Passerby: Secret Image of Ancient Scrolls

The wind and snow, carrying the stench of blood, swirled into a deadly vortex at the edge of the cliff.

Shen Xun gripped the peachwood staff tighter and tighter. The faint golden light at his fingertips was almost invisible in the swirling snow, yet it concealed a power he had suppressed for hundreds of years, a power he rarely used.

In front of her, two assassins with broken limbs continued their frenzied attack. Beside her, Ao Luya's defenses were crumbling; her shield was riddled with crossbow bolts, and her arms were going numb from the constant impact. Facing the onslaught of crazed assassins, she was gradually becoming overwhelmed.

On the other side, Ye Zhuo's quiver was completely empty. Her fingertips, reaching for the quiver, only touched the last two arrows, and her heart sank.

Her right thumb and forefinger remained pressed on the remote control, afraid to move. Her remaining three fingers hooked the bowstring, and each release exhausted her last bit of strength.

But the assassins were not afraid of arrows at all. Even if an arrow pierced their chest, they would only pause for a moment and continue to charge forward with a roar. The killing power of the arrow was almost zero.

Inside the car, Old Gu was sweating profusely. The 2045 was pressed tightly against the edge of the roadbed, and the car swayed with every movement of the tires.

The winch motor was emitting a burnt smell and puffs of white smoke. The overloaded hum was sharp and piercing, and the steel cable remained taut, teetering on the brink of breaking every second.

"Just one meter left! Just one last meter!" Lin Jian's voice was trembling with tears as he stared intently at the distance between the wheels and the roadbed, his whole body shaking.

It was in that life-or-death moment that Shen Xun made up his mind.

He dodged the assassin's lunging bite, then swung his peachwood staff horizontally, the shaft wedging itself firmly into the man's neck. Using the momentum of his charge, he slammed the man into the snow. Another assassin pounced from the side, kicking the man in the chest. The crisp sound of ribcage shattering was swallowed by the wind and snow, but the man still reached for his ankle.

In the blink of an eye between blocking and counterattacking, a completely unfamiliar aura exploded deep within his soul without warning.

It wasn't the strange, malevolent, and sinister aura before us, but something completely different.

It surged up from the deepest part of his consciousness, strange yet familiar, completely unlike the snowstorm, the battles on the battlefield, and all the sights he had seen over the centuries.

His consciousness seemed to be instantly pulled into an endless, deathly silence. There was no wind or snow, no gunshots, no dying screams, only surging, thick, impenetrable cold fog.

Countless fleeting shadows drifted in the mist: ancient eaves and upturned corners, a setting sun sinking below the horizon, and the indistinct chimes of bells. All of these were places he had never set foot in, scenes he had never seen before, yet they felt strangely familiar.

In the deepest part of the cold mist, he touched a standing figure.

The person, dressed in a wide-sleeved ancient robe, stood there quietly, as if standing a thousand years away, or as if just a step away from him.

He couldn't see the other person's face clearly, as if he were separated by a layer of ever-present, flowing miasma, blurring even the outline into a hazy, indistinct shadow.

A faint sound drifted over, like the wind passing through the eaves bells of a deserted temple, or like someone whispering across the boundary between life and death. It was impossible to grasp a complete syllable, but that aura, that same melancholy that had been soaked by the long years and carried heavy burdens, was like a red-hot stamp, fiercely branded into his soul.

It was just a fleeting touch, less than the time it takes for a heartbeat to pass, yet the aura of that figure was already firmly embedded in his memory, impossible to erase.

"Shen Xun! Watch out!"

Ye Zhuo's stern shout exploded like thunder, instantly pulling Shen Xun back to reality from that eerie silence.

He snapped back to reality and saw an assassin bypass Ao Luya and Ye Zhuo's defenses and pounce on his back like a madman.

Shen Xun shifted his feet, his figure spinning like a ghost to dodge, and swung his peach wood staff backhand, knocking the assassin down in the snow.

He glanced across the entire scene, and the dire situation was clearly laid out before him: arrows were exhausted, strength was depleted, the defense line was about to break, and the people inside the vehicle were still hanging on the edge of life and death. If they dragged it out any longer, they would surely die.

There was no room for hesitation.

Shen Xun took a deep breath, suppressing the lingering unfamiliar aura in his soul. His gaze was fixed on 2045, suspended in mid-air, and he shouted, "Old Gu! Keep the throttle steady! Don't release the winch! It'll be right in ten seconds at most!"

