Chapter 31: The Origin of Wood in the Five Elements

  Xuanmu Hua's face was unsure whether it was shock or fear, she had never thought that she would run into Tang An here.

  It turns out that her luck is really bad, Tang An just arrived in Zhongzhou today. Today was supposed to be a busy day with many social engagements, both official and local, and Tang An should have been very busy. Unfortunately, Tang An has always been someone who doesn't like the hustle and bustle, so he wouldn't need to attend such trivial matters personally.

  "You should know that since you know me, you should also know the grudge between Juntian Sect and me. Naturally, you should also know what my good uncle did back then, right?" Tang An's face showed no emotions, but his voice was noticeably colder.

  Xuanmu Hua looked at Tang An and nodded slightly with a complex expression in her eyes.

  "But since you already know I'm a disciple of the Iron Eagle Hall of the Quan Tian Sect, why are you still trying to save me?"

  Xuanmu Huayi regretted his words as soon as they left his mouth. He thought to himself, "He saved me, absolutely not for that Qingmu Lianzi. Qingmu Lianzi is the essence of heavenly wood, precious beyond measure for ordinary people, but for a Tianjing strongman, it's completely useless. It seems he must be asking about Le Tang Zhu. Should I say or not?"

  Noriko Maki was in a dilemma.

  Tang An's sword has always been ruthless. A person who can kill the Western Kunlun Great Sword Saint and also kill the Shu Mountain Seven Extremes Swordsman, will his hand be soft?

  Of course not

  Tang An looked at Xuanmu Hua's changing expression and immediately guessed her thoughts. Tang An coldly snorted, saying to Xuanmu Hua: "You've fallen into my hands, unless you die now. Otherwise, among the warriors under me, there are those from the Inner Affairs Department who specialize in interrogation and torture. Later on, even if you want to die, it won't be that easy. I advise you, quickly say everything you need to say, then leave Qingmu Lianzi behind, and I'll let you go back to avenge yourself."

  At the mention of "revenge", Akane's expression changed, looking at the black-clad warriors who had died to protect her, her eyes shot out with hatred.

  Seeing Xuanmu Hua's eyes, Tang An suddenly understood. It seems that the contradictions between Yue Xingchen and Tieying Hall were not small on that day. The internal affairs of Jun Tian Jiao are not a piece of iron plate, but there are strong and powerful figures suppressing it, just waiting for those few leaders to die, and the bottom is a scattered sand, when the time comes, Yuan Wanli's army will arrive, Yangzhou will be broken in no time.

  "What's wrong, haven't you made up your mind yet?" Tang An glanced at Xuanmu Hua and saw that she was still expecting a miracle to happen. He directly asked Xiao Xie: "Xiao Xie, don't you like Xiao Zhu very much? That woman has something called Qingmu Lianzi on her body, it sounds like some kind of delicious food. Go find out what it is, tonight I'll have the kitchen make you a Lianzi congee to eat, okay?"

  Xiao Xie listened and looked at Xuanmu Hua with a tilted head, seeing that she was tightly covering her abdomen, where there must be something good hidden.

  Xiao Xie smiled mischievously and nodded at Tang An. "Little Tang An, don't deceive people, okay? I've heard Master say that in this world there are five elements of heaven, and Qingmu Lianzi is the essence of Yimuu wood. It's a good thing that can only be born from the fusion of Jishui's essence and Wutu's essence. Are you really going to make lotus seed porridge for me?"

  Xiao Xie finished speaking, but suddenly licked the corner of her mouth, then whispered to herself: "Although I really want to try it, but Master said that wasting is not right. Can't indulge in desires and ruin treasures. That's asking for a lightning strike. Being struck by lightning must be very painful, right?"

  Xiao Yāo muttered to himself, but slowly approached Xuanmu Hua.

  Xuanmu Hua took a stealthy glance at Tang An, who was not far away, and then looked at the little evil spirit walking towards her. The little evil spirit hopped and jumped around, looking completely normal, with no visible flow of true energy on her body, let alone any aura unique to a master. Xuanmu Hua thought she was just an ordinary little girl.

