Hua Cheng's breath was warm, but his words made people feel cold.

Hiding in the main hall?

In a flash, Xie Lian immediately hugged Hua Cheng.

Of course, he didn't hug him out of fear. Rather, if there was really someone hiding here and they hadn't discovered him, he must be a powerful person. If he noticed that they had discovered something, he might be in a passive position. If only Hua Cheng hugged him so closely, it would easily arouse suspicion. It would look more normal if both of them hugged each other.

Xie Lian glanced around inconspicuously and whispered, "Where do you think it is?"

The entire hall had only one door, which was the one they came in through. The hall was completely empty, with no platform or box to hide anyone. Apart from them, there were only the temple attendants who had turned into petrified men.

They both whispered at the same time: "Shell."

The inside of these petrified men is hollow, which means that things can be hidden inside.

You can’t hide people, but you can hide ghosts!

After confirming that they had the same idea, Xie Lian was about to speak when he inadvertently raised his eyes and saw a petrified man two meters behind Hua Cheng. His pupils suddenly shrank.

He seemed to be a young man of high status. Because the petrified man recorded the death of the Wuyong people, most of the postures were people holding their heads and crying, or curled up in a ball. This one was one of the very few standing figures. However, what caught Xie Lian's attention was not his posture, but his face.

Although the face is blurry, it is still possible to see clearly that the left side of this petrified man's face is half a smiling face, while the right side is half a crying face!

Xie Lian blurted out, “That’s it!”

He raised his hand and slashed with a sword. Hua Cheng asked, "Brother?"

The petrified man was chopped to pieces by him, leaving only an empty shell. However, there was nothing inside. Xie Lian did not dare to let it go, and searched among the fragments on the ground. Hua Cheng grabbed his hand and said, "Brother! What did you see just now?"

Xie Lian held up a few pieces of debris and said, “This petrified man, his face… is Bai Wuxiang’s mask.”

Hua Cheng's expression changed slightly, but he still said, "Wait."

He pieced the fragments together to form a complete face. When the two looked at it, they were both silent.

Just now, what Xie Lian saw was clearly a half-crying, half-laughing ghost face, but the face that Hua Cheng pieced together now was extremely blurry, no different from any other petrified person.

Is this an illusion? Or is this an illusion?

Sitting there would not give them an answer, so they searched the hall and smashed all the petrified men for inspection, but found no more clues. After pondering for a moment, they thought that someone might have already climbed the mountain, so they decided not to wait for Pei Ming and headed straight to the top of the mountain.

The mountain of Tonglu seemed to have a strange attraction. The two tried, but Yindie couldn't carry anyone here, and flying a sword wouldn't work either, so they could only climb on foot. As they climbed higher and higher, the mountain road became steeper and colder. They first stepped on a thin layer of snow, which became thicker as they went up, covering half of their boots. After two hours, the snow was above their knees, and climbing became more and more difficult.

Because of the long walk, Xie Lian did not feel cold, but a thin layer of sweat broke out, his face was pale and slightly flushed. He raised the back of his hand to wipe the sweat off, turned around and was about to talk to Hua Cheng, but suddenly his feet felt empty, and he became two feet shorter!

Fortunately, Hua Cheng had been following behind him, and seemed to be prepared. He pulled him up and said, "Brother, be careful."

Xie Lian stood beside him, and looked back at the place where he had sunk. It turned out to be a large depression, revealing a dark deep hole, and no one knew where it led to. If Xie Lian had not grabbed the edge in time, or if Hua Cheng had been a little slower, he would have definitely fallen. Hua Cheng said again: "This mountain is full of pits, just follow me and walk slowly and you'll be fine. Brother just walked too fast."

It turned out that the mountain under the snow was very fragile, with large and small holes everywhere. No one knew how many there were, and no one knew how deep they were. And Hua Cheng even remembered the distribution of these holes. Xie Lian exhaled and suggested, "Okay. Let's get closer. You can't shout on the snowy mountain. If you accidentally encounter something, it's not easy to ask for help..."

Unexpectedly, before he finished speaking, he heard a roar from above: "Is this the end yet——!"

“…”

Who dares to yell on such a steep and dangerous snowy mountain? !

Xie Lian looked up in bewilderment, and saw two small black dots fighting in the snow that covered the mountains and fields. One of them held a longbow and fired arrows in succession, while the other held a horse-slaying long sword, swinging it vigorously, blocking all the feather arrows. The blade and the wind of the arrow were all wrapped in a layer of spiritual light. Both of them were shouting and cursing at each other, and the man holding the sword cursed: "I told you that the boy was killed by someone else! I'm looking for them too!"

