Two flashes of red light erupted from He Lingchuan's body, and an amulet inside his robes shattered with a sharp snap.
Neither protective amulet had been able to withstand Moqi Song's ferocious strike!
It worked! It was done!
Moqi Song was overjoyed and threw his head back in a thunderous howl: "He Lingchuan is dead! He Lingchuan is dead!"
His voice carried several li into the distance.
His strike had carried monstrous force; the severed head rolled along the roadway, leaving a smear of crimson behind it.
The head came to rest barely half a pace from the roadside weeds. Though spattered with mud, its features were clearly visible to both Moqi Song and the approaching Wang Xiang under the bright light of the street lamps.
Wide-eyed in shock, dying with eyes unclosed—it was indeed Island Master He!
Moqi Song bounded forward and snatched the head from the ground, holding it up into the white glare of a street lamp to scrutinize it. It was He Lingchuan beyond a shadow of a doubt. Unable to contain his elation, he laughed uproariously and tied the head to his belt at his hip.
Qiu Hu had just carved an opening through the encirclement. Seeing this, he roared, "My lord!" and his spear shot forward like lightning!
Moqi Song twisted aside to dodge it.
Several arrows came flying in from the Yangshan guards, but he parried them left and right.
Knocking two Bailong warriors into the air, Qiu Hu spurred his mount forward, slashing his blade straight at Moqi Song's face.
In the blink of an eye, the two traded several blows.
In the midst of the clash, Moqi Song suddenly felt his waist lighten. Looking down in the middle of battle, he saw a small monkey wearing a hat dart out from who-knew-where, snatch the head from his belt, and clutch it to its chest. With a mournful chattering cry, it plunged back into the bushes and vanished into the dense shadows behind the trees in the turn of an eye.
Moqi Song had seen this monkey before—wasn't it the medicine ape at He Lingchuan's side?
The ape made off with the head, while other Yangshan men recovered the headless corpse. Feigning two slashes, Qiu Hu wheeled his mount and rode off.
Moqi Song laughed loudly. "Your master is gone, Qiu Da! Why not submit to me? I'll even make you my lead general!"
With a grim face, Qiu Hu merely pulled back his spear and turned his horse around: "Back to the Hot Springs Retreat, quick!"
With the island master dead, he was their backbone and supreme commander; the Yangshan guard immediately fell in behind him.
The Bailong warriors pursued for thirty or forty paces before pulling up. With their primary target dead, their assault lost its earlier ferocity. Moqi Song's mind remained clear: "Fire the command arrow! We head for the docks!"
A subordinate asked, "Aren't we pursuing them to the Hot Springs Retreat?"
"What's the rush?" The Hot Springs Retreat had high walls, guards, and a hundred-odd elite soldiers of the Mou Kingdom dignitary. Best not to provoke them for now; they would stick to the original plan. "Let's go. We take the docks and Ding Lake first."
Suoding Island's key buildings were all near the docks. Once the Bailong seized them and consolidated their forces, they could consider the Hot Springs Retreat.
He had no wish to offend the National Preceptor of Mou Kingdom.
Now that He Lingchuan was dead, taking the rest of the island shouldn't be too difficult.
Who couldn't be island master? He Lingchuan's former subordinates would have neither the resolve nor the reason to put up a desperate last stand.
Moqi Song waved his hand in triumph, and the Bailong elite began marching down Qingyun Road toward the docks.
The Beijia agent, Wang Xiang, remained behind. Calming his breath, he cast a technique to relay these momentous developments to Yu Zecheng.
In his hand rested a round mirror, veiled in mist like a bathroom mirror after a hot shower.
Curiously, the falling rain did not touch the mirror, kept at bay by an invisible barrier.
Wang Xiang traced words on the surface with his finger.
The characters drawn here would instantly appear as water stains on Yu Zecheng's tray.
Right at the battlefield, perched atop one of the fluorescent spores serving as street lamps, sat a tiny eyeball spider, its bulging eyes staring directly below.
It could see the words Wang Xiang wrote on the mirror:
*Moqi Song has beheaded He Xiao; moving toward the docks.*
Once the message was written, mist quickly clouded the mirror again.
Wang Xiang held the mirror in place, waiting for further orders.
Only a few breaths later, two characters formed on their own:
*Confirmed?*
This was Yu Zecheng's question.
This method of transmitting messages via mirrors had the advantage of secrecy and speed, but its effective range was less than fifteen li.
Wang Xiang wrote back:
*Witnessed firsthand. Moqi Song tied the head to his belt, but the enemy later snatched it back.*
After a moment, no new text formed on the mirror, suggesting Yu Zecheng had no further instructions. Only then did Wang Xiang stow the round mirror and stride off after the Bailong warriors.
Yet he had barely dashed thirty or forty paces when two arrows shot out from the roadside.
Wang Xiang dodged frantically, only to see several dark figures materialize before him. He scrambled to retaliate, but a sudden numbness flared in his lower back, as though stung by something, paralyzing his body. Right after, a fist the size of an earthen pot filled his vision...
The lopsided fight ended astonishingly fast.
The ambushers dragged him into the dark forest beside the road, fished out the mirror from his robes, and examined it closely.
On the roadway, the spilled blood miraculously vanished as well.
***
Inside Nuanxiang Chamber.
The water stains on the tray had long dissolved, yet Yu Zecheng still stared at it in a daze.
He Xiao was dead?
He Xiao had died just like that?
The same He Xiao who had stirred up winds and rain alongside the Chiyan Crown Prince in Lingxu City and still walked away unscathed had died tonight at the hands of a brute?
When the Bailong fractured earlier, Yu Zecheng thought the operation was bound to fail. Moqi Feng had taken the main force; could the hundred-odd men Moqi Song had left really threaten He Xiao?
