Quick Transmigration: The Foolish Beauty Saves the World

Chapter 287 I am a little fish (42)

The jolt was gone, and the second pot of tea was poured.

Ah Huo reluctantly put away the teapot and snacks. Meng Li waved her sleeve, and the boat disappeared. They had left the formation, and there was indeed a coffin in front of them.

One after another, people covered in filth appeared behind them, bringing with them a putrid, fishy smell.

Ah Huo returned the small piece of spring back into Jing Li's arms, looking somewhat regretful.

Before leaving, he whispered in Jingli's ear, "Hurry up, he's getting weaker and weaker."

Before Jingli could react, he had already retreated several meters away and reunited with the Lingxiao Sect disciples who had emerged from the formation.

It seems Ah Huo won't be able to join them on the main battlefield.

The disciples of Misty Mountain also emerged in a disheveled state. Jingli saw Xiao Piao, whom he had met before, and Xiao Piao also saw him.

This time, however, he learned his lesson and remained silent. He merely pouted impatiently, cast a cleansing spell on himself, and then, ignoring his fellow disciples, headed off in one direction.

Jingli was thinking, "This person is still alive."

On the other side, the people from Lingxiao Sect followed Ah Huo away. During this time, other cultivators also came to look at the coffin, probably hoping to get a share of the spoils.

Meng Li and Jing Li watched from the sidelines, not minding at all, since these people would only leave disappointed anyway.

Before long, no one was left in front of the formation.

Jingli didn't immediately step forward to remove the array's core. He was thinking about how to persuade Mengli to wait with him for a while so that they could enter the main array as 6058 had suggested.

Meng Li didn't ask any more questions, but just looked at him, like an enlightened teacher who was willing to let his students try things out.

Jingli couldn't get over it, and explained that she had discovered some patterns and wanted to try them out.

Meng Li naturally did not stop them, and the two of them waited together. Taking advantage of the gap in the formation's change, Jing Li quickly put away the coffin.

At first, the scene before me remained unchanged.

Just as Meng Li and Jing Li were doubting their failure, the darkness in front of them gradually faded away.

Unlike the feeling of entering a small formation, they could clearly feel the darkness fading away and the surrounding scenery gradually emerging.

This is the ruins of Lingkui Immortal Abode.

There was no basis for it, but the idea just popped into Jingli's mind.

The "array" they were entering at this moment, or perhaps a space, was not well-lit.

The drizzling rain fell on me, just the right amount of rain—it felt unnecessary to use an umbrella, but I'd get soaked if I didn't.

Such weather has painted the surroundings with ink-wash colors, seemingly leaving no room for even a hint of vibrancy or brightness.

The street scene didn't seem too unfamiliar to Jingli, because it was very similar to the street he had "traveled by boat" when he was a dancer.

This time, however, there were no ordinary people, nor were there the rectangular puppets standing on both sides.

The house is very tall, and the door has been raised proportionally, almost big enough for three people to stack up and enter.

When he was on the boat as a dancer, he didn't feel it as strongly, but when he was on the ground, he truly felt apprehensive about this disproportionately familiar thing.

Of course, this fear was merely a momentary, unconscious reaction.

Jingli sent a message to 6058 in the system, informing them that she and Mengli had broken free from the cycle.

There was no response from the other end.

In fact, 6058 hasn't sent any messages for quite some time, and Jingli also noticed that the "displacement" related item cards have been consumed.

In other words, there is a high probability that they are hiding.

Judging from the state of Jingli and Mengli after they left the cyclical array and arrived here, this place does not randomly drop people into a certain location.

But if Lu Mingguang were with 6058, how could he have ended up in a situation where he needed to use props to hide?

Jingli became somewhat worried.

"Fairy, can you contact Master Lu?"

Meng Li glanced at him, but didn't stop walking, and asked in return, "You can't get in touch with him either?"

She used the word "also," her eyes conveying a deeper meaning, but she didn't reveal it.

It means she already knows something, but doesn't care.

Jingli felt slightly embarrassed at being seen through, but knowing the matter was urgent, she didn't delay and shook her head directly, which was also an admission that she had other ways to contact Lu Mingguang and 6058.

Meng Li slightly raised her hand and pointed forward.

In the distance, where her fingertip pointed, a dark, multi-story building loomed in and out of sight through the rain, mysterious, solemn, and with a hint of ominousness.

Although he couldn't see it clearly, Jing knew that it was the main hall he had seen and entered when he was a dancer.

