"Guh!" A mouthful of black blood gushed out from his mouth, and if there was daylight, Tang Qinghong would be able to clearly see the lingering black smoke that arose from it.
He wiped his mouth with the back of his hands, his eyes fixed on the malicious cloud of anger in front of him. The vengeful spirit had already taken on a humanoid form, and had been following behind their group the whole time. In order not to bring any harm to the ordinary people, Tang Qinghong had led the vengeful spirit into the woods. However, this thing was powerful, and as much as he didn"t want to admit, he was definitely outmatched here.
It would be risky if he pushed too hard, and he was clutching a jade charm in his hand. He could crush it anytime he felt that he couldn"t handle the situation... but when he thought about it, he really had no desire to bow his head to that person. He had miscalculated badly this time, having just come out of the legacy base, and had at least seventy percent of his powers sealed. Otherwise, he wouldn"t need to expend so much effort to deal with such a little thing in front of him!
This ma.s.s of black chi was at most at the level of Chi Induction, but because it had no solid ma.s.s and was good at illusions, it was the worst possible match he could be pitted against.
Suddenly, he narrowed his eyes as he saw a figure approaching. Getting a clearer look at the figure"s face, he didn"t have time to smash the jade talisman. He moved quickly, using the last bit of energy he had left to immobilize the vengeful spirit.
"Why are you here?!" Tang Qinghong shouted at Gu Xiqiao, his brows furrowed deeply, "Hurry and take the chance to run while I can still hold it, otherwise we"ll both die here today!"
Gu Xiqiao didn"t reply, seemingly ignoring him as she stared at the black ma.s.s silently. Thinking that she had been petrified from fear, Tang Qinghong cursed. He forced himself to soften his voice, his tone gentle as he tried again. "Don"t be afraid, turn around and walk straight down the mountain. Don"t look back, and quickly organize an evacuation once you reach the village."
His mission was to protect the ordinary people, if he couldn"t stop this thing here tonight, he was afraid it might cause a catastrophe.
"I"m not afraid," Gu Xiqiao said suddenly, turning her head to look at him. Her clear obsidian eyes were bright, not the least affected by him at all. "I"m just thinking about how to kill it."
Tang Qinghong wasn"t able to react to that, but no matter how fl.u.s.tered he was, it couldn"t overshadow the elegance and n.o.ble air that was within him. "What?"
"Stand still, don"t move." A pill appeared out of nowhere onto Gu Xiqiao"s palm, and she quickly flicked it into Tang Qinghong"s mouth before he could close it.
The pill melted in his mouth, though Tang Qinghong couldn"t taste anything from it. He felt like a refres.h.i.+ng wave of water had been poured into his throat, traveling all the way down his body, quickly evaporating into mist inside and flowing through his entire body in an instant. He felt the injuries on his body recovering slowly, the chi that he had exhausted was also returning to him, even the seals that restricted his powers felt looser.
What kind of elixir was this? To be able to recover chi?
He lifted his head, and the scene in front of him left him stunned speechless. Not knowing what she had done, the vengeful spirit who managed to attain a humanoid form had disappeared. It had become a black ma.s.s of smoke, and it seemed to be thras.h.i.+ng around wildly, consistently cras.h.i.+ng into something unseen, stuck in an area and unable to escape.
Gu Xiqiao"s hands were moving quickly as she drew the patterns in the air, having realized that the black ma.s.s in front of them did not hold an ounce of intelligence. It meant that it was just an incarnation of something bigger, which the system spirit had identified, hence she was already ready with a countermeasure.
That huge spirit was hiding somewhere, controlling its incarnation from behind the scenes. Gu Xiqiao gestured with both hands, ready to draw up formations for a trap. She had also bought a container from the system shop that could hold the vengeful spirit, since this vengeful spirit could split itself, she would definitely be able to uncover the secret from it!
And so that was the scene that Tang Qinghong witnessed. Up till the end, she actually forcefully crammed the black ma.s.s of chi into a bamboo tube?
Where had this insane person come from?
He wiped his lips again and looked at Gu Xiqiao, his eyes blazing. Based on what he had just seen, he could feel the extensive level of chi in her body. Even though her level was not comparable to his, but with the formations that she had performed with her hands, she could probably crush the younger generation of the ancient martial arts world!