  Xiao Ye is getting closer and closer, and Xuanmu Hua's mind is constantly judging. If she were to counterattack Xiao Ye and force Tang An to agree to let her go back, what are the chances of that? But as soon as she thinks of Tang An's unpredictable swordsmanship, she loses confidence. However, no matter what, she is still a respected figure in the Jun Tian Sect, and seeing Xiao Ye really roll up her sleeves and try to take something from her bosom, her face changes immediately, and she wants to use her internal energy to shock Xiao Ye away. Although her internal energy is not sufficient now, it should be more than enough to shock away a little girl.

  But...

  She used her strength, but the internal force was like a stone sinking into the ocean, with no reaction. However, Xiao Xie smiled and found a small green lotus seed from her arms.

  The lotus seed looked normal from the outside, but when held in his hand, Tang An suddenly felt a strong life energy emanating from it.

  If this lotus seed is made into medicine and used to treat injuries, it is indeed a sacred medicine for treating injuries.

  "Is this the Aoki Renko? Indeed, it's a treasure." Tan An only took a few glances and casually tossed the Aoki Renko to Xiao Xie. Xiao Xie happily caught it, then "ah wow", in one mouthful, swallowed the Aoki Renko directly into his belly right in front of Tan An and Xuanmu Hua.

  Tang An was taken aback for a moment, then looked at Xiao Xie's smug expression and burst out laughing, while Xuanmu Hua's face changed drastically, turning as pale as death.

  "Essence of the Wooden Element, you actually ate it?! Do you know or not, how much effort our sect put in, how many disciples were injured and killed to find this, and you just ate it?! You actually took it and ate it..."

  Xuanmu Hu's mouth was shouting, already somewhat frantic. This Qingmu lotus seed wasn't used by the white paper fan to heal wounds, but rather to break through the heavenly boundary.

  The white paper fan cultivates the Qingdi Yimutong Shen Gong, and now it has been cultivated to a bottleneck. The amount and quality of its own Yimutong true energy are limited, and he wants to use this green wood lotus to break through the heavenly boundary.

  Once he entered the Tianjing, his status in the church rose sharply, and he was able to firmly trample his arch-nemesis underfoot. And Xuanmu Hua was his arch-nemesis, sent to prevent him from getting the Qingmu lotus seed. That's why Xuanmu Hua would send someone to steal the Qingmu lotus seed, only to be pursued and killed.

  Now she has countless deaths and injuries under her hands, the Qingmu Lianzi that she had exchanged for her life was actually eaten by Xiao Xie as a snack. At that time, she really felt like she was going crazy.

  But Xiao Xie ate the Qingmu lotus seed, and suddenly her eyebrows furrowed, then her face color suddenly began to change greatly. She was stunned in place, motionless. The green, white, and red colors on her face exchanged places, looking extremely strange, as if she had gone mad. But before long, after her face changed three times, a layer of green light suddenly appeared on her body, and outside this green light, there was another layer of faint yellowish-brown color. This yellowish-brown color was faint but existed in reality.

  Tang An looked at it and was surprised in his heart: "Huh? Why does Xiao Xie's protective true yuan have two kinds of breaths? One is soft and smooth, the other is thick and heavy. It's really strange."

  Xiao Xie opened her eyes and saw Tang An, but suddenly pounced into Tang An's arms, crying loudly: "Waaah... so scary, so scary. I almost got eaten by a monster, I'll never eat randomly again..."

  Xiao Xie cried for a while, but then thought of something fun and smiled: "However, that monster was eaten by me later. It seems I also gained a little bit of other abilities."

  As she spoke, Xiao Xie manipulated her true yuan, and a dazzling green light suddenly appeared in the palm of her hand. However, amidst this green light was also a hint of yellow glow. These two began to merge with each other, and in an instant, they transformed into a deep blue color.

  As soon as the azure essence entered the ground, those weeds suddenly surged up, and in just a moment, they had grown taller and larger by more than half.

