398: Chapter 398 The Siege, But Everyone Was an Acquaintance

“Wait, why the sudden rush?”

Zhou Yan rode his horse, watching Long Tianxing standing at the town entrance to see him off.

“That monster's activity is becoming more and more frequent. To avoid any accidents, it's best if you leave early.”

Zhou Yan glanced at Long Tianxing, feeling that this guy probably knew more than he did, but he didn't ask further.

After thinking for a moment, he left the small cloth bag with Long Tianxing.

“This thing is my item, but I probably won't need it. Since your mission is to deal with that Blood Demon, I'll leave this to you.”

“I haven't entrusted it to the wrong person. If something goes wrong, that'll be on you.”

Zhou Yan smiled and whipped his horse, only to fall off, earning a remark from the post station attendant: “Improper riding leads to tears from your loved ones.” After that, he set off on his escape journey once again.

Long Tianxing watched Zhou Yan's receding figure and the small cloth bag in his hand, finally tucking it into his robe as he began to count silently in his heart.

“3, 2... I counted too slowly.”

Seeing that he had returned to the temple again, Long Tianxing simply went back to the Buddha statue to continue waiting.

In fact, when Long Tianxing met Zhou Yan, he had received another mission: to escape alongside Zhou Yan.

If Zhou Yan had paid attention, he would have realized that although the post station was very close to the town, it was technically outside the town.

When there was no Blood Demon nearby, Long Tianxing couldn't even leave the vicinity of the temple, let alone come here.

It was thanks to Zhou Yan that he was able to travel so far.

However, once he reached a certain distance from Zhou Yan, the System automatically determined that Long Tianxing had abandoned the mission, so he returned to the temple once again.

Long Tianxing looked at the peaceful scenery outside the main hall and sighed.

“Even if it's fake, I still don't want to see suffering. I just hope Zhou Yan can escape.”

Long Tianxing looked at the cloth bag in his hand, observing the three packs of medicine inside.

“Can this thing really solve three problems? It's too unbelievable; I have a feeling it won't be that easy.”

Outside the forest, a burly man with red skin and knotted muscles was lying in wait by the roadside.

According to his master, the Blood Demon, an extremely troublesome guy had appeared here, and he needed to handle it.

“Let me see what kind of guy it is.”

“Water ballet, Indian tough guy.”

A gust of wind and sand rolled by, blinding the red-skinned brute, who only heard a strange piece of music flash by.

“Wh-what is that?”

Just as he was looking panicked, the dust cloud swept back again.

“Deja Vu!”

“Running too fast, turn!”

Another burst of music struck, and his face was covered in dust again.

Just as he tried to see what was happening, the dust rolled in again, accompanied by countless attacks.

He didn't have time to react; hit by the overwhelming attacks, he lost his ability to fight on the spot.

That wasn't the end of it; a rope accurately looped around his neck, and since he had already lost his strength, he was directly snared and dragged away.

Now he could finally hear the music, but he didn't want to hear this sound ever again.

And what made him the most furious was that this damn music was actually quite catchy!

Zhou Yan had been riding his little horse toward the distance, but feeling the speed was too slow, he had a sudden inspiration and equipped the horse with an item.

Now Zhou Yan's horse had instantly turned into a prized steed, enough to participate in a rally race.

If not for the fact that Zhou Yan's riding panel was still functional, allowing him to maintain firm control, he would have lost both a Mount and an item.

It was during the process of adapting to the Mount that he inadvertently discovered a boss crouching by the roadside, so he casually went back, beat it up, crippled it, and dragged it away.

It was all done in passing.

Ignoring the wails of the guy behind him, Zhou Yan just whipped his horse, having started to enjoy himself as he gradually adapted to the driving.

Ever since he started cultivating immortality, he rarely felt this kind of speed; the last time was when the flying boat lost control.

But the good times didn't last long; Zhou Yan soon saw a long battle line.

Because the speed was too high, he couldn't stop in time, and so he, the horse, and the unlucky boss behind him crashed straight into it.

“Enemy attack, surround them!”

Zhou Yan only heard a shout, and then found himself surrounded by a group of people.

Looking at the shiny, polished spears, Zhou Yan instinctively raised his hands.