"Who is your master?" Tang Qinghong asked, coughing a little. Smoothing out his delicate features into a more gentle one, he felt like a n.o.ble once again. "With such talent like yours, it"s impossible that you weren"t included within the Youth Ranking List in the ancient martial arts world."
There was no such person on the list, and the names on the list were replaced every year on a global scale. Every person on it had gone through countless evaluations, and within the twenty names, it was mostly male. There were only two females, and one of them was the person in the tenth place from America. The other was one of the members from the reclusive families, at sixth rank, known as the demon girl. Even he was afraid of her existence.
Gu Xiqiao glanced at him. "My master is no longer around."
Tang Qinghong was taken aback. After collecting himself, he said softly, "I"m sorry."
"Let"s head back first," Gu Xiqiao said as she patted the bamboo tube that was shaking violently, "Calm down, or I"ll burn you."
The bamboo tube stopped shaking immediately, and stayed motionless obediently. After she had stuffed the vile thing in the bamboo tube, the malicious aura on the mountain had receded, and some moonlight finally pierced through the dense forest trees.
Under the inconspicuous moonlight, her porcelain skin seemed like it was glimmering softly, giving her a pure and beautiful look. Although she carried herself with a sophisticated grace, the trace of youth couldn"t be hidden on her face.
Tang Qinghong couldn"t explain it, but when he saw the image, he couldn"t help but want to laugh a little. As soon as the first laugh broke through though, he felt the vibration jolt his internal injuries and he let out a pained gasp, but he continued to keep his bright eyes on the figure in front of him.
***
That night, the group of people who had gone up the mountain to camp, came back down overnight. Others just a.s.sumed that they were a bunch of city kids who were unused to life in the woods, and didn"t ask too much about it. Only a few people who were directly involved had a drastic att.i.tude change from the incident. The most obvious one was Su Wen, who used to regard Tang Qinghong as the one person he would faithfully followed.
Now, he swore to follow Gu Xiqiao and Tang Qinghong both. This kind of wors.h.i.+pful att.i.tude didn"t need any actions to show, you could tell just from his expression and eyes.
Bao Xinyi became angrier the more she watched the scene in front of her. She had stayed with the group the entire night, hence didn"t have a dangerous, thrilling experience like Su Wen. So she didn"t understand the change in Su Wen"s att.i.tude overnight, thinking it was because of the girl"s beautiful appearance, and she couldn"t stand this kind of shallow att.i.tude!
"Miss Gu, my cla.s.smate still hasn"t woken up…" Gu Xiqiao had returned to find Su Wen waiting anxiously in the yard for her. After hearing what he said, she recalled the other unfortunate person that had been affected by the vengeful spirit.
"Where is she now?" Gu Xiqiao asked, as she started stretching her arms in a lazy manner.
Su Wen scratched his head awkwardly. "The others were worried about her, and had taken her to the hospital in town during the night. However, she hasn"t woken up, and they"re preparing to transfer her to the city."
In such a situation, even transferring her to the city would be of no use. Gu Xiqiao rubbed her chin. "I"ll go over with you once we"ve eaten."
Su Wen"s eyes lit up, and he nodded hurriedly in agreement.
***
The town was not far, it would take less than ten minutes to get there by car. Gu Xiqiao took s.h.i.+ Tou with her, towards Su Wen"s car that was parked in a temporary makes.h.i.+ft shed outside the village. It was a black Porsche that was equipped with the latest SQ car audio, and the model design was similar to that of a sports car. In short, it was a low-key designer luxury car that was extremely eye-catching.
s.h.i.+ Tou looked at the car in awe, having never seen one before, and couldn"t resist reaching out to touch it.
Bao Xinyi looked at s.h.i.+ Tou, frowning. No matter how good she was at concealing her feelings, you could still see a hint of contempt on her face. However, she was still cautious of Gu Xiqiao enough to not fully let it show.
Gu Xiqiao had been following behind s.h.i.+ Tou with a smile on her face, but when she saw the scene unfolding in front of her, the smile on her face faded away.
The girl was still in the town hospital, the doctor having exhausted all the available equipment in the place and still couldn"t find out what the problem was. He suggested for the mayor to transfer the girl to the hospital in the city, but since Su Wen was the leader of this trip, they didn"t dare to authorize the move without approval, and could only wait dejectedly for Su Wen to return.
They only waited a few minutes before Su Wen appeared, bringing with him two strangers. These people had not seen Gu Xiqiao before, and a.s.sumed that she was Su Wen"s friend.
