Section 24 Paying for it

The torches on the four walls of the hall burned silently, and the faint flickering orange flames scattered the light around.

The previous battle, the monster attack, the terrifying black shadow monster and the whispers that lingered in its ears and in the back of my heart seemed like a dream.

Huh~ha~huh~ha~

The head was still very painful, but it was still in the range of acceptance, and with the rhythmic deep breathing, the pain of tearing the skull gradually weakened, and was slowly adapted by Li Yuntao.

The heavily armored knights around them remained on their knees in prayer, motionless as if they were sleeping, while Serena, who was protected in the corner behind her, sat leaning against the wall, her wand at her side, her head tilted to the side and breathing rhythmically.

She frowned slightly, as if she was having a nightmare, and her facial muscles trembled slightly from time to time.

Li Yuntao leaned in and observed quietly, as if the face of a doll was delicate and smooth, the small nose with a straight upturned nose was faintly stirred with breathing, and the cherry-colored full lips reflected the orange firelight, like a warm pink pearl.

The long eyelashes flutter lightly from time to time, and it seems that they will wake up at any moment.

Kiss~

"The first kiss is mine~"

Li Yuntao pecked lightly on the cherry lips and smiled proudly, like a weasel who had just stolen a hen.

"What's going on? Sleeping in the middle of the group? Retracting his attention from Serena, Li Yuntao stood up a little shaky, found a stool that had not fallen and sat down. Start thinking about the current situation.

Ani did break into the hall, and at this time she was lying next to the clearing in the middle of the hall, the scimitar in her hand still clenched and refused to let go. The people who were lying upside down around her also had scimitars in their hands.

The difference was that there was no blood on the scimitars in their hands.

Li Yuntao couldn't tell which ones were with Ani and which were the guests in the original hall.

He didn't have the strength to turn over one by one to see if their faces were bloody.

However, Ani's face was indeed stained with blood, and from his vantage point he could see Ani's side face, the liquid mixed with blood and tears on her face had not dried up, and was still bright in the light of the fire.

"It seems that some of the images I saw earlier are indeed facts, and some of them are clearly just hallucinations."

"If it's a monster attacking, what's it for?"

"Induce people to let go of the shackles of their hearts?"

"In the last period just now, it was obviously impatient, what made him anxious?"

While thinking, the strength in Li Yuntao's body gradually recovered, and he simply moved his neck, making a crisp clicking sound.

He tried to wake up the knights and guards around him, but they were trapped in a dream, no matter how much they shook, they only moved their eyelids, but they refused to wake up, and Serena was the same.

When he realized that his wake-up service was in vain, he decisively gave up on their plan to be a helper.

"People, in the end, you still have to rely on yourself." Shaking his head, he walked up the steps to the second floor alone, his equipment was all in the reception room, he was unarmed and only relied on his hands, Li Yuntao was confident that he couldn't even beat a wild dog.

Everything was the same in the living room, and I don't know if it was the right oil lamp to be lit to make it as bright as the day. First, he quickly loaded the long sword and sapper shovel, hung the package of the copper book on his chest again, and picked up the arrows on the crossbow machine, Li Yuntao walked to the inside, stepping on the burgundy camel hair carpet, he boldly walked to the terrace.

The oil lamps in the room were not lit, so the whole room was mostly shrouded in hazy darkness, and visibility was very limited only by the light leaking in from the living room.

The three powerhouses who were supposed to have a candlelit dinner on the terrace were only faintly visible from the inside because the candle flame had been extinguished on the table.

It seemed that even the starlight no longer favored the small city, and the entire White Sands City was shrouded in darkness, so quiet that even the slightest sound of the wind could not be heard.

Li Yuntao listened to the sound of the soles of his shoes stepping on the ground, nervously moved step by step to the floor-to-ceiling window, and when he left the light range leaking in from the living room, he blended into the ubiquitous darkness, and his vision gradually widened.

The view on the terrace is no longer hazy.

The two Daoist powerhouses from the East knelt on one knee on the ground, shaking their bodies silently as if they were struggling.

Serena's teacher, the sometimes haughty and sometimes amiable Whitebeard Magister's hat fell to the ground, and his whole body hung strangely in the air, as if an invisible noose was wrapped around his neck.

He grasped the invisible noose firmly in both hands, and his legs stomped from time to time, as if struggling.

Boom, boom....

Just as Li Yuntao was observing Arris's situation, a new voice appeared. They were chaotic and disorderly, approaching Li Yuntao from far and near.

"And the unaffected?" He was puzzled in his heart, and then he was happy, it was better to have a helper than to be alone.

Arris's current state is really weird, he doesn't dare to rush out to help easily, God knows how strong the monster that caused the current situation is really strong.

