85|The Sphinx Epidemic Out of the Ground, Not the Forest 2

Obviously not. Because the first person who rushed onto Shenwu Street was a strong man with a strong physique, it was untenable.

Xie Ren had thought of many possibilities and had verified many of them as to what was different between the soldiers with the human face epidemic and the others. In every aspect, there was no obvious difference between them and the others. Among all the infected people, their appearance, physique, and even their status and personality were all different, and there was no fixed rule to summarize. Could it be that it was really just a matter of luck as to who was infected and who was not?

Xie Ren said to himself, “What exactly did the soldiers do to resist the spread of the human face epidemic? In other words, what exactly are the things that civilians have done less of and soldiers have done more of ……”

When he said this, his eyes suddenly widened, and his face turned white. Hearing his voice stop abruptly, Feng Xin said, “What’s wrong, Your Highness? What did you think of?”

Xie Ren did think of something. He thought of a reasonable speculation, and at the same time, a terrible speculation.

He stood up at once and said offhandedly, “It can’t be! No, no, it shouldn’t be, there’s no way that could happen.”

Feng Xin and Mu Yi also stood up at once and said, “What is it?”

Xie Ren covered his forehead, walked back and forth a few steps, and raised his hand, “You guys wait, I, have a ridiculous guess. It shouldn’t be true, but I need to test it.”

Muoi said, “What exactly is the guess? How do you want to test it? Do you want me to get someone over here for you to try?”

Xie Ren immediately vetoed: “No, you can’t find a living person to try, what if I guess wrong?” Rather, it was better to say that within his heart, he was hoping that he guessed wrong, terribly wrong. Mu Qi frowned, “Your Highness, if you want to know whether your guess is right or not, you have to use a living person to try. This is the best way, it’s useless for you to fret here.”

Feng Xin also frowned, “Can’t you see he’s annoyed, don’t say such things at this moment.”

Muoi turned his head, “Strange, what did I say? Wasn’t what I said the truth? At this point, what’s the use of hesitating and dwelling on it?”

Feng Xin recoiled, “Is everything measured by whether or not it’s used in your case? That’s a living person, not even hesitating for a moment, aren’t you too calm.”

Mu Ai said, “Calm? You’re not trying to say I’m cold-blooded.”

Xie Ren also lost the patience of the previous days in the two gentle mediation, said: “you two, a word can be argued up, how behavior! Give me to stand here for an incense stick, no one is allowed to move within an incense stick. Old rules.”

“……”

“……”

Upon hearing the words “old rules”, Feng Xin and Mu Yi both changed color slightly. Xie Ren waved his hand and said, “Heavenly officials bestow blessings. Begin.”

In the middle of the day, Feng Xin gritted his teeth and said, “…… Blessed Star.”

Muoi also gritted his teeth and said, “…… by the book.”

Windsong said with difficulty, “Section …… Section ……”

He was still thinking hard about how to take it, when Xie Ren turned around and entered the Unseen Forest, looking for the three sick soldiers to ask questions.

The so-called old rules are a way Xie Ren came up with to divert their attention. Feng Xin and Mu情 have something to stab each other a few sentences, the starting point is not too big or small verbal dispute, at first, Xie Ren will let them stand silently for an incense burner, not allowed to talk to each other until they calm down, but the effect is very little, so later on, Xie Ren decided to change it to let them idioms solitaire, with a battle of winners and losers, so that, their minds do not have the spare time to obsess about the fight they had just quarreled, but rather, they have to rack their brains to solve the solitaire, and think of ways to win over the The other side. After discovering this good method, Xie Ren felt that the world had become a lot more peaceful and was very satisfied. Right now, asking them to follow the old rules again was barely enough to make everyone relax.

However, this ease did not last long, and after burning incense, Xie Ren returned. His face was extremely bad as he commanded, “Gather for me all the soldiers from the same battalion who ate and lived with the sick ones, I have something to ask them.”

Those two had already gotten stuck several times each, each winning and losing, and were both relieved to finally not have to solitaire again. Mu Qi said, “That’s fine. But seeking evidence in such a roundabout way may not guarantee that the results will be completely accurate.”

Feng Xin turned around to carry out his orders, but Xie Ren added: ”Wait a minute! It’s already late at night, it’s too big of an action to ask now, and you can’t gather many people at once and draw attention to yourself. What I’m going to ask mustn’t leak a bit of information, so it can’t be hidden from anyone.”

