Chapter 264: Encountering an Old Rival

He didn't feel in the slightest that his victory was dishonorable.

Shan Youjun, who had followed behind, had his view blocked by He Lingchuan and hadn't seen clearly how his employer had chopped off the enemy's hand, so he attributed it to the Floating Life Blade being overly sharp.

Of course, he was sixty percent correct.

Only He Lingchuan knew that the "Army Breaker" trait of the Floating Life Blade had actually been triggered! It could ignore the yuan qi and divine protection on an opponent, dealing the most authentic damage without reduction, but the probability of it appearing was pitifully small.

"Pitifully small" meant that He Lingchuan might not trigger the Army Breaker effect even after swinging the blade hundreds of times.

This time, he had truly hit the jackpot, triggering the trait with a single strike.

It served Lord Baili right for being unlucky; the thick yuan qi fluctuations on his body had become mere decorations. He Lingchuan knew from the faint light on his body that this person's military rank was not low.

The Floating Life Blade's debut on the battlefield after being reforged had to be consecrated with the blood of a great enemy general!

He Lingchuan also highly suspected that this was a trial run of the trait.

At this time, He Chunhua's military orders finally came wave after wave, with shouts everywhere: "The Xunzhou soldiers have only a hundred cavalry!"

The grain transport team far outnumbered them, so what was there to fear! The Xiazhou generals finally gathered their subordinates and began to counterattack.

After all, the grain transport team held the numerical advantage, while the Xunzhou army had penetrated deep into the enemy camp, lacking sufficient depth for their charge, and their most fierce first wave of impact had not achieved the expected results; they would soon have to bear the consequences of "the second wave being weak and the third being exhausted."

At this moment, one could see the color of the yuan qi on the Xiazhou army gradually deepening, turning from light green to dark green.

This was also a manifestation of morale constantly gathering and rising.

He Lingchuan's own guard unit had also gathered long ago, led by Shan Youjun and Jiao Tai, charging and killing behind their employer. They had been going out early and returning late to hunt demons with He Lingchuan, surpassing the Xiazhou army in ambushes and coordinated attacks, which came in handy now.

Once the momentum of attack and defense shifted, this Xunzhou elite force might be surrounded and wiped out.

Both sides were very clear about this, so the general who had lost his right arm, even with blood flowing from his shoulder and his face pale, had to command his men to attack He Chunhua with all their might.

He had already been helped off his horse, but he was still enduring the pain to stay conscious, and his personal guards were trying their best to stop his bleeding.

"To capture the bandits, first capture the king." Lord Baili understood clearly: the raid today had hit a snag, and it was all because the grain transport team's supreme commander was still alive!

The Xunzhou people hadn't expected the grain transport team's commander not to attend the banquet. They had failed to cut off the snake's head, only chopping off a piece of its tail.

He Chunhua himself hadn't expected that his whim to travel incognito and observe the people would allow him to escape a disaster.

Otherwise, the one dead in the restaurant would have been him.

Both sides were attacking.

The enemy wanted him dead, and how could He Chunhua not want the enemy's life? He waved his hand and simply threw out a bounty on the spot: "Kill the enemy general, reward of a hundred taels of gold!"

To cope with the war on the northern front, Xiazhou had reissued a recruitment order, significantly increasing the soldiers' pay. But a common soldier who risked his life earned at most twenty taels of silver a year, which was already an undisputed high-paying profession locally. A hundred taels of gold was equivalent to fifty years of income for these soldiers!

Under heavy rewards, there must be brave men, not to mention that their own side's decline had already been reversed. In the eyes of the Xiazhou soldiers, the heavily injured enemy general suddenly turned into a shining gold bar.

He Lingchuan let out a soft "hiss," because the dark green light on the Xiazhou army suddenly turned deep blue, even slightly yellowish.

By comparison, Lord Baili, whose financial resources were not as abundant, seemed to be at a disadvantage.

Fortunately, at this moment, a monkey eating an apple appeared on a carriage at the rear of the Xiazhou army.

This brown-skinned monkey wore a thorn collar around its neck and was also fatter and stronger than its peers; it looked unremarkable, but the Rock Wolf beside He Lingchuan seemed to smell its scent, suddenly turning its head and barking wildly at it.

Lu Xin's strange behavior immediately alerted He Lingchuan, who looked over. In his view, all monkeys in the world looked about the same, and the one before him was certainly not as round and silly as his family's medicine ape, Ling Guang, but the thorn collar around its neck was truly somewhat familiar.

Where had he seen it? It was a bit far away; if he looked at it magnified by two sizes...

Hmm? Magnified?

He Lingchuan's pupils shrank, and he suddenly roared like a thunderclap, shouting at He Chunhua: "Watch out for the Ghost Ape, it's behind you!"

Before the words fell, the monkey expanded rapidly, from a macaque less than half a person's height to a giant ape over a zhang tall with bulging muscles!

Only hearing a mournful cry from the horse, its weight of over two thousand jin instantly crushed the carriage beneath it.

This creature was the old acquaintance—no, old acquaintance monkey—of the He father and son, whom they hadn't seen in two months, an enemy that even the chariot-riding Great General Ke Jihai, blessed by destiny, had found difficult to defeat, the number one henchman under the demon puppet master Dong Rui—the Ghost Ape.

