Youbao Chapter 39: Calculation (3)
The old Taoist priest did not show any surprise. After the six people from the Zhou family left, he grabbed my arm and said: Let’s go!
I used the shrinking technique to quickly move forward, and after arriving at the location where the zombies had left before, I used the jade pendant to check their location.
With the help of the zombies, they walked very fast, and in just a short while, they had already walked hundreds of miles away. However, judging by their appearance, they seemed to have reached their destination.
In order to prevent the Golden Feather Corpse from noticing anything unusual, the old Taoist priest didn't dare let me follow too closely. After knowing my approximate location, he took off the jade pendant from my forehead.
The old Taoist priest once again used the Earth-Shrinking Technique to move forward. When he was still ten miles away from his destination, he stopped. It was estimated that the Earth-Shrinking Technique had a great effect on him. After sitting cross-legged on the ground, he took out a pill from his arms and closed his eyes to nourish his qi.
After about half an hour, he opened his eyes and stood up.
Facing my questioning expression, the old Taoist priest didn't think about it at all, just pulled my arm and stabbed me. I took a bun from his sleeve and ate it while saying: Isn't it too dangerous for you to do this... uh, cough cough...
The old Taoist priest drew a blood talisman with his right hand, changed his shape and aura, and left without paying any attention to me who was choking on the bun.
I beat my chest and hit my back for a long time before I could swallow the bun. I almost suffocated. Damn old man, he really doesn't care about me.
At this moment, I felt a burning sensation in my chest.
I quickly opened my clothes and took out the jade pendant. The color of the jade pendant was much redder than before. Even if I put it in my palm, it was terribly hot.
What is this strange phenomenon?
Could it be that...
I broke out in a cold sweat. I remembered that last time at the Five Elements Taoist Temple, the jade pendant felt like a branding iron when it was close to the stone beast. And it was the same in the courtyard of the Walking Corpse Vein. Could it be that there was a stone beast near me?
This place is so close to the zombie vein. If a stone beast appears, it must be held by one of their people.
I quickly turned around and looked around. This was a small forest with lush branches and leaves. Occasionally I could hear a few birds singing, but no one was coming.
My heart was pounding, and I crouched down to find a pile of grass or bushes to hide in. But after taking just two steps, I tripped and fell to the ground.
As luck would have it, the jade pendant that was held in the palm of his hand was pressed against his forehead.
The burning sensation made me grit my teeth, afraid that someone would hear me if I screamed. At this moment, the surroundings suddenly became quiet.
It was a strange silence, different from before, more like I was wandering in a silent world.
Before I could even come to my senses, I heard a "crack" in the sky, like thunder.
I looked up subconsciously, but was shocked to find that all the branches that were originally above my head had disappeared, and were replaced by dark clouds.
The sky was gloomy and without a single ray of light, except for the occasional flash of lightning between the clouds, which was like a giant dragon soaring in the sky. This was the power of nature, and it was awe-inspiring.
When I looked down, I saw nothing but a blank space. What I was standing on was not the earth, but the void.
This strange situation frightened me so much that my legs went weak and I immediately fell to the ground. The strange feeling of standing in the void with nothing to support me made me feel like I was dreaming.
What on earth is going on? Am I really dreaming? Or did I fall too hard and hurt my head?
At the same time, a huge thunder with a loud rumbling sound, like the roar of Thor, came from the distant sky in an instant and hit me with a loud bang.
But what is incomprehensible is that the thunder that almost filled the entire void hit my body, but it only made me tremble a little, and I didn't cause any harm.
Incredible, really unbelievable. In reality, let alone such a big lightning, even a normal voltage of 220 can kill people with electricity.
What happened? Where am I now?
This was an incomprehensible question, because there were no living creatures around. There were only constant flashes of lightning and thunder, and dark clouds covering the entire sky.
I vaguely saw strands of black hair, so light that they were barely visible, but they were wandering and entering my body. Then, I felt a sense of comfort, and even the discomfort caused by the thunder just now disappeared.
So amazing!
I was almost addicted to this drug-like pleasure, and the next moment, another huge bolt of lightning crossed the boundless void and hit me heavily.
I seemed to hear something crack with a "snap" sound, and my feet could no longer stand, falling straight to the ground.
Before I could completely get out of the cloudy area, my eyes suddenly brightened. When I looked again, I saw a field of mud and fallen leaves in front of me, emitting a rotten smell.
I propped myself up with my arms and climbed up. Above my head, there were no longer dark clouds and thunder, but dense branches. Was everything that just happened really a dream?
However, the warmth of the jade pendant that still remained in my palm reminded me that what I had just experienced was not a dream, but another kind of time travel experience.
I spread my palm and saw the stripes on the jade pendant. One of them seemed to light up for a moment, but before I could see it clearly, it went out completely.