Feng Xin turned around and said, “What should we do then? Take them over to your place one by one and ask them in private?”

Xie Ren said: ”This is the only way. Tomorrow, first bring the soldiers who are close to those people one by one to my house individually, not letting them know that they have been questioned by each other, and you remember to order them to absolutely not tell anyone else. Otherwise ……”

He took a breath and sighed, “Forget it, you might as well threaten, just say that if it gets out, shoot on sight. The tougher the better.”

Muoi said, “Ask them one by one, how long will that take?”

Xie Ren said, “No matter what time to ask also have to ask, ask one more to determine one more point. This matter …… I have to make it clear, and there must not be a half mistake.”

So, on the second day, Xie Ren sat in a room that had been temporarily set aside for him on the citadel and personally questioned more than three hundred soldiers.

In the face of the questions he posed, the three hundred or so people all gave the same answers. With each question, Xie Ren’s face sank. After finishing, Feng Xin and Mu Yi walked inside and saw Xie Ren sitting at the table, holding his forehead with one hand and not speaking for a long time before he slowly said, “You guys guard the city gates, I’m going to make a trip to Taicang Mountain.”

Feng Xin hesitantly said, “Your Highness, have you asked anything? Is it a curse or ……?”

Xie Ren nodded once and said, “Asked it out, it’s a curse.”

Muoi said solemnly, “Convinced?”

Xie Ren said, “Convinced beyond doubt. I also know what kind of people will be infected and what kind of people won’t.”

Although he said so, however, his face did not have half a point of finally unveiled the mystery of the joy, wind letter and Mu love will feel things are not so simple. However, Xie Ren did not take the initiative to say, as subordinates, they naturally are not good to ask more, the two hearts also sank.

Tai Cang Mountain, Imperial Extremity View, the highest peak, Divine Martial Hall. The State Master offered incense amidst the curling smoke and clouds, Xie Ren stepped into the hall and opened the door, “State Master, I want to see the Emperor.”

After the State Master had finished honoring the incense, he turned back and said, “Your Highness, the gates of the Heavenly Realm are no longer open to you.”

Xie Ren said, “I know. But right now, I have ascertained that the Immortal Bliss Kingdom is suffering from an unprecedented tide of cursed evil, this is not a natural disaster, it is something inhuman that is playing tricks on it, please wish me luck and invite the Emperor to descend and possess his spirit, and inform him of this news directly. Perhaps he will know what the source of what is causing all this is, and may be able to find a turnaround.”

Ever since he returned to earth, he had come to the Divine Martial Palace three times in total. However, the first two times were not meant to be a request for help, just a customary walk-through, only this time, was a genuine desire to seek help. The State Master sat in his chair and said, ”It’s not that I don’t want to help you, Your Highness, it’s just that there’s no need for it. Even if I help you, the emperor’s spirit descends and attaches itself to my body, and if you talk to him, the answer you get will only disappoint you.”

Xie Ren colored slightly and said, “Do you know something? What is that white-robed man in the crying and laughing mask, do you know?”

The State Master said, “Your Highness, do you remember what I told you? The qi under this sky, good or bad, is all set in stone.”

Xie Ren was stunned, and immediately remained silent. The State Master added, “Originally, many Yongan people were already dying, and you transported water and rained down to give them a reprieve, but you couldn’t completely save them from the great drought and resettle them for the future, so now, they are in the Yongan army at the back of the slope, trying to earn a future for themselves.

“Originally, the Imperial City’s side had already fallen into decadence, but you personally descended to the earth, and with your own strength, you instantly reversed this situation, giving the Imperial City a reprieve. However, again, you didn’t decisively kill all of the Yongan rebel rebels and eliminate their roots, but instead allowed them to survive until today, fighting stronger and stronger like a bunch of cockroaches.”

The State Master strangely said, “Your Highness, can I ask, what are you doing? Can it be that you are still waiting for both sides to repent, change their ways, and make peace and rejoin the country?”

A feeling of shame inexplicably arose in Xie Ren’s heart. However, it quickly turned into confusion again, thinking, “How strange. No matter how much I saved or protected people, it was all because those people were innocent civilians whose crimes were not punishable by death. Everything I did was clearly a choice I made after serious thought and struggle, so why does it sound so ridiculous when others talk about it? Why does it sound as if I haven’t accomplished a single thing, such a …… failure?”

