Out of Place?

None of them had anticipated that the Gale Army, even after turning into undead, would still employ such tactics. Clearly, they had calculated that no matter how powerful the Heavenly Thunder Formation was, it had a limit. By using ordinary resentful souls to wear down the thunder's might, once the formation failed, wouldn't these living men be fish on their chopping block? The wild sand season had only just begun. As undead, they had virtually infinite time. The living men's expressions turned grim. The undead could afford to wait, but they could not. After withstanding the impact of hundreds of resentful souls, the lightning flashing from the talisman formation was noticeably less active than before—drawing on heaven's momentum clearly had an upper limit. And the Gale Army was testing just how much of that limit remained. Once that wave of resentful souls was exhausted, the Gale Army shoved forward another thousand in a single push. In today's Panlong Desert, this was the one commodity never in short supply. The sight made the living men's vision darken, their composure completely crumbling. A trusted subordinate rasped, "Lord Commandery Governor, w-we..." If this happened again, would the formation be shattered outright? "Keep calm! The more you panic, the faster the formation breaks!" He Chunhua bellowed. "As long as the National Preceptor retrieves the Dafang Pot, our predicament will resolve itself!" In the chaos, someone muttered under their breath, "How much longer will that take?" He Chunhua spun around and sliced off half the man's ear with a single sword strike. "Do you want to get your comrades killed? Anyone else who harms military morale will be executed without mercy!" With blood drawn, everyone actually steadied themselves considerably. Driven by the Gale Army, hundreds more resentful souls slammed into the Heavenly Thunder Formation, their spirits shattering into oblivion. By this point, He Chunhua also felt a wave of dizziness. Looking back at the staff at the center of the formation, the State Token held in the beast head's jaws had faded in color, its cyan glow growing faint—a direct consequence of their steadily draining morale. Yet the bloodwater in the pool well only rippled faintly, showing no other movement. The Gale Army itself had suffered zero casualties, sending only cannon fodder into the fray. If this went on, how much longer could their side hold out? He Chunhua sighed inwardly. In the end, he had still fallen into the National Preceptor's trap. In life, the heroic spirits of Panlong City had fought against foreign invasion, making them exceptionally sensitive to the aura of a foreign army. Not to mention, he had invoked a State Token—these hundred-odd living men were practically blazing beacons in the dark of night. It was hard for the Gale Army not to notice them. Hmm? Speaking of auras, though... He Chunhua recalled an item, and his spirits suddenly lifted. *** The South Gate was right over there; whether fast or slow, they would arrive sooner or later. The southern city wall grew increasingly distinct in their view. Walking another two or three li would bring them to the South Gate. The buildings in the south of the city were intact; Nian Songyu had not yet struck. Panlong City occupied a unique geographic position, with its defensive priorities focused entirely on the south. As a result, during this period, aside from the South Gate, the walls to the east and west were crude and bore no military artillery, while the north had no gate at all. The only position from which fire could be launched rapidly across a wide expanse of the city was the South Gate. Coincidentally, the main residential area of Panlong City was also in the south, with over sixty percent of the city's dwellings concentrated here. He Lingchuan looked toward the South Gate, thinking that Nian Songyu and National Preceptor Sun likely also felt that torching the other three directions wasn't crucial. That would explain why they had left the southern buildings untouched, waiting for the four of them to rendezvous. Waiting to rendezvous? He Lingchuan couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. By now, the two were just about to bypass a sprawling estate beside a stream. They only had to cut through an opera house to reach the main street, which led straight to the South Gate. Maotao was drenched in sweat. He squatted down and scooped up a handful of water to wash his face. Water in the illusion could not be drunk, but the physical sensation was real enough to cool off and soothe his agitation. "Let's go." He scrambled up and strode forward. He Lingchuan grabbed him by the back of his collar. "Hold on." "What is it?" He Lingchuan didn't answer. He vaulted onto the estate's outer wall and clambered into the corner watchtower in a few quick bounds. Within several li, this was the tallest building, offering an unobstructed view. Maotao didn't bother exerting that much effort. He entered through the main gate into the courtyard, then took the stairs up. When he found He Lingchuan, the eldest young master was staring vacantly to the south, muttering incessantly under his breath, "Out of place... completely out of place!" Maotao hurried to ask, "What's wrong? What's out of place?" His attitude toward He Lingchuan had grown increasingly deferential, unlike at the start when he had merely flattered a willful young master. It was a shift he hadn't even noticed in himself. He Lingchuan kept his gaze fixed on the South Gate, pointing a finger. "Do you see the totem?" "Ah, I see it. With such an enormous black flood dragon totem carved on the city wall, how could anyone miss it?" "The three rings of walls we saw in the ruined desert city—on the surface of the innermost barbican wall, there was this exact same black flood dragon totem. Identical." Maotao racked his memory and nodded. "Right, I remember too." "You don't think there's a problem?" Maotao looked even more bewildered. "What problem? Eldest Young Master, speak plainly, please. Don't act like National Preceptor Sun." He Lingchuan turned his head slowly to look at him. "The best play performed by the Blackwater City opera troupe, and the one folks love most, is called Panlong Breaking the Army Formation. You've heard it, right?" No one hadn't! "In it, they sing of the guardian divine beast of Xiluo Kingdom." Maotao sang, "And so Xiluo Kingdom unleashed its guardian divine beast, the Golden Bull, sweeping through all before it—" Good grief, why had he burst into song? "Xiluo's guardian divine beast is the Golden Bull, right?" He Lingchuan jerked his chin toward the South Gate. "Yet on the city gate, it's a black flood dragon! Look, in front of the relief is an offering table, along with a massive three-legged bronze incense burner carved with phoenixes holding rings in their beaks. That isn't treatment a mere mountain spirit could enjoy. Panlong City worships it as a guardian divine beast of the state—or of the city!" "Wait, the ruined city outside also worships the black flood dragon, so this—" A flash of realization struck Maotao's mind, his eyes going wide. "That's bizarre! This is Panlong City during peacetime. Even if they worship a guardian divine beast, it should be the Golden Bull!" "Regarding the worship of divine beasts, every nation has strict regulations; even frontier border towns cannot violate them. Otherwise, it is an outright offense, and being discovered brings immense trouble," He Lingchuan said. "Panlong City originally should have worshiped the Golden Bull just like the rest of the nation. Perhaps later, through long years of resistance, isolated and without reinforcements, they grew disillusioned with their homeland. Coupled with turning to revere Mitian, they changed the relief into a black flood dragon. "Logically speaking, the Panlong City in this illusion shouldn't have such an oversight. But as the Dafang Pot is Mitian's treasure, things its master does not recognize cannot appear here. Therefore, the flaw was preserved all along." He Lingchuan shook his head. "Yet it's so colossal, standing boldly in plain sight, that when living people come in and see it, they don't give it a second thought." When all was said and done, Xiluo Kingdom had fallen over a century ago. People today could only learn about it through records; they were hardly as perceptive about it as they were about their own homeland. Maotao gasped, "No wonder Tao Bo noted in his journal that there's a place here completely out of place with reality! Eldest Young Master, what sharp eyes you have! Let's hurry and report this to the National Preceptor!" He grabbed the windowsill to leap down, only for his collar to tighten as He Lingchuan yanked him back. "What's the rush?" "Aren't... aren't we going to report it?" Maotao was momentarily stunned.