He Lingchuan exhaled softly and turned back to look at the others.
"Where is Master Lu?"
The primary objective of their journey to Baisha Port had been to escort Lu Xun, whereas Fu Shanlie had come specifically for He Lingchuan.
"Not a hair out of place," Willow said, jutting her chin backward. "Here he comes."
He Lingchuan looked over. Lu Xun was jogging toward them with steady, agile strides, showing no signs of injury whatsoever.
He let out a sigh of relief. If this patriarch of the Lu family had been injured under his protection, Panlong City's reputation would have been dumped straight into the river.
"What about the river bandits?"
"Right after the battle started, Master Lu brought out a treasure to slay the enemies. The bandits either died or fled; they've already routed." Willow pointed toward the opposite bank. "Door Plank and Hu Min led the others in pursuit."
A cloud of dust billowed from across the water, indeed showing signs of a hot pursuit.
The clash had ended remarkably quickly. From the moment the bridge exploded and He Lingchuan plunged into the river to the enemy's retreat, barely thirty-odd breaths of time had passed.
Yet He Lingchuan had engaged in intense combat underwater the entire time; now that he relaxed, it felt as though an eternity had passed.
His back was soaking wet, though whether from river water or cold sweat, he couldn't tell.
Fu Shanlie's cunning and ferocity had left a deep impression on him.
Presumably, Fu Shanlie felt the same about him.
"Cross the river first to regroup with them," He Lingchuan ordered. Three spellcasters stepped out from the escort unit, picked the narrowest section between the banks, and pressed their hands to the ground, murmuring incantations.
Knowing they were erecting a land bridge, Lu Xun said to his attendant, "Go and help them."
"Yes, sir." The man stepped forward, likewise pressing his hands into the sand to cast spells alongside the Yuheng City spellcasters.
The riverbank slowly extended toward the opposite side, drawing closer and closer.
It took more than two quarters of an hour for the land bridge to be completed.
The party quickly rode their horses across.
This was only a temporary passage; cracks were already appearing as the last few crossed. A proper bridge suitable for merchant traffic would have to wait for Qianjin Stronghold to send crews to rebuild it.
However, the Yuheng Army had already launched signal flares earlier. Sentries at the nearby outposts had spotted them and would soon dispatch personnel to survey the site and construct a bridge.
While the land bridge was being constructed, A'luo didn't stay idle either, bringing over his medicine kit to treat He Lingchuan's wounds.
During the battle earlier, He Lingchuan had fought heroically without even knitting his brows, but now under A'luo's treatment, he was grimacing and hissing in pain.
"Endure it!" A'luo grumbled. "He tore your Zhongfu acupoint to shreds, and his claws were venomous! This venom is vicious; if I don't scrape it out quickly, you'll undergo corpse transformation later!"
He Lingchuan looked down. The gaping hole in his right shoulder socket was wide enough to fit at least four fingers. It was a bloody mess, yet the edges had already turned black.
"Did you skimp on the numbing medicine?" Every time the blade scraped away a sliver of flesh, the agony drilled straight to his heart!
"Not at all," A'luo said, shaking his head. "Ba venom itself suppresses the effects of anesthetics, forcing the prey to suffer in full consciousness."
He Lingchuan couldn't help rolling his eyes. Damn it all, how could he have forgotten that this was the Fu Shan family's insidious heirloom specialty?
*Sigh, Fu Shanyue, my good brother, when I slaughter your old man later, don't you blame me.*
Lu Xun also came over to check on him. "How is Commander He's wound?"
A'luo was always curt when working. "Treatable. The arm won't be crippled."
"What kind of monster wounded Commander He underwater?"
"Fu Shanlie." He Lingchuan gritted his teeth against the pain. "Courtesy requires reciprocity. I took one of his arms as well."
Lu Xun was somewhat astonished. "A ba enjoys underwater combat? I've only ever heard of them specializing in earth evasion."
Fu Shanlie was a Beijia demon general whose fame had soared in recent years, yet this young commander of Yuheng City, despite being ambushed, had fought him to a standstill.
