Monument of Life and Death

   ***

 Xiaolan is drifting in her dream.

 She didn’t know how long she had been floating.

 I don’t know if I want to wake up.

 Did it fail?

 If you fail...will someone wake you up?

 A feeling of uneasiness pulsed in Xiaolan's chest.

 What if they can’t wake themselves up?

Xiaolan looked around, trying to find something that could make her feel familiar.

No.

Xiaolan suddenly felt aggrieved.

"It shouldn't be like this..." Xiaolan murmured to herself, "There must be something wrong somewhere."

Xiaolan scratched her head.

 She folded her hands and placed them on her belly, and the warmth in her palms instantly dispelled the cold.

 This may be the only way now.

Xiaolan exhaled and took one last look at the endless darkness around her.

 Let’s try it.

 Xiaolan closed her eyes.

 Start to dream.

   ***

 Qin Yin held his breath.

 The touch covering the skin disappeared instantly.

 “What are you... again?”

The words left by the man just now seemed to be warm, freezing Qin Yin in place, unable to move.

 But there is only this sentence.

Qin Yin's brain was spinning rapidly. When it reached the point where it could no longer process the information, Qin Yin gritted his teeth and started moving again.

 The red thread wrapping around his body seems to be loosening.

Qin Yin felt the heat on her chest.

 After reacting for a while, Qin Yin finally remembered.

That's Oscar.

Jasmine’s Oscar also woke up with Qin Yin and is now struggling with Qin Yin.

 It was Oscar’s little body that was getting hot.

As Oscar's temperature gradually rose, Qin Yin could feel the red threads binding his hands breaking and falling off one by one. Qin Yin twisted his wrists in pain. After a while, his hands were finally free.

Without enough time to notice the stinging sensation of the thin thread cutting into his skin, Qin Yin kept up his efforts and soon freed his forearm, and then his entire right arm...

The lifeless red thread seemed to have turned into an ordinary rope. Soon, both of Qin Yin's hands came out. She grabbed the ropes wrapped around her and tore them clean one by one.

 Qin Yin rubbed his eyes.

His face was covered with strangulation marks, as if someone had made countless cuts on his face with a knife.

 Put your hands down.

 Qin Yin finally opened his eyes.

This is no longer the place where I was before I fell into coma.

Qin Yin's limbs were still a little limp. She struggled to sit up and looked at Oscar in her arms first.

 Oscar was also looking at her, his golden eyes shining with childlike innocence.

Seeing Qin Yin smile, Oscar jumped into Qin Yin's arms.

Qin Yin patted Oscar's still warm back.

Although he looks like a child, Qin Yin knows that this is actually Jasmine’s spiritual power.

 That is, jasmine itself.

“Fortunately you are still here,” Qin Yin choked and said, “Fortunately you are okay.”

 Oscar nodded, left Qin Yin's arms, and began to remove the red thread wrapping her legs for her.

Qin Yin looked around. He was lying in a very narrow space. The space was square, with a length and width of only about two meters.

 There is nothing here except red lines scattered all over the place.

 Qin Yin raised his head.

 It turns out that this is a deep well.

 I lay down in the well and looked at the wellhead in the distance.

 The man just now has disappeared.

 But where is this?

Qin Yin reached out and touched the wall of the well.

 It is very smooth, and it is almost impossible to climb up through the wall of the well.

Qin Yin looked at his hands and tried to mobilize his spiritual energy.

As if a hand was suppressing his spiritual energy, Qin Yin could only watch in despair as the light spots disappeared as soon as they appeared. Every time a blue light started to appear on his fingertips.

 It seems that this place is the same as the space just now. Here, their spiritual energy will be suppressed.

 But why is this happening?

Qin Yin hugged Oscar and looked up helplessly, looking at the bright light at the mouth of the well.

   ***

Luo Jiutian held the Panlong Pond and used his weak spiritual power to put a layer of Panlong Armor on Xia Ni and Xiaolan.

“I don’t know if it’s useful,” Luo Jiutian sighed, “the spiritual energy is suppressed too much here.”

“The ability of the talisman cannot be used,” the Taoist priest shook the purple talisman in his hand, “It’s very strange.”

“Didn’t Director Keluo say that this is already the real world?” the fool asked, “Why is this happening?”

Lao Luo thought hard for a while and then said, "It's a pity that I don't have a physical body now, so I can't feel the specialness of this place."

“Dad, is there anything that can restrain people’s spiritual energy?” Luo Jiutian asked.

 Lao Luo frowned and thought, and quickly said, "If it's just about restraining spiritual energy, of course it is possible."

  “What is it?”

"You also know," Lao Luo said to Luo Jiutian, "It's Lu Xiang."

 “Lu Xiang?” Everyone said almost in unison.

"Lu Xiang...can indeed restrain psychic energy," Luo Jiutian nodded, "But Lu Xiang was used to make weapons, and we were not hit by weapons..."

“Lu Xiang still has this use?” Taoist priest asked carefully.

“Yes,” Lao Luo said, “Lu Xiang can suppress the spiritual tide. This is also the strength of the Lu family’s Lu Xiang.”

"Speaking of which," Baomu said, "I have been able to smell a faint fragrance since I entered here. I remember Yi Yao said that it was the smell of Lu Xiang."

"You said it was the smell coming from those stone pillars." The fool pointed to the eight stone pillars in the distance.

“The smell is the strongest there, but it can also be smelled in other places, but it’s very light,” Baomu said. “It’s like being surrounded by that smell.”

Everyone started thinking hard.

 The Taoist priest suddenly looked at his feet.

The Taoist priest knelt down and tapped the ground with his fingers.

 “Have you found anything?” The fool leaned over.

"I don't know..." the Taoist priest said hesitantly, "Fool, can you think of a way to lift the stone bricks on the ground?"

 The fool surveyed it with his eyes.

“These floor tiles are in one piece, so it’s a bit difficult to lift them all up,” the fool said. “If we can cut them into small pieces, maybe it can work.”

“Taoist Master and I will give it a try,” Luo Jiutian held up Panlongchi and began to cast spells. “Although the spiritual energy has been suppressed, cutting floor tiles should still be no problem.”

The Taoist priest threw out the yellow talisman and flew to the ground. The yellow talisman streaked across the blue-black ground, and a crack more than one meter long appeared on the floor tiles.

“It seems okay.” The Taoist Master said, and took out more charms.

 “Zhanglongchi, go!”

Luo Jiutian made a secret with his right hand, and a ray of silver light flew out from the Panlong Pond held flat by his left hand and landed on the ground, leaving another deep mark.

Lao Luo looked at his son with approval and seemed to nodded slightly.

 Soon after, several deep and shallow cracks appeared.

The fool twisted his wrist, grabbed one of the broken floor tiles, and lifted it up with force.