Yang Zhen and others first came to the Monkey King Cave Lingshi Mine and released all five former monks from Liangjia Town who had been wronged.
Then he tried to persuade him to stay, but one person politely declined.
Although this man is a monk from Fangshi, he is not actually a local.
"I have been away from Shaozhou for many years, and I want to go back to my hometown to see it." The casual cultivator named Zuo Yinwu said.
Yang Zhen had no choice but to give him a sum of spiritual stones, and asked him not to spread the news about what he saw in the spiritual stone mine, and then let him go.
Chen Ru frowned slightly at the side but did not make a sound to stop him.
The remaining four people were all locals of Chunan Town and immediately expressed their willingness to serve him. Yang Zhen was very happy and gave everyone a storage bag and a condolence payment.
This also gave him a reminder. There are not only Liang family monks in Chunan Town, but also dozens of casual cultivators. Among them, you should be able to recruit the talents you need.
If you do well, you will be rewarded for practicing in Black Wind Valley in the future, so you are not afraid that these people will not be tempted.
Later, he left one of the two former stewards of the Liang family who seemed to be more loyal, and together with Lu Chengqi, he served as the new chief and deputy steward of the Lingshi Mine. This is both punishment and protection for Lu Chengqi.
Next, he went to the Kongming Stone Mine. This place was deserted. Yang Zhen organized the last ten Liang family prisoners and the prisoners who had been rotated from the Lingshi Mine into teams to stay here and let them supervise each other.
These people have no storage bags and have been underground for many years. Even if they secretly hide a few Kongming Stones, they cannot take them out. And it is difficult to escape the pursuit of the jade-seeking knife in Yang Zhen's hand and the large number of dark holly planted.
Another steward of the Liang family in the Lingshi Mine has temporarily become the new steward of the Kongming Stone Mine.
Since these two Liang family members were far away from the center of power of the Liang family and had no bad deeds, they could only arrange this for the time being.
In the end, Yang Zhen, Zhang Qianfan, Zhao Yue'er, and the few people who had just joined the team worked hard all day, blocking all the original entrances and exits, opening new entrances and exits, and setting up several mechanisms before leaving. .
One day passed like this, and it was not until the tenth day of May that they rushed to the valley where the magic array was located.
…
Outside the alder forest, Zhou Po was holding a pen and nervously writing and drawing on the paper. Next to it was a recliner, with Zixue half-lying lazily, looking at the people in front of her with a smile.
Zhao Yue'er jumped up and chatted with her for a while before getting down to business.
"Sister Zixue, how many master nodes have been imprisoned?"
"Now we can imprison six every day, and by the end of yesterday, there were a total of forty-three." Zixue said with a smile.
As soon as she finished speaking, she saw a cloud of mist outside the illusion formation. Zhou Qi walked out. He didn't say hello to the few people he saw. He seemed to be in a trance.
Zhou Po stepped forward, pulled his sister to the table, and marked on the paper together. Now, the two of them are capable of doing these tasks.
"I heard that Senior Brother Liu has been found?" Yang Zhen asked in a low voice.
"Yes!" Zixue nodded, but didn't want to say more.
After a while, the Zhou brothers and sisters finished checking, and Zhou Po came over holding a storage bag.
"Senior Sister Zixue, my roommate went in this time and found another skeleton."
"Let's handle it the same way." Zixue waved her hand.
Zhou Po came to a remote place, raised his hand, and a human body fell gently to the ground.
Yang Zhen looked at it from a distance and saw that the corpse was in ragged clothes and had an unclear face. The whole body was highly decomposed and emitted an unpleasant smell.
Zhou Po flicked his finger and hit a fireball. The body immediately burned and turned into ashes soon.
Zhou Po made another seal, a breeze passed by, and the ashes were rolled into a hill-like pile.
He took out a wooden box and put them all in it.
The onlookers were silent and mourned the unknown victim.
"Including Senior Brother Liu's, this is already the fifth skeleton." Zhou Po explained to Yang Zhen.
Yang Zhen sighed: "Liang Yuanying told me that he sent a total of ten monks, and now we have found half of them. I believe that Junior Brother Huang will also be found soon!"
Zhou Po said in a low voice: "My sister-in-law has been in a bad mood these past two days. Originally, I wanted to enter the phantom formation for her, but she refused and insisted on going by herself. She also said that even if my brother-in-law died, she would still See with your own eyes the place of distress, eh!”
Just as he was talking, a burst of harsh laughter suddenly came from the front.
I saw Zhou Qi laughing, his laughter getting louder and louder, and finally he burst into laughter.