This dreamlike experience made me wonder whether I was dreaming or awake.
At the same time, a line of words suddenly appeared in my mind, and I subconsciously read it out: After the worst comes the best, guard the universe. I command the ten gods, the nine stars shine to protect me, the eight ropes of heaven, nothing can be ignored.
I didn't understand what this sentence meant, and it felt even weirder when I suddenly read it out loud.
But then, I felt something strange happen to me. The surrounding trees, soil, rocks, and even the breeze that I couldn't touch seemed different from before.
I couldn't describe the feeling. I subconsciously touched a tree nearby, but was horrified to find that my hand had passed through the tree.
What is going on?
Ghost passing through wood?
Have I become a ghost?
Although I didn't understand the situation, I knew how to get out of it, as if this matter had already been imprinted in my mind.
Retreat! With a simple word, all the previous visions disappeared. When he touched the tree again, his palm was immediately blocked.
I was stunned.
I took the jade pendant in my hand and looked at it carefully. There was nothing unusual. It was no longer hot, and there were no flashes of light. Everything returned to normal. But the words that were like a spell were still engraved in my mind and I could never forget them.
Could it be that this was the magic of the Eight Ropes lineage? I couldn't help but speculate.
The feeling of turning myself into a ghost was quite novel. I carefully considered the words in the spell, one of which said to protect myself and the other said to ignore everything.
Does it mean that this spell can both protect me and make others invisible to me?
But I always feel that this simple sentence actually contains a lot of things. Just like a computer keyboard, we can tell which keys can type letters and which keys can be combined to copy other people's articles. But if we design deeper programming, we will not understand it, even if the so-called programming is done with the same keyboard.
Anyway, at least I have some skills. If I study it carefully in the future, I may find something else.
As for now, I really want to know, if I cast the magic of the Eight Ropes, can I sneak into the corpse vein? But I am not sure how long I can maintain this state, because I only know how to chant spells, and I don’t even know where the so-called Taoist power comes from.
Anyway, I decided to give it a try. After all, when I cast the spell, I had no burden at all, and it was not like the first time I used the Tongming Jade Pendant, where I had a headache that made me want to explode soon.
Holding the jade pendant, I chanted the spell again: After adversity comes good times, guard the universe. Command the ten gods, the nine stars shine to protect me. The eight ropes of heaven, nothing can be ignored!
The strange feeling came over me again. I tried to walk towards the tree and passed through it without any surprise. My body did not change at all. I could even feel a slight obstruction when passing through the tree. It was not very big, like a thin film in front of me.
Perhaps this is why I can walk through trees but not through the ground and directly to the other side of the earth. Because I don't think it's feasible at all, and even if it is possible, that kind of obstacle is not something I can overcome at the moment.
Maybe my ancestors could. Compared to the old Taoist's shrinking technique, this strange method of not seeing anything is more interesting. I stepped on a tiger that happened to pass by, and my foot merged directly with the mouse, and it didn't even notice it.
This gave me a great boost of confidence, and I immediately ran towards the direction of the zombie vein.
I don't know if it was because of this situation that my body changed, but even my running speed increased a lot, and I ran like a gust of wind. Seeing the surrounding trees receding rapidly, I felt like a superman, and I didn't need to wear underwear outside.
Soon, I came to the mountain where the zombie vein was located. This was a small mountain with a height of only 100 meters, which was like a high mountain and a low earth pit compared to their original mountain.
I don't understand why the zombies abandoned their old nest and headed straight here, but that doesn't stop me from going to find out for myself.
The old Taoist priest was much faster than me, and I had just wasted a lot of time, so I couldn't see any trace of him on the mountain anymore.
What surprised me was that I couldn’t find the entrance after searching the entire mountain.
What happened? Could it be that the walking corpse veins could pass through walls and drilled directly into the belly of the mountain? This was obviously unlikely.
I tried to walk directly into the belly of the mountain, and found that even though I entered the stone wall, the view in front of me was still as bright as day. But the sense of obstruction became stronger and stronger, and I was stopped after walking less than seven or eight meters, and I couldn't move forward no matter how hard I tried.
This made me realize that magic was not omnipotent. But if I chose the right place, it would be the hidden entrance to the zombie vein, and the distance of seven or eight meters should be enough for me to enter.
I ran up and down the mountain, but to my dismay, after more than half an hour, I still couldn't find the entrance.
At this moment, the jade pendant in his hand was already feeling hot, and he felt as if he was carrying a heavy burden on his back, making every step difficult.
This was a sign of reaching my limit, and it was exactly the same time as when I used the Jade Pendant to extend my vision. I had to stop looking for the entrance, otherwise if I walked into the mountain wall and the spell suddenly failed, would I die inside or something?
