Long Xiao led his two students out of the woods. Luo Tianshui took out his 'Blood Blade' and headed towards the ancient tomb in the center of the forest.
The 'Crimson Flame Worm' saw Long Xiao walking away and quickly landed on his shoulder. After a few hops, it burrowed into his clothes.
Just as the three of them had walked a few steps, a dark shadow suddenly emerged from the ground, lunging at them with bared teeth and flailing claws.
Long Xiao let out a cold snort, shielding his students behind him. His fingers interlaced, forming a hand seal. He chanted incantations and pushed it towards the shadow.
With a crisp bang, the shadow was directly shattered by Long Xiao's hand seal, transforming into countless black, feather-like wisps of energy that scattered around.
The 'Crimson Flame Worm' emerged from Long Xiao's clothes, opened its mouth wide, and rapidly devoured all the black, feather-like wisps.
As soon as it finished, another shadow emerged from the ground and pounced at Long Xiao.
After dispelling fifteen or sixteen shadows, no more emerged from the ground. The 'Crimson Flame Worm' returned to Long Xiao's clothes. Long Xiao turned back, grabbed his two students, and quickly left the woods.
Outside the woods, as Long Xiao and Luo Tianshui had just entered, two middle-aged men approached them briskly.
Both men wore large masks and suits with ties. As they neared Yuan Nandou and the others, they took out peach wood swords from their chests, brandishing them while chanting incantations.
Soon, dark energy permeated the surroundings, and numerous shadowy figures emerged from the woods, lunging at the people outside.
Xiao Ming took out his Xuan Iron cleaver and was about to act when he realized all the shadowy figures seemed to fear him,绕ing around him.
Yuan Nandou, Yuan Beidou, Hua Xianfeng, and Li Tianshu each took out their usual magical artifacts and blocked the shadows attacking them.
With no shadows attacking Xiao Ming, he swung his Xuan Iron cleaver and charged at the two middle-aged men.
The two middle-aged men were also surprised to see the shadows avoiding Xiao Ming. One middle-aged man continued to summon shadows, while the other drew a short sword and attacked Xiao Ming.
The middle-aged man's footwork was exquisite, matching Xiao Ming's 'Chi Mei Xiao Yao Bu' move for move. They soon engaged in over a hundred exchanges, neither of them injuring the other.
"You're from the Luo family." Recognizing the opponent's footwork as 'Gui Xuan' Step, Xiao Ming shouted, "Are you from the Luo family?"
The middle-aged man snorted coldly and said, "The Long family meddles too much. Your Long family's inner sect 'Chi Mei Xiao Yao Bu' is nothing special either."
This was the first time someone had recognized 'Chi Mei Xiao Yao Bu,' and Xiao Ming was greatly surprised. Long Xiao had repeatedly told Xiao Ming to use 'Chi Mei Xiao Yao Bu' as little as possible unless absolutely necessary, to avoid being recognized.
When Long Xiao emerged from the woods, the situation outside was chaotic.
For the safety of his two students, Long Xiao did not join the fight but continued to pull them forward. Once they reached a safe place and he handed them over to security, he turned back to join the fray.
Yuan Nandou and the others found themselves facing more and more shadows as they fought. They exerted all their strength to eliminate the shadows, having no opportunity to approach the middle-aged men who were summoning them with hand seals.
Long Xiao used 'Gui Xuan' Step and lunged at the middle-aged man who was summoning shadows with hand seals.
Seeing Long Xiao, the middle-aged man also used 'Gui Xuan' Step to evade him.
Long Xiao wore a mask, it was night, and there was dark mist all around, so the middle-aged man couldn't see Long Xiao's face clearly.
"I'm from the Luo family, one of our own," the middle-aged man shouted while evading Long Xiao with 'Gui Xuan' Step.
Long Xiao remained silent. There was no need for explanations now; once the opponent was captured, everything would be clear.
As Long Xiao approached the middle-aged man, he unleashed 'Long Xing Shou' and began to attack.
