38 The Night, the Moon, the Wind, the Swords Ⅳ

The atmosphere of repression around, like a snake closing tight around their necks, made Liu Xingfei and Wei Gaoyuan hold their breath to stare at the man in white, who was no longer moving; neither of them dared to act rashly and drop their guard.

It was a long time before Wei Gaoyuan suddenly started vomiting blood and coughing up violently.

Liu Xingfei's face changed. He quickly decapitated the man in white with his sword, and squatted down to help Wei Gaoyuan to stand up, asking with concern, "Junior brother, are you all right?!"

"Not…not bad…" Wei Gaoyuan replied in a low voice.

He felt that the chilly Internal Qi of the man in white might hurt his lungs, very sore in the chest, and it was sort of difficult to talk and breathe, but shouldn't be life-threatening.

"Take it first, then sit down to do a meditation," Liu Xingfei took out a pill and put it into Wei Gaoyuan's mouth.

Wei Gaoyuan sat cross-legged on the ground and started doing a meditation, and a cool feeling soon came with the pill sliding down through his mouth. A few minutes later, the pain in his chest was relieved a lot. He withdrew his Internal Qi running throughout his body into his Dantian, "Well, let's go to the cabin!"

"Okay!" Liu Xingfei nodded and pulled Wei Gaoyuan to his feet, and walked towards the cabin where they'd met the man in white for the first time.

The left section of candle was still lighting in that cabin when they entered: two large curtains separated the cabin into two rooms and one hall; there was a bed in the hall, and a girl lying on the bed; she seemed dead before a long time.

As their footsteps came, there was scream and whisper of girls behind the curtain.

"He is back! That demon is back!"

"We'll die…"

"What should we do, what can we do..."

Different voice was filled with the same deep panic and despair.

Liu Xingfei turned relieved, giving a shout of excitement, "Xiaoyue! Are you there?!"

"Brother Liu!! Is that you?!" a cry of surprise came from inside.

"Yeah! It's me! Liu Xingfei!" Liu Xingfei pulled the curtain.

"Brother Liu! It's you! It's…really you!!!" a tiny but kind of cute girl cried behind a row of iron bars, it should be Chu Xiaoyue.

The place behind the curtain was made as a cell, where three girls were imprisoned for resources of Yin essence. Having been wandering outside the entrance of hell for long, they all looked worn and very anxious. Seeing Liu Xingfei entering, Chu Xiaoyue began weeping for great joy and said to the two girls next to him, "My brother…Brother Liu came! He come for saving us! He…he...save..." she collapsed and fell backwards.

"Xiaoyue!" Liu Xingfei waved the sword to cut off several bars and rushed in to hold Xiaoyue.

Touching her pulse, his got relieved: it seemed that she'd just been in a state of tense and horror too long and exhausted. As his expectation, she came out of a coma not long after taking a pill.

One of the other two girls was still in a trance, sitting on the floor, gasping unevenly. Her eyes were sweeping on Liu Xingfei and Wei Gaoyuan.

The other one appeared a little better. After calming down, she inclined her head in a little bow to greet Liu Xingfei and Wei Gaoyuan, "Warriors, thanks a lot for saving us. I'm from the Family of Shen in Caohe Town. Owing too much to you, I wish I may pay you back… "

Awkward as this girl's current appearance was, she seemed to be some well-brought-up girl from big family. The Chu Village was just under the jurisdiction of Caohe Town. They might send her home by the way on the way back.

Liu Xingfei and Wei Gaoyuan exchanged glances and nodded. Then Liu Xingfei looked at the other curtain and said, "See what's there first…"

Wei Gaoyuan opened the other curtain— the space behind it was not big, a bed and a big box inside. He tried to open it but it was locked.

"The key may be with..." Wei Gaoyuan meant the man in white.

Liu Xingfei came in with Xiaoyue. He did not go out of the cabin to find the key, but directly pulled the sword to break the lock.

The lock was not so strong as Liu Xingfei's blade.

As the lock cracked with a bang, he opened the box. And a lot of gold and silver coins, jewels and jewelry scattered onto the ground.

"Oh, my god, my eyes!" Wei Gaoyuan's eyes narrowed, as if they were hurt by the big box of shiny stuff. Not surprisingly, he'd been so poor for more than ten years; it was the first time he'd ever seen so much treasure suddenly.

Liu Xingfei seemed not that excited, he said calmly, "Junior brother, just find something you like, You may take three of them; the half of the remaining will be distributed to the surrounding villagers; and the other half, we'll take it back to the outer section."

