"Good, good." He Lingchuan counted on his fingers. "Lighter than I expected. Looks like fitting you in won't be a problem at all."
Fitting into where?
The soul-snatching mirror cried out at once, "Hey, hey, hey! Don't look at me! I can't do it!"
He Lingchuan tapped a finger against the mirror's surface.
*Nobody asked you.*
It possessed a world inside the mirror, which He Lingchuan had once entered and thoroughly wrecked. The mirror had constantly tried to develop that mirror world, but for now, living creatures could only be placed inside when it remained completely motionless; it was by no means a portable, mobile pocket world.
Because of this limitation, He Lingchuan had never considered using it from the start.
He retrieved an object from his storage ring and set it on his palm.
It was a colored-glaze ornament barely taller than a hand's breadth, encased in an oval glaze dome. Inside lay an emerald-green bamboo grove, a small cottage, a courtyard, and a pond. The bamboo leaves and thatched eaves even stirred without any wind, looking vividly lifelike.
Even Dong Rui was seeing it for the first time. "What's this?"
"It's called the Ficus Grotto-Heaven. It can store living creatures, though it has limits on weight and quantity, and each use is restricted to one hour. The same living being cannot be hidden inside twice within four hours, or their body will disintegrate," He Lingchuan explained. "If you weigh only three hundred jin, you can fit inside, and we can carry you straight off Baitou Ridge."
Dong Rui slapped a stone in admiration. "Brilliant! You had a treasure like this all along?"
Storage rings were not uncommon, but mustard-seed spaces capable of holding living beings were extraordinarily rare. When had this bastard He secretly tucked away such a treasure?
He did not know that this Ficus Grotto-Heaven was one of He Lingchuan's trophies of war. Years ago, while investigating the elixir of immortality case in Chiyan Kingdom in Beijia, Cen Boqing had tried to use this mustard-seed space to slip away when the case was cracked, only to be seen through by He Lingchuan.
Cen Boqing was arrested, and the Ficus Grotto-Heaven fell into He Lingchuan's pockets as spoils.
Yet Three-Tails asked, "Can it hold my children?"
"It's already a stretch to fit just you." *Sister, do you realize you're almost at the weight limit?*
Three-Tails gave its tail a firm shake and said resolutely, "No. I cannot abandon my children to flee alone!"
Of all the demons He Lingchuan had met, this fox demon had the strongest maternal instinct.
In comparison, Second Madame Zhu was... ahem.
Dong Rui grumbled, "At a matter of life and death, you're still preaching universal love?"
Coming up with a feasible plan at a time like this was already a miracle, and it still wanted to be picky? It better not drag the two of them down with it.
Well, if worse came to worst, they could simply abandon the mission. He and Little He would slip away first.
The smaller foxes also crowded around, whimpering and whining, urging their ancestor to seize the chance and run for its life.
Yet Three-Tails did not soften in the slightest. "If we leave, we leave together. I have already failed them too much."
He Lingchuan took no offense, merely asking, "Look at it another way: if the Yao people's tracking spell was placed on you and you leave with us, will they still waste time chasing down and slaughtering these little foxes?"
Three-Tails froze, its tail stopping mid-wag. "Well... probably not?"
The Yao army's primary target was Three-Tails, not its offspring. If the Yao detected that Three-Tails had suddenly broken away from Baitou Ridge, they would certainly wheel around in pursuit. Why would they remain fixated on the cubs?
"If their tracking spell wasn't placed on you, then..." He Lingchuan said slowly, "a few of your offspring will inevitably be sacrificed, but the vast majority can be saved.
"Stay here and let the Yao people wipe you out all at once, or hide inside the Ficus Grotto-Heaven and come with us, sacrificing a few offspring to buy safety for the rest." He Lingchuan laid out the two choices placidly. "Pick one yourself."
Three-Tails remained motionless, suddenly plunged into agonizing indecision.
Yet He Lingchuan knew there was really no choice at all.
Sure enough, after hesitating for a dozen breaths, Three-Tails finally said, "I choose the second path... Are you truly certain of this?"
"How will we know unless we try?" He Lingchuan's retort left it utterly speechless. "Weren't you making all sorts of attempts earlier too?"
Never mind certainty—he had a plan while it had none, so it simply had to follow his lead.
"By the way, can you maintain real-time contact with these little foxes?"
"Yes. Within twenty li, I can connect with every fox in my clan." That was why Three-Tails had suffered such torment when the Yao skinned its foxes alive—it could feel the plight of its kin.
Demons that lived in packs or colonies usually shared some ability to communicate among themselves, much like the spider demon sisters or the yin hui. He Lingchuan intended to take full advantage of this convenience.
"Good. That increases our chances of success by another notch."
Next, he carefully briefed the fox clan on the details of his plan. With lives on the line, every fox listened with utmost concentration.
"If the tracking spell isn't on your ancestor, a few unlucky ones among you will certainly perish, but the rest will have a chance to live." If that happened, they would just have to accept their fate.
At that moment, a fox keeping watch from a high vantage point scampered back, squeaking several times. Three-Tails translated, "The Yao are closing in on a nearby cave entrance."
Now that a plan was set, they had to move swiftly.
Immediately, He Lingchuan and Dong Rui climbed toward another exit of the underground complex and ushered the great demon Three-Tails into the Ficus Grotto-Heaven.
The other foxes scattered in all directions, darting off on different paths.
As they ran, He Lingchuan grumbled to Dong Rui, "When are you going to finish upgrading your bat demon puppet? It ought to carry at least one more person, shouldn't it?"
