Passerby: Secret Image of Ancient Scrolls

Before the relief of surviving the ordeal could even creep onto everyone's faces, a devastating crisis suddenly erupted.

A strange, turbid aura swept across the entire area like a volcanic eruption. The inky black mist surged and tore apart the remaining power of the golden light, and even the howling wind and snow were stained sticky and piercing by this frenzied aura.

The assassins' entire whites of their eyes turned pitch black, their pupils shrank to eerie pinpoints, their necks were twisted at an angle no normal person could possibly manage, broken bones pierced their flesh, and blood soaked through their windproof jackets, freezing into dark red ice armor, yet they remained completely oblivious.

"Oh no! They're up again!" Lin Jian exclaimed in the car, instantly snapping out of his daze from the near-death experience, his hair standing on end.

She hurriedly raised the hand axe hanging in her hand, leaned half her body out of the car window, and slashed fiercely at the assassin who was the first to approach the car.

This time, however, the assassin, shrouded in yin and evil energy, completely ignored the axe blade piercing his flesh. He let the blade embed itself in his shoulder, then grabbed the axe handle tightly, snatched it away, and threw it into the snow.

Lin Jian was pulled so hard that half of his body was hanging outside the window, almost falling out of the car. He was so scared that he could only cling to the car door frame.

Old Gu gripped his shield tightly beside the car, managing to withstand the combined assault of the two assassins. The riot shield trembled violently from the impact, and he was pushed backward.

But he still gritted his teeth and refused to retreat even half a step, his voice hoarse from shouting: "Ye Zhuo! Ao Luya! Stop them! We can't let them rush over and interrupt Shen Xun!" Ye Zhuo gripped the long-handled shovel and swung it hard, the shovel slamming heavily on the shoulder of the attacking assassin with a whoosh.

She used all her strength in this attack, but the assassin didn't even flinch. He grabbed the wooden handle of the shovel tightly and frantically tried to drag Ye Zhuo into his attack range.

Ye Zhu gritted his teeth to steady his stance, grabbed a stone from the ground with his other hand, and threw it hard at the other person's temple, barely forcing the other person to let go. However, he was also pulled back and staggered two steps, his breathing already disordered.

The continuous rounds of life-or-death struggle had already exhausted everyone's physical strength.

Just as the defense line was on the verge of collapse, Lin Jian looked at the hideous, completely inhuman killers outside the car, and suddenly a flash of inspiration struck him. As if grasping at a straw, he suddenly remembered the Polaroid camera hanging around his neck.

Ignoring her panic at having her axe taken away, she immediately shrank back, ripped the camera off her neck, and frantically pressed the shutter button on the assassin charging at the front.

"Snap!"

The moment the shutter clicked, a blinding flash suddenly went off, piercing the dim snow curtain.

The assassins directly exposed by the flashlight froze, their movements abruptly halting. The turbulent darkness in their eyes faded for a moment, their bodies stiffened for a full second, and even the roars in their throats stopped abruptly, as if a pause button had been pressed.

Lin Jian's eyes lit up instantly, and his wildly beating heart finally calmed down a little.

She gripped the Polaroid camera tightly, completely forgetting the perilous situation she was in, surrounded by enemies on all sides. She pressed herself against the car window, silently calculating the camera flash's cooldown countdown, oblivious to the wind and snow getting into her collar.

Fifteen seconds later, she immediately pressed the shutter again, and another blinding flash went off, causing the assassin who was closest to Old Gu to stop in his tracks once more, his unstoppable momentum abruptly halted.

Each flash of the camera momentarily stunned the crazed killer, giving the crumbling defenses a precious respite.

Taking advantage of the moment when the assassins were stunned, Lao Gu suddenly pushed back his shield, knocking the two assassins back one after another; Ye Zhuo also took advantage of this pause to chop the assassin's neck with a shovel, forcing the opponent's attack back.

