The architectural style of Huaicheng is very similar to the Song Dynasty in Zhou Li's impression. It can be seen from the ruins that Huaicheng has a more prosperous literary style than Tianshui. The aesthetics are different from Tianshui's majestic and luxurious. The architecture tends to be exquisite, delicate and beautiful, focusing on decorate.
Most of the buildings in Tianshui have plain walls, and the building surface is generally the color of the wall itself. The stone bricks are covered with a layer of white ash, and the wooden ones are filled with sawdust. Huaicheng is different. Perhaps because it is close to the lacquer forest, the surfaces of the buildings in Huaicheng are painted with thick colored paint. Even if they are now in ruins, you can still see what kind of appearance these buildings once had. style.
"This is the "multi-colored decoration" painted by everyone at Wangcheng Temple. Next to it are the "grinding jade decoration" and "green and green decoration between edges", which are mainly green. These were once famous scenery in Huaicheng."
Walking out of the collapsed mansion and looking at the familiar and unfamiliar scenes around him, sadness and nostalgia flashed in Jiang Qi's eyes, "Back then, Huaicheng was full of humanistic poets. Many times, in the poetic street not far away, There will be poetry scholars debating in the audience, and with luck, the poets who wrote the poetry will also be watching in the audience. It’s a pity that they are all gone.”
It is close to the Huaihe River and has beautiful scenery. These two alone are enough to make Huaicheng a must-pass for those literati. Coupled with the prosperity of Renting that year, Huaicheng bloomed like a bright and bright peony. But in that disaster, the beauty was just a piece of glass that looked a little unique after being broken.
After confirming that there were no entropic spirits around, everyone began to move towards the city lord's residence in the center. According to Jiang Qi, their last head-on confrontation with the entropy spirit was in that mansion because there was a huge stone there that could absorb the energy of the entropy spirit. It's a pity that there is only one huge stone and it is buried deep in the foundation of the mansion and cannot be pulled out. Otherwise, the war against the entropic spirits would not have been so difficult.
Passing through a group of low houses, this was once the area where the coolie laborers lived. Although the human family is prosperous and everyone has enough to eat in a sense, for most people, they have other thoughts after eating. For example, they want their children to have a better path to choose by sending them to a martial arts school to become a general, or studying to become an official. Therefore, these people often go to big cities like Huaicheng to work as coolies to earn money for the children in the village.
After passing through this civilian area that belongs exclusively to Huai City, Zhou Li and his party came to an open field. According to the wooden sign not far away, Zhou Li learned that this was once a martial arts performance ground in Huaicheng. Later, due to a long period of no fighting, it was converted into a dance ground for the troupes and restaurants to display some of their final performances. Jiang Qi said that the court master once came here to listen to an opera. He couldn't remember the name clearly. He only remembered that the court master cried for a long time after the opera and even beat Jiang Qi and threatened him not to speak. To outsiders.
Jiang Qi felt that Zhou Li was no outsider.
The dilapidated walls, the dim red-painted chairs, the half-eaten stage, the messy costumes and the unexploded guns and swords. Zhou Li and the others walked in the middle of the ruins. On the left and right were two collapsed red brick walls, as well as screens that had lost their former color.
Huaicheng is like a dead city. It has all the characteristics of a city, but it has lost its life. Zhou Li and his group walked among the corpses of the city, stepping on the broken hearts and slowly walking towards the center.
Zhou Li and his party encountered no obstacles along the way, which surprised everyone. Of course, Jiang Qi also had an explanation. As a unique existence, entropy spirits do not need resources or residence. Therefore, Huaicheng, which is of great value in the eyes of humans, is just an empty shell without food in their eyes. That’s all. They will leave entropy spirits behind, which is just a habit similar to territorial protection, so they often don't leave too many entropy spirits behind.
Soon, a magnificent dilapidated building appeared in everyone's eyes. It is said to be majestic because it is a seven-story giant tower, with red, ice and blue intertwined, and a golden orb on the top of the tower. It is said to be dilapidated because the tall tower has collapsed, and only the continuous broken bricks and blood-red mottled marks represent how magnificent a building it once was.
"That's the city lord's residence."