It turned out to be Nanfeng and Fuyao!

Without thinking about why they were here, Xie Lian blurted out, “Shut up!” However, he reacted quickly and swallowed his words before he could even shout. If they shouted as loudly as they did, with three people shouting at each other, would this snowy mountain still be able to hold on? ? ?

Hua Cheng crossed his arms, raised an eyebrow, and said, "Don't they know that roaring in the snowy mountains may cause an avalanche?"

Xie Lian said, “This… they can’t be that stupid! They should know, but they are just like that. They don’t care about anything when they are so angry!”

Nanfeng and Fuyao were both extremely angry, cursing and fighting. Because they were too far away, they couldn’t hear clearly what they were arguing about, and they didn’t even notice the new people coming below. Xie Lian wanted to rush up to separate the two, but the mountain was covered with snow, and there were deep pits under the snow, so he couldn’t get there immediately. He ran two steps and his feet were empty again, and he almost fell into the pit, so he had to stop and said, “We can’t let them continue fighting like this, we have to stop them!”

As soon as he finished speaking, a silver butterfly leaped out from behind him and flew upwards like a sharp arrow. Xie Lian was stunned for a moment, then his heart was relieved, thinking to himself, what a good idea! They couldn’t go up right away, so why not let the undead butterfly fly up and pass on the message?

The silver butterfly was indeed incredibly fast, arriving there almost three times after the call. However, before Xie Lian could pass on the message, he saw Hua Cheng's face turn cold. He sensed something was wrong and asked, "What's wrong?"

The smile on Hua Cheng's lips disappeared completely, and his expression seemed as cold as the snowy mountain. Xie Lian asked, "San Lang, what happened?"

Hua Cheng’s lips moved slightly, but before he could answer, Xie Lian suddenly felt a sudden palpitation for no apparent reason. He suddenly raised his head and looked upwards, his eyes wide open.

On the towering snow-capped mountain wall, there was a large piece of white mountain that was shaking and collapsing.

Nanfeng and Fuyao, who were fighting fiercely over there, also felt the silent pressure. They both looked up and finally realized what was going to happen.

The next moment, the mountain was like a thousand-mile-long embankment that collapsed, and it rolled down towards them with a huge wave of snow and a roar!

It's really an avalanche!!!

Xie Lian grabbed Hua Cheng’s hand and turned to run. After running two steps, he remembered that the two above were closer to the avalanche peak, so he stopped suddenly and looked back. Sure enough! The two of them stopped fighting and ran away together. Fu Yao ran only two steps and stepped into a pit. Most of his body sank into the pit, and the snow buried his chest. Nan Feng ran faster than him and turned back. He hesitated for a moment, as if he wanted to go back to save them. However, just as he hesitated, a large wave of snow had already arrived!

Just before they were about to be swallowed, Xie Lian threw Ruo Xie out. The white silk shot out and caught Fuyao and Nanfeng accurately, pulling them out of the snow sea. Hua Cheng glanced at them with anger in his eyes and said, "Brother! Leave them alone!"

Xie Lian grabbed Ruo Xie tightly, dragging the two of them as he ran, saying, “No! If we’re not careful, we’ll be buried for a hundred years!”

Hua Cheng said in a deep voice: "It's too late!"

Xie Lian was shocked: “What?!”

When he turned around, he saw an overwhelming white shadow falling down on his head.

Xie Lian was still held back by Nan Feng and Fu Yao. The cold and heavy snow waves kept rolling, separating him and Hua Cheng.

Xie Lian was thrown here and there, mixed with white waves, and turned over several times, but he was still able to struggle tenaciously. However, the amount of collapsed snow was too large and the impact was too fierce, and from time to time it would go over Xie Lian's head, bringing sudden bursts of suffocation. Xie Lian finally shouted: "Sanlang!" In the end, he could not hold on and was swallowed up by the huge flow of ice and snow.

…

After an unknown amount of time, the snowy mountain finally calmed down again.

After a long while, a patch of snow in a flat snowfield bulged twice, and suddenly a hand rushed out.

The hand fumbled around in the snow for a while, then an arm popped out, followed by a shoulder, and then a head, with a face full of broken snow. As soon as it came out, it took a deep breath and coughed repeatedly.

Not long after, the man finally climbed out with great difficulty, shook his head, and sat down on the snow next to him.

