Chapter 148: Each Showing Their Divine Powers

Pei Xinyu and Lu Yao each harbored their own ulterior motives, walking for a long time without speaking.

Finally, Pei Xinyu broke the silence, "According to what you said, General Wu fell for the He dog-official's alienation tactic and was killed by you?"

It wasn't just Wu Shaoyi who fell for the trick; you did too! Of course, Lu Yao only kept this thought in his stomach. After all, Pei Xinyu now had more than twice as many men as he did, and the top priority was to hunt down the government troops.

"I didn't kill him; the Crocodile God did it itself!"

"Speaking of which, how did the Crocodile God come to County Magistrate Lake with you?" This was also what Pei Xinyu deeply feared. Wu Shaoyi's combat power was remarkable, yet he fell into Lu Yao's ambush; Pei Xinyu couldn't help but feel the pain of the lips being gone, the teeth being cold.

What did this Lu Yao want to do by bringing the Crocodile God to County Magistrate Lake? "I begged it to come and be a witness for us!" Lu Yao sighed, "After the Holy Master passed away, it also wanted to find another lair. Hearing me say that County Magistrate Lake had abundant fish and a developed water system, it was moved to come."

Pei Xinyu nodded, not believing a single word. There were so many lakes and rivers in the Yuan Nation, why did the Crocodile God choose this one? It wasn't as if he didn't know the Crocodile God came from the Northern Kingdom and didn't know much about the Yuan Nation's waters; if not for Lu Yao's trickery, how would it have come along?

So, Lu Yao originally intended to use the Crocodile God to coerce the other two factions into honoring him as supreme during the rendezvous of the three armies?

Now Wu Shaoyi was dead, and his subordinates had either scattered or defected to Lu Yao. How should he, Pei Xinyu, conduct himself? Kill Lu Yao and seize all the troops? Pei Xinyu sneered in his heart; Lu Yao was likely calculating the same thing!

Lu Yao tilted his head to look at him and suddenly said, "Wu Shaoyi had no ambition. I know he only wanted to return to the south, find a mountain to settle down, and fence himself off to be a local king. Now that he is dead, we don't need to go to great lengths to hold any rendezvous or alliance. I, Lu Yao, will serve General Pei as my master. From now on, with one heart and one mind, we will have a way to survive!"

Pei Xinyu was stunned, "You... you want to serve me as your commander?"

"Exactly!" Lu Yao laughed heroically, "From now on, Lu's two hundred jin of meat is handed over to Commander Pei, to be driven as you wish!"

Pei Xinyu was moved, "Brother Lu is too polite!"

Yet he didn't add a "How could I allow this?" The two looked at each other and smiled, cursing each other in their hearts.

Walking further ahead, several broken water cedars blocked the road.

With such thick trunks stacked together, the mounts certainly couldn't jump over them. The bandits had no choice but to dismount and move them.

He Chunhua had specifically chosen giant trees to fell, and these fallen logs were incredibly heavy, stacked in a crooked mess. Although the Pei-Lu coalition had many men, it took them more than two quarters of an hour to move these behemoths aside, and they were left panting and gasping for breath.

Pei and Lu didn't have the stinking habits of high-and-mighty official generals and jumped down to do the work themselves. Pei Xinyu picked a wood splinter out of his palm and turned to ask Lu Yao, "Are you still holding up?"

Lu Yao had fought Wu Shaoyi earlier and was wounded and bleeding in many places; his wounds had long since split open, and he was limping as he walked. He had also led his men to attack the West Mountain carriage formation, then galloped madly all the way here, and now had to act as a laborer. Even an iron man would be exhausted. He was not only gasping for air, but his temples were throbbing, and he felt slightly dizzy.

But facing Pei Xinyu, who had twice his troop strength, he knew he must not show weakness, so he laughed nonchalantly, "I'm doing just fine." After saying this, he pointed ahead, "The fog is rising; let's hurry and pursue. If we are late, we won't be able to catch up."

Taking advantage of Pei Xinyu turning his head, he quietly popped two pills for boosting Qi and replenishing blood.

The fog in the mountains came as it pleased, without any warning.

The bandits had just mounted their horses when the white fog rushed toward them. Everyone felt their faces and heads slightly damp, like spring rain in March, hazy and subtle.

Don't look at the wilderness like a fairyland; before long, their clothes were soaked through. Everything was white as far as the eye could see, and things more than a zhang away couldn't be seen clearly.

Both generals felt heavy-hearted; the fog was too thick, leading to unclear visibility and affecting the horses' speed.

"This fog has done the government troops a huge favor."

The bandits hurriedly pursued down the slope, passing a crooked-neck locust tree.

Just like that, a quarter of an hour passed.

In the fog, it was only when they got close that they realized the surrounding landscape looked familiar.

And so, another quarter of an hour passed.

The horses' hooves clattered, stopping by the locust tree. Lu Yao looked at the knife marks on the trunk of the old tree, "We've walked back here again. The third time!"

A subordinate dragged over a villager; this was a guide they had captured from County Magistrate Village.

"What is going on?"

The villager was scared pale, "I don't know either, Great King—oh no, General. I've walked this road for decades; logically speaking, I wouldn't get it wrong even with my eyes closed."

"Ghost wall." Pei Xinyu's expression turned ugly, "This is a maze set up by the government troops."

Simply put, it was a labyrinth.

The way to shake off pursuit was actually very simple: if you couldn't walk fast yourself, find a way to make the pursuers slow down.

