"I thought so as well, but I've tried several times and could neither find nor break the mark," Three-Tails said, shaking its head. "I can hardly drive all my children away from my side, can I? That would be sending them to their deaths."
Dong Rui chimed in, "Regardless of whether the Yao army can track us down, the pressing matter is getting away from Baitou Ridge first. Hmm, how about using the lesser mountain-moving array? As long as we charge to the edge of the barrier and make clever use of the terrain, we might be able to teleport out and break their encirclement. The price is just a few profound crystals and perhaps a few years of lifespan—you can afford that, right?"
He knew He Lingchuan possessed a complete set of talismans for a lesser mountain-moving array, spoils claimed from a Duyun Emissary of the Heavenly Palace. It was a remarkably useful thing; even during the earliest days of managing the Yangshan Archipelago when funds were tightest, He Lingchuan had never been willing to part with it.
Before Three-Tails could answer, He Lingchuan shook his head. "Inside an escape-art prohibition barrier, the lesser mountain-moving array won't work either."
"What?" Dong Rui asked skeptically. "Are you sure?"
"I'm sure." Yuheng City had tested it back in the Panlong World. "Otherwise siege warfare would be vastly simpler. Even if the defenders erected an escape prohibition barrier, attackers could just use a lesser mountain-moving array to send men inside to wreak havoc."
"...Fair enough." Dong Rui had never fought in a war, so how could he know?
"I tried to shatter the barrier, but failed." Three-Tails extended a paw and drew two circles in the dirt. "I sent my children on surprise raids against two spots where the talismans were buried. They successfully dug them up, but the barrier didn't collapse."
With that, it nudged two talisman implements forward.
The pair resembled cymbals—round, bulging in the middle, and flat along the edges. One look told He Lingchuan they were two pieces of a larger set meant to be buried underground or mounted on walls, functioning only in concert with the remaining components.
"You have no way of knowing how many pieces make up the complete set, do you? A large talisman array like this might comprise twelve, thirty-six, or even forty-eight implements. Furthermore, they generally follow a thirty-percent tolerance rule—meaning that as long as the damaged pieces don't exceed thirty percent of the total, the array can remain basically operational." War was rife with unforeseen variables, making it impossible for every implement to stay pristine, and enemies would always seek to sabotage them. Tactical arrays had been designed this way for ages.
He Lingchuan continued, "Unless you can destroy over a dozen implements in one go, bringing down the barrier is exceedingly difficult. These things are either buried deep or heavily guarded by soldiers. Not an easy task, is it?"
There was another scenario he didn't mention: the more implements an array possessed, the lower its maintenance frequency tended to be. If an array had thirty-six pieces and twenty-nine remained intact after an engagement, the operators would see it was still working and nowhere near the thirty-percent failure threshold, so they would often slack off and forgo repairs.
Human nature being what it was, He Lingchuan had encountered this exact issue when inspecting Yuheng City's barriers.
However, relying on that involved too much chance to gamble on now.
"It wasn't easy at all," Three-Tails admitted. "So later, I shifted to attacking the formation core."
Losing a few talisman implements didn't matter to a tactical array, but if the formation core was destroyed, the entire barrier would collapse instantly.
The logic sounded sound, but He Lingchuan was more interested in why it had failed. "What went wrong? Couldn't you pinpoint the core's location?"
"We found it. It moves with the enemy commander." Three-Tails glanced up at the night sky. "Our avian demons spotted General Chongwu as well as the formation core behind him. Every time the core shifts, the other implements must adjust along with it."
This core was an entirely crimson circular cymbal mounted atop a ritual staff planted firmly in the ground, glowing with a faint reddish light in the dark.
Hearing this, Dong Rui said, "Isn't that an obvious trap? You didn't dive right into it, did you?"
"...Before you can be sure it's a trap, you have to try once or twice," Three-Tails sighed softly. When driven into a corner, both demon and human were inclined to gamble; after all, they had run out of options. "Indeed, we couldn't take it."
"What they leave out in the open for you to see might not even be the real core," He Lingchuan said. "Even if it were, and even if you managed to smash or seize it, General Chongwu might well have a spare."
Why would General Chongwu, a man who favored methodical, steady progress, take such a risk? He almost certainly had a contingency plan.
Dong Rui looked sideways at him. "A formation core can have a spare?"
"Why couldn't it?" He Lingchuan kept a watchful eye on the distant torchlight. "Tactical formations are built tough. Whatever breaks gets replaced. Some arrays even have two or three spares crafted for their cores, ready to swap in at any moment. When we destroy a core in battle, what we're fighting for is that fleeting window while the formation malfunctions. Once the great array is back up, the opportunity is gone."
Even for something as rare and wondrous as the Mount Xu Great Formation, hadn't the Heavenly Palace managed to procure a tortoiseshell star chart as a backup? He Lingchuan turned to the great fox demon. "Even if you managed to break the escape prohibition barrier, were you confident you could flee Baitou Ridge in such a short window?"
Three-Tails neither shook nor nodded its head. It didn't know.
He Lingchuan studied its expression. "Did you try another way?"
"Yes. I figured that since the formation core was too difficult to breach, we might as well strike General Chongwu directly. To catch the bandits, capture the ringleader—if we took him down, the Yao army would fall into disarray, and we could seize the chance to escape," Three-Tails said. "So on the third attempt, we feigned an attack on the formation core. Once the Yao troops rushed to protect it, we converged on General Chongwu, but..."
It shook its head. Though a fox's face couldn't form human expressions, both He Lingchuan and Dong Rui could feel its heavy dejection.
"General Chongwu had already laid an ambush, just waiting for us to make our move. That is how the wound on my leg came to be." Lingguang was currently treating the injury, applying fine medicinal salves.
"Across those few attempts, my offspring suffered catastrophic casualties. We had no choice but to retreat into the underground palace and await another opportunity."
Dong Rui bared his teeth. This great demon was certainly prideful—clearly driven to its wits' end and barely clinging to life, yet still talking about 'awaiting another opportunity.'
"The lesser mountain-moving array, destroying the talismans, smashing the core, killing General Chongwu—every single path is blocked." He turned to He Lingchuan. "Do you have any moves left?"
No matter how he looked at it, these foxes were doomed.
He Lingchuan's eyes flickered. Indeed, these foxes had tested every route for him, saving him a tremendous amount of effort.
By the sound of it, General Chongwu was no easy opponent, and the Yao troops were backed by genuine origin power. Any direct assault would come at a steep cost.
When overall strength was heavily tilted in the enemy's favor, avoiding a head-on clash was best.
So what choice remained? Of the thirty-six stratagems, taking flight was supreme.
He already had a plan in mind. "How much do you weigh? Eight hundred jin, or a thousand?"
It was the first time Three-Tails had ever been asked its weight. Stunned for a moment, it replied, "Three hundred."
Though it appeared plump, it was remarkably light; its thick, fluffy fur merely made it look twice its actual size.
Chapter 1153