It was Xie Lian. The feeling of digging himself out of a thick layer of snow was almost like digging himself out of a grave. Xie Lian's face and hands were red from the cold, almost numb, he rubbed them a few times, blew a few breaths of hot air, raised his head, and looked around blankly.

In the vast white snow, there was no dazzling red color to be found.

However, if I can't find Xie Lian, I can't just shout where you are. If there's another avalanche, we'll be doomed.

He had no choice but to stand up and walk alone in the snow, calling out softly as he walked: "Sanlang? Sanlang? Nanfeng? Fuyao?"

It was strange, they were clearly on the same mountain, but now he was walking alone, and it seemed much colder than when he was walking with Hua Cheng just now. Ruo Xie didn't know when she let go, and Xie Lian was very surprised, Ruo Xie shouldn't let go, even if he let go, Ruo Xie would entangle him by herself, how could this happen?

He felt something was wrong, but he couldn't figure out what it was, so he just kept walking in a daze. He didn't know how long he had walked before he saw a man walking towards him in the snow. He was wearing white clothes and had black hair, fluttering in the wind. He lowered his head and walked slowly.

Seeing the passerby, Xie Lian was slightly delighted and went to meet him, saying, “My friend! You…”

As soon as he finished speaking, the man raised his head. On his face was a white mask, half smiling, half crying.

Xie Lian screamed as if he was stabbed in the face!

As soon as he shouted, he opened his eyes and sat up suddenly. After a while of panting, he realized with shock that at this moment, he was not walking alone in the snowy mountains, but lying in a dark space.

It turned out to be a dream.

No wonder he always felt something was wrong in his dream. Xie Lian let out a long sigh and wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.

After groping for a while, he found that there seemed to be a stone with grass under him. Fang Xin was hanging on his waist, and Ruo Xie was clearly wrapped around his hand. Xie Lian calmed down a little, held up a palm flame, illuminated the place, and asked immediately: "Sanlang? Are you there?"

Unexpectedly, when the fire lit up, he immediately discovered that there was a person standing silently in the darkness next to him.

This was a big shock, and Xie Lian immediately broke out in a cold sweat, and his heart tightened instantly. There was a person standing so close to him, there was no way he would not notice it!

However, after a closer look, the cold sweat disappeared. It turned out that this was not a living person, but a stone statue.

Moreover, this is not a petrified statue formed by the remains of the victims of the volcanic eruption, but is obviously a statue made by human hands.

As he held the flame in his palm and shone it around, Xie Lian became more and more convinced.

The place where he was lying was a cave for spiritual practice. He had retreated to such a place to practice meditation before, so he was not unfamiliar with it. So, what was enshrined in the cave was not an ordinary statue, but a statue of a god.

The statue stood in an arch-shaped cave, with a slender figure, a generous demeanor, and a graceful posture. His right hand was on the hilt of the long sword at his waist, and even the streamlines of the folds of his clothes were carved very delicately. However, there was something very strange.

The face of the statue was covered by a veil.

The veil was flowing like smoke, and although it covered the face of the statue, it was very strange, but it did not look ugly, and instead added a mysterious beauty. However, Xie Lian had never seen a statue with its face covered, so he subconsciously reached out to remove the veil, and suddenly a voice came from behind him: "Brother."

Xie Lian turned around suddenly and saw a figure in red appear at the entrance of the cave. It was Hua Cheng.

He immediately put the face of the statue behind his mind, and walked over and said, "Sanlang! Great, I was just wondering where you were. Are you okay? Are you not hurt? The avalanche just now was too sudden."

Hua Cheng walked in and said, "No problem. Where's my brother?"

Xie Lian said, “I’ve never had anything to do. What is this place?”

After he went out, he realized that this world was much bigger than just a small cave. There was also a long corridor outside, which looked quite long, and he didn't know where it led to. Xie Lian had long been accustomed to Hua Cheng being able to answer all his questions, but this time, Hua Cheng said, "I don't know. Most likely it's under the snow mountain."

Xie Lian was surprised: "I thought this was the place of refuge you were looking for, Sanlang. How could you not even know what this place is?"

This was really the first time. Hua Cheng even remembered clearly how to get there and where there were several pits on the way up the mountain, but he didn't know where this place was. This cave was not small, could it be that he had never discovered it before?

Xie Lian couldn’t help but feel a little strange, but he didn’t ask any more questions. He raised the flame in his palm a little higher and asked, “How did we get here?”

Hua Cheng also summoned a few silver butterflies, letting them dance with a faint light, and said in a calm voice: "Xue Avalanche missed his step and fell into the pit."

