The direction of this movement was unmistakable; though clearly a phantom, in that split second he seemed to possess self-awareness.
That single glance nearly pierced through two hundred years of time and space.
Below, the fierce clash between man and tiger was at its height. He Lingchuan had no leisure to look up at him; had their eyes met, it would surely have sent shivers down his spine.
The King of Yuan's gaze was profound and laden with meaning.
Yet the anomaly atop the ramparts lasted only a fleeting instant, gone like a white steed flashing past a gap in a wall. In the very next second, the King of Yuan slit his own throat after all, and history marched along its original course, leaving nothing changed.
Meanwhile, on the battlefield of reality, the moment Uncle Da's vision was obstructed, he retreated swiftly.
This movement was pure combat instinct honed over years of battle, and in this critical juncture, it saved his life once more. For He Lingchuan had raised his blade, blinding him with a sheet of white light, followed immediately by a vicious, fierce diagonal slash!
Having defended for so long, He Lingchuan had built up momentum for this strike; unleashed, it was like the Milky Way cascading down, holding nothing back.
Had Uncle Da not retreated, he would have had to test whether his neck was harder or Fusheng was sharper.
Yet though he managed to dodge the blade's edge, a foot-long saber aura still swept across his chest, tearing open a massive gash with a sharp rip.
The sound was like striking rotten leather.
The monster race favored body tempering, and Uncle Da had refined his physique to possess steel skin and iron bones, enabling him to remain invincible on the offensive.
Yet against Fusheng, he still came off worse.
Having finally seized the initiative, He Lingchuan unleashed the Swallow Slash, his offensive pressing on relentlessly.
Releasing his aura in full force, he actually suppressed Uncle Da for a time.
Of course, he also understood that such an onslaught could not be sustained and that he needed to accomplish his objective as quickly as possible. Taking advantage of the momentum, he rolled over and changed positions.
The fierce tiger swung its head around, following him like a shadow.
Yet as it lunged forward once more, it actually stumbled.
Why weren't its four paws obeying? It was as if invisible shackles held them firmly in place.
The tiger shook its head and lashed its tail, unable to break free for the moment.
Had it looked down, it would have discovered that its shadow intersected with the shadow of a tree.
How could He Lingchuan let such an opportunity slip? With a swift lunge, Fusheng slashed straight toward its neck.
Uncle Da tilted his head back and spat out a mouthful of crushed ice, which blossomed upon meeting the wind into an azure ice shield surrounded by constantly rotating blue runes, blocking right beneath the blade.
With a crisp clatter, the shield shattered, but the runes exploded outward as well. More than a dozen of them seemed to ride the shockwave straight toward He Lingchuan's face, swift as arrows loosed from a bowstring.
Fortunately, He Lingchuan had remained on guard throughout; after all, he couldn't pin his safety entirely on Fu Shanyue's ability to restrain the enemy. Without a second thought, he brought his shield up to guard his face.
A flurry of thuds sounded non-stop, as if the shield had caught a volley of concealed weapons.
Just how powerful these runes were could be seen from the ones that scattered elsewhere. The ground around He Lingchuan was pocked with shallow crater after crater, and a small tree diagonally behind him was snapped cleanly in two.
The effect was comparable to machine-gun fire.
One rune shot into the shadow of the tree. This was an indiscriminate attack and exceedingly difficult to anticipate, drawing out a low cry of pain: "Ah!"
Uncle Da, whose ears caught sounds from all directions, immediately whipped his head around and glared, roaring, "Fu Shanyue, it really is you!"
It seemed he was well aware of Fu Shanyue's shadow control technique. With a sweep of his long tail, he whipped the dirt, mud, and grass roots from the ground toward the tree's shadow. This was no fit of pique, but an earnest attack, every bit of debris infused with origin power.
He threw in another mouthful of crushed ice for good measure, each piece shaped like a short shuttle with arrow-sharp tips, carrying immense destructive force.
This time, Fu Shanyue withstood it all head-on.
