Mu Qingyan said calmly: "Let's wait for the people from Liehuo Camp to set fire to the forest, and let it be a magical work of heaven and earth. Once the fire is completely burned, I'll see what else can happen."
Cai Zhao smiled: "What if the key to practicing the second heaven of the Purple Heart Sutra is burned?"
"If you burn it, burn it. Anyway, I don't plan to practice Naoshizi."
Cai Zhao laughed first and then sighed. Most of the people from the Luoying Valley had a natural affinity for vegetation. She said softly: "Although the blood swamp is strange, the forest outside is a pity. It is not easy to grow such a large area and so dense. In the end, we have to A fire burned it, well, I thought your uncle could find the secret inside, and we can find it too..."
"Are you really sorry for the dense forest in the outer circle? Is it because you regret that there is no barrier to the north of Guangtian Gate?"
It must be said that Mu Qingyan's thinking was unique and clear. Cai Zhao was about to reply when his heart suddenly moved: "What did I just say?"
Mu Qingyan's lips quirked: "You said, 'I thought we could find it too'."
"No, no, not this sentence, the previous sentence."
Seeing the girl's serious face, Mu Qingyan also became serious: "You also said that even my uncle can find the secret inside..."
Cai Zhao trembled slightly, and under the dim light of the night pearl, her pupils expanded slightly: "Twenty years ago, your uncle didn't come to the Blood Swamp alone, right?"
"Well, nine times out of ten, I came with your aunt, so what."
"So, it was not your uncle who found the secret of the blood swamp, but my aunt." Cai Zhao turned back and looked around again, "I know, I know why I feel familiar here..."
Mu Qingyan was about to ask a question when he saw Cai Zhao shouting with a horrified look on his face: "Oops! Let's return the same way. This is a trap. We've been caught in a trap! Let's go, let's go!"
Mu Qingyan's expression tightened, and he immediately pulled the girl back along the direction of the golden rope. Unexpectedly, as soon as their toes touched the path of the return trip, it was as if some mechanism had been triggered, and the blood-colored mire that was originally almost stagnant Suddenly there was a violent movement, and the slowly sinking vine branches behind him were instantly swallowed up, like waves in a fishy sea of blood.
Cai Zhao stepped into the mud and screamed: "There is something biting my foot in the mud!"
Mu Qingyan quickly cut off a thick vine and pulled the girl up, "Let's get up the tree!" As he was flying, he saw an extremely ugly and terrifying blood-colored eyeless fleshworm biting on the girl's leather boots.
Cai Zhao was so disgusted that he wanted to throw away his boots. Mu Qingyan quickly cut off the fleshworm with a knife in the air.
The two touched the vines several times. As soon as they leaped into the air, vines dripping with smelly mucus shot out from all directions. Mu Qingyan quickly handed the Yanyang Knife to the girl and pulled out the 'Fu Ying' from behind. Cai Zhao knew that 'Fu Ying' was about overcoming strength with softness and was not known for being fierce and sharp, so she took out her sword as quickly as possible and tried her best to chop as many vines as she could.
The luster of gold and silver pricked everywhere in the dim vine net, as if a glimmer of light was eager to escape from the eighteenth level of hell.
Cai Zhao just leaned against the treetop. Before she could take a breath, she saw seven or eight colorful scorpions creeping silently along the branches. The scarlet poisonous needles on their tails were about to poke her arm. She quickly swung the knife back. , all the scorpions were cut in two immediately, but the scorpion corpses splashed with yellow-yellow-green juice, which instantly burned through Cai Zhao's sleeves and seeped into his skin.
Cai Zhao cried out in pain.
"What's wrong with you!" Mu Qingyan pulled the girl away and saw a long string of dark blood blisters on her snow-white arm.
Cai Zhao looked over Mu Qingyan's shoulder and saw a dozen ferocious sixty-year-old spiders slowly descending with their webs hanging down. He quickly waved his knife and shouted at the same time, "Leave me alone, we need to get out quickly!"
Mu Qingyan carried Cai Zhao and jumped down from the top of the tent, "Chop a few vines to use as rafts! Find the thicker ones!"
Cai Zhao understood, so the two of them tried their best to chop the thick vines while avoiding various poisonous insects and poisonous ivy.
A golden red light flashed, and Cai Zhao saw a plant that was entangled with several thick vines and cut it down. The thick vines spread out like twists, and a big thing was exposed inside. Cai Zhao originally thought it was a tree trunk, but when he took a closer look, it turned out to be a tree trunk. A swollen and moist human face, the facial muscles were stiff, and two empty eyes seemed to be staring at him. A bloody thin vine penetrated his temple and stretched out from the top of his head, as if sucking his brain.
——This is a human corpse that was 'eaten' by the blood swamp.
"Ahhh...!" Cai Zhao couldn't help but screamed.
Mu Qingyan turned around and split the remaining vines with his sword, letting the body fall straight into the mud.
"Watch what's behind you!" Cai Zhao shouted in terror at his back, gritting his teeth and swiping the knife.
