Chapter 47: Something doesn't feel right to this seat

Wounded, the other three were also exhausted, and after running into the tunnel outside Shenwu Arsenal, Chu Wanning told them to take a break. For a while no one spoke first, each standing or sitting, examining their own wounds or those of others, taking their breath away.

Xue Meng is the only one who is lost in thought, his head drooping, and he doesn't know what he is thinking.

Mo Ran murmuring: " Xue Meng "

Xue Meng pays no attention to anyone, he walks stiffly to Chu Wanning, tilts his head, and opens his mouth with a broken voice.

"Master."

Chu Wanning looked at him and wanted to lift his hand to touch his unruly hair, but he resisted.

"Is the Shenwu I picked earlier a fake?"

Chu Wanning did not speak.

Xue Meng's eyes were even redder, the blood in his black and white eyes was spider-webbed, and if it wasn't for his stubbornness and self-importance, he would have shed tears at once.

"Am I, in fact, no longer able to reach the weapons in the pool?"

Chu Wanning finally closes his eyes and a sigh falls.

The canal is quiet, and the only sound heard is Chu Wanning's cool, clear voice.

"Silly boy."

With a sigh of relief and helplessness, the last vestiges of Xue Meng's sanity collapsed and he couldn't stand it any longer.

"Master Master Master"

To miss out on Jin Chengchi Shenwu is to miss out on the chance to be at the top of the immortal world. This is something that everyone knows very well. Mortals have limited magical power, and without the help of divine weapons, they are no more than a body of flesh and blood.

The young masters of the Upper Fairy World sects have more or less inherited Shenwu from their ancestors, and even though they are not fully attuned to their own spiritual powers, they are still very powerful. Only Xue Meng, because the Xue Zhengyong brothers started with nothing, did not have the Jin Chengchi weapon.

Thus, in choosing to die with Pinching Willow with the Patriarch's sword, he was choosing to let go of his past superiority and intent.

Chu Wanning didn't ask any questions and said nothing more, hugging Xue Meng, who was crying loudly in his arms, and stroking his hair. Xue Meng had been spoilt since he was a child and had never suffered any grievances, so he had never cried for as long as he could remember.

Yet at this moment, tears were woven across his young face, and every word was broken, like a divine weapon he was no longer destined to possess, like a dream of a hero he had thought was within his grasp, all shattered.

" Xue Meng ." Chu Wanning embraced his apprentice in his arms and comforted him.

For a moment, Mo Ran only had time to see his soft eyelashes dropping and the soft light beneath them. Then the water got bigger, and the hem of his coat and his long hair became so dishevelled that he could no longer see Chu Wanning's face in the darkness.

I just heard him say, "Don't cry, you've been good."

It's not a gentle voice, but the words that come out of Chu Wanning's mouth could not be softer.

In the secret passage, each of the four men was preoccupied, and none of them spoke again.

Mo Ran leaned against the cold wall, watching Chu Wanning embracing Xue Meng and patting his shoulder, and suddenly felt bad.

A trip to Golden Pond.

Come in freshly dressed.

The injury of Zhong Yong when he went.

Xue Meng was a proud son of the sky for fifteen years.

The breeze is endless and the spirit is strong.

Then one day, the Joo House collapsed.

From then on, he would spend a long lifetime to forget these fifteen years of sharpness.

As they ran out of the Shenwu Arsenal, they saw Pinching Willow slowly collapsing in the water, like the exhaustion of a giant in the wilderness, like the death of Quafu, the death of the Golden Crow. The Jiao people who remained on the ground fled in disbelief.

The arsenal of divine weapons, millions of years old, was destroyed overnight.

The fall of the sacred tree sent a tidal wave through the Jin Chengchi, and in front of the huge vortex, the jiao people transformed themselves back into their massive bodies in an attempt to withstand the waves. In the Jin Chengchi, the scales and armour tossed and the fish and dragons leapt, making it difficult for mortals to stand.

Mo Ran shouted, "No, there's no way out."

As he spoke, a thick dragon's tail slapped at him, and Mo Ran dodged quickly before he narrowly escaped.

At that moment, a black pale dragon came sweeping up, its form larger than the rest of the dragon, its black scaly armour glowing with a cold golden glow.

Mo Ran exclaimed, " Wangyue "

Wangyue let out a long whistle, he was a mute dragon but suddenly he could speak, his voice was like a bell and he shouted, "Grab my back, Pinching Willow is destroyed, Jin Chengchi is about to be destroyed, hurry I will get you out"

There was no other choice, and they could not care less whether Wangyue was a friend or foe, so they did as they were told. Wangyue carried the four of them through the frightening waves and the tossing waves, splitting the water and running.

"Get a grip."

As soon as the words left his mouth, the old dragon suddenly broke the water and came out of the air. Mo Ran and the others felt a thousand currents pounding in their faces, the water like a thousand horses and armies stampeding through their bones and lungs. They couldn't open their eyes or breathe, so they clutched the dragon's back with both hands and used all their strength to keep from being thrown back into the lake.

By the time they could finally open their eyes, they were already on a dragon in the clouds, on top of Jin Chengchi, at the top of Xuyin Mountain. The water vapour spurts turned into a million points of luminescence, scattering from the mirror-like scales of the huge dragon, and in an instant the smoke and clouds were like mist, and the mist became a rainbow. Wangyue leads the head to hiss and the eight wildernesses change colour.