Jesus! I could take three!? Wei Gaoyuan was overjoyed, suddenly feeling not much hurt in his chest now…

He could only tell a few names of those in the box. Hesitating for a few moments, he just took three big gold ingots…

Liu Xingfei smiled,"Hey~ man~ why don't you take jewelry?"

"I don't know what to take; the gold ingot is worth more…uh… it might be…" Wei Gaoyuan was embarrassed and gave a silly smile.

Liu Xingfei shook his head slightly and picked up a necklace with a milky gem pendant. He handed it to Wei Gaoyuan, "It's worth more than the big guys in your hand, take it~"

"Ah… Really?" Wei Gaoyuan put down the gold ingots and took the necklace, scanning it up and down: it was beautiful, indeed, especially the exquisite pendant, like a snowflake, Xiaoxue might like it…

(The given name of his sister, Xiaoxue, means snow in Chinese.)

Liu Xingfei continued to searching in the box, also took a necklace and a pair of jade bracelets for himself.

Wei Gaoyuan thought for a moment and took a pair of gold bracelets, but he looked kind of hesitating again as they felt not so heavy as the gold ingot…

Liu Xingfei found a big bag, bigger than the Universe in Bag. He opened it—a bag full of golden beans. He immediately tied it up and threw it to Wei Gaoyuan, "This one~ It might be more useful than the gold ingot~"

Wei Gaoyuan took and opened it, exactly, the average merchant could hardly exchange that big gold ingot, so he put it into his bosom pocket quickly.

Liu Xingfei then chose another little yellow gem himself. After that, they carried the treasure box and went out with the three girls.

…

The dark curtain of night covering the entire woods, the valley was in a thorough silence. No one had noticed that the body of the man in white lying still in the woods had been turning dried up, like a deflated balloon.

It was very abnormal that his body began to dehydrate just less than an hour after the death…

…

There was still no sunlight penetrating the clouds to light the darkest night. The rooster in Chu Village had begun to sing; the candlelight in the houses was shining quietly; some villagers were going on a patrol at the entrance of the village.

When the horizon turned bright little by little, one person suddenly jumped up and shouted alertly, "Keep your eyes open! Someone seemed to be coming here! Over there…"

"Don't worry, Old Fourth Brother, it shouldn't the bandits… no horse," Chu Shangao responded calmly.

"Is that young warrior Liu and Wei?!" lit up the eyes of man who was called Old Fourth Brother, then shook his head again and muttered, "no…no… they won't be coming back so soon…they left just one day ago..."

"The bandits can't stand a chance against the warriors of the Mystery! I am just worried whether Xiaoyue is still…" Chu Shangao sighed.

"Hey! Hey! Just shut up your big jinx mouth! Are you her father?!" the Old Fourth Brother said after spitting, "Xiaoyue is so sweet and nice, and…God save her…she has nine lives!"

"Thank you for your kind words…" Chu Shangao sighed softly. Meanwhile, he'd already hold the handle of the scimitar "Everyone be careful! But don't act rashly!"

The figures in distance got close to the entrance in a few minutes. Chu Shangao got lightened as he'd seen them clearly. He laughed, "It's Xiaoyue!! They're back! "

"Great! I said Xiaoyue would be fine!" the Old Fourth Brother and the villagers around were relieved with a long breath.

A shout came from distance, "Uncle Chu~ We're back~~"

A few men opened the fence door and rushed out, helping the young heroes to carry the big box.

When Xiaoyue flew into Chu Shangao's arms and couldn't refrain from weeping, some villager opened the box, and then screams exploded around the box and the crowds were stirred up…

Certainly, these villagers had never saw such a full box of treasure.

"Everyone has a share~~" Liu Xingfei laughed, sat down against the box, waiting for the dawn to distribute the treasure.

...

A few lanterns dimly flickered in an ancient burial chamber, making this small space filled with a Stygian darkness and creepy feeling of endless death; there were complicated and weird patterns, lines and words on the ground, seeing like some ancient incantation or some unknown Formation.

A inky coffin stood vertically in the center of the chamber.

Suddenly, the lid of the coffin made a creaky noise, and a low hoarse voice came from inside of the coffin, "Yin Slave was dead? This junk!... Who… killed him? Destroy my plan! Just sacrifice… everything of you… to me!!"

(Formation: "Zhenfa" in Chinese, divided into multiple categories depending on its function, for instance, Battle Formations are tactical formations used by an army of cultivators or martial artists attacking or stopping their enemies in concert; Spell Formations, also called Magic Circles, are used to cast a continuous area-of-effect spell on the location the formation encompasses, or to summon something, to name only a few.)