Chapter 1144: The Robbers Have Arrived

Along the way, they crossed paths with many teams and saw demon exterminators hunting bear demons, but none of them was the White Bear King.

Two days later, they arrived at the foot of Bai Mao Mountain.

Lu Laoliu had been riding a horse for two days and was almost bow-legged; as soon as he closed his legs, he cried out in pain. Although A-Luo gave him some medicine, the group had to rest for half a day before they could continue into the mountain.

The Bright Lamp Grass only grows on very high mountain peaks, which means they must go deep into the heart of the mountain.

No one had dared to come to Bai Mao Mountain for many years, the road was long gone, and there was tall grass everywhere, taller than a person.

It was clearly a sunny day when they set off, but for some reason, the sky turned overcast as they walked.

The vegetation on Bai Mao Mountain was lush this season, the hillsides were full of wild flowers, mulberries and wild apricots were hanging with fruit, and bees and butterflies were flying everywhere, with insects chirping and birds singing.

Hu Min walked a few miles and said to He Lingchuan:

"Something's not right. There isn't even a wild rabbit or roe deer here."

There were usually many silly roe deer in such big mountains, and they wouldn't run when they saw people. But the group walked all the way and didn't see one.

Even mice were rare.

Menban also said: "Liutiao said that small animals were usually most numerous under the apricot trees, all coming to pick apricots to eat."

But under the long-term rule of the White Bear King, the herbivorous animals on Bai Mao Mountain were pitifully few.

He Lingchuan even had a feeling that his group was being watched.

Something was spying on them in the dark.

The group progressed smoothly, not only not encountering a single monster, but even larger fierce beasts like tigers, leopards, bears, and wolves were nowhere to be seen.

Experienced hunters all knew that this was definitely not a good sign.

This meant that the living creatures in the big mountain were secretly restrained by a force.

This force was also very strong.

The Giant Deer Nation had already enfeoffed the local mountain and marsh spirits; this kind of power should only be possessed by mountain and marsh spirits.

The original mountain spirit of Bai Mao Mountain was a giant wild boar, but it was killed by the White Bear King many years ago. The position of the mountain spirit had been vacant for more than ten years, until the Giant Deer Monarch founded the country and ascended the throne, and then re-enfeoffed a five-clawed maple as the Bai Mao Mountain spirit.

The sun set quickly, and the night in the big mountain was not suitable for continuing activities, especially since there was an ordinary civilian in the team.

He Lingchuan found an open space by the water to set up camp, and the group made defensive measures around the camp, not only making traps but also setting up formations, usually as a warning.

Hu Min sacrificed a simplified version of "scattering beans to become soldiers." As long as the specially refined beans were scattered at the entrances and passages around the camp, once something non-human stepped on them, they would make a crying sound like a baby, which was very loud.

There were man-eating monsters everywhere, so no one dared to be careless.

The crying beans rang twice in the night, and after inspection, they were all small rodents passing by, a false alarm.

Before dawn the next day, the group continued to advance toward the main peak.

At this time, He Lingchuan especially missed his rock sheep mount; that little guy climbed the mountain as if walking on flat ground, not to mention anything else, at least it could carry ordinary people to the dangerous peak without any effort.

Lu Laoliu climbed for two hours and couldn't climb anymore. Bai Mao Peak was so steep that he felt dizzy just looking at it.

There was no other way, He Lingchuan had to designate a guard to carry him up the mountain.

Until the *Shen* hour, the group finally arrived above the sunshine line.

Further up, the air was thin, and it was difficult for ordinary people to approach. From here on, He Lingchuan had to tie a red rope on his wrist, muttering the secret code to connect with the Bright Lamp Grass while walking—

"Wealth and Prosperity!"

"Hey, Wealth and Prosperity, where are you?"

Hu Min and others followed behind, holding back their laughter. The boss was sticking his butt out and rummaging through the grass in the Great Wilderness Mountain, and he had to keep shouting this slogan; the picture was simply touching. I don't know what Lu Laoliu's father was thinking back then to agree on such a secret code.

After shouting more than ten times, He Lingchuan's peripheral vision suddenly caught a glimmer of light in the shrub forest.

He gestured to Hu Min, who immediately cat-walked over to investigate.

After only ten breaths, Hu Min slipped back and whispered: "It's a glowing grass!"

Found it.

He Lingchuan approached quickly and indeed saw a small grass different from the others among a cluster of red-flowered rock plums.

It looked very much like a tulip about to bloom, but its head was drooping, and the soft light in the flower sac penetrated the wall, just like a wind lamp.

Bright Lamp Grass! This was the strange flower and grass that He Lingchuan had been chasing in the Panlong world and reality together, and today he finally saw it with his own eyes.

Other guards hurriedly stopped their steps. The Bright Lamp Grass only allowed the creatures it was connected to to approach; once an illegal intruder approached, it would immediately flee.

This magical little grass, like the mountain spirit, could appear and disappear freely on Bai Mao Peak.

He Lingchuan, however, was a bit strange. He remembered the spider demon sisters saying that the Bright Lamp Grass was as white as snow, with no impurities in its whole body. But the Bright Lamp Grass in front of him had red threads all over the surface of the pure white flower bud, like capillaries, with an eerie beauty.

Even the light coming out of the flower sac was light red.

Was this a mutation? A short red rope was tied to the Bright Lamp Grass.

He Lingchuan walked up on tiptoe and bent down toward the Bright Lamp Grass.

From a distance, the person and the grass seemed to be bowing to each other.