His voice pierced through the wind and snow, carrying a kind of inexplicable reassuring power. The previously panicked Lao Gu instantly calmed down, gritted his teeth, kept a steady grip on the accelerator, firmly held the steering wheel, and pressed the right front wheel tightly against the roadbed, inching forward little by little.

"Buzz"

The winch motor was still roaring, and the steel cable was slowly retracting. With the traction of the wheels, the 2045 slowly moved onto the roadbed.

Ten seconds felt like an eternity.

When the right front wheel finally rolled onto the solid frozen ground, the entire vehicle jolted violently, gradually straightened, and slowly all four wheels landed back on the roadbed. The risk of falling that had been hanging in the air for so long was completely eliminated at that moment.

"We're up! We're up!" Lin Jian cried tears of joy in the car. His tense nerves instantly relaxed, and he slumped into the seat, panting heavily.

As soon as the vehicle came to a stop, everyone moved in unison without the slightest hesitation, immediately forming a defensive barrier using the vehicle as a shield.

This rugged off-road vehicle, weighing several tons, blocked most of the slope, becoming their most solid cover and providing Shen Xun with a safe space to unleash his power.

"White Deer! Stop those two!" Ao Luya shouted sharply, loosening her grip on the shield and fixing her gaze on the two people rushing down the slope.

It was the gun-wielding assassin who had been knocked unconscious by Shen Xun earlier and was now at his most crazed, and the crossbow-wielding assassin who was still charging ahead despite his leg injury.

These two assassins are the biggest threat right now, relentlessly pursuing Shen Xun. If they cannot be stopped, they will inevitably disrupt his next move.

The white deer understood, suddenly raised its front hooves, let out a deafening neigh, and then rushed out like a white lightning bolt, its strong body carrying immense force, its hard forehead slamming into the chests of the two men.

The two men, whose bones had already been broken by Shen Xun, were sent flying backward like broken sacks by Bai Lu's full-force impact. They slammed heavily against the rock wall behind them with a dull cracking sound before falling heavily into the snow.

But in just two breaths, it roared and crawled up from the snow.

The severe injuries—a dented chest and dislocated bones—seemed to completely disappear. Their eyes burned even brighter with bloodlust. They disregarded their physical trauma and were instead enraged by the impact, their frenzied killing intent ignoring the damage. They charged at Shen Xun again, using both hands and feet.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Ao Luya withdrew and used the vehicle as cover to guard her flanks. She held her deer bone knife horizontally in front of her and stared intently at the oncoming madman assassin.

Lin Jian, inside the car, reacted instantly. She rolled down the passenger window and grabbed the hand axe from car 2045. Gritting her teeth, she leaned half her body out of the window. Whenever an assassin approached the car, she would swing the hand axe down hard, even if she missed vital organs, she held the side of the car as a defensive line.

"Old Gu! Help me catch the shield!" Ao Luya shouted.

Old Gu immediately pulled open the car door and jumped out. Even though his legs were still weak from the shock, he gritted his teeth and rushed forward, steadily taking the riot shield that Ao Luya handed him. He steadied himself and held the shield firmly in the gap between the 2045 vehicle and the inside of the ramp, blocking the assassins who tried to squeeze through. He roared, "Leave this to me! Don't let them get through!"

Almost simultaneously, Ye Zhuo discarded the empty composite bow and quickly picked up the long-handled shovel she had retrieved from the ice. She swiftly pocketed the completed remote control. Gripping the shovel's wooden handle tightly, she positioned herself to the side of Old Gu's shield, facing the charging assassins. Whenever an assassin approached, she would swing the shovel fiercely, either breaking bones or sending them flying, firmly holding her frontal line of defense.

Without the shield to restrain her, Ao Luya's hand holding the deer bone knife became more agile. Using the vehicle as cover, she moved along the edge of the defensive line. Whenever an assassin broke through the blockade of shovels and hand axes, she would immediately step forward to finish him off, forming an unbreakable triangular defensive line with Ye Zhuo and Lao Gu.

In just over ten seconds, the group used the vehicle to complete their defensive formation, instantly turning the passive situation of being attacked from all sides into a new one. All the crazy assassins who rushed in were firmly blocked outside the vehicle and restrained from moving.

Taking advantage of the brief respite gained by everyone, Shen Xun had retreated to a relatively safe blind spot on the left side of 2045.

He raised his hand and bit his fingertip hard with his teeth.

Blood with a gilded sheen seeped out, and he raised his hand, precisely dripping the golden blood onto the snake's eye at the tip of the peach wood staff.