The word just popped up in his mind and was immediately scratched out by his thick ink. The State Master added, “With the body of a Heavenly God, you intervened in the affairs of the earth. The Immortal Bliss Kingdom’s fixation has been stirred up and messed up by you. In order to strike a balance, something else will naturally be born to bring back the orbit that was knocked off course by you. I don’t know exactly what that something is, but, I’m certain that it was born for you.”

“……”

Xie Ren’s figure swayed. The State Master continued, “I’m also certain that Divine Martial Emperor would have told you the same thing when he met you, because, well, that’s why he didn’t let you come down in the first place. But I think that even if he had told you at that time, you would most likely still have come down. That’s how teenagers are, they don’t believe they can’t walk until they listen to advice and fall.”

Xie Ren said incredulously, ”What you mean is that the cause of this human face epidemic is actually me? So according to the so-called deterministic theory, what that thing that doesn’t cry or smile does, it’s all because I deserve it? So, the Upper Heavenly Court won’t care about this matter at all?”

The State Master said, “You can say that or not. After all, if you really count it that way, you can still blame your father and mother, because if they hadn’t given birth to you, you wouldn’t have ascended, and you wouldn’t have descended to the earth; and so on and so forth, you can blame the generations of your Immortal Bliss grandfathers and grandmothers. Therefore, there is no point in discussing who created the cause.

“As for the last sentence you asked, yes, it will not. For, the fall of Xianle was originally inevitable, and since you reached out and disrupted the game, there must be another hand that puts the pieces you disrupted back into place.”

Xie Ren took a deep breath, not wanting to discuss with him whether or not the death of Xian Le’s country was inevitable, he closed his eyes for a moment and said, “Then may I ask the Master of the State, if I were to disappear right now, would this thing also disappear with me?”

The State Master said, “I’m afraid not. It’s easy to invite the gods but hard to send them away, demons and devils, it doesn’t make any difference.”

Xie Ren nodded and said stiffly, “Good. Thank you for your guidance, State Master.”

He knew that it was useless to say more, and that the only person he could rely on was himself, so he paid his respects to the State Master, said his farewells, and prepared to leave. The State Master said behind him, “Your Highness! What do you plan to do on the road ahead?”

Xie Ren lowered her head and said, “Since it won’t help if I disappear now, fighting it to the end is the only way for me.”

After a pause, he angled his head again and said, word for word, “I don’t care if it’s a hand or something, but these people I’m protecting will never be its pawns.”

Half a month later, Lang Ying led the Yongan army and attacked again.

After months of countless battles, the current Yongan Army could finally be called an army. They were no longer a group of bandits and vagabonds, but a regular and powerful army!

Lang Ying seemed to have evaporated from the earth for a long time, this time, Xie Ren saw this man on the battlefield again, waiting for a long time, he directly flew over the group of people, bulldozed up, chopped down with a sword, and drank, “Where is that white-robed man?”

Lang Ying grasped his sword, not answering, and seriously returned fire. Xie Ren pressed on, saying, “You know who I’m talking about. I have limited patience!”

Coldly, Lang Ying stared at him and said, “Your Highness, didn’t you say that it would continue to rain in Yongan?”

Xie Ren did not expect him to have this question, his heart trembled, open mouth speech blocked: “I ……”

He did promise Lang Ying that it would rain in Yongan. However, during these days, the number of people infected with the human face epidemic within the Imperial City had multiplied several times, and right now there were nearly five hundred people. These five hundred people were all crammed within the Unseemly Forest, and this quarantine area was looking to be insufficient, with officials deliberating on moving to a farther, larger place. Most of Xie Ren’s mana had been used to alleviate the conditions of these five hundred people, and there was no way he could go back to Yongan to send down rain. Since he couldn’t use the Rainmaker’s Hat, he was also too embarrassed to keep someone else’s temple-suppressing magic treasure in his hands, so he had no choice but to send Feng Xin on a trip to the Rainmaker’s Kingdom to return the Rainmaker’s Hat to the Rainmaker and say thank you.

Xie Ren stabbed out with his sword and said angrily, “That rain was sent down by me, why did it stop, don’t you know in your own hearts?!”

The angrier he became, the calmer Lang Ying became, saying, “It’s none of my business. I only know that even without this human face epidemic, your magic power won’t last long; just as even with your rain, Yongan won’t be able to survive many more people. It’s all just useless. Your Highness, why do you think that you can do whatever you want? Instead of handing over my fate to you, I choose to hand it over to myself.”

