劍問蒼天 - 第221章 相救 - 翰墨軒

And the yin energy here was so powerful that it could not possibly be the work of an ordinary mortuary. Someone who could lay such an uncanny spell-barrier, and who was confined within it—who could that be?

Could it be that her guess had truly been right?

Unconsciously, Lu Xueling found cold sweat slowly seeping from her palms. But she was no ordinary mortal, after all—her will was firm. Though alarm and doubt filled her heart, there was no trace of fear in her bearing. She quietly summoned her powers, steeled her mind in vigilance, and advanced step by step.

Inside the coffin, the witch demon and the mysterious fat man beneath him both watched Lu Xueling's white figure slowly approach. The fat man showed no reaction, merely watching; but the witch demon's heart was in utter turmoil, wondering what Lu Xueling would do once she drew near. He yearned to escape this awkward predicament, but in all this time he had thought of who knew how many schemes and tried who knew how many cunning, unorthodox arts—yet the bizarre restrictive formation laid within this coffin seemed to be his precise nemesis, locking his meridians so tightly that he could not move a hair, could not summon a scrap of strength.

The witch demon cursed his luck without end; at a loss, he could only keep berating his own misfortune in his heart.

Lu Xueling slowly drew near the mysterious coffin. The closer she came to that seemingly unremarkable piece of wood, the more obvious the wariness in her brows and the faint trace of alarm upon her face. This coffin was plainly no peerless treasure; judging by its material, it was middling timber at best, and more than half rotted through. It could not naturally be the coffin itself giving off such powerful yin energy.

And with her keen senses, she had indeed now discovered, at such close range, that there were truly two people inside the coffin—but around those two, a faint, ambiguous barrier of gloom wrapped their bodies. And though this layer of yin energy lay a full three feet away, Lu Xueling already felt the blood and qi within her stirring faintly, a chill seeping toward her without cease.

What manner of sorcery, or what unheard-of demonic artifact, could possess such inconceivable power?

Lu Xueling forced down her astonishment, steadied her mind, suppressed the faint restlessness rising in her body, studied the coffin carefully, and then slowly reached out her hand toward it.

At the doorway of the little room, Xiaobai's figure appeared. She leaned against the doorframe, her manner relaxed, but her lovely eyes were fixed intently on Lu Xueling's movements. With her cultivation, she had already detected the strangeness of that coffin back when she rescued Zhou Yixuan and the other two. What had restrained Zhou Yixuan and the others was merely the most ordinary of spells; but the coffin in the corner held a hidden danger of great magnitude, one even she had not dared provoke. Acting decisively, she had first rescued Zhou Yixuan and the other two, but had not dared make any rash move against that coffin.

Now, seeing Lu Xueling stand before the coffin, Xiaobai naturally watched closely—and there was a witch demon trapped inside that coffin, the very man she sought, so she could not help but focus entirely. On the other side, Zhou Yixuan, Xiaowan, and the Wild Wolf Daoist likewise seemed unable to resist the lure of curiosity; they crept quietly to the outside of the great hole and peered furtively into the middle of the room.

Inside and outside the mortuary, all suddenly fell into silence, and the atmosphere turned somewhat eerie. Everyone held their breath, eyes fixed on Lu Xueling's movements, not daring to look away—so much so that when, far off on the horizon, a faint wisp of black qi rose into the sky and spun aloft, with another figure seemingly close in pursuit, entwined with it in midair, not a single person noticed.

Crack.