He viewed He Lingchuan in a whole new light.
"This ba is a bit unusual." He Lingchuan hadn't seen Fu Shanyue display any remarkable underwater prowess either—had the boy deliberately concealed his skills, or was water evasion a technique known only to his father?
A'luo's method of treating wounds was truly brutal. To distract himself, He Lingchuan changed the subject. "By the way, Master Lu, the magic artifact you used against the enemy was quite dazzling."
"That artifact was lent to me by someone else. If I run into trouble, I can request its assistance," Lu Xun smiled. "Otherwise, with my abilities alone, I wouldn't be able to control it at all."
He Lingchuan found this intriguing. "Such things can be borrowed like that?"
They had all witnessed the ferocity of the flying wheel; it had almost transcended the realm of present-day magic artifacts.
"When this set of Seven Fortunes Wheels was crafted, there were seven in total. After the ancient war between immortals and demons, only three remained. This is one of them; the other two are still with their master."
Willow was astonished. "So it's an ancient treasure!"
No wonder it slaughtered foes so cleanly.
"I am merely borrowing it. Should anything happen to me, the treasure will return to its owner on its own. No one else can use it."
He Lingchuan let out a long "Oh." No wonder Lu Xun had deployed the Seven Fortunes Wheel without hesitation and freely admitted it was an ancient supreme treasure—because no one else could possibly covet it.
Lu Xun chuckled again. "Fine as this treasure is, it cannot stay on the battlefield for long each time. It takes three to five months to gather enough spiritual energy just for a brief burst like this."
The more powerful a magic artifact, the more astonishing its energy consumption. It was already remarkable that these ancient artifacts could function at all to this day.
While they spoke, the land bridge was finished, and the party filed across in single file.
Willow fired several command arrows into the sky.
Barely half a quarter of an hour later, Door Plank, Hu Min, and the others returned upon seeing the signal, bringing back over a dozen captives. The remaining river bandits had scattered in flight.
Taking stock of this ambush, both sides suffered dead and wounded.
Most of the injured on He Lingchuan's side had been wounded underwater; those water demons bit viciously.
Meanwhile, the losses suffered by the Xiji puppet troops were mostly on land, and some had even been taken alive.
Even so, He Lingchuan was relatively satisfied.
Before the battle erupted, fewer than forty soldiers of the Yuheng Army had crossed the bridge.
Suddenly ambushed, forty against over two hundred river bandits had not only held their ground but decimated the enemy. This demonstrated that the quality of the soldiers, their tactical coordination, and their martial arts were far superior to the enemy's.
He Lingchuan could train the Yuheng Army, and Fu Shanlie could train the river bandits, yet the gap in combat effectiveness between the two sides was still this immense. Of course, the escort members He Lingchuan selected were the cream of the crop, whereas Fu Shanlie's river bandits were, at their core, a rabble.
Still, it proved that the Yuheng Army's intense drilling and combat over the past six-plus months had yielded significant results, and the army's combat strength was rising rapidly.
Door Plank and the others came forward to report that several experts were mixed among the bandits on land, which was the main reason the escort suffered casualties.
"Those were probably cronies Fu Shanlie brought along himself."
Advancing further, He Lingchuan discovered that the scouts sent ahead had been killed in the dense woods—no wonder no warning had been sent back earlier. Traveling the Longchuan trade route from south to north meant crossing countless bridges; some traps simply could not be avoided.
If they couldn't be avoided, so be it; they would punch their way through with sheer strength. Along this trade route, whether it was the Xiji puppet troops attacking the Yuheng Army or the Yuheng Army mopping up the Xiji puppet troops, it was nothing new.
The conflict between the two sides had already reached a boiling point.
"Master Lu, you must have been frightened," he said to Lu Xun with sincere apology. "Our escort fell short."
"Not at all." Lu Xun waved his hand. "Commander He fought bravely, and the Yuheng Army remained unshaken when ambushed. This battle also allowed me to conduct an evaluation of Panlong City."
