Lu Xun, however, raised his sleeve before his eyes. The arrows struck the fabric as though hitting worn leather, pattering harmlessly into the river.
The moment Willow hauled him onto the bank, before he had even found his footing, he called out, "There's something in the water!"
In that fleeting glimpse just now, he seemed to have caught sight of a teal shadow darting beneath the churning surface.
Whatever it was, it was massive—and clearly bore ill intent.
The guards on the bank immediately fired a command arrow skyward, summoning nearby Yuheng Army troops to their aid.
In just those few breaths, He Lingchuan had already been swept several zhang downstream by the current. He raised his arm and fired a sleeve arrow toward the bank, aiming to anchor himself.
Seeing this, the guards on shore rushed forward to pull him from the water.
Yet they had hauled him only halfway when the river erupted with a violent crash, and a colossal beast surged out!
From He Lingchuan's angle, all he could see was a massive triangular maw lunging straight at him, bristling with dozens of yellowish, conical teeth.
The guards on the bank gasped in horror, for looking down at the river, they could see that this was a behemoth over two zhang long, clad in scaled armor and bristling with spines along its back—
"A crocodile demon!"
Though this monster could not match the size of the old Crocodile God by Xianling Lake, swallowing He Lingchuan whole would still be child's play.
Yet it opened its jaws only slightly, intent merely on clamping down on He Lingchuan with a death grip.
The bite force behind that maw could snap the femur of an old bull clean in two.
The saber Fusheng was too long. In the nick of time, He Lingchuan grabbed the short blade he used for creating doppelgangers and shoved it right into the beast's mouth.
Writhing in pain, the crocodile demon thrashed its head, flinging him back into the river.
Submerged beneath the muddy yellow waters, He Lingchuan looked around, astonished to find the silhouettes of numerous water demons lurking in the depths!
Were these water demons of Longchuan?
Aquatic creatures rarely lingered in such swift currents, and traveling in packs out of Longchuan to ambush the Yuheng Army was even more unthinkable.
Needless to say, only the Xiji puppet troops would dare pull off something like this.
Blossoms of blood suddenly bloomed across the giant crocodile's body, likely shot by the guards above.
Origin power inflicted severe damage on wild monsters like these.
Yet another behemoth emerged from the murky water, hurtling straight toward He Lingchuan. It had a pointed head, round eyes, and a maw lined with razor-sharp steel teeth far more sinister than the giant crocodile's.
With its streamlined body, it sliced through the water as if powered by witchcraft.
Damn it, a giant shark?!
He Lingchuan could hardly believe his eyes. A shark in Longchuan? When he had Qianjin Stronghold conduct a monster census, they hadn't uncovered anything like this at all!
The sea was still dozens of li away, wasn't it?
Well, he didn't know much about sharks, but certain species could indeed swim up freshwater rivers in search of food.
The giant shark charged headlong at him, opening its maw as it closed in—its gape even wider than the giant crocodile's.
Had the chatterbox mirror been on him, He Lingchuan might have dared to weather a bite, but he didn't have it. His only recourse was to time his move, planting a hand firmly on the shark's snout and using the momentum to flip forward, somersaulting right over its forehead!
It was like vaulting over a speeding car: timing was everything, requiring absolute precision. Jump a split second too early or too late, and disaster would strike; fail to jump high enough, and you would be sent flying sideways.
He Lingchuan vaulted right over those three rows of razor-sharp teeth, shaving past by the narrowest of margins.
Yet while the giant shark could snap its head left and right with fierce speed, tilting its head upward was far clumsier. With such a meager upward angle, it couldn't snatch He Lingchuan into its jaws.
It could only glide beneath He Lingchuan. Vast in size, its turning radius was equally large, requiring a heavy sweep of its tail to turn and readjust its angle before striking back at its target.
Just then, a dark shadow shot out without warning from behind the shark's tail, lunging at He Lingchuan's back. It was as swift as an arrow, completely unhindered by the water's resistance.