Looking at the broken golden ball at the top of the tower, a look of heartache flashed across Jiang Qi's face, but he quickly recovered. He pursed his lips and said with a hint of reluctance: "We once repelled those entropic spirits, but at the last moment, we were still defeated. We failed to defend the city lord's residence, and therefore lost the huge stone. In the end, Lose Huai City.”
Zhou Li and the others knew that Jiang Qi was once a native of Huaicheng, or that the entire Tianshui was entrusted to his future self by Huaicheng. Back then, Huaicheng was captured by Entropy Ling, resulting in heavy casualties. Some Huaicheng people who escaped in time escaped the city under the cover of the almost crazy soldiers, and finally established Tianshui together. Therefore, for Jiang Qi, Huaicheng is not only a city, an ancient battlefield, but also his hometown that he did not protect well.
Therefore, he not only missed it, but also felt guilty.
"Let's go."
Before he even got close to the mansion, Zhou Li felt a strange aura. He knew that the entropy spirit he wanted to find existed in that abandoned tower.
No nonsense and no pre-war mobilization. Atalona subconsciously attached a layer of life energy to everyone, and everyone also took out their weapons. After getting Zhou Li's permission, Torea pulled down the black hood, and with the emergence of silver-blue lines, Torea's figure disappeared from everyone's sight.
"Let's go."
Zhou Li looked at Jiang Qi and said, "Don't worry, Tolea's latency and observation abilities are top-notch, better than any of us."
"I see."
Jiang Qi put away his astonishment. He did not expect that a girl with a spear would be a role similar to that of a detective and infiltrator. After all, as the king of weapons, guns have always been the vanguard in defeating enemies in people's eyes. Of course, Jiang Qi had no other thoughts and was just expressing emotion.
After letting Tolea out to explore the circle, Zhou Li was not idle. He first released the power of the Calamity, and then put the purple light and Eluma's Black Mist Knight Xiaobai on standby at any time. Since the last time he and Eluma pooled their strength to save Su Yuli, Zhou Li had learned the power of combining disaster and black mist.
Jiang Qi could tell that Atalona was the most fearless one. After all, she is a god, and she is also a god with average combat ability among the twelve moments. The main reason is that her brain is not working well.
There was no overly cautious approach, and there was no standard stealth strategy. Zhou Li and his group walked towards the ruins of the tower in a swaggering manner. In this team, except for the incompetent Li Chong and the weak Tao Yao, anyone else who was singled out would beat up the demigod-level professionals at will. Not to mention some crazy goddess. Therefore, Zhou Li and the others were not too cautious and chose to go straight to A.
When he came to the half-slanted door, Zhou Li's mind moved. Xiaobai, who was like a substitute messenger behind Eluma, suddenly became energetic. He grabbed the purple light behind Zhou Li, squeezed it casually, and flickered it. The long sword with purple electric light appeared in the hands of the Black Mist Knight. With a sound as smooth as cutting tofu, the thick stone door split into two, revealing the scene inside the tower.
There was no flying flesh and blood, and no fallen skeletons. From the moment they entered the city, Eluma and Zhou Li noticed that the biggest suspicion of the city was that it was too clean.
Yes, clean. It should be noted that clean does not mean complete, so broken stone walls and collapsed buildings are not considered dirty. What Zhou Li and Eluma were talking about were the flying flesh and corpses. After all, Jiang Qi, Li Chong and Tao Yao all said that although Entropy Ling kills people and completely disintegrates them, the blood spilled and severed organs and arms before disintegration will not dissipate, and this city has no trace of it at all. Less than a little bit of blood.
But after arriving at the place where the battle mentioned by Jiang Qi took place, the situation became even more serious. As the main location of the battlefield, the hall of the Huaicheng City Lord's Mansion was extremely clean. Apart from dust and broken stones, Zhou Li couldn't even see any traces of blood. You know, even the cleanest Magnum Hall has dark brown blood stains on the steps in front of the emperor.
"This...is wrong..."
Soon, Jiang Qi noticed something was wrong. He stepped forward, frowned, and said in a deep voice, "It seems like someone has been here."