I don’t know which sentence stabbed him, but Xie Ren’s killing heart rose.

His sword blade turned slightly, his left palm was secretly lifted, and a voice in his heart screamed: kill this man, the remnants of Yongan’s army, not enough to be feared!

Since meeting, this was the first time that he was truly determined to kill Lang Ying. Who knows, he sent a palm out and struck Lang Ying’s chest, striking him and causing him to spit out blood, but instead of piercing through his heart, he was shocked away.

Under this shock, Xie Ren was unbelievable and took a few steps backward, saying, “You?!”

What it was that shook him off, Xie Ren couldn’t have known better.

There are great people on earth, such as kings, wizards, and righteous people, who, in any critical situation, will give birth to a protective body aura to protect that person from harm. Most of these people have the potential to ascend. Lang Ying is just a reckless person, actually also gave birth to this kind of protective aura, moreover, it is still an extremely rare kind – the aura of a monarch!

Xie Ren didn’t dare to think carefully about what this really meant, but suddenly he felt a coldness in his chest, but it was Lang Ying’s sword, which stabbed over and pierced him through the chest.

It was a battle that was not split between the two sides.

The Yongan side that came to invade died quite a few people as usual, but this time, the side of the Immortal Music Imperial City wasn’t much better. If it were anyone else, it could actually be said to be a disastrous victory, but for Xie Ren, this, definitely, was a defeat.

This was his first loss, and, although Lang Ying was still no match for Xie Ren and ended up withdrawing wounded, many people saw the scene where Lang Ying stabbed him. Xie Ren could roughly guess how many generals in the army were talking behind his back: Your Highness is a Martial God, how could he be stabbed? Aren’t we the soldiers of the God of Heaven? Why didn’t we win a big victory this time like in the past? However, he could no longer care at all about these tiny voices, because Mu情 told him that today, the Unseen Forest had sent in over a hundred more patients with the human face epidemic.

Another hundred or so in just one day!

Now, the initial batch of human face epidemic patients had already been sick to an extremely serious point, and there was not a single part of their bodies that could be seen, all of which had to be covered with thick white cloth, otherwise it would be appalling to even look at them. However, through the white cloth, one could also vaguely see those bumpy things on the contours of the body.

Xie Ren wandered around to save his life, and it was only after the round was easily over that Feng Xin pulled him to the side and whispered, ”Your Highness, what happened on the battlefield today? How did you get stabbed by that Mang man? You clearly hit him several times later, why didn’t you kill him?”

Xie Ren did not want to say to him that Lang Ying had an extra layer of monarch’s aura on him that even the magi could not offend, and smiled helplessly and bitterly. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to kill, it was that he couldn’t kill anymore. The mana contained in his attack was all melted away by this layer of king’s qi, completely ineffective against Lang Ying. After realizing this, he immediately switched to using real swords and fists to fight, but this Lang Ying was thick-skinned and durable!

It was at this moment that a man in the distance suddenly howled, “Your Highness save me!”

Xie Ren was receiving a bowl of water handed to him by Feng Xin, just drank a mouthful of it, and choked out when he heard the howling, and he couldn’t take a breath to rest and rushed over. The howling was the youth who gave him the umbrella that day, because Xie Ren was extraordinarily gentle with him, this youth was extraordinarily diligent in shouting for help. Initially, the part of this man that gave birth to the human face was the knee, Xie Ren cast a spell to control the spread of the epidemic poison, therefore, only the left leg of his whole body had a human face, and now he was kicking that leg furiously, dying and living. Xie Ren held him down and said soothingly, “Don’t move! I’m coming!”

The youth was terrified and grabbed him, saying, “Your Highness! Your Highness, save me! I just felt my legs itchy, as if there was some kind of grass sticking, and then I, I looked down, and I saw those things …… their mouths opening and closing, moving, moving ah! They were eating grass!!! They’re alive!!!”

Xie Ren was instantly creeped out. He looked down, and sure enough, on the youth’s left leg, dozens of human faces were densely packed, and several of them had blades of grass in their mouths, and some of them, were still chewing hungrily!

Many of the patients screamed, and the crowd was in an uproar, relying on Fengxin Muyi and the soldiers to suppress the riot. Xie Ren held down the young man with one hand and asked the person beside him, “Can he still move this leg?”

