Chapter 254 - 254 A Message from the Nemesis, Goodwill or Provocation?

254 A Message from the Nemesis, Goodwill or Provocation?

The sudden silence made one’s heart palpitate.

Lin Ran’s muscles instantly tensed up, and he maintained the posture of cutting the mycelium. He watched as a dark red drop of blood seeped out of the wound on Xiao Huai’s finger and pricked up his ears to listen to the sounds around him.

The first thing he heard was Huo Qiyun’s clearly rapid breathing, followed by the buzzing sound of the fire sword energy circling in the air and the rustling sound of billions of black insects flapping their wings…

After Lin Ran deliberately filtered out these sounds, a strange sound that he had never heard before began to appear.

The sound was so soft that Lin Ran had to hold his breath to hear it. It was gurgling somewhere, like the sound of running water. At the same time, it was intermittent like breathing, as if it carried a certain rhythm.

Lin Ran closed his eyes and listened carefully. He realized that the sound was almost ringing in his ears. Just as he was thinking about what it was, he accidentally opened his eyes and realized that at some point, his surroundings had lit up with a hazy red light.

Lin Ran extinguished the fire sword energy circling in the air. With the fire sword energy gone, the red light became more and more obvious. It was actually emitted from Huo Qiyun’s body—or more precisely, from Huo Qiyun’s waist.

Lin Ran narrowed his eyes and reached out to pick up Huo Qiyun’s clothes. He saw that what was glowing was indeed the tree root-like thing at his waist.

At this moment, these things looked more like blood vessels. As they pulsed, beams of dark red light flowed through them like magma.

However, Lin Ran did not notice this before, which meant that this phenomenon had just happened.

“These mycelium are indeed connected to the tree roots!”

Lin Ran muttered softly, and his expression darkened.

In fact, after seeing the “mycelium” and “roots”, he had a guess. These mycelium should have grown out of Xiao Huai’s body. After passing through Huo Qiyun’s body, they grew into tree roots and rooted him deeply on the stone platform.

Lin Ran didn’t know why Xiao Huai didn’t “take root” on the stone platform herself, but it was obvious that she couldn’t do such a thing. Therefore, someone used Huo Qiyun as a medium for Xiao Huai to absorb something.

The person who set all of this up was undoubtedly Liu Hongshan, who had once appeared here!

Thinking of this, Lin Ran’s expression instantly darkened. In the darkness, extreme anger seemed to have materialized and surged around him!

“In short, the two of you should go back as soon as possible. Otherwise… you might regret it.” Previously, in the Great Yong Dynasty, Liu Hongshan had specially found Lin Ran and the empress and said this to them before leaving.

When Lin Ran first heard this, he thought that Liu Hongshan was hinting that something had happened to the Heavenly Saint Dynasty. But now that he thought about it, the “regret” he was referring to should be Huo Qiyun and Xiao Huai!

Lin Ran didn’t know what was going on with this technique of rooting people on the stone platform, but this process clearly took time.

The more he thought about it, the more muddle-headed he became. Lin Ran patted his face hard and forced himself to calm down. Then, he waved his sword and scattered a few fire sword energies before continuing to focus on cutting the mycelium.

After realizing that time was running out, Lin Ran was no longer so careful.

Soon, Lin Ran separated their hands. Before he could heave a sigh of relief, he realized that there was a small jade talisman hidden where their palms connected.

The jade talisman was half the size of an egg and half an inch thick. The quality was not particularly good, and there were no patterns on the surface. It looked like a raw jade that had just been polished.

However, when Lin Ran injected his divine sense into it, a man’s voice sounded in his mind. “Lin Ran, you should be the one holding this jade talisman right now, right?”

“Liu Hongshan!”

Lin Ran instantly recognized the voice and frowned.

Lin Ran was not surprised to hear Liu Hongshan’s voice. After all, there were only a few people who knew of the existence of Sword Grave. What he was more concerned about was why Liu Hongshan left a message for him in this way.

As if knowing that Lin Ran would ask this question, Liu Hongshan’s voice continued in his mind, “There are three main reasons why I left this jade talisman for you.”

“First of all, what you are facing is the Taotie’s Evil Technique in the form of an array formation.”

“The platform you’re on is the array formation of Mount Sword’s mountain-protecting array formation. I connected Huo Qiyun to the earth vein of Mount Sword. This way, Xiao Huai can use him to absorb the killing intent and evil aura of the entire Mount Sword to heal her injuries. The sword intent that is useless to her will remain in Huo Qiyun’s body.”

When Lin Ran heard this, he frowned. If Liu Hongshan wasn’t lying, this would be a huge opportunity for Huo Qiyun and Xiao Huai. But why did he do this?

“Are you wondering why I helped them?”

Liu Hongshan laughed devilishly. Even though it was just a voice, Lin Ran could still imagine his expression.

Liu Hongshan continued in a serious tone, “I once promised Huo Qiyun that if he handed the Sacred Abyss Sword to me, I would help him increase his strength. Although the Sacred Abyss Sword he gave me is fake, it didn’t affect my plan, so I still fulfilled my promise. After all, I’ve always kept my word.”

“I don’t believe you!”

Lin Ran pursed his lips in disdain.

At the same time, Liu Hongshan continued, “Increasing Huo Qiyun’s strength and treating Xiao Huai are two of the three reasons why I set up the Taotie Evil Technique. As for the last—”

At this point, Liu Hongshan suddenly stopped talking. There was a long silence, so long that Lin Ran thought that the message was over.

Just as Lin Ran was about to retract his divine sense, Liu Hongshan finally said, “I want to see the regretful expression on your face.”

Lin Ran’s heart skipped a beat. Could it be that Huo Qiyun couldn’t be saved anymore?