He Lan Tianxia

Chapter 264 Ice Lotus

When Murong Junlan played the flute, everyone automatically retreated. Those who stayed put also wisely kept quiet. Murong Dubai and the shopkeeper remained in the same position. The gorilla was unusually quiet, and the cave entrance became eerily quiet.

Murong Junlan continued playing his flute, seemingly countless times, as he felt he needed the music to calm his mind. He could use brute force to blast the cave, but there were people inside; he couldn't force his way in, so he had to outsmart them.

The reason Murong Junlan sent Jiang He and the others to retrieve the ice was because the sudden loss of spiritual power in the snow lotus was related to the ice and snow, and the melting of the ice and snow seemed to be related to the Pavilion Master. The Pavilion Master is currently on the verge of death, so Murong Junlan wondered if the ice and snow could awaken something in him.

Guessing may not be right, but how will we know if it's right or wrong if we don't try? Besides, why is Murong Junlan still in the mood to play the flute here? To be honest, at this moment he is more anxious about his Yan'er than anything else. His calm demeanor is just a habit of people in the martial world.

However, he had one reason to comfort himself: if the people inside were in danger, the first to flee would undoubtedly be the white-haired woman, unless she was poisoned and knocked unconscious upon entering. The fact that the volatile white-haired woman had remained so quiet for so many days suggested that it was relatively safe inside, and that there must be food to eat.

Unable to come up with a good way to break through the stone cave, Murong Junlan could only hope for the best. After two more days of restless waiting, Murong Junlan could no longer sit still. He summoned Hong Xiuying and asked her to instruct the group of martial monks to wander around Lihentian and see if they could make any new discoveries.

Hong Xiuying accepted the order and went to search again. In fact, even if Murong Junlan hadn't instructed Hong Xiuying, she had already sent people to check everything around them, but they couldn't find anything. So when Murong Junlan gave her the order, she didn't say anything. What's the point of a result if there's no result?

Hong Xiuying left a few monks to guard the area and set off with the rest of the monks.

The gorilla was unusually quiet at this moment. Murong Junlan had no interest in paying attention to the guy anyway. Seeing the gorilla like this, he suddenly wondered if the mischievous monkey had also been poisoned.

The gorilla was already in a bad mood, and when Murong Junlan kicked it twice, it took out its anger on Murong Dubai, who was standing next to it. Since it was evenly matched with Murong Junlan, it wasn't in the mood to fight him and just wanted to vent its anger on someone.

The gorilla kicked at Murong Dubai. If it had hit him, his anger might have subsided. But the shopkeeper next to him suddenly stepped in and blocked it. This block caused the pent-up anger in the monkey's stomach to burst out.

"Well done! You're being petty and you're even stopping me? Fine, I'll show you what I'm capable of!" The mischievous monkey unleashed all the anger it had been holding back, relentlessly attacking the shopkeeper without any mercy.

Murong Junlan took a look and exclaimed, "Good heavens, so they weren't poisoned after all? That's good. I thought everyone was seriously poisoned." Murong Junlan was too lazy to pay attention to them, but he noticed that Murong Dubai was sitting there alone and no one was paying attention to him, so he grabbed him.

"If you can open the hole and rescue them, we'll call it even."

"Someone who is powerless in front of the eldest brother, do you think he can do anything?" Murong Dubai still acted like a dead pig that was not afraid of boiling water, but his mouth was not unforgiving at all.

"I never expected that my usually invincible eldest brother would be stumped by a stone cave."

Upon hearing this, Murong Junlan grabbed Murong Dubai by the collar and forcibly pulled him up from the ground. He then casually tossed him forward, and Murong Dubai flew away like a kite with a broken string.

"Oh dear, this really scared the shopkeeper!" The shopkeeper quickly dodged the lifeless monkey and leaped towards Murong Dubai. "My goodness, this is going to kill me!" Just as the shopkeeper hit the ground, Murong Dubai crashed down on him. His back was broken; he was going to die.

The shopkeeper lay there, too afraid to move. After a long while, almost thinking Murong Dubai had fainted, Murong Dubai slowly turned around and fell to the ground with a thud. The shopkeeper clicked his tongue, thinking, "I'm too scared to move, and you still rolled off me! It's definitely not my fault." But being Murong Dubai's subordinate, he endured the pain, supporting his aching back as he stood up to check on his master's injuries.

"Master, are you alright?" The shopkeeper's expression remained unchanged for fifty years.

"What do you think?" Murong Dubai replied curtly.

