Hearing this, the Jianyang Sect disciples were left wanting more and hurriedly pressed, "What happened after that?"
"After that, I stepped out of the courier station hoping to have a look around, but unexpectedly another torrential downpour started," Ling Jinbao said listlessly. "I simply raised my hand to wipe the water from my face, yet the moment I lowered it, I found myself back among the ruins of Panlong City. The station, the ancient road, the forest—all of it had vanished."
"What kind of situation is that?"
"Hard to say." Ling Jinbao shook his head. "I can only deduce that I had accidentally fallen into an illusion produced by the Dafang Pot. Those illusions... might be reenactments of past history. Such things are actually quite common in major ancient ruins."
A Jianyang Sect disciple laughed. "We wouldn't mind 'accidentally' falling in once ourselves."
"In a place like this, you must never speak so lightly," Ling Jinbao said sternly. "Do you remember those few who wandered into the ghost city's night market and died after eating the food? This is Panlong Ancient City. Even in an illusion, murderous peril lurks everywhere.
"Now do you understand why I refuse to spend the night in the ancient city?" He sighed. "In that place, spirits and gods are beyond reckoning."
...
The Jianyang Sect contingent departed without looking back, while the Blackwater City troops heightened their vigilance.
With the ruins so lively, even the Grand Marshal had sent people to stick an oar in?
Yet thinking back, the He father and son realized that this entire sequence of events had begun two years ago when Sun Fuping and Nian Songyu slaughtered a whole den of leopard demons. The Grand Marshal's subordinates had entered Blackwater City to track down the escaped sand leopard, only to be captured by He Lingchuan.
Clearly, Dong Haoming had coveted the Dafang Pot for a long time. At present, the war in the northwest was bogged down, and the Yuan army was not the only side mired in the mud. If the Grand Marshal could seize the Dafang Pot, he might turn the tide of the war and march his forces straight upon the Yuan capital.
Suddenly, a beam of red light shot into the sky ahead, piercing straight into the clouds!
The strange upheaval in Panlong City had begun once more.
They had seen this red beam several times before, but observing it from such close range was still deeply shocking.
"Move! The red light rises from the temple!"
He Chunhua issued a curt command, and everyone accelerated forward.
Even faster than the Blackwater City troops were the lamp spirits. Streaks of golden light swept past everyone, hurtling toward the source of the red glow.
The other parties were not blind either; at that moment, they all turned and bolted toward the temple.
Standing out in the desert, the Jianyang Sect members also saw the red light and halted to gaze at it. Ling Jinbao muttered, "As expected, it is still at the temple."
None of the groups had overlooked that location during their earlier searches. But whenever the Dafang Pot was not stirring up trouble, searching there yielded nothing.
"Martial Uncle, should we rush back now?" If they were too late, would someone beat them to it?
"No need." Ling Jinbao shook his head. "No need to fight over a single moment. From what I see, that treasure won't be seized so easily."
Inside the city, the mirror in He Lingchuan's breast pocket squeaked in a shrill voice, "The critical moment! The critical moment has arrived!"
It was more nervous than he was.
He Lingchuan patted his chest twice to remind it to maintain some composure. This wretched mirror had accompanied him through wreaking havoc in the Heavenly Palace and making a clean getaway, so why hadn't it made any progress at all?
The Blackwater City contingent had entered the city latest. By the time they reached the temple, sure enough, the soaring red light originated from that pool-well. The Heavenly Palace group had likely been the first to arrive; Zhang Lianhai and his men were guarding the poolside, weapons in hand and lamp spirits dancing in the air, forbidding anyone from approaching.
The young attendant beside him was clutching his left eye tightly, his face twisted in pain. He Lingchuan had assumed the fellow had been wounded by someone, but the soul-snatching mirror cried out, "Such a powerful fluctuation of power!"
A fluctuation?
The young attendant lowered his hand, and his left eye had completely changed.
What had been a perfectly normal human eye had turned into a bulging vertical slit pupil like that of a crocodile, its edges covered in green markings and bloodshot veins.
