CH 20

“Xin’er, come and take a look.” Zhu Xingli waved to Lin Xin.

Lin Xin took out the small bronze mirror on his waist, pulled Jiang Zhong’s fingers and took a bite.

“Aww!” Junior Brother Jiang screamed, while his finger was quickly used to draw a talisman on the back of the bronze mirror, then he was thrown aside, left holding up his injured finger in aggrieved manner.

The scene in the bronze mirror gradually turned positive, and the face in the mirror suddenly disappeared. When he moved the mirror to the vicinity of the coffin, he found the soul that was not wandering, but he could see the soul that had not been separated from the corpse. When a mortal died, his soul would be separated, his seven souls ascended to heaven, and his three souls went to earth with his body.

The facial features of the three corpses were intact, and the skin had not collapsed. “The soul is gone, but the soul is still there. He can’t survive but can still reincarnate.”

“Where did you find your son?” Zhu Xingli asked the three of them where the accident happened. After staying some more, he took his apprentices into the mountains to find the place.

The mountain where they went picking herbs was thirty miles east of the town. There were cliffs, jagged rocks, and tall trees that blocked out the sun there. Zhu Xingli found a flat ground, took out a box of cinnabar and a jade pen, and began to set up the formation.

“Master, is it really a Soul-swallowing Gu carving?” Jiang Zhong found some herbal leaves to wrap his injured finger.

The mountains were silent, and in late spring, there were no birds and insects, only the rustling of the mountain wind blowing through the treetops.

Lin Xin looked around with his bronze mirror and climbed up a tall round stone in two steps. Shen Lou followed him with a good step, “Why did you bite your junior’s finger when you drew a talisman?”

“It hurts to bite your own.” Lin Xin laughed, and brought the mirror in front of Shen Lou, “Look, there is a vegetable leaf on your tooth.”

Shen Lou looked over subconsciously, but the wandering spirit of a wild boar appeared in the mirror.

“Hahahaha…” Lin Xin couldn’t help laughing, he thought that Shen Lou in his youth was really fun, and he was much easier to deceive than when he was in his twenties.

Shen Lou took a step away and blocked the edge of the stone to prevent him from falling when he laughed, “Next time you can bite my hand.”

“I can’t bear it.” Lin Xin smiled, and casually said what was on his mind, then both of them were taken aback after he finished speaking. Realizing that what he said was a bit ambiguous, Lin Xin rubbed his nose, turned around and jumped off the rock to make trouble for Master.

The cinnabar array was one zhang[1] square, and when the last stroke was completed, Zhu Xingli took out a piece of Luli and asked Lin Xin to place it in the eye of the array.

There were ghostly symbols all over the floor, and he didn’t say where the eye of the formation was, so Lin Xin put them in the middle place without hesitation. As soon as it landed on the ground, it seemed as if volcanic magma had cracked the ground, and the red light spread around Luli as the center, lighting up the entire magic circle in a few breaths.

The souls of the sporadic wild animals seen in the shadow mirror quickly floated towards the formation, and a figure flashed across the gap like a white horse. When he looked again, Lin Xin’s own face was reflected in the mirror, and the talisman had expired. Looking at it with the naked eye, Zhu Xingli’s large formation was getting brighter and brighter, but there was no movement. But Lin Xin knew that the souls who had died in the mountain for less than seven days were all gathered into the formation.

The soul-gathering array would make the dead souls show the aura of a living soul. If there was a soul-eating monster, these souls should be able to attract it.

“Are there Gu carvings in the Northern Territory?” Lin Xin was quiet for a while, and then couldn’t help but move closer to Shen Lou.

A hundred years ago, the Soul-swallowing Gu sculptures flooded the empire like locusts. After these years of hunting, they had almost disappeared, and it was difficult to meet them even if they appeared occasionally. In his previous life, he had only seen a Gu sculpture once, and it was still in the desert. He didn’t have much hope for today’s monster-hunting operation, and it would probably also disappoint Master who wanted to see something new.

“Yes,” Shen Lou answered succinctly. “The tragedy in Dahuang’s family was caused by Soul-swallowing Gu. Don’t you know how he died?”

“He was not eaten by a gu eagle.” Lin Xin curled his lips.

“How do you know…” Before he finished speaking, a strong wind suddenly blew up in the mountains, throwing sand and rocks around, branches and leaves flying, Shen Lou immediately dragged Lin Xin to his side.

“Woo——” The sound, which resembled the cry of a baby, pierced the ear bones sharply, and the heavy black wings swept across the place where Lin Xin was standing just now. The strong wind pushed Lin Xin violently, and he fell into Shen Lou’s arms.

“Oh, I didn’t stand firmly.” Lin Xin apologized without sincerity, took the opportunity to rub his face on Shen Lou’s shoulder and neck, and was about to stand up, but was caught by Shen Lou, as they jumped onto the Yu Yuan sword and soared into the air.

The monster was heading straight for the Soul Gathering Formation, but it turned around when it saw Lin Xin and Shen Lou who were fresh and delicious on the way.

The Yu Yuan Sword turned into an afterimage in the air as they flew to Zhu Xingli’s side. Zhu Xingli slapped his younger disciple with bright eyes, “Zhong’er, come on!”

“Ah?” He was a dead weight or something, and he was pushed out by the master just like that.

The thing that flew over had a sculpted body with brown flower feathers, a beast head with horns, and a pointed mouth as round as a bamboo tube exposing an empty black hole. It was exactly the strange beast mentioned in the ancient book-the soul-swallowing Gu carving!

Jian Zhong was pushed to the back of the soul-swallowing Gu’s buttocks, so he had no choice but to lift his foot and kick it up, so as to turn over by relay. This kick immediately attracted the Gu over, so he stopped chasing Shen Lou and Lin Xin, and turned around and roared at Jiang Zhong.

