Displaying Their Powers

Along the roadside were countless faint footprints, some distinctly bearing the shoe marks of mountain folk. Pei Xinyong and Lu Yao harbored their own hidden motives, riding in silence for quite a while. In the end, Pei Xinyong broke the quiet. "According to you, General Wu fell for that He fellow's scheme to sow discord, and that was why you killed him?" *He wasn't the only one who fell for a scheme—so did you!* Lu Yao kept the thought firmly buried inside. After all, Pei Xinyong currently commanded more than twice his numbers, and their top priority remained hunting down the government troops. "I didn't kill him. The Crocodile God tore into him personally!" "Speaking of which, why would the Crocodile God accompany you to Xianling Lake?" This was what Pei Xinyong dreaded most. Wu Shaoyi was a formidable warrior, yet even he had fallen into Lu Yao's ambush, leaving Pei Xinyong with the chilling dread that once the lips are gone, the teeth are cold. What had this wretch Lu Yao brought the Crocodile God to Xianling Lake to achieve? "I begged it to come and bear witness for us!" Lu Yao sighed. "After the Holy Master perished, it wished to seek a new lair. When I mentioned that Xianling Lake teemed with fish and possessed extensive waterways, it was tempted and came along." Pei Xinyong nodded, though he did not believe a single word. With so many rivers and lakes in the Yuan Kingdom, why would the Crocodile God choose this exact spot? It was no secret that the beast hailed from the northern realms and knew little of Yuan's waters; if not for Lu Yao's sweet-talking, why would it have joined him? So Lu Yao had originally intended to use the Crocodile God during the rendezvous of the three armies to coerce the other two factions into submitting to him? Now that Wu Shaoyi was dead, his subordinates either scattered or absorbed by Lu Yao, where did that leave Pei Xinyong? Kill Lu Yao and seize all his troops? Pei Xinyong sneered inwardly. Lu Yao was likely turning over the very same calculations! Lu Yao tilted his head toward him and said suddenly, "Wu Shaoyi lacked ambition. I knew all along he only wanted to scurry back south, find a mountain, and hole up as a petty warlord. Now that he's dead, there's no need to make a grand fuss about joint councils and pacts. I, Lu Yao, hereby acknowledge General Pei as my master! Only by standing united from top to bottom will we have a way to survive!" Pei Xinyong froze in astonishment. "You... you wish to acknowledge me as commander-in-chief?" "Precisely!" Lu Yao gave a hearty laugh. "From now on, Lu's two hundred jin of flesh belongs entirely to Commander Pei, to command as you see fit!" Pei Xinyong seemed moved. "Brother Lu is far too courteous!" Yet he never uttered a single "How could I possibly accept?" The two exchanged a smile and clasped each other's shoulders, silently cursing the other to the depths of hell. Advancing further, they found several felled dawn redwoods barring the road. With trunks this massive piled atop one another, their mounts certainly could not leap over them. The bandits had no choice but to dismount and haul them away. He Chunhua had deliberately felled the most colossal trees, and the fallen timber proved deadweight heavy, jumbled together in a crooked heap. Though the combined forces of Pei and Lu had plenty of hands, it still took them over two quarters of an hour to heave the monstrous logs aside, leaving them panting and wheezing with exertion. Neither Pei nor Lu suffered from the haughty airs of regular military officers; both had hopped down to haul timber alongside their men. Pei Xinyong plucked a wooden splinter from his palm and turned to Lu Yao. "Holding up?" Lu Yao had fought a fierce clash with Wu Shaoyi earlier, suffering multiple wounds. The bleeding cuts had split open long ago, leaving him with a pronounced limp. He had then led his men in storming the West Mountain wagon barricade, galloped all the way here, and now had to labor like a common drayman. Even a man of iron would have been worn down. Not only was he drawing ragged breaths, but his temples pounded furiously, and a faint dizziness swirled in his head. Yet facing Pei Xinyong, whose forces doubled his own, he knew he could not show the slightest sign of weakness. He offered a nonchalant grin. "Never better." He pointed ahead. "Mist is rising. Let's hurry the pursuit, or we'll lose them." While Pei Xinyong turned away, Lu Yao discreetly popped two pills for replenishing qi and blood into his mouth. Mist in the mountains arrived without warning. No sooner had the bandits remounted than the white fog rolled toward them. The men felt a faint dampness against their faces, light and hazy, like a fine spring drizzle in the third month. Though the wilderness resembled a celestial realm, their clothes were drenched within moments. All around stretched an expanse of vast white, masking anything beyond a zhang away. Both commanders grew somber. Dense vapor obscured their vision, severely hampering the speed of their horses. "This mist has done those government troops a massive favor." The bandits hurried down the slope in pursuit, passing a crooked-neck locust tree. Just like that, a quarter of an hour slipped by. Amid the mist, only when they drew near did they notice that the surrounding landscape looked oddly familiar. Another quarter of an hour passed. Hooves clattered and came to a halt beside the locust tree. Lu Yao inspected the blade marks on the old trunk. "We've circled back again. That's three times!" A subordinate dragged forward a villager seized from Xianling Village to serve as their guide. "What is going on here?" The villager was drained of color, terrified out of his wits. "I don't know either, Great King—er, General! I've walked this path for decades. By all rights, I couldn't get it wrong with my eyes closed!" "Ghost walls," Pei Xinyong remarked, his expression darkening. "The soldiers have laid a bewitching formation." Simply put, a maze. The method to shake off pursuit was straightforward: if you could not run fast enough, find a way to slow down the pursuers. "Every maze like this has an array eye. Once found, it can be dispelled. But that will take time." Lu Yao pondered. "I recall the Holy Master once clashed with someone in Xiaonantian. His