The pupil shifted slightly, aligned itself with the pool-well, and suddenly dilated!
This uncanny sensation did not feel unfamiliar to He Lingchuan.
Back when he was undergoing the celestial god's judgment on Mount Xu and being scrutinized by the Dharma Eye, he had felt precisely this kind of discomfort!
Damn it, was this attendant a vessel or a follower of Miaozhantian?
Fortunately, the attendant was focused wholeheartedly on examining the pool-well, paying no attention to He Lingchuan whatsoever.
Almost everyone saw the pool-well's crimson light reflected in the attendant's vertical pupil, glowing a vivid, fiery red.
In just two or three breaths of time, he clutched his eye and fell backward, unable to even remain on his feet.
A companion grabbed him to steady him. The young attendant was drenched in cold sweat and deathly pale, looking utterly exhausted.
Wielding such a divine ability had undoubtedly taken a tremendous toll on him.
Zhang Lianhai asked urgently, "How is it?"
"It... it's here," the attendant said weakly. "As seen through the Dharma Eye, this is the entrance!"
When he opened his eye again, his left eye had returned to normal.
Everyone was stirred.
A Heavenly Palace envoy had personally verified that this was the entrance between illusion and reality. To seize the Dafang Pot, one had to enter within.
Zhang Lianhai pointed out three men in rapid succession and said curtly, "You three, go in."
Each of the three swallowed a pill, and three faint, eerie wisps of flame soon ignited on their shoulders and the crowns of their heads.
This sight also looked familiar to He Lingchuan. He had not expected the Heavenly Palace to employ a method similar to Sun Fuping's in the past, both drawing out the life flames of their subordinates.
All three left behind a wisp of their life flames for Zhang Lianhai, then leaped into the pool-well and vanished within the red light.
"It seems they have entered the interior of the Panlong Ruins' sub-world." Deputy General Bao Guanjie of the Baling Kingdom's Qilin Army and the others kept their eyes fixed on the life flames in Zhang Lianhai's hand.
The three wisps of life flame continued to burn steadily, proving that the three scouts who had entered the sub-world were still alive.
After waiting for a dozen breaths, he inclined his head toward his men. "You go in too!"
Just as the Balingese were about to step forward, Zhang Lianhai's brow twitched, and the lamp spirits pounced over to bar their path.
"Halt!"
The Heavenly Palace contingent also spread out, encircling the pool-well tightly.
Bao Guanjie was indignant, but he still tried to reason with him.
"Master Zhang, even if you go in, you may not secure the treasure immediately. On the contrary, who knows what bizarre things you will encounter in there. More people mean more strength combined!"
Had any other group dared to monopolize the pool, no one would have bothered wasting breath. A gentleman acts rather than speaks—they would have simply attacked and butchered them.
Among those who dared to venture into Panlong City on an expedition, who could claim to be a good person?
Yet the Heavenly Palace was different.
Toward any party dispatched by the Heavenly Palace, everyone felt deep wariness. They reasoned whenever reasoning was possible, never resorting to force unless absolutely left with no choice.
Even though this was not within the territory of the Beijia Kingdom.
Such was the terrifying might of a supreme power.
"None shall pass. This is for your own good," Zhang Lianhai said coldly. "The interior is far too perilous. It is not something mortals can take part in!"
Bao Guanjie frowned. "Does the Heavenly Palace know what is happening inside?"
While they argued, Zhao Qinghe led his men into the temple, searching it thoroughly inside and out.
Zhang Lianhai offered no further explanation. He merely pointed a finger, and the lamp spirits immediately transformed into several fierce beasts, glaring hungrily at the crowd.
Whoever dared to step forward would certainly be set upon and torn to shreds.
Bao Guanjie argued a few more words, but Zhang Lianhai remained entirely unmoved. Furthermore, the Heavenly Palace attendants behind him began laying an array on the ground, clearly intending to erect a barrier, which caused the Balingese to look very grim.
When fighting the Andongese outside Blackwater City, everyone had still stood united. Yet in less than twenty double-hours, they had turned hostile.