"An evaluation?" He Lingchuan was puzzled. What was he evaluating?
With Yuheng City's gates now in sight, everyone subconsciously breathed a collective sigh of relief.
They were finally back.
Their robes were stained with blood, drawing countless sidelong glances along the way.
After entering the city gates, He Lingchuan dismissed the escort as usual, sending them off to rest and treat their wounds. He invited Lu Xun to have some tea at the city post-station while he went to the inner room to change his clothes. After all, bringing a guest further into the city covered in blood and grime would be unseemly.
Injured as he was, changing clothes was a slow affair. At this juncture, Adjutant Chao Qian hurried over. Seeing his limited mobility, Chao Qian hastily stepped forward to help.
"My Lord, I heard there was an incident on the road?"
He Lingchuan smiled faintly. "Fu Shanlie finally caught an opportunity to ambush me."
He had instigated division and infighting among the Longchuan river bandits, causing Fu Shanlie to hate him to the marrow and attempt to eliminate him multiple times. However, He Lingchuan had recently been focusing on the military training of the Yuheng Army, occupied with drilling those several thousand men half to death and rarely traveling far from the city. Fu Shanlie had simply been unable to find a suitable opening to strike.
Having waited so long, how could Fu Shanlie easily pass up the opportune news of He Lingchuan traveling to and from Baisha Port?
Hearing this, Chao Qian's face turned pale. "What about Fu Shanlie?"
The commander had returned, which at least meant Fu Shanlie had failed. But looking at these injuries, the fight must have been harrowing, right?
"Sorry, he got away." He Lingchuan retrieved a severed arm from his storage ring and handed it to him. "I promised you before that I would avenge Miao Mingming."
Chao Qian stared blankly, then slowly reached out to receive it.
At first glance, the severed arm looked no different from an ordinary human limb, yet the muscle fibers were exceptionally dense and hard, with long, sharp nails resembling a wolf's talons.
Was this Fu Shanlie's arm?
Not knowing what to feel, he murmured, "Thank you, General Commander!"
Miao Mingming had been a relative who came to seek shelter with him, only to be drained of blood and killed by Fu Shanlie. He Lingchuan had guaranteed back then that he would avenge Miao Mingming.
Chao Qian had never imagined that the General Commander, burdened with countless duties, had remembered this promise all along and gone out of his way to fulfill it.
His clothes now changed, He Lingchuan patted him on the shoulder. "There will be more chances for revenge later. Just wait."
Then he walked out and led Lu Xun toward the city garrison office.
Seeing his pale complexion, Lu Xun said with concern, "Commander He, with injuries like these, you should take a proper rest. I can head over myself."
He Lingchuan's wounds had been dressed, his right arm was secured against his chest with splints, and he had taken another dose of pain medicine. At this, he smiled. "No trouble at all. I can still run and jump."
Having personally experienced the perils of the earlier battle, Lu Xun secretly admired him upon seeing him chatting and laughing as if nothing had happened. He had originally heard that the Gale Army was indomitable and ever-victorious; judging from Commander He's performance alone, he knew those claims were by no means exaggerated.
Before they arrived, someone strode out of the office to welcome them.
He Lingchuan looked closely—it was none other than Zhong Shengguang!
He had arrived more than half a day earlier than expected, reaching Yuheng City ahead of Lu Xun.
The moment Zhong Shengguang appeared, his face broke into a broad smile. "Master Lu, you're finally here!"
Lu Xun looked at him intently. "Could you be Commander Zhong?"
"Indeed I am."
Both men burst into laughter, clasping arms and talking merrily without the slightest estrangement, as if they were old friends reunited after years apart.
Seeing the crow's-feet at the corners of Zhong Shengguang's eyes crinkle with laughter, He Lingchuan knew he was genuinely delighted from the bottom of his heart, not merely putting on a show of courtesy.
Zhong Shengguang ushered Lu Xun into the office hall, leading him specifically into a small council room. Once attendants had served tea and refreshments, he dismissed everyone—
except He Lingchuan.
He was qualified to stay.
Chapter 879