opponent laid a Thousand Lantern Formation, which was supposedly extraordinarily convoluted to break. Yet the Holy Master found an alternative path. Do you remember?" Pei Xinyong nodded. "Tracking by scent." He had capable men under his command, one of whom stepped forward and said, "We need an old belonging of the target." Otherwise, there was no way to designate the subject. An old belonging? Hearing this, a bandit stepped forward and presented a scrap of cloth to Lu Yao. "General, this was torn from the clothing of the corrupt official He's younger son. While you were in the water, he tried to sneak attack you, but I punched him back." Afterward, he had tucked it into his sleeve, thinking the fabric was fine and might serve when squatting in the woods... He had never expected it to come in handy now. Fortunately, his stomach had behaved since the night before. Lu Yao was overjoyed. "Well done! Reward him ten taels of silver!" With He Yue's scrap of cloth in hand, the thaumaturge could proceed. Pei Xinyong's man sprinkled yellow powder onto the small piece of fabric, rubbed it carefully, and chanted under his breath. When he finished chanting, he held the cloth upside down and gave it several shakes. The yellow powder scattered into the air, forming a hazy yellow cloud. The breeze here was gentle; the powder dispersed without scattering away, drifting steadily forward. It had worked. If all went well, this pinch of pathfinding powder would guide them straight to He Yue. Pei Xinyong barked an order, and they set off following it! Two thousand men marched forward in grand procession. And so, another quarter of an hour and more drifted by. Heavy mist still blanketed everything around them. Lu Yao frowned. "Something isn't right. If we had stepped outside the array, the vapor should have dissipated!" The government troops traveling ahead were surely free of this bewildering fog. A bandit suddenly pointed at a locust tree. "General, we've passed this place again!" The fourth time! They had still failed to escape the bewitching formation. Even the Holy Master's method had proved useless? The men looked at one another in dismay, thoroughly disheartened, at a loss for what to do. Pei Xinyong murmured, "That corrupt official He has someone under him skilled enough to twist even scent tracking?" Just as everyone stood helpless, a crisp screech echoed from the sky. The white fog stirred, and something descended with a flurry of flapping wings. Lu Yao broke into a wide grin. "Pidan is back!" With that, he pursed his lips and whistled twice. The creature seemed to locate his position. A few breaths later, a brown streak darted out of the thick mist and landed on his arm. It was the red-tailed kestrel. Lu Yao declared proudly, "This might just be our key to breaking the deadlock!" He asked the kestrel, "Did you catch up to the soldiers?" The kestrel nodded. "Can you show us their direction?" The kestrel spoke: "Not from down here. Fly into the sky, and you can see them." The bandits were overjoyed. Indeed, no matter how potent the bewitching formation was on the ground, it remained bound to the earth. The kestrel soared through the heavens; looking down from above, how could any array hoodwink its eyes? The kestrel continued, "The position I pinpoint from on high looks different once I drop down." "The moment you near the ground, you fall under the array's influence," Lu Yao mused. "That's not hard to solve. I'll tie a red thread to you. Fly a little higher and guide our path forward!" In truth, the mountain trail from here to Qianteng Town was not complicated. It was only that light and scents were warped inside the formation, causing them to unknowingly take detours, veer off course, or even turn back on themselves. So long as the kestrel soared overhead to lead the way, the formation's interference would count for nothing. "Bring thread!" Awkwardly, no silk thread could be found. In the end, the bandits could only find a few unlucky sods to donate their clothes, tearing them into strips and knotting them end to end before tying the tip to the kestrel's talons. The kestrel spread its wings and took flight at once. After ascending for a stretch, it sensed something amiss; flying upward had failed to break through the bounds of the dense mist. Could this formation adjust itself at will? Who was watching from the shadows? Yet this could not stump the bird. Tucking its wings, its body naturally plunged downward. Then it beat its wings in the opposite direction, which naturally propelled it upward. Yet within its own field of vision, it appeared to be flying horizontally forward. Such was the potency of the formation. The kestrel simply closed its eyes and flew by the sense of gravity alone. Moments later, it pierced through the shroud of dense mist and looked upon the mountains and rivers once more. Peering down from fifty zhang in the air, the world below was crisp and clear. Forget mountain forests—even caterpillars crawling across leaves were plainly visible. Where was any thick fog? It flew forward a short distance. *Ah, the soldiers are... in that direction!* However, the kestrel noticed a curved cliff face directly ahead of its master. Guiding them in a straight line would certainly send them tumbling into the abyss, so it had to lead the entire column along a detour first. Watching the cloth strip in his hands begin to move, Lu Yao exhaled in relief and laughed heartily. "That corrupt official truly thought a mere bewitching formation could hold us back? Lads, let's move!" The direction indicated by the cloth strip shifted in real time, and the men set off in pursuit, heading toward the edge of the formation. *** Lian Deng hailed from Qianteng Town and knew the local geography intimately. Leading He Lingchuan along narrow trails for three to five li, he finally brought them back to the main thoroughfare. Naturally, the road lay utterly deserted now. "Heading west from here leads to Zhumapo." He pointed eastward. "The other direction goes to Xianling Village." He Lingchuan wheeled his mount around toward the east. "If Pei Xinyong received General Wu's mechanical bird dispatch, he ought to be waiting for us at Qiansui Cliff." Riding side by side, the two arrived before long at Langming Cave. Wagon ruts were etched clearly into the ground.