The instant camera slowly ejected the film. Lin Jian casually grabbed it, breathed on it, and tried to develop it quickly in the snow.

But as the image on the photograph gradually became clear, she gasped in shock, feeling as if her blood had turned to ice.

The photograph was completely obscured, revealing only distorted and blurry humanoid outlines. At the chest of these outlines, a strange, multicolored halo swirled wildly, as if alive. Countless tiny threads of light emanated from the halo, intertwining tightly with the assassin's limbs and bones, exuding an indescribable eeriness.

"Shen Xun! There's something strange inside them! Multicolored light!" Lin Jian shouted at the top of his lungs, his voice trembling. As he shouted, he silently counted down, and pressed the shutter again at the perfect moment, using the flash to freeze the killer once more.

On the other side, Ao Luya had already keenly sensed the unsettling aura emanating from the assassin.

She grew up with the tribe's shaman and had seen the most evil curses and the most terrifying tigers in the forest, but she had never felt such a mad and pervasive evil aura. It burrowed into people's souls like a poisonous vine, disturbing their minds and turning the living into monsters that were neither alive nor dead.

She immediately turned to the white deer beside her and sternly ordered, "Stop those two on the slope! Don't let them get near Shen Xun!"

The white deer then dashed out like a white lightning bolt, heading straight for its two old rivals on the slope.

The two were currently bypassing the defenses and heading straight for Shen Xun, who was behind the side of the car.

The white deer's hard forehead slammed into the waist and abdomen of the two men, and even as the other men swung their arms to scratch and bite, leaving bloody marks on its snow-white fur with their fingernails, it did not budge an inch.

It used its body to block the two men's charge, its front hooves constantly stomping, forcing them onto the slope and keeping these two threats out of the defensive line.

Ao Luya tucked the deer bone knife back into her waistband and took off the copper bell that she had worn since childhood.

This bronze bell is a ritual implement passed down by the tribal shamans; it can ward off evil spirits and soothe the soul.

She stood with her feet apart, firmly planted in the snow, her steps in sync with the rhythm of the wind and snow. With a gentle flick of her wrist, the copper bell immediately emitted a clear and mysterious sound that pierced through the howling wind and snow and the killer's frantic roars, clearly reaching every corner of the battlefield.

Immediately afterwards, she began to perform a shamanic dance in the wind and snow, following shamanic steps, to exorcise evil spirits.

Her movements were steady and powerful, as she chanted deep, ancient shamanic incantations. The copper bells rang continuously with her movements, and the sound waves spread out with the wind and snow.

Wherever the bell rang, the movements of those crazed assassins instantly slowed down, the darkness in their eyes dimmed, and their originally fearless charge became marked by hesitation and confusion.

The violent and eerie aura, under the vibration of the shaman's bell, was like a wildfire doused with cold water, its flames instantly weakening. Even the multicolored halos that Lin Jian had photographed, which were swirling wildly within their bodies, showed signs of slowing down.

While everyone was doing their best to resist the assassins and building a defensive line with their flesh and blood, Shen Xun was standing behind the car in 2045, enduring unprecedented pressure.

The previous fierce battles had depleted a lot of his spiritual blood, and the pain from climbing and bracing against the car body was still spreading throughout his body. He felt a tightness in his chest and his blood and qi were churning in his meridians.

His grip on the peachwood staff tightened slightly, and the copper bell tied to the staff with a red rope trembled almost imperceptibly due to the surging aura around him, echoing the shamanic bell in Aoluya's hand.

He glanced around the room, looking at his comrades fighting with all their might, and at the killers controlled by evil energy, relentlessly pursuing him to the death. He knew better than anyone else that they were in a hopeless situation.

With his current strength, which was more than half depleted, he was simply unable to completely suppress this strange, turbid energy that had suddenly surged.

