In the secluded valley of the night, He Lingchuan's voice echoed across the entire battlefield.
"Who made you freeze and starve?"
"Who surrounded you with enemies on every side, reviled by all the realms?"
"And who drove you to a dead end, forcing your children and grandchildren to wander the plains like wild dogs with no place of refuge?"
Soldiers of the Yao army shot arrows in rapid succession toward the voice in the sky, but the strange bird flew too high, well out of range. General Chongwu's face was ashen. He found opportunities to draw his bow twice himself, but failed both times.
He indeed possessed divine archery skills, but He Lingchuan was prepared beforehand; how could he let him succeed so easily?
"I will wait for you at the ruins of Mount Ke!" The massive, strange bird circled once more, flapped its wings, and turned toward the traveling palace's ruins. "Before that, shouldn't you settle old scores—"
The black-armored warrior threw his head back toward the sky, glaring unblinkingly at him.
"—with the Yao army?"
By the time those words finished ringing out, He Lingchuan and the strange bird were already far away, leaving only lingering echoes echoing endlessly through the night.
***
After flying three li, He Lingchuan pointed to an open space among the rolling hills ahead. "Descend!"
The bat demon puppet swooped down swiftly, bringing both of them into hiding beneath the hills.
After about a dozen breaths, an owl flew over and circled twice without spotting any sign of He Lingchuan.
Below lay only a stretch of mountain rocks and two small trees.
With no other choice, it flapped its wings and landed on the crown of one of the small trees, swiveling its head to search in every direction.
Yet just as it turned its head toward its back, something dropped from the base of a nearby branch and landed right beside its feet.
Startled, the owl flapped its wings and looked down. To its surprise, it was a chubby little bat slowly crawling up the trunk.
Bats were part of its diet. Even though it couldn't tell what breed this was, that did nothing to dampen its determination to have a midnight snack.
Yet just as it stretched its beak to snatch it, the bat suddenly expanded...
Hiding in the shadow of the hill, He Lingchuan heard a flurry of chaotic noises above—the thrashing of wings and the frantic screeching of a bird.
A few breaths later, the bat glided down lightly and landed beside He Lingchuan, two feathers still stuck to the corner of its mouth.
He Lingchuan plucked the feathers away for it, and Dong Rui remarked, "Just as you predicted, that man surnamed Yu refused to give up and sent an avian demon to tail us."
The bat demon puppet had just devoured an avian demon scout sent by the Yao. He Lingchuan was the instigator who had triggered the brawl between the black-armored leader and the Yao army; General Chongwu was naturally unwilling to let them escape, which was why he had dispatched an avian demon to follow close behind.
Mounting the demon puppet once more to take to the skies, He Lingchuan remarked, "This fellow surnamed Yu is fighting a fierce battle, thinking about Three-Tails, and still worrying about us—quite an organized man. He has already realized that we separated from Three-Tails."
Before leaving the battlefield, He Lingchuan had found a first-class seat with the best vantage point on a large tree for an eyeball spider.
Judging by its real-time feed, General Chongwu was fighting this battle in a fit of rage and exasperation.
The Yao army's origin power was indeed formidable, giving them a significant advantage against the rock puppets. However, tonight's battle was extraordinarily peculiar. The black-armored leader and the rock puppets completely blocked the Yao army along the path, and the mountain trail was exceptionally narrow. Not only was the Yao army unable to deploy into formation, but the soldiers in the rear ranks were boxed in by their comrades in front. Incapable of charging forward, they could only watch in futile agitation.
Besides, what general in his right mind would willingly throw his core troops into combat against statues of mud and stone?
Meeting lifeless puppets with flesh and blood made for an utterly meaningless battle.
Hence, Dong Rui laughed heartily. "Organized or not, wasn't he still played for a fool by you?"
He Lingchuan offered a fair assessment: "We sprang on him out of nowhere; he simply didn't foresee it. Besides, he knows nothing about us."
In his view, General Chongwu's reactions were swift, and his performance on the battlefield was far superior to that of ordinary commanders. It was just that despite all his calculations, he could never have anticipated an unconventional opponent like He Lingchuan appearing out of thin air.
Had He Lingchuan been in his shoes, he likely would have suffered the exact same loss.
"Now that the tail was eaten by my bat, why don't we just slip away?" Dong Rui asked him. "Why do we actually have to go to the Mount Ke ruins?"
"Earlier, when we landed and doubled back to watch the battle from behind the low hill, the black-armored man pointed out our position without even looking. That proves he has a way to track us," He Lingchuan said with clear reasoning. "If we change directions and leave now, the black-armored man might realize we broke our word. What if he abandons the Yao army and comes straight after us?"
Wouldn't that ruin his ploy of pitting the snipe against the clam?
"Uh..." Dong Rui admitted that his concern was justified. "That guy isn't right in the head, but he moves fast."
"Judging by how it prioritized attacking the Yao army, it hasn't been completely taken over by the Luosheng Armor yet—quite a feat," He Lingchuan said. They had learned from Fu Liushan that the more masters the sinister armor passed through, the more powerful it became. In the later stages, seven or eight out of ten people who donned the armor would become its slaves, ending in madness and frenzy. "Let's head to Mount Ke. Didn't you want to go when you passed by last time?"
Dong Rui gave a dry chuckle.
He had only been curious. If someone actually shoved the Luosheng Armor into his hands, he wouldn't even want to wear it.