Upon hearing this, Tao Yao thought about it and said, "Could someone have entered here before us?"
"The odds are slim."
After all, he is a famous general. Jiang Qi quickly reacted, "If someone comes in, the dust on the ground will not be so complete. Even the most powerful stalker cannot remove even a trace of dust..."
"I've seen it."
At this time, Torea's voice came straight from the side, and Jiang Qi almost glanced over. When he saw Tolea standing on the corridor not far away, Jiang Qi breathed a sigh of relief.
"There are no corpses, no bloodstains, and no traces of anyone coming here. I have searched all seventy-nine rooms in the City Lord's Mansion, and there is no entropic spirit you mentioned."
After a brief pause, Torea thought for a while and continued: "But I found a stone in a room in the southeast. The stone is too big to be dug. According to my observation of the outside of the house, there should be something behind the stone. There is a small room, and I want to ask if I want to smash it with stones."
"Don't."
Jiang Qi on the side was shocked when he heard this, and quickly said: "That stone is what we call a huge stone, also called a flying stone. This flying stone can absorb the power of the surrounding entropy spirits, and it was our previous magic weapon to defeat the enemy. If Once we are really besieged by the entropy spirit, we can rely on it to get out of trouble."
Torea did not answer, but looked at Zhou Li and Atalona. After receiving affirmative nods from the two of them, Torea also nodded and said calmly: "Okay, I will listen to you."
Li Chong on the side had already begun to study the traces left on the wall. Of course, he did not forget to follow the footsteps of Zhou Li and others. After reading the writing on a stone wall, Li Chong seemed to have discovered something, but said nothing. Of course, his reaction could not escape the sight of Zhou Li and Atalona. They looked at each other without saying anything, but there was a strange tacit understanding.
"If the boulder were there..."
After a brief period of contemplation, Jiang Qi said: "This tower should have shifted violently during the toppling process, so the flying rocks fell into the southeast room mentioned by this lady. It should have been a coincidence room at that time. There is an entropy spirit in the room, so this boulder suppresses the entropy spirit in the room."
Obviously, what Jiang Qi is saying now is very likely to happen. Zhou Li and the others were all action types. After confirming that they were going to the location of the boulder, Atalona stood in front of everyone and began to move deeper.
Why Atalona, you ask?
She has a great fate but a low fate, so she doesn't feel bad when she dies.
Under the cover of Atalona's human shield, Zhou Li and his party quickly passed through the more than seventy rooms and arrived at the southeast room that Torrea mentioned. In fact, everyone knew after entering that this was probably the closest place to where the entropy spirit was. After all, only in this room, there is an illusion that makes it difficult to breathe.
"Let me do it."
Zhou Li was also unambiguous. Xiaobai behind him immediately raised the purple thunder in his hand and slammed it on the soil around the boulder.
Yes, Zhou Li chose to smash the surroundings instead of boulders. In fact, the moment he saw the boulder called the Flying Stone, he knew that it was probably of no use.
The gem that suppresses entropy spirits is exactly the same as the Victoria-transformed gem that Zhou Li wears around his neck. However, this gem has lost its luster.
Zhou Li noticed something when he saw this huge boulder, but the lingering weird feeling made him subconsciously ignore it. However, when Zhou Li felt the warmth of the gem on his chest, he remembered that he also had a gem from Victoria.
Of course, Zhou Li has no time to do this now. After he shattered the building near the boulder, a door appeared surrounding the stone. This time Zhou Li did not let Torea take the lead, but looked at Atalona expectantly.
"You won't let me drill a hole, will you?"
Atalona was stunned. After getting Zhou Li's affirmative reply, this goddess who was so easy to coax as long as you didn't stop her from destroying human beings really went to drill a hole. Of course, the goddess's drilling of the hole is also elegant and tangible, rather than just a vicious dog grabbing the shit and rushing in.
After leaning into the hollow, Atalona's voice came out.
"You...you'd better come and take a look."
At this time, Atalona's tone was obviously one of shock. It was hard for Zhou Li to believe that something could shock someone like Atalona so much. Therefore, Zhou Li chose to go down second.
Then, he saw the vast world underground.
(End of chapter)
