Chapter 1138

The Feather Guard also charged forward, several crossbow bolts flying straight at Dong Rui, aiming to pin him down like a hedgehog.

Dong Rui seemed to have eyes in the back of his head, dodging with a few quick moves, then shouting curses: "Nangong Yan, have you lost your mind? You dare to kill the envoy of Mu State!"

The act must still be played out fully, then he pursed his lips at the green-skinned monkey on his shoulder: "Kill! Let one escape and it's on you!"

Finally able to go all out, the monkey was delighted, grinning from ear to ear.

On this side, the Mock Tiger chased after He Lingchuan, but He Lingchuan charged straight at Nangong Yan. He knew Dong Rui fled year-round, his legs extraordinarily agile, so even if he couldn't win, he could still defend himself—no need for He Lingchuan to worry. Besides, that bastard's skills were only getting sharper.

The Mock Tiger's explosive power was already astonishing, yet it kept a three-foot distance from He Lingchuan, unable to catch him no matter what.

These two legs were actually faster than its four legs!

Seeing the prey walk straight into the net to find its master and the Golden Feather Guard, the Mock Tiger simply turned around to go after Dong Rui.

One should pick the soft persimmon to squeeze—it understood that principle too.

At that moment, the ghost ape leapt high from the horse's back, transforming in midair; its massive frame blocked the skyline above the pursuers' heads completely. Everyone gasped and scrambled aside, but when the ghost ape landed, it was like a mountain crushing down—just right to slam two Feather Guards face-first into the dirt!

These two didn't even have time to scream before being crushed into meat patties by over two thousand catties.

The Mock Tiger also lunged in just then; the ghost ape, taking the opportunity, blocked its path and swung its refined gold staff straight at its skull.

This time, Dong Rui finally didn't stop it.

The two monsters instantly clashed together.

One was tyrannical, the other agile.

After the Mock Tiger shifted its target, He Lingchuan also rushed toward the main Feather Guard force.

The two at the front swung their blades, and He Lingchuan suddenly raised his round shield high, giving them a shake.

Under the sky's light, the two men saw their own reflections in the shield's smooth, mirror-like surface. Strangely, the reflections shouted and yelled at them, saying something...

In the blink of an eye, another five or six people surrounded He Lingchuan, and they too saw their own reflections in the mirror shield.

The attacking speed of these seven or eight people instantly slowed; they stood in place muttering, then suddenly turned and began hacking at their own comrades! This came out of nowhere—several Feather Guards were immediately struck down by their own side; the unluckiest among them had half his neck chopped off, and who knows how deep their usual grudges ran.

With these few defecting at the last moment, the Feather Guard formation instantly fell into chaos, no longer able to stay tight and unified.

This is how the "Soul-Capturing Mirror" got its name, but He Lingchuan's past battlefield opponents all had elemental energy protecting themselves, so the mirror's effect was limited—just enough to disturb the mind and buy the wielder a tactical opening. Such a long-range, large-scale defection like this hadn't succeeded in a long time.

Ah-heh-heh-heh-heh, it truly is an ageless treasure mirror!

"The Flashing Gold Plains really is a great place!" The weaker the elemental energy in a place, the better it is for it to stir up wind and wave! Taking advantage of the Feather Guard's self-inflicted chaos, He Lingchuan's body flickered like a swallow skimming rain, darting past four or five blockers in an instant and closing in on Nangong Yan.

He watched Nangong Yan press his ring finger, and suddenly a gray, murky mass of shadow bubbled up from behind him.

In the next instant, the movements of over ten Golden Feather Guards sped up, lunging straight at He Lingchuan.

He Lingchuan had just raised his blade to repel one Golden Feather Guard when wind howled behind his head—three attackers struck simultaneously at his back heart, waist, and groin.

He Lingchuan tapped the ground with his toes and darted sideways, but the space ahead was immediately filled by another Feather Guard.

Fluid, tight, orderly.

This feeling was as if over ten Golden Feather Guards were a single entity—attack and defense interdependent, advance and retreat grounded, their coordination seamless as heavenly robes.

Among past opponents, only Zhu Erniang's little spider squad could achieve this, because they were all controlled by the Spider Queen's consciousness, making them act as one body.

Besides that, even the Ba Jie demon-hunting squad led by Yu Zecheng, though all elites, couldn't reach the level of fighting with eyes closed as if one person.

Otherwise, the battle between the spider demon sisters and the violent ape would have been even harder.

Could Nangong Yan do that? And these over ten Golden Feather Guards also had a trait: their eyes glowed red, faces expressionless, yet their strength and speed were astonishing.

Looking at their fighting style, they held nothing back, determined to put He Lingchuan and Dong Rui to death.