The laughter didn't stop, but more and more tears were brewing in his eyes. Finally, he couldn't help but burst into tears, and he started to cry loudly.
The voice was heartbreaking, and there was no telling how much grievance and resentment there was.
Zhang Qianfan was at a loss what to do.
"Let her have a good cry!" Zixue stood up, held Zhou Qi in her arms, patted her back gently, and let her cry until she died.
After a while, the crying gradually stopped and Zhou Qi fell into a deep sleep.
"I told her the verdict of the Liang family." Zhang Qianfan explained to everyone sheepishly.
"You did the right thing," Yang Zhen looked at the sleeping woman and felt relieved: "It'll be fine if you just cry."
…
Zhou Qi slept for several hours. It was not until midnight that she woke up and expressed her intention to continue exploring the phantom array.
Seeing that her mental state had improved greatly, Zixue nodded in agreement.
Zhou Po once again proposed to let himself in, but was rejected by his sister again.
Now it takes Zhou Qi several times to go in and out once. This is not only because the distance traveled within the illusion array is getting farther and farther, but also because as she becomes more experienced, the number of nodes she steps on gradually increases each time. Now, with just one trip, most of the nodes included in a master node can be discovered.
On this day, in order to make up for the time she wasted, she persisted until midnight in the evening and locked up a total of three main nodes before ending.
On May 11th, another skeleton was found, and it was still not Junior Brother Huang. The number of imprisoned main nodes increased by seven.
On May 12, two bodies were found again, and the number of main nodes of imprisonment increased by seven, bringing the total to sixty.
May 13th.
As usual, everyone got up at midnight, each practiced for an hour, and started detecting the phantom array at midnight.
Today went very smoothly, and by the end of noon, three main nodes had been locked up. According to this progress, it will not be a big problem to complete eight master nodes today.
After a short rest, Zhou Qi entered the illusion formation again.
However, this time, only half a quarter of an hour later, Zhou Po shouted: "Senior Sister Zixue, my roommate has stopped and is not leaving."
Generally speaking, Zhou Qi would stop only after some unexpected discovery. In the past few days, when collecting other people's remains, it would be delayed for a while.
This time will not be too long, but this time, after a quarter of an hour, Zhou Po continued to report: "My sister-in-law stayed where she was and didn't leave."
Everyone already had a premonition in their hearts.
It wasn't until half an hour later that Zhou Po said, "My sister-in-law started walking back."
It didn't take long to get back. In less than half a quarter of an hour, I saw a thin figure walking out of the illusion array.
Between his hands, he held a person.
Zhang Qianfan, Zhou Po and others rushed to greet them.
"Junior Brother Huang! It's Junior Brother Huang!" Several people shouted loudly.
Zhou Qi's face was dull, and he couldn't tell whether he was sad or happy. He walked in silence, followed by Zhou Po and others.
When she walked up to Zixue, a smile appeared on her face: "Sister, I found Huang Lang."
Yang Zhen took a closer look and saw that it was a young man with a rather delicate appearance. His eyes were closed and his expression was peaceful, as if he had just fallen asleep.
He was shocked. Huang Yubai had been sent into the illusion array five months ago. How could it be like this?
Thinking of this, he looked towards the man's chest, and then noticed that Zhou Qi had changed him into a new set of clothes, and he was dressed neatly, with no injuries visible.
"Junior Brother Huang's chest?" he asked softly.
Zhou Qi's voice choked with sobs: "It's empty."
Once the heart-eating worm attacks, it will eat the entire heart of the host. The host will be unconscious at first, and will not feel pain until most of its heart is lost. Once the attack occurs, the pain will be severe and unbearable.
Therefore, almost everyone who is victimized by the Heart-Eating Insect will die with their chest cavity broken open. This was caused by the victim opening his chest in extreme pain before death, with the intention of squeezing the bugs inside.
Huang Yubai's death was the same. In other words, he is indeed dead.
"Could it be that the attack of the Heart-Eating Worm was delayed until a few days ago?" Yang Zhen asked doubtfully.
Zhou Qi lowered his eyebrows and said nothing, his face full of regret. He must be hating himself for not finding Huang Lang a few days in advance.
"No, he was dead a long time ago. He died a few months ago."
Zixue walked into the crowd, raised the deceased's right hand, and saw that the palm was tightly pulled into a fist, and a little white stuff was exposed between the fingers.
"Sister, you..." Zhou Qi said in shock.
Zixue said nothing, and gently used her hands to take out the thing bit by bit.
This is a white stone, the size of a thumb.
"Sister," Zhou Qi sobbed, "before Huang Lang died, he used this stone to leave a few words on the ground for me, asking me to live well! Wuwu——"
At this point, she couldn't bear it any longer, and tears fell down her cheeks as she cried sadly.
