He Lingchuan, Hu Min, and the others did not meddle either. Replenishing their fresh water here, they continued northward.
Along the way, they crossed paths with many parties and witnessed demon eliminators hunting down bear demons, but none turned out to be the White Bear King.
Two days later, they arrived at the foot of Baimao Mountain.
Old Liu had spent two days in the saddle, leaving him so bowlegged that he cried out in pain every time he tried to bring his legs together. Even though A'luo gave him some medicine, the group still had to rest for half a day before heading into the mountains.
Bright Lantern Grass grew only on high-altitude peaks, which meant they had to venture deep into the mountain's interior.
No one had dared come to Baimao Mountain for years. The paths had long vanished, overgrown everywhere with weeds taller than a man.
It had been a bright sunny day when they set out, yet somehow, as they walked, the sky turned overcast.
In this season, the vegetation on Baimao Mountain was lush. Slopes were blanketed in wild flowers, mulberries and wild apricots hung heavy with fruit, and bees and butterflies fluttered about amidst the chirping of insects and songbirds.
After walking a few li, Hu Min said to He Lingchuan, "Something isn't right. There isn't even a hare or a roe deer here."
Foolish roe deer were usually plentiful in mountains like these, never even running away when they saw humans. Yet walking all this way, they had not spotted a single one.
Even mice were scarce.
Door Plank chimed in, "Willow said the ground beneath apricot trees is usually packed with small animals foraging for fallen fruit."
Yet under the White Bear King's year-round rule, herbivores on Baimao Mountain were pitifully few.
He Lingchuan had an even stronger hunch that their group was being watched.
Something was secretly spying on them.
The party advanced smoothly, encountering not only zero demons, but not even any larger predators like tigers, leopards, bears, or wolves.
Experienced hunters knew this was by no means a good sign.
It indicated that all the creatures in the mountains were being restrained by a hidden power.
A very formidable power.
The Julu Kingdom had already invested a mountain spirit in this area; such authority should have belonged solely to a mountain spirit.
The original mountain spirit of Baimao Mountain had been a giant wild boar, but it was killed by the White Bear King many years ago. The post of mountain spirit had sat vacant for over a decade until the ruler of the Julu Kingdom established his state and ascended the throne, subsequently investing a five-lobed maple as the new mountain spirit of Baimao Mountain.
The sun set swiftly. Night in the deep mountains was ill-suited for travel, especially with an ordinary civilian in the party.
He Lingchuan found a clearing by the water to pitch camp. The men set up defensive measures around the campsite, not only laying traps but also establishing formations, primarily designed for early warning.
Hu Min produced a simplified version of "scattering beans to make soldiers." By sprinkling specially refined beans along the entrances and pathways around the camp, should anything non-human step on them, they would let out a wail like an infant's bitter weeping, piercingly loud.
With man-eating demons lurking everywhere, no one dared be careless.
The crying beans wailed twice during the night. An inspection revealed both were just passing rodents—false alarms.
Before dawn the next day, the party pushed on toward the main peak.
Now He Lingchuan sorely missed his rock sheep mount; that little creature scaled mountains as if walking on flat ground. If nothing else, it could effortlessly carry an ordinary human up a perilous peak.
Old Liu climbed for two shichen and was completely spent. Baimao Peak was so steep that a single glance made him dizzy.
Left with no choice, He Lingchuan had to assign a guard to carry him up the mountain.
Not until the hour of Shen did they finally reach above the sun line.
Higher up, the air grew thin, making it difficult for ordinary people to venture near. From here on, He Lingchuan had to tie the red cord around his wrist and chant the password to rendezvous with the Bright Lantern Grass as he walked:
"Fortune and Prosperity!"
"Hey, Fortune and Prosperity, where are you?"
Hu Min and the others followed behind, struggling to stifle their laughter. Their leader sticking his rear out, rummaging through the brush in the desolate wilderness while repeatedly shouting this slogan—the spectacle was truly something to behold. Who knew what Old Liu's father had been thinking back then to agree on such a code phrase.
After shouting this a dozen times, He Lingchuan caught a glimmer of light out of the corner of his eye in a thicket of shrubs.
He gestured to Hu Min, who crouched low and slipped forward to scout.
Barely a dozen breaths later, Hu Min slipped back and whispered, "It's a glowing plant!"
Found it.
He Lingchuan swiftly drew near and indeed saw a unique little plant growing among a cluster of red-flowered rock jasmines.
It closely resembled a tulip budding into bloom, but its head drooped, a gentle light radiating through the walls of its flower pouch like a storm lantern.
Bright Lantern Grass!
This was the wondrous flora He Lingchuan had pursued across both the Panlong World and reality, and today he was finally seeing it with his own eyes.
The other guards halted at once. The Bright Lantern Grass permitted only the being bound to it to approach; should an unauthorized intruder draw near, it would flee immediately.
Like a mountain spirit, this marvelous little plant could move freely across Baimao Peak.
Yet He Lingchuan found something strange. He remembered the spider demon sisters saying that Bright Lantern Grass was white as snow, without a trace of discoloration. But on this plant, the pure white bud was covered in red veins, like capillaries, lending it an eerie, alluring beauty.
Even the light filtering through the flower pouch was pale red.
Was this a variant?
A short piece of red cord was tied around the grass.
He Lingchuan stepped forward on tiptoe, bending down and crouching before the Bright Lantern Grass.
From a distance, man and plant looked as though they were bowing to each other.
When he cupped his hands together and offered them beneath the flower pouch, the blossom slowly unfurled, and a cluster of faint light dropped into his palms.