What I saw before was the afterimage of the Spirit Puppet Immortal Abode; what I see now is the remains of the Spirit Puppet Ten Thousand Burial Mound.

While Jingli was still stunned, Meng Li spoke again:

"But you could also say we're already inside the formation."

Jingli looked at her with some confusion, and she gave a rare smile.

"What we saw before were all illusions constructed by the array. Although we are in this blessed land, the illusion has become a kind of 'reality'."

"At this moment, however, we are in a kind of reality."

As she spoke, her gaze slowly swept over the streets, houses, and even the wear and tear and the marks, both deep and shallow.

"Don't you find this place familiar, little koi? I wasn't referring to the scenery."

Upon hearing this, Jingli simply closed her eyes.

Putting aside the visual influence, he immediately understood what Meng Li meant by familiarity.

It was that feeling of death.

Although it was raining in the scene, he could clearly feel the rain falling on his body and the gradual process of losing body temperature.

However, apart from the increasingly noticeable cold, Jingli couldn't sense anything around her.

Including Meng Li, who was right beside him, and Chun Xiaopian, who was in his arms.

The rate of temperature loss is too rapid, and even the protection of spiritual energy is useless, which is similar to the cold in the snowfield.

It is precisely because of this similarity that the rain seems even stranger.

Worried about the weak Chun Xiaopian in her arms, Jingli took two oil-paper umbrellas from the system, kept one for herself and gave the other to Meng Li.

As soon as the umbrella was opened, Jingli immediately noticed that the sound of the rain was also strange.

Raindrops make different sounds when they fall on different objects.

But the sound of this rain was different.

The sound of rain falling on an umbrella is exactly the same as the sound of rain falling on the ground.

It's too neat, so neat it looks like it was produced by some cheap simulator, with only one frequency of sound.

Furthermore, when listening attentively in the scene, a feeling similar to drowsiness quickly sets in.

The reason it's described as similar is because this feeling of "drowsiness" seems to directly affect the soul.

This space, like a barrier in the snowy night, was seizing his soul.

Jingli immediately opened his eyes, and only after confirming that Meng Li was still by his side and Chun Xiaopian was still in his arms did he breathe a sigh of relief as if he had been granted a pardon.

The breath he exhaled seemed to have no temperature.

The words "Rebirth Bell" entered Jingli's mind at that moment, and were captured by Jingli just before they disappeared.

According to legend, the Rebirth Bell is the key magical artifact for the existence of the Spirit Puppet Burial Mound.

It can bring the living back to life and the dead back to life.

The boundary between life and death that once existed in the snowy plains is now the same here.

Before anyone leaves the cyclical array, living people are the nourishment for the array; after leaving the cyclical array, living people remain the nourishment for the array.

However, the recipients of the support have changed slightly.

In the previous small formation, the living people and souls fed puppets, which were more visually appealing puppets.

The soul power absorbed by these small formations also nourishes the puppets, but these puppets are the legendary puppets that the Chinese master crafted using the entire country.

Just as Meng Li said, they didn't enter the formation, but you could also say they were inside it.

Because this formation is no longer an illusion.

However, the entire Lingku Immortal Abode, which is now the Lingku Ten Thousand Burial Mound, is within the radiation of the array with the Rebirth Bell as its core.

The entire blessed land is full of puppets.

They were among the puppets.

Jingli's Adam's apple bobbed slightly. She bit her tongue, once again raising her energy barrier, trying to clear her mind.

"Fairy, if we want to truly enter the formation, must we also 'die'?"

Meng Li cast a glance at him, a hint of admiration in it.

But it vanished quickly, as fleeting as her earlier smile.

But it's enough to convey the message "let's talk about it" to Jingli.

Jingli sorted out her thoughts: "This place is different from the snow mountain. Back then, we who were alive were on the living snow mountain, and the dead cultivators were in the dead barrier. But now, the place where we who are alive are now is 'dead'. If we want to enter the 'living' place, in theory, we should also 'die'."

This perfectly aligns with the reversal of life and death by the Rebirth Bell.

Meng Li nodded: "Do you remember what happened at the City Lord's Mansion in Lingxiao City?"

Jingli certainly remembers.

Meng Li dressed him in an extravagant and seductive outfit, and he was later teased by Ah Huo. Wearing this style of clothing, they followed two servants who looked like human skin monsters into a grand hall, where they were then forced to swallow a bead called "Nie Hai Chao Yin" (Pinching the Sea Tide Sound). They were then taken to a pink pool, and what followed was an eye-searing scene.

