*Smack!* The moment the creature surfaced, it snapped open its mouth. A red streak flashed past, moving too swiftly for the human eye to track, followed immediately by a sharp yell—
Moqi Song was swept straight into its maw.
Never had he imagined this monstrosity would catch its prey with a flick of its tongue just like a frog.
Even if the speed were slowed by seven or eight times, an ordinary person still would not have seen it clearly.
He wanted to swing his axe and sever the red silk binding him—or rather, the monster's tongue—but darkness instantly swallowed his vision.
Not a sliver of light remained.
Seeing that Moqi Song was now secured, He Lingchuan turned and hurried toward Qingyun Road.
From his breast, the soul-snatching mirror sighed with feeling. "Good thing your divine skill made progress. Otherwise, if you hadn't fooled Moqi Song, it wouldn't have been so easy to lure the snake out of its hole."
Over the past five or six months, He Lingchuan's cultivation had advanced by leaps and bounds. He had regularly pondered his supernatural powers in secret, taking his mastery over the Avatar Shadow Art up another notch.
This divine ability was originally recorded on the gold-devouring beast hide, completely different from the Mirror Image Art taught in Panlong City. He Lingchuan did not know its origin, but after practicing it for so long, he had discovered that this avatar technique could continue to evolve, though its path was not fixed.
When mastered to a high level, the Mirror Image Art could produce multiple mirror images—a rigid, unvarying progression that functioned identically for anyone who practiced it. The Avatar Shadow Art, however, adapted and improved according to the user's own circumstances.
With He Lingchuan's refinement of the art, its duration could now reach an astonishing fifty breaths. Furthermore, upon being injured, the avatar no longer vanished on the spot; its reactions mirrored the genuine body, its strikes slowed down by the wounds.
Even if slain, the corpse would not disappear immediately, lingering until the fifty breaths ran out.
He Lingchuan had tested this beforehand and verified it repeatedly.
It was also fortunate that he had died and revived countless times in Panlong City, experiencing every manner of death imaginable. Otherwise, chopping off one's own head would feel thoroughly eerie no matter how one looked at it.
That was why Moqi Song had felt such solid tactile feedback upon lopping off the avatar's head, leaving no room for suspicion.
Of course, once the fifty breaths were up, the avatar would disappear. That was why the head and corpse had to be snatched back before the time limit expired; otherwise, the ruse would fall apart.
To be safe, Qiu Hu had even prepared a headless corpse as a spare, though it went unused tonight.
As for the pool of blood spilled from the decapitation, that too would vanish after fifty breaths. Covering that required the mirage demon's illusory domain to take over the relay. Otherwise, after standing there for half the day, Wang Xiang would easily have spotted the flaw.
Having wrapped up its work on Qingyun Road, the mirage demon had already scurried off to its next assignment, extraordinarily busy. From start to finish, it had cast its spells entirely from hiding without showing its face once, so He Lingchuan still had no idea what it looked like.
These were all petty tricks, but linking them together without revealing a single seam was by no means easy, demanding meticulous coordination from every party.
To He Lingchuan, although this feigned-death battle was not a high-tier showdown, it was the clash that had demanded the most mental effort from him. If he could not deceive Moqi Song, he could not deceive Yu Zecheng, and none of the subsequent actions could be carried out.
At his speed, it took only a few strides to return to Qingyun Road.
Earlier, He Lingchuan had returned courtesy in kind by using the gold-armored bronze automaton to launch a sneak attack and bat Moqi Song away. Naturally, the Bailong warriors rushed to save their leader. But over two hundred men immediately charged out from the roadside, led by none other than Qiu Hu!
Mount Rong native Zhao Yibing followed right behind. A puppeteer, he was accompanied by three heavily armored puppets, each sturdier than the last and none looking like easy marks.
With a mere hand seal from him, the puppets joined the golden-armored bronze guard and the Yangshan Guard in storming forward.
Their sole aim was to separate Moqi Song from the Bailong warriors, because their master intended to deal with Moqi Song personally!
At this moment, the gap between the Yangshan Guard and the Bailong elites became obvious.
Even two-on-one, they were struggling.
Fortunately, He Lingchuan only needed them to hold off the Bailong men temporarily, acting as human sandbags to block the road—which was not too difficult a task.
The two sides were locked in a chaotic melee. Just as a few Bailong warriors attempted to breach the defensive line and plunge into the woods, He Lingchuan emerged on his own, barking in a raised voice, "Halt, all of you, or Moqi Song dies!"
Infused with true energy, his voice boomed as though shouted directly into everyone's ears.
He roared the command twice in succession. The golden-armored bronze guard also swung its tree trunk in several wide sweeps, splintering the woods with cracking thuds and forcing back the surging Bailong men.
When the crowd turned to look, their scalps bristled.
Had they seen a ghost? Several men stumbled back several paces, their faces turning green.
H-He... Island Master He, alive?
Behind him, Dong Rui strolled out from the woods, leading Moqi Song by his side!
Moqi Song was bound tightly from head to toe, a strip of cloth stuffed into his mouth, his lips and lapels stained with blood, his hair and body caked in mud—the very picture of wretched defeat.
Their leader was captured; what point was there in continuing to fight?
Thus, when He Lingchuan gave the command a third time, the fighting essentially ground to a halt. A few guards who had previously been pirates even took the opportunity to land several extra kicks on their opponents.
The Bailong men looked at each other in dismay, completely at a loss.
Qiu Hu and the others were equally astonished.
Even though the fight had opened with an ambush, wasn't their lord's speed in taking down Moqi Song simply too fast?
The brawl on the road had barely warmed up.
What they did not know was that while He Lingchuan appeared calm on the surface, he was burning with impatience inside.
