17: Chapter 17 The Riddler! Get out of Gotham!

Xie Feng was currently in the middle of an intense period of Cultivation.

For the evaluation next year, and mainly to avoid seeing Pu Huai again, he Cultivated bitterly.

Aside from eating and drinking water, it was all Cultivation; he remained behind closed doors for three months.

Early next year would be the evaluation date, and if he didn't Cultivate for his life, he would definitely die a miserable death.

The Guide could at most guarantee that whoever looked at Xie Feng would die, but during the evaluation, if that sword were to hack down on his head, Xie Feng would die regardless.

Death was fine, but if things like his Soul and consciousness were taken away by The Guide, that would be even worse than dying!

This frantic drive forced Xie Feng to sit cross-legged day after day, racking his brains to study the Cultivation Technique.

Relying on contributions, he exchanged for a Cultivation Technique named Yingui Art. The first glance Xie Feng saw it, he fell in love with it. The effect of this Cultivation Technique was to attract the attention of eerie entities. For others, it was to attract attention to buy time for teammates, but for Xie Feng, who had The Guide hidden in his eyes, it couldn't be better.

Three months later, external rumors became more and more outrageous, and facing the rumors, Xie Feng also had things to say.

The Xie Feng in the outer Sect who was jointly recommended was superbly skilled in martial arts, had a tenacious Heart-Nature, but was simply eccentric and did not socialize with people.

"Going out might make me see Pu Huai! I still don't want to die!"

He did not make prolonged eye contact with people and always looked around randomly.

"I heard someone in the Sect is Cultivating pupil techniques. Heh, I don't want to go out and look fellow Disciples to death."

Word spread later, turning into "whoever he glares at dies".

"6"

Xie Feng was immensely grateful, wishing everyone would stay far away from him.

After three months of bitter Cultivation, he finally touched the threshold of the Nine Heavens of the First Realm. Six Meridians operated simultaneously, spiritual light spread from his palm to his entire forearm, and shattering a half-man-high bluestone with a single palm strike was effortless.

However, Mo Tang heard Tu Ziguan and Xie Feng use a strange description for this Realm.

"Qi Refining Peak, right."

"No problem."

No matter what, Xie Feng finally became the Nine Heavens of the First Realm, still a hair's breadth away from the Peak.

Then, due to exhaustion, everything went black before his eyes, and he passed out.

Waking up again, he saw a person taking care of him beside him.

"Tu Wu, I don't want to eat flatbread, can you get something else?"

No one paid attention to him.

Xie Feng raised his head.

Pu Huai sat nearby, wearing a gray robe washed to a pale color, the cuffs worn and frayed.

Xie Feng felt his blood freeze.

The spiritual power in his palm instantly condensed to the limit, his six Meridians tightened simultaneously, and all the hair on his back stood on end.

The room was on the third floor, the window faced south, outside the door was a corridor, and the end of the corridor was the stairs. If he wanted to run, he could only jump from the window. The third floor—with his Cultivation of the Nine Heavens of the First Realm, jumping down probably wouldn't cause any issues.

Xie Feng looked at the gray robe, always feeling that the threads on it were writhing.

"But before I climb out, won't I be done this and that way?"

Pu Huai looked at him.

"Xie Feng."

The voice was not loud, exactly the same as usual.

"...Elder Pu."

Xie Feng said with chattering teeth.

"There is a mission."

Xie Feng's body tightened slightly; he didn't even dare to decline.

"Mirror Corridor."

"Sixty miles west of Cangyun City, an abandoned Mirror Tomb. The rules have already been probed: two mirrors stand opposite each other, forming an invisible passage in the middle. When a person steps between the two mirrors, they will be pulled into the mirror space."

"The rules in the mirror space are very simple: you cannot look at yourself in the mirror for more than three breaths, you cannot touch the mirror surface, and you cannot use any reflective items in the mirror space. Violating any of these will cost you your life."

Xie Feng's lips moved.

"The Sect previously sent three batches of Disciples in, and only one batch returned. Later, Elder Wen took some free time to enter and destroy that eerie anomaly, but unfortunately failed to find those two batches of Disciples. Now people are needed to go in and investigate. The Sect will give you portable Magic Treasures for self-protection, and your task is to find those two batches of Disciples."

Xie Feng sat on the bed, the spiritual power condensed in his palm never dispersing.

"Why me?"