A vine quietly spread out behind Mu Qingyan, revealing half of a pale green body originally wrapped inside - his mouth was wide open, with two rotten and black blood holes on his face, and his eyes were no longer visible. Where has it gone, only a thin blood vine is left in the eye socket and protruding from the mouth.
The scattered rattans 'swam' from above and below. Cai Zhao resisted the fear and nausea and quickly twisted these living rattans. This was not the only 'smart' vine. All the surrounding vines started to stir and move, and they dispersed from their embrace, dropping corpses of humans and beasts with varying degrees of corrosion, and then twisted and attacked the two of them.
The two of them resisted and ran in the direction they came from.
"What on earth is going on!" The mercury-like sword light flashed, and Mu Qingyan neatly cut through several wrist-thick rattan sticks that were chasing him.
"This is the formation of Luoying Valley..."
"You just said no!"
"Yes, no... I mean - yes, but it was before!" Cai Zhao did not dare to set foot on the mire, so he had to step on the fallen corpses and canes. His whole body was covered with cane mucus and bloody mud. .
"This is the formation from Luoying Valley before! I've never seen it real, I've only read about it in books!"
The two of them were galloping all the way, and the thin golden rope broke at some point. Mu Qingyan couldn't help but turn around and chop. The two of them had been running away for an unknown amount of time, and they gradually felt that the mud under their feet began to harden. Cai Zhao put his feet firmly on the ground and saw that the surrounding fog had also faded to translucent, so he grabbed Mu Qingyan and said, "It's almost done here!"
Mu Qingyan stopped and saw that there were no more vines chasing behind him, and there was even a large rock out of the ground beside him. He let out a long breath, lowered his head and pulled Cai Zhao's arm to check the injury, and said, "Explain the matter clearly to me!"
Cai Zhao took advantage of the situation and sat on the big rock with him, breathing heavily: "Our Luoying Valley has not been very prosperous in the past two hundred years. It is difficult to pick a weak persimmon, and your demon sect is not a vegetarian. So what do we rely on? Self-protection, of course, relies on formations! Let the attackers have no chance of coming back and dare not make trouble again. However, no matter how good the formation is, it cannot withstand continuous use. Sooner or later, your enemy will crack it... …Oh, please be gentle!”
Mu Qingyan took a small silver knife and pricked the red and black blood blisters on the girl's arm. He was squeezing the black blood out of her and glanced at her, "You still have the strength to scream, so the injury is not serious."
"What did I just say? Yes, you can't use the same formation all the time..." Cai Zhaodao, "So every one or two generations or decades in our Luoying Valley, we will make slight additions or subtractions in key parts of the formation. , it’s good to confuse the enemy. However, in the past 20 to 30 years, the formations in Luoying Valley have changed significantly.”
Mu Qingyan raised his handsome face and asked, "Why is this?"
Cai Zhao complained: "He is not a good adopted son cultivated by your great-grandfather. Boss Nie is ambitious and enterprising. Every day he thinks about how to exterminate the six factions and unify the world."
Mu Qingyan tried to bite the girl's pink arm. Cai Zhao exclaimed and tried his best to be serious and solemn: "Be more respectful. We have already agreed that we will be separated from each other in the future. If you dare to be scornful of me again, I will... ah!"
Mu Qingyan slapped the back of her hand, then took the punctured black and red blood bubble in his mouth, and slowly sucked it.
Cai Zhao felt his arms were numb and his face turned red, "Master Mu is so heroic and courageous..."
Mu Qingyan spit out the pus and blood, took an antidote pill to himself and the girl, and then said: "I won't tell anyone, you can just pretend that nothing happened."
"I'd better continue talking." Cai Zhao touched his red face, "The first formation change was more than 20 years ago. My great uncle Cai Changfeng saw that his brother and sister-in-law died, and his nephew and niece were also killed. Master Zhou picked him up, leaving the Luoying Valley empty and unattended, so he added all the messy things he learned in the martial arts world into the ancestral formation. I don't know how powerful it is, but the changes are huge. When my aunt and father came home after the New Year, they almost couldn’t get through the gate.”
"The second formation change happened more than ten years ago. After my aunt killed Nie Hengcheng, her meridians were all gone. My mother knew that the Nie family's children would definitely seek revenge, so she combined the essence of what my grandfather had studied all his life with the Luoying Valley formation. …”
"You've been talking for a long time." Mu Qingyan said, "You mean, the current Luoyinggu formation is completely different from the Luoyinggu formation before your uncle's change?"
"Yes!" Cai Zhao agreed, "That's why I said I've never seen it before, I only read about it in an old book, because the current formation in Luoying Valley is completely different from before."
Mu Qingyan stood up and looked around, "How long ago was this formation?"
Cai Zhao thought for a while, "That old book was written a century ago. As for the formation, it probably fluctuated for about twenty years."
Mu Qingyan said: "Your aunt's parents died when she was eleven or twelve years old, so she saw the formation before the change with her own eyes, so she sensed the danger deep in the blood swamp early, and even led Mu Zhengyang to find it smoothly. The secret of cultivating the second heaven.”
Cai Zhao was silent for a moment, "I don't think my aunt knows that the secrets in the blood swamp and the saliva of the Snow Scale Dragon Beast are used to practice the "Purple Heart Sutra". Mu Zhengyang can even deceive Nie Hengcheng, let alone me aunt."
