the power lingering within Cangwu County was a law that transcended life and death. Unless one could fully comprehend it, the only thing a Return to Void Realm cultivator could do was to use their own law power to counteract it.

"Woo..."

At this time, the white tiger seemed to sense something and let out a low roar.

Then, without waiting for Bai Yuan's order, it began to deviate from its course, its massive body drawing a huge arc in mid-air. At the center of the arc was the unremarkable "Cangwu County."

At this moment, Bai Yuan looked at the two girls behind him and spoke again:

"Shuang'er, and Tingxue. Although I have said this several times before, I will say it again."

"This [Cangwu Abyss], adjacent to the Yellow Springs, is the border between life and death. It's filled with sinister creatures, and contains many illogical phenomena and rules. Even cultivators at the Spiritual Transformation Realm must be cautious when entering here, let alone those of us at the Nascent Soul and Golden Core stages."

"Once we're inside, the three of us must be extremely cautious and act together. We absolutely must not lose sight of each other. Furthermore, no matter what we see or hear, we must not respond, and we must not act alone."

"Otherwise, once you get lost in that gray mist, when we meet again, all that's left might be a handful of bones."

Following Bai Yuan's words.

A fierce gale began to stir in the surrounding air, and clouds not far away gathered, collided, and burst into dazzling flashes of lightning. Damp vapor rushed towards him from the clouds, as if a rare rainstorm was about to arrive.

At this moment, Ye Shuang'er suddenly cried out, grabbed Bai Yuan's arm from the side, and pointed to the void on the right: "There seems to be someone in that dead city..."

"Ok?"

Bai Yuan raised his eyebrows and glanced back.

This sight made her eyes tremble, and her blood almost froze.

At this moment, they were on the same horizontal line as "Cangwu County", forming a huge cross with the [Cangwu Abyss].

As he looked over, he saw that Cangwu County, which had been completely silent just a moment ago, was now ablaze with lights. Behind the crooked windows of the buildings, gray figures were clearly swaying.

With the sound of lightning and thunder, those "people" turned towards their direction at the same time from the windows, doors, and even the street they had just stepped into. Their necks made a teeth-grinding "cracking" sound, but the corners of their mouths twitched one by one, stretching from their ears, and making shrill laughter that sounded like crying and laughing.

"hey-hey……"

"whee……"

"Ha ha……"

As the shrill laughter sounded, Ye Shuang'er's pupils became dazed for a moment, as if she had been hit by some evil spell, and her whole body trembled like a leaf in the wind.

"return!!"

Bai Yuan yelled, suddenly raised his hand and grabbed Ye Shuang'er's neck, pulled her back like a kitten, and pressed her to the ground.

At the same time, he closed his eyes and used the pain from biting his tongue to stimulate himself to wake up; he brushed his hands across her eyes and gently used his fingertips to touch her hair.

"Close your eyes! Concentrate!!"

As Bai Yuan spoke, the [Mysterious Ice Jade Hairpin] that she had personally inserted into Ye Shuang'er's bun immediately burst out with an icy chill, as if a large bucket of cold water was poured directly down from the heads of the master and disciple, and then spread out into the surrounding air, creating circles of ice-blue ripples.

As the ripples passed, the turbulent air seemed to be gently smoothed out.

After another violent tremor, Ye Shuang'er gradually regained her composure and her eyes became clear again.

The shrill laughter that had just exploded in the two men's ears disappeared quietly, and the sound of the wind returned to its original state.

but……

Bai Yuan's heart was not at peace:

"how so……"

She knew what happened just now.

According to the previous guide, when the player brings Jiang Rao to [Cangwu Abyss] to search for the Jiang family's legacy, there's a chance that the "Cangwu County Unusual Movement" event will be triggered. Once this rare event is triggered, it means the journey will become extremely dangerous.

Even if you turn back, it will be useless, because the debuff caused by the event will always be on the player. Unless you leave and never come back, otherwise the debuff will be fulfilled whenever you return, and it may even be further superimposed on the original basis - because when you come back for the second time, it may trigger the "Cangwu County Anomaly", and then the two debuffs will be doubled, turning "a chance of death" into "no chance of death".

But the problem is...

