"Yet you want us to abandon our homeland, wander through unfamiliar lands, and live at the mercy of others' whims? Our people would be torn apart and bullied!" He sneered coldly. "The outside world isn't an easy place to make one's way in."
"But we would be spared from the horrors of war," A'xun said earnestly. "Staying on the Shanjin Plain leaves us with nothing but an endless cycle of blood vendettas. The Julu Kingdom has been purchasing warhorses in large quantities lately. If Father is willing, we can sell every fine steed we have. We're so far from them; they won't care about our past, and they won't turn away our horses as long as the price is right! The money we get would be enough to board a ship at Julu Port and build a new home in the new world."
During this westward journey, he had lingered in the Julu Kingdom for a long time, deeply moved by everything he had seen and heard.
He had realized that a nation could exist without the shackles of war; that peace could foster prosperity; that life could continually improve; and that honest, hard work alone was enough to live in peace and contentment.
He had learned that people could hold on to hope, rather than merely scrape by to survive.
The more he witnessed, the more he reflected, and the more he regretted his past foolishness.
The Chieftain glared at him, his gaze turning colder by the moment. "You're just afraid of fighting, aren't you?"
A'xun's heart sank; he had been too impatient. "I'm not—"
"We are not leaving!" the Chieftain cut him off. "So what if the whole world is our enemy? Look at the Yao Kingdom. Which neighboring land doesn't hate them, yet who dares cross them? As long as we become as powerful as the Yao Kingdom, why should we care about anyone's resentment?"
"But..." The ruins of the treasury were right ahead, and A'xun promptly swallowed his words. "You have a point as well. As long as we are strong, others will naturally submit."
By this point, the mountain forest had grown deathly silent, without so much as the chirp of an insect.
The Chieftain had kept his head down as he marched, but now he glanced around and abruptly asked, "Where are those attendants of yours?"
"I rode ahead; they're following close behind." A'xun felt a jolt of alarm, though his face remained placid. "Father, something over there is glowing."
He pointed toward the nearest stone platform.
In truth, those trusted attendants had taken a detour under his orders and had already activated the sealing talisman array.
*Glowing?* The Chieftain reflexively looked in the direction he indicated. Sure enough, a faint crimson glow seemed to emanate from the top of the towering platform, and his gaze sharpened at once.
The instant he turned his head, A'xun lunged forward with all his might, slamming into him to drive him toward the center between the stone platforms, roaring, "Hurry, help me hold him down!"
Empowered by the Luosheng Armor, however, the Chieftain was terrifyingly agile. As if he had eyes in the back of his head, he slipped past the tackle and struck back with a fist that sent A'xun flying. Yet they had been walking shoulder to shoulder, far too close, and A'xun had already managed to slap several cold ice talismans onto him.
A single one of these talismans could freeze a man stiff. With three or four striking at once, the Chieftain was instantly paralyzed. The white frost spreading across the black armor grew thicker and thicker, solidifying into hard ice within just a few breaths.
These were cold ice talismans A'xun had prepared in advance using his own heart's essence blood combined with various materials, far more potent than the ones used on Baimao Mountain.
"If you don't want to die, come help! Quickly, quickly, we must seal him!" A'xun scrambled to his feet, ignoring the violent churn of blood in his chest, and pointed to several men—all of them the strongest warriors in the tribe.
The singled-out Ying warriors were momentarily stunned, but they snapped back to their senses and rushed forward to help drag him.
By now, the sealing array had fully awakened, crimson light flashing across every stone platform.
That an array from the Shanjin Empire could still function after a thousand years was partly due to the tribal elders' repairs, but the foundational craftsmanship had truly been exceptional.
Working together, the men moved swiftly, hauling the frozen Chieftain to the center of the platforms. The elder had told him that the closer one was to the center of the array, the stronger the sealing power would be.
Threads of runes began rising from the ground like human capillaries, squirming like tadpoles and swimming faster and faster around everyone.
The Chieftain's feet began to sink rapidly—
The array acted like a whirlpool, its center exerting a tremendous suction that pulled him down toward the depths of the earth.
Locked within the ice, the Chieftain's face was contorted with fury, his eyes glaring fixedly at his son as crack after crack spiderwebbed through the solid block.
A cold ice talisman capable of freezing a wasteland elephant could not hold him for long.
A'xun had been holding it in, but now he finally coughed up a mouthful of blood over the frozen surface.
His father's punch had landed hard.
With reddened eyes, he choked out, "I'm sorry!"
Tears streaming down his face, he pressed both hands against his father's shoulders, forcing him down into the vortex with all his strength.
He had to do what was right. He had to seal the Luosheng Armor!
He had to lead the Ying people away from the Shanjin Plain, away from all the bloodshed and misery.
What his father could not achieve, he had to see through.
*So, Father... I'm sorry!*
***
Ke Ridge, Fort Youfu.
Deep beneath the thousand-year-old ruins, a low, furious roar suddenly erupted!
Countless night birds were startled into flight, screeching as they scattered into the sky.
The roar shook the ground violently, setting the entire forest creaking and snapping.
Immediately after, three stone platforms on the surface fractured in succession, cracking with sharp, brittle snaps like beans crushed under a millstone.
A few li away, a man was strolling leisurely toward Ke Ridge, taking occasional sips from a wine gourd, thoroughly enjoying his slight buzz. While drinking while traveling at night was always a cardinal taboo, he was so familiar with this place that he could navigate every pit and hollow without even looking down, swaying merrily along.
The moment that subterranean roar tore through the ruins, he choked on his wine. Stunned, he froze for two breaths before bolting toward Ke Ridge like an arrow-struck hare.
