Shi Chun also leapt up, drawing his knife and rushing forward. The other man's knife was too heavy, and Shi Chun quickly overtook him.
The two of them made no attempt to conceal themselves after rushing out, and the clatter of loose stones underfoot caused the few people ahead to turn their heads one after another.
Wu Jinliang's height, and Wu Jinliang's knife, were too distinctive.
Even without seeing his face clearly, Shen Youkun recognized him at a glance and couldn't help but exclaim, “It's Shi Chun and Wu Jinliang! Run! Run!”
He was genuinely panicked.
It was actually those two? Qi Ziru also looked surprised.
He had thought the two had already fled, but unexpectedly they had been hiding right under his nose, waiting for an opportunity. He likely guessed Shi Chun and Wu Jinliang's intention to seize the chance to attack, and truly praised them sincerely, “What courage! What skill! Since guests have come to visit, how can we refuse to see them? Stop the sedan chair, we will receive our guests.”
The two sedan bearers stopped running, turned around, and lowered the sedan chair, guarding it on either side.
The Masked Giant also stopped, simultaneously releasing the struggling Shen Youkun.
Shen Youkun was so frightened that he tumbled down the small hillside, scrambling away in a panic, looking back frequently as he ran, his face pale with fear. He clearly did not believe the few people here were a match for Shi Chun and his companion.
Seeing that their pursuit target had actually stopped on the small hillside to await them, Shi Chun also sensed that something was amiss. However, Shen Youkun's panicked flight did not seem faked, which dispelled many doubts.
Shi Chun continued at full speed, rushing to face his opponents, leaping with the momentum, and delivering an aerial strike. A torrential flash of cold light cleaved down from above, ruthless and decisive!
The two sedan bearers stood in front of Qi Ziru, preparing for battle, but the Masked Giant remained still.
He surprisingly ignored Shi Chun's incoming strike, instead fixing his gaze on Wu Jinliang.
Wu Jinliang had also rushed over, yelling excitedly, “Take this strike!”
The whistling sound of his large knife cutting through the air was terrifying.
When he got a little closer, the Masked Giant finally acted, shaking his hands and flicking out two yellow shadows under the moonlight. One shot towards Shi Chun, and the other towards Wu Jinliang.
Shi Chun's blade veered in mid-air, intending to cleave the incoming object, but a sudden sensation of dizziness flashed before his eyes.
What's going on? Startled, he quickly tried to steady himself and realized it wasn't dizziness, but a twisting sensation in the void before him.
At the same time, he felt an unseen force of sluggishness enveloping him.
He found that his fiercely rushing and powerful attacking movements had actually turned into slow motion.
His striking blade slowed, missing the rapidly flying yellow shadow. At close range, he saw clearly that it was a yellow paper talisman, covered with intricate vermilion talismans.
His gaze dropped, and he watched helplessly as the talisman stuck to his chest.
His movements were sluggish; he couldn't even dodge in time.
He vaguely felt a mysterious power being released from within the talisman, and then he became unable to move.
He did not fall to the ground, but was fixed in mid-air, still maintaining the posture of striking with his knife.
Although his body couldn't move, his mind was clear. He instantly realized what was happening: Immobilization Talisman!
He had actually encountered the legendary Immobilization Talisman!
To him, it was merely a legend.
He had never seen one before, only heard that such things existed in the outside world. He never expected that this group of people could even get such things in here.
At this moment, he truly regretted it bitterly, blaming himself for his short-sightedness. Why hadn't he thought that if they could bring in so many supplies, bringing in a talisman wouldn't be difficult? He had already run away, yet he came back around; wasn't this just asking for death by running into their trap?
Thinking of how Shen Youkun's escape had deceived him, he cursed Shen Youkun's ancestors in his mind.
However, he also saw from Shen Youkun's terrified flight that this was definitely not Shen Youkun's doing. Shen Youkun might not even know about it; it was probably the work of the calm and composed person in the reclining chair.
Wu Jinliang behind him also became still, fixed in place, with a look of terror in his eyes. His mouth was still open, clearly realizing that he was truly doomed this time.
Death wasn't much; he had known since the day he started risking his life that this day would come sooner or later. He was only afraid of being tortured to death.
He wanted to speak but couldn't, only able to make indistinct “woo woo” sounds, wanting to ask Shi Chun what to do.
He knew Shi Chun probably didn't have any good ideas either, but at the moment, besides Shi Chun, who else could he ask for help? Shen Youkun, who had been looking back frequently while fleeing, stopped.
After a careful look, he seemed to understand something. No wonder his uncle said that even a High Martial realm expert couldn't escape.
So that's how it was. He then ran back with a grim smile.
Shi Chun saw this scene. He was immobilized, but his eyes weren't blind.
He couldn't even close his eyelids, knowing well that Shen Youkun would surely seek revenge.
He didn't want to fall into anyone's hands, especially Shen Youkun's.
So he exerted all his cultivation to resist, intending to break free from the restraint. At first, he could shake the power that immobilized him a little, but then it was as if he was encased in steel.
There wasn't much oppressive feeling, but he couldn't move an inch.
Even more terrifying was that even his entire magical power seemed to be immobilized, unable to be unleashed externally.
Having been in the cultivation world for many years, for him, who had experienced countless battles, it was always a direct clash of personal cultivation strength. Facing such talismanic methods, he completely failed to understand how a mere yellow paper talisman could possess such immense power to seal him.
He couldn't figure it out or comprehend it.
More importantly, he had no way to escape.
He could only make “woo woo” sounds when trying to speak, unable to utter a single word. Meanwhile, Shen Youkun was getting closer and closer; under the moonlight, he could even see the fierce expression on Shen Youkun's face.