The probability of this happening is not high. According to statistics from the strategy post, it is only about 5%, or even less.

But it happened to appear this time.

"This is ridiculously bad luck! I can only bump into something with a 5% chance. I'm so unlucky..."

Bai Yuan couldn't tell for a moment whether this was her problem or Ye Shuang'er's problem. She could only take a few deep breaths and try to calm herself down.

—Ordinarily, her luck should be pretty good, as she could still hit the target despite the sub-30% survival rate of the "Blood Essence Heart Meteorite Art." But Ye Shuang'er and Ji Tingxue were both destined protagonists, with one being a spirit plant and the other a spirit, so theoretically, their luck should also be pretty good.

and so……

Maybe the root of the problem lies with Baihu? Or maybe it's because of the little waste?

【? 】

At this moment, a certain existence called system slowly typed out a question mark.

On the other side, Ji Tingxue also looked in the direction of "Cangwu County" and seemed to have caught some sight. His pupils trembled slightly, and then he retracted his gaze and turned back to Bai Yuan and Ye Shuang'er.

Then, he saw the Ji family saint lady put her fingers together like a knife, gently slashed her palm, and then handed over two green tea leaves:

"These two tea leaves are what I transformed from my cultivation techniques. Holding them under your tongue will help you focus your mind and purify your heart. They can help you resist these illusions and sounds."

After a pause, Ji Tingxue added, "It's okay if you accidentally eat it. At least it won't harm your health."

"Thanks."

Bai Yuan didn't hesitate and took the two tea leaves with both hands. He handed one to Ye Shuang'er, and then, following Ji Tingxue's instructions, he held it under the root of his tongue.

Ye Shuang'er followed suit.

As for Ji Tingxue herself, her body was made from tea leaves of the [Ancient Tea Tree of Enlightenment]. Her mind was much cleaner and purer than that of ordinary humans, so she had a strong resistance to illusions. At this moment, she didn't seem to be affected at all, and was almost the same as usual.

only……

Ji Tingxue recalled the figure he had seen just now, and his gaze fell on Bai Yuan. He seemed to want to say something, but in the end he did not speak.

then.

None of the three looked in the direction of "Cangwu County" again, nor did they discuss what had just happened. They just commanded the White Tiger to bypass that area, made a big circle in the sky, and came to the entrance of the [Cangwu Abyss].

……

Although Bai Yuan and his group did not go to see it again.

However, the scene in Cangwu County was exactly the same as what she and Ye Shuang'er had seen just now.

Inside those twisted and weird houses and buildings.

The "people" standing in the shadows had their necks twisted at incredible angles, their mouths stretched to their ears, and they were watching the figure on the white tiger's back walk away in unison.

Among them, a woman in a red dress and a phoenix crown was particularly eye-catching. She was sitting upright in the sedan chair, staring intently at Bai Yuan's back with a faint smile on her face.

As a breeze blew by, the veil beneath her phoenix crown was slowly lifted, revealing a fair and beautiful face.

That face is exactly the same as Bai Yuan's queen form!!

now.

This "Royal Sister Bai Yuan" slowly grinned, tears streaming from her eyes. One hand pointed at her heart, her fingertips piercing her skin like sharp blades. Bright red blood beads slid down her wrist, forming the Chinese character "归" in mid-air.

"I... am waiting for you... here..."

"Come here... for me."

Accompanied by this gloomy and dry sound, like the friction of swords.

The smile on the corner of "Royal Sister Bai Yuan"'s mouth gradually widened, becoming as hideous and terrifying as a snake's jaws. Fine cracks began to appear on that originally beautiful face, and black poisonous insects crawled out of the cracks, which made people shudder!

Faintly.

A vermilion line appeared in the air for a moment, connecting "Royal Sister Bai Yuan" and the figure riding the white tiger away for a moment, and then quickly disappeared.

As lightning struck from the dark clouds and heavy rain poured down, the numerous figures within this "dead city" disappeared in the wind and rain, leaving only the crooked buildings standing in their place. The entire city once again fell into a dead silence.

……

the other side.

The white tiger had already arrived above the entrance of the [Cangwu Abyss] and began to lower its body, descending slowly and evenly from a height of several hundred feet.