I was reborn after cheating on the aloof and powerful man.

Chapter 131 The Unharmed Dilapidated Temple

One snap of the fingers is twenty moments, and one moment is twenty thoughts.

From the moment the sky and earth changed color to the moment the ground beneath his feet cracked open, only a snap of the fingers was needed for Fei Xi to process 400 thoughts.

My thoughts wandered freely, and no matter what I recalled, in the end, only one sentence remained in my mind.

"The ball is over!"

But in the end, Fei Xi didn't finish the game; she survived.

The old man with the wildly flying beard had also had 400 thoughts.

Various choices flashed through my mind in the blink of an eye.

When the natural disaster struck, the old man glanced at Qiu Shuying, whose fate was unknown.

Leaving trouble for himself is not his style, but compared to the uncertainty of the future, the old man chose the life of the person in front of him.

One second Fei Xi tried to stop the old man from finishing off the old man, the next second she only had time to hear "Holy crap!"

The earth cracked beneath Fei Xi's feet, and just before she was about to fall into an abyss, the old man abandoned his plan to kill Qiu Shuying, turned around and ran towards her, grabbing her tightly.

Then, the old man, carrying Fei Xi, engaged in a thrilling race against death amidst the chaos and turmoil.

…………

The crackling sound of the fire was unusually loud on the quiet, empty ground.

Fei Xi wasn't woken up by the sound; she smelled the aroma of grilled fish.

My stomach, which hadn't eaten for a long time, was growling with hunger.

Even though the aroma came from grilled fish, which she hated the most, when faced with hunger, even the most disliked food would become an unparalleled delicacy.

Open your eyes, reach out your hand, open your mouth and bite the fish—all in one smooth motion.

In the blink of an eye, the crispy-skinned, tender grilled fish was in Fei Xi's stomach.

"Hey! Don't you know how to respect the elderly and care for the young? This old man hasn't even had a bite to eat yet!"

"Besides, aren't you burning your mouth eating so fast? Let go!"

Accompanied by the nagging sound, what comes into view is a rough, large hand holding a ceramic bowl.

Fei Xi, biting into a fish, looked down at the old man's hand and saw him glaring at her with a puffed-up beard, seemingly disliking her intensely.

Taking the ceramic bowl, Fei Xi smiled sweetly and thanked her.

Fei Xi's polite thanks earned her a glare from the old man. Before she could lower her head, she heard him mutter, "What a nuisance."

The earthenware bowl contained a handful of clear water. After drinking the water, Fei Xi continued to gnaw on the fish, but her eyes kept looking around at her surroundings.

This appears to be a long-abandoned village.

Not far away, she could see many houses in ruins, and where she was now was a high, open platform. Sitting by the fire, she could easily look down at the entire village.

"Grandpa, where is this place?"

"do not know!"

An annoyed voice came from across the firelight. Through the firelight, Fei Xi took a serious look at the old man in front of her for the first time.

She didn't have time to see clearly inside the temple. She was on the run twice on her way to escape the earthquake. Before the earthquake subsided, she was unlucky enough to be knocked unconscious by a tree branch.

Only now did she have the time to carefully examine the face of the old man who had saved her life.

The old man was dressed in a dirty, coarse cloth garment, his large, rough hands covered with thick calluses from years of hardship. His gray hair indicated his advanced age, and his dusty beard obscured his true features. Yet, above that beard, there were a pair of bright, piercing eyes.

Such bright and confident eyes should belong to a young man, but now they appear on the face of an elderly man with gray hair who is over fifty years old.

No matter how you look at it, Fei Xi felt a strong sense of unease.

In the firelight, the old man devoured the grilled fish, completely ignoring Fei Xi.

Fei Xi, having finally finished eating a fish, put down the branch, stared at the firelight, and secretly thought that she must go back to the dilapidated temple to find Brother Shen Tianbao no matter what.

Fei Xi had heard Senior Mu say that an earthquake would break out in Lin Hai Valley every once in a while, and the "natural disaster" was the most terrifying.

When the natural disaster strikes, the entire Linhai Valley will be like an earth dragon turning over, with the earth continuously cracking and collapsing, and all living beings within a thousand miles will suffer devastation, with none able to escape.