The shadow monster has a home field advantage in the night, and this invisible monster is obviously more powerful, even Arris, the archmage, and the two eastern powerhouses who can be equal to him as friends are also in its way, what good end can he end up with rushing out rashly?

The sound of messy footsteps getting louder and louder had reached the living room, and the sound of utensils being knocked down and falling down, and the sound of porcelain vases shattering on the ground followed.

Li Yuntao frowned, how accidentally could he hit the vase placed on the low cabinet? Know that it's not on the way to the inner world.

Then, boom! With a sound, the sound of glass breaking followed.

"You're here to smash the field, aren't you? Even the screen was kicked down. That thing sinks when it looks at it, although it is a glass product, but the thickness is there, and it is not easier to break it than to smash a stone slab. This is a lot of hatred, a lot of hatred, with such a strong effort. He muttered, and his heart began to rise vigilantly, and he was already suspicious of coming, so he directly raised his sniper crossbow and aimed it in the direction of the arch.

In the depths of darkness, the direction of the arch bathed in the light of the meeting room seemed clear to him.

As if hearing a voice, Sun Jingxiao, who was kneeling on the terrace, reacted, he suddenly stood up from his kneeling struggle, and with a bang, a bright silver-blue cold light lit up from the long sword that he had drawn out of the scabbard.

Li Yuntao suddenly turned his head when he heard the sound of the sword coming out of its sheath, and then saw his face like a demon under the cold light.

The dashing and handsome, mature and steady have completely left Sun Jingxiao, the middle-aged man's face is distorted and hideous at this time, and there is a dangerous red light shining in the depths of the pupils of his angry eyes.

"No one can snatch her away, no one can! What I can't get, no one else can think of! His hoarse voice gushed out from the depths of his throat, and just when Li Yuntao was overwhelmed by the distorted expression on his face, he suddenly reached out and grabbed Cen Yuping's shoulder, who was kneeling beside him, and the silver-blue cold light of the long sword was completely wiped out without hesitation.

The sword blade that bloomed with cold light pierced the woman's delicate body, there was no sound of sharp blades entering the flesh, and there was no sound of clothes being cut, its sharpness was beyond Li Yuntao's imagination.

The smoke cloud wrapped in Cen Yuping's arm suddenly moved, it seemed to come to life, and the whole turned into a hazy cloud and mist to wrap the owner inside, and the outer layer of the cloud and mist was against Sun Jingxiao's chest, trying to push him away.

However, Sun Jingxiao's left hand had already clasped Cen Yuping's shoulder, and its refusal failed to have any effect, but Sun Jingxiao, who felt resistance, suddenly pulled out the long sword in her body, and aimed the peak in the direction of her abdomen.

Poop!

A cluster of sparks burst out from the blade, and the swirling arrows spun and flew into the darkness, stabbing Aris in the ass, hanging in mid-air.

Li Yuntao pulled the trigger, he and Sun Jingxiao were only five meters apart, and the cluster of arrows made of stainless steel hit the silver-blue sword peak almost at the same time.

Sun Jingxiao suddenly turned his head, and stared at Li Yuntao who was hiding on the side of the floor-to-ceiling window with burning crazy eyes.

And the owner of the footsteps who had knocked down the screen also walked inside.

Hiss~ha!

Sun Jingxiao let out a roar that was not inferior to that of humans.

Sizzle!

The owner of the footsteps that walked into the room also let out a roar in response.

Li Yuntao stepped back, hid in the corner between the floor-to-ceiling window and the wall next to him, and glanced back at the direction of the arch.

It's Ani! and her companions.

It's just that they are walking in a very strange way at the moment, as if they have just begun to learn to walk. But the force they use to walk is so great that even if their feet are tripped by the carpet, it is only the carpet that is lifted.

Ani was smiling, smiling very wantonly, as if everything could be ignored, it was a completely released smile, if it weren't for the bright red glow in the depths of the pupils, it would be an incomparably dazzling and brilliant expression.

But at this time, it gave Li Yuntao a feeling of weirdness, disobedience and deep fear.

"Light... Need, light, put, candlestick, light..." Arris's voice was staccato with difficulty, in Western Chinese.

"Are you awake?!" Li Yuntao turned his head to look at Aris in surprise, but obviously didn't understand what he was saying.

"Light—" Aris squeezed a voice out of his throat, his hands no longer freeing from the tightening of his neck, his breathing becoming more and more difficult.

"What did you say?" Li Yuntao hid in the corner, and the sniper crossbow sometimes turned left and sometimes right, hovering between Anne Nabo and Sun Jingxiao, but time obviously did not allow him to hesitate any longer, and the second good crossbow bolt was fired.

