Chapter 181: Ambush on the Mountain Road

Lady Ying, who had been listening on the side, blurted out: "Then fighting should be very useful." As soon as the words came out, she realized she had spoken out of turn.

Others didn't make a sound, and Liaison Officer Liu lowered his head, not daring to pick up the conversation.

He Yue started another topic: "Since General Ke entered the capital to plead, can the Fu family escape a disaster?"

Ke Jihai quelled the Woling Pass rebel army in the front and fought Dong Haoming in the west in the back; he is the commanding general most relied upon by the Royal Court at the moment. He personally rushed back to plead for the Fu family, and the King still relies on him to defeat Dong Haoming, so he has to give some face, right? "We will know soon."

Lady Ying was a bit bored and lifted the curtain to observe the road conditions. The family's carriage was moving down along the winding mountain road, and the snow was getting heavier, and things three zhang away could not be seen clearly.

Under such circumstances, no matter how wide and flat the mountain road was, one had to be doubly careful.

Only one horse lantern in the front and back echoed each other.

Hmm? Front and back?

She glanced back: "There is another carriage following us; I don't know whose family it is." General Ke's carriage in front was very close, within two zhang. This was also the tacit understanding of walking in the mountains on a snowy day; everyone kept moving within the visual range, so they could help each other if something happened.

Which family is leaving the banquet halfway? He Lingchuan also poked his head out to look twice, and after

Lady Ying asked curiously, "The snow is so heavy, how did you spot it?" She could only see a faint warmth from the carriage lanterns and vaguely make out the dark shadows of the carriages; identifying them further was out of the question.

"Actually, it's quite simple. The lanterns on this carriage are covered in blue-tinted paper, so the light they emit is yellow with a hint of blue. The other carriages have normal yellow-white light." He Lingchuan had watched the whole way there, so how could he not remember? But looking at He Chunhua opposite him, he flashed a toothy grin: "I guessed."

He didn't know if it was just his imagination, but it seemed his father didn't want him to accept the Bapi Blade from Ke Jihai.

At the very last glance, he had seen the carriage stop, and the driver, braving the snow, jumped down to inspect the wheels, though he didn't know what the problem was.

Lady Ying rolled her eyes.

However, her words reminded He Lingchuan of something. Since he was sitting here with nothing to do, he decided to learn on the fly and tried expanding his spiritual sense once more.

To everyone else, he was just closing his eyes to rest.

The results showed that using it at night was much more effective than during the day, and the burden was actually reduced; he didn't know if this had to do with his relatively weak soul.

The feeling was quite peculiar; he could clearly "see" the shape of every single snowflake.

Although they were hexagonal, there were still subtle differences between each flake and between each edge.

One had to know that there were far more than a thousand snowflakes dancing around the carriage; even if he used his eyes, he couldn't see them all, yet his spiritual sense could capture everything, no matter how minute.

With such an intuitive comparison, he finally understood the benefits of viewing things through spiritual sense.

Needless to say, this was also one of the essential divine skills for staying at home, traveling, and killing.

He Lingchuan was so engrossed in the expansion of his spiritual sense that he couldn't pull himself away, only to find it could extend at most two zhang, and no further. This was likely constrained by his low soul strength.

The snow on the road, the rocks under the cliff, the white steam exhaled by the driver, and the strange shadows on the mountain wall.

Hmm? He Lingchuan suddenly opened his eyes, leaned out, and shouted like a thunderclap in spring: "Stop the carriage! Enemy attack!"

He was separated from the driver in the front seat by only a thick cloth screen, and this shout was infused with true qi, sounding truly like a winter thunderclap that made the driver's ears buzz, causing him to instinctively pull the reins.

On such a snowy night, the carriage dared not move fast, so it stopped as soon as the reins were pulled.

Everyone was caught off guard, their bodies leaning forward. Ying Hongchan complained, "Why..."

The last two words didn't come out before a giant boulder crashed down directly in front of the carriage, shattering over a dozen of the black stone slabs paving the ground.

That wasn't all; it rolled forward a few times and plunged straight off the mountain road.

A few breaths later, a dull thud echoed from below the mountain.

Lady Ying's face turned as white as paper.

This irregular boulder was larger than an inn door, weighing at least six or seven hundred jin. If his eldest son hadn't ordered the carriage to stop just now, it would have been their whole family being smashed off the cliff by the boulder! This was the Royal Villa; could weathered boulders on the mountain fall so suddenly? She had forgotten that He Lingchuan had also shouted "Enemy attack."

A dark shadow swept across the sky.

Everyone looked up and saw a massive figure descend from the sky, slamming into Ke Jihai's carriage in front with a "bang!"

This hit was precise; the fine rosewood carriage body burst apart as if it were made of paper.

The flying wood splinters even shot more than two zhang away, hitting the horses pulling the He family's carriage.

The horse's shoulder was wounded, and it reared up in fright, pulling the carriage as it tried to turn away.

"General Ke!"

The He family was terrified.

The commander of over a hundred thousand troops, just like that, crushed to death in the carriage without a clear reason? By the light of the lanterns, everyone saw clearly that the second giant shadow that had crashed down was no longer a boulder, but a giant brown ape! This thing stood a zhang tall, its bulging muscles looking as if they would burst through its skin, and it weighed at least two thousand jin. It was covered in scars and wore a thorn collar around its neck—He Lingchuan had only seen such spike-covered collars on fierce dogs, intended to prevent tigers and wolves from biting their necks, but he hadn't expected to see one on a giant ape.

