out of time

Chapter 23 That Knife (4300 words, is it a big chapter?)
He saw the golden light!

From all the blurry portraits on the walls of the temple.

Each of them is a small light source. At this moment, the light gathers to make the whole temple extremely bright, but the biggest light source is not them.

It's... the main statue enshrined in the temple, the stone sculpture holding a stone knife!
Xu Qing's mind was shaken in this golden light. He also saw a black misty figure standing there at the gate of the temple. He couldn't see the shape clearly, but could only see a vague human figure, which was twisting in the golden light.

Outside the temple behind him, there are hundreds of densely packed black mist figures like this fuzzy human figure, both human and animal.

At this moment, everything exudes an astonishing coldness at this moment, and gathers together, turning into a monstrous coldness, as if invisiblely connected with the black mist that stepped into the temple.

Under the reflection of the golden light, the only black shadow that entered the temple slowly raised his head, let out a roar that seemed to shake the soul, and took another step.

This step seems to have offended, seems to have touched a taboo!

At the moment of falling, Xu Qing saw in amazement that the radiant stone statue holding a knife walked down directly from where it was as if it was alive.

With supreme majesty, with indescribable holiness, as if a god descended from the earth, striding forward, walking towards the black shadow amidst the roar of the ground.

The hand raised the knife and fell, and cut it off with one knife.

This knife is unpretentious and very simple, but it seems that there is a certain charm of Dao in this simplicity, which is earth-shattering.

The shrill sound, which could not be heard by the ears but could be felt by the soul, suddenly radiated from the black figure.

The mist evaporated in an instant, revealing a rotting body with torn clothes inside.

It can be seen that it is an old man, and the eye holes are empty.

In the next instant, his body collapsed and evaporated like mist.

And the black shadows outside were also affected one after another, and the black mist outside their bodies was blurred, so Xu Qing saw a familiar person among those shadows with the help of the golden light.

That's...Captain Blood Shadow!
At this moment, he was in the group of black shadows, with no expression on his thin face, and as the golden light diffused, his whole body dissipated as if being purified.

After a while, in the dark night outside, those figures that hadn't dissipated slowly receded, and finally disappeared completely.

And the golden light in the temple also gradually diminished. The astonishing figure of the martial arts turned around and returned to its original position with the light. As the light on his body completely dissipated, he seemed to have turned into a stone carving. Standing there, looking in the direction of the gate, it seemed Waiting, seemingly guarding, motionless.

After a long time, everything returned to normal, only Xu Qing, who saw all this in the crevice of the stone, was short of breath, with disbelief in his eyes.

Obviously died in the mist of singing, but the blood shadow captain who turned into dust with his own eyes still exists.

Even though it is just an ordinary temple, it is actually full of golden light at night.

The stone sculpture, which was obviously motionless, descended like a god descending from the earth, and that knife was vast and unparalleled.

At this moment, the sky outside, the sun appeared, and a new day came.

It took Xu Qing a long time to calm down the shock in his mind, and silently crawled out from the crack in the stone.

He looked at the light outside, then at the portraits on the surrounding walls, and finally his eyes fell on the stone statue holding the knife.

He didn't know what kind of existence the other party was, whether it was alive or dead.

I don't know how long this temple group is located in, and what kind of glory it is.

But what happened last night shocked him greatly.

In particular, Xu Qing was deeply shocked by the aura contained in the vast knife falling, as if engraved in his soul and could not be forgotten.

He couldn't imagine that in this restricted area full of dangers and dangers, there was such a dark area that could not be stepped on.

And Team Lei didn't tell him about this, maybe... even Team Lei didn't know about it.

Obviously like last night's scene, it doesn't appear very often, and at the same time, there are no people in the camp who can stay in the restricted area with him for a long time.

So even if someone has seen it, it is a very small number, and more of it is slowly turning this matter into an unproven legend.

Xu Qing was silent, and bowed deeply to the stone carving with the knife and the surrounding portraits.

After thinking about it, he took out a piece of candle from the leather bag, placed it in front of the stone sculpture, lit it, and then bowed again.

Turned and left the temple.

Until he walked out of the temple complex, he still looked back from time to time, as if he wanted to keep this place firmly in his heart, and at the same time, the image of the knife falling kept appearing in his mind.

This picture was so clear in his mind that Xu Qing, who had left the range of the temple complex, raised his right hand when walking in the jungle, instinctively trying to imitate it.

And every time he copied it, he felt deeply.

If the practice of the Sea Mountain Jue is to imitate the mandrill picture, then Xu Qing at this moment is replacing the mandrill picture with the image of the knife in his mind.