The two black snake eyes, upon touching the golden blood, instantly glowed with a faint red light, as if a sleeping beast had been awakened, and the staff trembled slightly.

Immediately afterwards, he took off his down jacket and threw it on the snow.

She then reached out and unzipped her close-fitting sweater, parting the placket to reveal the skin of her left chest.

There, an hourglass-shaped mark of reincarnation rose and fell gently with his heartbeat. This mark, which had accompanied him for hundreds of years, was usually so faint as to be almost invisible, but now it seemed to sense its master's call and gradually began to glow with a warm golden light.

Shen Xun took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and the incantation etched into his bones by centuries of guarding the Well of Reincarnation slowly flowed on his tongue.

He raised the peachwood staff and gently pressed the snake head at the top of the staff against the hourglass reincarnation mark on his left chest.

The moment the snake's head made contact with the mark, a dazzling golden light burst forth!

The golden light first exploded from the intersection of the mark and the snake eye, then swept over Shen Xun's entire body like a tide, flowing rapidly along the patterns of the peach wood staff.

He chanted ancient and deep incantations, syllables that did not belong to this era, heavy and solemn, carrying the majesty to suppress evil spirits, causing the wind and snow to stop and slow down.

"Buzz!"

The snake eye at the tip of the peachwood staff suddenly erupted with an overwhelming golden light. This golden light was no longer gentle, but carried an inviolable aura, sweeping across the vehicle like a tsunami and engulfing the entire battlefield in an instant, enveloping all the crazed assassins.

The moment the golden light swept across, the roaring assassins who were attacking suddenly froze.

Like a red-hot iron touching ice and snow, the mad, sinister aura emanating from them sizzled in the golden light, dissipating rapidly like mist scorched by the blazing sun. The crimson in their eyes faded visibly, their previously surging power was instantly drained, their roars turned into weak groans, and their waving arms and charging steps went limp.

Just moments ago, these were fearless beasts, unafraid of pain or death, charging forward even with broken bones. Now, they were as if all the bones in their bodies had been removed, collapsing limply into the snow, too weak to even lift their hands, only able to gasp for breath. Lying paralyzed in the snow, unable to move, the madness in their eyes completely vanished, leaving only extreme physical pain.

"It's done!" Ye Zhuo looked at the fallen assassins, his tense nerves finally relaxed, the shovel in his hand dropped, he let out a long sigh of relief, and a look of joy at surviving a disaster appeared on his face.

Old Gu loosened his grip on the shield, cold sweat trickling down his spine. His legs went weak, and he almost collapsed onto the snow. He laughed and cursed, "Damn it, it's finally over. These lunatics were terrifying."

Lin Jian also lowered the hand axe in his hand, slumped in the chair, and didn't even have the strength to lift his hand. He felt completely drained, but he couldn't help but laugh.

Ao Luya also put away her deer bone knife. Looking at the killer who had lost the ability to resist in the snow, her tense body finally relaxed, and she raised her hand to comfort the still vigilant white deer beside her.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. From the moment they arrived at the riverbank, to the car plunging off the cliff, and then to the assassin's bizarre resurrection and frenzied attack, they had been teetering on the brink of death for far too long. Now, they finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel, and ecstatic joy spread through the snowstorm.

But this joy didn't even last three seconds.

Without warning, the strange, turbid energy that had been suppressed by the golden light suddenly erupted again!

Instead of spreading outwards as before, it erupted like a volcanic eruption from the ground of the entire battlefield, cold, ferocious, and with a world-destroying frenzy, several times more concentrated than before, instantly dispersing the golden residual power that permeated the air.

The wind and snow suddenly became violent, and the temperature in the world seemed to drop to freezing point in an instant.

Shen Xun's pupils suddenly contracted, the Samsara Mark on his left chest suddenly became hot, and his hand holding the peach wood staff tightened instantly.

The next second, the assassins, who had been lying paralyzed in the snow and unable to resist, suddenly opened their eyes.

Their eyes were no longer bloodshot; instead, the entire white of their eyes had turned jet black, and their pupils had shrunk to eerie dots, churning with an even greater madness and violence than before. The eeriness that had been neutralized by the golden light had instantly returned to them, even more terrifyingly amplified than before.

They also managed to "push" themselves up from the snow in a completely anatomically unnatural and contorted posture. With inhuman roars emanating from their throats, they charged once more frenziedly and recklessly towards the vehicle that the others were defending!

The deadlock that had just eased was instantly dragged into an even deeper abyss.