Why did they leave Guo State in the morning and Nangong Yan come after them in the afternoon to kill? What happened in Guo State? He Lingchuan spoke up: "Killing the Mu envoy, Nangong Yan, you can't escape!"

Nangong Yan laughed loudly: "You don't even look where you are!"

Where? He Lingchuan glanced toward the border city gate, then suddenly understood.

They had already left Guo State's territory, so the other side dared to strike?

At that moment, he glanced at Nangong Yan again and saw his eyes were normal, but the shadow behind him seemed to also have a pair of glowing red eyes, fixed dead on the enemy.

"If you want to silence witnesses, then don't blame me for killing." He Lingchuan suddenly snapped his fingers, and immediately, a huge shadow emerged from the mountain pass behind the Feather Guard army:

Golden Armor Bronze General, forward march!

As he passed through the mountain pass, he had tossed the doll behind a stone; now, with one command, the Golden Armor Bronze General sprang to its feet, blocking Nangong Yan and the Feather Guard's rear.

After all, the pursuers numbered over a hundred thirty; He Lingchuan despised their strength, but remained wary of their numbers.

When the enemy army surged forward, it seemed the strong overwhelmed the weak—precisely when our side was most strained, so of course we needed a bulky figure to break the encirclement.

Upon appearing, it snapped two water-bucket-thick trees in half, trunks and crowns alike, then shoved them into the crowd like a giant broom sweeping fallen leaves.

Those hundred-odd Feather Guards had originally split into two groups, preparing to attack He Lingchuan and Dong Rui, but the Golden Armor Bronze Guard's intrusion threw their formation into chaos. Many were caught in the branches, unable to free themselves, then pressed to the ground by the bronze figure and rolled back and forth, faces covered in blood.

Two Feather Guards on the side shot arrows at the bronze guard's eyes; it grabbed them with one hand and flung them high into the air—this landing would be twenty or so zhang.

Another actually managed to fire a fire crossbow bolt successfully into the bronze guard's knee; the oil on it ignited instantly upon contact with the gold stone, and with a whoosh, half the Golden Armor Bronze General caught fire.

This oil is called earth blood, a specialty of nearby mines; after several rounds of refinement, it surpasses some true fires in power, corroding flesh and bone and resisting water extinction. It's the Feather Guard's usual method for capturing rebels and demons—tried and true.

If it were the old Golden Armor Bronze Man, this blast would likely have ruined several parts. But the artisan from Chi Yan State's palace who upgraded it is exceptionally skilled; the hundred-fold forged outer armor is not only extremely strong but also features special interlayers and over a dozen embedded arrays. As soon as the fire started, the Golden Armor Bronze General steamed with smoke, and the fire soon died out—but the knee's outer shell was scorched in a large patch.

During this time, it also used wooden stakes to impale over a dozen Feather Guards, its moves nothing more than simple pokes, stabs, and smashes.

The commotion it caused was so great that Nangong Yan glanced this way—accurately speaking, it was the shadow behind him that glanced at the Golden Armor Bronze General and twitched twice.

At this moment, He Lingchuan suddenly swung his blade and chopped off the arm of a Golden Feather Guard—

Though their coordination was precise, their advance and retreat followed discernible patterns.

What kind of person is He Lingchuan? After enduring several rounds of attack, he began to grow accustomed to their rhythm, faintly grasping the pattern of their strikes.

These Golden Feather Guards' coordination looked like flowing clouds and water at first glance, but in truth, they had no independent techniques; to He Lingchuan, it was just stiff and monotonous, the same few routines over and over.

No matter how useful such routines are, once someone figures them out, there's nothing new left.

Clearly over ten Golden Feather Guards were attacking, yet He Lingchuan felt he was only sparring with one person—except that person had grown dozens of hands. The individual subjective ability of the Golden Feather Guards was completely suppressed.

The severed arm flew out, blood spraying everywhere, yet this Golden Feather Guard didn't even grunt, continuing the attack as if nothing had happened.

It felt as if He Lingchuan had merely chopped apart a wooden dummy—no pain at all.

The Soul-Capturing Mirror called out: "Hey, these feathered guards are being controlled!"

He Lingchuan thought the same.

The attack mechanisms of these feathered guards were so precise, as if executing a unified linear command.

While fighting, he asked Nangong Yan: "What ghostly thing is behind you?"

Unexpectedly, Nangong Yan froze, his face changing drastically, and countered: "Can you see it?"

Not far away, Dong Rui heard this and immediately looked up.

Seeing what? Nangong Yan suddenly flung out a grey top, which landed and spun without stopping.

As it spun, several strands of eerie green light appeared on its surface, then it drove the surrounding air to begin rotating.