Forcing Moqi Song to act had merely been a trial shot—he had nothing to lose either way.
Yet Wang Xiang was now telling him that they truly could.
When He Xiao was struck down, Wang Xiang was right there, watching with his own eyes.
What an unexpected turn of events!
A piece of good fortune delivered right to his doorstep. Yu Zecheng pressed his temples and suddenly let out a laugh.
His confidant, who was refilling the wine jug, also saw the secret water-stain message and couldn't help muttering, "My lord, could He Xiao be faking his death?"
"If He Xiao were pulling a trick to bait us into acting, the best way would be to pretend he was grievously injured and retreat, not get decapitated. That would be far easier to stage and much safer."
If Wang Xiang had reported that He Lingchuan was ambushed, heavily wounded, or unconscious, Yu Zecheng wouldn't even consider moving.
That would be an obvious feigned death.
Did anyone think such a half-baked trick could fool him, Yu Zecheng?
"It's very hard to fake your death when your head gets chopped off." Yu Zecheng leaned back. "I've been recalling what I know of Moqi Song these past few days, and I do remember the man. He was once a ferocious warrior of the Ya Kingdom, known as a decapitation fanatic who's claimed at least two hundred heads."
He glanced at his confidant. "Do you know why their warriors love taking heads?"
The reason couldn't be chalked up simply to bloodlust.
"To tally military merits?" The confidant had heard of how the Ya Kingdom tribes counted battle honors.
"More than that." Yu Zecheng chuckled. "There are mystic arts and divine abilities in this world said to bring the dead back to life, but none can do so without a head. Furthermore, if the target uses a secret art like a death-proxy puppet, the blade won't sever their neck. So whether an enemy is truly dead or alive can be proven with a single strike to take the head."
If a death-proxy puppet took effect and spared the master's life, the head naturally wouldn't come off. Conversely, if He Xiao's head had been severed, then no death-proxy puppet had been used.
"Even if Moqi Song were careless, a killer's sense of the blade striking flesh never lies. Besides, he tied the head to his belt, which shows he inspected it."
All things considered, He Xiao was eighty percent likely dead.
Of course, he hadn't forgotten the mirage demon beside Zhu Erniang.
Such demons weren't suited for direct combat, but they could craft all manner of bizarre illusions. With their origin power currently lacking, his side would find it hard to see through its tricks at a glance.
Yet those who made plans and pursued grand matters could rarely account for every minuscule probability.
Besides, could a veteran butcher like Moqi Song really fail to know whether he had actually chopped off a human head, even if clouded by a mirage demon's illusion?
Yu Zecheng rubbed the space between his brows. If only he had been at the scene of the kill—one look, and he would know what to do next.
The confidant took a step forward and asked in a low voice, "My lord, what do we do next?"
Island Master He was dead, and all of Suoding Island was thrown into chaos. Wasn't this the perfect opportunity to strike at the Burrow Spider Queen?
Yu Zecheng remained expressionless. "Hold our ground."
Huh? Still hold their ground? "...Yes, my lord."
"Keep an eye on the docks and news from Ye Qing. Where has the Spider Queen gone?"
"Earlier, it was heading down Qingyun Road toward He Lingchuan, seemingly to rescue him. But halfway there it turned around and headed southeast."
"Moqi Song's howling was so arrogant it carried all the way to Nuanxiang Chamber. The Spider Queen might have heard it too." Yu Zecheng frowned. "What's in the southeastern part of the island?"
He immediately summoned the sand table and zoomed in.
Most of Suoding Island's southeastern tip was undeveloped, cloaked in dense woods. Did Zhu Erniang want to hide in the deep forest until the hurricane passed before crossing the sea to flee?
The confidant suddenly pointed at the sand table. "There seems to be a boat dock along the southeastern shore. Fishing boats usually anchor there to avoid crowding Suoding Island's merchant docks in the north."
Commercial and fishing vessels were berthed separately on Suoding Island.
There were very likely boatmen stationed on the shore or aboard the fishing craft. Was Zhu Erniang trying to flee by boat?
She must know full well that once He Xiao was dead, Yu Zecheng would turn his sights on her. So she would rather escape out to sea than linger on the island.
Besides, an ancient remnant immortal like her possessed extraordinary means; plunging into the sea even during a hurricane might not kill her. Looking at it the other way, since she dared set foot on Suoding Island tonight, did she already have a way to ensure she wouldn't be trapped?
"Where are our men?"
The confidant closed the doors and windows, then pointed to a small mark on the sand table: "They just headed toward Baihou Ravine. It's very close to both the docks and Qingyun Road. If the Burrow Spider Queen retreats south, they can rush to intercept her. But the Spider Queen moves very fast. In terms of time..."
Time was running out. Once the Spider Queen slipped away to the coast, they would lose her trail completely.
The clutch-bee compass they had been using was already useless. Whether the marked small spiders got soaked in the rain or the Spider Queen had them take a dip in the sea, the bee pupae's secretions had been washed clean.
If the Spider Queen relocated in haste, finding her trail again would take considerable effort.
If so, what had the Beijia forces been bustling around the Yangshan Archipelago for all these days?
Yu Zecheng faced a choice.
From the moment Moqi Song beheaded He Lingchuan, the situation had shifted abruptly, turning in the best possible direction.
Almost too good to believe.
Should he strike against Zhu Erniang now?
While he hesitated, his confidant checked another water mirror and stepped forward to report, "A chaotic battle has broken out at the docks; Moqi Song is almost there. Also, Ye Qing asks whether to make a move."
Yu Zecheng turned his eyes to the sand table.
In half a quarter of an hour at most, his team would miss the optimal window for an interception.
Chapter 985