The flying demon puppet could only carry one rider, but there were two of them now.
Back when Dong Rui was riding his strange bird demon puppet and got dragged into the river by He Chunhua and He Lingchuan, father and son, he had bitterly resolved to increase its carrying capacity.
Yet after numerous modifications, this bat demon puppet...
Still could only carry one person.
"Do you think that limitation is so easy to overcome?" Dong Rui snapped, his face taut. "Aside from my modified puppets, have you seen any avian demon capable of carrying people into the sky?"
In the current spiritual energy climate, carrying one was already impressive. "You might as well demand to fly on a sword!
"Besides, the enemy is too close, and the puppet is slow to take off. It's far too dangerous."
Once expanded, the bat demon puppet boasted a wingspan of over four zhang. It was far too conspicuous, and taking off kicked up clouds of grit and stone, making it an easy target as it ascended.
"Let's move." They sprinted toward the south, where the torches were sparsest.
They had barely covered several hundred zhang when a few wretched screams drifted from the distance, seemingly from the other side of the valley. But amidst the rustling night wind, the cries were muffled and soon fell silent.
"Probably foxes attacking someone." That was a necessary sacrifice, and Dong Rui paid it no mind. "They're buying us time. Move, quickly."
***
A forest stream gurgled pleasantly.
What had been crystal-clear water was now stained red with blood.
Corpses lay strewn across the bank. Two men had just been bowled over like rolling gourds, their weapons thrown two zhang away, one saber thudding deep into a tree trunk.
They scrambled to their feet and bolted in the opposite direction without a second thought.
Before one had even made it ten paces, a shrill, bloodcurdling shriek sounded from behind him!
His comrade was dead. His heart seized, and he pushed his legs even harder.
Yet after another dozen strides, having clearly put distance between himself and the stream, a dark figure suddenly materialized in the woods, blocking his path dead ahead.
Moonlight caught the black scaled armor, casting off a chilling, hopeless gleam.
The man took one look and felt his soul nearly leave his body. Wasn't this the very same black-armored fiend who had just been slaughtering them?
Black mist swirled around the armor, obscuring the wearer's silhouette.
He shrieked in terror, lacking even the courage to fight back. Veering sharply, he broke into a frantic sprint in another direction.
He had never run so fast in his life.
Yet in the very next instant, he felt a sudden vise grip around his neck. Someone had seized him from behind and hoisted him high into the air!
His reflexes were not slow. Snatching up his dagger, he drove it backward in a vicious reverse stab aimed right at his assailant's belly.
The figure did not dodge or flinch. The blade struck the armor, throwing up a single spark.
At death's door, the man mustered every ounce of strength he possessed. With a crisp snap, the blade broke cleanly in two.
The dark armor had a bizarre texture, neither brittle nor hard like ordinary metal. But he had no time to ponder it, for the black-armored man pressed a second hand against his neck and began to slowly tear it apart!
An unspeakable agony tore through him, ripping a cracked shriek from his throat.
"Ying dogs! None of you Ying will die a good death!"
When the other Ying warriors and demon beasts rushed to the scene, this was the sight that greeted them:
The Chieftain held the enemy guard by the neck and slowly, inexorably wrenched his head clean off.
No—more than that.
He tore out half a span of the man's spine along with it, spraying blood all across the ground.
With a sickening crunch, the victim's spine snapped, and the screams finally ceased.
The Ying warriors who had marched out with their chieftain were all valiant fighters, yet their faces blanched at this spectacle, lingering terror gripping their hearts. Beside them, several demon wolves kept licking their snouts, restless and agitated.
A'xun dashed over as well. Upon seeing this, he yelled, "Father! The battle is already over!"
This was wanton torture!
Only at his shout did the Chieftain cast aside the corpse and the severed head.
The blood splattered across his armor vanished in the blink of an eye, seemingly absorbed right into the plates.
Sweeping his gaze over the crowd, he appeared quite pleased by the dread etched onto his clansmen's faces. Only then did he stride back.
The others exchanged bewildered glances, standing frozen for several moments before scrambling to follow, all finding the scene utterly mind-boggling.
They had assumed the Chieftain would find a way to assassinate their target. Who could have imagined he would choose a blunt, frontal slaughter instead?
Of the guard escort of over two hundred men, more than a hundred and ninety had been butchered by their hands.
The Chieftain alone had slain at least seventy or eighty guards. His unnatural savagery and brutality had shattered the enemy's courage, thoroughly breaking their morale.
As he walked, the Chieftain asked, "Are they all dead?"
"Three escaped, and someone released a bird to deliver a message before dying," a clansman answered shamefacedly. "We failed to shoot it down in time."
"Useless!" The Chieftain threw a backhand strike, sending the man flying several zhang through the air until he slammed against a tree and slumped motionless.
Seeing blood seeping from the man's mouth, A'xun rushed over to examine him, finding that the poor soul had three cracked ribs. Fortunately, his neck was not broken.
The other Ying dared not step forward, wary dread quietly taking root in their hearts.
Second Uncle flew into a rage. "Is this how you treat our own people? Huh?! Hasn't he killed for you? Hasn't he taken blows for you?"
The Chieftain merely snorted in disdain and ignored him, quickening his pace back to the stream.
The target was not dead. With broken legs, he leaned against a tree under the watchful eyes of several Ying warriors.
He was a frail man in his thirties, bathed in cold sweat from the excruciating pain. It seemed the Chieftain had intentionally kept him alive so he could watch his entire escort butchered and scattered.
The Chieftain crouched down, meeting his gaze.
"Don't blame us. You brought this death upon yourself."
Chapter 1154