Through his clothes he pinched that pendant. He also could not figure out what was happening.
In short, when the evil qi erupted just now, he was not afraid of the evil qi. He did not circulate power or use techniques to resist. One hand held the spear. The other hand wanted to draw the sword, preparing to respond to the situation. Who would have known that after the evil qi invaded the pendant inside his clothes, the pendant suddenly reacted. He himself could not explain it clearly. In any case, it trembled once. Then, as if stirring wind and clouds, it collected all the evil qi that had erupted in the temple hall.
At this moment he looked around. The oil lamps had mostly gone out. The temple hall was completely clear and bright. That was right. It had collected the evil qi.
Nan Zhu and Mu Aotie saw the outline of the pendant beneath his clothes that he was pinching. They immediately reacted. After Yunxi died, a strange bead had been collected from this side. Old Fifteen thought it might be some treasure. He put it into his own necklace pendant and had been wearing it on his person all along.
In any case, nobody knew what that bead was. They also could not easily explain its origin to others. This made it inconvenient to inquire what exactly it was, or what use it had. In the end, it was left unresolved. Now it suddenly pulled this stunt. What was the situation?
Mu Aotie also could not help asking, “Are you yourself alright?”
Whether it was a bead or not was secondary. Suddenly inhaling so much evil qi, who knew whether it would have any effect on a person.
Yu Qing still shook his head. “I do not feel anything at all. I am fine. The evil qi all went into here.” He indicated the pendant inside his clothes.
Qiao Qie’er and he often saw each other completely naked. Naturally she knew about that pendant beneath his clothes. Previously she had not taken it seriously. Today it was truly unbelievable. She also could not help asking, “What exactly is that?”
Yu Qing smiled bitterly. “I also cannot figure out what it is. If I said it was something I picked up, would you believe me?”
Picked up? Qiao Qie’er half believed and half doubted. Something like this could be casually picked up?
Nan Zhu felt there was no need to continue this inconvenient topic. He immediately called out, “Do not be stupid. Something happened. What are you still standing there for?” He took the lead and ran out.
So the others also followed and ran.
To be honest, the group’s alertness and tension in combat awareness really fell short of others by more than just a little. Ning Chaoyi and the others had long since pursued and killed. Only now did they slowly and lazily go. Of course, they also knew someone had already gone to pursue. But their initial reaction truly was quite a large gap.
When they found the people, only the Thief Mandarin Duck couple remained guarding a cave entrance.
Previously there was a piled decorative structure before the cave entrance. Now it had collapsed all over the ground. Only a pitch black cave entrance remained. It was evident that Wu Xieshan had fled in such haste that he had no time to carefully conceal the entrance.
“What happened?” The pursuing Yu Qing and the others could not avoid asking.
Nie Pinlan said in a deep voice, “What else is there to say? That Second Estate Master fled into a secret passage. Mr. Ning and Lu Xingyun’s mother and daughter pursued.”
The words had just fallen here when noise came from the cave. This caused the group to quickly pick up their weapons and be on guard. The golden halberd in Yu Qing’s hand was especially conspicuous.
However, those who emerged were Lu Xingyun’s mother and daughter. Ning Chaoyi also came out after.
Nie Pinlan saw that the mother and daughter’s expressions were not very good. She immediately asked, “How was it?”
Ning Chaoyi shook his head. “Every path in this estate is basically like an underground tunnel. We went in and pursued to the main path. Fork after fork. We are also not familiar with the terrain. When we encountered a fork we hesitated. We do not know where he ran off to. We lost him.”
Losing the pursuit was secondary. This time it was Lu Xingyun’s turn to question. “Nie Pinlan, did you not already subdue him? Why could he still circulate power and use techniques as if nothing was wrong?”
Mentioning this, everyone immediately fixed suspicious gazes on Nie Pinlan. What Lu Xingyun said was not wrong. It truly was suspicious.
“I…” Nie Pinlan choked up. Then she cried out her grievance. “I truly placed restrictions on him. Moreover, I placed several layers of restrictions. I grasped his pulse to place the restrictions. Even if he were a demon cultivator he would have been subdued. Who knew he could suddenly run. I also do not know what happened. You do not suspect I am in league with him, or that I deliberately released him?”
Hearing her explanation, everyone again had thoughts.
Ning Chaoyi raised his hand to stop them. He told them not to argue. “This matter truly is strange. You all saw it too. This Second Estate Master revealed an evil nature. He erupted with evil qi all over his body. He is clearly different from normal humans or demons. It appears he previously could not escape, but rather did not want to escape.”
Nan Zhu bared his teeth and said, “Goodness. This Second Estate Master took the opportunity to infiltrate our ranks. He wanted to take the chance to see what our situation was. He was sounding out our bottom line.”
Nie Pinlan said in alarm and doubt, “Why do I feel something is not right? I personally saw Lu Xingyun pierce his chest with one sword. Injured like this, he could still escape from Mr. Ning’s hands. Is this not somewhat abnormal?”
Nan Zhu nodded. “He truly does not seem like a normal person. He truly reveals an evil nature.”
Lu Xingyun suddenly blurted out, “Previously you still blamed me for not supposed to act. See now? If I had not acted to pierce him with one sword, and let him continue lurking, once he suddenly struck, the consequences would be unthinkable.”
These words left everyone speechless. Everyone knew in their hearts, what you did was not merely piercing one sword. If Wu Xieshan had not fled, could you have stopped at just one sword? Probably seven or eight or ten swords would have been possible. Even if dead, he might have been chopped apart by you.
However, since it was something that did not happen, everyone could not easily say anything. In any case, after this incident, they all felt this woman seemed somewhat abnormal.