The caretakers of the Unseen Forest are heavily armed, wrapping their whole body tightly with bandages and cloaks, so they can’t see what kind of thing they are doing, and the one who is working on the side answered, and listening to his voice, he seemed to be a teenager, and said: ”Your Highness, it can’t be done! His leg has been ruined, I do not know what else has grown inside, heavy as lead, simply can not even drag drag. And the epidemic poison has been climbing upwards, it is about to climb out of this leg and spread to the waist.”

Xie Ren had already done his best to cast spells to save the leg, however, the youth’s leg could be said to be terminally ill, and had almost lost normal human sentience. At this time, a physician whispered, “Your Highness, in my opinion, the only untried method at the moment is to cut the part of the growing human face and see if we can stop the spread ……”

This was the only thing that came to mind in Xie Ren’s mind, saying, “Then cut it for him!”

The youth was busy saying, “Don’t!” He was afraid that he would really be amputated, but he didn’t dare to hold his deformed leg, and he said with extreme pain, “My leg is not ruined yet! It might still be good …… Your Highness! Don’t you …… you have any other way to save me?”

Xie Ren didn’t want to answer words like “I’ll try my best” or “I’ll try my best” anymore, and with a blackout in front of her eyes, she said, “I’m sorry, I don’t have it.”

It was the first time that His Royal Highness actually said such words, and countless people present were stunned. There were even people who lost control on the spot and screamed out, ”No? You’re His Highness, you’re a god, how could you not have a solution? How many days have we been waiting here for you to think of a solution, how could you not have a solution?!”

The person who said this was immediately silenced by who knows who, however, it wasn’t Feng Xin and Mu情 who stopped it. Mu Ai seemed to think that Xie Ren’s words just now were too frank and failed to pacify the crowd, and was frowning, while Feng Xin was at a distance to stop a few patients who were jumping extraordinarily high. Xie Ren has been anxious for days, the long sword has not been back to the sheath, hanging at the waist, the blade of the sword from the leg closer, a “human face” feel the cold sword, suddenly stopped chewing, a mouth, screaming.

This thing, it actually screamed!!!!

Although the voice was weak, it was undoubtedly coming from this leg. The youth cried out, nearly fainting from fear, hugging Xie Ren tightly and saying repeatedly, “Your Highness, save me! Save me!” And at the same time, three slightly concave fossa pits were faintly born on that leg of his near his waist. That physician said in alarm, “Your Highness, it’s spreading, it’s spreading! The epidemic poison is going to crawl out of the leg!”

After spending more mana, Xie Ren finally failed to control the youth’s condition. Seeing that these horrible things are about to spread to the youth’s whole body, this spread, will never be able to take back, is it just sitting and waiting for death?

Xie Ren clenched his teeth and said, “I’m asking you, in a word, this leg, do you want it or not? I can’t guarantee what will happen after losing the leg. If you don’t want it, nod your head and do it right away; if you want it, don’t nod your head and we’ll see!”

The young man gasping for air, actually scared to the eyes empty, almost demented, seems to be nodding, but also seems to be shaking his head. And those human faces on his left leg, one after another began to scream, as if to welcome the new “companions”. In the babbling, you can even see their happy expressions, as well as the tiny bright red tongue is trembling. It was hard to imagine what kind of scene was inside the young man’s left leg, which had become a host for something.

It couldn’t be delayed any longer! Xie Ren said to the physician, “Cut him off.”

That physician, however, waved his hands repeatedly and said, ”Your Highness, forgive me! I’m not sure, this place, I don’t dare to go under the knife ah! Wan everything up also can’t …… or don’t risk it!” Cursed himself nothing to talk too much, the gun hit the head of the bird, nearly stalled a frightening errand, fled back to the crowd did not speak. That youth murmured, “Your Highness save me, Your Highness save me!” And Xie Ren’s mind went blank, a desperate voice in his heart also murmured, “–Who will save me ……!”

There was a cacophony of voices all around, shouting everything. Those twisted little tiny human faces were also huddled underneath screaming, and for a moment, Xie Ren thought he saw hell.

It was as if he were staring this inferno dead in the face, and as if he were staring at nothing, and in the midst of a cold sweat, his eyes opened wide, and he raised his arms–

The hand rose and the sword fell, and blood gushed wildly.