With water gurgling and rushing all around, He Lingchuan couldn't hear any sound from behind, yet a chill shot straight up the back of his neck into his skull.
Danger!
That piercing killing intent, almost palpable, made his neck prickle with pain.
Turning around in time was out of the question. He Lingchuan raised his left hand and fired a sleeve arrow straight toward the source of the killing intent.
Specially crafted military gear reserved for the Grand Commander still functioned flawlessly underwater.
Born of countless trials, his reflexes and judgment were razor-sharp, sending the bolt straight between the ambusher's brows.
The assailant had no choice but to dodge, while the recoil pushed He Lingchuan forward through the water.
By sheer chance, the shark's dorsal fin glided past him—tall and broad like a small sail. He Lingchuan whipped a spear from his storage ring with his right hand and thrust it deep into the fin!
The shark's hide was tough, but the spear tip gleamed with red light. He Lingchuan's own physical strength, combined with the boost of origin power, shattered the beast's defenses in a single blow.
A bloom of blood erupted in the water.
Agonized, the giant shark lashed its tail and surged seven or eight zhang away, thrashing violently. Yet the river channel was far narrower than the open sea; it slammed repeatedly against the boulders along the banks with heavy thuds.
Fortunately, He Lingchuan already possessed copper skin and iron bones, and had raised his protective astral qi; otherwise, his face would have been scraped bloody against the rocks.
The guards on the bank gave chase, following the noise.
He Lingchuan held tight to the spear to keep from being thrown off. Only now did he dare look back to see what had ambushed him earlier.
Chaos reigned behind him. The guards who had fallen into the river were busy battling water demons, and the raging waters were cluttered with all manner of debris, obscuring his vision.
Yet none of them looked like his ambusher.
Where had that thing vanished to?
On the bank, the guards who had not yet crossed attempted to take a detour. Their mounts were ordinary horses, unable to leap ten zhang like rock sheep.
More than ten zhang away, the river narrowed slightly; perhaps they could attempt a leap from there?
The recent torrential rains had widened the river, making reinforcements all the more difficult.
On the opposite bank, Door Plank fought off enemies while shouting to Hu Min, "Hurry up!"
Hu Min was muttering an incantation under his breath and rolled his eyes at the urging. Everything had happened so suddenly—didn't charging a trump card take time?
Several stray arrows flew straight at him, but Door Plank knocked them away with his shield.
"The commander is still in the water! Stop dragging your feet!"
Hu Min finally finished his incantation. He hurled a puppet into the water and only then freed his mouth to snap back:
"If you're so capable, you do it!"
Before the puppet even hit the water, it expanded with two resounding thuds, transforming into an iron-armored bronze automaton one and a half zhang tall.
Yuheng City had newly crafted ten bronze automatons to defend the city and haul supplies in the future. For now, they were still unfinished prototypes; even summoning them required reciting incantations, unlike He Lingchuan's golden-armored guards, which could transform instantaneously.
Per He Lingchuan's instructions, Hu Min usually carried one on his person, never expecting it would come in handy today.
When it stood upright, the river reached just up to its chest.
With its broad, heavy build, the bronze automaton presented a wide surface to the rushing water. The powerful current knocked it into a stumble, but it gripped a riverside boulder firmly with one hand, finally steadying itself.
Under Hu Min's control, it scooped up the guards in the water and hurled them one by one toward the opposite bank.
With each man thrown across, the pressure on the opposite shore eased a bit more.
All of a sudden, the river water condensed into two translucent giant serpents, tightly coiling around the iron-armored bronze automaton's limbs to drag it down into the river.
Yuheng City had made these bronze automatons primarily to utilize their hauling capabilities; they had not yet been processed or upgraded, so their physical durability and strength fell far short of bronze sentinels. What's more, the rushing current exerted tremendous force, leaving the bronze automaton unable to break free of its bonds for the moment.
Lu Xun asked in wonder, "Are there really so many mystics among the Longchuan river bandits?"
Chapter 876