By all rights, the hand seals he formed should have forcibly summoned the ji beast.
He Jing gnashed his teeth in fury.
Of the four ji beasts, this one was the most powerful. If it emerged to assist them, the Heavenly Palace squad's burden would be drastically reduced.
Yet it shrank back and refused to come out! He had no idea what had gone wrong.
He Jing was no expert at rearing ji beasts, but when he took these four out, the specialists had vowed solemnly that they would unfailingly answer the summons!
If he made it out of the secret realm alive, he would beat that wretch until his own mother wouldn't recognize him!
Wait, shrank back...? A thought struck him. Seeing that the attendant boy's lips were faintly purplish-black, he barked sharply, "Did you take medicine behind my back?"
"I..." The attendant boy cringed in terror, drenched in sweat. "I heard the descent of the devouring child would bring agonizing pain, so just now, I... I took flax vine."
Flax vine was poisonous, but its most potent virtue lay in sedation and pain relief.
Even though this attendant boy had embraced the resolve to offer himself up to the celestial gods—even though he knew his sacrifice would guarantee his family in Beijia a life of luxury and fine dining, and give his brothers a brighter future—instinctive terror still lurked deep in his heart when confronted with such horrific agony.
"Fool!" He Jing's cheek twitched with rage, but he quickly added, "Fine, I'll lend you a hand."
Such pain was indeed enough to make anyone flinch, but the Heavenly Palace had a reason for requiring hosts of the devouring children to remain conscious and unmedicated when the ji beasts emerged.
Ji beasts were ill-suited to inhabiting human bodies to begin with, and once they fell into slumber, waking them became even harder. Using attendant boys was merely a desperate measure for long-distance transport.
Yet this boy had actually taken heavily sedating flax vine!
The ji beast inside him had absorbed the vine's effects as well. Now look what happened—it couldn't be roused.
He Jing slapped the back of the attendant boy's neck, knocking him unconscious, then pulled a pale-gold candle from his robes.
A small wisp of pale-white flame flickered at the wick. Pinching the tiny flame free, he inverted his palm and pressed it onto the boy's eyelid.
Though He Lingchuan couldn't hear their exchange, watching He Jing's actions told him that summoning the final ji beast had run into serious trouble, and the man was desperately trying to fix it.
Unfortunately, He Jing's handiest lamp spirit had already been wiped out by the shadow-projecting lamp. Even after he drove the tiny flame into the attendant boy's body, it produced no effect after quite a long time.
Fighting while waiting, He Jing was finally forced to give up.
What a waste of such prime combat strength!
Fortunately, the Scaled Scarlet Tiger was still obeying commands, moving straight to draw the Que Beast King's attention. Its hide was thick and coarse, leaving it virtually unaffected by the cold. The Que Beast King swatted it back twice, only to puncture its own palms. Roaring continuously in pain, the monster shed a few more specks of faint light from its wounds, which drifted into the Dafang Pot atop the mound.
He Lingchuan narrowed his eyes.
Was he seeing things, or had the Que Beast King shrunk slightly?
Was it because the eerie light inside its body was escaping?
Looking at it from the other direction, how massive had this Que Beast King originally been, and just how terrifying was its true might?
And who had gravely wounded it in the first place?
The Heavenly Palace guards were formidable fighters to begin with, and bolstered by the three devouring children, they managed to withstand the Que beasts' onslaught and erect a tactical formation.
This array was known as the Northern Defense Kuixing Formation, composed of sixteen Kuixing stones. As long as enemies were wounded, the formation could siphon their essence, energy, and spirit to replenish the allied warriors, achieving the endurance goal of wearing down the foe while invigorating their own ranks.
At the same time, the formation would intermittently release "Kui spirits"—humanoid battle puppets sealed within the Kuixing stones that could attack enemies on their own. Ignorant of pain and fear, they served as excellent auxiliary attackers.
With both the formation and the devouring children in position, the Heavenly Palace squad's pressure dropped sharply.
Immediately after, however, the distant tide of Que beasts caught the commotion and surged forward to join the fray.
General Red's Cenotaph had once been open and spacious, but now it was packed with men and beasts, various divine abilities and mystic arts flying everywhere across the sky.
He Lingchuan felt glad he had slipped away early. Otherwise, with the dense barrage of mystical powers falling there, he would have been caught in the crossfire even draped in Lord Boshan's skin.
The Que Beast King paid him no heed at all, likely because the Heavenly Palace squad was doing everything possible to seize the Dafang Pot, drawing away its undivided focus.
Observing both combatants from afar, He Lingchuan formed a few deductions.
This fellow He Jing possessed formidable cultivation and seemingly hailed from a military background. Whether fighting alone or in a unit, his methods were disciplined and orderly, directing his entire squad to advance and retreat with clear coordination.
He had first been ambushed by He Lingchuan, then suffered the backlash of his lamp spirit. Anyone else might have collapsed after coughing up several pints of blood, yet He Jing was still fighting on the front lines, shouldering immense pressure for the entire team.
At a life-or-death juncture, as the leader, he couldn't afford to hold back.
He Lingchuan watched as the man slew over a dozen Que beasts in succession before propping his mace against the ground to swallow pills and steady his breathing.
With such a physique and such stamina, He Lingchuan wouldn't want to clash with him head-on if he were uninjured.
Then there were the Que beasts. Once heavily wounded or killed, the eerie light on their bodies was drawn into the Dafang Pot. To He Lingchuan, it looked far more like "refinement."
In the past, these monsters had never been inside the Dafang Pot, yet now they were rampaging all over the Panlong Realm. The only explanation He Lingchuan could muster was that these creatures actually originated from the Dafang Pot lid.
