Still shaken to his core, a turbulent mix of lingering dread and bitter remorse coursing through him, He Chunhua gritted his teeth and snarled, "That old dog Sun deserves a thousand deaths!"
No matter how slow-witted he might have been, he understood everything now. Sun Fuping had ordered him to lead the Blackwater City army into the Panlong Desert with nothing but venomous malice: using them as meat shields along the way, only to send them to their deaths as sacrifices at the very end.
If not for the broken comb in his hand, under the relentless assault of the Gale Army, the Blackwater City soldiers would have fought desperately to maintain the Heavenly Thunder Formation—and the moment the Blood Sacrifice Formation activated, they would have been wiped out in a single stroke.
Now the formation's glow had faded, yet no one dared step inside. The sand bandit Situ Han had dragged out soon stopped writhing and wailing. He merely stared at his chieftain, his chest heaving irregularly.
He Chunhua took one look and said, "He can't be saved. Give him a quick end."
His face grim, Situ Han crouched down, patted his brother on the shoulder, and drew a blade across his throat. It turned out pulling him free earlier had only prolonged his agony; in the end, death was inescapable.
The blood-drenched bandit chieftain pressed a hand silently against his own forehead.
A look at the victim's remains revealed bones bleached a ghastly white, the marrow itself sucked dry. The Blood Sacrifice Formation was horrific beyond measure, devouring its offerings utterly without leaving behind even a scrap of flesh and blood.
He Chunhua's expression darkened, and his saber suddenly lashed out!
The boy attendant Sun Fuping had left behind was slinking toward the ruins to hide, only to be struck down on the spot, his head severed from his shoulders.
At the same time, He Chunhua roared out an order: "Kill! Slaughter every last one of these sorcerous traitors!"
Sun Fuping and Nian Songyu had originally left over a dozen men stationed by the formation. Three had died during the blood sacrifice, and He Chunhua had just killed one more. The remaining seven finally snapped out of their stupor and scattered like frightened beasts, either fleeing outward or diving toward the pool-well.
Yet before the wrath of the Blackwater City army, they did not make it far before being cut down. Two collapsed beside the pool-well and were hacked into mincemeat, just a single step away from the water.
Afterward, the Blackwater City soldiers began tallying the casualties. A subordinate finally reported, "My Lord, we lost eighty brothers."
He Chunhua closed his eyes and exhaled a chest full of foul air. Just as he was about to speak, a sharp metallic clatter rang out as the upright ritual staff toppled to the ground.
Before anyone could react, it suddenly leaped into the air and shot straight into the pool-well, vanishing without a trace.
A fierce glint flashed across He Chunhua's face. "Move! We're going into the pool-well too!"
***
At that very moment, a speck of light pierced through the ruins.
An object flew out, shining with blinding intensity. To He Lingchuan's eyes, it was a literal five-thousand-watt bulb; no one could look at it directly.
Yet even as he shielded his eyes with a hand, he knew by instinct that the object was the ivory carving.
After expending so much effort, even joining forces with the black flood dragon, had they still failed to interrupt Sun Fuping's divine summoning technique?
Then... what about his father and the rest?
The black flood dragon brought its severed tail slamming down without mercy, intending to crush it to dust.
At the same time, the carving's tightly shut eyes snapped open!
With a crisp crack, the ivory carving shattered, but a streak of white light burst forth from within. It looped briefly through the air, seeming to linger, as if hesitating.
Maotao's voice trembled. "Is that... the summoned god?"
The black flood dragon spat several bursts of blazing fire at the white light. The light seemed to drift aimlessly, yet it evaded every strike by a hair's breadth.
Movement stirred in the bomb crater below. Sun Fuping crawled out clutching Nian Songyu, his voice hoarse as he roared toward the white light: "My God, descend here!" With that, he hoisted the unconscious, eyes-shut Nian Songyu forward.
Only now did He Lingchuan finally understand why Nian Songyu had accompanied the National Preceptor to Blackwater City and the Panlong Desert—
He was meant to serve as the divine vessel of flesh, or rather, the god's weapon!
Demonic apes lunged from the sides, but Sun Fuping drove them all back.
His own face was drenched in blood. Aside from his right ring finger and pinky finger having been severed at the roots, there was no telling how many bones across his body were broken. He was in terrible shape.
Yet his spirit was ecstatic.
His divine summoning technique had succeeded!
Excluding the mythic era of antiquity, this was the fourth genuine divine descent in the recorded history of this continent!
Sun Fuping chanted a few low verses, and something flew from an unknown direction, landing squarely in his grip.
It was the ritual staff!
The very staff Sun Fuping had left in the outside world to call down heavenly thunder, ward off resentful souls—or rather, to activate the blood sacrifice formation!
He Lingchuan's pupils shrank to pinpricks.
The staff no longer glowed. The beast's head atop it held an empty mouth, no longer clamping Commandery Governor He's State Token.
The black flood dragon had said earlier that Sun Fuping had embedded a sacrificial array to summon a heavenly god using human lives and blood essence. Now that the god had arrived, that meant...
"Old Dog Sun, where is my father!" He Lingchuan suddenly roared at Sun Fuping, his voice tearing from his throat. "If you dared sacrifice him, I will leave you without a corpse to bury!"
Before he could even think, towering rage engulfed his mind, turning his eyes bloodshot in an instant.
"Clever brat, quite fast on your feet when running for your life," Sun Fuping chuckled, wearing that same bizarre smile. "Since you fled, that fatal calamity naturally fell on your old man's shoulders."
He Lingchuan let out a roar, vaulted over the battlement, and made to leap down.
Maotao and Zeng Feixiong lunged forward, grabbing him and hauling him back with all their might. "Young Master, don't be rash! He's lying to you!"
Just then, the white light in the sky slipped past the black flood dragon's attacks and surged straight toward them.
Panic seized everyone.
Wherever that white light went, the black flood dragon's breath followed. None of them wanted to die here.
Yet the white light moved with terrifying speed. Before anyone could react, it plunged directly into He Lingchuan's open mouth.
His curses were cut short in an instant, and his eyes glazed over, turning blank and dull.
Caught completely off guard, everyone froze.
Down below the wall, Sun Fuping was just as flabbergasted. Why did this sacred ancestor bypass a perfectly good vessel like Nian Songyu, taking a wide detour just to throw itself at He Lingchuan?
Seeing the black flood dragon's massive bulk swivel in their direction, Maotao shuddered and took off running, not forgetting to shout, "Scatter! Run if you want to live!"
No warning was needed; the crowd broke like startled beasts. Zeng Feixiong instinctively moved to drag He Lingchuan along, only to be yanked several yards away by two subordinates. "Brother Zeng, the white light protects him, not you!"
None of them knew what that white light would do, but any mortal left standing there was bound to be roasted alive.
In the next instant, the black flood dragon climbed onto the city gate, puffing up its cheeks as it prepared to unleash another blast of blazing fire.
Just then, a monstrous bird swooped down, landing by its ear and letting out two harsh, grating squawks.
However the two communicated, the dragon abruptly changed its mind, letting its puffed cheeks deflate. It circled He Lingchuan twice as if sizing him up, then opened its cavernous maw to swallow him whole!
***
The white light had struck him in the face too fast for He Lingchuan to dodge.
His mind went completely blank for several seconds, his vision filled with a flurry of white static.
Then his sight suddenly returned, and He Lingchuan found himself in free fall, plummeting endlessly through the air.
Strangest of all, directly above him hung a patch of pitch-black shadow, falling even faster than he was. In the space of two blinks, it slammed right into him!
Chapter 64