Fu Liushan pointed his chisel at him and snapped, "I see a flush of red across your brow. If you don't clear out soon, you're bound to meet with a bloody disaster tonight!"
He Lingchuan jumped onto the stone platform as well. "I'm afraid you need to patch faster. The man in black armor will be back soon."
Fu Liushan felt a jolt of alarm. "How do you know?"
"I left an informant on the battlefield." This place was still within the eyeball spider's transmission range, allowing He Lingchuan to observe the battlefield in real time. "The fighting over there is already winding down. The man in black armor has turned around and is heading this way."
This skirmish on the mountain path hadn't lasted long, but it had been exceptionally fierce. Both sides had nowhere to advance or retreat, and the black-armored leader harbored deep-seated hatred for the Yao people. General Chongwu had no choice but to fight back with all his might, so the sight relayed by the eyeball spider was one of flying flesh and blood—both sides tearing into each other with reckless abandon.
By now, the Yao army had suffered at least four to five hundred casualties in this bizarre clash. General Chongwu himself was wounded, having taken a spear through his flank and a slash to his leg that severed a tendon, leaving him unable to put weight on that foot. And that was only because his personal guards had fought desperately to protect him. Their enemy had naturally suffered even greater losses: over a thousand rock puppets were basically smashed to pieces, while the black-armored leader had been struck by over a dozen arrows and taken two slashes to the face. Anyone else would have died long ago from such injuries.
Yet it acted as though nothing had happened. Who wouldn't feel a thumping in their chest at such a sight?
General Chongwu had already pulled back, refusing to throw his life away against this monstrous thing, while simultaneously tightening his tactical command. Now that this senseless battle had been fought, it needed to yield a clear result.
Capturing the Luosheng Armor to take back would be an unexpected triumph.
He Lingchuan reasonably suspected that the general might have harbored some desires toward this sinister armor as well. Able to hold its own amidst an entire army with strength to spare—wasn't the black-armored leader demonstrating the armor's capabilities right before their eyes?
With only seven or eight rock puppets left at its side, the black-armored leader let out a low roar and gathered its remaining might to charge up the ridge, its broad, sweeping movements extraordinarily fierce. The rock puppets closely shielded it in their midst, fending off the Yao army's assaults, rendering it completely unstoppable for a moment.
Seeing through its intention, General Chongwu roared, "Cut it off!"
Yet the army couldn't deploy effectively on the narrow ridge, and two soldiers were directly sent flying by the black-armored leader. Another young officer happened to be standing by the road's edge; seeing the black-armored warrior rampaging forward, he immediately dodged back.
He had put distance between himself and the black-armored warrior, but the foe's charge unexpectedly swerved. With a loud crash, it sent him hurtling over the edge as well.
The young officer fell like a kite with a severed string. General Chongwu cried out in alarm, "Oh no!" Stepping forward, heedless of the agonizing pain in his foot, he fired a grappling cord toward him.
In this crisis, there was no time to worry about hurting him; as long as the grappling cord could snag the young officer and pull him back, that was all that mattered.
Who would have guessed that a rock puppet would charge over at that very moment, stepping squarely in the grappling cord's path?
With a dull thud, the broken piece of armor on the rock puppet's chest shattered, and the grappling cord sank deep into its ribcage.
That single block snuffed out the young officer's last chance of survival. General Chongwu heard his bloodcurdling scream plunging down the valley, and his heart sank with it.
Soon, the scream was swallowed by the darkness.
For a moment, none of the others dared step forward to court death.
Seizing the opening, the black-armored leader leapt into the air and plunged off the cliff!
This cliff dropped more than thirty fathoms. Below lay a jagged expanse of grotesque boulders with no trees to break a fall; an ordinary person would face near-certain death falling from here.
For him, however, that was another matter.
The black-armored leader's figure was swallowed instantly by the darkness at the bottom of the gorge.
The few puppets remaining on the mountain shattered into rubble with a sharp crack—ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
General Chongwu cursed under his breath. Hobbling to the edge of the cliff, he glanced down twice, then ordered with a cold face, "Head to the open ground ahead and rest for half an hour! Send two agile men down to the bottom of the gorge to find Second Young Master Tong and bring him back to me!"
Sigh, this damned terrain.
With Second Young Master Tong gone, there would be huge trouble. But now that he had incurred such trouble, he couldn't afford to give up even more; he had to capture Three-Tails to make amends.
The wounded soldiers required treatment. The army would leave them in the hollow before pressing forward.
While having the military physician tend to his wounds, General Chongwu continued delegating orders, keeping the chain of command operating smoothly. Watching this, He Lingchuan felt somewhat surprised. General Chongwu's intentions were clear: he was going to continue the pursuit under cover of darkness.
After clashing with a ferocious enemy of unknown origin, morale in the Yao army had dipped, and they had suffered heavy casualties. Yet He Lingchuan's scheme had not frightened General Chongwu off.
Fortunately, with the dark night and steep roads, the Yao army couldn't move quickly, especially since they still had to retrieve the corpse from the gorge. Thus, He Lingchuan's greatest trouble right now wasn't General Chongwu, but the black-armored leader speeding toward Ke Ridge!
Once it slipped out of the eyeball spider's view, He Lingchuan lost track of where it was running. But one thing was certain:
It was definitely heading here, and very fast!
He Lingchuan therefore asked Fu Liushan point-blank, "What weaknesses does the Luosheng Armor have?"
Asking this of the Luosheng Armor's seal master was truly going straight to the expert.
Many thoughts crossed Fu Liushan's mind as well.