The reason He Lingchuan struggled so much against the fierce tiger, aside from Uncle Da's sheer offensive strength, was also because the origin power on the beast exerted a powerful suppressive effect against an unaffiliated practitioner like He Lingchuan.
If nothing else, the mirror's Mind Bewitchment was virtually useless against him, and the mirror's damage reflection was also reduced.
At that moment, the final rune slammed into the shield.
Whether it was He Lingchuan's rotten luck or Uncle Da's good fortune, this rune's power was the strongest and most direct of all:
An explosion!
With a deafening bang, He Lingchuan was blasted over thirty feet away along with his shield.
The small tree Fu Shanyue hid behind was also severed by the blast, its upper canopy snapping backward, clinging to the trunk by only half its width.
Unluckily, Uncle Da's shadow intersected with the canopy's shadow, so if the canopy fell, he would be free!
*What kind of dogshit luck is this?* Fu Shanyue cursed under his breath.
With a couple of cracks, the canopy slowly leaned backward.
This also meant Uncle Da was only three feet from the edge of its shadow... two feet... one foot... on the verge of breaking loose.
The tiger thrashed frantically, leaping repeatedly. Straining with all his might, Fu Shanyue could barely pin him down and had no leeway to do anything else.
He couldn't even maintain his Shadow Meld, revealing his true form, equally immobilized.
This was the exact literal depiction of riding a tiger and finding it impossible to dismount.
Not far away, He Lingchuan flipped to his feet. Seeing the scene, he couldn't help laughing. "I gave you just this one thing to do, and you can't even get it right?"
Fu Shanyue squeezed three words through gritted teeth: "You try it!"
"I will then." He Lingchuan produced an object from his storage ring and hurled it toward Uncle Da's head. "Grow—for me!"
With a crack, the small tree finally collapsed flat to the ground.
Its shadow moved off Uncle Da.
Having waited for this moment, Uncle Da lunged straight toward Fu Shanyue.
Though not quite touching, they were less than twenty feet apart; with his build, he could reach him with little more than a push off his toes.
Yet at that moment, the object He Lingchuan hurled reached above his head. At its master's command—*bang*!
It enlarged.
The gold-armored bronze automaton, which had been gathering dust in the storage ring for so long, finally saw the light of day once more.
With the crushing weight of Mount Tai, it slammed viciously down onto the tiger.
The entire ground shuddered violently, throwing up clouds of dust.
Fu Shanyue couldn't help shielding his face and turning his head to evade the oncoming blast of sand and dust.
Uncle Da was a step too slow after all, unable to escape its clutches.
Straddling the beast's back wasn't enough; the gold-armored bronze automaton reached out both palms and seized its neck from above, forcing it down with crushing force. Whatever posture Wu Song had assumed when beating the tiger, it assumed the exact same one.
Uncle Da clawed frantically, his razor claws tearing up clods of earth and grass roots, yet he couldn't reach the enemy on his back.
The automaton's own weight was staggering, and it was suppressing him with full force. Uncle Da felt as if he were carrying a mountain on his back; from the waist down, he couldn't budge at all.
His spine felt as if it had been cracked from the impact!
In the past, He Lingchuan had used the walnut boat—the mustard-seed boat—to pin down the ghost ape. Now he was merely repeating the old trick.
Though the gold-armored bronze automaton didn't weigh as much as the walnut boat, Uncle Da wasn't nearly as strong as the ghost ape either, was he?
Uncle Da roared in fury, "Stop! Stop!"
*Why is he yelling 'stop' when death is staring him in the face?* He Lingchuan was taken aback. Following his gaze, he saw only the silhouette of Fu Shanyue rapidly fleeing into the distance.
The fellow even threw back an irresponsible parting remark: "I'll leave him to you!"
"..."
He Lingchuan could tell he was heading straight for the camp.
With Uncle Da here and the Chiyan men dispatched to harvest the lives of the caravan workers, the camp's defenses were bound to be empty.