When he cupped his hands together and handed them under the flower sac, the flower slowly bloomed, and a ball of soft light fell into his palm.

It was hard to say exactly what the shape of this ball of light was; perhaps it was olive-shaped, perhaps it was water-drop-shaped.

He Lingchuan only felt that it was light as nothing, and warm to the touch.

He took out the crystal box he had prepared from his bosom, put it in and put it away, and breathed a sigh of relief.

Finally got it! It was so smooth.

He tied the red rope he had on his hand to the Bright Lamp Grass, then untied the red rope on the grass body and tied it to his wrist, then whispered the secret code for the next time.

This was considered the completion of the re-contract.

Lu Laoliu hurriedly said: "Done, done, let's go quickly!"

Although it was summer, the low temperature of the snow peak made him stomp his feet.

He had been terrified, fearing that the monsters in the mountain would suddenly appear, and fearing that this group of people would kill him to silence him after collecting the Bright Lamp.

In this wilderness, if people had murderous intent...

"Don't rush." He Lingchuan said the words he least wanted to hear. "We have guests."

Guests? What guests? Lu Laoliu screamed in his heart, thinking he really wanted to silence him, but he saw He Lingchuan's guards also turn around, but not looking at him, but looking behind the giant rock.

There were giant rocks touching the sky everywhere here.

As soon as He Lingchuan finished speaking, five or six people really emerged from behind the giant rock.

"Eh?" These people looked a bit familiar, Lu Laoliu remembered immediately. "Aren't you the strangers who came to find me a few days ago?"

The leader of this group was in his early twenties, high-spirited, wearing a headscarf like his companions, with brass earrings nailed on, and a broken eyebrow on the left made him look slightly fierce.

Two brown-headed gulls flapped their wings and landed behind him.

Now He Lingchuan knew who had been spying on them in the dark.

This person was quite polite: "Hand over the Bright Lamp, and we don't have to meet with weapons."

He didn't have a red rope in his hand and had to wait for He Lingchuan to get the Bright Lamp before he could be a yellow sparrow.

"How should I address you?"

"My name is Fu Tianlin, I come from the east." This person said seriously. "My family is waiting for the Bright Lamp to save their lives, I hope you can part with it."

"Waiting for the Bright Lamp to save their lives?" He Lingchuan sneered. "Who isn't?"

Then there was nothing to say, let's do it.

Fu Tianlin had just taken a step forward when an oval shield appeared in Menban's hand and was thrown toward the crowd.

Fighting is all about striking first.

The shield was very large, but not slow at all, and no one dared to reach out to catch it, all dodging one after another.

This was the first time they had seen such a large hidden weapon.

After Menban's handiest square shield was destroyed, Liutiao had found this new one for him at the fat man's equipment store in the Glittering Gold Plain. The quality was better than the original, but the price was also very scary.

This shield can be used as a flying wheel; when thrown, it automatically rounds itself into a spinning turtle shell. Its edges are as sharp as knives, possessing the ability to rotate and slice. If an enemy fails to dodge properly, it is very easy to cut them in half at the waist.

The Xuangui shield flew a circle and returned to its owner's hand, turning back into an oval.

Although this strike didn't see blood, the opponent's formation and rhythm were disrupted. The guards had been cooperating under He Lingchuan for a long time, so they drew their weapons and rushed up silently.

Hu Min was even more insidious, raising his hand and sending a sleeve arrow to the enemy opposite.

He timed it very accurately. The opponent was busy dodging the Xuangui shield and didn't notice the moment the giant shield moved away, and the sleeve arrow arrived.

With a soft sound of *chi*, his mouth was pierced with a hole.

This arrow was very wicked, entering from his left cheek and exiting from the right, hurting so much that he couldn't open his mouth to scream.

Fu Tianlin didn't expect this group to be so ruthless from the start. Seeing Menban raising the shield to smash people again, his wrist moved slightly and he threw two white lights, *ding ding* falling on Menban's big shield.

He Lingchuan had good eyesight and saw clearly that these were actually two ice balls, which shattered into eight pieces immediately upon hitting a hard object.

White frost appeared at the hitting point and quickly spread to the shield surface. Fu Tianlin flicked several more ice balls at the crowd, and everyone hurriedly dodged, but the hitting points also had frost flowers, followed by frost growing thicker and thicker, condensing into ice.

The cold air came out immediately.

The crowd was in the cold air, their hands and feet seemed to be disobedient, just like being frozen in winter, their bodies were stiff, and everything they did was a beat slow.

Being like this in battle would kill people.

Menban encountered even bigger trouble. No matter how he smashed, the hard ice on the shield surface wouldn't break, and it was getting thicker and heavier!

What was worse was that the frost had crossed the shield surface and spread to the back, and would soon be transmitted to his hand.

He had to abandon the shield and fight.

In just over ten breaths, the Xuangui shell had actually frozen into a big ice lump.

Menban cursed while fighting: "Damn fat man, you cheated me of my money again!"

When the fat man on Yunzhen Island sold him this Xuangui shield, he patted his chest and guaranteed that the shield was not only hard but also resisted various supernatural spells.

High-quality shields all had this "blocking" ability, otherwise the supernatural power stained on the shield surface could spread to the back of the shield, so how could they use the shield to resist the enemy?

This side, Fu Tianlin went straight to He Lingchuan. On the way, a Panlong guard rushed to block, but let out a muffled groan, clutching his right arm and retreating two steps in a hurry.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 1145 =====