Chapter 11: Immobility Talisman

Shi Chun also leaped up, drew his blade, and quickly charged forward. Wu Jinliang's saber was too heavy, and it wasn't long before Shi Chun overtook him.

The two burst out without any attempt to hide their presence, and the crunching sound of the gravel under their feet caused the people ahead to turn around one after another.

Wu Jinliang's stature and his distinctive large saber were too obvious. Even without seeing their faces clearly, Shen Youkun instantly recognized them. He couldn't help but exclaim, "It's Shi Chun and Wu Jinliang! Run, run!"

Shen Youkun was genuinely panicked.

"Those two?" Qi Ziru looked surprised as well. He had assumed they had already fled, but unexpectedly, they had been hiding right under his nose, waiting for an opportunity. He probably also guessed their intention to seize the chance to attack. He praised them with genuine admiration, "What courage! What tactics! Since guests have arrived, how can we refuse to see them? Stop the sedan, let's meet our guests."

The two sedan bearers stopped running, turned, and lowered the sedan, then stood guard on either side of it.

The masked man also stopped and simultaneously released the struggling Shen Youkun.

Terrified, Shen Youkun tumbled down the small hillside, scrambling away in a panic. He kept looking back as he fled, his face pale with fear, clearly believing that the few people on his side were no match for Shi Chun and his companion.

Seeing their targets waiting on the small hillside, Shi Chun sensed that something was amiss. However, Shen Youkun's panicked flight didn't seem feigned, which somewhat alleviated his doubts. Without stopping, he charged forward at full speed, closing in on his opponents. Using his momentum, he leaped into the air and brought his blade down in a torrent of cold light—a swift and decisive strike!

The two sedan bearers positioned themselves in front of Qi Ziru, ready to fight. The masked man, however, remained still, ignoring Shi Chun's descending blade and instead fixing his gaze on Wu Jinliang.

Wu Jinliang had also charged forward, excitedly yelling, "Taste my blade!" The terrifying whooshing sound of his great saber cutting through the air was ominous.

When Wu Jinliang drew closer, the masked man finally made his move. With a flick of both hands, he launched two yellow shadows under the moonlight, one towards Shi Chun and the other towards Wu Jinliang.

Shi Chun angled his blade in mid-air, attempting to cleave the incoming object, but a sudden wave of dizziness washed over him.

"What's happening?" he wondered, alarmed. As he quickly tried to steady himself, he realized it wasn't dizziness but a swirling, distorted sensation in the air before him. At the same time, he felt an unseen force of sluggishness enveloping his body.

He found that his forceful charge and powerful cleaving attack had inexplicably slowed to a crawl. His blade moved sluggishly, missing the rapidly approaching yellow shadow. At close range, he could clearly see it was a yellow paper talisman adorned with intricate vermilion runes.

His gaze dropped, and he watched helplessly as the talisman affixed itself to his chest.

His movements were so sluggish that he couldn't evade it in time. He vaguely felt an unknown power emanating from the talisman, and then he became completely immobile.

He didn't fall to the ground; instead, he was suspended in mid-air, still maintaining his cleaving posture.

Although he couldn't move, his mind was clear. He instantly understood what had happened: a paralysis talisman!

He had actually encountered the legendary paralysis talisman! For him, it was truly a legend; he had never seen one before, only heard that such things existed in the outside world. He never imagined this group of people could bring something like that in.

At that moment, he was filled with bitter regret, cursing his own lack of foresight. He hadn't considered that if they could bring in so many supplies, bringing in a single talisman wouldn't be difficult. He had already escaped, yet he had turned back – wasn't that just asking for death?

Remembering how Shen Youkun's flight had deceived him, he cursed Shen Youkun in his mind.

However, from the terrified fleeing of Shen Youkun, he also realized that this was definitely not Shen Youkun's doing. Shen Youkun might not even have known about it; it was likely the work of the calm and composed person in the reclining chair.

Behind him, Wu Jinliang also became motionless, fixed in place. His eyes showed terror, and his mouth was still agape. He clearly realized he was truly done for this time. Dying was not what he feared most; he had known since he began his dangerous life that this day might come. What he dreaded was being tortured and suffering a terrible death.

He tried to speak but couldn't, only muffled "woo-woo" sounds escaped his mouth as he tried to ask Shi Chun what to do.

He knew Shi Chun probably had no good solution either, but at this moment, who else could he turn to for help?

Shen Youkun, who had been looking back intermittently while fleeing, stopped. After a careful observation, he seemed to understand something. "No wonder Uncle said even those with high martial arts cultivation couldn't escape!" he thought. He then turned and ran back with a malevolent grin.

Shi Chun witnessed this scene. He was paralyzed, but his eyes were not blind, nor could he close them. He knew well that Shen Youkun would surely seek revenge.

He didn't want to fall into anyone's hands, especially not Shen Youkun's. So, he fought with all his might, channeling his full cultivation to try and break free. At first, he could slightly shake the power that held him, but then it felt as if he were encased in steel. There wasn't much sense of pressure, yet he couldn't budge an inch.

More terrifying still, even his internal magic power seemed to be immobilized, unable to be exerted externally.

He had spent many years in the cultivation world, where his experiences in combat typically involved a direct clash of individual cultivation and strength. Facing such a talismanic technique, he had no idea how a mere yellow paper talisman could possess such immense power to lock him down. He couldn't comprehend it or reason it out.

Crucially, he had no way to escape. Even if he wanted to speak, he could only make muffled sounds; he couldn't utter a single word. Meanwhile, Shen Youkun was getting closer and closer; in the moonlight, Shi Chun could even see the malevolence on Shen Youkun's face.

