Chapter Twenty-Four: Forced into a Desperate Situation

  The vengeful spirits beneath the cliff seemed to have no intention of dispersing, and instead gathered in greater numbers. These low-level, beast-like ghosts were not afraid of death, which made them a headache for even regular ghost soldiers, who didn't want to provoke them, so they lured humans here instead.

  The three of them sat on the stone, gradually becoming drowsy, especially Zhao Xue and Zhao Ba, who were already exhausted. Once they relaxed, they fell asleep.

  Guo Fei also closed his eyes to meditate. Guo Fei discovered that whether it was the curved knife's virtual shadow airflow or the sword shadow's heat flow within his body, even if he didn't practice breathing exercises, they would slowly recover on their own, just a bit slower than usual.

  According to the information from Zhao Xue, the true energy in the body of a Qigong practitioner cannot be stored at all, but only through Gongfa can a chaotic flow of true energy burst out in the meridians. As the cultivation deepens, it is also possible to store true energy in the Dantian. This true energy does not have the characteristics of the five elements.

  When exerting martial skills, the invisible true energy is not very powerful. However, Guo Fei's sword shadow heat flow and curved knife air flow are obviously one level higher than the air flow possessed by Zhao Xue, a master of internal energy. This shows that Guo Fei still has some insight.

  Moreover, it has already shown its characteristics. The sword shadow heat flow has a sharp characteristic, with a majestic and powerful aura; the curved knife's virtual shadow is cold and sinister. This cannot be compared to a complex true energy group, and should gradually show the characteristics of the five elements. Moreover, Guo Fei was certain that as he leveled up, this air current would become more and more refined.

  "Could it be that these air currents, as they rise, reach the standard of the Five Elements' Primordial Qi?" Guo Fei felt a vague sense that this was indeed possible.

  "Clang!" A faint sword hum startled Guo Fei from his drowsy state. As he opened his eyes, he saw that it was the soft whine of his own Xuan Tie Sword. At the same time, a sense of foreboding arose in Guo Fei's heart, and he suddenly lifted his head to see two dark red glows flashing towards him and the others.

  "Hiss!" Guo Fei didn't have time to greet the two, his hand beckoned, and the Xuan Tie sword sprang out, grasped in his hand. Guo Fei's figure flashed, and one sword stroke was swung out.

  "Whoosh!" As the object flew closer, Guo Fei realized it was an eagle, three meters in length with a wingspan of ten meters. Guo Fei's sword sliced across its abdomen, leaving a long gash, and the eagle flapped its wings, taking to the sky.

  "What happened?" Zhao Xue woke up with a start and asked anxiously.

  "Get out of here!" Guo Fei looked down and saw that the army of undead was still gathered in the withered forest. Flying undead were coming from the sky, it was truly a desperate situation.

  "What happened?" Zhao Xue continued to ask.

  Guo Fei cautiously looked up at the sky, pondering: "The flying dead spirits will come again, one just came and I stabbed it with a sword, now it flew away, I reckon it'll be back, you guys be careful."

  "Whoosh!" At this moment, from the blind spot of three people on the side, a large eagle suddenly swooped down and grabbed at Guo Fei's thigh.

  Guo Fei suddenly flipped backwards, his Xuan Tie sword flashing out like a black lightning bolt. His body followed the momentum and flipped back up, dodging the eagle's sharp talons as the sword sliced towards the eagle's head. This movement was as fast as lightning, it seemed as if the sword was guiding Guo Fei's body, as if the sword had come to life, merging with him into one entity, with the sword in control.

  "Pffft!" The sword flashed, and with one stroke, the bird's head was severed. Its body fell into the cliff below, while its head landed on a rock. In an instant, it decayed and turned to ash, revealing two soul crystals the size of ping-pong balls inside.

  Guo Fei secretly congratulated himself for not replacing the Xuan Tie sword. Just now, a sword intent had been transmitted from the sword body, instantly warning Guo Fei. Following the sword intent, Guo Fei launched this sword. In his own opinion, practicing Wen Shu's sword moves was perfect this time.

  "Sword intent! The sword intent that Uncle Wen spoke of, it's actually like this, the heart and mind combined." Guo Fei was still savoring the joy of his previous sword strike, constantly thinking and summarizing.

  "The sword's intention is sprouting, and the intentional sword is born!" Zhao Xue exclaimed in surprise.

  "What does 'Junzhu' mean? I don't understand!" Guo Fei had heard Wen Shu mention the sword intent before, but he didn't understand it then. Now that Zhao Xue mentioned it again, he immediately asked for clarification.

  "I don't quite understand either, but I've heard my father say that a cultivator must use a matching magic tool to bring out the power of their own five elements. According to the cultivator's cultivation level, they are divided into treasure tools, sect tools, noble tools, emperor tools, and sacred tools. Treasure tools are special weapons for Qi-refining cultivators, which have meridians inside that allow true energy to condense and emit formless true energy."