Last time, He Lingchuan and Ke Jihai had joined forces to injure it—of course, "joining forces" meant He Lingchuan used the Walnut Boat to suppress this monster—after which the demon puppet master took it and slipped away, and it had since vanished without a trace, no matter how the authorities searched.

As soon as the Ghost Ape transformed, it grabbed heavy objects around it—carriages, horses, military supplies—or directly pulled up wooden fences, throwing them head-on at He Chunhua!

This was its innate divine skill; every object was heavy and powerful, every object whistled with wind, and yet every object had damnably good accuracy, requiring no time to practice.

He Chunhua was shielded in the middle like stars surrounding the moon, and there was light shimmering around him; that was likely someone activating a magic array to prevent him from being injured by stray arrows or hidden weapons. The Ghost Ape was about seven zhang (twenty meters) away from him, and most of the things thrown followed a parabolic arc, falling from the high point to add potential energy; upon landing, there was a continuous "bang, bang, bang" sound, and even the ground several zhang away was trembling.

It even threw in several fully loaded grain carts, the grain bags bursting open in mid-air, dust swirling like a half-finished snowfall.

The dozens of people gathered around He Chunhua could not escape, and they were instantly pressed under a pile of debris. At a glance, He Lingchuan saw someone knocked down by a thrown horse, with only their legs twitching outside.

The scene was in chaos, the Xiazhou soldiers were terrified, subconsciously dodging outward, none wanting to provoke that evil demon ape that loved throwing heavy objects. With this, the formation collapsed, and the Xunzhou army opposite was overjoyed, Lord Baili regaining his momentum and commanding his men to charge the grain transport team.

Opportunities are fleeting; who didn't know that?

He Lingchuan's scalp went numb, but now was not the time to panic. He told the Rock Wolf, "Go find Dong Rui and tear him apart!" and then spurred his horse toward He Chunhua's position.

At this time, a rain of arrows fell from the Xiazhou army, head-on toward the Ghost Ape. Everyone dared not get close, but firing a few long-range attacks was no problem.

The Ghost Ape didn't care about this at all; it had natural bone armor all over its body, and ordinary arrows would naturally snap upon piercing it; it only needed to focus on protecting its eyes.

What made the Xiazhou soldiers suspicious and fearful was that the arrows fired by everyone were imbued with yuan qi, which had an extra armor-piercing bonus against monsters. Why did it fail on this giant ape? Taking advantage of everyone being awed by its momentum, the Ghost Ape didn't even do its signature chest-beating move, jumping twice to the center of the field, its iron fists raised high, ready to give that pile of ruins a violent pounding.

Whether He Chunhua was dead or alive, it would give him a finishing blow first.

Just looking at its bulging muscles, no one would doubt the power of its fists.

Even if the people under the ruins hadn't died originally, they would only be turned into meat paste after being smashed a few times.

Just then, a carriage under the ruins moved, suddenly flying up and smashing fiercely into the giant ape's face, instantly shattering into pieces, wood chips flying.

It was clear that something underneath had sent the carriage flying, also stunning the giant ape.

After the carriage was flipped away, He Lingchuan looked closely and saw a thin light screen underneath, covering the few people in the very center.

There was He Chunhua, two of the closest personal guards, and several disciples of the Cloud-Piercing Pavilion.

Right, there was also Liang Zhanglao of the Cloud-Piercing Pavilion! Taking advantage of the giant ape closing its eyes, he actually leaped high and struck the Ghost Ape's brow with his palm!

Although there was a small rift between the two sides, He Lingchuan couldn't help but cheer. Liang Zhanglao's strike was truly a stroke of genius, the key to turning defeat into victory!

However, his face fell immediately after, because the Ghost Ape shook its head, seemingly regaining its senses, and let out an angry roar at Liang Zhanglao and He Chunhua, also slapping down with one palm! So Liang Zhanglao was just dusting off its face? Then why not use a weapon? Liang Zhanglao also looked somewhat surprised, as if he had underestimated the thickness of the Ghost Ape's face, but He Lingchuan also noticed that a red character had lit up on the spot he had struck, which was the very center of the Ghost Ape's brow.

Compared to the giant ape's size, this character was too small.

Fortunately, with He Lingchuan's 5.2 vision, which allowed him to shoot arrows and throw flying knives, he could finally see clearly that it was the character "Stagnation"!

And it was written in the ancient language of immortals, the red light emitted even flowing like mercury.

After this character lit up, the Ghost Ape's movements slowed by two beats, and that fierce palm strike also looked like slow motion.

It roared repeatedly, its muscles bulging even more, but it still couldn't speed up.

The red character on its brow emitted an even stronger light, clearly also trying to bind it.

He Lingchuan immediately remembered the "Heavenly God" spell used by the one possessing Nian Songyu in the Panlong Illusion.

The two had the same effect, both capable of using speech arts to cause influence on the enemy.

However, Liang Zhanglao's speech spell didn't seem to cause a great burden on himself; at least he was very nimble in taking He Chunhua away from the giant ape's attack range.

He Chunhua looked unharmed; clearly, He Lingchuan's reminder just now had been timely, and Liang Zhanglao had activated a protective barrier for him. He straightened his crooked hat, roared with a gloomy face: "What are you panicking about! The others go get the bounty, Liang Zhanglao, you all pin down the Ghost Ape and kill it!"

(End of Chapter) ===== CHAPTER 265 =====