In this imitation, his cultivation base unknowingly broke through, and the Sea Mountain Jue was promoted to the fourth floor!
Perhaps it was due to copying that knife, so this time the improvement not only doubled his strength and speed, but also had some spiritual breakthroughs.

This kind of breakthrough made Xu Qing's thoughts sharper and at the same time, when he raised his right hand and dropped it, there was a slight taste of a god's knife falling.

This surprised Xu Qing very much.

Gradually two days passed, perhaps because he was in the periphery, or perhaps because of the shock of the temple that night, he did not encounter any strange footsteps on the way back.

As for Alien Beast, Xu Qing encountered some problems.

However, the improvement of his cultivation has improved his ability to save his life, and he was able to proceed smoothly with caution.

Although he didn't find the Destiny Flower and the Scar-Removing Stone, he got a lot of seven-leaf clover, and he could sell it back for a lot of spirit coins.

At this moment when dusk was approaching, Xu Qing also saw the world outside the forest, and was about to walk out, but his footsteps suddenly stopped, and he looked down at a grass beside him.

The appearance of this grass is somewhat similar to the Destiny Flower, but even with his meager knowledge of vegetation, he can tell that it is not the Destiny Flower after careful inspection.

But Xu Qing thought about it, looked around with some guilt, hesitated for a while, and finally picked it and put it in the leather bag.

Running fast all the way, out of the jungle, it was already night when we returned to the camp.

It's not late at night, and the camp is still very lively, especially in the area with feathers on the tents, where there are bursts of unbridled panting mixed with frolicking.

Xu Qing didn't pay attention to these things. When he returned to his residence, he just opened the courtyard door and saw Team Lei walking out of the house.

After noticing that although Xu Qing was in a mess, there was nothing wrong with it, Team Lei felt relieved.

"Why have you been here for so long?"

"I went to the temple." Under the moonlight and the lights of the house, Xu Qing saw the bloodshot eyes and the exhaustion in Team Lei's eyes.

It was obvious that he hadn't had a good rest during this period, and for what reason...he had already realized it, so his heart felt warm.

"Temple?" Captain Lei was a little surprised. He didn't expect Xu Qing to run so far. He called him into the kitchen at this moment, rolled up his sleeves, and brought out the prepared meals while Xu Qing was waiting.

The food was still hot and there was no sign of being passive, Xu Qing was taken aback.

He knew very well that Team Lei didn't know when he would come back, so being able to have hot meals right after he came back could only explain one thing.

The other party... has prepared meals every day and is waiting for him.

Xu Qing silently stood up to get the bowls and chopsticks. There were three sets of chopsticks, and two of them side by side before sitting down and eating.

Very fragrant, there is a special taste that the taste buds cannot feel, only the heart can experience.

Team Lei ate very little, and spent most of the time either drinking or looking at Xu Qing with a smile on his face.

"Eat more, you are still growing, and you might be so tall if you don't eat more."

This sentence made Xu Qing bow his head. After a long while, he hummed and ate more obediently. Then he talked to Captain Lei about what he had seen and heard in the temple.

Team Lei originally drank one sip at a time, but was quickly attracted by what Xu Qing had seen and heard. When Xu Qing finished speaking, he took a deep breath and spoke slowly.

"I've heard about this incident before, but it was a long time ago. Some people seem to have seen a similar scene, but like the singing, it became a legend in the end."

"Thinking about it now, it seems that it happened not long after the singing came out." Lei Dui murmured, and suddenly thought of something, and the memories slowly filled with sadness in his eyes.

Looking at Team Lei, Xu Qing knew what he was thinking, and suddenly blamed himself. He felt that he shouldn't have said this, so he fell silent.

After a long while, Team Lei regained his composure, and seemed to see the reason for Xu Qing's silence, and smiled.

"You child is too sensitive, I am not as fragile as you think."

As Team Lei spoke, he drank a sip of wine, changed the subject, and told Xu Qing about interesting things in the camp recently.

He was talking while drinking, and Xu Qing was listening while eating.

It's like they're each other's... family.

Late at night, sitting there drinking wine, watching Xu Qing clean up the dishes and chopsticks, Lei Dui smiled and got up and went back to the room.

Xu Qing also returned to his room. When he entered, he saw that the quilt had been replaced with a new one, and it had been rolled up from before, and it still smelled of drying.

Xu Qing looked up at Team Lei's room next door, walked over after a while, and wanted to sit on it, but looked down at the dirt on his clothes and hands, he rolled up the bedding anyway, and sat on the bed, Close your eyes and practice.