Meng Li tricked them with paper figures, but the two were chosen because of their special physical condition and were able to see the city lord's true face.

Soon, the city lord and Meng Li started fighting, their battle spilling out of the painting...

and many more!

"That painting?"

Meng Li nodded reservedly.

"If the Rebirth Bell formation is truly complete, there should be an opportunity or vehicle for the transformation between life and death, just like that painting. However, we cannot believe everything in the legends, so let's leave that aside for now. The fact is that the Spirit Puppet Immortal Abode has been destroyed, and where we are now, specifically, is still just a remnant of the power of heaven and earth."

She spoke too much in one breath, so she paused at the right time before continuing.

"The turning point in the afterimage may not be as clear as that painting, but we don't need to follow the so-called 'life and death' rules too much. In short, it may be like those small formations before, where we somehow ended up in them."

Meng Li's voice is very pleasant. When she doesn't deliberately use a seductive tone, it's like water droplets falling into a clear spring, refreshing and invigorating.

Although she didn't say anything to comfort her, she still made Jingli feel at ease.

At least from her perspective, the two of them didn't need to actually die to have a chance at survival.

Before actually entering the so-called main formation, Jingli and Mengli had a surprisingly similar idea—to explore the Spirit Puppet Immortal Abode, or rather, the current Spirit Puppet Burial Mound, as much as possible and gather some information.

They tacitly left the main hall, which they had seen in the formation, for last, and then quickly went through all the specific scenes that had appeared in the formation.

The former Lingkui Immortal Abode was not a very large country, but rather about the size of a large city.

The imposing city gate divided it into two parts: the inner city and the outer city. Outside the city, a few rooftops could be faintly seen. Under the influence of the blessed land, they had been transformed into the nine formations they had passed through before, but now only one remained.

The rooftops were shrouded in mist. Both of them carried usable tools, so it wasn't impossible to get across, but there wasn't much need to.

Beyond the nine small buildings, where the fog is not yet so thick and one can see clearly, lies a large flat area covered with a thin layer of frost, almost blending into the fog.

But upon closer inspection, one can see that the land here is not completely flat, but rather divided into neat, orderly sections.

The area around the "cemetery" was cooled using some method, possibly to preserve the body, or perhaps as a different means of preserving the soul.

This immediately reminded Jingli of the snow-capped mountain they had just left.

This should be the "cemetery" we saw when we left the formation, but it's not nearly as terrifying as it looked in the formation. The grave keepers, weeping children, and tomb maids we saw in the formation are naturally not there.

Furthermore, there are no tombstones here, perhaps because the people here do not believe that they are dead, but will eventually come back to life in another way.

Beyond the “cemetery” lies a vast expanse of villages, much like those in other cities.

Thanks to the advanced mechanical puppetry of the Spirit Puppet Immortal Abode, some traces of "modernization" can already be seen here. For example, they have alien puppets specifically used for farming and harvesting, which can be considered as integrated machines belonging to this country.

The houses in the countryside differ from those in the city only in their layout; the materials are not significantly different. In particular, the unusually wide and tall doors are so dark they look like they could devour you.

After leaving the countryside, the road became smoother, and they returned to the street they had been on. This street was the main thoroughfare of the city, and following it would lead them to their destination.

They then went to the back alley street that Jingli had always been somewhat concerned about.

Even from its current state of ruin, one can still see what Back Alley Street was like in the original Lingku Immortal Abode.

Back Alley Street is not actually a whole street as you might imagine; rather, it's a collection of specific "shops."

They were gathered together, yet scattered, hiding in clusters in this dirty, sunless spot.

Jingli saw the locations of the rouge shop and the witch doctor's stall that he had seen before, as well as the hiding place of the giant beggar.

The shop's signboard was still hanging properly, and it looked quite new, perhaps because of the rain over the years.

Jingli glanced inside and saw a cabinet, seemingly made of wood, crowded with bottles and jars, all free of dust. It seemed that the owner of the shop would return to light the lamps again during the nights in the previous formation.

However, the shop wasn't as big as it looked from the outside, which was a point of concern.

However, none of them chose to go inside to check.

Firstly, in this blessed land, it's best to avoid unnecessary curiosity; as 6058 said, "If you don't court death, you won't die." Secondly, their time is truly running out.