FVN Chapter 671 Fire Breaks Out
Chapter 671 Fire Breaks Out
Chapter 671 Fire Breaks Out
"Where is this..." Cao Weier was still a little dazed when she climbed out of the coffin. It was obvious that she was going through the process of "memory overlay and recovery" in her mind.
"We can talk later, let's help save people first." Yun Shili didn't explain much. He knew that the other party would understand after a while, so he just replied with this sentence and handed the stick in his hand to Cao Weier.
Cao Weier adapted quite quickly. After taking over her weapon, she only paused for a moment before joining Yun Shili to dismantle the other coffins around them.
Yun Shili initially thought that each coffin here contained a person—one of the guests he had met at the inn—but after he and Cao Weier dismantled three or five more coffins, they discovered something was amiss…
The reason was that the "people" lying in those coffins were clearly not alive, but they were not normal corpses either.
Yun Shili has seen many "normal corpses." He knows the entire process of a corpse's transformation from immediate death to skeletal remains. He can basically estimate the "age of the corpse" just by looking at its condition. In this respect, many coroners who have worked for decades do not have as much practical experience as our Lord Yun.
But the people in these coffins right now have characteristics of being "just dead" or even "not quite dead yet," as well as characteristics of having been decomposed for a long time. Combining his own experience just now, Yun Shili quickly realized that these people's bodies must have been dead for a long time, but their minds were still imprisoned by the evil forces here in that "inn," hovering between life and death... unable to break free.
And just as he was pondering these things...
"Hey? Look!" Cao Weier suddenly exclaimed softly from the side and pointed to a coffin they had just broken.
Upon hearing the sound, Yun Shili turned his head and looked into the coffin, only to see that the "living corpse" lying inside was turning into a "normal corpse" at a speed visible to the naked eye, that is, it was completely dead.
Subsequently, the same phenomenon appeared in the other coffins that were opened, in the order in which they were broken.
At this point, they both understood—the spell would fail if the coffin was broken by external force.
Of course, it is almost impossible for these victims to get out of there on their own. Even someone as strong-willed as Yun Shili would probably have a hard time without Yuwei's guidance.
…………
At the same time, inside the "inn".
Still trapped here, Ma Zhao and the others continued their exploration in the darkness, relying on a few candles and oil lamps they had found on the spot.
"Hey? Where is Lady Cao?" Tang Chou, who had been walking for an unknown amount of time and was already covered in sweat and pale with fear, turned around and was shocked to find that Cao Wei'er, who was supposed to be covering the rear, had disappeared.
The horse-drawn carriage leading the way had been carrying Situ Ao on its shoulder for quite some time and hadn't looked back at the situation behind it.
Tang Chou's reminder prompted Ma Zhao to turn around and look at the scene: "This...when did she disappear?"
"I just found out too," Tang Chou replied awkwardly, then his face lit up with surprise. "Eh? Brother Xu? Brother Xu, are you still there?"
At this moment, Tang Chou was shocked to realize that not only Cao Weier had disappeared, but Xu Wei had also vanished without a trace.
"Damn it..." Ma Zhao was actually terrified, but his reaction was different from Tang Chou's. He was the type whose fear turned to rage, so he immediately started cursing, "They all seemed so capable before, but now that trouble has come, they've all disappeared. All that's left is me, and I have to drag along a cripple and a scholar. It's fucking..."
Actually, Lao Ma's words weren't malicious at all; they were just words people use when they're angry and want to stir up trouble.
Ma Zhao himself knew that if he didn't mutter these words to himself at this moment, he might not be able to suppress another emotion besides anger.
But as the saying goes, what you fear most is what happens; just as he was halfway through his sentence...
"Oh, my dear brother, what are you doing here?" A delicate voice drifted from behind the horse like a gust of cold wind.
Old Ma recognized the voice immediately; it was the same voice of the man who had been studying belts with him in the room earlier.
In that instant, Ma Zhao felt goosebumps rise on the back of his neck, and then this tingling sensation, like "blooming," traveled down his spine in two seconds, reaching his coccyx, causing him to unconsciously perform a Kegel exercise with an extremely long contraction zone.
Anyone who has studied classical Chinese knows that, to put it more elegantly, this state is described as "so frightened that his anus tightened up."
Therefore, the next second, Ma Zhao did something very dishonest.
"Ah—" he yelled to bolster his courage, and then threw Situ Ao, who was on his shoulder, in the direction from which the sound came.
Of course, given Ma Zhao's moral character, it's not surprising that he did this.
As we have mentioned many times before, he was not originally a righteous figure in the martial arts world, much less a chivalrous knight.
For a marginal figure like Ma Zhao, whether it's upholding justice or aiding and abetting evil, it all comes down to costs and benefits. He has a conscience, and if possible, he would certainly prefer to do good deeds, but he also has a price to pay for his conscience, and benefits and risks are factors he has to weigh.
