"And then you'll have to trade information for it." He Lingchuan looked at him with an inquiring glint in his eye. "A desolate mountain and a ruined traveling palace, yet you're a regular visitor. There must be a reason, right?"
Although the legend of the Luosheng Armor was a household tale across the western Shanjin Plain, when Fu Liushan had talked about the old lore while drinking, he had done so with vivid color, nailing every minute detail. It was hard not to draw connections.
Seeing Fu Liushan hesitate slightly, He Lingchuan pointed west and added, "That thing has already broken out. What's the point of guarding these secrets now?"
That was the real crux! Sure enough, Fu Liushan cared far more about the whereabouts of the Luosheng Armor than past events. "Fine, it's not some grand secret anyway. I am the Fu family's seventh-generation Heavenly Master. Ever since our ancestors' time, we have been the guardians of the Ke Ridge seal!"
Hearing words like "seal" and "guardians," Dong Rui grew interested. "You're the guardians of the Luosheng Armor?"
"Strictly speaking, guardians of the Luosheng Armor's *seal*." Fu Liushan gestured casually at the surrounding stone platforms. "These are the talisman platform arrays left behind by the Shanjin Empire, built specifically to seal away the Luosheng Armor. Every so often, I have to come into the mountains to inspect them. Whenever there's any damage, it's my responsibility to mend it."
Dong Rui felt a twinge of sympathy upon hearing that. "That doesn't sound like a fun job."
"You can say that again!" Fu Liushan vented almost instinctively. "Every trip into the mountains takes about a month round-trip! If not for the rules left by my ancestors, who would want to guard this godforsaken place?"
It had taken him two whole days just to retrace the runes!
While doing this chore, he must have yawned hundreds of times because it was simply so dull and tedious. On top of that, it was sheer physical labor; he had to stay bent over and scrabbling at the ground for hours, leaving him dizzy and seeing stars whenever he stood up.
Back then, he had even thought that in a few more years, when his back gave out and he couldn't bend over anymore, he'd need to find a successor.
No, at least two.
Which meant he had to find a girl and get married first. Sigh.
It seemed the heavens had heard his thoughts. Now that the Luosheng Armor had escaped, he certainly wasn't bored anymore.
Just moments ago, he had climbed onto the platforms to look, and good grief, the runes he had just finished tracing were actually cracked!
On every stone platform, there were several finger-thick fractures.
What a blatant disrespect for the fruits of his labor!
He Lingchuan frowned. "In all these years, no one has ever broken the seal?"
Destruction was always simpler than maintenance. Wouldn't wrecking these stone platforms break the seal?
Why hadn't the Luosheng Armor emerged before?
Fu Liushan chuckled, a touch of pride on his face. "In the more than one hundred years since my family began guarding this place, the seal has only ever suffered wear and tear—it has never failed!"
Dong Rui was puzzled. "Why is that?"
Fu Liushan wore a mysterious expression.
Back when the Shanjin Empire built this grand sealing array, they had naturally considered the risk of an open-air seal being vandalized. Therefore... the stone platforms were merely a diversion; the true array runes didn't exist solely on the platforms.
However, that was a Fu family secret, and he wasn't about to tell strangers everything.
Yet as Fu Liushan smiled, his expression abruptly collapsed.
Generation after generation of the Fu family had guarded this seal, and everything had been fine; all they had to do was make a routine stroll out here once a month. How did a massive disaster land squarely on him?
In the decade-plus since he took over guarding the mountain, the Ke Ridge seal had been perfectly fine too. Why did it suddenly break tonight of all nights, just when he went out of the mountains to fetch wine?!
If the monster beneath the ground had awakened at any normal time when he wasn't here, he naturally wouldn't have been able to do anything about it.
Now... could he, a Heavenly Master, just ignore it now?
"My turn to ask. Where did the black-armored man go?"
When Fu Liushan asked this, he hadn't held much hope, but to his surprise, He Lingchuan pointed in the direction of the Yao army. "Right now, he's locked in a fierce, deadlocked battle with the Yao army."
"The Yao army?" Fu Liushan repeated in shock. "The Yao army came to Mount Jing as well? Why?"
Dong Rui shrugged. "You'll have to ask them. In any case, both sides look like bitter, sworn enemies. The moment they met, they tore into each other, locked in combat."
He Lingchuan cast him an approving look.
The last two sentences the rascal spoke were completely true, but he had lopped off the beginning and end, omitting all the crucial details... He really had inherited He Lingchuan's finest tricks.
Fu Liushan racked his brains. "Could the Yao people be carrying something that the Luosheng Armor sensed, driving it to break out of the array?"
Mount Jing bordered the Yao Kingdom, so it wasn't strange for a Yao army to pass nearby. Why had it provoked the Luosheng Armor only tonight?
What was the new variable?
This remark was quite illuminating for He Lingchuan as well.
He knew full well, of course, that the Luosheng Armor was chasing him, not the Yao soldiers.
So had the Luosheng Armor taken a fancy to something on his person?
What kind of treasure could stir up an evil armor that had lain quiet for over a century, compelling it to break its seal?
He Lingchuan thought carefully. Well... he really did possess quite a lot of treasures.
Fu Liushan sighed, hopped back onto the stone platform, and continued repairing the array. As he worked, he told the two, "I don't know where you two hail from, and I don't really want to know, but take my advice: leave Mount Jing as soon as possible. The Luosheng Armor is thoroughly wicked—it's not something you can control."
Seeing his posture, Dong Rui cleared his throat. "You're still planning to recapture the Luosheng Armor?"
Otherwise, with the armor already gone, what was the point of tinkering with this grand array?
"What choice do I have?" Fu Liushan's face was the very picture of reluctance. "It's my duty."
He was a Heavenly Master, the Heavenly Master stationed to remain at Mount Jing. His parents had even given him this name—Fu Liushan, "remain at the mountain." Reluctant as he was, he had to see it through to the end.
Dong Rui smiled. "Even if you let go and stop guarding this Luosheng Armor, what's the big deal?"
"My ancestors gave everything they had to suppress it here," Fu Liushan said, shaking his head. "How could I bring shame upon them? When my time comes and I go down to the underworld a hundred years from now, wouldn't they beat my head full of lumps?"
"Whether the Luosheng Armor wreaks havoc or not, this area is just as chaotic anyway," Dong Rui said. In his view, when you had too many lice, you stopped caring about the bites.
"It's still not the same." Fu Liushan wore a bitter grimace, but remained steadfast. "You haven't seen the Luosheng Armor; you don't know the harm it causes. Wherever that thing goes, bones pile into mountains. However cheap human life may be, it shouldn't be squandered like that."
"Well said." He Lingchuan gave him a thumbs-up. "Still, with your abilities, can you actually retrieve it?"
Fu Liushan appeared reluctant, yet when it came to action, he felt a shirkless responsibility.
If it was his duty, he owned up to it.
The black-armored leader commanded the rock puppets and could fight the origin-power-empowered Yao army to a standstill. How could Fu subdue it so easily?
"Do what humanly can be done, and leave the rest to fate." Fu Liushan sighed, seeing that these two intended to meddle. "What, you still haven't given up? You should know that birds die in pursuit of food."
"You probably won't manage alone," He Lingchuan said with a chuckle. "Can this array still be used?"
Fu Liushan glared at him and said nothing.
"Are you repairing the talisman array because you want to lure the Luosheng Armor back and use the array to suppress it again?"
"Being too clever isn't a good thing. It easily invites disaster upon yourself."
Chapter 1167