For Fu Shanyue, this was a fleeting chance to deliver the finishing blow!
Seeing the Eldest Young Master vanish in a flash, Uncle Da let out a long howl, summoning all his subordinates to rush back to the camp and save their master. Meanwhile, he managed to twist his head halfway around and said urgently to He Lingchuan, "Whatever reward he promised you, the Chiyan Kingdom will pay tenfold!"
"It's not a matter of money." If he released the tiger back to the mountain, what could he use to capture Uncle Da again?
"If you save my young master, you will be a benefactor of the Chiyan Kingdom! Any wish you have in the future will be granted!"
"Won't it be the same if Fu Shanyue becomes the ruler?" Whether it was Fu Shanyue or Fu Shanji who took the throne, if He Lingchuan dared make exorbitant demands, neither would grant them.
Might made right; promises did not.
Therefore, he remained entirely unmoved by Uncle Da's promises.
Misunderstanding his meaning, Uncle Da shouted, "It's not the same, not the same! Young Master Yue is arrogant and bellicose; the Ruler dislikes him!"
"Would a father really dislike a son who's good at waging war?" He Lingchuan shook his head and walked over, preparing to take off the tiger's head with a single slash to prevent any further complications.
Uncle Da probably thought He Lingchuan hadn't noticed the hard ice creeping stealthily across the ground.
The ice had almost reached the feet of the gold-armored bronze automaton.
If it immobilized the automaton, the tiger might still break free, but He Lingchuan wasn't about to give him the chance.
Before he could reach him, however, a long howl suddenly echoed from the direction of the camp, piercing straight into the clouds, brimming with wild joy!
He recognized it as Fu Shanyue's howl, followed by unrestrained, arrogant laughter:
"Hahahaha! Fu Shanji is dead! Let's see who dares stand in my way now!"
*That guy was fast!* He Lingchuan let out a breath of relief. Uncle Da, however, froze, deflating like a punctured ball, and instantly ceased struggling.
His young master was dead; what point was there in fighting with his life on the line?
Barely a dozen-odd breaths later, Fu Shanyue's figure reappeared.
He hurried back, and seeing that He Lingchuan had not yet finished Uncle Da off, he breathed a deep sigh of relief. "Good, good. Let him go. He won't attack us anymore."
"Are you sure?" Letting a tiger go was easy, catching one was hard; He Lingchuan remained cautious.
"Of course." Fu Shanyue pulled a bloody severed head from behind his back and shook it in front of Uncle Da, grinning with obnoxious smugness. "Now, I am his only young master!"
In Uncle Da's eyes, he smiled like a vicious wolf—a wolf that had just devoured a fattened sheep.
The head belonged to a youth of similar age to Fu Shanyue, bearing a thirty to forty percent resemblance to his features.
His eyes were closed, his expression peaceful, yet deathly pale from loss of blood.
Someone who could hack off his own brother's head and still smile so brightly, happily, and entirely without burden was a sight He Lingchuan had never seen before.
Having seen it, Uncle Da finally gave up all hope.
Times had changed; of the Ruler of Chiyan's bloodline, only this single scion remained. What reason did he have left to raise a hand against Fu Shanyue?
Sensing that the tiger's momentum and demeanor had both turned dejected, He Lingchuan finally recalled the gold-armored bronze automaton.
Uncle Da turned slowly to face Fu Shanyue.
"Thinking of avenging Fu Shanji? You're nowhere near qualified!" Fu Shanyue looked down at him from above, sneering. "A mere royal attendant dare put on airs before me? You failed your mission to protect Fu Shanji; if you don't submit to me, Father will order your execution the moment you return!"
Uncle Da's ears drooped back against his skull, yet he slowly prostrated himself on the ground, murmuring in a low voice, "Greetings, Young Master."
The game was lost.
Looking at the head in Fu Shanyue's hand, He Lingchuan marveled at his extraordinary luck. "To think the decapitation went so smoothly."
Chapter 417