Pursuit

Seeing that their commander was alive, the Xiazhou army breathed a collective sigh of relief, their minds once again turning to the word "bounty." Just as He Chunhua escaped from the giant ape, He Lingchuan arrived from the opposite direction. With a brush of his storage ring, he snatched out the Soaring Dragon spear and thrust it straight toward the giant ape's right eye. Standing upright, this great monkey was well over ten feet tall; even mounted on horseback, He Lingchuan needed a long spear to reach it. The giant ape's eyes flared crimson the moment it saw him, clearly recalling the humiliating memory of being pinned beneath the walnut boat. An instant later, the bone armor above its eye sockets suddenly extended, completely covering its right eye. He Lingchuan's spear struck home immediately after. The dark-gold spearhead had been forged with an admixture of meteoric iron from beyond the heavens; neither ordinary blades nor common swords could compare to its sharpness and hardness. The bone plate shattered. Soaring Dragon plunged into the giant ape's right eye, and blood spurted forth in an instant. Yet the bone armor offered tremendous resistance. He Lingchuan had spent his momentum, and the spearhead did not penetrate deeply into the eye. Suspended in midair, he was just trying to find a way to wrench the spear free and thrust again when the giant ape let out an earth-shattering roar and snatched him in its grasp! Its hand shot out even faster than before. He Lingchuan had assumed it was slowed by the word incantation and had been caught unprepared. The character "Stagnate" on its forehead shattered at the same moment, dissipating into nothingness. Evidently, this spear thrust had inflamed its ferocity to such an extent that even the word-spirit incantation could no longer bind it. He Lingchuan instantly felt his body constricted, his blood forced into his limbs and head, leaving only one arm free to flail outside. He felt like a balloon on the verge of bursting under the pressure. The Fusheng saber was jammed at his waist, impossible to draw. Witnessing this, Elder Liang cried out in disbelief, "How can this be?!" He had cultivated this word-spirit incantation for a full twenty-five years, fifteen of which had been spent practicing the Mantra of Silence—acting as a mute for fifteen years, never speaking a single word. In this way, every bit of his painstaking cultivation had gathered into the nurtured word-spirit, steeping deeper and deeper over time. This single-character incantation placed little burden on him and brought minimal backlash. As for its immense power, even if cast upon the Pavilion Master of Chuanyun Pavilion, it could never be broken in just a few breaths. Yet this giant ape had done it. How had it managed that? He Chunhua looked on with eyes nearly splitting with anguish. "Chuan'er!" Other Xiazhou soldiers mustered their courage and thrust forward with their spears, but how could they pierce the ghost ape's bone armor? It was nothing more than scratching an itch. The giant ape showed no mercy. The moment it seized He Lingchuan, it squeezed with all its might! With its brute strength, crushing He Lingchuan into pulp would have been effortless. Yet it suddenly felt its hand go empty; the solid sensation of crushing flesh vanished. Opening its palm, it found that the little thief who had wounded it twice had truly vanished into thin air! However, something seemed to rest in its palm, tiny and featherlight. Before the giant ape could look closer, the wind blew it away. At that exact moment, He Lingchuan reappeared abruptly behind it. Before the ghost ape could react, Fusheng was already unsheathed. A cold flash slashed across both of the ghost ape's ankles, slicing through the gaps in its bone armor and severing its Achilles tendons in a single stroke! With a howl of agony, the ghost ape swept around to grab him while taking a step back. That single step brought searing, unbearable pain. He Lingchuan felt a lingering dread of his own. If he had not cast out the ghost shadow cicada slough in time to execute the technique of Sacrificing the Plum to Preserve the Peach, he would likely have popped like a burst balloon by now. He Chunhua's sorrow turned to joy in an instant, and he shouted immediately, "Chuan'er, give me the Ghost Eye Bow!" Dodging the ghost ape's flailing attack, He Lingchuan retrieved the Ghost Eye Bow and arrow with one hand and tossed them over without a second thought. Right—how had he forgotten this supreme treasure? Still, he was unwilling to trade his own lifespan for its power. He Chunhua caught the bow and arrow, but rather than using them himself, he shoved them into the hands of a guard beside him and said in a low voice, "Shoot!" The guard took the bow, nocked the arrow without hesitation, and aimed at the giant ape. The ghost eye on the bow darted erratically, whispering tempting enticements into his ear. The personal guard said in a resolute voice, "I sacrifice five years of my lifespan!" Having accepted the sacrifice, the ghost eye snapped wide open, locking onto the giant ape's face. With a sharp whistle, the arrow left the string. Not far away, the giant ape seemed to sense danger; it dropped onto its haunches, dodging the arrow aimed at its face. Yet it knew nothing of the Ghost Eye Bow's nature, and this ignorance cost it dearly. The arrow flew past, banked around on its own, and accelerated a second time as it curved back. Fortunately, or unfortunately, it actually had eyes on the back of its head. Sprouting another arm from its back in haste, it snatched frantically at the arrow. Alas, too late. With a dull crack, the ghost ape was struck in the right side of its back, a massive chunk of flesh blasted away. From He Chunhua's angle, a gaping hole was visible right through its chest. "Kill it!" At his command, the Xiazhou forces surged forward. With its right eye and right chest gravely wounded and its left Achilles tendon severed, the ghost ape was stripped of its former prowess. As the saying went, everyone beats a broken drum; the bone armor around its wounds had already flaked off, unable to withstand the men's blades and spears. The searing agony made it beat a retreat. Propping itself up, hopping and crawling, the ghost ape bolted toward the open countryside. It paid no heed to the stray arrows and javelins raining from behind, smashing through whatever obstacles lay in its path. Its