At any rate, as long as it remained awake and conscious, rebuilding the Spirit Gathering Grand Formation was practically impossible, with or without the star chart. Thus, it was no longer subordinate to Beijia; Lingxu City would have to offer it tributes that were both far greater and far finer.
Now, bound by the Chain of Oaths, it had smashed Zhaixing Tower and stolen the divine relic, offending the Heavenly Palace and the celestial god to the point of no return. To leave itself an out with both sides, it had wanted to keep an ace up its sleeve: once the Chain of Oaths dissolved, it would turn right around and sell He Lingchuan and the spider immortal out to the Heavenly Palace, smoothing things over.
This was playing both sides, purely out of self-interest.
Useful as the Chain of Oaths was, it was not omnipotent after all; it could not prevent malicious scheming from brewing in its heart.
He Lingchuan had known all along that this fellow had never intended to deal in good faith. He felt neither shock nor fury; after all, he had seen plenty of this sort of character in his original world.
Always playing petty tricks, always looking to take advantage of others, treating everyone else like fools.
Now that Juju had defected to the enemy, this chaotic mess reverted to a conflict between He Lingchuan and the Heavenly Palace.
Fortunately, he usually kept the little fire avatar inside the mirror, only bringing it out during missions. Juju knew nothing of his background, his appearance, or where he lived.
The pursuers' objective was clear:
Intercept He Lingchuan and the spider immortal, and tonight would count as a victory.
Zhu Erniang sped through the woods, barely seeming to touch the ground from a distance—a pace that would put the swiftest steed to shame.
Once past the boundaries of Mount Xu, she left the reach of the spiritual rain and was no longer slowed by origin power.
Qianxin Rock was merely three li away.
He Lingchuan suddenly sensed something amiss and looked down:
On Zhu Erniang's left flank was a wound where flesh continuously evaporated into black smoke. Yet the spider immortal's vitality was extraordinarily robust, and her flesh regenerated with equal swiftness.
Caught in this unending cycle, smoke steadily rose from the spider demon's body.
"Is that wound of yours alright?" He Lingchuan could not help asking. "What divine ability did Baizhantian use?"
No matter how thorough his raid plan had been beforehand, he could never have anticipated that the descending deity would be Baizhantian.
"It is troublesome." And agonizingly painful.
"..."
"Disintegration." Zhu Erniang ran as swiftly as ever. "It is his signature technique, capable of instantly decomposing and annihilating whatever he touches. Fortunately, he is currently channeling it through a divine descent vessel, so its power is far below what it once was."
She swiveled an eye to glance at He Lingchuan. "Even so, it is more than enough to deal with you."
If that spear tip so much as poked He Lingchuan, he would cease to exist entirely.
He Lingchuan shuddered.
No wonder celestial gods were invincible; this was power that modern practitioners could hardly stand against.
"Still, he didn't get off lightly either," Zhu Erniang added. "Courtesy demands reciprocity—I treated him to a dose of venom."
That was where the bloody hole in Lu Shishi's back had come from.
Back when Zhu Erniang was in the Demon Nest, her venom was already ferocious enough to dissolve a living human into bloody water within moments. Now in a spider immortal's body, its toxicity was even more potent.
He Lingchuan thought for a moment. "Let me help you."
With that, he drew Fusheng and leapt down.
Zhu Erniang naturally raised no objection. As long as the power of Disintegration was not excised, it would relentlessly sap her strength.
The power stored in this immortal slough was exceedingly precious; she did not want to squander a single shred of it.
Yet moving across the speeding spider demon was akin to navigating a mountain of swords. From every angle, countless three-foot-long spikes bristled toward him. Had his Returning Swallow footwork not been so nimble, he would likely have been riddled with dozens of bloody holes by now.
A gleam flashed in Zhu Erniang's eyes, and the spikes near the wound softened, becoming pliable and elastic.
This trick shared a subtle harmony with porcupines. He Lingchuan stepped over effortlessly and began sawing away at the large chunks of flesh around the wound.
Sometimes, no spell or divine ability worked as well as physical excision.
Zhu Erniang hissed in pain, yet forced her muscles to remain relaxed.
Even with Fusheng's sharpness, without triggering its special properties, He Lingchuan found carving through the wound remarkably grueling—far tougher than tempered steel.
'If only I had some extra help.'
No sooner had this thought crossed his mind than the Fusheng blade began to glow with a layer of red light.
"Huh?"
No, not just Fusheng—his entire body was emitting a faint red glow.
This was origin power.
And this feeling was intimately familiar to him—
The Gale Army's origin power!
He Lingchuan stood dazed for a moment.
He had actually channeled the Gale Army's origin power in reality? How could this be possible!
Zhu Erniang urged, "Hey, are you done yet?" Why stop halfway through?
"Almost!"
Suppressing his astonishment, He Lingchuan prioritized the operation.
With the boost of origin power, the task became far easier. It was not that the demon immortal's body had weakened, but that origin power inherently countered great demons; enhanced by it, Fusheng's sharpness became terrifying.
Before long, He Lingchuan gouged out a chunk of flesh as large as two wine casks and cast it to the ground.
Within a few breaths, it dissolved into flying ash.
Zhu Erniang felt instantly relieved. With the power of Disintegration gone, the wound rapidly closed and healed, restored completely in a dozen breaths.
Only now did He Lingchuan have the chance to raise the Fusheng blade and inspect it closely.
This treasure had been with him for so long, and the battle on Mount Xu had been so intense, that he had subconsciously overlooked it.
Now, focusing his senses, he discovered that Fusheng had quietly gained an additional property:
The blade's master can draw upon Panlong City's origin power; its strength depends on rank and the state of Panlong City.
