The moment Fu Shanlie saw He Lingchuan show his head, he gave chase at once. In two or three bounds, the latter leaped to the middle of the ramparts and flipped him the middle finger.
The ba did not know the exact meaning of the gesture, but that did not stop him from feeling He Lingchuan's blatant provocation.
He tilted his head toward the monstrous insect. "Pilu, get him!"
The monstrous insect dissolved straight into a dense swarm, flew onto the city wall, and pounced toward He Lingchuan once more.
It could advance or retreat, hold or flee, coming and going wherever it pleased with total freedom.
Unless that primary bug was eliminated, this battle would likely never end. Compared to Fu Shanlie, this creature gave He Lingchuan an even bigger headache.
In the blink of an eye, the three were locked in combat once more.
The terrain here was narrow, consisting mainly of passageways and stone steps. Even when the monstrous bug compressed its body, it still fought with great awkwardness. Only Fu Shanlie and He Lingchuan were like fish in water.
Steps built by humans were naturally best suited for human movement.
Above on the ramparts, two torches flickered, their flames dancing in the evening breeze.
Fu Shanlie glanced at the torches, his eyes flickering just the same.
He Lingchuan dodged a strike from the monstrous bug and landed firmly on the steps.
Beneath the torchlight, his shadow stretched out long.
With a flicker of movement, Fu Shanlie vanished.
Just as He Lingchuan engaged the Pilu insect demon again and swung the Fusheng Saber, his body suddenly stiffened.
It felt as if he had plunged into a bottomless quagmire, completely unable to move up, down, left, or right of his own accord.
The Shadow Binding technique!
A clash between top experts allowed for no missteps. Sensing his sluggishness, the Pilu bug drove two chisel-like strikes straight at the crown of his head.
Had this been the real world, He Lingchuan had treasures all over his body, and breaking such an impasse would have been effortless.
But in the Panlong World, he could only rely on himself.
Just as the Pilu bug's sickle-like legs were about to hit their mark, its vision blurred, and a figure appeared out of thin air, parrying the fatal blow.
Looking closely, it was actually a second He Lingchuan!
With two rapid strikes, he forced the Pilu bug back, then whipped a boomerang toward the top of the wall.
With two soft thuds, both torches were snuffed out.
Without firelight, there were naturally no shadows.
Without a shadow, He Lingchuan's true self was no longer bound.
Fu Shanlie's divine ability was remarkably stealthy. Even though He Lingchuan had origin power protecting his body, he had still been immobilized for several breaths.
From walking into the trap to figuring out a countermeasure, shouldn't it take at least a few breaths?
In the chaos of the battlefield, how could He Lingchuan know it was the shadow beneath his feet dragging him down?
Ordinarily, those few breaths would have been enough for him to die four or five times over.
Unfortunately, when He Lingchuan had fought Fu Shanyue in the past, he had already seen the Shadow Binding technique and knew how to break it.
If the son knew it, the father most likely did as well.
Having prepared in advance, Fu Shanlie's second sneak attack ended in failure once again.
With his freedom restored, He Lingchuan drove him off the ramparts with two slashes. Fu Shanlie leaped back into the barbican, and He Lingchuan followed right behind.
Meanwhile, up on the wall, Meng Shan finally felt the bell tower loosen.
Summoning all his might, he slammed into it heavily once more.
"Hah! Break!"
Accompanied by a crisp crack, the great bronze bell, along with the entire tower, went tumbling down with a thunderous roar!
Down below happened to be the barbican.
The giant bell plummeted from the sky. With more than two hundred Xiji puppet troops packed into the barbican, there was nowhere to dodge. Over twenty men were crushed into meat paste before they could even utter a scream!
It was no different from a stone mill grinding soybeans for milk, except the milk here was red.
Unable to check its momentum, the giant bell rolled back and forth several times.
Even the Yuheng Army scrambled backward in a panic, terrified of having their heads smashed in.
The remaining Xiji puppet troops scrambled to escape, most retreating out of Yuheng City through the South Great Gate.