First three to five chi, then three to five zhang—

In just three to five breaths, the top condensed into a land dragon tornado! This tornado shot up to the sky, its diameter expanding outward to five zhang before stopping, and its form also stabilized.

At the same time, it frantically sucked in everything around it.

The larger the diameter, the stronger the suction.

When it truly formed, the affected wind field radius reached an astonishing fifty-plus zhang—truly obscuring the sky and blotting out the sun, the entire battlefield turned grey and hazy, and even daylight was completely blocked.

The wind sounded like wailing ghosts, and He Lingchuan even saw dark grey shadows within the whirlwind, as if substantial.

But they did not seem like living beings.

People in the wind could barely stand.

Even the ton-weight ghost ape, caught off guard by the hurricane, was swept off its feet; the Golden Armor Bronze Guard's wind-exposed tree on hand was flung into a backward roll.

Dong Rui's small frame certainly couldn't withstand it—his cheeks were blown askew.

While cursing, he was tossed east and west by the wind, needing to hug a large tree just to anchor himself.

But Nangong Yan and the feathered guards emitted a faint grey light from their bodies, and surprisingly moved freely in the storm! The wind seemed to have no effect on them at all—not even their temple hairs fluttered.

"Too much!" Seeing the feathered guards swing their blades at him, Dong Rui muttered, let go, and was blown two zhang away by the wind.

The ghost ape lunged and just managed to scoop him up in its hands.

Dong Rui braved the storm, rummaging in his storage ring for ages: "Where did it go? Where did it go? I clearly remember having it here!"

At this moment, the imitation tiger arrived again, and the ghost ape carried its master on its back—after all, it had four hands—continuing to swing its club at the tiger's head.

But the storm severely hindered its performance, so the ghost ape simply put away the club and went bare-handed.

It howled twice at its master, meaning countless ghostly shadows were still flying in the wind, all lunging at it.

As the feathered guards and imitation tiger attacked the ghost ape together, Dong Rui finally found what he was looking for, and thus pulled something from his storage ring and slammed it heavily to the ground:

"Come forth, Wind Lion Grandfather!"

This was a small stone pedestal, usually placed in his alfalfa island garden as a stool, but its base bore a wind-binding seal. This technique learned from the Mirage Sect played a huge role in resisting hurricanes in the Yangshan Islands.

Dong Rui even brought this on his business trip for convenience in experiments—never expecting it to come in handy unexpectedly.

As soon as the Wind Lion Grandfather appeared, wind force within a five-zhang radius suddenly diminished, becoming a gentle breeze brushing the face.

This thing can even counteract underground gang winds; the tornado summoned by the top is no exception.

The imitation tiger had just lunged to bite the ghost ape's neck, but didn't expect it to be swaying one second and firmly planted the next—its palm, larger than a grinding disc, directly seized the imitation tiger's head and shoved it to the ground, rubbing it frenziedly.

Only then did Dong Rui have the leisure to worry about He Lingchuan—after all, his comrades were directly facing Nangong Yan and the Golden Feather Guards, bearing all the pressure: "Hey, He..."

He had wanted to ask if He Lingchuan could hold out, after all, He Lingchuan was outside the Wind Lion Grandfather's seal range.

But when he turned his head, he saw He Lingchuan and the Golden Feather Guards fighting well—though their robes fluttered, their movements were hardly affected by the gale!

Eh? This kid always manages to surprise.

In the dark woods, amidst the tornado's debris, He Lingchuan's surface layer of faint red light was hardly noticeable.

Yuan Li!

This top is merely a magical artifact; the Yin Dragon Tornado is the divine ability it releases.

But before the Yuan Li of the Great Wind Army, the tornado's effect on He Lingchuan became quite limited.

Daylight was blocked by the storm, ghostly shadows swarmed in the tornado, originally all meant to rush downwind onto him. Ordinary people couldn't see them, but would feel their bodies growing heavier and harder to move, as if weighed down by several hundred jin—that was being tightly gripped by the ghost shadows on hands and feet.

But when He Lingchuan's Yuan Li suddenly appeared, the ghost shadows shrieked and fled—how dare they come near?

Seeing this, Nangong Yan found it hard to believe:

"Just who are you!"

Can the Yuan Li of Mu Guo manifest on an individual a thousand li away?

Although the Yuan Li of Shi Guo is meager, he also knows this is unreasonable!

As for this question, He Lingchuan couldn't be bothered to answer.

He didn't bring the Wind Lion Grandfather, so couldn't rely on a seal like Dong Rui—he had only to activate his Yuan Li to reduce the wind.