Just like this village that was once inhabited, it has now become a ruin, with only faint traces of where people once lived on the collapsed walls.

Huh… Catching a fleeting glimpse of something unusual, Fei Xi's eyes widened suddenly.

"Grandpa! Stop eating, let's go back to the dilapidated temple!"

While Fei Xi was calculating the direction by making hand gestures, she was pulling the old man to get up and walk quickly.

"Cough cough cough! You little brat, are you trying to repay kindness with enmity? You think you can get away with it just because I've worked this old man to death? Dream on! I still have my sons. Even if I die, there are thousands upon thousands of my descendants waiting for you. Don't try to renege on your debt!"

The old man, whom Fei Xi had pulled up, seemed to have choked on a fishbone and coughed violently for a while. Although the old man scolded her, his feet moved swiftly and quickly caught up with Fei Xi's light-footed footwork.

Recalling the eerie red light she saw after regaining consciousness in the dilapidated temple, Fei Xi was momentarily speechless at the old man's train of thought, and it took her a long time to come to her senses and explain.

"...Grandpa, this isn't the first time Linhai Valley has suffered a natural disaster; the villages below were completely destroyed in previous calamities. Yet, that dilapidated temple has remained standing there unscathed..."

Before Fei Xi could finish speaking, a strong force struck her waist from behind.

Before Fei Xi could dodge and turn around, everything spun around, and in the blink of an eye, she looked up at the stars in the night sky, speechless and choked with emotion.

I absolutely hate it when people treat you like a package!

After the earthquake, there will be aftershocks. Natural disasters will become the most terrifying thing in Linhai Valley, because they will not happen once, but repeatedly and continuously until all living things on the earth are wiped out in the natural disaster earthquake.

So when Fei Xi said that the dilapidated temple had remained intact through thousands of earthquakes, the old man understood what Fei Xi meant.

If there is any safe place in this catastrophe, it must be the dilapidated temple they previously lived in.

……

Inside the dilapidated temple, cries of agony rose and fell.

With Lu Bo's help, Shen Tianbao applied medicine and bandaged each of his brothers.

After last night's storm, the dawn this morning should have been a symbol of a beautiful beginning.

However, no one could have predicted that the demons hidden in the temple would, in an instant, plunge them into the deepest hell, from which they would never be freed.

This unexpected disaster left everyone with expressions of despair and pain. Even though the demon had left, no one felt any joy or relief at escaping death.

Xiao Ba has always been eloquent and is the most beloved source of joy for everyone at Changchang Escort Agency.

At that moment, he huddled in a corner, silently shedding tears.

Shen Tianbao led Lu Bo closer and applied medicine to him, but he did not utter a word.

It wasn't until Shen Tianbao told him to open his mouth that everyone realized, to their horror, that once eloquent mouth was now covered in blood and empty.

Hachi's tongue is gone.

As for Uncle Lu, who was instructing Shen Tianbao to apply medicine to Xiao Ba, his trembling right hand was clearly missing half of its palm.

Lu Bo's fingers were chopped off one by one by the demon.

"what!"

A scream was followed by the sound of a knife piercing flesh. Shen Tianbao turned around at the sound and saw Zhao Yi raise the knife in his right hand and stab Wu Er to death.

“Living like this is painful for him, so it’s better for him to die sooner and be free!” Zhao Yi explained with a gloomy expression when he saw Shen Tianbao looking at him.

Although he and Wu Er were merely subordinates of their master, they had worked together for many years, and even if they had no romantic relationship, they still shared a bond.

Moreover, his left hand meridians, which he was most skilled at, were severed by that demon. Even if he returned to his master, he would be considered a cripple.

With such deep-seated hatred, Zhao's eyes reddened, and he walked towards a corner of the temple, knife in hand.

"I will not let him die in vain!"

"Wait a minute!"

"He and that witch are accomplices!"

Shen Tianbao stood in front of Zhao Yi.

"That demoness didn't let him go either; perhaps he is innocent as well."

In the corner, the cold-faced swordsman lay sprawled on the ground, oblivious to the argument between the two men in front of him over his life or death.

He clutched his head tightly, his face covered in sweat and as pale as paper, silently telling the story of the most excruciating torment this swordsman was enduring.