This was the only way to think about it. Otherwise, someone must have brought them here on purpose. At this point, Xie Lian couldn't help but think of the dream he had just had. He felt a slight chill down his spine, and then he thought of something else, and said, "We are here, but where are Nanfeng and Fuyao?"

When he mentioned those two people, Hua Cheng's face flashed with anger, and then he said nonchalantly: "They were buried in the snow. Don't worry about it, they are priests anyway, they can't die."

Xie Lian didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, and said, “Even though they won’t die, if no one digs them out, being buried for decades wouldn’t be pleasant. Maybe they fell in as well? Let’s look for them here first. By the way, Sanlang, when your silver butterfly went up there earlier, did you hear what they said?”

Hua Cheng sneered, "It's nothing more than a quarrel, what good words can you hear?"

Xie Lian felt that it was not that simple, otherwise there was no way to explain why Hua Cheng's expression suddenly changed after the dead butterfly flew over. Even now, when Hua Cheng sneered at them, his eyes were extremely unfriendly. But since he didn't say anything, Xie Lian didn't ask more questions, and the two walked along the long corridor of the cave.

After walking for a while, they found that the terrain of the cave under the snow was far more complicated than they had imagined. It was not a single road leading to the end, but there were many forked roads leading to caves of different sizes.

In each grotto, there is a statue of a god. Some of these gods are young, and some are young. Their postures are different, some are lying lazily, some are standing drunk, some are sitting upright, some are dancing with swords... The costumes are also ever-changing, gorgeous clothes, plain clothes, ragged clothes, half-naked... And the quality varies. Some are poorly made and extremely rough, while others are extremely exquisite and detailed. They should not be made by the same craftsman, but the number and variety are spectacular. Xie Lian looked at it all the way and couldn't help but exclaimed, "This is a cave of all gods! I wonder who chose to build a cave here? It must be an extremely devout believer."

However, all the statues had one strange thing in common. They were all covered with a layer of veil. Some covered their entire bodies, leaving only the hem of their skirts or feet exposed. Xie Lian was really curious and wanted to take off the veil of a statue to see what was on its face, but Hua Cheng said behind him, "Brother, I suggest you don't do that."

Xie Lian turned around and asked curiously, “Why? Sanlang, don’t you think these statues are weird?”

Hua Cheng walked up with his hands behind his back and said, "It's precisely because it's weird that it's best not to do it. Since the face is covered, there must be a reason why he covered it. The head is where the human spirit gathers. If it's removed, and these weird statues gather the spirit, who knows what will happen."

After a pause, he continued, "Brother, aren't you looking for your two servants? Since you haven't found them yet, it's better not to touch them for now to avoid any more complications."

Although this may sound mysterious, it does make sense. If the veil is removed and the statues awaken, it will not be fun at all. Xie Lian is not a person who is impatient. After thinking about it, he put down his hands and said, "I am just a little curious about what kind of gods these are."

What was also strange to him was that with Huacheng's personality, he would not be afraid of unnecessary complications. If he wanted to watch it, he could just watch it. He didn't expect that he would use this reason to persuade him.

Hua Cheng said casually: "This is the border of Wuyong Country. Maybe it's the statue of Prince Wuyong. It's not unusual."

Xie Lian said, “I’m afraid not.”

Hua Cheng said: "Oh? Why do you think so?"

Xie Lian looked at him and said, “From the murals we have been following, we can see that the clothing styles of Prince Wuyong and the people of Wuyong are very distinctive. After all, it was a country that existed two thousand years ago. They are ancient, rough, and a little wild, which is quite different from the meticulously carved clothing styles of these statues. Therefore, I think these statues may have nothing to do with Prince Wuyong. It is even possible that they were not made by the Wuyong people at all.”

Hua Cheng smiled and said, "Really? Brother is really considerate."

Xie Lian also smiled slightly and said, “No, no. It’s just that the style of these statues, whether it’s the carving, the clothing, or the way the details such as the clothing flow are handled, are more like the style of later generations, and it is the style that I am more familiar with... the style of Xianle Country.”

Hua Cheng raised his eyebrows and said, "It seems that my brother is also very knowledgeable in this area."

Xie Lian said, “No, no. I’ve seen so many statues of gods, so I’ll definitely have some experience with them.”

Although he didn't know why, he had a hunch that something was wrong with Hua Cheng from a while ago. And at this point, he finally realized what that something was wrong with.

It was a kind of vague tension.