Chapter 45: The Hengshan Expedition (Part 1) Downward V

  That's just a rabbit! Xuan Zhen secretly told himself in his heart. In an instant, he looked again and the grey rabbit was indeed in a dazed state, being gently stroked by Zi Xun's slender white fingers, looking very comfortable, and no longer struggling.

  Zi Xuan seemed to like the gray rabbit quite a bit, and after teasing it for a while, she sat down next to Xuan Zhen, saying in a soft voice: "Xuan Zhen gege, can this little rabbit..."

  Xuan Zhen glanced over and knew what she was going to say, nonchalantly waving his hand: "If you like it, then keep it, however..." Before he could finish speaking, he suddenly sensed a strong spiritual energy coming from the southeast, its speed extremely fast. In an instant, it had arrived outside the window. A burst of air-piercing sound was heard, and a dazzling blue light flashed through the paper window and rushed in.

  Zi Xuan exclaimed and jumped up from the stool, hugging Hu Tu and hiding behind Xuan Zhen. Xuan Zhen raised an eyebrow and swiftly drew a circle with his palm in front of him, producing a humming sound in the air. Suddenly, a faint Taiji diagram appeared, emitting a blue light that had just arrived at this moment. As if sensing the dense spiritual energy ahead, it made a sudden turn and hovered motionless at the tip of the Taiji diagram.

  Xuan Zhen was taken aback, and suddenly a hint of joy flashed in his eyes. He waved his hand to wipe away the Taiji diagram. He had already recognized that within the blue light was wrapped a jade pendant, shaped like a small sword, which was used by their sect for sending messages over long distances, swift and unmatched.

  He raised his hand and took the small sword in his hand. The jade ring touched the true energy that had been surrounding his hand, and the blue light naturally dissipated, revealing its snow-white crystal body. Xuan Zhen lowered his head to look at the sword body of the jade sword, on which a line of shallow characters appeared on the white jade, just a few words, but very familiar, it was actually written by his junior sister Xu Yao.

  When he finally made out the line of characters, Xuan Zhen's face changed in an instant. On the jade were written only six words: "Something strange has happened at Mount Heng, come quickly."

  Su Yao's personality is cold, but she handles things steadily. She has always been proud and never willing to ask for help easily. When she was cultivating in Kunlun Mountain, it was the same, and after coming down from the mountain, she hadn't contacted Xuan Zhen for almost a year. Now that she suddenly sent a message, it's natural that she encountered an extremely difficult situation. Emotionally and rationally, as her senior brother, Xuan Zhen cannot ignore it.

  Xuan Zhen suddenly stood up, took a step and returned to the guest room to pack his luggage. Zi Xuan hugged the gray rabbit and followed him in, curiously asking: "Brother Xuan Zhen, where are you going?"

  Xuan Zhen looked at her for a moment, suddenly feeling somewhat worried. Zi Xuan was someone he had brought out from Nanjiang, originally planning to send her back after a few days. But now his own junior sister had encountered some kind of danger, and comparing the two, he should naturally go look for Su Yao first. However, he couldn't possibly have Zi Xuan, a young girl, slowly make her way back to Nanjiang all by herself, could he?

  Zi Xuan saw the difficulty on his face, and at that time she also understood when Xu Yao passed on the message to Xuan Zhen. She immediately understood a bit, and said seriously: "Xuan Zhen brother, if you have any urgent matters, then go ahead and take care of them. Zi Xuan has been out for these days, and I know my own abilities are not that great, I won't be able to help you with anything. Why don't we just part ways here? I can also return to Dali City on my own."

  "How can this be?" Xuan Zhen shook his head and said, thinking for a moment before making up his mind. "You wait for me in Shouyang, I'll deal with the important matters and then come back to pick you up. If I don't personally escort you back to Nanjiang, I won't be able to rest easy."

  Zi Xuan was about to retort, but when she saw Xuan Zhen's resolute expression, her eyes rolled around a few times before suddenly changing color. She smiled and agreed: "Okay, then I'll stay here for a few more days." As she spoke, she put the grey rabbit on Xuan Zhen's bed, laughed and let it run off, while she herself leaned in close to Xuan Zhen, asking him questions and diverting the conversation.

  After bidding farewell to Zi Xuan, Xuán Zhèn slung his pack over his shoulder and left the city. Only when he reached a deserted spot outside the city gate did he call out Chun Shui, mount his sword, and take off directly for Mount Heng.

  He worried about Su Yao and Su Ying's safety, and didn't rest along the way. He urged the true energy to speed up the spring water, and in just a few days, he saw the beautiful mountains in the south.

  Mount Heng's landscape is like flying, with layered green hills. It is the southernmost of the Five Great Mountains and is known for its beautiful scenery. The mountain also hides countless Buddhist and Taoist temples, among which the Qingyu Altar on Zhu Rong Peak is the most outstanding. Xuan Zhen followed the jade ring left by Su Yao, and when he arrived near the mountain peak, the lingering spiritual energy on the jade ring gradually dissipated. At a glance, he knew that his two female masters must be in this area.

  He caught sight of the lovely figure of Zhu Rong Peak from afar, and Xuan Zhen's heart slightly relaxed. He was thinking to himself that once he reached the foot of the mountain, he would send a message to Su Yao and reunite with them. Just then, a strange movement suddenly came from behind him, startling him.

