With a shrill whistle, a fiery crossbow bolt half the length of a man shot out toward the southern district!
Nian Songyu had aimed carefully, though his target was chosen at random. The bolt punched clean through the roof of a first home, shattered a wall to enter a room, and pinned itself firmly into a pillar of the neighboring house.
Aided by the burning oil on the bolt head, roaring flames flared to life, and the struck structures quickly caught fire.
The buildings in the southern district were densely packed, shoulder to shoulder. By right, firewalls should have been erected between properties, but human nature had always favored throwing up illicit additions and seizing extra ground. With structure tacked onto structure over the years, the houses had ended up joined into a single unbroken expanse. Against an arsonist like Nian Songyu, smoke and fire erupted everywhere in an instant.
Deadliest of all were the nail bombs he had recently scavenged. Each one that crashed down detonated into over a hundred nail fragments, sending sparks scattering in every direction.
The southern district was vast, and shorthanded as they were, Sun Fuping had no choice but to step in and help.
Rolling boulders slick with pitch and fire battered the southern district's buildings full of holes.
They rained down upon the official residential quarters, two massive stones crashing straight through the Zhong residence. The trees in the courtyard and the beams overhead burst into flames at the same time.
At first, the blazes appeared unremarkable, but once the fires linked together across the district, they became a city-incinerating inferno!
Still finding the spread too slow, Sun Fuping formed a wind-summoning hand sign. This was not the mortal realm, and the power of divine abilities was severely diminished, degrading what should have been a howling gale into a mere caressing breeze.
Yet it was enough to stoke the flames.
The fire fed upon the wind, sending columns of thick smoke billowing into the sky.
He Lingchuan and Maotao were standing by a small lake in the south of the city at this moment, deliberately keeping their distance from the official quarters.
At last, the timber beam of the Zhong residence snapped in two and crashed down onto the bed and dressing table. The wooden comb bounced twice and tumbled helplessly into the fire.
Tongues of flame licked at the wooden comb, quickly charring its lower half black.
As if some hidden mechanism had been tripped, the fires across the entire city surged outward in all directions with a tremendous roar, unstoppable and frighteningly fast.
Even standing by the lake, the two felt blistering heat rush at their faces as though singeing their hair, leaving them no choice but to plunge headfirst into the water to cool off.
Even through the lake water, He Lingchuan could see the crimson glow flickering above.
Flames soared toward the sky across the whole city, leaving nowhere unconsumed.
Standing atop the city wall, Nian and Sun also found the sight terrifying to behold.
For the flames to spread so suddenly and rapidly was clearly unnatural. Sun Fuping exhaled a breath. "Tao Bo was right."
Only by destroying the peaceful, serene illusion would Panlong City reveal its true face.
All at once, torrential rain poured from the sky.
The rampant blazes could hardly put up a struggle before the downpour snuffed them out in the blink of an eye.
Sun Fuping stared at a depression on the battlement. The rain had fallen for only a few breaths, yet a small puddle had already gathered.
"The rainwater is red," he said slowly. "The exact same color as the well pool."
Ahead, the city had already been reduced to ruins, wisps of scorched smoke drifting upward.
The water level in the lake dropped rapidly, and He Lingchuan and Maotao found themselves sitting in a mud pit, soaked through to the bone.
"Ptooey, ptooey!" Maotao spat frantically. "Is this... blood?"
"The illusion has faded." He Lingchuan had also accidentally swallowed a mouthful or two earlier, and his mouth tasted entirely of iron and gore.
He paid it no mind and pointed forward. "Look, the ruins changed."
Though it remained a charred and blackened expanse, the entire city was different. Many architectural ruins had appeared out of thin air—structures that had never existed in the illusion.
Even the lake where He Lingchuan and Maotao had taken refuge had shrunk into a tiny pond thirty or forty feet across. Scrambling to their feet, they saw that the original lakebed had been filled in, and the structures erected over it looked like stables.
Only a Panlong City like this resembled the desolate desert ruin of reality.
Then, everyone heard a resonant, furious roar!
The roar shook the pebbles on the ground into frantic hops, made the listeners' eardrums throb with pain and their hearts pound like war drums, and brought down a dilapidated house in the south of the city that had been teetering on the verge of collapse!
Even though it was the first time he had heard it, He Lingchuan could discern boundless sorrow, pent-up rage, and deep grievance in the sound.
Maotao pointed toward the South Gate, his fingers trembling uncontrollably. "It's... it's coming out, it's out!"
The gigantic bas-relief of the black flood dragon had actually moved.
First shaking its head, it then wrenched violently forward, tearing through the south wall and bursting free!
That single motion dislodged thousands of jin of earth and stone, showering the ground with clattering rubble.
Shedding its outermost stone shell, the black flood dragon's body gleamed lustrous and dark through the swirling dust. Any single one of its scales was larger than the turtle shield in Nian Songyu's hand.
Looking closer now, the horn atop its head was straight and sharp as a blade at the tip, without the branching antlers of a true dragon.
It clearly knew where its enemies were. After breaching the wall, it glanced back, wheeled around, and slithered back atop the battlements.
Though legless, it moved like a serpent, able to reach anywhere ordinary four-legged beasts could not.
Fixing its gaze on the two men atop the wall, it whipped its tail. The massive tail, thicker than a towering ancient tree, slammed down hard above the gate.
At that impact alone, He Lingchuan and Maotao, standing so far away, felt the ground shudder as though unable to bear its fury.
Then, the flood dragon swept its tail horizontally, nearly smashing the battlements to pieces.
Naturally, Nian Songyu and Sun Fuping could stay no longer and leaped down inside the wall.
The barbican wall stood fifteen zhang high—over forty-five meters. Nian Songyu dug his hand into crevices to break his fall twice before landing; Sun Fuping, however, walked down far more gracefully, as if the air itself supported him, gently lowering him to the ground.
Perched atop the wall, the black flood dragon looked down on them from on high.
"Such a wonderful place... Why must you always do everything in your power to destroy it?" A booming voice echoed in everyone's mind. "You are seeking your own doom!"
Sun Fuping stepped forward, gathering his breath to project his voice: "I am the National Preceptor of Great Yuan, come by imperial decree to seek the Dafang Pot, that we may right wrongs and uphold righteousness!"
The black flood dragon lowered its head and studied him for a moment. "Utter nonsense!"
Nian Songyu shouted, "We harbor no malice; breaking the illusion was out of necessity. As long as we receive the Dafang Pot, we will turn and leave at once, troubling you no longer."
"The Dafang Pot?" The black flood dragon sneered. "I am the Dafang Pot! Come, let me see what you're made of, and whether you're enough to pick my teeth!"
As the guardian boss, it clearly understood its duty and wasted no more breath on the two before it.
The flood dragon whipped its tail against the gate, making the entire south wall tremble. "Minions, dinner is served!"
No sooner had the words fallen than Nian Songyu caught sight of something white moving by his feet out of the corner of his eye. Dodging without a second thought, he realized it was a slender, rope-like snake that had just pulled back its neck.
Had he been any slower, the thing would have bitten right into his calf.
Yet before he could even look back, something hurtled toward him with a howling gust, flying straight for his face.
It was, of all things, a broken bed.
The bed was scorched black, but made of fine ebony, it weighed three or four hundred jin. Heavy and packed with momentum, it was nearly crashing into his face the moment he turned his head.
There was no time to dodge. With an angry roar, Nian Songyu hoisted the turtle shield and swung it upward.
Chapter 57