"Yes, Mu Zhengyang is truly a scheming tycoon."
"...Don't delay, let's continue exploring the road, otherwise your tribe will set fire to the forest by sunset." Cai Zhao patted his clothes and stood up.
"Okay." Mu Qingyan helped the girl, who was a little shaky, and the two of them walked forward firmly.
"Has the sun set?"
"No."
"It looks very dark."
"That's because the clouds are thick, blocking the sun, and the sun is still in the sky."
"What do you think, little brother?"
"...I'm going to see if Third Senior Brother is thirsty."
"I want to eat roast goose."
"The sun hasn't set yet."
"Although this formation is old, it is ruthless and effective." Cai Zhao held up the night pearl and shuttled through the quiet vine forest covered with light mist. "It will pass through the fog, soil, water, trees and other objects, making the intruder feel that he has always been there." As we go deeper, we haven't gone in the wrong direction. In fact, the intruders have been lured into the side roads step by step, and there are many dangerous traps waiting for them."
Mu Qingyan followed behind and was on guard, "So, we fell into the trap when the fog got thicker before."
"right."
Cai Zhao pulled Mu Qingyan's sleeve, carefully checked the path, and muttered the words "Gen three, Dui four, Kanque two" and so on. The two of them walked for about half an hour, and their eyes suddenly opened up. Looking around, it turned out to be a large village with houses.
Looking up, I saw countless vines intertwining to form a vast dome above.
Cai Zhao counted from a distance and found that this village wrapped in the middle of the vine forest had about fifty or sixty townhouses, each of which was built like a southern bamboo turret with two or three floors. Cai Zhao calculated and felt that this place could accommodate roughly three to four hundred people.
The village was very quiet, as if there were only two people, Mu Qingyan and Cai Zhao. However, a village of three to four hundred people cannot be so quiet anyway. It is almost eerie.
"Do you think the house here is special..." Cai Zhao considered his words, "It's very compact."
Mu Qingyan smiled slightly and said, "Zhao Zhao is a very clever word."
The surrounding houses are not only low, but even the tables, chairs and beds inside are smaller than normal.
Cai Zhaodao: "I heard that people who have lived in swamps for many generations tend to be shorter in stature."
The two of them walked along the dimly lit village path and found that the surrounding buildings were dilapidated, as if they had not been inhabited for a long time. When the breeze blew, the vine roofs rustled. The blood swamp just now was so dangerous and terrifying, but here it is both peaceful and desolate. The dome intertwined with rattan shines silvery white light, just like entering a dream under the moon.
However, counting the time, it was clearly not dark yet.
"That house looks neater." Mu Qingyan was tall, and his eyes swept across the low buildings, and at a glance he saw a small vine building with small flowers on the roof in front of him.
The two of them hurried over, only to find that it was still empty inside, but the stove was hot, the firewood had a slight flame, and the bed and seats were clean and tidy.
Cai Zhao was overjoyed: "There are people living here, but where have all the people gone?"
Mu Qingyan frowned: "Did they hide when they saw us coming? Let's go look elsewhere..."
——"You are here."
The voice of a slowly aging old woman sounded from behind, and neither of them noticed it. Cai Zhao was so shocked that he broke into a cold sweat on the spot. Mu Qingyan's sword came out like the wind, and Fu Ying's sword tip stopped half an inch in front of the old woman's throat.
The old woman was short, a head and a half shorter than Cai Zhao. She was dressed in coarse linen clothes, with a rattan hairpin on her head, and carried a basket filled with wild vegetables and mushrooms. She had faint blue moss marks on her face, hands and feet, and her appearance was very vague.
Behind her were seven or eight elderly men and women dressed similarly to her. Their bare feet fell silently on the soft soil.
Although a sharp sword was pointed at her throat, the old woman did not panic at all. She first looked at Mu Qingyan's face, smiled with her cracked mouth and missing teeth, then looked at Cai Zhao up and down, and finally landed on Her sparkling eyes showed joy.
"Is your surname Cai or Yang?" the old woman asked, "Oh, I forgot, most of you outside follow your father's surname, so your surname must be Yang."
A short old man behind her interrupted, "Sister, I forgot, there are also people in Luoying Valley who have their mother's surname."
Cai Zhao pushed away Mu Qingyan's sword and asked excitedly: "You, you have seen the same face as him, but that man has a bloody mark of iris on the side of his neck, right?"
The old woman nodded: "I have also seen eyes like yours."
Cai Zhao was delighted.
Mu Qingyan still had a stern face: "How do I know what you said is true."
The old woman pointed to the doorposts on both sides, "These are the couplets that Miss Xiao Shu carved for me."
Cai Zhao hurriedly turned around to look. The first line read, "The moon is full, and people don't know it." The second line read, "The sunset is unknowable." The horizontal line read, "There is no sky and no earth, I am free." The handwriting carved into the wooden plaque with a sharp tool was scattered cleanly. A sense of chicness almost comes out of the wood.
"Is it her handwriting?" Mu Qingyan asked in a low voice.