This time, he was genuinely nervous.

However, as soon as that state of tension arose, it felt as if his head had been struck with a rod; a sudden crack began, and his spine instantly felt like it was being gnawed by countless insects. That terrible, unforgettable pain, which he never wanted to experience again, had resurfaced.

This time, he couldn't clutch his head or roll around to alleviate the pain. All he could do was gasp violently, with guttural sounds rasping in his throat.

As expected, with the onset of that pain, the bizarre and fantastic scene reappeared in his right eye's vision.

The difference was that his body now seemed to be covered in glowing tentacles, or perhaps transparent filaments, stretching out in all directions. Long and swaying, they emitted a faint blue light, which was strangely beautiful.

At this point, his gaze was also difficult to shift because his eyeballs were being restrained. Any movement would cause friction with unknown entities in the void, which was very uncomfortable. Fearing blindness, he dared not move recklessly.

However, the image of his arm swinging the blade was still before him. He could see many thread-like tendrils wrapped around his arm and blade, and he could imagine that other parts of his body, which he couldn't see, were similarly entwined.

Strangely, these tendrils could bind him, yet his body felt no sensation of their presence whatsoever.

But he was certain these binding tendrils didn't possess such strong suppressive power, because he could feel and see where the true pressure originated.

In the bizarre vision of his right eye, the cerulean color, like the background of a painting, had a presence and quantity akin to the ubiquitous earth and mountains in the real world. It was stably fixed. Previously, he had thought it was illusory and couldn't feel its existence at all, but now, a significant portion of it rapidly gathered and condensed onto the tendrils, drawn by the faint blue light they emitted.

After this change in form, it seemed to enter the real world, enveloping Shi Chun like a physical entity. All his internal magic power was also suppressed by this physical presence.

The tendrils extending in all directions continued to serpentine and lengthen, also attracting more cerulean matter to condense upon them.

Those tendrils and the condensed cerulean matter even passed through the bodies of Qi Ziru and his companions without affecting them at all. Qi Ziru and the others seemed like figures and objects from an illusion, making Shi Chun unable to distinguish between what was real and what was illusory, or how to define them.

As the talisman's power fully discharged, the countless swaying tendrils stopped growing, and the condensation of the cerulean matter gradually ceased. The influence of the tendrils was clearly related to their extended reach.

At this point, to some extent, Shi Chun and Wu Jinliang were like giant porcupines embedded in the earth. From the ground level, they seemed to be suppressed by a small mountain range, its heavy density rendering them completely unmovable.

If he couldn't see them, he might have just struggled aimlessly. But now that he clearly saw the talisman's power was due to these glowing tendrils, he naturally tried to find a way to counter them. Even if he couldn't break free, Shi Chun was unwilling to simply wait for death.

He attempted to use his magic to burst open the thread-like tendrils on his body, but he found that they were surprisingly resilient, capable of stretching and thinning without snapping.

Perhaps they weren't unbreakable, but rather, due to the close-fitting suppression of the cerulean matter, his magic power could only act on his skin. The space he could create wasn't enough to exceed the tendrils' elasticity, thus preventing him from tearing them apart.

However, he made a surprising discovery: although he couldn't feel the presence of these tendrils, his magic power did affect them.

Unable to burst them, he tried to use his magic to sever them. This also proved useless; his magic power could easily cut the tendrils, but they would automatically reattach themselves, much like trying to cut water with a knife—it was somewhat surreal.

Since they reattached after being cut, he attempted to sever them and then use his magic power to isolate the severed parts for a longer duration.

There was no other way, absolutely no other way. He had to try every method he could think of. He had to treat a dead horse as if it were alive; he couldn't just wait for death.

However, good fortune sometimes arrives quite suddenly.

After about five or six counts, a flicker of surprise crossed Shi Chun's terrified eyes. Several tendrils wrapped around his blade-wielding hand slowly drifted away. They still emitted a faint blue light, and the cerulean matter attached to them did not disperse but drifted along as a single entity.

Once they moved away, it became clear they were no longer connected to the dense, suppressive "mountain." They had drifted out of the mountain's substance, once again illustrating the difference between illusion and reality.

Shi Chun's series of struggles and attempts, though described slowly, actually occurred very rapidly.

To others, it simply appeared that the two abruptly charged, were then suspended in mid-air for a moment, and Shen Youkun, who was running back, had not yet reached them.

The blade held by Shi Chun, descending in its cleaving motion, was only half a zhang from the masked man's head.

The masked man, who had been intently watching the blade above his head, slowly withdrew his hands, which had launched the two talismans, only after confirming there was no further movement. He then turned to the calm and composed Qi Ziru in the reclining chair, waiting for instructions on how to proceed.

Qi Ziru raised a hand, signaling the two sedan bearers who were protecting him to step aside, taking the opportunity to get a good look at the two assailants.

Shi Chun was mid-air, cleaving with his blade, while Wu Jinliang had just lifted off, with one toe about two feet off the ground, dragging his huge saber. The sight of them frozen in mid-air was somewhat comical.

After observing them, Qi Ziru couldn't help but sigh in admiration, "Indeed worthy of the Eastern Nine Plains' great chieftain! This act of returning after fleeing is truly unexpected. If I didn't possess some treasures, I surely would have fallen into your hands. No wonder my nephew was like a plaything in your grasp!"

He then scoffed at the masked man, "Opportunity, sometimes whether one can seize it is one thing, but whether they are willing to give you another chance is quite another. He escaped from your grasp, and I was worried about finding a needle in a haystack, but who would have thought they would deliver themselves to our doorstep? How could we not entertain them properly? I have some questions; bring them down for interrogation."