Chapter 1757

Upon hearing this, He He Lingchuan's heart skipped a beat.

Outsiders entering the Inverted Sea would be bound by the "Forbidden Escape Technique," including the demon immortals and Heavenly Demons brought by the Tiangong, who were far less mobile in their actions than the Illusion Sect's immortals. But if the lighthouse barrier could lift this restriction, allowing these opponents to also freely use escape techniques, the Illusion Sect's major advantage would be diminished.

And the imminent crisis was that the Heavenly Demons could use escape techniques to mine underground!

This bad news could very likely overturn the entire plan He He Lingchuan had just formulated.

"How much longer until Miaozhantian can decipher—I mean, break—the Immortal Venerable's escape technique restriction?"

"It's hard to say yet." Xiao Wencheng said, "But since the war began, the lighthouse barrier has been equipped with more and more functions by Miaozhantian. I still cannot see the lighthouse on Companion Hill on the Haoyuan Golden Mirror. Therefore, it is very likely just a matter of time before it breaks the 'Forbidden Escape Technique'."

Miaozhantian had come in person; he had no doubt about this, otherwise, how could the lighthouse barrier be improved so rapidly? He added: "The lakeside battlefield just reported back that the lighthouse barrier is very likely like the Haoyuan Golden Mirror, also possessing the power to clearly see everything and oversee the overall situation within its domain, because the two post-tower raids we organized were all discovered by the other side in advance. With Miaozhantian possessing the True Eye of Reality, it is not difficult for Him to achieve this."

He He Lingchuan gave a bitter smile: "Can't you give some good news?"

Miaozhantian was truly worthy of being one of the True Gods of Lingxu, with a deep understanding of rules, modifying divine powers according to the war situation so quickly.

In He He Lingchuan's view, the ability to change according to the times and circumstances made the Heavenly Demons truly more formidable than most immortals.

Xiao Wencheng said: "Just now, when all of you passed through the Haoyuan Golden Mirror, you were all imbued with the 'Illusionary Concealment' divine power, making you invisible in the eyes of mortals and opponents; you cannot be revealed without special divine powers."

Hearing this, Dong Rui casually took out a mirror and checked himself.

Sure enough, the mirror surface was empty, with only the branches behind swaying in the wind.

"This divine power also conceals your aura, but the traces you leave behind, such as footprints and sounds, cannot be covered up." Xiao Wencheng instructed, "With the blessing of the Immortal Venerable's divine power, even the 'True Eye of Reality' cannot discover you, but this effect can only last for half an hour. Once the time limit is reached, or you engage in combat with someone, the 'Illusionary Concealment' effect will automatically disappear."

Dong Rui asked: "The lighthouse barrier won't work either?"

"It won't." Xiao Wencheng explained, "Just as Diyan can be invisible in front of the Haoyuan Golden Mirror, you can also be invisible within the lighthouse barrier."

This was what was called, courtesy demands reciprocity.

He He Lingchuan listened while observing Yu Village below.

Perhaps because this place was dedicated to mining, although Yu Village was called a "village," its residents actually exceeded thirteen hundred, larger in scale than the nearby towns. The roads within the village were wide, and the houses were built quite grandly, with over a dozen three-story buildings.

Yu Village was brightly lit. The men were all blocked at the village entrance, and although they gripped their weapons tightly, their faces were filled with anxiety and unease.

Because Yakshas appeared from the lake at irregular times, every night when the storm wall disappeared, the villagers would be terrified and on high alert; but the grotesqueries of previous years could never compare to tonight. The number of earthquakes on Silver Pearl Island was almost too many to count, and five or six houses in the village had collapsed, crushing over a dozen people to death. The most tragic was a family of four, all gone within three to five breaths.

The sky not only had flying rainbows and flowing light, but strange birds were always flying back and forth, and the evening breeze often carried the sounds of shouting and killing from afar...

With Immortals and Demons fighting, how could the people of Silver Pearl Island not be terrified? These men also knew they were no match for great divine powers, but behind them were their homes and loved ones, and they had nowhere to retreat.

He He Lingchuan and the others were actually a step late. Elder Liu's former fellow apprentice, Diyan Shangren, who had now become a Heavenly Demon skin, led a team to Companion Hill and also erected a lighthouse.

Their goal was clear: specifically to mine profound crystals, and they had used Miaozhantian's divine power to deceive the Haoyuan Golden Mirror. Reasonably speaking, they would not let mortals watch from the sidelines here and then go report it to the Immortals.

Yet they ignored the civilians of Yu Village and only operated within their own barrier.

After the lighthouse barrier was established, the actual situation inside the lighthouse could not be seen from the outside; one could only see the huge phantom of the True Eye of Reality at the top of the tower.

But this barrier was actually slowly growing larger, and in at most another quarter of an hour, it would wrap the entire Yu Village inside.

So the people of Yu Village were also very terrified, pointing at it.

This was definitely not a good thing, not like the Wind God's magic! Some villagers immediately knelt down facing the north, chanting words, all praying to the Wind God, begging Him to save Yu Village and save their families.

One person stood out and roared: "Stop kneeling, there's no time, we must evacuate Yu Village!"

This person had thick eyebrows and big eyes, full temples, was seventeen or eighteen years old, had a sturdy build, wore light leather armor, and carried twin blades at his waist.

He He Lingchuan also used blades, and looking at the scabbard shape, he knew they were wide-backed and thin-edged, with smooth lines, and the hilt was slightly curved, which should be more suitable for mounted combat.