Poop!

Sun Jingxiao swung his sword to block the crossbow arrows, and it seemed extremely easy for him to block the crossbow arrows that came at such a close range.

Ani and her 'companions' walked awkwardly, and they couldn't threaten Li Yuntao for the time being, but let go of Cen Yuping and turned to Sun Jingxiao, as if the silver-blue long sword would be slashed at him in the next moment, Li Yuntao chose him again.

It turned out that this choice was right, and Sun Jingxiao's steps were only half of the steps because of the parrying crossbow arrows.

With his slight pause, Li Yuntao rolled tactically, and his body dodged to the other corner of the floor-to-ceiling window.

Before Li Yuntao could take his place, Sun Jingxiao, who had taken a step, stepped down, and the person suddenly appeared on the outside of the wall where he was hiding before, as if teleporting, and the sword pulled out a silver-blue flag in the air, and the flag drew an arc-shaped trajectory from the outside of the wall, ignoring the obstruction of the wall, and extending to the other side of the corner wall.

Li Yuntao, who had just finished rolling and turned his head to observe his opponent, saw this scene, and cold sweat instantly soaked through his back placket.

"Light—" Arris's legs stomped discordantly, and he began his final struggle, rolling his eyes gradually.

"You can't say a word, I can understand?" Li Yuntao was angry, and before the words fell, he rolled out again.

Brush~

The silver-blue light banner cut the wooden shutter door of the floor-to-ceiling window into two pieces without any sluggishness, and the upper half of the shutter door that had lost its support fell off from the door frame.

Before it hit the ground, it was cut back and forth by the longsword that had been turned back twice, shattering into several fragments of various sizes.

In the short time that the blinds were fighting, Li Yuntao rolled two more times, and opened a two-meter distance from Sun Jingxiao, and the long sword behind his back had been drawn out of its scabbard. In the panic, the glowing pendant hanging from his neck was thrown out of his neckline, and the soft white light instantly illuminated a small area of his body.

In the next moment, Arris's shout exploded in the silent darkness:

"Timillas!"

The brilliance of the pendant around Li Yuntao's neck suddenly split into a fist-sized ball of light, which seemed to be slow but actually rose quickly into the air, and then exploded into a dazzling brilliance almost like the sun.

Li Yuntao was almost blinded by this brilliance, if it weren't for the crisis warning, he subconsciously didn't look at the ball of light, and it is estimated that he would really be blind.

Yes~~!!!

Screams of pain rushed into his cochlea, followed by the sound of heavy objects falling to the ground.

Even if he avoided direct gaze, Li Yuntao was still flashed in front of his eyes, and it took a few seconds to gradually recover.

"Give me the pendant, quick!" Aris shouted in Donghuang, his voice overflowing with urgency.

Without hesitation, Li Yuntao tore off the thick twine used as a lanyard and threw the pendant in the direction where the sound came. At this time, although his vision was slowly recovering, his vision was still blurry.

"Darkness cannot bury your radiance, it shines on the great being of all things, please obey the covenant and take away the promised rituals, and your covenanter beseeches your majesty to descend on the ignorant world, Timirias, the glow is dispelled!"

Aris recited the full incantation, he grabbed the pendant that Li Yuntao had thrown in his left hand, and pinched the wand in his right hand that had been taken out at some point, and the egg-sized polyhedron diamond at the top of the wand bloomed with a dreamlike beauty.

He raised his wand above his head, and the beautiful light on the tip of the wand grew brighter and brighter, driving away the darkness around him without a dead end, leaving not even a trace of shadow.

The light was very soft, even though it was so bright that it seemed to be a star descending on the earth, it was not dazzling at all, and even if the eyes were wide open, there was no discomfort.

Li Yuntao looked at this scene in shock, in the scope of the light released by the wand, all the scenery was clear, but they had no shadows, and there was no three-dimensional sense, as if he was in a world composed of planes.

The brilliance formed by the spell was like a spherical cover, covering the surrounding ten meters, and the darkness beyond the ten meters was not affected at all, and the light and darkness clearly existed inside and outside the spherical light mask.

Sun Jingxiao and Ani's group of companions roared out of the light-shrouded area as if they had been burned by flames, the walls in front of them like a thin sheet of paper, and the holes in the human form remained in the walls of the path they had left.

Aris put down his wand and sat down panting, almost all of his strength drained with the previous spell, like a fish on shore.

Li Yuntao finally got a chance to breathe, and slightly adjusted his posture and sat on the steps leading to the terrace from the floor-to-ceiling window.