Several of the teenagers couldn"t help but stare at the beautiful girl, their eyes lighting up.
"Miss Gu, have a look." When they reached the ward, the girl was lying on the bed. Her face was slightly grayish in color, and her breathing was steady and deep. On the surface, she looked no different than any other person.
s.h.i.+ Tou was holding on to the edge of Gu Xiqiao"s s.h.i.+rt, he looked at the person lying on the bed and blinked his eyes. This person looked like how his father had been yesterday…
Gu Xiqiao walked over to the bed, her hands holding a few golden needles. She raised her hands, her long and smooth ivory fingers waiting to move as she looked for the acupoints. As usual, she had easily taken the spotlight of the entire room.
She had a grave expression on her face, and she looked quite an impressive sight.
"Wait!" Bao Xinyi, who had been silent all the while, shouted suddenly, "Su Wen, letting her do what she"s doing, is it right for me to a.s.sume that you will take responsibility if anything goes wrong?"
"Yes," Su Wen said without hesitation, answering her directly. After the experience he had gone through last night, he had converted completely to Gu Xiqiao"s loyal fan. If she couldn"t save her, then who else would be able to?
"I hope you remember your words!" Bao Xinyi said, crossing her arms and standing to the side, an aloof expression on her face.
The others had no idea what to say, this matter was quite mysterious in many ways. Falling unconscious in the mountain without any signs of illness, and not being able to find the reason for it... they couldn"t help but recall the supernatural incidents that a few of the younger nurses had been talking about last night. Now that they thought back about it, it was really creepy.
"Brother Su, shall we find a Taoist priest to perform an exorcism?"
"No need. Go ahead and treat her." The first two words were aimed at his cla.s.smates, but the latter part of his sentence was aimed at Gu Xiqiao.
Gu Xiqiao"s golden needle had already pierced through an acupoint, injecting some chi into the girl"s body at the same time. The majestic energy entered the girl"s body, and the people gathered around the hospital bed clearly saw that once the third needle pierced in, color began to return to the girl"s face, which was previously a slightly grayish hue.
It looked to be a mystical process, and Su Wen exclaimed in surprise.
When the final needle entered the body, the girl"s eyelid twitched. A more observant boy in the group saw it, and he cried out, "She moved, Brother Su, look!"
The voice was abrupt and harsh, piercing her ears. Gu Xiqiao lifted her head to look at the boy, and then pressed a finger against her lips, making a shus.h.i.+ng motion. Her pale fingers pressed against pink peach blossom lips on her elegant face froze the boy in his place.
"Get a gla.s.s of cold water." She said, looking at Su Wen"s direction. Su Wen immediately fetched the mentioned item.
Gu Xiqiao took the gla.s.s and examined it for a while, flicking a finger on the gla.s.s before handing it back to Su Wen, "Go on and feed some to her."
What was the flick for? Su Wen was already in blind wors.h.i.+p of Gu Xiqiao, and he didn"t bother asking any questions. He just pa.s.sed it to another junior to feed the water to the girl.
Seeing that the water had been drained, Gu Xiqiao once again took her place beside the bed, pulling out the needles one by one in order. When the last one was removed, the girl"s eyelid twitched again slightly, and under everyone"s nervous gaze, her eyes fluttered open slowly.
The group of people suddenly surged forward, all of them talking at once and over each other. Only Su Wen remained where he was, scratching the back of his head, "Thank you. If... there is anything you need in the future, please feel free to ask me."
Without her last night, his life would most likely have been lost to the weird forest. Looking at her crystal clear obsidian eyes, there were a lot of things he wanted to say, but couldn"t. He could only give a promise. He thought, even the most powerful people would have troublesome times, right? If she came to him in the future, he would definitely do everything he could in his power to help her.
Gu Xiqiao nodded her head slightly, giving him a smile.
Bao Xinyi, who was still standing by the door, remained silent with an unhappy expression on her face, shooting dark looks at Gu Xiqiao. Gu Xiqiao had never spared her a glance, and she completely ignored her this time, pulling s.h.i.+ Tou along to the exit.
But when she reached the doors, she deliberately turned around to meet Bao Xinyi"s eyes. Bao Xinyi dropped her head immediately to avoid eye contact in a panic.
Gu Xiqiao"s lips curled up in a smile, rubbing her fingers together. After a while, she seemed to have collected herself as she lowered her hands. Ah, she couldn"t do that, she needed to endure it.