Pu Huai did not answer this question.

He raised his right hand, fished out a mission slip from his sleeve, and placed it on the table by the door.

The action was very casual, so ordinary, just like an outer Sect Elder assigning daily tasks to a Disciple.

But Xie Feng saw the way he placed the mission slip: paper face down, handwriting face up, positioned right at the corner of the table, ready to fall at a gust of wind.

Put there intentionally.

Placed in a position that forced Xie Feng to get up and fetch it.

"Tomorrow at the Chen hour, the mountain gate."

Pu Huai said.

He turned around and left.

Xie Feng sat on the bed, staring at the mission slip on the table. The wind poured in from the window, blowing the edges of the mission slip to curl up slightly, on the verge of fluttering down.

Xie Feng did not get up to fetch it.

He didn't dare, not knowing what else was written on that mission slip besides the mission contents.

"If opening this gives me an SC, I'll really explode."

Cold sweat streamed down Xie Feng. After lying there for a long while, he finally struggled to get up, stood aside, tilted his head slightly, and looked at the mission slip out of the corner of his eye.

The handwriting on the mission slip was neat, detailing the mission location, mission content, suggested number of people, and rewards.

Location: Sixty miles west of Cangyun City, Mirror Tomb. Mission Content: Investigate Disciples. Suggested number of people: Three.

At the very bottom, written in the same handwriting were the names of the accompanying Disciples.

Wen Yushu, Gu Jian.

Wen Yushu, an eight-meridian Genius, was already in the Three Heavens of the Second Realm months ago.

Gu Jian, seven Meridians, his current Realm should also be in the middle of the Second Realm.

Both of them were the absolute top tier among this batch of Disciples, and Pu Huai assigned these two to accompany him.

But Xie Feng couldn't guess Pu Huai's thoughts at all. Only that Universe Lord knew what Nyarlathotep wanted to do, or rather, only Nyarlathotep knew what that Lord wanted to do.

Xie Feng turned the mission slip over; the back was blank. He folded the mission slip well and put it back into his sleeve.

The next day, at the Chen hour.

When Xie Feng tremblingly appeared at the mountain gate on time, Wen Yushu and Gu Jian were already waiting.

"Elder Pu is not here?"

Xie Feng instantly straightened his back.

Wen Yushu stood on the left side of the mountain gate, wearing a moon-white robe, holding a cup of tea in his hand.

"Such a pretentious pose, standing there drinking tea—a gust of wind will choke you to death," Xie Feng cursed inwardly.

Seeing Xie Feng walk over, his peach-blossom eyes narrowed slightly, wearing that Wen Yushu-style smile that made people want to punch him.

"Brother Xie." He nodded.

Gu Jian stood on the right side of the mountain gate, carrying his sword on his back.

The sword was not unsheathed, but the position where he stood allowed the hilt to always be on his right-hand side at a distance of a single grip. He wore dark green martial attire with tightened cuffs and a meticulously bound collar.

Seeing Xie Feng, his gaze paused on Xie Feng's face for a split second, then shifted away.

"Everyone is here," Gu Jian said.

Three words; saying even one more would feel like a waste.

Xie Feng walked up in front of the two and stood still.

The three of them stood in a triangle, Wen Yushu facing the direction outside the mountain gate, Gu Jian facing the direction inside the mountain gate, and Xie Feng standing in the middle.

"What on earth are you two pretending with your backs against each other?" Another inward curse.

Xie Feng felt like he was going to develop schizophrenia. Nowadays, seeing people usually didn't even evoke emotional fluctuations, his inner commentary was extremely sharp, yet facing Outer Gods, he was scared like a trembling quail.

"Did Elder Pu give you the mission slip?" Wen Yushu asked.

"He did."

"Did you see the rules clearly?"

"I did."

Wen Yushu nodded without pressing further. He withdrew the teacup into his sleeve, straightened his robe, and strode out of the mountain gate.

"Qiankun in the sleeve?" Xie Feng glanced at the cuff.

Gu Jian followed behind him, and Xie Feng walked at the very end.

After walking a few steps, Wen Yushu suddenly slowed down and walked side by side with Xie Feng.

"Brother Xie."

"...Mn."

"Elder Pu assigned Brother Gu and me to travel with you because you have something on you that can restrain eerie anomalies, right?"

It was not a question, but a statement.

Xie Feng chose not to answer him.

I can play the riddler too.