Древние и чудесные искусства

Глава 8

Yu Ke crashed heavily into the wall and rolled quickly to the other side, trying to dodge the impending attack.

In reality, Huizhi stood a full thirty feet to the side of his own illusion. He gave Yu Ke no time to breathe, and in an instant, unleashed a series of lightning bolts, striking the dodging warrior with pinpoint accuracy. Accompanying the powerful blow was intense pain, as if Yu Ke's internal organs were being torn apart; the smell of burning flesh immediately filled the hall.

Yu Ke endured the dizzying pain and steadied himself. He now knew Huizhi's true location and had no intention of letting this demon out of his sight again.

However, Huizhi stood there, watching Yu Ke silently approach.

Yu Ke didn't understand: why hadn't Huizhi prepared another spell? The attack had already left Yu Ke dizzy and in excruciating pain all over his body. However, once these wounds were removed, Huizhi would have no chance of winning a one-on-one fight against him.

Huizhi remained motionless, waiting for Yu Ke, a strange smile on her face.

"Your power comes from me. Do you want to use it against me?"

"Die!" Yu Ke roared, his anger suppressing his reason. Hui Zhi became the focus of his rage, and his mocking smile only provoked Yu Ke to rush forward. But just as Yu Ke was close enough, Hui Zhi flicked his finger and vanished without a trace.

"Invisible!" Yu Ke roared, swinging his sword at the air in front of him. He was completely consumed by rage, craving only to vent, to kill, and to see the blood splatter from the twin blades in his hands.

"Yes, you incompetent fools, come for revenge!" Huizhi's voice rang out from all directions, while Yu Ke brandished his twin swords, transforming into a dazzling white light, aimlessly slashing and thrusting in the air around him. All of this was for one reason—

anger.

+: The Corpse King, the Feudal King

- Mystery Tribe

Section 17, Let's take action tonight!

At that moment, he vaguely sensed the chanting of Huizhi above his head.

He instinctively tried to dodge, but it was too late. A massive bolt of electricity descended from the sky, binding him tightly within it. The powerful energy pierced through him from above, the pain feeling as if it were tearing him apart. His twin swords slipped from his hands. Yu Ke felt the pain gradually lessen as his consciousness faded. Black mist rose from the lightning that filled his vision, slowly enveloping him…

The hall returned to calm.

The rituals for the deceased took a long time. By evening, everyone was finally ready to leave the village of the untouchables. No one spoke a word along the way; it was as if everything was contained in silence. Grief and hatred had passed, and now they only had one thing to do—find the boy Huiren had mentioned.

They traveled westward and unknowingly returned to the ancient city once more. The city now appeared even more desolate than when they had left. Night had fallen, and the group began searching for a place to spend the night.

The city was full of spies and informants, and it took the group a long time to find a small inn near the city gate. The innkeeper was a middle-aged man with small eyes. He stared at the group for a long time with a sly look, and when he felt that they did not look like rich people, he led them to an empty room that looked like a stable.

"Five gold coins a night, no food or drink included," the innkeeper said coldly. Anthony then pulled out five gold coins and threw them into his arms, trying to get rid of him immediately.

"It's five gold coins per person..."

"Get out!" Krusen roared. The boss wanted to say something more, but seeing the other party's fierce look, he had no choice but to swallow his words and slunk away.

Everyone sat on the ground, silent, each lost in thought. After a long while, Clary finally couldn't bear the oppressive atmosphere any longer and spoke:

"The ancient city is so big, where should we begin our search?"

“Yeah, you can’t exactly knock on every door and look at people’s kids’ foreheads, can you?” Orlando added.

Everyone fell into deep thought again. Before they knew it, it was already late at night. Seeing that they still couldn't figure things out, Anthony told everyone to go to sleep and recharge their energy so they could start their investigation in the city the next morning.

The next day at daybreak, the group dressed up and left the inn, splitting up to search for the boy with the character for "Buddha" on his head in the ancient city. Anthony and Li Shang went to the east side of the city, Richard and Clarisne infiltrated the inner city, while Orlando and Krusen investigated throughout the city's bustling streets and markets.

A day passed quickly, followed by the second day, the third day... Several days passed in a row, and the seven of them searched almost every bustling place and every household in the city, but no one had ever heard of such a strange boy.

