"How is it?" On the meadow outside the city, people surrounded Wu Gen who was returning and asked urgently.
"Ji Rui refuses to release him, but he can ensure his safety. His loyalty is to the Ji family, not to Ji Chen." Wu Gen took the wine handed over by Suo Ji and drank a few sips.
"What should we do next?" Yang Zheng asked.
"Go to Qingquan Palace and find a way to rescue Ji Xin before Ji Chen discovers us." Wu Gen wiped the wine stains from the corner of his mouth and let out a long breath.
"What if Ji Xin is dead? Besides, this formation is so dangerous, you are really prepared to risk yourself." Yang Zheng did not want Wu Gen to enter Qingquan Palace.
Wu Gen looked at the twinkling eyes of the other party, shook his head slightly, and put his hand on Yang Zheng's shoulder, "I don't want to ruin my brother's foundation. If Ji Xin is dead, the worst we can do is go on a Northern Expedition to get the money for him." Return everything.”
Yang Zheng looked a little sad, but finally nodded. Everyone was a little confused listening to the confused conversation between the two of them, but seeing Wu Gen's solemn expression, they didn't hesitate to ask more questions.
The shuttle flew in the direction of Qingquan Palace at night. According to Gu Miao, it is best to enter it during the day, when the death energy will be relatively weak due to the scorching sun.
On the way, Wu Gen held his knees with his hands and looked at the stars outside the ship's side as if they were right next to him, silently.
Before coming, Yang Zheng had a serious talk with him. The two didn't have much disagreement about rescuing Ji Ye, but they had some arguments about whether to save Ji Xin.
What Wu Gen thought was that if Ji Xin was rescued, he could make Ji Ye the prince, inherit the family's legacy, and even establish a country. He also used Ji Xin's power to go north and defeated the forces supporting Ji Chen in one fell swoop.
But Yang Zheng wanted Ji Xin to die, and then supported Ji Ye as the head of the Ji family in Liangzhe Mountain, creating a situation of separation between the north and the south with Ji Chen.
Ji Ye had no intention of being powerful, but with his banner, the Fearless Army could use his name to attack other families at will, and would have a large territory from which to recruit troops.
If Ji Xin were alive, with his temperament and methods, he would never allow the Iron Hand Province to be divided, and it would be difficult for the Fearless Army to truly control his people.
If Ji Ye dies in Zhaoqin City, they can simply make Ji Yan the new head of the family, but the real power is still in the hands of the Fearless Army, and Ji Yan is just a puppet. This is also the reason why Yang Zheng happily brought Ji Yan to Liangzhe Mountain when Ji Yan found him.
From the perspective of the Fearless Army, Yang Zheng's approach has greater benefits. It not only safeguards Ji Ye's status, but also actually controls a large area of territory. Moreover, under the current situation where the Fearless Army is still weak, there is no need to directly deal with Ji Ye, who has control of the situation. Chen decided to fight to the death, and the risk was much smaller. It can be said that he gained both fame and fortune.
According to Wu Gen's thinking, even if Ji Ye is finally promoted to the throne, the Ji family still controls the Iron Hand Province, and the Fearless Army still has no territory of its own, like a tree without roots, with its lifeline in the hands of others. Ji Ye's attitude is crucial here. He is doing well in office. If something happens to the Ji family, the Fearless Army will be in a very embarrassing situation.
But Wu Gen couldn't get around this hurdle in his heart. He always felt that he was taking his brother's things to satisfy his ambition, so he still insisted on rescuing Ji Xin.
Qingquan Palace is not far from Zhaoqin City. When it was almost dawn, everyone stood on the shuttle and stared at everything in front of them.
Under the faint morning light, a black city appeared in front. The city was enveloped in a huge mass of black energy, and it was as dark as hell under the blue sky.
Groups of black energy rolled over the city, creating countless mysterious shadows, like deformed people howling and crying.
There seemed to be an endless and gloomy purgatory in front of him. Endless broken limbs, heads, and bones were scattered on the ground. A rolling river of blood surged forward, and a huge skeleton staggered in the sea of blood. This is a gloomy world of death, with darkness, silence and chaos shrouding the city, with only lonely souls wandering in it.