Capturing Moqi Song and these hundred-odd Bailong men was merely tonight's prologue.
The main show was not here at all, and he was in a desperate hurry to rush to the next stage.
"The warehouse never exploded at all, and your accomplices at the docks have already been brought under control. Don't count on them rushing over to save you." In a few words, He Lingchuan shattered their wishful thinking. Facing the hundred or so Bailong men, he stated gravely, "You have lost completely. Continued resistance means certain death! Now, drop to your knees and surrender, or Moqi Song will be the first to lose his head!"
Dong Rui immediately produced a dagger and pressed it against Moqi Song's throat. Moqi Song struggled and let out muffled groans, but with cloth stuffed in his mouth, how could he utter a word?
The ropes binding him were made of spider-silk cords; there was no breaking free.
Hearing nothing but disaster, the Bailong warriors looked back and forth. Intimidated by Island Master He's return from the dead and constrained by their leader's capture, someone finally cast aside their blades and axes, slowly sinking to their knees on the ground.
With someone taking the lead, the others followed suit.
The Yangshan Guards surged forward, tying them up one by one.
Without waiting for them to finish, He Lingchuan clapped Qiu Hu on the shoulder. "I leave this place and the docks to you."
Qiu Hu planted his bronze staff against the ground. "Rest assured, My Lord!"
"Once the docks are secured, take your men east to support the spider demon." Where Zhu Erniang was concerned, he wanted to lend whatever help he could.
"Yes!" Every Mount Rong disciple shouldered a heavy responsibility; three of them were stationed at the docks, and they ought to be sweeping the field by now.
Refusing to waste a single second, He Lingchuan called out to Dong Rui, "Let's go!"
Dong Rui could not help asking with worry, "Hey, do Daniang and Erniang really not need our help?"
Compared to the ambush here, over on the spider demons' side was where the truly grueling battle was being fought; the difficulty was not even in the same tier.
"No!" It was not He Lingchuan who spoke, but Zhu Daniang's voice relaying through an eyeball spider. "Time is running out. Go attend to your own business!"
"If you can't hold out over there..." No matter how meticulously He Lingchuan planned, there was still an unknown variable in this match: the combat capability of the Beijia operatives.
He had expended great effort trying to scout this out, yet had uncovered nothing before tonight.
The Beijia forces were equally cautious, never revealing their bottom line.
For Yu Zecheng to dare hunt down an ancient great demon, what backing did he hold? Tonight, he would undoubtedly play his trump card!
Could Daniang and Erniang manage it?
That was nearly the strongest lineup and greatest combat strength He Lingchuan could deploy, except—
He subconsciously touched the scale tucked into his breast.
He still held that card, but it was best kept unplayed if possible.
Once revealed, it would no longer be a hidden trump card.
Zhu Daniang replied briskly, "Don't worry—ouch, these fellows... actually have some genuine skill!"
Zhu Erniang cut into the transmission and roared, "Run! Why are you tangling with them to the death?!"
"Run, my foot! This old woman hasn't even used twenty percent of her skill!" Zhu Daniang fumed in rage. "Fight, we fight them!"
It was truly deafening. Dong Rui rubbed his ear and noticed He Lingchuan's grim expression.
Within the scope of his abilities, he had already done everything he could.
Man proposes, Heaven disposes.
Dong Rui spat on the ground. "Why the long face?"
He Lingchuan's brow furrowed tightly. "Besides the trouble with the Beijia operatives, I'm worried about the remaining four hundred-odd Bailong men!"
According to his original estimate, if the Moqi uncle and nephew had acted together, his side could have netted them all with a bit of effort.
Yet the reality was that Moqi Song was captured, while Moqi Feng and the other Bailong warriors had gone into hiding.
This remained a constant hidden hazard.
He Lingchuan disliked such surprises. Suoding Island was a hospitality island open to travelers from all over; if the Bailong people ran wild here, it would be extremely detrimental to the Yangshan Archipelago's outward reputation.
Still, troubles had to be settled one by one.
Not to mention, tonight's biggest show had yet to take the stage:
The Emperor's Flowing Dew.
He had to act fast.
The two darted swiftly into the woods, where the snail-toad was waiting, even finding the leisure to chew on the wild angelica shoots on the ground.
After Dong Rui's repeated modifications, it no longer needed to consume prunella spikes in large quantities, and its diet had grown far broader. If the snail-toad He Lingchuan had tracked back then were this version, laying traps would have been nearly impossible, and following its trail would have yielded nothing.
"Where do you want to go? Speak!" Dong Rui wiped the rainwater from his face. "Your brother here will take you on a shortcut!"
On a rainy night like this, the speed of the snail-toad's earth-burrowing technique was vastly faster than a galloping steed.
***
For tonight's operation, the Bailong people's means of transport had also been provided by the Lu family.
On the southwestern beach of Suoding Island, the boat captains took shelter from the wind inside a cliff cave, their expressions solemn as they watched wave after wave rise higher along the shore.
"Aren't those foul guests still planning to put out to sea? The hurricane is almost upon us, and they still haven't returned."
"In a little while, it'll be impossible to leave."
"A little while? Bah, it's already hard enough to leave right now!" At this moment, the sea was whipped by violent winds and surging waves; a moment's carelessness invited the danger of capsizing.
Earlier, when they went to Heiye Island to fetch the Bailong warriors, several boats had arrived late. The Bailong men had scolded them, and two of the captains had taken offense, muttering foul curses.
Promptly, they were beaten black and blue.
The one who cursed the filthiest had half an ear sliced off.
The captains had fallen silent as winter cicadas, but after ferrying the Bailong warriors ashore, they had begun turning over private calculations in their bellies.
Chapter 989