  Xiao Xie saw this and suddenly clapped his hands excitedly: "Wow, Xiao Tang An, look at how powerful I am! Before, I could only control the water element's power nearby, but now, I've discovered that I can also control the earth element's power under our feet. Just now, I combined these two together. It turns out that when they're combined, it looks like this... This seems to be the wood element's power from Master's five-element elemental powers! But isn't it said that only those who have reached the Return to Origin realm can wield the five-element elemental powers? Hmm... Master must be deceiving us again."

  The mighty ones in the Great Heaven Realm transform their divine thoughts into one, condensing them into a divine soul. The divine soul communicates with heaven and earth, forming its own unique four-image attributes. In contrast, the strong ones in the Return to Origin Realm condense their divine souls, form a divine fetus, and merge the four images, forming properties such as the five elements of yin and yang.

  Tang An saw that Xiao Xie was fine, and he felt relieved. He turned to look at Xuan Mu Hua. "Just now, if you had chosen to capture Xiao Xie to threaten me, I would have definitely killed you. Fortunately, you didn't do anything stupid. As long as you tell me what I want to know, I'll let you go. However, even if I don't kill you, those disciples of the Sun Moon Star will definitely hunt you down. Qi Sha Dao, Thirteen Qing Yi Wei, these people are not some small fry, right?

  "So, I advise you to follow me obediently. By the way, I'll tell you that tomorrow, I'm going to Yangzhou. You only have one night to think about it. Whether you live or die, it's up to you."

  Xuanmu Hua looked at Tang An, her eyes flashing, and then said: "What you said is not wrong. At least, if you wanted to kill me, you wouldn't have spoken so much nonsense with me. The reputation of Tianjian Tang An, I still believe in it, I'll tell you everything you want to know."

  …………

  Shortly after Tang An and the others left, another group of people arrived on this mound. The cuffs of those people also had three-color flames embroidered, which were the people of Sun Moon Star

  "Reporting to the master, my brothers have finished checking. There are thirty-five corpses here, including Qi Sha and Shi Wei." A tall disciple bowed his head to a middle-aged man wearing a long gown.

  The middle-aged man frowned upon hearing this and asked again: "What about Xuan Mu Hua? Has Qing Mu Lian Zi been found?"

  That tall disciple murmured and said: "The disciples are still searching, temporarily... temporarily, Xuan Mu Hua's corpse has not been found."

  "Get lost! Go and look for it!" The middle-aged man shouted angrily, waving his sleeve.

  That tall disciple wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, said a word of obedience and hastily retreated. They had many people, but in just a moment, several miles around were thoroughly searched.

  "Reporting to Your Honor, we still haven't found Xuan Mu Hua's body. It seems she was rescued by someone."

  "Was he saved?" The middle-aged man furrowed his brow, and casually glanced at the corpses on the ground. He discovered that the seven Qīnguì knife-wielding Thirteen Blue Guards had died in the same way - all of them had been pierced through the head by a single sword. It's worth noting that the head is one of the hardest parts of the body, and unless someone was extremely confident in their swordsmanship, they wouldn't choose to stab the head; instead, they should have aimed for the chest, heart, or abdomen.

  The middle-aged man looked at the corpse, thought for a moment, and suddenly came up with a possibility.

  He hastily bent down to examine the corpses. In a moment, he was certain. Judging from these sword wounds alone, he was certain that the killer must be a Tianjing strongman and only a Tianjing strongman would have struck with such force, leaving the twenty-odd people without any resistance. Moreover, looking at this technique, the person must be a high-ranking expert among the Tianjing strongmen.

  He suddenly thought of one person, and only that person could possibly appear here, killing all the disciples of the Tian Tian Sect without saying a word. He furrowed his brow, seemingly somewhat skeptical, muttering to himself: "Tian Jian Tang An?"

  As soon as he thought of this, his heart was filled with a sense of horror, and he quickly waved his hand behind him, signaling them to leave this place of trouble.

  The exam is over, try to update more tomorrow.

  The weather is so hot, I just can't get motivated. Please, heaven, give me some energy, and let it rain heavily here tomorrow.