That thing tore at a person's sanity; he was better off avoiding that trial altogether.
"Hey?" He hurriedly changed the subject. "There seems to be red light flickering in the ruins again."
Earlier, when the black-armored man appeared, the red light in the ruins had surged straight into the sky in a massive spectacle. But this time, the red glow in the ruins was faint and sparse, barely noticeable—only discernible when looking down from the air.
To borrow a metaphor from He Lingchuan's other world, it looked like a cigarette butt glowing in the dark night.
"Let's go take a look." Tonight was certainly full of surprises.
Dong Rui was also nearing the ruins on foot, preparing to regroup with him.
The bat demon puppet circled twice above the Mount Ke ruins, finally giving He Lingchuan time to examine this former traveling palace of the Shanjin Empire in detail.
Centuries and millennia had passed, so the treasury was naturally empty. However, on the open ground surrounding it stood thirty-six platforms—circular on the outside and square on the inside—each nearly a zhang high. Looking down from above, He Lingchuan took the shadow-projecting lamp from his robes to use as a searchlight, discovering a series of bright-red runes carved into the tops of the stone platforms.
Very few pigments could remain exposed to the air for a thousand years without fading, and these runes were no exception.
So, someone had come to trace over them? When He Lingchuan and Dong Rui had passed by earlier, they had run straight into the black-armored warrior and had no chance to notice these runes.
Thirty-six platforms—climbing up and down just to trace all those runes in red would have been a grueling chore.
Below, tree shadows still shifted and swayed. He Lingchuan suddenly spoke up: "Wait—"
Dong Rui pulled a long face. "Again? Has a second set of Luosheng Armor appeared?"
The ghost ape also tensed its muscles, readying itself for combat.
The last time He Lingchuan had spoken like that, the bat demon puppet was attacked by the black-armored man in the blink of an eye.
However, He Lingchuan then patted the bat demon puppet's head, guiding it to spiral downward. "It's fine. Land."
"What is it?" In terms of eyesight, Dong Rui was indeed no match for He Lingchuan.
"A person. A living person." He Lingchuan frowned. "Someone you know, too."
The sudden appearance of an outsider disrupted his original plan.
In its fully expanded form, the current bat demon puppet had a wingspan of nearly five zhang. Taking off and landing kicked up sand and stones, making quite a racket.
It touched down before the Mount Ke treasury. The two men could now see clearly that the source of the red light was a portion of the runes on the stone platforms. However, the platforms were raised high above the ground; standing on flat ground, one couldn't see the runes themselves, only the misty red glow hovering above.
The area was completely empty without a soul in sight, the night wind howling mournfully through the treetops.
He Lingchuan dropped to the ground and called out, "Come on out. I already saw you from the sky."
A figure stepped out from behind a stone platform, his face flushed with fury. "Did you two cause everything that happened here?"
Though the night was dark, He Lingchuan could easily recognize that familiar face.
It was Fu Liushan.
A few rainy nights ago, when they had lodged at a small town tavern, this rascal had drunk wine with them the entire night.
The next day, the two parties parted ways, but Fu Liushan had headed toward Mount Jing.
Dong Rui blinked. "We only rushed over after seeing the red light. We also want to know what on earth happened here."
Fu Liushan looked at him, then at He Lingchuan. His brows remained tightly furrowed, but a peculiar look flickered in his eyes. "Wait, why do your voices sound so familiar?"
From the moment they entered Baitou Ridge to meet the fox demons, He Lingchuan and Dong Rui had worn masks the entire time. Fu Liushan couldn't see their true faces, but he recognized their voices.
"Uh, He?" He pointed first at He Lingchuan, then at Dong Rui. "Wei?"
Spot on.
After leaving Beijia, Dong Rui had gone by the alias Wei Yishan.
At this point, insisting "No, you've mistaken us" was pointless. He Lingchuan and Dong Rui exchanged a glance, keeping their masks on. "It's us."
Fu Liushan's eyes flickered. "I knew the two of you were no ordinary folk. How could you be passing merchants? Heh, are you also coveting the things here?"
Even after recognizing He and Dong, his gaze remained filled with vigilance.
Meeting again in the wild mountains, especially in a place like this, both sides had their own hidden motives. If they hadn't shared a table and drank wine together previously, they would have already drawn weapons against each other.
Dong Rui seized upon the implication of his words: "Why aren't you asking whether we took the Luosheng Armor?"
Fu Liushan snorted with laughter. "Took it? Ahaha, how could it be that easy! That Luosheng Armor already has a master."
"That's true." Dong Rui glanced at He Lingchuan. "The moment we arrived, that thing tried to kill us, chasing us the whole way."
Fu Liushan looked at their flying mount with a touch of envy. "Consider yourselves lucky to be alive. That thing just broke out of its seal; its wrath is at its peak, and it kills anyone on sight."
These two were likely only able to escape thanks to their flying mount.
He Lingchuan suddenly chimed in: "We were escorting a friend past Mount Ke when red light suddenly flared up here. We came to see what was happening, only to come face-to-face with that black-armored man leading a horde of rock puppets, who immediately started chasing us down. Do you know what was going on with those rock puppets?"
"A few years ago, two armies clashed on Mount Jing, suffering casualties on both sides. Perhaps some hatred and resentment clung to the broken armor, which was bound and utilized by the Luosheng Armor." Fu Liushan furrowed his brows. "And then? What were you doing just now?"
Chapter 1166