He Chunhua did not step forward, merely watching from the sidelines.
Bao Guanjie's gaze shifted to rest upon him, and he suddenly spoke up. "General He is the local host. No matter how overbearing the Heavenly Palace may be, on what grounds can they bar the local master from entering?"
This vast expanse of the Panlong Desert and the Red Cliff Road was all territory of the Yuan Kingdom. As the supreme commander of Blackwater City, He Chunhua could certainly be called the host. Naturally, no one had given that title any weight before; Bao Guanjie merely wanted to join forces with him to confront the Heavenly Palace.
After all, He Chunhua had brought the largest number of men. Zhang Lianhai and his group had weaker origin power here. If it truly came down to violence, facing the combined force of more than three hundred men from the Blackwater City troops and the Baling Kingdom, they might not gain any advantage.
Zhang Lianhai glanced at He Chunhua and said indifferently, "However, the thing inside belongs to the Heavenly Palace!"
He was declaring to everyone that the Dafang Pot belonged to the Heavenly Palace.
At this moment, Zhao Qinghe emerged from the temple and shook his head at He Chunhua.
Just as He Chunhua was about to speak, the red string tied around his wrist suddenly grew faintly warm.
This was a treasure bestowed upon him by Nailuotian; if He Chunhua faced danger, it would automatically give warning.
With the help of this red string, he had evaded an arrow in the dark and an ambush back in Longchuan.
However, on those occasions, the red string had scalded with heat. Right now, it was merely a faint warmth, fleeting enough that he almost took it for an illusion.
He Chunhua twitched his wrist slightly, but the red string gave no further sign.
What did this mean?
Was it warning him that danger lurked within the red light, or that a formidable enemy was approaching?
Or was it unable to determine where the danger came from and how severe it was?
Ever since Nailuotian bestowed the red string upon him, this was the very first time it had functioned only half-reliably.
In other words, was the Panlong Ruins so bizarre that even the string could not be certain?
His expression shifted between light and dark. Unable to wait for him to speak any longer, Bao Guanjie had no choice but to raise his voice and ask, "General He?"
Meanwhile, the soul-snatching mirror also spoke to He Lingchuan. "A magic artifact on your father quietly activated!"
What magic artifact?
He Lingchuan could not easily ask aloud, but having stayed by his side for so long, the soul-snatching mirror could finally understand his unspoken thoughts. It continued, "I sensed the traces of divine arts or spells activating, but I cannot tell what it is!"
Divine arts? He Lingchuan's brow twitched. Could it be that the very thing he feared had arrived? He immediately pointed at an alley entrance not far away. "Dad, look over there!"
He had to divert He Chunhua's attention at once.
It was a pitch-black place, but following He Lingchuan's gesture, everyone saw a dozen or so figures emerge from the alley, heading straight for the temple.
Their faces were completely unfamiliar; they certainly had not come from Blackwater City.
The leader was a burly man radiating a fierce, bloodthirsty aura, carrying a gold-inlaid saber in his hand.
He Chunhua's gaze fell upon the gold-inlaid saber, and he instantly recalled Ling Jinbao's warning, his heart tightening.
Were these the Grand Marshal's men?
A Heavenly Palace attendant barked promptly, "The Heavenly Palace is conducting official business! Halt, or you shall be slain without mercy!"
The Grand Marshal's group came to a halt. Their gazes swept across the various factions in turn, lingering longest on the Heavenly Palace and on He Chunhua.
The Heavenly Palace had the most resounding reputation and the most eye-catching lamp spirits, while He Chunhua had brought the largest number of men.
The red light pillar had only appeared in the Panlong Desert a short while ago, yet he had managed to bring so many people. What did that prove?
Proximity.
Therefore, He Chunhua's contingent was very likely the local force.
The burly man's gaze toward He Chunhua took on a measure of caution. They had not gone to Blackwater City, so they did not know about the Andongese's sudden assault on the city, nor did they know that Prefect Hu had been killed and that He Chunhua was acting in charge of administrative affairs. Yet he sensed that this man was by no means simple.
Chapter 824