He didn't believe a word of their claim about escorting a friend across the ridge. Nine out of ten explorers entering the ruins of Ke Ridge came for the Luosheng Armor; he had grown sick of seeing them over the past dozen-plus years.
These two probably wanted to use him and the talisman array to seize the Luosheng Armor.
Then again, those who had never fought the Luosheng Armor didn't know how terrifying it was. These two fellows were bound to be disappointed.
No matter, they could cooperate for now.
If they wanted to use him, why couldn't he use them? When facing the Luosheng Armor, even if these two couldn't beat it, they could serve as shields. Besides, they had a flying mount—a very prominent advantage.
Fu Liushan's eyes darted slightly, and he replied, "Definite weaknesses? None. But my ancestors left behind a deduction: the Luosheng Armor might be missing a scale plate right at a vital spot."
How could the Fu family know such a secret clue? Seeing their expressions, Fu Liushan immediately added, "This isn't baseless conjecture. According to records gathered by my ancestors, when the last sovereign of the Shanjin Empire wore it into battle for the final time, a key plate was knocked off—the Luosheng Armor's 'heart scale.' Its protective power was severely reduced, and only then did the sovereign fall in defeat."
*The heart scale?* He Lingchuan's brow twitched.
The soul-snatching mirror in his robes cried out, "Heart scale? Good heavens, isn't that... isn't that...?"
He Lingchuan gave a slight nod. "So that's how it is. Exactly which spot?"
"That's unclear. I've never seen the Luosheng Armor in person." Fu Liushan spread his hands. "The second weakness is even more tenuous: it might be its current master."
"Its master?" Dong Rui was somewhat surprised, but He Lingchuan nodded. "Indeed. The moment the current master of the Luosheng Armor saw the Yao army, he abandoned us to slaughter them. It's clear the Luosheng Armor hasn't completely taken control of him."
"The Luosheng Armor has had other masters in the past. After a few years at the shortest, or twenty to thirty years at most, it always changed hands, sparking another bloodbath. Until it took this current master. Though credit goes to the seal, it has stayed quiet for over a hundred and sixty years, which is extraordinarily rare."
Patching up the final platform, Fu Liushan jumped down. "Everything I know, I've told you. What's your plan?"
He Lingchuan and Dong Rui exchanged a glance.
"You're not thinking of just standing here like fools to fight him, are you?" Fu Liushan shook his head repeatedly. "You can't win."
He Lingchuan looked around at the surrounding stone platforms. "How does this formation take effect?"
"See that circle formed by the white stones on the ground?" Fu Liushan pointed downward. "I will control the formation. You two must make sure he stands inside the circle—the closer to the center, the better. Then the formation can seal him again."
"Are you sure?" He Lingchuan frowned. "After being sealed for so many years, would he be foolish enough to walk into the trap again?"
"When the Luosheng Armor freshly awakens, it leaves its host deranged, consumed entirely with slaughter," Fu Liushan said. "We must take that chance to seal it. Otherwise, relying on just the few of us is pure suicide!"
Dong Rui tapped his foot on the stone ground. "You won't end up sealing us along with him, will you?"
He knew very well what sneaky schemes Fu Liushan might harbor.
"What are you thinking? It only works on the Luosheng Armor!"
No sooner had he spoken than the bell at Fu Liushan's hand suddenly began to ring. *Jingle, jingle, jingle!* It sounded jarringly shrill in the night wind.
His face changed instantly. "It's here."
This bell rang whenever something foul drew near. When they encountered the ghost at the inn earlier, it had only rung half a chime. Now, it rang so frantically it could wake the dead.
With it ringing this wildly, anyone knew something formidable was approaching.
Dong Rui immediately asked, "Can you tell which direction the Luosheng Armor is coming from?"
Fu Liushan pointed casually. "Over that way!"
He picked a stone platform, leapt onto it, and crouched down, frantically tracing something on the surface while speaking in a rush: "I almost forgot to mention: this armor likely absorbs human fear. The more you shrink back, the stronger it gets. So—"
He Lingchuan cut him off: "But that thing just fought the Yao army. It must have absorbed plenty already, right?"
"Well... ah, wouldn't you know it?" Fu Liushan gave a dry laugh. "So it'll be far stronger than when it first broke the seal... Oh, right, they say the Luosheng Armor amplifies its host's mystical arts and physical strength. Look out for yourselves! If you truly can't hold out, fly into the sky to stall for time!"
Just as He Lingchuan was about to reply, the man suddenly plunged headfirst downward and vanished!
"Eh?" Dong Rui was dumbfounded.
He Lingchuan bounded onto the platform in two strides, only to find it completely empty.
He pressed down on the platform's surface several times.
"There's probably a mechanism. He hid inside the platform."
No wonder Fu Liushan had acted so calm—he had a place to hide all along.
"What a sly bastard. No, wait, the array masters of the Shanjin Empire were the truly sly ones, making sure they protected themselves first." Dong Rui's face was filled with envy; he wanted to hide inside too.
Left with no choice, he patted the ghost ape and the bat, then nimbly slipped into the woods—heading in the exact opposite direction of the black-armored man.
He had seen that monster's agility and speed; he had no way of fending it off himself.
He left He Lingchuan with only a single parting remark: "Fight well, you two! It all depends on you!"
Before Fu Liushan, hiding inside the stone platform, could even process what happened, Dong Rui's back had already disappeared into the dark woods.
What did this mean—breaking up the partnership at the last second? Could He Lingchuan and a monkey really hold off the Luosheng Armor alone?
Chapter 1168