  That strange movement came from the bundle, Xuan Zhen slowly lowered the Chunshui sword while stretching his hand into the bag like lightning, and felt a soft, warm, and living thing in his hand. He couldn't help but be even more shocked. Upon closer inspection, Xuan Zhen's mouth twitched slightly as he slowly raised his arm to hold that grey fluffy thing at eye level, facing those round, purple-red gem-like beast eyes.

  That grey rabbit had quieted down, its purple-red eyes seemed to be filled with a pool of blood water, staring at him in an eerie manner. Xuan Zhen furrowed his brow and muttered: "How did this little thing follow me?" He didn't know if he was asking the rabbit or himself.

  At this time, Shouyang was far away, and Hengshan was even closer at hand. Xuanzhen couldn't possibly send Huitu back to Zixuan's place, so he let out a sigh and put the warm, fluffy grey thing back into his bag, carrying it as he slowly descended on his sword to a small village at the foot of the mountain.

  This small village is located under the Zhurong Peak of Mount Heng, and perhaps because it's close to the Qingyu Altar, it also has a hint of celestial aura. Dozens of houses have flowers planted under their windows and bamboo behind them. When the gentle breeze blows, the rustling sound of bamboo fills the entire village, and it's hard to imagine how these vast expanses of bamboo forests grew so luxuriantly.

  Xuan Zhen slowly walked into the village, his original intention to admire the bamboo gradually faded with each step, replaced by a sense of unease and vigilance. For at this time, although it was broad daylight, the village was eerily silent, without even the sound of children playing or dogs barking, as if he had entered a dead village!

  At this time, the load on his back moved again, and a gray shadow jumped over Xuan Zhen's shoulder, bounced several times, and finally jumped into the gap of a large door that was slightly ajar.

  Xuan Zhen hurriedly caught up a few steps, glanced sideways at the wooden door of the house, and saw that it was hung with a flag bearing a large character for "wine". He suddenly realized that this was the village wine shop. He thought to himself: No wonder there were so many households in the village, but only this one had its door open... But is there anyone alive inside? As he thought of this, his heart skipped another beat, and he quickly pushed the door open a bit further and stepped across the threshold.

  The interior was slightly dim, but the entire hall could still be seen clearly. In the not-so-large room, several tables were arranged, and near the door to the inner chamber stood a tall counter, behind which sat a person with their head lowered, shoulders hunched, and back bent, sitting there without paying attention even when customers came in.

  Xuan Zhen's heart sank, and he hastily rolled up the ash rabbit on the ground into his sleeve. He extended a strand of spiritual energy to investigate and was shocked to find that the person had no vital energy left, having been dead for some time.

  Xuan Zhen hastily turned his head, and couldn't care about etiquette, rushing into the other villagers' homes to investigate. This investigation was even more shocking, as hundreds of men, women, old and young people in the entire village were lying on their own kang, with peaceful faces, but all had lost their vitality, turning into cold corpses.

  Just as he was startled and fearful, at this moment, a familiar spiritual power came from outside the village, which was the jade sword he used to convey messages to Su Yao. Xuan Zhen hastily stepped out of the house and followed the spiritual power, and saw a thin green light flying towards him, with two more vigorous lights, one blue and one brown, following behind.

  The blue light flew straight towards Xuān Zhèn, who raised his palm and grasped the light along with the jade ring wrapped inside, then casually put it into his sleeve. The two lights fell onto the empty ground in the center of the village, and after the glow dissipated, they revealed two slender figures, both wearing blue and white Taoist robes, with black hair like ink, skin as fair as snow, and hair tied up with jade ribbons that moved automatically without wind. Their long sleeves fluttered lightly, making them look like celestial beings. The gazes they cast over were one cold and one lively, and they were none other than Xuě Yáo and Xuě Shēn, who had not been seen for many days.

  "Master!" Xuan Xing's face lit up with a smile as soon as he saw Xuán Zhèn, and he happily ran over.

  Su Yao saw her with a look of being about to escape, without any reserve or pretentiousness. She furrowed her brow and followed behind her, walking slowly. Although there was no smile on her face, the gaze she directed at Xuan Zhen had an added warmth: "Senior brother."

  Xuan Zhen looked them up and down, saw that the two were unharmed, and his hanging heart finally put down, smiled and said: "It turns out you're both fine, that's good."

  Su Xuan's smile froze for a moment, wanting to say something, turned her head and glanced at Su Yao before stopping.

  Su Yao's expression also turned cold and stern, shaking his head: "Shixiong, although we are safe, something big has happened in the Hengshan area. I have investigated several villages with Su Xian, and found that this matter is indeed strange, so I sent a message to you."

  Xuan Zhen detected a hint of anger in her words and hastily asked: "What on earth happened?"

  The author has something to say: Thank you to small c, bat shirt, lulu, empress132, night flying spirit, thinking of a thousand mountains, the cow is fed grass but squeezed out milk, Yishuihan, and Guanxingzhua's comments! Everyone's reactions are so interesting, haha group MUA one mouthful!

  P.S. Regarding the issue of grey rabbits having black eyes, I hadn't really noticed it before, so I went to search for it, and thanks to the knowledge sharing from Yu Shui Han and Guan Xing Zhao, I finally found out that not all rabbits have red eyes [covering face].

  PPS. However, the boss's eye problem here is to highlight his special place after crossing into the rabbit body (...), so even if it's a flower rabbit, I have to write purple-red eyeballs 【What color are the flower rabbit's eyeballs?】 , Cough, about the boss becoming a little rabbit, this is the author's bad taste, and Boss fans should be patient~

  Then the boss was taken to Mount Heng, guess who his next soul ferrying object will be?