"This kind of maze has an eye; find it and you can break it. But it takes time."

Lu Yao pondered, "I remember the Holy Master once fought someone at Xiao Nan Tian. The opponent set up a Thousand Lantern Array. Logically speaking, it was extremely complex to break, but the Holy Master found another way. Do you remember?"

Pei Xinyu nodded, "Identifying the path by scent."

He had a capable man among his subordinates who stepped out and said, "We need an old object belonging to the person being tracked." Otherwise, there was no way to specify the target.

An old object? Hearing this, a bandit offered Lu Yao a piece of clothing, "General, this was torn from the He dog-official's youngest son's clothes. At the time, you were in the water, and he tried to sneak an attack, but I punched him back." Afterward, he had casually tucked it into his sleeve, thinking the material was nice, and when squatting in the wild... uh, he hadn't expected it to come in handy now.

Fortunately, his stomach hadn't been bad since last night.

Lu Yao was overjoyed, "Well done, reward him with ten taels of silver!"

Having obtained the piece of He Yue's clothing, they could continue the spell. Pei Xinyu's subordinate poured some yellow powder onto this small piece of cloth, rubbed it carefully, and muttered incantations.

After finishing, he held the cloth up and shook it a few times, and the yellow powder scattered into the air, a hazy yellow mass.

The wind was light here, so the yellow powder didn't drift away, only floating toward the front.

It worked.

If all went well, this pinch of guiding powder could lead them to pursue He Yue.

Pei Xinyu ordered, follow it!

Two thousand men marched majestically.

Just like that, another quarter of an hour passed.

Everything was still shrouded in thick fog.

Lu Yao frowned, "This isn't right, is it? If we walked out of the array, the fog should have dissipated!" The government troops traveling ahead must not be bothered by the fog.

A subordinate bandit suddenly pointed to a locust tree, "General, we've passed here again!"

The fourth time! They still hadn't walked out of the maze; even the Holy Master's method had failed? Everyone looked at each other, deeply discouraged, not knowing what to do for a moment.

Pei Xinyu muttered, "The He dog-official's subordinates actually have such capable people? Can they even distort scent tracking?"

Just when everyone was at a loss, a clear cry sounded in the sky, followed by the swirling of the white fog, and something descended, fluttering down.

Lu Yao laughed heartily, "Preserved egg is back!"

As he spoke, he pursed his lips and whistled twice.

The object seemed to be identifying his position, and after a few breaths, a brown shadow darted out of the thick fog and landed on his arm.

It was indeed the red-tailed falcon.

Lu Yao said triumphantly, "This might just be the key to breaking our predicament!"

He asked the falcon, "Did you catch up to the government troops?"

The falcon nodded.

"Can you indicate their direction?"

The falcon spoke, "Not from here; I can see them if I fly into the sky."

The bandits were overjoyed.

That's right, no matter how powerful the maze on the ground was, it was only on the ground. The falcon soared in the sky, looking down from high above; how could the array blind its eyes? The falcon continued, "I saw the position well from high altitude, but it's different when I land."

"You are affected by the array as soon as you approach the ground." Lu Yao pondered, "That's not hard to solve. I'll tie a red thread to you; you fly higher and just indicate the direction for us to move forward!"

In fact, the mountain road from here to Qianteng Town wasn't complicated; it was just that the light and scent within the array were distorted, causing them to unknowingly walk in circles, crooked paths, or even back the way they came.

As long as the falcon flew high in the sky to guide them, the obstacles of the array would be as nothing.

"Bring the thread!"

The awkward part was that there was no thread.

In the end, the bandits could only find a few unlucky souls to contribute their clothes, tearing them into strips and tying them together, with the end tied to the falcon's claw.

The falcon immediately flapped its wings and took off.

It felt something was wrong after flying for a while; it couldn't break through the fog even by flying upward.

Could this array be adjusted at any time? Who was monitoring this place?

But this couldn't stump it. The falcon folded its wings, and its body naturally fell, then it flapped its wings in the opposite direction, naturally moving upward.

And in its own field of vision, it was moving forward in parallel.

This was the power of the array.

The falcon simply closed its eyes, relying on gravity to sense flight, and before long, it broke through the fog blockade and saw the mountains and rivers again.

Looking down from fifty zhang in the air, the area below was clear and crisp, the view unobstructed—let alone the mountain forest, even the caterpillars on the leaves were clearly visible; where was there any thick fog? It flew forward a short distance. Hmm, the government troops were... in that direction! However, the falcon noticed that directly in front of its master was an arc-shaped cliff; leading them straight there would certainly cause a falling accident, so it had to lead the whole team around first.

Seeing the cloth strip in his hand moving, Lu Yao let out a sigh of relief and laughed heartily, "That dog-official thought a mere maze could stop us? Little ones, let's go!"

The direction indicated by the cloth strip changed in real-time, and the crowd followed, pursuing out of the array.

￥￥￥￥￥

Lian Deng was from Qianteng Town and knew the geography of this area very well. He led He Lingchuan out of the small path for three or five units of distance and finally returned to the main road.

Of course, there wasn't a single person on the road now.

"From here heading west, go to Zhanma Slope." He pointed east again, "The other direction, County Magistrate Village."

He Lingchuan turned the horse's head east, "If Pei Xinyu received the message from General Wu's mechanical bird, he should be waiting for us at Qiansui Cliff."

The two rode side by side and soon arrived at Langming Cave.

The carriage tracks were still clear on the ground.

Today is September 1st, there will be another additional update at noon.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 149 =====