If the Yin Dragon Tornado was released by the wind demon Fushan Yue, then Yuan Li would struggle to fully negate its effect on He Lingchuan; however, this tornado's essence is to drive gales with yin ghost power, and Yuan Li can not only diminish divine abilities but also restrain evil spirits!

Not to mention, the Floating Life Blade Gang's damage against so-called formless and shadowless things.

By accident, the Yin Dragon Tornado's effect on He Lingchuan was truly negligible.

But he had after all released Yuan Li outwardly, and those outsiders who knew this secret—

must die! This Nangong Grand Manager truly seeks his own death.

"Kill them all, leave none!" The eyeball spider just shrank in He Lingchuan's collar—he didn't need to shout loudly, for Dong Rui could hear him.

"Got it!" The Yin Dragon Tornado was subdued by the Wind Lion Grandfather, so Dong Rui reached out and patted his backpack.

The backpack moved, something shot out, vanished with a swish—too fast for the naked eye to discern.

The Golden Feather Guards basically all surrounded He Lingchuan to attack, leaving over forty feathered guards; after all, Nangong Yan disliked him the most, so the remaining fifty-plus attacked the berserk ape and Dong Rui.

The ghost ape was busy thrashing the imitation tiger, no time to bother with these small fry—they just held spears to stab the ghost ape's ankles, knees, and other places not covered by bronze armor, and also shot arrows at Dong Rui.

The moment this faint shadow appeared in the backpack, three Feather Guards collapsed on the spot.

One had his eyes gouged out, another was pierced through the heart.

The other four advanced, but the ghost ape suddenly lowered its head and spat a stream of green flame at them.

The Feather Guards' spiritual power was thin, their resistance to demonic abilities weak; hit squarely by the spray, they immediately rolled on the ground, wailing in agony.

The ape's green flame corrodes flesh and eats bone, water cannot extinguish it, and it will not cease until a layer of skin is peeled from the face.

Though this green fire is terrifying, the Feather Guards fear the invisible, traceless, formless killer shadow even more; with it present, their attacks become hesitant and faltering.

One of the Feather Guard commanders flew into a rage: "Kill this beast tamer — he's the one causing trouble!"

As soon as the words left his mouth, he clutched his throat, for the shadow had darted into his mouth!

Two breaths later he collapsed, his weapons flung aside, groaning in pain.

Freed from the Feather Guards' harassment, the ghost ape could focus entirely on dealing with the imitation tiger; it lacked the imitation tiger's agility, so it simply adopted a strategy of overcoming tenfold force with single force, letting the monster bite and claw at will.

It could withstand countless attacks, but the imitation tiger could not.

Soon, the opportunity the ghost ape had been waiting for arrived: the imitation tiger stepped on a broken tree trunk upon landing, its hind foot slipped, and it failed to jump clear in time.

Oh, an opening! The ghost ape seized the moment and lunged forward.

Whatever its weight, this blow came down fully on the imitation tiger, nearly breaking its ribs; the latter flailed its four legs wildly against the ground, plowing deep furrows into the sand, yet could not free itself from beneath the ape.

After finally subduing the imitation tiger, the ghost ape held nothing back, gripping its upper and lower jaws with both hands and jerking them violently in opposite directions; the imitation tiger, knowing death was near, fought with all its strength, but could not overcome the ape's innate divine strength, its jaws slowly forced wider and wider.

Until a sharp "crack" rang out! These few demons are truly formidable — even Lord Nangong's imitation tiger was slain by them! Moreover, in this short span, that invisible gray shadow has killed another dozen or so.

What in the world is this thing?

The Feather Guards' spiritual power is too thin to discern its movements; they can only grow more fearful. The few in the rear glanced left and right, shuffled their feet, and slipped away quietly.

We're just hired for a few coins — is it worth dying over?

When some ran, the rest lost all will to fight.

In the blink of an eye, seven or eight Feather Guards had fled, all hoping to escape the mountain pass.

Dong Rui blew two whistles, and that faint light shot out from the chest of a corpse, speeding after the deserters.

Dong Rui has wandered south and north for years, crossed blades with many armies, and is especially accustomed to the drills of the Yang Shan Guard; seeing these Feather Guards, he finds their discipline not bad, their spirit not weak, but their combat ability unimpressive — which surprises him.

Usually he spars with opponents whose spiritual power is full; this sudden downgrade leaves him unaccustomed.

He patted the ghost ape on the shoulder and pointed at He Lingchuan: "Go help."

He Lingchuan said, leave none alive.

Two Feather Guards luckily bypassed the Jin Jia Bronze Guard and were nearly out of the pass when suddenly another figure leapt from the woods ahead, colliding head-on with them.

He swung his blade and cut down both Feather Guards in one stroke.

Jin Bai arrived.

(End of Chapter)