This time, he was genuinely nervous.
However, as soon as that state of tension emerged, his mind felt as if it had been struck by a stick, suddenly tearing apart.
His spine instantly felt as if thousands of ants were gnawing at it, and that terrible, unbearable pain he had experienced before reappeared.
This time, he could no longer hold his head or roll around to alleviate the pain.
There was only violent gasping and hoarse sounds from his throat.
Predictably, as soon as the pain came, that strange and bizarre scene reappeared in his right eye's vision.
The difference was that his body seemed to be covered in glowing tentacles, or perhaps transparent whiskers, stretching out in all directions, long and fluttering, emitting a faint blue light, truly beautiful.
At this moment, his vision was also difficult to turn, as his eyeballs were also suppressed.
Any movement would cause friction with unknown objects in the void, which was very uncomfortable, and he feared going blind, so he dared not move rashly.
But the action of waving his hand and striking with the knife was still before his eyes.
He could see many thread-like whiskers wrapped around his arm and knife, and he could imagine that other parts of his body he couldn't see must be similar.
Strangely, these whiskers could entangle him, yet his body felt no sensation of their presence whatsoever.
But he could be certain that these whiskers binding him did not possess such strong suppressive power, because he could feel and see where the true pressure was coming from.
In the bizarre scene in his right eye, that light cyan color, like the background of the image, its presence and quantity were like the common land and mountains in the real world, stably fixed.
Before, he thought it was illusory and completely unfelt, but now a significant portion of it was rapidly gathering and condensing onto those whiskers under the calling of the faint blue light emitted by the whiskers.
After changing its form, it seemed to have intervened in the real world, enveloping Shi Chun like a physical object, and his entire magical power was also suppressed by this physical object.
The whiskers spreading out in all directions continued to serpentine and lengthen, also attracting more light cyan matter to condense onto them.
Those whiskers and the condensed light cyan matter even passed through the bodies of Qi Ziru and others, yet had no effect on them.
Qi Ziru and the others seemed like people and objects from an illusion, making Shi Chun somewhat unable to distinguish between what was illusory and what was real, unsure how to define it.
As the power within the talisman was completely released, the countless fluttering whiskers also stopped growing, and the condensation of the light cyan matter gradually ceased.
The influence of the whiskers was clearly related to their extent of expansion.
At this moment, in a sense, Shi Chun and Wu Jinliang were like giant porcupine-like balls embedded in the earth.
From the ground level, they resembled being suppressed by a small mountain range filled with peaks, their heavy, solid mass rendering them utterly unable to move an inch.
If he couldn't see it, he could only struggle wildly, but now that he saw clearly that the talisman's power came from those glowing whiskers, he naturally had to find a way to counter it.
Even if he couldn't break free, Shi Chun was unwilling to sit idly and wait for death.
He wanted to cast a spell to snap the thread-like whiskers on his body, but found that these whiskers were resilient; they could be stretched thin but not broken.
Perhaps it wasn't that they couldn't be broken, but because of the close-fitting suppression of that light cyan matter, the magical power could only act on the surface of his body. The space he could expand was insufficient to reach the limit of the whiskers' elasticity, thus he couldn't break them.
However, he surprisingly discovered one thing: although he couldn't feel the presence of these whiskers, magical power did have an effect on them.
If he couldn't break them by expanding, he tried to cast a spell to cut them.
The result was also useless; magical power could easily cut the whiskers, but they would automatically regenerate after being cut, just like drawing a sword to cut water, somewhat demonic.
Since they regenerated after being cut, he tried to cut them and then isolate them with magical power for a longer time.
There was no choice, absolutely no choice. Any method he could think of, he had to try.
A desperate illness calls for a desperate remedy; he couldn't just sit and wait for death.
However, happiness sometimes comes rather suddenly.
After about five or six counts, a hint of surprise flashed in Shi Chun's horrified eyes. A few whiskers on his knife-wielding hand slowly drifted away.
After detaching, they still emitted a faint blue light, and the light cyan matter attached to them did not disperse but drifted away along with them.
After they detached, it was very clear that they were no longer related to the solid small mountain that had been suppressing them; they had drifted away from the mountain body, vividly enacting another scene of the difference between illusion and reality.
Shi Chun's series of struggles and attempts, both physical and mental, were slow in description but very fast in actuality.
To others, it was merely that he rushed forward abruptly, then was immobilized in mid-air for a moment.
The returning Shen Youkun had not yet reached his destination.
That knife, wielded by Shi Chun and aimed downwards, was only half a zhang away from the Masked Giant's head.
The Masked Giant stared intently at the blade above his head. After confirming there was no further movement, he slowly retracted the hands that had flung out the two talismans.
He then looked back at the calm and composed Qi Ziru in the reclining chair, awaiting his instructions on how to proceed.
Qi Ziru raised his hand, signaling the two sedan bearers blocking in front to move aside.
He took the opportunity to carefully observe the two attackers.
Shi Chun was striking downwards in mid-air, while Wu Jinliang had just leaped up, with one foot about two feet off the ground, dragging his large knife.
The scene of the two frozen in mid-air seemed somewhat comical.
After watching, Qi Ziru couldn't help but click his tongue in admiration, “As expected of the chief of East Nine Plains.
This move of leaving and returning is truly unexpected. If I didn't have some treasures on me, I would surely have fallen into your hands.
No wonder my nephew was like a plaything in your hands!”
Immediately, he mocked the masked man, “Opportunity, sometimes whether one can grasp it is one thing, and whether others are willing to give you another chance is another. The person ran away from your hands, and I was worrying about finding a needle in a haystack.
I didn't expect him to deliver himself to our doorstep. How can we not entertain him well? There are some things I don't understand.
Take them down and question them.”