Many people on the shuttle lowered their heads in pain, not daring to look directly at this dead city. The illusion in front of them made those who had experienced life and death dare not take another look.
There is no one guarding all around, but who dares to enter such a city? If you fall into it rashly, you can only become a helper for the formation.
"Landing." Wu Gen shouted, already wearing a soul crystal on his forehead. The slender-waisted slave has been in deep sleep for a long time. It is normal for a creature like it to sleep for hundreds of years. Wu Gen struggled to communicate for a long time before he woke it up.
Entering Qingquan Palace, you will inevitably encounter all kinds of strange things, so Wu Gen must be fully prepared. The shuttle flew farther and then slowly landed on the ground.
Wu Gen and others jumped off the shuttle and looked at the black steaming city from a distance. They couldn't help but sigh at the ruthlessness of Ji Chen and Murong Yanyu. How many corpses did it take to build such a large array?
"Gu Miao, when do you think we can enter the city?" Wu Gen asked softly to Gu Miao, who was wearing white clothes and white beard beside him, looking very respectful.
"A gentleman does not stand on a dangerous wall. Governor Wu, if you really want to ask me, it is not appropriate to enter at any time. Such a strong death aura is beyond the ability of living beings to resist. Ji Xin may have died in it long ago." Gu Miao looked into the distance. The black energy like flames suggested sincerely.
Wu Gen sighed quietly and cupped his hands towards Gu Miao, "Gu Miao, if I don't go, more people will die. Let's give it a try. If it doesn't work, I will retreat."
"It's a pity that there are really fewer of us here this time. If there are cumulus clouds in the sky, using my Gu family's secret method to trigger thunder from the sky may be able to eliminate some of the dead energy." Gu Miao shook his head repeatedly and pointed to Qingquan Palace in the distance. , "If you really want to enter, it's better to enter now. These dead energies have been raging all night, and they will naturally disappear when encountering the sun's scorching light. Moreover, when viewed from the air just now, there seems to be a slight flaw in the layout of this array, and the dead energy in the northwest corner The weakest, the Governor can enter from here.”
"The Yang energy is strongest at noon, why not enter at noon?" Yang Zheng asked curiously from the side.
Gu Miao rolled his eyes at Yang Zheng and showed no mercy to him, "Although Yang Qi is strongest at noon, the death Qi is also squeezed to the minimum. Entering at this time is not to commit suicide."
Yang Zheng chuckled and gave Gu Miao a thumbs up.
For an hour, Wu Gen secretly thought in his heart. Although Qingquan Palace is called a palace, it is actually a small city. Where Ji Xin is trapped, he has no idea. Moreover, it was dark in the city, so it was extremely difficult to find someone.
"Enter at Chen time and exit before noon." Wu Gen made up his mind.
"It's too early." Gu Miao looked surprised.
Wu Gen clenched the handle of the broken knife and looked at the red sun that had jumped out of the ground. "We can't stay here for too long. If Ji Chen finds out that we have entered Qingquan Palace, he will definitely send people to clear it out. Let's go, To the northwest corner of the city."
The shuttle took off again and landed in the northwest of Qingquan Palace. Wu Gen sat cross-legged on the ground, waiting for the sun to rise.
This kind of waiting is unbearable, especially when entering this existence that is like a dead realm. The sun usually flies like a shuttle, but today it seems to be carrying a heavy weight, slowly rising and refusing to rise. Everyone looked at the man sitting on the ground, deeply doubting this desperate rescue.
Finally, the sun climbed over the treetops with difficulty, and Wu Gen stood up. After giving the explanation, he was ready to run towards the dead city.
Shui Congyue grabbed Wu Gen's shoulders, looking quite anxious. Wu Gen shook his head gently, with a bright smile on his face, "I can go alone. You know I am very afraid of death. I will never act randomly if I am not 70% sure."
"Bring the things." Wu Gen ordered. Suoji walked closer holding a two-foot-long wooden box. The cotton wrapped outside was already covered with ice.
Carrying the box on his back, Wu Gen smiled at Shui Congyue, his body soared higher and higher, and he rushed towards the death realm like an arrow from a string.
Everyone stood silently, watching the weak figure approaching Qingquan Palace step by step. Under the agitation of death, the body was shadowy, like a lonely ship, crashing into the turbulent wave.