He Lingchuan had always known Fusheng's properties could expand, but he never expected such an unexpected windfall!
Origin power! Seven or eight out of ten setbacks he had suffered since leaving the Yuan Kingdom were tied to origin power. As a lone wolf, whenever he fought top powerhouses in Beijia, he was suppressed by origin power right from the start.
Now, this deficiency was patched up in one stroke, effectively causing his personal combat power to surge.
How could he not be ecstatic?
This had to be a new power granted by the completion of the divine relic after the Dafang Pot lid was absorbed into the divine bone necklace.
Otherwise, during the harrowing struggle at the formation core earlier, not a shred of origin power had come to his aid.
Once the surge of delight subsided, questions rushed in, some contradicting his previous understanding.
Yet He Lingchuan had no time to ponder, for Zhu Erniang immediately barked a warning: "Baizhantian is here."
Two arcs of light lunged from an oblique angle, their speed hardly slower than Zhu Erniang's.
Wait, why two?
When He Lingchuan made out the pursuers, a chill shot through him.
Besides Celestial God Baizhan, why was National Preceptor Qingyang there too?
Moreover, he saw National Preceptor Qingyang loose a whistling arrow into the sky, bursting into a brilliant flare of red, yellow, and white light.
Damn, a signal flare. He remembered the Heavenly Palace garrison stationed on the ground was nearby—a horse gallop of barely a quarter of an hour away.
He Lingchuan said decisively, "We have to shake them. We can't let them run into the snail-toad."
Moving at such blistering speeds in this pursuit, He Lingchuan found it difficult to rendezvous with Dong Rui.
Even if Dong Rui could rush over to extract them, these two heavyweights were clinging too tightly!
The snail-toad needed time to burrow underground. Having witnessed Baizhantian's divine skill, He Lingchuan seriously doubted whether the snail-toad could escape under his nose in time.
The god was capable of excavating the earth three zhang deep with a single thrust!
No matter how hard the snail-toad's shell was, it might not withstand a combined assault from Celestial God Baizhan and National Preceptor Qingyang. Furthermore, He Lingchuan had traded blows with Qingyang before; the oldest National Preceptor of Lingxu City truly possessed formidable mastery.
The snail-toad was He Lingchuan's most crucial transport for escaping Lingxu City—it could not be destroyed under any circumstances.
"My illusions won't fool them." Zhu Erniang noted that aside from their diverse divine abilities, the pair possessed that lethal weapon known as origin power; even if a mirage demon came in person, it likely could not hoodwink their eyes. "You'd better have another way!"
"Well, I actually do have a contingency plan." With Juju's betrayal, the simplest escape route had fallen through. He Lingchuan knew it was time to activate Plan B.
Alas, he had anticipated in advance that they would most likely end up here.
He reached into his robes, pulled out a gourd, and shook it twice. "Head west, to the Grass Sea! Have Dong Rui meet us there to back us up, too. Heh, since they're pursuing so relentlessly, I'll give them another great gift!"
Without a word, Zhu Erniang veered west. Along the way, she released copious amounts of silk, trailing it through the air in dense, branching threads that instantly adhered to whatever they touched, weaving a vast web of a thousand layers.
Approaching water to the west, the woods grew denser, making it far easier for her to anchor webs.
Unless the pursuers behind them sprouted wings, they were bound to get snagged from head to toe, which would inevitably slow them down.
After all, her webs feared neither blades nor water nor fire.
Zhu Erniang had a past grievance with Baizhantian and would not balk at a direct clash. Yet she knew full well the current situation was unfavorable. If she were bogged down and pinned by Baizhantian and National Preceptor Qingyang until Beijia's reinforcements arrived, she would inevitably be worn to death by their overwhelming numbers and strength!
Right timing, terrain advantage, unity of men—she had none of them. Staying to fight was suicidal.
Besides, the immortal slough had been reclaimed with great difficulty; every bit of power used from it was gone for good, and she wanted to conserve as much as possible.
So, running was the only choice.
Meanwhile, He Lingchuan retrieved a bow and arrow from his storage ring and likewise shot a command arrow into the sky.
It was actually a firework that burst in midair into a sky full of sparks—red, orange, yellow, green, and blue—forming the likeness of three or four lotus blossoms, remarkably dazzling.
Crucially, it was eye-catching.
The thunderstorm fell only within Mount Xu's domain; against the pitch-black sky, such an exploding firework was clearly visible for over ten li around.
He was not boasting; he had long since mapped out the mountains and terrain around Mount Xu.
When planning an operation of this magnitude, failure practically meant death, so naturally all the groundwork had to be done beforehand.
Streams and rivers crisscrossed Mount Xu, linking up with outer water systems, and one of their upstream sources was the Grass Sea.
Sprawling and hydrologically complex, with shallows and reed marshes, it served as an ideal alternative escape route after leaving Mount Xu.
He Lingchuan had done his research thoroughly. Although the shallows of the Grass Sea were vast, its deep-water region was even more expansive, reaching depths of up to sixty zhang.
Even if a celestial god descended, divine sense would struggle to pierce waters so deep and wide.
Naturally, the most important part was that someone was there to receive them.
As for Juju, He Lingchuan had never trusted the creature.
The old monster had betrayed the Dahuan Sect and betrayed the Heavenly Palace; its track record was riddled with ignominy. Once the Chain of Oaths fell away, how could He Lingchuan know it would not sell him out?
Betraying masters and friends for profit seemed to be Juju's standard operating procedure.
Thus, preparing several backup plans was genuinely necessary. He Lingchuan was never one to put all his eggs in one basket.
Chapter 699