In the morning, Xu Qing opened his eyes.

He was about to leave the room, but after thinking about it, he went to the bathroom and washed his hands resisting the discomfort.

After making his hands clean and white, he took a deep breath, walked out of the room and went straight to the tent where the team clerk was.

He knew he couldn't go too early, and he wasn't willing to go too late.

For the former, Master Bai hasn't attended class yet, and for the latter... he is worried that he won't be able to hear the previous content.

In this way, under Xu Qing's calculation, when he came outside Master Bai's tent, it was the moment when the sound of assessment came out from inside.

Xu Qing was very happy in his heart, and stood there silently, listening attentively.

"Green lotus dew, also known as Qinglian dew, is the flower bud of the lotus plant in the water lily family. It is an aromatic water obtained from a special method of warming fire. It has the function of calming the lungs and curing hemoptysis due to fire..."

The girl's voice in the tent was the same as before, Xu Qing listened slowly and absorbedly, unaware of the passage of time, more than an hour passed quickly, until the tent suddenly opened, and Master Bai stood there, looking at him.

"What's the matter?" Master Bai's eyes were not sharp, but he was dignified. Xu Qing was very nervous, and took out the medicinal herbs he had picked on the way back from the leather pouch, and lowered his head and spoke softly.

"Master Bai, I...I want to ask if this is the Destiny Flower."

As soon as these words came out, Master Bai was stunned for a moment.

After sweeping his eyes, his expression was a little strange, and he looked at the boy's hands which were much cleaner than before. After a while, Xu Qing became more and more nervous, and he opened his mouth slowly.

"This one, no."

Xu Qing hurriedly bowed and left quickly, heaving a sigh of relief on the way, but still a little uneasy in his heart, so he looked back at the tent and found that Master Bai was also standing there.

Noticing the boy's gaze, Master Bai nodded.

Seeing this scene, Xu Qing paused in his footsteps, bowed deeply again, and then left.

Watching Xu Qing's figure go away, Master Bai turned and walked into the tent. At this moment, the guards and the young girl in the tent seemed to be petrified, motionless.

At the place where Master Bai sat before, a table was placed at some time, with some delicious food and wine on it, and beside him was an old man in purple robes, and behind him was an old servant in gray clothes.

Seeing Master Bai walk in, the purple-robed old man laughed.

"Master Bai, how are you doing?"

"What is it."

Master Bai seemed not at all surprised by the sudden appearance of the purple-robed old man, nor was he worried about the motionless people around him. He sat opposite the purple-robed old man and took a sip from the jug.

"I mean how about that kid. I told you last time. I found a good seed while I was waiting for you." The purple-robed old man said with a smile.

"Good seedling? It's nothing more than the first time this kid came to eavesdrop. This time, in order to eavesdrop, he found a random herb and asked me if it was the Destiny Flower. If this continues, I guess he will have to take it every day." I eavesdropped on the pretext of inquiring about herbal medicine, if you hadn't told me about him, I would have driven him away long ago."

Master Bai stared and snorted at the purple-robed old man.

The old man in purple robe laughed.

"You are a man with a knife mouth and a tofu heart. With your bad temper, if you don't really think that he is a good man, no one will say hello to you."

Master Bai snorted coldly, instead of defending, he asked a question.

"Are you planning to bring him back to the Seven Blood Eyes? You've wasted a scholar's seedlings in such a mess!"

"What a waste, what's the use of a scholar, the cultivation base in this world is the truth!" the purple-robed old man raised his eyebrows and responded.

"Scholars are useless? Why do you still come here to wait for me, an ordinary person, and ask me again and again to let me go to your seven blood pupils." Master Bai said angrily.

"You're different..." The purple-robed old man smiled mischievously.

"Why am I different!" Master Bai glared at the purple-robed old man with a bad temper.

Helpless, the purple-robed old man slapped his forehead.

"Oh, I remembered that there is still something I haven't done. Master Bai, I'm leaving first, and I'll come to drink with you tomorrow,"

After finishing speaking, the old man in purple robe got up and was about to leave, but before he left, he looked back at Master Bai and said something seriously.

"Master Bai, if you really think that kid is a talent, you can teach him more knowledge, and let him have the opportunity to become a well-cultivated scholar in Qixuetong."

After finishing speaking, the old man in purple robe left with the old servant beside him. When he was gone, all the stillness in the tent returned instantly, but no one noticed his abnormality just now.

The guards are still standing guard, the boy is still upset, and the girl is still proud.

Only Master Bai looked up at the direction where Xu Qing had left before, his eyes pondering.

(End of this chapter)