Ignoring the blood on her hands, Fang Fei continued to punch the sturdy wooden panel of the water and land painting, but it remained completely undamaged.
The monkey demons were terrified by the scene before them; the entire painting shop had collapsed into ruins, and the python and giant goose above were locked in a fierce battle, neither gaining the upper hand. The female goose demon in front of her was acting like a madwoman, relentlessly attacking the wooden panel, wishing she could smash herself against it and perish together.
Seeing that her punches were ineffective, Fang Fei grabbed a nearby half-broken stool and smashed it against the panel, but it was like an ant trying to shake a tree—completely ineffective.
A nearby monkey demon said, "Don't waste your energy. This wooden panel is protected by demonic power. Unless a god comes, no matter how powerful you are, you can't break it."
Fang Fei's eyes glazed over for a few seconds, but she refused to give up. She looked up at the sky; "goose feather snow" was still falling, accompanied by some blood-stained python scales.
Fang Fei screamed towards the sky, "Wei Dong! The fragment is right here! On the wooden plank! We have to find a way to smash it! Wei Dong—Wei Dong—"
Whether Wei Dong, locked in combat with the python, heard Fang Fei's voice was unknown. They were rising further and further from the ground, and those below could only see two figures, one black and one white, locked in a fierce struggle.
Several monkey demons tried to scatter and escape, but the python's massive tail swept them together, the tip seemingly barbed. One of the monkey demons was slashed by the barb and died instantly.
Fang Fei's face was pale, and her voice was completely hoarse, but Wei Dong clearly lacked the strength to come down and break the wooden plank.
"Even if he came down, it wouldn't be of any use. Even the python's demonic power can't break this plank," the monkey demon continued, taking two steps closer and saying in a low voice, "With this plank protecting us, the Lion Camel Kingdom's schemes won't be discovered by the outside world."
"Why?" Fang Fei looked at the monkey demon, seemingly realizing his true identity.
"This wooden tablet is just an ordinary water and land painting, but it gained demonic power because it was coated with demon blood. Furthermore, the people of Lion Camel Kingdom have been requesting it to take back for worship, giving it even greater power. Unless a deity descends and shatters this tablet, Lion Camel Kingdom, this demon city, will never be destroyed." The monkey demon's expression was extremely serious.
"Don't we often have deities descending here too?" Fang Fei thought of the White Crane Prince.
"The magic of this city lies in this: any deity passing through will be assimilated by the customs of Lion Camel Kingdom. They will believe that this is how it should be, that everything is normal here." A look of pity appeared in the monkey demon's eyes.
As it should be, everything is normal.
It was truly ironic.
"Is it possible that even as a mere human, there's no way to stop it?" Fang Fei's eyes stared blankly at the seemingly indestructible water and land painting tablet as she looked at the monkey demon.
The monkey demon's eyes darkened: "Where are the pure humans? Where are the pure demons? There are demonic natures in humans, and human natures in demons; they are merely neither truly human nor truly demonic."
Fang Fei, upon hearing this, paused for a few seconds, then, seemingly drawing strength from nowhere, lifted half a collapsed pillar and smashed it against the wooden plank: "Who the hell wants to be a transvestite in this godforsaken place—"
The table beneath the plank collapsed into several pieces, but the plank remained intact.
"Don't bother. I've tried soaking it in water, burning it, but nothing works." The monkey demon said, raising its head. "Your husband is going to lose. —I thought I'd see a good 'goose eats snake' show."
Hearing this, Fang Fei's heart skipped a beat. She looked up, but before she could see the battle above, a blinding white light, like lightning, ripped through the sky and shot towards her.
Fang Fei instinctively dodged backward, only to hear a piercing cracking sound and sparks flying everywhere. The wooden plank depicting the water and land had shattered into pieces, and on one of the fragments was a large white bird with a bright red head, seemingly a red-crowned crane.
Fang Fei looked up at the sky; Wei Dong, transformed into a giant goose, was tightly coiled by the python, yet it stubbornly stretched its neck, pecking fiercely at the snake with its beak.
The monkey demon said, "This city has finally fallen."
Fang Fei stepped forward, first examining the red-crowned crane, only to discover that the bright red on its head wasn't a crane's crest, but a large patch of blood.
Fang Fei smelled a familiar scent on it, and upon examining its wings, she discovered old wounds and the medicine applied to them—the very powder she had just used on the child at the inn!
As the two were leaving, Wei Dong, fearing for the child's safety, used a crane feather to create an illusion, transforming him into a crane child. However, he hadn't expected…
"You child, how did you know…" Fang Fei was momentarily speechless.
The crane child weakly opened its eyes: "A two- or three-year-old is still a child, but turning into a crane makes one an immortal."
Fang Fei wiped the blood from its head, listening to the monkey demon beside her say, "It's said to be an immortal, but it's an immortal transformed from a human. It has an indelible memory of this city, so…"
Therefore, once it possesses power, it will definitely try every means to destroy this city.
In an instant, the world changed color, even the python and goose entwined in the sky stopped moving.
A mournful cry rang out from afar: "Lion Camel Ridge is lost! Erlang Shen is searching the mountain! Run! Run!"
Fang Fei only saw a fragment of wood beneath the crane child suddenly glow, as if scattering endless golden sand. In a daze, Wei Dong descended from the sky, covered in wounds: "Fang Fei, the city has fallen. We've found the fragment; we can leave now."
