CH 13.2

He clearly saw Tao Ming being bitten, but he stood in front of him just now intact. It was enough to show that there was something fishy about the two brothers.

In fact, when you think about it, the strange disease also started only after the brothers’ arrival. Tao Ming was the first and only survivor, and now revealed such a huge flaw.

The strange things that happened in Shan’an must be related to the two Tao brothers.

After he returned to his room, he sat on the edge of the bed and unraveled his braids, letting his long black curly hair loose. He picked the bell that was fastened on his hair and tossed it carelessly on the bedside table. Then, he took off his cotton robe.

Ning Shaosi sat aside, and was tugging at the corner of his coat with Wen Changchu. A smile hung on his lips, as if he was having fun, but Wen Changchu ferociously bared his wolf fangs at him, wanting to tear the corner of his coat apart.

Lou Muge took a ribbon out and tied his long hair high. This exposed his bright eyes and white teeth with youthful spirit. He gave Ning Shaosi a glance, and then kicked off his shoes. He stood on the bed, closed his eyes and went to sleep.

Ning Shaosi glanced sideways and let his eyes fall gently, hiding a trace of loss. He also no longer played with Wen Changchu. After extinguishing the candlelight, he also climbed onto the couch, lay down properly, but kept his eyes open. 

He maintained the same posture in the darkness for a long time. Accompanied by the sound of long breathing in his ears, he slowly drifted off to sleep.

Lou Muge’s sleep could not be considered sleep at all. Most of the time, he used his poor spiritual power in the Human Realm to catalyze the integration of his body and soul. He knew that he had a tough battle to fight in the Immortal Realm, and with his current strength, it would merely be courting death.

There were too many people who wanted to kill him. In the past, scaring them was enough, but he was so weak now that he even had to disguise himself as a woman to hide his identity —— No one probably had ever imagined that the lawless devil in the past would dress up as a little girl.

No matter where he went, no one would suspect that he was Lou Muge.

As long as he could retrieve his sword, the situation would turn for the better.

Lou Muge fell into a deep sleep while circulating the spiritual power in his body. While concentrating, his divine consciousness was suddenly interrupted by a crunch. His eyelashes twitched, and he opened his eyes in the darkness almost instantly.

The crunch came from the courtyard. It was faint, but could not escape Lou Muge’s ears. He sat up and discovered that Wen Changchu had alertly raised his head, his wolf eyes glowing dimly.

Lou Muge glanced at him, cautiously lifted him out of bed, walked to the door and heard a string of footsteps passing through the yard, followed by the sound of a door opening.

In short, it was either Tao Ming or Tao Zhai, Lou Muge thought to himself. He just discovered a clue, yet the two brothers could no longer sit still. Who knew where they were going in the middle of the night?

Naturally, he would not miss this opportunity. He looked back at Ning Shaosi, then opened the door and quietly followed behind.

The moon hung high above and shed a bright light. Lou Muge walked almost soundlessly, and from a distance, he spotted a gray-clad young man walking in front. His back view showed that he was limping.It was doubtlessly Tao Ming.

His pace was quite fast, but Lou Muge and Wen Changchu didn’t let a blind and lame man get rid of them, so they followed him step by step all the way. He seemed to be heading out of Shan’an City. He limped to a remote place, and suddenly crouched down.

They had no idea what Tao Ming was fumbling about, but he didn’t stay long. After standing up, he patted the soil on his hands, and then returned the same way.

Lou Muge and Wen Changchu stood aside and watched Tao Ming pass by. He seemed to really see nothing because he left without any hesitation.

After he left, Lou Muge went to the place where he squatted, and saw a small roughly dug pit in the snow. He touched the pit and felt the edge of something very hard.

The soil around the object was still soft. Lou Muge hastily dug it out and found a very strange stone statue buried inside.

The stone statue was about the size of a palm. It had neither eyes nor nose on its face and only a mouth with tusks. Sharp teeth also lined the mouth, making it look very strange.

Lou Muge placed the stone statue on the ground, took time to amass a ray of light that flickered through layers of wind and waves, and gently tapped the stone statue.

The second Lou Muge’s fingertips touched the stone statue, his ears buzzed violently. Countless sounds instantly flooded in. Amidst the whines of birds and beasts, forlorn and bitter shrill cries of innumerable people erupted like the first clap of thunder, which severely blew up Lou Muge’s ear.

“Let me out!!!”

“Help!!!”

“No, please!”

“Ahhhh——!!”

These voices stemmed from the ground in all directions, and there was no way for him to avoid them. Among the myriad of screams mixed in a familiar voice, “Save me——!”

Lou Muge felt like his head was about to burst. He wanted to withdraw, but his whole body remained motionless. In the blink of an eye, his entire body was bathed in cold sweat.

Just then, a warm touch landed on his wrist and pulled his fingers away from the stone statue. All the sounds disappeared in a flash and everything returned to calm. He took a cold breath and turned his head into those serene eyes. 

Ning Shaosi was crouching beside him.

“What happened to you?” Wen Changchu transformed back to human form. He witnessed how his face turned unusually ugly when he only touched the stone statue. He asked in bewilderment\, “What’s wrong with this stone statue?”

“The problem is big.” Lou Muge took several breaths to calm his heartbeat and said in a deep voice, “I know the reason why the souls of people in the city who just died disappeared.”

He pointed to the strange stone statue on the ground with only one mouth and said, “This stone statue sucked them all in.”

Those souls were trapped in it and wailing for help without a moment’s pause. However, nobody could hear them at all, never to see the light again.

“This is the Soul Lock Formation.” Ning Shaosi said, “If the four stone statues are pressed in the East, West, North and South, and the front faces inward, then the souls around the array will be locked into the quarted stone statue.”

Lou Muge didn’t expect him to know this, “What about the unsealing technique?”

“You just have to take away the quartet support stone statues to break the formation,” Ning Shaosi replied.