Even stranger, it was clad in ash-gray plate armor that covered its vital parts; it didn't look like metal, but rather... bone? After the giant ape used its own body as a cannonball to crash down, it didn't stop, swinging its iron fists in a chaotic frenzy, smashing Ke Jihai's carriage into pieces.

Lady Ying wanted to scream, but seeing its pair of scarlet eyes sweep over, she quickly covered her mouth.

"Get out of the carriage!" He Chunhua ordered in a low voice, and while the carriage body blocked the giant ape's view, he picked up his wife and jumped to the ground.

With the giant ape this powerful, the carriage was no longer a safe shelter but instead restricted their movements.

He Yue also grabbed the distraught Liu Bangban and the driver to get out. Taking advantage of the giant ape's wild smashing of Ke Jihai's carriage, He Lingchuan backhanded his blade to shatter the harness of their own carriage, leading out two horses and saying: "Get on the horses, quick!"

On the mountainside road, there was no help to be found, so to survive, they had to rely on their speed. Only by quickly hiding in the mountain forest could they be safer.

This was no time for excuses; He Chunhua jumped onto a horse holding his wife, turned the horse's head, and headed up the mountain.

He Yue also jumped onto a horse and reached out to his brother, but He Lingchuan threw Liu Bangban up instead: "You go!"

He Yue was anxious: "Brother!"

He Lingchuan gave the horse's rump a hard slap, urging it to strive forward and chase after He Chunhua.

Of course, he wouldn't sit and wait for death; he grabbed the driver by the collar and took a great leap toward the civilian carriage behind them.

The two were less than two zhang apart, which for He Lingchuan was just a matter of lifting his legs.

Before his feet even touched the ground, he repeated his old trick, freeing the two horses pulling that carriage as well.

In his feeling, this Bapi Blade was not as sharp as the broken blade, but it was still a rare treasure; it sliced through the hard wood like cutting tofu, saving effort and time.

At a critical moment, a good blade could save a life.

The driver and guest of this carriage had been stunned by the giant ape and were caught off guard by He Lingchuan's actions. Just as they were about to shout, He Lingchuan reminded them: "Get on the horses and escape, quick!"

No matter how wide or flat the mountain road was, it was difficult for a carriage to turn around; how could it be as fast and flexible as escaping on horseback? He Lingchuan also saw clearly that the guest in the carriage was indeed the youth who had toasted and handed the register to Ke Jihai earlier. His driver woke up as if from a dream, jumped onto a horse, and ran back. The guest tried to climb onto his back seat and was almost shaken off.

He Lingchuan helped steady the guest, and the two of them also rode the last horse, heading toward the mountain peak.

This was his main point; he wanted to borrow their horses.

Eight people, four horses, in the blink of an eye, they were on the road to escape.

This set of actions looked complex, but it took no more than seven or eight breaths in total—the time it took for the giant ape to swing its arms and smash the carriage six or seven times.

How could such a huge and violent monster suddenly appear in Shi Huan City? He Lingchuan immediately thought of the Northern Demon Nation. A banished crocodile demon could call itself a god in the Hongchuan River before Woling Pass, stirring up wind and rain to defeat the Yuan Nation's navy, so perhaps these powerful demons also came from the Northern Realm?

The giant ape tore Ke Jihai's carriage to pieces; one of the horses pulling it escaped, while the other was unlucky enough to be tied to the carriage, neighing in terror.

Next, the giant ape casually swiped a few times, used its arms with force, and actually lifted the entire carriage over its head, throwing it off the mountain cliff!

It was more than ten zhang from the ground; even if Ke Jihai hadn't been smashed to death in the carriage, he would have been killed by this fall.

He Lingchuan heard the mournful neigh of the horse fade away and then stop abruptly, his palms sweating profusely.

This giant ape attacked two carriages; was its target Ke Jihai or the He family? Against Ke Jihai, it went into battle itself, but against the He family's carriage, it only threw a boulder. So, was Ke Jihai its primary target?

Clarifying this point might give the He family a better chance of survival.

At this moment, they were moving up the mountain road, hoping to increase the distance from the giant ape in a short time. That thing looked immensely strong, but it didn't look like a speed-type fighter.

The snow didn't know when it had stopped.

Just at this moment, He Lingchuan caught a glimpse of something flashing past in the dense forest from the corner of his eye.

Ahead, He Yue was also exclaiming: "Careful, there's something in the woods!"

But that thing shot forward in a flash, its speed actually faster than a galloping horse.

He Lingchuan channeled his qi into his dantian and shouted: "Father, get down!"

Running at the very front were He Chunhua and his wife.

As soon as he heard his son's exclamation, he turned his head to look, but the forest was pitch black, and there was nothing there.

Ahead was a large piece of solid rock, more than a zhang higher than the road, and the mountain road wound past its edge.

Before He Chunhua could withdraw his gaze, a figure appeared on the top of the rock, looking down from a high position, pouncing toward them in the posture of a bird of prey!

It actually ignored the three riders behind and went straight for He Chunhua's life.

To capture the bandits, first capture the king—demons also understood such logic.

Fortunately, He Chunhua had already tightened his nerves; as soon as his peripheral vision caught the movement ahead, he pulled the horse's head hard without a second thought.

Thanks to the generosity of these students: Rixinshuo, haha, Xianlaikaimangshizhongdi, Yexueyou, and Hudiesubing!

(End of chapter)