Words of praise for her also could not be spoken by anyone.
Ning Chaoyi fixed his gaze on the halberd in Yu Qing’s hand. “Since this Second Estate Master was using deception, having the ability to escape yet honestly confessing the estate’s treasure, this simply does not make sense. It seems Brother Lin’s judgment was correct. This halberd is indeed fake.”
Nan Zhu muttered, “I wonder how much this halberd can sell for.”
Everyone’s gazes also fell upon the golden halberd.
A figure shot out from a mountain cave and landed beside Third Estate Master Wu Heyun. It was precisely Second Estate Master Wu Xieshan who had escaped.
Seeing him return, Wu Heyun breathed a sigh of relief. Seeing the wounds on his body, he immediately said with concern, “Are you alright?”
Wu Xieshan waved his hand. “I am fine. Where is the boss? I have important information to report.”
“The boss went to the village side. Look, he is back.”
Wu Heyun, looking toward the village, waved his finger.
Wu Xieshan followed his gaze. Indeed he saw Wu Dao returning with large strides.
The village clearly showed unusual activity. The villagers remaining in the village were leading some horses out from the enclosed stables, appearing to make preparations.
This was a somewhat strange village. Even to most people of the entire Rift Valley Estate, this was basically a place isolated from the world.
However, they still needed to trade with the outside world to maintain the livelihood of so many people. So apart from the Third Estate Master occasionally taking people to the outside world to contact outsiders, other people, whether villagers or estate cultivators, rarely dealt with outsiders in their entire lives. The occasional new bride brought into the household was one of the villagers’ rare opportunities to contact outsiders.
Of course, it was also not easy to marry outsiders. The villagers here were quite proud. Just because they did not worry about food and clothing, while outside people often could not fill their stomachs. In leisure time, what the villagers often discussed when gathered together was what the outside world’s famine was like, how difficult it was to maintain livelihood. They listened to outside brides talk about how there were often starved skeletons by the roadside.
And the cultivators in the estate were all selected from children in the village with good aptitude to cultivate. After reaching adulthood, they basically also married women from the village. So parents and family were all here. Everyone’s lifestyle was basically a cycle here. Rising at dawn and resting at dusk. Generation after generation lived here. Life could be considered peaceful.
In short, without the estate’s permission, no one could leave without authorization. Rule breakers also could not escape. No matter where they fled, they could always be pursued and brought back. Then they would receive punishment.
Not having much contact with the outside world, naturally there were few grudges and grievances.
Wu Dao, who came out from the village, clearly also saw that Wu Xieshan had returned. So he quickly flew back. Upon meeting, he asked, “Are you alright?”
Wu Xieshan: “I am fine. I originally wanted to stay there to gather more information, or wait for an opportunity to act. Who knew I encountered a crazy woman. Without a word she took out a sword and stabbed me. Simply mad. I really could not endure it anymore. I had no choice but to escape and return.”
Wu Heyun did not understand. “Crazy woman? Where did a crazy woman come from?”
Wu Xieshan: “That Lu Xingyun.”
Wu Heyun recalled and said, “Why do I feel that woman’s temperament is quite gentle and mild? Everything was fine. Why would she take out a sword and stab you without a word?”
Wu Xieshan scoffed, “Do not mention it. They truly came for the halberd. I followed ancestral teachings and pointed out the golden halberd to them. This bunch of sick fellows actually suspected the golden halberd was fake. It was clearly real, yet they suspected it was fake. Where can I reason with them? Just because I was too honest and frank in my confession, they thought I was lying. That woman directly struck to kill. If I did not flee, should I wait for them to chop me up?”
The Great Estate Master and Third Estate Master both had somewhat bewildered feelings.
After shaking his head to clear his mind, Wu Dao said in a deep voice, “Alright. We will talk slowly later. Do not worry about it for now. First gather the remaining manpower. Leave immediately.”
“Leave?” Wu Heyun did not understand. Previously this one had just dispersed manpower all around to serve as lookouts. Now he wanted to withdraw them and leave. What did this mean? He immediately asked, “Go where?”
Wu Dao: “Run far away. Hide. If we cannot provoke them, we can hide from them.”
Wu Xieshan hurriedly stopped him. “Boss, no need to run. I have information to tell you. Those fellows, although they came for the halberd, fundamentally do not know the halberd’s true secret. They only know the halberd hides a secret. They only know that solving the secret can bring wealth. It is not the background we imagined. Also, the four who came first and the six who came later are fundamentally not together. So we have nothing to fear. We can counterattack. Eliminate these people and it will be fine.”
“Do not know the halberd’s secret?” Wu Dao pondered and muttered. Then he again looked back toward the village direction. Although there was hesitation in his eyes, in the end he resolutely said, “Never mind. Immediately gather manpower and leave.”
The Second Estate Master and Third Estate Master had surprised expressions. Wu Heyun: “Why?”
Wu Dao lifted his chin toward the village side to indicate. “Someone will naturally handle the remaining matters.”
The Second Estate Master and Third Estate Master looked. They immediately understood something. Their eyes turned stern. They immediately spoke no more.
“I will go gather manpower.” Wu Heyun threw down these words and left.
Wu Xieshan then questioned, “Wanting to run, but with so many villagers we cannot run fast.”
Wu Dao: “Villagers are not our concern. Leave them here.”
Wu Xieshan was greatly shocked. “Most people’s families are down below here. If they knew, I am afraid there would be objections.”
Wu Dao: “So just go straight away. No need to tell them the reason.”
Wu Xieshan choked up speechless. In the end he could only silently nod.