'Long Xing Shou' was incredibly versatile, the most difficult technique for others to recognize that Long Xiao had learned from the 'Dragon Scripture.'
Seeing the elusive 'Long Xing Shou,' the middle-aged man finally realized that Long Xiao was not from the Luo family; the Luo family did not possess such exquisite techniques.
As Long Xiao and the middle-aged man fought, the shadows stopped pouring out of the woods, and the pressure on Yuan Nandou and the others gradually lessened, giving them a chance to catch their breath.
Long Xiao dared not use 'Bao Long Quan' or 'Chi Mei Xiao Yao Bu,' and even suppressed his surface five-elemental qi.
Without using his five-elemental qi, Long Xiao fought the middle-aged man to a stalemate, neither able to injure the other.
The middle-aged man's 'Gui Xuan' Step was more refined than Mei Xiaotian's. As Long Xiao fought him, he observed his footwork, and soon his own 'Gui Xuan' Step improved significantly.
Unable to defeat Xiao Ming and Long Xiao, the two middle-aged men became increasingly anxious as the shadows surrounding Yuan Nandou and the others dwindled.
Suddenly, one of the middle-aged men let out a strange, unpleasant whistle, like the cry of a vengeful spirit.
The two middle-aged men retreated simultaneously and quickly fled into the distance.
Xiao Ming was about to pursue, but Long Xiao quickly stopped him, saying, "It's just getting dark, and there are many people on campus. We might accidentally injure others."
He looked back at Yuan Nandou and the others. The dark mist was gradually dissipating, and the shadows were becoming fewer.
"Watch them. I'll go check on Tianshui."
Long Xiao re-entered the woods. Luo Tianshui was fighting a dark, shadowy creature with his 'Blood Blade.'
Although the dark creature was powerful, the red light emitted by Luo Tianshui's 'Blood Blade' caused it considerable harm.
"Brother Long, I don't know what this thing is, but it's too powerful," Luo Tianshui said urgently upon seeing Long Xiao.
Long Xiao rushed over, took out his short sword 'Dragon's Roar' from his chest, and attacked the shadowy creature from two sides with Luo Tianshui.
Entering 'Dragon's Roar' with his five-elemental qi, Long Xiao conjured a faint, white giant dragon with each swing of his sword, its clear roar pouncing at the shadowy creature.
The shadowy creature was forced to retreat repeatedly by Long Xiao, eventually backing to the vicinity of the ancient tomb and disappearing inside.
Long Xiao and Luo Tianshui arrived at the ancient tomb. There was a dark, black hole in the ground.
They dared not enter rashly. Long Xiao spread his five-elemental qi to observe the situation inside, but he was greatly disappointed; his five-elemental qi was ineffective here.
"That guy is too powerful. If we go down, we'll definitely be attacked," Luo Tianshui said.
Long Xiao nodded and looked around, preparing to find something to block the hole and deal with it tomorrow.
"Brother Long, the Luo family and the Tsukumoto family from Japan must be after something in the ancient tomb."
"Do you want to dig out what's inside?" Long Xiao asked.
Luo Tianshui shook his head and said, "Our strength isn't enough. If it gets out of control after being dug out, this school will be finished."
Luo Tianshui had a point. Long Xiao thought for a moment and said, "Let's set up a formation to hide this place."
Luo Tianshui had heard of large formations that could conceal an entire area, even a city. However, the Luo family had no such legacy, and he hadn't heard of anyone who knew such formations.
"Brother Long, setting up a concealment formation is too difficult."
"It's not that difficult. As long as you have enough magical artifacts, you can set it up."
Before setting up the concealment formation, the two were worried that the thing in the tomb might escape. Therefore, Long Xiao wrote some spiritual talismans and buried them underground, temporarily setting up a small magic circle.
Emerging from the woods, Long Xiao explained the situation inside to Yuan Beidou and the others, asking him to assign some security guards to watch the area and prevent students from approaching for the time being.