The shopkeeper sensed the resentment in Murong Dubai's words and quickly moved him aside, then disregarded his own pain and stood in front as a guard.

The mischievous monkey, having vented his anger, had no intention of causing trouble, and Murong Junlan was even less focused on the matter. Since Murong Dubai was helpless, there was no need for him to waste his energy on him. Murong Junlan began to search the stone cave entrance again. Before Murong Junlan could calm down, a sudden, shrill scream startled him. Turning around, he saw that the damned monkey had actually caught the eagle, which struggled to take flight, even losing several feathers in the process.

Murong Junlan got angry. With a flick of his wrist, he sent a thin rope flying towards the gorilla. The gorilla wasn't stupid; it grabbed the eagle and hurled it at him. Murong quickly spun the rope around and unleashed a powerful strike, "Horizontal Staff Out to Sea," a truly beautiful move that both drove the gorilla away and brought the eagle back.

Seeing that the eagle had been taken away by Murong Junlan, the gorilla, seemingly seized by some unknown force, charged forward again. Murong Junlan was forced to fight the gorilla once more. The two aimless individuals exchanged nearly a hundred blows. This time, Murong Junlan was truly angry. "You impudent monkey, if you're not going to help, then don't come here and cause trouble! Lives are at stake inside, and you're just wasting my time?"

A sudden surge of anger welled up in Murong Junlan's head. He began to beat the gorilla fiercely, intending to drive it away so he could focus on studying the secrets of the cave entrance. He swung his thin rope with surprising speed, and the gorilla, seeing this, also simmered with rage, unleashing its full power to fight Murong Junlan again. Murong Junlan didn't want to hurt the gorilla; he only wanted to scare it away. However, the gorilla acted recklessly, attacking without any regard for the situation, leaving Murong Junlan completely helpless.

Just as the two were locked in a fierce battle, the old tree spirit suddenly rushed in and shouted, "It's terrible! It's terrible! Ice lotus flowers are growing in the water!"

This sound was like heavenly music. Apart from the two people, Murong Junlan and the gorilla, who were fighting fiercely, even the half-dead Murong Dubai suddenly stood up with renewed vigor.

Huh? So he still has energy? The shopkeeper read Murong's monologue two or three times, and couldn't help but wonder if he was hallucinating.

Everyone ran outside at the same time. Murong Junlan looked into the distance and saw no trace of the snow lotus except for the lake water that had lost its clarity.

Even more anxious than Murong Junlan, the gorilla rushed over, grabbed the old tree spirit, and threw him away without asking any questions.

Murong Junlan reacted quickly, scooping the old tree spirit back up. He asked, "Where's the Ice Lotus?"

The old tree spirit, having lived in the martial world for a long time, was not intimidated by this little commotion. Seeing the light in Murong Junlan's eyes, it actually jumped off Murong Junlan's hand with a "poof," said "Come with me," and rolled forward.

The group followed the old tree spirit to the source of a small ditch next to the Pavilion of Parting Sorrows. There, they saw lush green grass and fish swimming around. Beside a small green pebble, a palm-sized ice lotus was in full bloom. Murong Junlan reached out and touched it, and a stream of clear water rushed towards him. He then probed the water and found it was indeed icy cold. Oh, so this was the source of the Ice Lotus Lake.

Murong Junlan was overjoyed. He scooped up a small handful of water and took a sip, finding it refreshingly cool. Murong Junlan was secretly delighted; with this spring water, opening the cave entrance shouldn't be difficult.

Murong Dubai couldn't resist reaching out to try a handful, and the relaxation in his brows spoke volumes about his delight. At that moment, Hong Xiuying also came over after hearing the commotion.

"Your Highness, how did you discover this?" Hong Xiuying asked herself, "I've been here before, so why didn't I see this coolness before?" "Look, there's also an ice lotus flower."

Just then, a goldfish swam up to the snow lotus. From a distance, the goldfish appeared to be the guardian of the snow lotus. Murong Junlan was pondering how to protect the place when a long, furry arm suddenly stretched out from behind, and with a flick of its claw, snatched the snow lotus away.

Everyone turned around abruptly, and more than a dozen pairs of eyes simultaneously turned to the gorilla. An unprecedented sense of fear surged through the gorilla's heart. In desperation, it stuffed the snow lotus in its paw into its mouth, which was the only way it could think of to possess the snow lotus.

Although it didn't quite understand, it could guess the significance of this snow lotus flower from everyone's eyes, and it estimated that this flower could save its life.