Since the Dafang Pot could gather the heroic spirits of Panlong City, did it not stand to reason that its matching lid could contain certain monsters?
During the lid's enshrinement in Zhaixing Tower on Mount Xu, it had been revered, but it had also been sealed. The monsters probably had no chance to escape back then.
Reflecting on the soaring red light, the chaotic battle before him, and the creatures' hatred for all humans, He Lingchuan could only surmise that the other end of the Mitian Temple's pool-well actually connected to the Dafang Pot lid, allowing the beasts within to surge into the Panlong Realm.
For every Que beast slain by the adventuring parties in the realm, a fraction of the lid's resistance was chipped away on the Dafang Pot's behalf. The more they killed, the faster the Dafang Pot could refine and assimilate the lid.
In short, the Dafang Pot was thoroughly using the outside forces to do its bidding and slave away for it.
So sinister, so devious! He Lingchuan muttered to himself. His initial purpose in entering the Panlong Realm had simply been to lure Nailuotian's avatar into descending and resolve the hidden danger of the divine seal in his mind. Yet in the end, he was roped into helping this pot accomplish its unspeakable ends.
Its exploitation of him—and of everyone else—was utterly blatant and shamelessly unapologetic.
Yet for now, his fate remained bound to the Dafang Pot's. The stronger the pot grew, the more advantageous it was for him; moreover, he had never intended for the Heavenly Palace squad to leave alive anyway.
Sighing, he rubbed his temples.
How could he kill off every person and beast before him? Would relying on them to slaughter one another suffice?
***
The struggle for General Red's Cenotaph grew increasingly white-hot.
Que beasts large and small were rushing here from every corner of the Panlong Realm, their numbers climbing steadily from two hundred to four hundred, five hundred, eight hundred...
With no end in sight.
The onlookers hovering around the perimeter were forced to pull back bit by bit, lest the fires of battle spread to them.
Everyone had to admire the Heavenly Palace squad.
Had it been the Blackwater City troops, they would have been overrun long ago. Yet amid this terrifying tide of beasts, the Heavenly Palace squad not only held firm, but even managed to push through the creatures' pressure, inching toward the cenotaph step by step.
Their objective was singular and absolute: seize the Dafang Pot within the burial mound.
Even so, the Heavenly Palace squad had their own bitter hardships to bear. With the sheer overwhelming number of foes, every person inside the tactical formation was under immense strain.
Why hadn't the agile devouring children retrieved the Dafang Pot amid the chaos?
The Que Beast King's protection over it was simply too meticulous. Beyond stationing several small ghost-faced monkeys specifically to watch the pot, it had also hurled several fist-sized ice seeds into the mound.
Once these ice seeds struck the ground, they grew on their own, sprouting into ice trees, ice rocks, and ice walls.
In a matter of a dozen breaths, General Red's armor and the Dafang Pot were completely entombed within a massive block of ice over a zhang tall and a zhang wide!
This trick was truly underhanded.
The Heart-Piercing Mantis had tried several times, but not only was the ice dense and solid, any hole drilled into it reformed within a few breaths. Once it bored inside, it risked being frozen as well.
Relying solely on the devouring children to drag back the giant block of ice was beyond their strength.
Fu Liang loosed several explosive arrows and shouted, "Emissary, the formation cannot absorb essence! It can't replenish us!"
Once fired, the three arrows split into more than twenty. Enhanced with galloping thunder talismans, chain lightning could be seen leaping back and forth through the beast herd with outstanding destructive power.
Yet the battle had raged for more than a quarter of an hour. Everyone within the formation was gasping for breath, several trembling with exhaustion.
The bow in Fu Liang's hands grew heavier by the moment.
The Northern Defense Kuixing Formation was an ingenious creation integrating offense, defense, and replenishment. Beyond attacking and defending, it was supposed to siphon the blood, essence, and energy of opponents to restore the Heavenly Palace guards, achieving the goal of draining the enemy to sustain prolonged combat. Yet this special property failed to manifest at all, and no one enjoyed any replenishment.
Had the formation been laid poorly?
The Heavenly Palace members hurriedly checked.
No, nothing was wrong with the Kuixing stones.
Then did the problem lie with these Que beasts?
Faint light drifted from the dead Que beasts, flowing toward the Dafang Pot and passing effortlessly through the thick block of ice.
He Jing's mouth tasted entirely of rust. Several times, a sweet surge rose in his throat wanting to vomit blood, but he forced it down. He was the backbone of the entire squad; if he vomited blood and collapsed now, the Heavenly Palace squad's morale would crumble.
"These Que beasts were never living creatures to begin with! Where would they get blood and essence?"
Fu Liang was startled. "Wh-what did you say?"
"What creature could survive for countless years inside the Dafang Pot lid?" He Jing gave a bitter smile. "These Que beasts are likely manifestations created by the Dafang Pot lid! They are so lifelike—ah!" Everyone had been fooled.
"Uproot the formation and advance!" he ordered resolutely. "Move to the edge of the cenotaph! I will retrieve the Dafang Pot myself!"
Only ten zhang separated the tactical formation from the cenotaph, but amidst such fierce combat, that distance felt like an insurmountable chasm. For He Jing to guide the whole squad across, they would have to force back the horde of Que beasts and push forward under the full brunt of the Que Beast King's pressure!
Straining with all their might, they had barely managed to preserve the current stalemate.
Advancing further would be extraordinarily difficult.
Yet the Heavenly Palace attendants shouted in unison, "Understood!" Several who were thoroughly spent pulled black pills from their robes and swallowed them. Within a few breaths, vigor returned to them like dragons and tigers. Their trembling calves steadied, their strength to wield magic artifacts was renewed, and they fought with even greater ferocity than when they had first entered the secret realm.
Chapter 843