"We're done for! It's over, it's all over!" He slapped a swift-walking talisman onto himself, cursing loudly, "Are you out of your mind? You've slept peacefully for over a century—why pick the exact moment I'm here to wake up and cause trouble?"
Just what had triggered the seal?
***
Meanwhile, along a dark, slippery path, Dong Rui asked the great fox demon, "Have you ever been to Mount Jing before?"
"Twice, I think." Three-Tails looked around warily. "This place always fills me with a sense of foreboding. I prefer not to go near it."
A great demon possessed startling instincts; it had no reason to push its luck in a place like this.
"Cutting straight through Ke Ridge is the shortest path out of Mount Jing. The ruins of the Shanjin Empire's temporary palace sit atop it," Three-Tails recalled, still remembering the way. "Taking a detour would be far too long—it would add half a day to the journey."
"Did you encounter anything strange during your first two visits to Mount Jing?"
"No."
In that case, their luck shouldn't be so terrible either. He Lingchuan made a prompt decision: "Let's take Ke Ridge."
Neither the other demons nor the humans raised any objections.
Yet before the words had even settled, dozens of crimson light beams suddenly shot straight into the sky along the horizon!
The illumination was so bright and striking that it resembled evening clouds at sunset; no living creature in the mountains could have missed it.
"That direction is..." He Lingchuan muttered inwardly. *You've got to be kidding me.*
Mount Jing had remained quiet for over a century, welcoming anyone without incident. How could trouble break out before they had even covered half their journey?
"Ke Ridge," Three-Tails said, thoroughly perplexed. "What happened over there?"
No one had an answer. Dong Rui quipped, "Could it be the Luosheng Armor? Hahaha."
"..."
Neither the demons nor the humans laughed, leaving him to look awkward. Three-Tails spoke up to bail him out: "If it truly were the Luosheng Armor, why didn't it emerge sooner or later, choosing this exact moment instead? More likely than not, someone went to the ruins to cast a spell searching for it, stirring up such a huge commotion."
It put little stock in the legends surrounding the Luosheng Armor.
However, He Lingchuan felt a warmth spreading inside his collar once more.
It was only a faint heat, but the divine bone necklace gave several distinct quivers, as if excited.
Was this thing resonating with the crimson light on Ke Ridge?
He Lingchuan could only think of one reason behind the beams shooting up from the ruins of Mount Ke. Had the finicky divine bone necklace set its sights on it as well?
Then again, when they had passed by Mount Jing without entering before, had the divine bone necklace remained dormant for that reason?
He Lingchuan made an instant decision, saying to Three-Tails, "Change of plans. The two of us will head to Mount Ke to investigate. Take your clan and keep moving forward; we'll meet at Red Bean Ridge!"
Red Bean Ridge lay southwest of Mount Ke, named for the red beans covering the slopes.
Three-Tails nodded. "Understood."
Knowing that pursuers were still behind them, it wasted no words and continued forward with its offspring.
Once its figure had disappeared into the darkness, He Lingchuan turned to Dong Rui. "Lend me your demon puppet."
The bat was perched on its master's shoulder, grooming its fur. Dong Rui tapped it twice, and it hopped to the ground, expanding into its true form.
It had been a long time since He Lingchuan had ridden this creature. When it reached its complete form, he and the fox demons were equally astonished.
In the past, although the demon puppet looked odd after transforming, it had still retained the general shape of a bat. But the thing that had now leapt out of Dong Rui's pouch and expanded was something He Lingchuan could barely recognize.
The short fur on the bat's body had thinned considerably, growing only along its back, crown, and tail, while more than half of its frame was covered in rigid gray scales. Its face, once flattened as if smashed by a fist, now featured an elongated snout lined with razor-sharp teeth, somewhat resembling the jaws of a monitor lizard. Most bizarre of all were its wings: the leathery flaps had become thick and sturdy, reminding He Lingchuan of heavy tarpaulin, while the tips had sprouted bony ridges and sharp spikes. A single sweep of its wing cleanly severed a sapling at the waist.
"Whoa, that's ugly." He Lingchuan couldn't bring himself to praise Dong Rui's sense of aesthetics.
Dong Rui looked displeased. "I haven't completely finished modifying it yet!"
He was constantly tinkering with minor adjustments; this wasn't even the final version, was it?
He Lingchuan tapped the bat demon puppet's scales. "Hey, why does this feel a bit like wood?"
Dong Rui uttered only four words: "True Monarch Musu."
He Lingchuan let out a long *oh*. So that was how he had utilized the wood immortal's avatar; truly worthy of a demon puppet master.
Not long ago, the bat demon puppet had also devoured a large piece of aged hide from a treasure lizard. Who knew where that had been applied—perhaps in that loose, saggy throat?
"Well? Was your money well spent?"
"Passable." As the boss of the Yangshan Archipelago, he was demanding and rarely gave glowing reviews. "I'll fly ahead to take a look. Don't rush in too close."
If his guess was right, whatever was in those ruins was no friendly presence.
"Understood," Dong Rui replied. He commanded the ghost ape to manifest its original form and carry him forward.
His agility was far inferior to He Lingchuan's, so granting himself some extra mobility was the wisest move.
He Lingchuan leaped onto the bat's back and took to the air, heading toward Mount Ke.
The dozens of crimson beams flashed only a few times before dying away.
The mountain forest sank once more into the black night. A sudden gust of wind blew from an unknown quarter, setting the trees swaying and casting jagged shadows, lending an ominous air to everything around.
Flying was far faster than walking. In fewer than a few dozen breaths, the bat reached Mount Ke.
The ruins of the Shanjin Empire covered a vast expanse. Below, the shattered remains of structures came into view—what looked like stone towers, or perhaps the half-crumbled walls of an ancient palace.
Within the shadows of the ruins, something appeared to stir.
Chapter 1162