Elder Liu happened to explain: "This is Luo Xie, the deputy guard commander of the profound crystal mine."

Although the place where they stood was still over ten zhang away from the village entrance, and even those with nearsightedness couldn't see the figures clearly, Elder Liu still had to set up a barrier to speak safely to He He Lingchuan and the others.

Luo Xie had over a dozen subordinates, who at this time cooperated to go and drive people away.

Don't know who weakly said: "Doesn't our village have a formation for protection?"

Yu Village had taken root here for several decades, and most villagers had never left in their lives, so they inevitably felt reluctant to leave.

Luo Xie glared over: "The battle in the southeast has been going on for so long, which shows that the Immortals haven't won yet. Do you know what that thing on Companion Hill is? Can the formation really hold up? Leave now, or you'll all die here later!"

With the word "die" spoken, it finally brought back the reason of many people.

The villagers scattered in a rush, not fleeing outward immediately, but rushing back to pack up their family assets.

The entire Yu Village was in chaos.

Elder Liu asked He He Lingchuan: "Island Master He, how should we arrange things now?"

"Has the lighthouse barrier spread to the mining area yet?"

Elder Liu didn't need to climb the mountain to see: "Not yet, probably another quarter of an hour."

"The lighthouse has just been established and needs full protection. They shouldn't have gone down into the mine shafts yet. We still have time to set up." He He Lingchuan said to the remaining three Immortals, "Please, the three of you, sneak into the lighthouse barrier to scout, and wait for my signal before acting. Don't waste the opportunity of Illusionary Concealment."

They were under the protection of the "Illusionary Concealment" divine power, and would reveal themselves as soon as they engaged in combat.

The three Immortals nodded, took their disciples, passed through the mirror, touched the edge of the lighthouse barrier, and quietly slipped inside.

With their cultivation, they could easily achieve complete silence and leave no traces on the ground.

On the hillside, only He He Lingchuan's group of three, Elder Liu, and over a dozen Illusion Sect disciples remained.

"There is a spiritual beast hidden in this village that can store a large amount of profound crystals, right? I always feel that the Heavenly Demons won't easily let go of over a thousand jin of profound crystals."

Diyan Shangren had a broken arm and was still sent here to rush the construction of the lighthouse, which indicated two things:

First, Bai Bai Ziqi didn't have many powerful figures around him and was somewhat stretched thin, clearly the Immortal Palace had suffered a solid loss in the previous round of confrontation with the Illusion Sect;

Second, the Tiangong's team was in urgent need of profound crystals and would go to any lengths to get them.

Diyan Shangren had come, so why not try to get the profound crystal inventory of Yu Village? That was over a thousand jin of high-quality profound crystals; giving them to the lighthouse would also be enough to last for a while. The Jinghong Ferry of Lingxu City, which had left He He Lingchuan dumbfounded back then, was a set of grand and imposing magic tools that only consumed twenty jin of profound crystals a day to maintain normal operation. This Yu Village inventory could keep it running for two months.

"It's not necessarily in the village." Elder Liu explained, "The Pengqi lineage is no longer seen in the outside world. But this one is less than three hundred years old and has always been raised on the Spiritual Mountain. It is still in its childhood, playful and active, often escaping for over a hundred miles, sometimes even running to other islands to play. This kind of spiritual beast only matures at eight hundred years old."

Dong Rui's eyes lit up as he listened: "Ho, what a late-maturing kid."

Whenever rare monsters were mentioned, he became interested.

"Its belly forms a storage space, and the space increases with its age. At eight hundred years old, it can carry one hundred and eight thousand jin of profound crystals; now at three hundred years old, the capacity is only thirty-seven thousand jin, but it's quite enough." Elder Liu spoke rapidly, "The profound crystal ore dug out by the people of Yu Village has to be screened, purified, and weighed outside the mine shaft before being fed to the Pengqi, and it won't be brought back to the village."

Upon hearing this, He He Lingchuan knew that the Illusion Sect's move was to prevent the mortal miners from embezzling the profound crystals.

After all, this stuff was worth a high price everywhere.

"Every fifteen days, the Pengqi will deliver the profound crystals to the Wind God Temple on its own, without the people of Yu Village needing to do anything."

The transportation of profound crystals was also handled by the Pengqi; the people of Yu Village only needed to mine and screen, reducing the risk by another layer. In peaceful times, the Pengqi's own unstable temperament didn't count as a risk.

"Usually, this spiritual beast hides underground, and no one knows its specific location."

He He Lingchuan nodded: "How can it be called out?"

"It has ears that hear the wind, so if you shout loudly, it can hear you." Elder Liu shook his head, "But hearing doesn't mean obeying. This fellow is very willful. Old Luo had raised it for decades, and last month when he retired and stopped raising it, it threw a tantrum."

"How does Old Luo usually feed it?"

"That I don't know." Could Elder Liu manage these details? He pointed downward, "This Luo Xie is his grandson."

Elder Liu was an Immortal; reasonably speaking, how could he know the people of Yu Village? But Old Luo, after all, bore a heavy responsibility as the keeper of the spiritual beast, and his background was required to be crystal clear.

During their conversation, Yu Village was in chaos.

It was chaos in the true sense, because the villagers were not only packing up their valuables but also taking their chickens, sheep, and pigs with them. No matter how the guard team tried to persuade them, it was useless.

(End of chapter)