This evil energy was far more stubborn than he had anticipated. The multicolored halo that Lin Jian photographed was no trace of evil spirits in the mortal world. It had long been bound to the assassin's body and soul, like a maggot clinging to a bone. Ordinary physical attacks, or even common exorcism spells, could not eradicate it at all.

If he were to forcibly activate the ultimate move of the Samsara Well mark again, not only would his spiritual blood be depleted, but if the spell were interrupted, not only would he himself be severely injured, but the defense line would also collapse instantly, and everyone would perish here.

At this critical moment, a familiar presence appeared beside him.

Immediately afterwards, a light, white figure appeared—it was Bai Wuchang: "Shen Xun, I'm almost recovered and can help you fight."

Only Shen Xun and Lin Jian could see this sudden figure.

Shen Xun was slightly taken aback. He hadn't expected that Bai Wuchang, who was bound by a blood pact, could recover his fighting power in such a short time.

Lin Jian, who was in the car, had just pressed the shutter once when he caught a glimpse of this scene out of the corner of his eye, but he wasn't overly surprised.

Ye Zhuo, Ao Luya, and Lao Gu could not see this figure at all.

Shen Xun turned his head to look at Bai Wuchang beside him and said quickly in a low voice, "This evil energy is very stubborn. It has entangled the soul, and there is also a very strange and indescribable aura behind it. Be careful."

"Don't worry, I'm the best at dealing with these filthy things." Bai Wuchang shook his twin ponytails, a serious expression appearing on his soft face. His small brows furrowed slightly, and he also sensed that something was wrong with this evil aura. "I need to borrow your spiritual blood to be able to act freely, otherwise I won't be able to suppress this thing."

Shen Xun did not hesitate for a moment.

The only way to break this deadlock is for him to join forces with Bai Wuchang.

He raised his hand and presented the peach wood staff in front of him, the sharp snake fangs at the top of the staff precisely pressing against the unhealed spiritual mark on his fingertip.

He exerted a slight force, and crimson blood with a shimmering gold sheen instantly seeped from the spiritual mark, precisely staining the cold snake fangs. Almost simultaneously, the copper bell on the red rope of the staff once again emitted a subtle but continuous vibration. Its clear, melodious sound was swallowed by the howling wind and snow, but the staff itself gleamed with a faint golden light, carrying a chilling power to suppress evil, subtly echoing the reincarnation mark on his left chest.

The spiritual blood flowed along the snake's fangs and into the peach wood staff. The gilded light slowly circulated along the patterns on the staff. Shen Xun's gaze suddenly turned cold, and his hand gripping the peach wood staff tightened sharply. His deep voice pierced through the wind and snow, carrying the command of the blood pact, and he said, word by word: "Xie Bi'an, fight."

The moment the words left her lips, the soft, adorable figure of Bai Wuchang vanished into the snowstorm. In its place appeared a massive, dense, and impenetrable black shadow that spread out across the battlefield without warning.

The dark figure swept across the entire area with a chilling aura, causing the assassins at the forefront to freeze in their tracks, their eyes practically overflowing with fear.

But Shen Xun's attention was completely elsewhere, not on the assassin in front of him.

Just as the shadowy figure collided with the eerie, turbid air, a burning pain suddenly shot through the spiritual mark on his fingertips, the reincarnation mark on his left chest became insanely hot, and the copper bell on his peachwood staff no longer trembled softly, but instead emitted a rapid, piercing ringing sound.

He clearly sensed that the multicolored aura hidden within the assassin's body was not some kind of evil or turbid energy. At its core lay a power that shared the same origin as the Reincarnation Mark, yet was completely contrary to it.

What shocked him even more was that he also felt the "familiarity" that Bai Wuchang had just mentioned.

This power, along with the aura emanating from the ancient robed figure shrouded in cold mist that he encountered during several instances of his soul's strange movements, originated from the same source.

The thought had barely crossed his mind when two assassins broke through Bai Lu's defenses and charged straight at his face.