The chieftain stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Perhaps we can ask the demon packs in the mountains for help, just like the time before last. The target is traveling through the wilderness—wouldn't being attacked by demons be the most natural thing in the world?"
Demons couldn't care less about the messy affairs of the human world; offer them sufficient benefits and they were willing to do the job.
***
He Lingchuan and Dong Rui had trekked through the vast mountains for a long time before Baitou Ridge finally came into view.
Amidst the jade-green sea of peaks, only a few summits bore white crests, making them visible from far away.
It was not snow, however, but merely grayish-white rock.
"We're here. How do we make contact with those fox demons?" Dong Rui asked. The mission from Lingshan was to locate the three-tailed fox demon. "Don't tell me we have to fight them first to get acquainted."
After all, this was their territory.
"Let's head halfway up the mountain first." He Lingchuan pointed up the slope. "Fang Canran gave me a way to contact them."
The mountain weather was peculiar; last night's torrential rain had fallen entirely near Mount Jing, leaving this area completely dry. The ground was so parched that the snail-toad could barely travel a few li before needing to stop and rest, so the two decided to ascend on foot.
Yet they had only just reached the foot of the mountain when their path was barred.
A troop of sixty or seventy armored soldiers stood ahead, bristling with weapons. Their standard-issue military armor was remarkably well-crafted, and He Lingchuan was certain he had never seen its like before.
Before He Lingchuan could speak, two soldiers stepped forward. "What is your business here?"
Encountering travelers in such desolate mountains naturally warranted questioning.
"We're merchants from Julu Port heading to the Yao Kingdom on business."
"Our army is eradicating demons. The road ahead is blocked," a soldier warned them. "Wherever you're going, take a detour."
"Which army might you be?"
"We are of the Yao Kingdom."
Dong Rui asked in surprise, "What happened on the mountain?"
Could their timing really be so coincidental?
"A great demon has been devouring people one after another recently and is now cornered on the mountain." The soldier pointed eastward. "If you don't want to die, get moving!"
He Lingchuan and Dong Rui thanked him and walked several dozen yards in the direction indicated. Once out of the soldiers' sight, they slipped into the roadside woods.
"I knew this rendezvous mission wouldn't be simple," Dong Rui muttered. "The target is trapped on the mountain, and we have to figure out a way to extract it?"
"Looks like it. I see quite a few soldiers through the trees; the Yao Kingdom has likely surrounded the whole mountain." Without hesitation, He Lingchuan said, "Summon the snail-toad."
They were here to retrieve someone; avoiding direct conflict with the Yao army was their best course.
Yet the first step of their mission hit a wall. After diving only half a li up the mountain, the snail-toad came to a dead halt—
A barrier barred further passage!
"Whoa, the Yao army actually laid down an escape-art prohibition barrier across Baitou Ridge?" Dong Rui clicked his tongue. "It's been a long time since I've seen anyone throwing money around like this."
An escape-art prohibition was a common formation and not especially difficult to deploy, but it consumed immense amounts of energy. The larger the area covered, the greater the proportion of profound crystals required to sustain it.
Even during intense siege warfare, an escape-art prohibition array could not be kept active indefinitely; ordinary nations and cities simply could not afford such a crystal-guzzler.
"You've been on the receiving end of that more than once, haven't you?"
"That was back in Beijia," Dong Rui said, shaking his head. "When the Demon Emperor sent General Jinjiao to capture us."
Beijia had tracked their whereabouts and laid an escape-art prohibition array in advance to seal off an entire mountain. But they had caught on and escaped beforehand.
Yet this was the Shanjin Plain! That the Yao Kingdom could deploy an escape-art prohibition barrier over an entire mountain just to hunt down a single great demon was staggering.
From this single glimpse, He Lingchuan realized he had probably underestimated the Yao Kingdom's strength.
After the coup in the Bo Kingdom, he had assumed no truly formidable power existed on the Shanjin Plain.
Out of habit, Dong Rui asked, "What do we do now?"
"Find someone to question, then head in."
The two resurfaced and began looking for an opportunity along the barrier's perimeter. Both slipped on masks—He Lingchuan wearing a dragon-head mask and Dong Rui a wolf-head mask, prepared before leaving the Yangshan Archipelago. Who knew if the Yao army had scouts in the sky? They had no wish to expose their identities.
The Yao troops were exceptionally cautious, patrolling back and forth in squads of five.
He Lingchuan waited patiently, and at last a lone soldier stepped away to relieve himself.
Just as the unlucky fellow turned to walk back, he fell straight into Dong Rui's clutches.
Being no martyr eager to die for his cause, a few rough treatments from the ghost ape left him bruised around both eyes and singing like a bird.
First and foremost, his answers confirmed the crucial piece of intelligence:
The target pursued by the Yao army was identical to He Lingchuan's: a den of fox demons.
The hunt had been underway for three days. The fox demons constantly shifted positions with the soldiers in hot pursuit. However, the tunnels beneath Baitou Ridge were countless and intricately crisscrossed—likely the result of painstaking excavation by the fox demons over years. After three days, the foxes were still evading capture across the mountains.
Baitou Ridge was not a single peak; it comprised five summits.
Over the past few days, the Yao army had been striving to encircle them and constrict their movement as much as possible. Barring accidents, they would likely sweep them up in a final tightening net.
Of course, since the fox demons had held out for so long, an accident had arrived right on schedule.
Hadn't He Lingchuan just shown up to extract them?
Yet he also received bad news:
Over the past few days, the fox demon had been severely injured.
"Not good," He Lingchuan muttered. "This isn't good at all."
The dossier he received from Fang Canran indicated that the fox demon had clashed with the Yao Kingdom months ago and had never fully recovered from its injuries. Now that it had suffered fresh wounds, "Tsk, this rendezvous mission might just turn into a rescue operation."
"We'll have to make the Mou Kingdom pay extra for this later." Dong Rui glanced up at the sky. "It's almost dark—a perfect chance to head up the mountain. Coming back down won't be so easy, though."
With escape arts banned across the entire mountain, both they and the fox demons would have to leave on foot.
Next, He Lingchuan questioned the captive about the layout of the encirclement. But the man was merely a common soldier responsible only for his post, and his knowledge was limited.
He Lingchuan only managed to learn that the commander of this operation was surnamed Yu, a General of Heavy Valor in the Yao Kingdom.
Though the title sounded peerlessly brave and martial, it was actually a generalship of lesser rank.
Having existed for a long time, the Yao Kingdom possessed quite a few such lesser titles. This General Yu was merely twenty-five years old, the fastest-rising among them.
For this operation, he led 1,700 Yao soldiers in surrounding the great demon Three-Tails. He had blocked several tunnel exits beforehand; otherwise, the difficulty of the capture would have at least doubled.
Having extracted this information, the two disposed of their captive and ventured into the mountains.
Evading the Yao soldiers proved relatively easy. The search parties held high pine-pitch torches; viewed from afar, the mountainside was dotted with countless dancing flames.
This was intentional on the Yao army's part, meant to drive the fox demons into panic and confusion, but it inadvertently worked to the advantage of He Lingchuan and Dong Rui.
Wherever torches were sparse, those areas had either already been swept or were prime candidates for the fox demons' hiding spots.
"Things don't look great," Dong Rui remarked, shielding his eyes with a hand to peer ahead. "Looks like the fox demons don't have much room left to maneuver. Coming when we did, they can count themselves lucky."
Chapter 1151