left leg could not bear weight, but it still had three limbs to run on, and fleeing for its life, it moved surprisingly fast. Over on the other side, the Xunzhou forces also recognized that the tide had turned and victory was out of reach today. The Xiazhou soldiers fought with growing vigor, and among them mingled many cultivators whose origin-power-empowered divine arts and techniques proved overwhelming. If they did not leave now, they would be wiped out here. Flanked by his personal guards, the one-armed Lord Baili sounded the retreat. Calling it a retreat was generous; it was little different from fleeing. The Xiazhou troops were invigorated. He Chunhua singled out Zeng Feixiong and another general, ordering them to pursue the enemy relentlessly. Back in the camp, He Lingchuan hurried over to check on He Chunhua. "Dad, are you all right?" "Probably broke a rib," He Chunhua replied, his face slightly pale. "Nothing serious." He Lingchuan looked around. The Xiazhou army had suffered considerable casualties, especially from the ghost ape's throws, which had crushed over twenty men to death. Chuanyun Pavilion disciples taking part in their first military campaign had also seen several wounded. Lingguang the medicine ape scrambled out from somewhere and began tending to the wounded. Grain was scattered everywhere, and many tents and wagons were still burning. Yet compared to the catastrophic consequences of losing the military supplies, this damage was truly insignificant. Had this grain shipment been looted, not only would the northern front have been shaken once more, but the prestige He Chunhua had painstakingly built would have been shattered. He Lingchuan said to He Chunhua, "Dad, you oversee things here. I'm going after that monkey." Knowing the ghost ape was severely wounded and far less threatening now, He Chunhua nodded. "Watch out for Dong Rui." He Lingchuan whistled, and his mount, the bo beast, came trotting out from an unseen corner to halt before him. In the chaos earlier, he had worried the bo beast might be injured, but the creature turned out to be exceedingly clever—its coat was still sleek and glossy, without a scratch on it. Switching mounts, he called Maotao, Shan Youjun, and the others, following the trail left by the giant ape. Before leaving the camp, he seemed to hear He Chunhua issuing another order: "Go inspect Bailu Town. Make haste!" Indeed; with Xinhuang under attack, there was no telling how Bailu Town fared, and the routed Xunzhou troops were retreating in that direction as well. But the giant ape was fleeing in the opposite direction from the Xunzhou men, so there was no way he could check on it along the way. Tracking the giant ape was not difficult; its wounds were gushing like waterfalls, leaving bloodstains clearly visible even in the dark. The most crucial thing was not to let it slip from sight. He Lingchuan had not forgotten that this thing could grow large or shrink small. Fortunately, the terrain outside Xinhuang Town was quite flat, with only a knoll or two every few li, very few large trees, and low shrubs covering the ground. Monkeys hated this sort of terrain most of all. He Lingchuan led his men in pursuit, only needing to keep the giant ape's silhouette within sight. A wounded beast was at its most dangerous. Now numbering fewer than ten without the army to back them up, their best option was to exhaust the ghost ape's stamina as much as possible. Massive size was hard to sustain. Sure enough, after trailing it for ten li, the ghost ape's pace noticeably slowed. Limping along on three limbs was no easy feat, let alone with so many wounds bleeding profusely—the harder it ran, the faster the blood drained. Just then, Shan Youjun suddenly called out, "Boss, look at the sky!" He Lingchuan looked up. In the night sky, a bird was circling, of considerable size. Strictly speaking, it was circling right above the giant ape. "That's another of Dong Rui's demon puppets." He Lingchuan narrowed his eyes, though the darkness made it impossible to see whether anyone was on its back. Which meant the rock wolf had failed its mission. Right at that moment, several wolf howls sounded not far off. He Lingchuan followed the sound and soon spotted a black speck bounding in from the distance, growing larger in his vision. Speak of the rock wolf, and the rock wolf appears. Its tongue hung out, white mist puffing from its mouth, and everyone could hear its heavy, panting breaths. From the looks of it, it had been running for a long time. "What happened?" He Lingchuan asked once the rock wolf drew parallel with the bo beast. "Where is Dong Rui?" "On the bird's back!" It turned out that after receiving its orders, the rock wolf had broken away from the battlefield, tracking the ghost ape's scent backward. Since Dong Rui had sent it, following its scent in reverse ought to lead to its master. The reasoning was sound. Soon, more than a hundred zhang from the Xiazhou military camp, it had spotted Dong Rui. He was crouching on the roof of a residence watching the battlefield, wearing that bronze mask, with a bald-headed bird perched on his shoulder. Drawing nearer, the rock wolf caught his scent— A scent it could never mistake. Old grudges and fresh hatred surged up at once. Using the shadows beneath the buildings for cover, it crept forward without a sound. Yet Dong Rui's spiritual sense was extraordinarily sharp, and the bald bird on his shoulder seemed especially attuned to approaching danger. It let out a loud caw, forcing the rock wolf to leap into an attack earlier than planned. Unfortunately, it was one step too late. The bald bird suddenly swelled in size, kicking off the roof and spreading its wings to take flight with Dong Rui. Having missed on the first pounce, the rock wolf accelerated across the rooftops for a second leap, clamping onto its tail and hauling downward with all its might. The giant bird lashed out frantically with its talons, nearly raking out the wolf's eyes. While both sides locked in a tug-of-war, Dong Rui seized the opening to cast an incantation gesture, wounding the rock wolf's forepaw. The giant bird was remarkably tough as well, flapping its wings vigorously upward until it finally shook off the dead weight. The rock wolf ended up with nothing but a mouthful of feathers. Refusing to give up, it followed the giant bird through the sky all the way here, arriving just in time to rejoin its master.