The seven of them had no choice but to return to their rooms at the inn and discuss their gains over the past few days.

"That's strange. Could there really be such a person? Or is that old monk just talking nonsense?" Clary said dejectedly.

“No, as long as we keep searching, we’ll definitely find it.” Krusen said, glancing at Cage, “Cage, think of any ideas.”

Previously, Cage had been holed up in his room, exploring everywhere with his Baskin-Robber bug, but without any success. He had been pondering: was there something wrong with this? Krusen's question snapped him out of his reverie.

“There’s a Buddha character on your forehead…wouldn’t that be considered a very obvious mark?” Cage asked.

“Yes, it should be quite obvious.” Orlando said, gesturing to his forehead as he imagined what such a boy would look like.

"But we investigated the entire city thoroughly and couldn't find him. What does that mean?"

"Isn't this boy in the ancient city?" Clari asked.

“Impossible! West of the lowly village, there’s only the ancient city. If such a strange person appeared in one of the surrounding villages, it would cause a huge sensation. We couldn’t possibly be completely clueless,” Anthony said thoughtfully.

"Do you think only Huiren knows that there is such a young man who can save the ancient city from its fate?" Cage suddenly said.

"You mean Huizhi also..."

“Yes,” Cage said with certainty, “Hui Ren and Hui Zhi are from the same school, and Hui Zhi has been in the ancient city for twenty years longer than Hui Ren. He should know the situation in the city better than Hui Ren. It’s impossible that he didn’t know that such a young man would appear.”

“You mean…” The crowd gradually began to understand Cage’s thoughts.

"It's very simple. Since Huizhi was able to keep such a major event as moving the jade Buddha a secret for so many years, what difficulty would it be for him to make a young boy disappear from this world without a trace?"

"Has he already poisoned that boy?"

"Not necessarily... If he were capable of doing it, given his personality, he would absolutely not hesitate, and Huiren should know this very well. Therefore, if he really had the potential to kill that boy, Huiren wouldn't have sent us to look for him again. So since we're here, let's assume that Huizhi has hidden the boy. The question is, where would he hide him?"

"Jade Buddha Temple!" everyone exclaimed in unison. The investigation over the past few days had completely overlooked the Jade Buddha Temple, the most suspicious location.

“That’s right, but the Jade Buddha Temple has been under heavy guard these past few days. Even my Bajuhicauda bug couldn’t get into the barrier outside the temple.”

"Then let's sneak into the Jade Buddha Temple tonight and find out what's going on!" Seeing that such a complicated problem was solved by Cage in just a few words, Orlando couldn't help but rub his hands together excitedly.

“Wait a minute, I’ve been thinking about something else these past few days,” Cage said suddenly, as if he had a very important question. Everyone waited curiously for Cage to continue.

“Hui Ren and Hui Zhi are from the same school, so their abilities should be about the same. Besides, they are both mortals. Even if they have any outstanding abilities, they should only be so-so.” As Cage spoke, everyone recalled Hui Ren’s frail appearance, which indeed did not seem remarkable.

“But this Huizhi can not only create barriers, but also summon Rakshasa. He alone could defeat Clary. Such abilities are worlds apart from his senior brother!” Cage said. Everyone agreed, especially Anthony, who was baffled by the drastic change in Yu Ke's strength during their two encounters.

"Therefore, I think this Huizhi is definitely not simple. There must be some unknown power behind him."

“Are you saying…” Anthony stared at Cage, and everyone knew what he was going to say.

Dark Messenger!

"Everyone must be careful!" Cage concluded.

“Okay… let’s do it tonight,” Anthony said. “Richard, Krusen and I will go into the Temple of the Emerald Buddha to find the child. Rish and Clary will do our makeup. Cage will meet us outside the temple, and Orlando will meet us at the city gate.”

"Huh? Why do you want me to go to the city gate?" Orlando looked disappointed. "Boring..."

“If something goes wrong, you can have Pefoff smash the city gates!” Clary coaxed him.

"Smash the city gate? That would be so much fun! Haha!" Orlando was overjoyed when he heard Clary say that.

“But Orlando can’t hurt innocent people,” Li Shang added from the side.

