Chapter 8 It's Up to Oneself

  With a loud crash, sparks flew everywhere.

  The sharp blade of Qu Qing's steel knife was rolled back, and when he looked at the jade pendant again, there wasn't even a single scratch on it.

  Liu Yi stretched out his tongue and sighed, "Good solidity!" With the force of Qu Qing Shi and the sharpness of his sword, even if it were a copper cauldron, he estimated that he could split it open. But the jade pendant was unharmed.

  Qu Qing shook his head with a wry smile: "Yang Shou's bow may not necessarily be able to blast it apart, however..." As he spoke, he shifted his gaze towards Liang Xin, hinting for him to take over the conversation, his face full of encouraging expressions.

  Liang Xin thought hard for a while, enough to finish a cup of tea, before slowly raising his head to meet Qu Qing Shi's gaze: "What's the big deal?"

  Qing Shi immediately lost his temper and replied in a bad mood: "But Yu Bei also has soft times!"

  Liu Yi also thought of this, nodding from the side: "Not bad, little ghost catching people, just gently send them into the jade pendant and they'll go in. To deal with the jade pendant, it's best to take advantage of when it's soft and flexible..."

  Qu Qing Shi nodded and said: "Next time the Jade Disc is possessed, use the Yangshou Bow to strike it. I hope we can shatter this strange creature!"

  Liang Xin let out a low cry of surprise, and Liu Yi's expression was also complex. Qu Qing Shi waved his hand at them with force: "My mind is made up, no need to say more! After the Green Silk Blaze, I can still withstand another White Hair Blaze, I won't die!"

  Then, Qu Qing Shi placed the Yang Shou evil bow in front of him with reverence, sat cross-legged with his eyes closed to cultivate his spirit, and stopped speaking. Liu Yi and Liang Xin also circled around the mine again, but couldn't find anything useful except for some clear water, so they sat down behind Qu Qing Shi as well.

  Liang Xin had a deep admiration for his ancestors and was particularly curious about the Jiulong Temple, which Liang Yi and Er had personally established in their early years. Liu Yi now treated him like a younger brother and quietly explained to him: "The Jiulong Temple is divided into three courts: Tian, Di, and Ren. The Tian Court is responsible for guarding the imperial family and handling cases related to the royal clan; the Di Court oversees officials and monitors military affairs; the Ren Court dispatches personnel to various provinces to listen to the people's voices."

  Among the nine dragon guards of the three courts, in terms of strength, the Tianzi head in charge of the royal guard is naturally the strongest, followed by the Dizi head and then the Renzi head.

  This time, the ones responsible for opening the mountain and breaking the evil were all green-clad men from the Jiǔ Lóng Sī, with Qū Qīng Shí being one of the few top experts in the Jiǔ Lóng people's courtyard, specially summoned to take charge.

  Two people were chatting in a low voice, waiting for the next time Yu Bei would "start eating", during which Liang Xin jumped up and showed off his Tai Zu Long Fist that he had been practicing for four years.

  After practicing boxing, Liang Xin regretted it, and Yu Bei was still quiet, he was hungry first...

  Maybe it was an hour, maybe it was a day, Liang Xin didn't know how long he had waited, nor did he know when he started dozing off. He had just dreamed of Feng Xue smiling and taking out an oil paper package from his arms, but before he could open it, Liu Yi gently shook him awake.

  Liang Xin was dazed for a moment before he came to his senses, realizing his situation. He hastily scrambled up and looked around, only to find the entire mine had sunk into thick darkness!

  Liu Yì held in his hand a spirit lamp that was emitting a faint glow, and softly said to Liang Xin: "Yu Bei has released the little ghosts again."

  No sooner had he finished speaking than Qu Qing Shi burst out in a loud shout beside him:

  "White hair, fierce!"

  A golden arrow, fine as a hair, shot out in a brilliant arc, and flew towards the jade pendant!

  But this arrow, like a fierce wind and raging fire, pierced through the jade pendant with a loud whistling sound, and disappeared without any resistance...

  The divine arrow entered the jade disc, but there was no fierce explosion as imagined. The jade disc was unaffected and still stood tall in front of everyone.

  It was those little demons who were shocked by this arrow, their faces suddenly becoming fierce and ferocious, they all accelerated their footsteps, running around frantically in the mine, wanting to find out who shot the cold arrow.

  Liang Xin waited for a moment, his palms were tense and full of cold sweat, and finally confirmed that the arrow that took away half of Qu Qing Shi's life actually had no effect.

  Qu Qing Shi had become an old man, his originally handsome face covered with ugly wrinkles, his eyes dull and cloudy, and a patch of greyish-white age spots appeared on his face. His voice was also hoarse and unclear: "When Yu Bei releases the little ghost, it will become weak and powerless. That arrow went through, and it was a white shot."

  As soon as he opened his mouth, a wave of dull and depressing old man smell slowly spread out, even those once clean white teeth were now incomplete and yellowed.