Mo Ran heard Xue Meng's voice coming from behind him, agitated and distant in the wind, he was really young after all, and could easily forget his sorrows for a while because of some things

"Oh my God I'm flying on a dragon fly"

Wangyue circles Xuyin Mountain, gradually shrinking in size and slowly swooping down so that by the time he comes to rest on the banks of Jin Chengchi, he is less than half his original size and does not crush too much of the surrounding rock and grass. He huddled in place and quietly allowed Mo Ran to get off the dragon's back.

When they looked back at Jin Chengchi, they saw the ten thousand feet of ice melting away and the waves rising up to break the ice. By now the morning had dawned and the sun was shining brightly in the east.

Shi Mei suddenly exclaimed, "Look at those augers in the pool."

The tossing and twisting auger dragons undulate with the surging waves, gradually cease to move, then crumble one by one, turning into bits of charred ash as one black piece after another rises from the lake and gathers in mid-air.

Mo Ran murmured: " Zhenlong Chess game"

The entire pool of auger dragons, beings and even Pinching Willow have all fallen victim to Zhenlong's chess game, and this whole pool of scenery and intrigue is actually a game set up by someone hiding in the shadows

Mo Ran suddenly shuddered.

He realised that something was not right in the post-rebirth world, something that had, for no apparent reason, come forward.

In his previous life, when he was sixteen years old, there was absolutely no one who could play a Zhenlong game to this extent.

Xue Meng:" Wangyue "

Mo Ran looked back and saw Wangyue lying motionless, no black pieces had emerged from him, but he looked very weak, the pupils of his eyes half-squinted.

"Well done, Gouchen, God's Jin Chengchi, which would rather be destroyed than never, never fall into the hands of the evil one."

With these words, he suddenly emanated a golden light all over his body, and when the light dissipated, he turned into the form of a smaller human being.

"It's you."

Mo Ran and Xue Meng spoke almost simultaneously.

The man in front of them is Wangyue, the white-haired Mr. Jiao who guided them to the spirit of Shenwu Arsenal. Wangyue looked up, and there was a glint of shame in his eyes.

"Exactly me."

Xue Meng was shocked, "You, why are you leading us to Shenwu Arsenal? Are you trying to save us or harm us? If you are harming us, why are you sending us ashore?

Wangyue lowered her eyes and said hoarsely, "I'm sorry. It was just that the situation was such that I had to do it. False Gouchen's own cultivation was insufficient and he was relying on Pinching Willow's spiritual power to perform his forbidden spells. Only when Pinching Willow is broken will his spells fail. There is nothing I can do but to lead you to try."

Chu Wanning shook his head and walked over to him, waving his hand to cast a spell to heal his wounds.

Wangyue let out a long sigh: "Master Dao is kind, but it is not necessary. I, like everything in the pond, have reached the end of my life, and I have been living on a little of Pinching Willow's spiritual energy. Now that it has collapsed, my life will be over soon."

Chu Wanning :""

Wangyue said, "Death and life are in order and cannot be forced. I have fulfilled my wish to see Jin Chengchi's nightmare broken before I die. But I am so sorry that the shock in the pool has caused you all to suffer."

Chu Wanning said, "No matter. Do you know who the man who falsely impersonated Gouchen is and what he wants?"

Wangyue said, "I don't know who he really is. But his purpose, I think, is to explore the three forbidden arts by gaining the power of Pinching Willow."

Chu Wanning mused, "The spiritual energy required to perform the forbidden arts is amazing, and if we have the help of the ancient tree spirits, we will indeed get twice the result with half the effort."

"Yes, that's what the man said. He said that ancient spirits are powerful, but extremely difficult to find. The only one in the canon that is traceable is Pinching Willow."

"Actually, he only appeared not long ago. And since he took control of Jin Chengchi, he has been using the power of Pinching Willow to do his training in the two forbidden arts of rebirth and the Zhenlong game of chess at the bottom of the lake."

Wangyue said, sighing, her gaze somewhat vacant and dull.

Mo Ran's heart thudded.

The trip to Jin Chengchi was very different from the previous life, and all these changes happened only a short time ago. What went wrong to change the course of everything?

"He was too weak to manipulate living things, so he killed a large number of the lake's living creatures to try to manipulate the dead ones. This time he did it, so in just a few days he killed almost all the spirit animals in the lake and made them into pawns. Only a few were left to experiment with. I was one of them."

Mo Ran asked, "So you surfaced when I begged for the sword, when you were under the manipulation of the false Gouchen"

"No." Wangyue slowly closed her eyes, "He can manipulate others, he can manipulate fox demons, he can manipulate Pinching Willow, but he cannot manipulate me. I am a spirit animal tamed by the God Gouchen at creation. A million years ago, when I was willingly driven by the God, my scales were branded with his spell, and I have been loyal to my master for life and death ever since."

"Then you."

"Compulsion is a disguise." Wangyue sighed, "Although the intruder did not have complete control over me, the spell of the Gouchen gods has been in place for millions of years and is not as effective as it was then. I was still partly under the influence of the false Gouchen. When you saw me, I was mute because my voice had been completely manipulated by that man and I could no longer do my own bidding. It was only when his spell failed that I was able to speak again."

Mo Ran asks, "Does the fake Gouchen know you're in disguise?"

"I don't think he knows." Wangyue looked at Mo Ran and said, "According to his plan, today he will take your spirit core and renew Pinching Willow's life. But he did not expect me to bring you back to Shenwu Arsenal and destroy the ancient willow. He was not prepared for me."

Chu Wanning suddenly said, "He may not have been wary of you, but he may have had more than he needed."

"What do you mean by that, Master?"

Chu Wanning said, "I have a vague feeling that the fake Gouchen Shanggong is up to something else."