Therefore, you can see many behaviors in him that at first glance seem to be fickle, but upon closer inspection, they are all self-centered...
For example, after hearing the woman's scream, he didn't rush to her rescue immediately, but instead chased after his horse. Only when he was sure he couldn't catch up with the horse did he attend to the woman. Another example is his opportunistic "heroic rescue," where he claimed he didn't have time to ascertain the truth, but in reality, he prioritized his own safety, and killing the wrong person was secondary. Then, when faced with the woman's obviously abnormal "return efficiency," he became anything but "cautious."
It's perfectly normal for someone like that to take on Situ Ao when things are "okay" and then throw him out when things are "okay".
As for our Chrysanthemum Prince, he really got his comeuppance. His previous serious injuries had only just begun to numb when he was thrown out again by Ma Zhao as a human shield.
However, the "Four Faces" chose to gently catch Situ Ao for some reason, and carefully put him back on the ground, as if he was afraid that he would kill the man on the spot if he used too much force.
"Run!" After throwing the person away, Ma Zhao turned around and ran to the railing on the outside of the corridor, then flipped over and jumped directly into the lobby downstairs.
That shout of "Run!" was the only support he could offer Tang Chou.
You might ask if Old Ma really wanted Tang Chou dead? That's definitely not the case. But whether he had a little bit of a "Tang Chou might buy me some more time to escape" mentality, I can only say that those who know, know.
However, the "Four Faces" were a bit disrespectful. It neither did anything more to Situ Ao, nor did it attack Tang Chou, who was standing there looking helpless... It simply darted down the stairs, chasing after Ma Zhao's retreating figure.
Ma Zhao's lightness skill was just so-so, so as soon as he landed, the four men caught up from behind and pinned him to the ground with a single straddle press.
"You...you..." In his panic and fear, Ma Zhao didn't know what to say, and could only manage two utterances, "Spare me...spare me..."
"Hmph..." Four Faces sneered upon hearing this. "Don't worry, you won't die so quickly..." As it said this, its voice changed, and that "overlapping male and female voice" reappeared. At the same time, its mouth slowly split open, revealing a large mouth full of beast teeth.
Just as the monster was about to bite the back of the oar's neck...
Suddenly! In the darkness, an oil lamp fell from a great height at a very subtle, slow speed, and struck Si Lian squarely on the back.
Logically speaking, unless the clothes we wear are made of extremely flammable materials, they are unlikely to catch fire from a tiny spark. But for some reason, the backs of these four people were instantly ignited by such a small oil lamp.
Within two seconds, the three faces on the back of the four-faced creature let out a shrill scream, and its body, like a feline that had been sprayed with orange perfume, was sent flying.
So, where did this oil lamp come from?
It was Tang Chou who threw it down—if it were someone else who wasn't so weak, the oil lamp might have gone out halfway because of the faster speed. But our Mr. Tang was so strong that he couldn't exert even a little more effort, which is why the oil lamp he threw hit its target with three parts of just the right amount of force and seven parts of luck.
Ironically, Tang Chou, the weakest of the survivors tonight, suddenly displayed a strange courage in this life-or-death moment and went to save Ma Zhao, who had just abandoned him.
Still shaken, Ma Zhao noticed the pressure on his back had disappeared. Without thinking twice, he rolled over and then did a somersault to get up and try to escape again.
But just as he got up, the four faces, draped in "fire gauze" and burning and darting around the room, suddenly appeared right in front of him.
At this moment, a sound came from the monster's throat, interspersed with the screams of at least several men and women and the howl of a tiger. Its appearance was also undergoing small but intense changes in the flames. Wherever it passed, some charred and scattered hairs were inexplicably left in the air.
"Ugh—" Seeing a burning fire monster rushing towards his face, Ma Zhao was so shocked that he could only let out a muffled groan. The only reaction his body could manage was to barely move his legs.
Unlike a true master like Yun Shili, who can unleash powerful moves even in a crisis, Ma Zhao is currently at a level where he can "still move." While this is better than most ordinary people like us who would just collapse on the ground and wait to die, it is clearly not enough to resolve this crisis.
"My life is over!" In that instant, Ma Zhao had already resigned himself to his fate and began to reminisce.
But no one expected that his underwear, which he had been unable to untie no matter what, would come loose at this critical moment...
The trousers that were falling down tripped Ma Zhao, who was instinctively taking a step, causing him to fall flat on his face, but also allowing him to avoid the monster that was charging around.
Even Ma Zhao himself was stunned by the fall. By the time he rolled over again and belatedly went to pull up his pants, the monster had vanished without a trace.
However... the threat of death continued, as the fire in the inn's lobby had already begun to spread.