Wu Gen's complexion changed as soon as he entered the death aura, and the death aura swam like countless poisonous snakes, trying to penetrate into Wu Gen's body through every pore in order to seize the vitality from his body.
Countless shrill screams resounded in the mind, as if someone was using a knife to draw hard on the rusted iron, which made people have a splitting headache and wished they could split their heads open to squeeze out these demonic sounds that wanted to tear the mind apart.
The soul fire in the soul space is stirring, and the invisible black shadows are trying to break through the obstruction of the slender slave.
Wu Gen quickly pressed the Qian Nian on his left wrist, and a white light appeared slightly, constantly eliminating the swarming black shadows and protecting his soul.
Finally, those screams gradually faded away. Wu Gen calmed down, looked at the black ring in the palm of his left hand, and weakened the Zhen character a little.
The ring started to rotate, and the pure death energy in his body spurted out. Wu Gen's pupils gradually turned black, and his face was densely woven with black lines.
Black energy billowed all over his body, like black flames beating. When the death energy in the city came to Wu Gen's side, it was like seeing a king, and they all retreated in a hurry.
The surroundings gradually became colder, Wu Gen's body was filled with deathly aura, but the surrounding area was empty. The suppressing character was activated slightly, suppressing the death energy to prevent himself from completely losing his mind.
After looking at the towering city wall indifferently, Wu Gen jumped up and climbed to the top of the city.
On the city wall, corpses could be seen swaying from time to time. The corpses were as black as ink, and the flesh and blood inside had disappeared, leaving only a layer of black human skin wrapped around the bones.
They were Ji Xin's bodyguards. Their lives were devoured by the formation, but they turned into one of the thousands of resentful souls.
Qingquan Palace was originally the place where the Ji family hunted and rested in the summer. There were guarding soldiers, Ji family members and servants responsible for daily maintenance stationed in the city all year round. Ji Chen would not notify these people to evacuate before activating the formation, so all these people died in the city.
Walking in the silent city, Wu Gen ran towards the highest palace in the city, where Ji Xin was most likely to be trapped.
When we arrived at the main hall, the air of death was even worse. The door of the hall was wide open, and there were dead guards in front of the hall.
Different from what they saw along the way, the bodies of these guards were strangely red for some reason.
Wu Gen carefully walked around a corpse and walked towards the palace. The spacious hall is full of corpses lying on the ground. Judging from their clothing, they should be servants such as maids. Wine utensils and dried fruits are scattered around them.
He walked straight to the highest point of the hall, where Ji Xin's chair was placed, but he didn't see the body.
Wu Gen frowned and prepared to walk to the back of the palace.
Click, a slight sound suddenly came from the silent palace. Turning his head suddenly, Wu Gen looked back, his face moving slightly.
A female corpse lying in the hall was struggling to stand up, her dark eye sockets staring at Wu Gen.
The noises continued, and corpses stood up one after another, their bodies twisted in weird ways, and surrounded Wu Gen. Even the guards outside the hall entered the hall.
For some unknown reason, these dead people spontaneously attack those who enter the temple. Seeing this scene, Wu Gen was not surprised but happy, which also meant that Ji Xin was here. However, in such a strong atmosphere of death, Wu Gen was really not sure whether he could survive.
The dead bodies gradually approached Wu Gen, but they did not dare to come near. They just wandered around Wu Gen, and in the end, they formed a huge circle. Fortunately, Wu Gen was fine because of the death aura around him. If it had been anyone else, it would have taken a lot of effort just to deal with these dead bodies.
Wu Gen carefully looked at the faces of these corpses and took out a piece of paper with Ji Xin's head drawn by Ji Yan on it. This avatar looked familiar, but due to Ji Yan's poor painting skills, Wu Gen could not remember where he had seen it before.
In the end, Wu Gen put down the paper with some disappointment. The faces of these people had turned into skeleton-like existences. How could they be distinguished clearly?
Sighing, Wu Gen opened his left hand and raised it high, "Ashes return to ashes, dust returns to dust. Now that you are dead, you should be freed. Why should you be manipulated and manipulated again?"
Thin lines of death energy flew out from Wu Gen's left hand, like thousands of threads, and disappeared into these dead bodies.
As the death air entered the body, the dead bodies fell to the ground again.