It was difficult to describe the light's exact shape—perhaps an olive, perhaps a teardrop.
He Lingchuan felt only that it was light as nothing, warm to the touch.
He drew a prepared crystal box from his robe, placed it inside, stored it away, and exhaled softly.
Finally in hand! To think it went so smoothly.
He then tied the red cord from his wrist onto the Bright Lantern Grass, untied the cord from the stem, fastened it to his own wrist, and whispered the password for the next rendezvous.
This completed the renewal of the covenant.
Old Liu hurriedly urged, "Done, it's done! Let's get out of here!"
Though it was summer, the freezing cold of the snow peak had him stamping his feet.
He had been on tenterhooks the entire time, terrified that mountain demons might suddenly appear, yet equally afraid that after obtaining the Bright Lantern Cup, this group would murder him to keep him quiet.
Out in these wild mountains, if they harbored murderous intent...
"Don't be in a rush," He Lingchuan said, uttering the words Old Liu least wanted to hear. "We have guests."
Guests? What guests?
Old Liu cried out inwardly in despair, thinking He Lingchuan truly meant to silence him. But then he saw He Lingchuan's guards turn around—not toward him, but toward the space behind a massive boulder.
Gigantic rocks scraped the sky all around them.
No sooner had He Lingchuan spoken than five or six men emerged from behind the boulder.
"Huh?" They looked somewhat familiar; Old Liu recognized them at once. "Aren't you the outlanders who came looking for me a few days ago?"
The leader of the group was in his early twenties, imposing and dignified. Like his companions, he wore a headscarf and had large brass earrings pierced into his ears. A broken left eyebrow lent him a slightly fierce air.
Two brown-headed gulls flapped their wings and landed behind him.
Now He Lingchuan knew who had been secretly spying on them all along.
The man was quite polite: "Hand over the Bright Lantern Cup, and we won't have to meet with blades."
Without a red cord in his hands, he had to wait until He Lingchuan obtained the Bright Lantern Cup before playing the mantis-stalking oriole.
"How should I address you?"
"I am Fu Tianlin, and I come from the east," the man said solemnly. "My family is waiting for the Bright Lantern Cup to save a life. I hope you will part with it."
"Waiting for the Bright Lantern Cup to save a life?" He Lingchuan sneered. "Who isn't?"
Then there was nothing more to say. Time to fight.
As Fu Tianlin took a step forward, Door Plank produced a large oval shield in his hands and hurled it straight at the opposing crowd.
In a fight, seizing the initiative was everything.
The shield was massive, yet not slow in the least. No one dared reach out to catch it; all scrambled to dodge.
A hidden weapon this large was something they had never seen before.
After Door Plank's favorite square shield was destroyed, Willow had picked out this new whirl-turtle shield for him at chubby Bai's equipment shop. It was of even better quality than the original, though the price was equally terrifying.
This shield could double as a flying disc. When thrown, it automatically rounded into the shell of a whirl-turtle, its edges razor-sharp, possessing a spinning, cutting capability. If an enemy failed to dodge properly, they could easily be severed at the waist.
The whirl-turtle shield looped back into its owner's grasp, shifting back into an oval.
Though the strike drew no blood, it disrupted the opponents' formation and rhythm. Having fought together under He Lingchuan for a long time, the guards drew their weapons and charged forward without a sound.
Hu Min raised his hand with sinister precision, sending a sleeve arrow flying toward an enemy across the way.
His timing was impeccable. The opponent was busy dodging the whirl-turtle shield and failed to notice the sleeve arrow arriving the instant the giant shield cleared away.
With a soft thwack, a hole was pierced right through his mouth.
This was a vicious shot—entering his left cheek and exiting through his right, leaving him in too much agony to even open his mouth and scream.
Fu Tianlin had not expected them to strike so ruthlessly right from the start. Seeing Door Plank raise his shield to smash someone again, he flicked his wrists and hurled two streaks of white light, which struck Door Plank's shield with a crisp clatter.
With his keen eyesight, He Lingchuan instantly saw that these were actually two ice spheres, shattering into pieces upon impact with the hard surface.
Frost immediately flared where they struck, spreading swiftly across the shield's face. Fu Tianlin flicked several more ice spheres toward the rest of the group. Everyone scrambled to dodge, yet frost also blossomed wherever the spheres landed, rapidly thickening and condensing into ice.
Chilling air surged outward in an instant.
Surrounded by the biting chill, their limbs seemed not to obey them, as if frozen stiff in the depths of winter, their reactions lagging half a beat behind.
In combat, that could prove fatal.
Door Plank faced an even greater dilemma. No matter how hard he slammed the shield, the solid ice on its face would not shatter; instead, it condensed thicker and hung heavier!
Worse still, the frost had crept past the shield's face toward the back, threatening to spread to his hands before long.
He had no choice but to discard the shield and fight on.
In barely a dozen breaths, the whirl-turtle shell had completely frozen into a massive lump of ice.
Fighting as he cursed, Door Plank bellowed, "That damn fat bastard cheated me of my money again!"
When chubby Bai on Yunzhen Island sold him the whirl-turtle shield, he had thumped his chest and guaranteed that it was not only sturdy, but also resistant to a variety of supernatural arts and techniques.
Top-quality shields all had this "blocking" ability; otherwise, if any divine ability touching the shield's face could spread around to the back, how could anyone use a shield to ward off foes?
Meanwhile, Fu Tianlin charged straight at He Lingchuan. A Panlong guard rushed forward to intercept him, only to let out a muffled grunt, clutch his right arm, and stumble back two paces.
Chapter 1122