The cloud of smoke wrapped around Cen Yuping in the corner of the terrace quietly dissipated, her brow furrowed from pain, and the blood flowing from the wounds that penetrated her abdomen and back stained her clothes. Throwing away the wound and the pain in her heart, she took out a thumb-sized jade bottle from the sachet hanging from her waist, pulled out the cork, trembled slightly, and opened her mouth without hesitation.

When Danmaru swallowed down her throat, she seemed to relax, and she lay down on the dirt patio floor as if deflated. The clean and elegant neon dress was stained with a layer of gray and yellow mixed dust.

After a while, Aris finally took a breath, and he stood up with support: "This spell only lasts for a quarter of an hour, and it will dissipate after a quarter of an hour, but fortunately we have a permanent light source here, and this pendant is much more reliable than an oil lamp and a candlestick." Such a soft and pure light, this luminous material is simply a priceless treasure for a light warlock, I have never seen this material before, it is very rare to think about, boy, you have helped a lot, I owe you a favor. "Listening to what he meant, he didn't plan to return the pendant.

"I'm not a stingy person, you can make a reasonable request, any request is fine, as long as it is within what I think is reasonable, I will achieve it for you."

'Why didn't you mention that Lao Tzu saved your life?' Li Yuntao rolled his eyes vaguely.

"Of course, when you become my apprentice, you will get even more! My suggestion is: you agree to be my apprentice now. My status, in the land west of the Great Snow Mountain, is more noble than that of the king of the small kingdom. ”

"And you will become the prince of the kingdom's first heir."

Old Aris shook his beard and said, he was no longer as kind as he had tempted him in front of Sun Jingxiao and his wife, but he would show off the arrogance of the strong man who was high above Serena when he faced him.

Li Yuntao pretended to be thinking and didn't want to deal with him at all.

"Li Yuntao, you saved me."

Cen Yuping, who was lying on the mud terrace without an image on the other side, barely propped up her upper body and sat up on her side after hearing Old Arris's explanation, and her plump waist and hip curves showed hysterical temptation.

"Although I am imprisoned in a dream, the exercises I practice can illuminate reality, and I can see everything you do clearly. I can't promise anything. She shook her head with a wry smile, a hint of desolation and despair on her face, despite her best efforts to conceal it. Even, it is not clear whether he can return to Dahua alive. However, Qionghuazong will remember your kindness, take it, it will allow you to get the reward you deserve in Qionghuazong. ”

The Taoist companion who was regarded as a lover was destroyed as a possession with his own hand, and after hearing the last words, her heart was deeply hurt by the sword along with her own body.

She took off the jade pendant on her waist and threw it in front of Li Yuntao with a slight flick, and the strength was just right, just falling on the softest placket in Li Yuntao's arms.

"Can you stop saying it like a last word? You say that, I think that even if I take this jade pendant now, I may not need it tomorrow morning. Li Yuntao smiled bitterly and shook the jade pendant in his hand, and then threw it back.

"Give it to me when we're safe, if you're willing then." At this time, Li Yuntao did not have the humility that a weak person should have when facing a strong person who was far higher than him in terms of identity, status or ability.

He was as casual as if he were talking to a passer-by friend who had made him equally.

Cen Yuping caught the jade pendant, looked at him in slight surprise, and nodded after a few seconds: "I remember you." Li Yuntao of the Imperial Sword Gate. I'm afraid that the Edgeworth Gate will finally come to work and will rise again. ”

"If you don't remember it, let's wait until we can all survive, old man, what is the situation now, is there a solution?" Li Yuntao simply broke the jar and broke it, anyway, there are three people now, one is seriously injured and I don't know if he is dying, but he really wants to die when he looks at that virtue, and the other was tossed just now and lost half his life, and he almost squeezed himself dry by releasing a spell, plus himself, a standard rookie.

On the other side, Sun Jingxiao, whose combat power is intact and holds a sword, is represented by Ani as a group of 'little brothers' who have been controlled and play performance art. That's not even counting, until now, it's not the monster behind the scenes.

That dark shadow man, could it be him?

While thinking, he stood up and walked into the room, the light mask within a range of ten meters happened to be partially wrapped in the small living room, he retrieved his backpack, took out a piece of 'wall skin' that had been chiseled out of the backpack before, broke it into several pieces of similar size with his hands, stacked them together and tied them with hemp rope, and a newly baked pendant was born in front of the eyes of Old Aris and Cen Yuping.

Old Arris stared, the corners of his mouth twitched, just such a thing changed his favor, how could his favor suddenly seem to become very cheap.

Li Yuntao tied the pendant and threw it to Cen Yuping, and then took out another piece of wall skin in front of Arris's wide eyes.

"You, how much more precious luminescent material do you have? I paid for it. Old Arris stretched out his hand and pointed to the 'wall skin' in his hand, and said for a long time.