WangXian Forever Book 8

Chapter 49 Protection

Li XiWang followed Uncle XiChen and Uncle Cheng.

Out of the two of them, she much preferred her Uncle XiChen rather than the constantly angry Uncle. But even she had to admit that he was a powerful ally in this situation.

She made sure not to walk on any twigs or stones that could make a noise, and then she smacked her own forehead. She was top of her talisman class and didn't she know how to use a muffling spell?

Of course she did!

Her Father Wei would be so proud of her.

Her powers had become stronger now and she was adept at controlling them. So she activated her talisman and used the air around her to quietly clean the way of dried leaves and anything else which would alert others to her presence.

Near the gates of Cloud Recesses, there was a huge boulder which she could hide behind and still be able to listen. She waited until both of her uncles went to the edge of the ward.

Then she darted forward and hid out of sight.

When she peeked out from behind that great stone, she almost fell back in fright.

The Demon was huge. Taller than Hui Gai and way stronger looking. His red eyes were cruel and his face was twisted into a snarl. His tail kept lashing out at the barrier and it fizzled with electric sparks but did not give way.

His muscles on his legs and his arms bulged as he let loose a firebolt towards the ward, and had it not been there, both her uncles would have been gravely injured or worse.

XiChen was not going to lie to himself; this Demon was frightening. Everything about him screamed hatred and anguish, and yet he wanted something badly enough to turn up here. Just from looking at him, XiChen got the feeling that nothing about this was going to be easy.

"What do you want, Demon?" He said, making his voice sound sure and strong.

***************

Hui Gai raised a brow at the Grandmaster.

"You want me to stay? What about them?" He jerked a thumb towards the retreating forms of the two Sect Leaders.

"Oh, they'll be fine if they don't do something stupid like walk past the ward that's protecting them." Baoshan Sanren waved a hand dismissively at them. "I'm more interested in whatever is down there." She pointed at the ground.

"What's down there?" Zago asked, sucking on her fifteenth lollipop of the day. She wondered if that counted because if she never slept, then technically 'day' didn't apply to her.

"We don't know. I suspect we might have to dig our way down to it, but some investigation might be in order." Baoshan Sanren said, not sure how she felt about being in a room alone with two demons, one of whom knew exactly how much she detested that.

"I don't know what is stopping me from getting close." Hui Gai admitted. "There's definitely a barrier. Maybe if I teleported down there?"

"You can do that? What about suffocating? How will you breathe?" She demanded, her whip striking her hand intimidatingly. Silver sparks flew with gusto from her palm.

"I don't know about that, but I do know that we won't know until we try." Hui Gai vanished just like that.

Hui Gai made himself very small, so tiny that he had plenty of air to breathe when he found himself down underground.

There was a cavity, a space in front of an obvious ward.

But what was behind it? Who had left this here? And why?

Was it someone from Cloud Recesses?

He didn't think so because then, there would be some record of it, right? Some elder would have remembered and spilled their guts for sure. So if it wasn't a Lan Clan member, then who?

He teleported back to the Forbidden room.

"What did you find, Demon?" Baoshan Sanren barked.

"One day, you're going to use my name." He grinned back. "There's definitely a ward and I can't tell what it's protecting. But why don't we go down there and try to get past it together?"

Baoshan Sanren narrowed her eyes at him.

"You can do that?"

Hui Gai smiled wider, with all of his pointy teeth.

"Watch me!"

**********

The man standing in front of them was strange.

That was their first thought.

Wen Ning came forward to put himself in between the stranger and the children.

The dragon babies were exactly that, children despite their massive sizes, and Wen Ning was determined not to let anything happen to any of his charges.

"Who are you?" The stranger walked forward. "Or should I ask, what are you?" He sniffed the air interestedly.

He had shrewd yellow eyes, not golden like the two Jades of Gusu, but yellow with a green tinge. His clothes were mostly rags now and he had a long beard that he had plaited into braids, several of which went right down to his toes. His salt and pepper hair was long too and similarly braided and tied at the back.

In his hands, he carried a staff and a sword.

The staff was black and smooth and on the top next to its head, there was a clear crystal dome attached. His sword was black and silver, thankfully still in its scabbard. The outer casing had engravings written in another language.

He looked at each of the children and Zhitiao, who was already on edge with the sudden appearance of this stranger.

Who was he and what did he want?

And more importantly, friend or Foe?

"Why don't you tell us about yourself first?" Wen Ning asked him, thinking about how Young Master Wei would react in this situation.

He certainly would not make any hasty judgements, so Wen Ning determined to do the same. So he smiled politely to take away the harshness of his words.

"My name?" He laughed brightly, which only served to put them on edge. "That's the easy part. My name is Gu Xing." He bowed extravagantly.