"Are those handwritings a little blurry?" Zixue asked.
Zhou Qi was stunned: "Sister, how did you know?"
"For five months, the wind and rain eroded it, and the dew and frost came. How could the writing on the ground still be legible?"
"Five months?" Zhou Qi looked at her with tears in his eyes, looking puzzled.
"Five months," Zixue said with certainty, "Junior Brother Huang died five months ago. The reason why he is immortal in death and has a life-like appearance is all because of this stone."
She held the stone with her jade fingers and said word by word: "This stone is called the quicksand of time."
…
The quicksand of time is a strange object in the world, a strange object that can affect the flow of time.
It does not have the four levels of heaven, earth, black and yellow, because as the number increases, its power becomes greater and its level becomes higher.
Usually, the sand of time appears in pairs, one is completely white and the other is completely black.
White quicksand can delay the passage of time. The greater the quantity, the wider the coverage area.
If it is stuffed into the remains of some living beings, it can keep them from decaying for several years; if it is used to preserve spiritual herbs, its medicinal properties will not be lost for thousands of years.
Black quicksand, on the contrary, will speed up the flow of time.
If you store it and the spiritual grass in the same place, I am afraid that the spiritual grass will become withered grass in just a few days.
"Brother, this is a good thing!" Xiao Xiancao listened for a long time and couldn't help but jump out and said: "If we have such stones in our space, we can open up two more small spaces, and the flow rate in one time will only be one-tenth of the normal one. , and the other one is ten times more!”
"How much space can be opened up?" Yang Zhen asked curiously.
"One quicksand can open an area of about one foot, two can open four feet, three can open nine feet." Xiao Xiancao said: "However, black and white quicksand must appear in pairs!"
"It's not that big," Yang Zhen said: "In our central area, the growth rate of spiritual grass is already ten times faster. With so many more feet, it's better than nothing!"
"Also, delaying time will make the spiritual grass grow slower. What's the use of that?"
"Brother, you big fool!" Yiyi was unhappy: "Isn't it good to delay the time? You refine elixirs for ten hours in space, and only one hour has passed outside. Think about it, how many more elixirs you can refine Medicine?"
"Also, with this extra time, you can practice cultivation, enlightenment, and tell stories with sister Liu Rou! With it, brother will not have to worry about his sister being too busy to take care of her in the future!"
Yang Zhen was embarrassed, what was this little grass thinking about?
Fortunately, everyone was listening carefully to Zixue's story and no one noticed his embarrassment.
But when Yiyi said this, Yang Zhen finally realized that the ability to delay time was simply too incredible!
He immediately became interested in this thing.
However, Zixue obviously needs it too.
"Quicksand always appears in pairs. Since there is white sand, there must be black sand in the magic array, and there may be more than one pair." The beautiful senior sister finally said: "After the magic array is all fixed, let's go look for it together! If anyone finds it, I will exchange two high-grade spiritual stones for one. It doesn’t take much, I only need two black and two white!"
"Senior Sister Zixue, are you trying to refine some treasure?" Zhao Yuer asked curiously.
Zixue nodded gently and smiled without saying a word.
…
After finding the monk's body for several days in a row, Zhou Qi had actually expected Huang Yubai's outcome, and his previous regrets were just that he thought he wasted time.
After hearing Zixue explain the reason, her heart knot was relieved. She cried again a few days ago, and the grief in her heart had dissipated a lot.
In the end, everyone cremated Huang Yubai's body. After mourning, the ashes were handed over to Zhou Qi for disposal.
For the rest of the day, I did not explore the phantom formation again.
On May 14, the Zhou brothers and sisters resumed yesterday's progress and found eight master nodes again.
On May 15th, the last victim's body was found, and nine main nodes were also imprisoned.
At this point, there is only the last master node left.
May 16th.
Only three quarters of an hour after Chen hour, the eighty-first main node was found, and then, a set of formation flags firmly imprisoned it.
Zixue pinched her fingers and rotated her hands, as if she was performing a wonderful dance.
The magic formulas are like invisible formation flags, flying into various places in the formation.
Finally, Zixue formed a seal with her hands, and the last magic spell streaked across the sky like a meteor, disappearing among the rows of tall alder trees.
The clouds and fog gradually dispersed.
A towering mountain peak suddenly appeared in front.
PS: 1. I can’t forget the heroine of “Sin City” in Yanyu Jiangnan, so I named it after the quicksand of time.
2. Book lovers are welcome to collect and subscribe to this book on the Qidian app and give the author some support. Thank you!