It was this action that loosened the rope, and the red-skinned brute, who had still been a bit dizzy, suddenly erupted and charged toward the crowd.

The soldiers were shocked by the brute's charge and were thus broken through, but soon, follow-up troops were attracted by the shouts from the front.

A volley of arrows followed, but the brute seemed impervious to blades and spears, charging through the second encirclement while taking the arrow rain.

He even casually stuffed a person into his mouth, making himself grow a size larger.

Just as Zhou Yan was about to take out an item to help, a golden longsword descended from the sky, stabbing into the brute's back and causing him to cry out in pain.

A long-bearded Daoist suddenly appeared on the brute, stepped on his shoulders, pulled out the longsword, and then slashed from head to tail as if dancing with the sword.

The brute collapsed to the ground as if he had lost all support, turning into ashes.

After the elder dealt with the monster, the soldiers quickly reorganized and continued their duties. Meanwhile, a small group approached Zhou Yan vigilantly.

The elder looked through the crowd and saw Zhou Yan, who had fallen to the side with his horse, seemingly confirming something.

She stopped the approaching soldiers, and the longsword in her hand turned into a golden talisman, which she tucked away.

She came to Zhou Yan's side and asked.

“Are you Zhou Yan?”

Zhou Yan looked at the familiar golden talisman and asked with some confusion.

“Are you Xuanyuan Qingyao?”

As if the secret code had been matched, the elder immediately threw herself into Zhou Yan's arms, shouting loudly, “Brother Zhou, I've finally found you!”

This scene caused the soldiers who were originally vigilant to show expressions of disgust, and even the soldiers who had just been saved by the elder couldn't help but step back a few paces.

Zhou Yan suffered the most; the smell of an old person rushing toward him and the other party's action thoroughly disgusted him.

And what was most desperate was that he actually couldn't even push away an old person.

“So, that prince is Bai Ling?”

After things settled down, Zhou Yan returned to Xuanyuan Qingyao's military tent with her.

According to what Xuanyuan Qingyao had just said, she had become a Daoist priest invited by the royal family to eliminate demons, and this time she had received news and come here to set up an encirclement to deal with the monster.

Because of this relationship, she had discovered early on that this prince was actually Bai Ling.

So the two of them had successfully met up early on.

At the same time, Zhou Yan also learned that this place had long been sealed off, and no one could leave.

“That's right. As long as those five corrupted ministers are still alive, the Blood Demon is immortal, and vice versa. You just saw one of those ministers earlier.”

“If there weren't an army and people like us resisting, it would be extremely dangerous, so we must seal it off.”

“However, Brother Zhou, if you want to leave, I can let you go directly. I'll just tell Bai Ling afterward.”

“That's great. But shouldn't you be looking for Long Tianxing? He's been waiting for you for a long time.” Zhou Yan breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing that he could leave immediately; sure enough, it's easier to get things done when you have connections inside.

But Xuanyuan Qingyao became puzzled instead.

“Why would Long Tianxing be waiting for me?”

Zhou Yan froze, then told Xuanyuan Qingyao that Long Tianxing was a monk in the town who needed to wait for a Daoist priest to leave the place and deal with the monster.

But Xuanyuan Qingyao just shook her head, indicating that although she was also a Daoist, strictly speaking, she was actually a Celestial Master.

Since Long Tianxing only said “Daoist,” it should really just be a Daoist; at least, she didn't have a mission to meet Long Tianxing.

Her mission was just to cooperate with Bai Ling, the prince, to slay the monster and avenge the emperor.

Finally, Zhou Yan calculated the time and decided to leave to prevent any accidents.

Before leaving, Xuanyuan Qingyao promised Zhou Yan that she would tell Bai Ling about the information on Long Tianxing and send someone to contact him.

After all, Zhou Yan's medicine was still with Long Tianxing; since their goals were the same, cooperating wasn't out of the question.

However, neither Zhou Yan nor Xuanyuan Qingyao seemed to have any information about Shi Suiyan.

Finally, after bidding farewell to Xuanyuan Qingyao and switching to a faster warhorse, Zhou Yan once again embarked on his escape journey.