  Liang Xin's face changed color repeatedly, because Qu Qing Shi suddenly looked old and sad, and also because he couldn't cope with the jade pendant and could only die in this place with despair. He involuntarily stretched out his hand to support Qu Qing Shi, softly advising: "It's okay, think of another way, you sit down and rest first..."

  The old man has grown old and bent like a withered mulberry tree.

  The man seemed to have become dull, his body slightly hunched over, furrowed his brow in thought for a moment, suddenly reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of red clay, then let out a muffled cry, the clothes on his body shattered, revealing a withered old body full of wrinkles.

  Liang Xin was unclear about what was going on, but Liu's expression was anxious and urgent. He stretched out his hand to grab Qu Qing Shi's arm: "Sir, you...what are you doing?!"

  Qing's stone shoulder and arm lightly swung, shaking open Liu Yi's hand. With a turbid smile, he said: "The Jade Token is an evil object that has become a spirit, no matter what special features its body has, it will always have a flesh-and-blood heart! Shatter it, the demon must die. I'll go in and find it, you all just wait!" As he spoke, he used his palm force to dissolve the red mud, beginning to carefully apply it to his body.

  Liang Xin was shocked to discover that Qu Qing Shi, having failed in his external attacks, actually intended to drill into the Jade Disc and search for the demon's flesh-and-blood heart!

  "I reckon there's boundless evil energy inside this jade pendant that can harm people," Qu Qing Shi didn't wait for his two companions to speak up, and suddenly sped up his speech: "I have a protective aura around me, and with the red mud sealing off human energy, I can hold on for a while even in the midst of evil energy. Don't worry, and don't put on that 'concerned parent' face!"

  Not to mention that Liang Xin is still a child, even the seasoned Qingyi Liu's mind was also in disarray. The two of them didn't know how to persuade him and were hastily shouting "No, no!" as they stood on either side of Qu Qing Shi, blocking his path.

  Qu Qing Shi covered his entire body with the red mud, then sealed his ears and nose with the remaining mud. His tone suddenly turned icy cold: "Commander Liu, listen to my orders!"

  Liu's eyes were also red, and she bit her teeth without making a sound.

  "Keep hold of Liang Xin, don't let him move! If there's a way out later, you take him to my house and explain everything to my father!" With that, he applied the last stroke of red mud to his mouth, grasped the Yangshou evil bow in reverse, nodded lightly at Liang Xin, and then sprang up like the wind, sweeping towards the Jade Tablet!

  Liang Xin's eyes widened in anger and he let out a loud roar, but his body was firmly pinned down by Liu Yi, who wore an equally ferocious expression, unable to move even slightly.

  Qu Qingshi's body technique was extremely fast, and he shuttled back and forth among the large group of ghosts and monsters. He held his breath and sealed himself with red mud. The little ghosts seemed to have a sense of awareness towards him, but they couldn't catch him. One by one, they spun around in place, their expressions extremely bewildered. In just the blink of an eye, Qu Qingshi had already entered the jade plate, and there was no longer any sign of him...

  Liang Xin only felt his heart stuffy to the extreme, every moment, his heart would sink a bit, after waiting for a while, there was no movement in the jade pendant, just thinking of turning back to look at Liu Yi, Liu Yi suddenly put his mouth close to his ear and whispered: "If the master doesn't come back, I'll go all out, you take care of yourself."

  Following Liang Xin, he felt a severe pinch on the big tendon of his neck, and before he knew it, everything went black and he fainted!

  When Liang Xin opened his eyes again, he saw the figure of Liu Yi, who was also covered in red mud, flashing by and entering the Jade Token.

  By Liang Xin's side, the lantern was emitting a faint blue glow that enveloped him. After a moment of contemplation, Liang Xin understood that although Liu Yi had knocked him unconscious, perhaps his mind was preoccupied or he was afraid of hurting himself, and as a result, he hadn't grasped the right amount of force, only making Liang Xin lose consciousness for a short while before waking up again.

  Liang Xin's heart suddenly turned cold as he took another careful look around... In just a short while, the little ghosts had given up searching for food and began to gather together, slowly retreating back into the Jade Token!

  I'm afraid that after waiting for a little while, when all the little ghosts return to the jade pendant, the jade pendant will solidify again. At that time, even if Qu Qing Shi and Liu Yi have extraordinary abilities, they can only be trapped inside.

  Qu Qing Shi, Liu Yi, mine cave absolute boundary, evil spirit jade disc... And that sentence 'I'll go all out, you take care of yourself!'

  With the lantern swaying, he got up with a jump, the big tendon on his neck jumping, his whole body still numb, but Liang Xin vaguely realized that even if he wanted to fight desperately, he didn't have the qualifications, and relying on his own strength was only worthy of death.

  Liang Xinwa let out a loud wail, and after realizing that she was doomed to die, there was only one thought in her mind: Die together!

  Just as the four words "die together" flashed through his mind, Liang Xin shuddered. The vague idea in his head suddenly became clear when he was observing the gap between Yu Bei and Shi Mai.

  Is everything all right with you?

  Why don't we just call it quits!