167 The Undying Army
“What are you doing?”
Liu Hongshan asked calmly, but the hand that was holding the Dragon Roar Dagger tightened.
“I was waiting for you. You were in an illusion just now.”
Lin Ran replied without changing his expression. Then, he roughly explained what happened, but he omitted the part about cutting Liu Hongshan’s sleeve.
Since Liu Hongshan was deliberately hiding something, he must have his own motives.
At the same time, Lin Ran gave up on the idea of leaving. Liu Hongshan had already regained consciousness. He would never let him leave so easily.
As Lin Ran explained, Liu Hongshan listened quietly without interrupting. There was no expression on his face, and it was unknown if he believed Lin Ran or not.
After Lin Ran finished, Liu Hongshan frowned and asked, “Then why did I fall into an illusion?”
“I don’t know.”
Lin Ran shook his head calmly. “Maybe you ate something you shouldn’t.”
Liu Hongshan didn’t say anything and just turned around silently. From his actions, Lin Ran knew that he was checking his arm.
Seeing the black color on his arm that had yet to completely disappear, Liu Hongshan roughly knew what was going on. He narrowed his eyes at the neatly cut sleeves and asked, “What’s wrong with my sleeves?”
“I cut it. I was also in an illusion just now, but my illusion wasn’t as serious. After I attacked, I woke up.”
Lin Ran replied without thinking. He knew that Liu Hongshan would ask about this, so he had already prepared an answer.
Liu Hongshan narrowed his eyes and stared at Lin Ran, as if trying to determine if he was telling the truth.
A moment later, Liu Hongshan suddenly retracted his gaze and turned to look at the familiar palace not far away. “There are many strange things about this place. Are we still going in?”
“Let me go in and take a look first. You’ve just recovered from the poison. Wait for me outside.”
Lin Ran replied casually. After saying that, he stood up and walked towards the palace.
Actually, Lin Ran didn’t want to take the risk, but he had no choice. Within four hours, he had to think of a way to shake Liu Hongshan off.
In this empty and deserted land, the palace was his only choice.
“Then I’ll have to trouble you to take the risk.”
Liu Hongshan smiled, as if he didn’t notice anything wrong with Lin Ran.
Then, the two of them walked towards the palace together. When there were only a few dozen steps left, Liu Hongshan stopped and watched Lin Ran continue.
Seeing where Liu Hongshan stopped last, Lin Ran couldn’t help but feel troubled.
This distance was very awkward.
If he activated his internal energy, it would only take Liu Hongshan a second to arrive in front of him.
At such a distance, Liu Hongshan could also see everything in the palace. Lin Ran’s plan to sneak out wouldn’t work.
“What a cunning old fox!”
Lin Ran cursed in his mind. At the same time, he had already walked to the open door of the palace. Before he entered, he knew that it was not the one they had been resting in because the furnishings inside were completely different from that palace.
The palace where the two of them were resting was empty, as if the master had moved everything away when he left.
In this palace that looked similar, there were countless wooden shelves neatly arranged.
At first glance, Lin Ran thought that he had arrived at the Hidden Sword Pavilion, but on closer look, he knew that it was not. The wooden shelves were not arranged in the manner of the Mystic Array Formation, and the style of the wooden shelves was different.
These wooden shelves were more than a meter tall. On them were humanoid statues of people sitting cross-legged and meditating. It was unknown how many years they had been placed here, but their surfaces were covered in a thick layer of dust.
Lin Ran casually swept one of them with his sleeve and realized that these statues had been wearing clothes before, but the clothes had rotted with the passage of time.
After the dust settled, Lin Ran counted again. Every wooden shelf was filled with statues, and there were hundreds of such shelves in this palace, as if this was the production workshop for these statues.
Then, Lin Ran looked at the fire he had seen from outside.
After such a long time, the fire had long been extinguished, leaving only a piece of charcoal that was more than five feet long and as thick as a person’s waist. It looked like it was the beam of this palace.
As he thought to himself, Lin Ran looked up. There was indeed a big hole on the roof of the palace above. There were obvious charred marks on the edge, looking like it had been struck by lightning.
Lin Ran’s expression immediately became strange. There was no real sky in this place, and of course, there was no natural phenomenon like wind, rain, lightning, and so on. This beam was most likely accidentally hit by the lightning produced by Thunderball while Lin Ran was using it.
Lin Ran turned around and waved at Liu Hongshan in the distance. “Come in! It’s safe here.”
Liu Hongshan walked over quickly, but just as he was about to enter, he saw the statues on the wooden shelves in the palace. His expression suddenly changed and he slowly pulled his foot back.
“Lin Ran… come out.”
Liu Hongshan said under his breath, as if he was afraid of disturbing something. At the same time, his eyes were fixed on the statue closest to the door, and the word “nervous” was written all across his face!
“What are you talking about? Didn’t you say that you wanted to come in and hide?”
Lin Ran asked in confusion, feeling that Liu Hongshan’s reaction was a little too much. It had to be noted that even when he was facing the guy in armor, he didn’t seem to be so nervous.
“Stop asking! Just come out!”
Liu Hongshan continued to gesture at Lin Ran to come out, his eyebrows almost knitted together. “This place is very dangerous. Let’s talk outside!”
Seeing how serious he was, Lin Ran had no choice but to go out.
Before Lin Ran could ask further, Liu Hongshan immediately took a step forward. After gently closing the door, he waved his hand and walked away at an extremely fast speed.
After getting to a safe distance, Liu Hongshan finally heaved a sigh of relief and patted his chest. “That was close.”
At the same time, Lin Ran’s confusion reached its peak. Seeing that Liu Hongshan seemed to have relaxed, he asked impatiently, “What’s wrong with you? Are you hallucinating again?”
Liu Hongshan waved his hand and glanced at the palace with fear in his eyes. After a few minutes, he asked in a low voice, “Your status in the Heavenly Saint Dynasty shouldn’t be low, right? Have you heard of the Undying Army?”
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