The crane child, its neck crooked, fell into Fang Fei's arms. Fang Fei said to it, "Child, if you want to become human again, let that monkey demon help you break the curse; but I advise you to continue being a bird immortal, only then will you have a chance to heal your wounds and continue living..."
"I want to go with you," the crane child said firmly.
Fang Fei was stunned, feeling a dazzling light, and the surrounding scenery became completely obscured.
Fang Fei felt as if she were being carried by a cloud to another dimension, one hand holding the battered Wei Dong and the other cradling the dying crane child…
When she opened her eyes again, she was back in this familiar hall. The cold marble floor reminded everyone of its reality—it was from this hall that everyone had left for different worlds.
Wei Dong was right in front of her, restored to his original form, with a human head and features, so familiar, so endearing.
Wei Dong smiled weakly at Fang Fei: "We succeeded, we're back."
Fang Fei looked at the "crane child" she was holding in her right arm, but it was gone. Only a tiny, golden speck floated faintly in the air, disappearing in an instant.
"Did you see it?" Fang Fei asked Wei Dong.
"Like a firefly," Wei Dong's voice was filled with desolation.
On the marble floor of the hall lay a tattered fragment of a template. Fang Fei went over to examine it and saw a strange pattern engraved on it. Wei Dong also picked it up and examined it closely. "Director Hua just told us that this symbol has the power to 'exorcise demons.'"
Fang Fei felt a little disappointed, but seeing that Wei Dong's injuries weren't too serious, she felt somewhat relieved.
"Where are the others? Are we the first group to come back?" Wei Dong himself couldn't believe that the two of them had found the fragment and come back alive, and even were the first to return.
Fang Fei stood up and took a few steps forward, noticing some bloodstains on the ground, forming a trail of blood that stretched forward and disappeared around a bend.
Fang Fei shouted, "Who? Who's over there?"
But no one answered.
Wei Dong struggled to his feet: "Let's go check over there, maybe one of our companions is injured!"
...
Meanwhile, in another world.
"Beep—"
The familiar timekeeping sound rang out, and Luo Jin simply covered his ears to ignore it: "It's over, it's over, there's no time! We're definitely going to have to leave here!"
Hua Jiqiu, however, remained as composed and elegant as ever, taking out his phone to check the time: "Only three hours left."
"Don't remind me!" Luo Jin was almost in tears. He looked out the car window, and outside was still the endless winter scenery, as if the world itself had been frozen. They
had been here for a full ten hours.
The two of them had been in this huge ancient wooden carriage the whole time, not knowing where their destination was.
Batch after batch of passengers had come and gone, all dressed in ancient attire, and many stories had unfolded around them, some of which could even be called cases, but Hua Jiqiu had helped resolve them all.
Luo Jin once thought he had boarded a Chinese version of the "Orient Express," but the cases on this train were clearly more troublesome, as there was more than one; Luo Jin counted on his fingers, and there had already been four.
Some cases had already occurred, and Hua Jiqiu helped to track down the murderer; others had shown signs of trouble, but Hua Jiqiu nipped them in the bud.
Moreover, Hua Jiqiu's deductions in these cases were becoming increasingly rapid. The first case took about four hours, and the subsequent ones were much faster, especially the women who had just boarded, who started accusing each other of being thieves because of a lost piece of jewelry.
Hua Jiqiu hardly asked any questions and directly said, "Liu Shi is innocent; others conspired to frame her."
The strange thing about this world is that once the correct "culprit" is found, the other party has no power to resist and must get off the train.
Thus, Liu Shi was fortunate enough to remain on the train, accompanied by her son, a boy named Xiao Feng.
At this moment, Xiao Feng sat next to Luo Jin, resting his chubby cheeks on his hand and asking, "Brother Radish, when will we reach our stop?"
"I can't answer that for you, you'll have to ask your mother." Luo Jin was usually good-tempered and patient with children, but he had no time for jokes with this kid.
Xiao Feng said seriously, "My mother said that everyone on this train will listen to you. Wherever you get off, we'll follow."
Luo Jin felt that this train was incredibly strange, but he didn't dare to get off easily because the cold wind outside could freeze a person to death, while it was warm inside the train. "Xiao Feng, how does this train move? How can it be so fast?"
"It's the wind. At first, it was a north wind," Xiao Feng replied, "but now it's shifting east, and it's starting to blow a northeast wind."
If it was the wind that was making the train run, Luo Jin would believe it, because no oxen or horses could pull a train that fast; it was practically like an ancient train running.
Hua Jiqiu closed his eyes to rest for a while, then asked Luo Tan, "Little Luo, how many people are in this car now?"
"Nine, including the two of us." Luo Tan counted the people in the carriage again. "But these are all people I can see. I don't know about the ones I can't see. Who knows if there's some mysterious driver driving us?"
Hua Jiqiu seemed to be mentally calculating: "Nine, two short."
"Director Hua, don't scare me! Why are you counting heads like this?"
"Don't worry, I know. I can't reveal it yet," Hua Jiqiu smiled. "Just remember, if anyone else gets on the car, no matter how many or who they are, you have to cooperate with me."
"Okay, I don't have any other choice anyway..." Luo Tan scratched his head, noticing his ancient-style hair bun was a little crooked. He quickly sat up, but then the car suddenly slowed down.
Luo Tan understood; someone was about to board.