The Ban Xia sword was now out of its sheath, the heavy sword and the Gu carving were circling in the air.

The Gu Eagle was more agile than ordinary birds due to its perennial pursuit of souls, but it turned back directly in mid-air, and its long body was flying up and down like a butterfly. A palm patted on the long mouth that seemed to suck people’s brains, and cut off a few feathers of the Gu carving.

“Yes, cut its neck off!” Lin Xin and Zhu Xingli leisurely watched the fun with their arms folded. They didn’t look like they were going to slay demons, but rather had come to walk their disciples.

Jiang Zhong learned the heavy swordsmanship well, but he was a little weak, unable to flexibly connect between the sword and slashing monsters. Dodging the giant wings, he jumped onto the back of the Gu Eagle, cut heavy and raised the sword to stab him, but unexpectedly, the Gu Eagle turned over suddenly, with huge sharp claws facing upwards, grabbing at his chest. It was too late to improve further!

“Shua—” A sword light as sharp as frost struck, and firmly received the claw. Shen Lou’s figure was like electricity, and after blocking the sharp claw, he flashed to the outside without hesitation, and let the spirit sword stay in the air, then stepping on the sword with one foot, he relayed upwards, retracted the sword and let it return to the hand. It was like flowing clouds and flowing water, all in one go.

“Eagle step!” Seeing Shen Lou’s movements, Jian Zhong was taken aback.

Cultivators needed to use flying swords to volley in the air, and fighting in the air could only be done at the moment of jumping off the sword. This move of stepping on the eagle was similar to the movement of an eagle stepping on the backs of other birds in the air to use its strength upwards. It was extremely difficult to practice, and it could only be performed by connecting with the spirit sword.

Jiang Zhong had not yet learned how to hold the sword in the air, but Shen Lou had already mastered the “Eagle Step” skilfully.

“Good boy,” Zhu Xingli put away the Spring Mark Sword[2] that hadn’t had time to make a move, crossed his arms again, and said angrily, “What kind of virtue did Shen Qirui accumulate to give birth to such a brilliant son!”

“That must be someone else, Master Xuanguo taught well.” Lin Xin said coolly.

“Bah, he will teach a bird’s egg.”

Shen Lou didn’t rush out with his sword, instead he kept circling the Gu carving back and forth, “This thing is very flexible, you have to provoke it to strike, left.”

“Oh!” Responding again, he immediately swung his sword to the left, and the Gu Eagle’s big wings just swept towards him, and his sword cut off the front half.

“That’s right,” Shen Lou said lightly, swayed down, and hit the front of the Gu carving directly, the sword blade collided with the long beak that was comparable to a metal stone, sparking a string of sparks, “If I cut its tail feathers, will it be cut in the void?”

“Yes!” Raising the knife in his hand, he swung the sword in the void, a sword light as bright as lightning cut towards the bird’s tail in the void. Losing its tail, the Gu carving’s body began to tilt, it found it difficult to balance, so it became more and more irritable, and with a long cry, it opened its sharp claws and grabbed at Jiang Zhong.

At this time, Shen Lou flew to a high place with his sword, and without help,

Jiang Zhong dodged in a panic, “What should we do now?” He couldn’t stop directing, but his junior brother was still so obedient, it’s amazing. This scene would never have happened in his previous life.

“Follow me.” Sensing that Lin Xin was staring at him, Shen Lou made an extremely gorgeous swing in the air, leading the Gu sculpture to follow, and rushed straight to the soul-calling formation covered with cinnabar.

The soul-calling array suddenly became red, and a circle of beams of light rose into the sky. Shen Lou quickened his speed and escaped before the beam of light passed him, the red light trapped the Gu Eagle inside like a cage, making it hard to get out.

Jiang Zhong was taken aback, there was actually a sleeping formation inside the summoning formation, how did Shen Lou see it?

“Yeah—” The monster with a broken wing and tail was struggling endlessly in the trap, Zhu Xingli immediately stepped forward, cut off the beast’s head with a sword, and then sacrificed a palm-sized trap. The cage grew bigger in the air, covered the beast with a bang, and gradually shrunk.

This cage had a space stacking array, which could make things smaller, but it could only hold dead things and not living things.

“The cage?” Shen Lou recognized this thing, it was the Zhu family’s treasure, the only one in the world, “Your martial uncle really loves your master.”

“Does he? But every time my master goes home, he gets beaten.” Lin Xin whispered to Shen Lou.

“Hahaha, I actually caught one for me, let’s go home!” Zhu Xingli put the cage back into his sleeves, ordered Lin Xin to get some water to wash away the cinnabar array, and patted Shen Lou’s shoulder happily, “How did you know that I made a trap in the summoning formation, you understand the way of formation?”

“Guess.” Shen Lou avoided Zhu Xingli’s slap and said concisely.

Zhu Xingli took a blank shot, bared his teeth and scolded the stinky boy, then turned to rub Lin Xin’s head, but was also dodged, “Master, I just saw a human soul in the mirror.”

“Really, let me look.” Zhu Xingli took the mirror and made a magic formula, looked into the mirror, and saw a human soul that had just been scattered from the soul-gathering array into the mirror image, that soul was very weak and faintly, they could barely see that it was a teenager.

“Isn’t this the drug boy from the pharmacy!” Jian Zhong recognized him at a glance. He had an excellent memory, especially when it came to faces. He was the only one who remembered the four people present in the town at a glance.

Why was the soul that should have been eaten wandering outside?

“It’s probably the remnant soul that the gu eagle vomited out from belching after eating too much.” Zhu Xingli said, letting go of the ignorant soul.

“Maybe it’s farting… Cough…” Lin Xin said halfway, realizing that Shen Lou was present, and swallowed it.

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