Meng Shan poked his head over the wall just in time to admire his handiwork when He Lingchuan's command rang in his ears:
"Meng Shan, get down to the barbican!"
Fine, down he goes.
He rotated his aching arms.
Going down was much slower than climbing up.
By now, He Lingchuan was tangling with both foes again.
The Yuheng Army charged into the barbican, reclaiming lost ground.
The Xiji puppet troops fell back as they fought. In a dozen breaths at most, Fu Shanlie and the Pilu demon would be surrounded by the Yuheng Army as well.
Thus, the tables were turned; it was now He Lingchuan fighting with all his might to pin down his two adversaries and keep them from fleeing.
The Pilu demon could leave at any moment simply by scattering into a swarm and taking to the air, so it stayed behind to help Fu Shanlie break free first.
At this point, the flying blades and arrows from the Yuheng Army struck its body, showering the ground with dead insects.
The Pilu demon's body was a full two sizes smaller than when it first appeared.
"Go, hurry!" it urged Fu Shanlie.
Did Fu Shanlie really not want to leave? Normally, casting an earth escape technique would instantly transport him fifty paces away, easily extricating him from danger.
Yet this was the barbican!
There was an array here that barred escape techniques!
If he wanted to flee, he could only do so step by step like the Xiji puppet troops, exiting through the South Gate.
Right then, with a heavy thud, Meng Shan finally dropped into the barbican.
Ouch, the soles of his feet stung.
Behind the great bronze bell, a figure suddenly popped out, hands moving incessantly as he called over, "Get over here and ring the bell!"
Meng Shan took a closer look—it was He Lingchuan's clone.
While his true self fought the two great demons, his clone wiped away the mangled flesh and blood clinging to the bell, dragged over a corpse, dipped his fingers in the blood from its wounds, and began painting talismans on the bell's surface.
"Huh, this talisman..." looked awfully familiar.
Wasn't it the same blood talisman that Wen Daolun had just painted on the bell at the East Gate?
He Lingchuan's clone moved his fingers like lightning, even finding the bandwidth to ask, "This is the Demon-Subduing Evil-Dispelling Talisman. They taught it in Panlong City's talisman classes. Didn't you learn it?"
"Uh..." Meng Shan scratched the back of his head.
He only liked chopping people with his axes, not scribbling with a brush, and figured learning such things was useless. So, ahem, he had always skipped those lecture classes.
In any case, he was never alone when carrying out missions; usually, one of his teammates could draw talismans.
He Lingchuan's clone spared a breath in the midst of his frantic work: "After this battle, you're going back for remedial classes!"
Meng Shan's face instantly collapsed into a grimace. "Yes, sir."
In the blink of an eye, He Lingchuan's clone finished. This was actually a talisman array composed of four distinct talismans, incorporating the Amplification Technique, the Mind-Captivating Incantation, and of course, the Demon-Subduing Evil-Dispelling Talisman.
"Listen to me. In a moment, you do this and that..." He quickly briefed Meng Shan. "Understood?"
"Understood!" This time, the order was simple, and he grasped it immediately.
"Good. Strike the bell!"
Without a giant log at hand, Meng Shan reversed his axes and began pounding away: clang, clang, clang, clang!
The sound shook ten li around, a demonic din piercing the brain!
The explosive sound source was right inside the barbican, and the bare stone walls amplified the echoing surround-sound effect. Both the Yuheng soldiers and Fu Shanlie's surviving men clutched their ears in agony.
They were going deaf!
Origin power caused the giant bell's surface to glow with a dark red radiance, producing an effect even more potent than when Wen Daolun rang his bell.
The Pilu demon bore the brunt of it. Not only did its techniques fall out of rhythm, but its six legs could barely stay planted.
It staggered where it stood, its form actually blurring with afterimages.
The black beetles composing its body could not withstand the soundwave assault infused with origin power; if this continued, it would soon be forced back into its original forms.
Making a snap decision, the Pilu demon screeched and pivoted, charging straight at Meng Shan.
Stop him! It had to stop this acoustic assault!
