Chapter 1177

Dong Rui interjected: "Regardless of whether the Yao army can chase us, the top priority is to leave White Head Ridge first. Hmm, how about using the Small Mountain-Moving Array? As long as we rush to the edge of the barrier and use the reasonable terrain, maybe we can teleport out and escape the encirclement. The cost is just a bit of profound crystals, and perhaps a few years of lifespan; you can afford it, right?"

He knew that He He Lingchuan had a full set of Small Mountain-Moving Array talismans, which were spoils of war captured from the Cloud Envoy of the Tiangong. This thing was useful; even during the early days of operating the Yangshan Archipelago when money was most scarce, He He Lingchuan hadn't been willing to sell it.

Before Three-Tail could answer, He He Lingchuan shook his head: "Within the Evasion-Forbidden barrier, the Small Mountain-Moving Array is also ineffective."

"What?" Dong Rui didn't believe it, "Are you sure?"

"Sure." Jade Balance City had already tested it in the Panlong world. "Otherwise, siege warfare would be much easier; even if the defending side activates an Evasion-Forbidden barrier, as long as one uses the Small Mountain-Moving Array, one could send people in to cause destruction."

"…Alright." Dong Rui hadn't fought in wars, so how would he know this?

"I tried to break the barrier, but I didn't succeed." Three-Tail extended its claws and drew two circles on the sand, "I sent the children to sneak attack two talisman-tool burial points and successfully dug out the talisman tools, but the barrier wasn't broken."

After saying this, it pushed out two talisman tools from its side.

These two things looked like cymbals, round, with a bulge in the middle and flat edges. He He Lingchuan knew at a glance that these were two pieces of a full set of talisman tools, which had to be buried underground or on walls, and then combined with other components to take effect.

"You have no way of knowing how many pieces are in this set of talisman tools, right? Such a large-scale talisman formation might have twelve, thirty-six, or even forty-eight talisman tools in total, and usually follows the principle of 'thirty percent tolerance,' meaning that as long as the damaged talisman tools do not exceed thirty percent of the total, it can basically continue to operate." This was because there were many unexpected factors in war, and it was impossible for all talisman tools to be intact, and the enemy would also take the opportunity to destroy them, so the talisman formation was designed this way long ago.

He He Lingchuan continued: "Unless you can destroy more than a dozen talisman tools in one go, it's hard to make the barrier fail. These things are either buried in the soil or guarded by the army; it's not easy to handle, right?"

Actually, there was another situation he didn't mention, which was that the more talisman tools a barrier had, the lower the maintenance rate. For example, if a set of barriers had thirty-six talisman tools and twenty-nine were still intact after this use, the user would see that the formation was still effective and the damage rate hadn't reached the thirty percent warning line, so they would be too lazy to repair it.

Human nature being what it is, He He Lingchuan had discovered this problem when inspecting the barrier of Jade Balance City.

But this matter was too random and not suitable for taking risks at the moment.

"It is not easy to handle." Three-Tail also admitted, "So I later turned to attacking the formation eye."

It didn't matter if a few talisman tools of the battle formation were damaged, but if the formation eye was broken, the entire barrier would immediately collapse.

The problem-solving approach sounded correct, but He He Lingchuan was more concerned about why it hadn't succeeded: "What went wrong? Didn't you find the location of the formation eye?"

"Found it; it moves with the enemy's main general." Three-Tail looked up at the sky, "Our bird demons discovered the Heavy-Armed General and also the formation eye behind him. Every time the formation eye moves, the other talisman tools have to move with it."

This formation eye was a whole crimson round cymbal, with a staff grafted underneath, stuck in the ground, shining with a faint red light in the dark night.

Dong Rui said as soon as he heard it: "Isn't this purely a trap? You didn't fall into it headfirst, did you?"

"…Before confirming it's a trap, one always has to try twice." Three-Tail sighed softly. Whether demon or human, when in a predicament, one always tends to gamble; after all, they were at the end of their rope, "It's true, we couldn't seize it."

"What they can expose for you to see might not really be the formation eye." He He Lingchuan said, "Even if it is real, you might be able to smash or seize it, but the Heavy-Armed General might have a backup formation eye."

The Heavy-Armed General liked to play it safe so much; why would he take this risk? I'm afraid he has a backup plan.

Dong Rui looked sideways: "This thing called a formation eye can also have a backup?"

"Why not?" He He Lingchuan watched the firelight in the distance, "Battle formations are very sturdy; if something breaks, it gets replaced. Some battle formations even refine two or three formation eyes to replace them at any time. When we break the formation eye, we are fighting for the short moment when the formation fails; once the great formation operates again, the opportunity is gone."

As rare and precious as the formation eye of the Ruins Mountain formation, didn't the Tiangong find a way to get a turtle-shell star map as a backup? He He Lingchuan asked the great fox demon: "Even if you break the Evasion-Forbidden barrier, do you have the confidence to escape White Head Ridge in such a short time?"

Three-Tail didn't shake or nod its head; it didn't know.

He He Lingchuan observed its expression: "You have thought of other ways?"

"Hmm, I thought since the formation eye is hard to break, we might as well attack the Heavy-Armed General. To capture the bandits, first capture the leader; as long as we defeat him, the Yao army will be in chaos, and we can take the opportunity to escape." Three-Tail said, "So we pretended to attack the formation eye for the third time, and while the Yao army went to protect the formation, we concentrated on dealing with the Heavy-Armed General, but…"

It shook its head. Although the fox face couldn't make any expressions, He He Lingchuan and his companion still felt its heaviness.

"The Heavy-Armed General had long prepared a squad of ambush troops, just waiting for us to make a move. The wound on my leg came from this." Ling Guang was treating its wounds, using good medicine.

"In these few actions, my offspring suffered heavy casualties. We had no choice but to hide in the underground palace and look for another opportunity."

Dong Rui bared his teeth; this great demon was really concerned about face, clearly forced to the end of its rope and only able to linger on, yet it still had to say something about "looking for another opportunity."

"Small Mountain-Moving Array, breaking talisman tools, breaking formation eyes, killing the Heavy-Armed General—these paths are all impassable." He asked He He Lingchuan, "What other tricks do you have?"

No matter how he thought about it, these fox demons were dead for sure.

He He Lingchuan's gaze flickered. Indeed, these fox demons had walked through several paths for him, which saved him quite a bit of effort.

It sounded like that Heavy-Armed General was not an easy character to deal with, and the Yao army had serious profound power to rely on; as long as their side tried to attack, the cost would not be small.

In a situation where the enemy was strong and they were weak, it was best to avoid direct conflict with the enemy.

Then what other choices were there? Choose the best of the thirty-six stratagems.

But he already had a draft: "How heavy are you, eight hundred jin or a thousand jin?"

This was the first time Three-Tail had been asked about its weight, and it was stunned for a moment before answering: "Three hundred."

It looked plump, but in reality, it was unusually light; it was mainly because its fur was too fluffy, making one look like two.

(End of chapter)