  There is another type of artifact that grows with its master, and such an artifact must be refined through the years to have a deep connection. Initially, it has the intention of the artifact, reaching the first level of realm, but because of its high degree of fusion with the master, it exerts a powerful force far beyond that of a precious artifact. In the middle stage of the Intentional Artifact Realm, it is comparable to a Sect Artifact. Such an intentional artifact is only useful in the hands of its master, and if it falls into the hands of others, due to the mismatch of the artifact's connection, it cannot exert any power, and may even harm the master.

  "My uncle Zhao Wang's 'Frenzied War Axe' was tempered through the years and has reached the second stage, the realm of 'Special Artifact', after hundreds of years of battles."

  "What is special about this device?" Guo Fei was astonished.

  "I don't understand either, this sword of yours seems to have just sprouted a sword intent and should be classified as an Intentional Tool, it's very similar to what my father said." Zhao Xue stared at Guo Fei's sword, pondering.

  "I don't know, it's just an ordinary weapon." Guo Fei smiled and continued: "We must leave here. Since one death spirit has flown in, there will definitely be a second, third, fourth... later they'll come in droves, we can't withstand them."

  "There are swarms of undead below, and steep cliffs above. We can't escape, let's just wait for death!" Zhao Xue seemed to calm down at this moment, muttering to herself.

  "If I die, will I return to Earth?" Guo Fei pondered in his heart, and then sighed bitterly, estimating the probability as zero.

  "If we could illuminate the cliff above, to see how high it is or if there are any protruding boulders for us to climb up. We can't just wait to die here." Guo Fei said, looking at the vague stone wall above the cliff.

  In this dark area, with his strength, he could vaguely see a thousand meters away, and clearly only about ten or twenty meters away. In fact, he couldn't see very far, let alone the rocks that protruded from the cliff, so he didn't know if there was a path to climb on the cliff.

  Zhao Xue thought for a moment, took out the staff hidden in her long gown and said: "The five elements of yuanqi inside can still cast 'Water Light Technique' once, but the duration is not long. Originally, we had soul crystals, equivalent to water spirit stones, which could provide dense water system yuanqi, but the energy contained within must be converted into yuanqi for casting spells through the 'source' in the human body."

  Zhao Xue sighed, and the staff in her hand moved, about ten or so breaths later, a faint blue light appeared on top of it, casting a layer of blue glow over the surrounding cliffs.

  Guo Fei took a look and found that the technique had a major flaw, which was that it was too slow. At such a short distance, Guo Fei could have killed her five times in the time it took to deploy the technique.

  Guo Fei looked up and saw a small stone protruding from the side about 20 meters above, on which there seemed to be a recess in the cliff, but he couldn't see what was inside.

  "Hurry up and take off your clothes!" Guo Fei exclaimed after a moment of contemplation.

  "What are you doing!" Zhao Xue's face turned red as she said in a low voice.

  "There was a protruding rock above, but I couldn't climb up, so I had to use my clothes to tie a strap and hang it on top to climb up and see if there's a way out. But my clothes weren't long enough, and I reckon even if the three of us took off our clothes, it still wouldn't be enough." Guo Fei explained.

  "No way, I'd rather die!" Zhao Xue's face turned red with rage as soon as she heard it.

  Guo Fei ignored her and directly took off his clothes, glancing at Zhao Ba. Zhao Ba quickly took off his clothes as well, but when they tried to connect their clothes together, it was clear that they were not enough. The two of them could only stare helplessly at the long gown outside Zhao Xue's body.

  "Sister, time is pressing, safety is crucial!" Zhao Ba urged, his eyes somewhat urgent.

  "No way!" Zhao Xue's face turned red as she said in a low voice.

  "County master, you don't have to take off the long gown you're wearing outside. You should be wearing close-fitting pants underneath, right? Taking those off will do. With the gown on, we won't be at an advantage." Guo Fei said with a smile.

  "Bastards, scoundrels! If there's no way out up ahead, I won't let you off!" Zhao Xue cursed, turning her body away.

  "Don't look!" Then he turned around and coldly shouted at the two of them, rustling as he took off his close-fitting pants.

  "Hot pink!" Guo Fei took a look and was momentarily stunned, with a sly smile spreading across his face. He was wearing a pale blue robe outside, which surprisingly hadn't been torn apart in the withered woods, but only had a few buttons missing from the chest area, clearly not an ordinary garment. Inside, he was actually wearing hot pink tight-fitting pants, leaving people's imagination running wild.

  "Pffft!" Zhao Xue looked at Guo Fei with a "pig brother" expression, and with a flick of her hand, she slapped the pants onto Guo Fei's face.

  Guo Fei didn't dodge or evade, letting his pants cover his face, and took a deep breath, then smacked his lips, with an evil smile, he connected her pants to his own. Zhao Xue's face turned bright red, fiercely staring at Guo Fei's evil smiling face. Zhao Ba's face was gloomy, silently standing beside them.

  (Representing the former good boy, little rascal, and university student Guo Fei's request for recommendation and collection! A light vote of recommendation is the greatest encouragement to the author. Let me also go to the new book list to take a stroll, hehe! Thank you.)