"Okay! Okay!" Orlando replied absentmindedly.

"Does anyone have any more questions?" Anthony asked again.

"there is none left!"

"Wait a minute!" Krusen suddenly called out urgently, as if he had heard something. Everyone stared at him in silence; the room was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Gradually, everyone could hear the sound coming from outside.

+: The Corpse King, the Feudal King

- Mystery Tribe

Section 18, The Sudden Attack

"They're over there..." It was the boss's voice. The seven thought to themselves that the boss was indeed no good. Another voice followed, "You, surround this place..." Then came the clanging of metal and the sound of light footsteps.

"Don't break anything..." The boss's voice seemed to carry a hint of worry.

“I’ll deal with them!” Richard said in a low voice, standing up and rushing out of the house.

"Richard, don't be impulsive, you'll alert them..." Li Shang hurriedly stopped him when she saw this.

"What should we do then? Are we just going to surrender like this?" Krusen asked in a low voice.

"Oh dear, don't rush, leave it to this beautiful lady! Haha!" At this moment, Clari suddenly laughed and winked at everyone.

"Are you sure they're all inside?" the leading commander asked in a low voice, pointing to the door.

“Absolutely true, sir…” the innkeeper said with a forced smile, “It’s just a reward…”

"You two, get ready to charge in!" the officer ordered the two soldiers beside him, ignoring his boss. Everyone tensed, ready for a fierce battle at any moment.

But just then, the door opened by itself. The officer was startled to see the men coming out of the room, and immediately snapped to attention and saluted, not daring to be negligent in the slightest.

It turned out that the person who came out of the room was Huizhi herself! She was followed by several male and female attendants.

"What are you doing!" Huizhi seemed very dissatisfied with the large group of soldiers at the door.

"...I'm sorry, someone reported that there is..."

What is it?

"..." Seeing Huizhi's increasingly grim expression, the officer was too frightened to speak. Huizhi glared at him, then left the inn without looking back, leaving only the officer covered in cold sweat and the equally bewildered innkeeper.

"Take him back!" Seeing Huizhi's figure gradually disappear into the night, the officer roared angrily at his men behind him. The soldiers, equally frightened, didn't wait for his second order and roughly grabbed the innkeeper and carried him outside.

"I'm innocent!" the boss screamed like a pig being slaughtered, but no one paid any attention to him anymore.

"How could such a beautiful woman know what Huizhi looks like?" Orlando asked Clari curiously. It turned out that Clari had used mist to disguise herself as Huizhi, thus deceiving the soldiers.

“His portraits are everywhere in the city, just take a look, haha!” Clary couldn’t stop laughing when she heard someone praise her as a great beauty.

"It seems Huizhi's wolfish ambitions are quite obvious..." Anthony said thoughtfully. The experience of impersonating Huizhi earlier had left him with lingering fears; it seemed this ancient city was truly fraught with danger.

The journey from the inn to the Jade Buddha Temple wasn't far. The ancient city was eerily quiet at night, exuding a sinister atmosphere, and the group dared not let their guard down. Anthony gripped his sword tightly, walking at the head of the group, constantly on guard against any sudden attack.

The journey went smoothly without any further incidents. Orlando went to the city gate alone, while the rest headed towards the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. The moonlight quietly bathed the ancient temple, adding to its mystery and eeriness.

"How do we get in?" Li Chang couldn't help but ask, gazing at the magnificent ancient temple.

“Of course it’s makeup!” Clari said. “Risho, come help me.”

"Richard, Kruzen, and I will go in. Cage will meet us at the gate... Li Shang and Clari should go to the city gate to find Orlando. I'm worried about him."

“Someone’s worried about Risa, huh? Haha… Why is no one worried about me?” Clary said, giving Richard a long, affectionate look. But Richard was completely focused on the situation inside the temple and seemed not to notice her at all, which greatly disappointed her.

“Alright, let’s get ready to move!” Anthony said. He had a bad feeling tonight, a sense that something was about to happen, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it, and just hoped it was his imagination.

“Wait a minute,” Cage suddenly said. He pulled the small flower wreath that Dara had given him from his pocket, and surprisingly, the few withered flowers on it had all bloomed again.

"Wow, what's going on?" Orlando asked curiously as he went over.