Unfortunately, the nature of a ringing bell was lingering resonance, and in such a confined space, the reverberations kept swirling around.
Even if Meng Shan stopped, the soundwave assault would not fade right away.
As the Pilu demon rushed close, He Lingchuan's clone, waiting at the side, flashed forward, knocked it aside several paces, and immediately unleashed a combo of strikes.
Facing a formidable enemy, the Pilu demon retaliated instinctively even through its agony.
While He Lingchuan's clone pinned it down, Meng Shan summoned titanic strength to heft the giant bell!
The muscles of both arms bulged high. With a thunderous roar, he slammed the bell down right over the two combatants.
The Pilu demon knew things had gone terribly wrong and immediately dissolved into flying bugs to escape.
Yet dazed by the ringing bell, the swarm's reactions were delayed. Only a small cluster managed to slip out, while the bulk of it was trapped under the giant bell!
Immediately afterward, Meng Shan dropped to his knees, panting heavily, unable to utter a word.
He Lingchuan pointed at several Yuheng Army officers: "Ring the bell! Quick!"
The men stepped forward, beating the bell incessantly with clubs and staffs.
It held no rhythmic beauty whatsoever, but with origin power empowering it, that was more than enough.
Trapped inside the bell, the Pilu demon could not hold its form together, leaving it unable to smash its way out.
The trickiest foe had finally been trapped by He Lingchuan's scheme.
Seeing it trapped, Fu Shanlie wanted to come to its rescue, but He Lingchuan went all out, keeping him far too occupied to pull away.
If this went on, even he would be trapped in the barbican.
Fu Shanlie gritted his teeth, cast an apologetic glance at the giant bell, and turned to retreat.
While the two fought, their respective trusted elites clashed as well in bloody, close-quarters slaughter.
Taking advantage of Fu Shanlie leaping backward, an ox demon threw itself recklessly toward He Lingchuan, using its bulk of more than two thousand jin to shield Fu Shanlie.
In the next instant, seven glints of cold light burst straight through the ox demon's torso, which was as thick as a door plank.
The monster let out a shrill scream as blood and viscera spilled out together.
Breaker Slash.
Even three or four Beijia elites behind the ox's body were not spared, all caught by the blades. The unluckiest among them had a line of blood carved right through the center of his brow by the saber gang.
The man's gaze and movements froze instantly. Two breaths later, his head parted from his shoulders.
The lingering power of a single slash was terrifying enough to reach this extent!
The rest of the crowd was terrified and instinctively recoiled. Taking advantage of his subordinates' sacrifice, Fu Shanlie had already pulled back more than two zhang.
The barbican was only so large, yet like a swimming fish, he wove freely through the packed crowd. Furthermore, his trusted aides shielded him in their midst, desperately pressing outward toward the South Gate.
Between the two commanders stood at least a hundred men.
Just as he was about to exit Yuheng City, Fu Shanlie looked back, only to find no sign of He Lingchuan.
Beneath the torches and before the blade edges, how could the commander, who should have been fighting on the front lines, simply vanish?
Fu Shanlie suddenly sensed danger. The hairs on his neck stood on end, and his spiritual senses screamed in warning.
With a hundred men guarding him front and back, he could not find a shred of safety.
Enemy attack!
Giving no thought to anything else, Fu Shanlie lunged violently to the side, hooking a nearby subordinate with his backhand and yanking him behind to serve as a human shield.
Were it not for the ban on escape techniques inside the barbican, he would already be outside the city.
Sure enough, a figure appeared out of thin air behind him, clinging to Fu Shanlie's back like a specter.
Fu Shanlie's reaction could hardly be called slow, but the instant the silhouette appeared, a faint gleam flashed from its hand, thrusting saber and body straight toward the back of his heart.
Even though Fu Shanlie leaped aside and dragged a human shield between them, the Fusheng Saber showed not the slightest hesitation. Shifting direction mid-thrust, it pierced through the shield's right lung first, then burst out through the front of Fu Shanlie's chest!
Chapter 1042