Jiang Xiaohua
The heavy stone stele smashed into the earth, smashing Little Jian's snowman to pieces;
The snowman holding the prayer beads fell limply from the sky, and was immediately slashed open by an Emperor's sword;
The four Emperors surrounded an empty space, watching the snowman wearing the Theatrical Robe dissipate into the air... They froze. Even if one couldn't see their facial features clearly, one could still feel their blankness and astonishment at this moment.
The Emperor's troops and horses filling the entire snowfield seemed to lose their target at the same time. The air became so quiet that only the whimpering wind remained.
The Aura of the [Thespian Emperor]... had disappeared.
Not only the Thespian Emperor, but the affiliated Path of the Soldier and Path of the Actor had also vanished without a trace along with him.
The several Emperors looked around, their brows tightly furrowed, and immediately ordered their troops and horses to search every inch of the surroundings. They felt that Chen Ling's trio definitely wouldn't leave the Ancient Vault of the Imperial Path in an instant. They must have used some method to temporarily hide nearby!
The Emperors' iron cavalry galloped on the snowfield, as if they wanted to dig three feet into the ground here. But not far from them...
The bandages on Jiang Xiaohua's body had mostly fallen off. His snow-white long hair danced silently in the wind and snow. A portion of residual bandages covered half of his face, but his exposed skin and facial features were bright-eyed and white-teethed, as perfect as a jade carving... But the most profound impression was the faint world-weary aura exuding from his eyes.
He was bare-chested. A mysterious Aura emanated from beneath his skin, like an invisible barrier, wrapping him and Chen Ling's trio within it. A squad of Emperor's personal guards almost flew past right against them, yet didn't notice the slightest anomaly.
Chen Ling's trio were all stunned. Especially Little Jian sitting right in the middle, who was almost pressed against Jiang Xiaohua's face. His expression was incomparably strange, silently trying to dodge backwards... But strangely, even being so close, he didn't feel the other party's breathing.
"... Can you move the gun away a bit?" Jiang Xiaohua spoke muffledly. "It's poking me a bit painfully."
At some point, a black gun muzzle was already pressed against Jiang Xiaohua's heart.
At the same time Jiang Xiaohua pounced on them, Chen Ling's gun muzzle was already pressed against the other party's chest. After all, the other party was just buried alive by him. Chen Ling doing this was also an instinctive reaction... He had originally planned to shoot right through Jiang Xiaohua, but he found that the other party didn't seem to have the slightest hostility, so he just kept the gun pressed against the other party like this. If the other party made any moves, he would directly pull the trigger of the [Judgment Court].
Chen Ling's peripheral vision swept over the galloping Emperor's troops and horses, and he had roughly guessed the situation in his heart. After a moment of hesitation, he still put the gun away.
Appearing here in an instant, and even evading the tracking of the Emperors, this must be the handiwork of this Mummy... Looking at it this way, he didn't have any hostility towards him, and could even be considered to have lent a helping hand.
"... Well." Sun Bumian's expression was also somewhat strange. "Do we... do we have to keep hugging like this?"
"My range of concealment is limited. They are too close. If we loosen up a bit, I'm afraid we'll be detected." After a long silence, Jiang Xiaohua finally spoke.
"But this place is only so big. What if they kick us in a moment?"
"No one move."
Chen Ling paused for a moment. "Maintain the current state... In a moment, it might be a bit bumpy."
As the words fell, Chen Ling once again used his Imperial Fate to mobilize a portion of the Ancient Vault of the Imperial Path's power. The figures of the four directly tore through the barrier of "A Hidden Dragon in the Depths", ascending to the layer above!
Disordered light and shadows flashed past the four of them. About seven or eight seconds later, they returned to "Leaping Dragon in the Depths". Troops and horses of different dynasties overlapped here, like an eternal chaotic battlefield.
Under Chen Ling's deliberate manipulation, the three of them fell towards the very edge of this layer, ultimately appearing around a deserted military tent.
"Phew..."
Only after his feet stepped on solid ground did Jiang Xiaohua finally let out a sigh of relief. His arms released the three of them, and he took a step back.
"No one is here, we can loosen up a bit... But you still can't be too far from me, otherwise if your Auras are sensed by those Emperors, they'll still hunt us down."
Chen Ling's trio exchanged glances.
Just as they were about to speak, Jiang Xiaohua seemed to have exhausted all his social energy. He silently walked into the military tent and began rummaging for something.
Seeing this scene, Chen Ling and the others were somewhat puzzled, and closely followed after him... They saw that Jiang Xiaohua couldn't find a suitable container after searching for a long time, so he took off a soldier's helmet, wore it backwards on his head, letting the back of the helmet cover his face. Then he fumbled all the way to the corner of the military tent, hugged his knees and squatted down, like a small, Unregarded flower.
"..."
The air suddenly fell into a dead silence.
After an unknown amount of time, Sun Bumian finally leaned into the two's ears with a strange expression, whispering: "He... what is he doing?"
"I don't know." Chen Ling paused for a moment. "His mental state doesn't seem quite normal... Very much like a book I read before, there was a mental patient in it who liked to pretend to be a plant on rainy days by himself."
"Then if we ask him questions now, will he be able to reply?"
"... Hard to say."
"Leave it to me." Jian Changsheng pondered for a moment, patting his chest. "I'm familiar with this!"
Under Chen Ling and Sun Bumian's puzzled gazes, Jian Changsheng walked straight up to Jiang Xiaohua who was wearing the helmet backwards. Imitating his appearance, he hugged his knees and squatted down with both hands, his eyes staring eagerly at the ground.
Chen Ling: ...
One minute, two minutes, three minutes...
Just as Chen Ling and Sun Bumian were about to lose patience, Jiang Xiaohua finally spoke.
"You... what are you doing?"
"I am a Mushroom."
"..."
Although Jiang Xiaohua's face couldn't be seen clearly, for some reason, Chen Ling and the others could feel that the other party had revealed a disgusted expression. He silently stood up, moved away from Jian Changsheng, found another corner and squatted down again,
Then spoke muffledly:
"Psycho..."
Jian Changsheng: ???
Bro, really...
"Just who exactly are you?" Chen Ling couldn't stand watching anymore, and simply asked directly, "Why are you helping us?"
Jiang Xiaohua squatted in the corner, keeping silent.
Seeing that the other party didn't respond, Chen Ling thought he was too lazy to pay attention to him. Just as his brows gradually furrowed tightly, Jiang Xiaohua's muffled voice finally sounded from within the helmet:
"... Helping you, is to let the world be quiet."
Chen Ling was startled.
He absolutely hadn't expected Jiang Xiaohua to give such an inconceivable answer... And he even skipped the first question and directly answered the second.
"Then who are you?"
"..." Jiang Xiaohua remained silent.
"Can't even say this? We have to know your name at least, right?"
"..."
"Fine, since you're not willing to say, then forget..."
"Jiang Xiaohua." Jiang Xiaohua silently hugged his legs tighter, making himself shrink even smaller, and answered softly,
"... My name is Jiang Xiaohua."