Chapter 2782

Qing Shudi Jun is usually taciturn, often not getting his jokes, and has some little quirks of his own. Ling Jinbao bullies him for being simple-minded, sneaking off to steal his spirit field and medicinal herbs from the warehouse to soak in liquor, and even specifically stealing the aged, potent herbs—he clearly knows, yet never flies into a rage.

Such an honest and loyal yao xian—how could he not deserve a good ending?

"Time is precious; we'll mourn him later. Daoist Ling, hurry and tend to your wounds!" Mingke Xianren can still distinguish priorities.

Ling Jinbao nodded, pulled out a red xuan crystal in his hand, and sat down cross-legged right there. The little stone man emerged, stuffing him with a few pills. Ling Jinbao instantly recognized these as medicines refined by Qing Shudi Jun, his face darkened, he tilted his head back and swallowed them, then hurriedly adjusted his breath.

There will be another major battle shortly.

"The heavenly bird scouts reported they spotted a heavenly demon appearing over twenty li west of Panlong Ancient City. They're about to find the ancient city, so..." Mingke Xianren paused, "The main force of the heavenly demons will arrive here—it's only a matter of time. Yang Tongling?"

Yang Sheng swallowed the fury in his chest: "Before they reach here, we must exert ourselves fully to weaken the heavenly demons' strength—this is not only for us, but also to prepare for the battles after the Emperor's descent."

Emperor's descent? He Yue started, wanting to speak but stopping himself.

Is my elder brother coming? Where is he now?

But Yang Tongling was assigning duties, so he didn't dare to speak up and ask.

Yang Sheng still followed the original plan, splitting the forces into two to separately attack the two heavenly demon units on the plain, only making minor adjustments to personnel.

If we don't act now, once these two heavenly demon units join the main force, the pressure on Panlong Secret Realm will become too great.

Qing Shudi Jun sacrificed himself, leaving the unit one powerful xianren short. As you know, Qing Shudi Jun's techniques—especially his wide-range obstruction divine abilities and healing arts—are extremely useful in battle.

He Yue, hearing this, suddenly said: "May I make a suggestion?"

"Please speak, Crown Prince."

"Qing Shudi Jun sacrificed himself, Ling Xianren is wounded, our xianren combat strength is insufficient—splitting forces may not, uh, may not be a sure thing. Why not attack together?" He Yue pointed at the sand table: "I see some heavenly demon units are located in fairly open terrain, capable of accommodating large forces."

Two armies combined, four thousand advancing together? Mingke Xianren and Yang Sheng exchanged a glance.

Will the efficiency be too slow? The number of heavenly demons infiltrating the Mother Earth Plain is too great.

Yang Sheng mused: "What the Crown Prince says makes sense. We concentrate our strength to ambush one heavenly demon squad, securing a greater advantage. Anyway, the Mother Earth Plain allows us to come and go as we please—rushing to the scene takes no effort."

He Yue said: "Then we..."

"The Crown Prince will remain in the Secret Realm." Yang Sheng spoke quickly: "Your identity is special; before the Emperor arrives, we cannot let you take further risks."

They mentioned the Emperor's descent for the second time, and He Yue heard it.

"If I don't go into battle, is that acceptable?" He raised his hand, two metal figurines in his palm: "These are the Golden Armor Divine Generals my elder brother gave me—I'll stand back and control them to attack the heavenly demons?"

Yang Sheng hadn't replied yet when Mingke Xianren asked him: "How many Golden Armor Divine Generals can you control simultaneously?"

"Two." He Yue didn't hesitate: "If the divine generals were smaller in size and simpler in function, I could control three at once. I also have two subordinates who are puppet masters, specialized in this."

"What about giant stone puppets with power comparable to the Golden Armor Divine Generals but lower operational difficulty?" Mingke Xianren tossed him two stone eggs, jerking his chin toward the side.

Only then did He Yue notice two stone sculptures on the city wall two zhang away.

He took the stone eggs, pressed them to his palm, and sank his mind into them.

After just a dozen or so breaths, the two giant stone figures seemed to awaken from slumber, rolled over, stood up, and moved with agility.

"Not difficult." He Yue opened his eyes: "Are these made by Mother Earth?"

Mingke Xianren nodded: "Some more powerful stone puppets cannot be directed solely by Mother Earth's avatar—they require human control."

He Yue immediately said: "Leave them to me."

He and the three puppet masters together took command of seven giant stone puppets.

Time was pressing; He Yue gathered the troops, briefly explained the situation. His own army only obeyed his commands—if he didn't speak, the Cangyan people couldn't direct the Shen Guo forces.

Then the two armies cooperated and rushed to the battlefield.

Within the Secret Realm, Mingke Xianren left six hundred guards under the charge of Baochai Hai and others.

In the blink of an eye, winds and clouds dispersed within Panlong Secret Realm, everyone went their separate ways.

……

Southwest Mother Earth Plain.

Kui Fang Shen and eleven other heavenly demons were searching Qingjin Shi Lin.

The entire Mother Earth Plain prohibits intruders from flying or using evasion techniques. Though they are usually earth-shattering experts who fly through heaven and tunnel through earth, here they can only rely on their legs to hurry.

The stone forest Kui Fang Shen and the heavenly demons passed through covers a vast area—the terrain is truly rugged and miraculously carved, designed to be as hard to traverse as possible. Back then, Mother Earth personally sculpted this splendid scenery, no doubt feeling immense pride in her heart—who would have thought it would today become a stumbling block on the immortal-demonic path?

Even immortal-demons with the best tempers, threading through a thousand peaks and hundred valleys, grow so depressed they feel like vomiting blood.

They're in a hurry!

Kui Fang and several heavenly demons released mountain-patrolling divine magical artifacts, which can patrol everywhere in midair, missing no special terrain or landforms, lest they overlook important targets.

"Will Panlong City be in such a place?" one heavenly demon impatiently asked: "That city covers a large area—it wouldn't be huddled in such a narrow stone forest, would it? I think there's no need to search this kind of place!"

"Go swear an oath to Tianzun, and we'll skip searching this area—how's that?"

Who dares to make such an oath? If Tianzun blames us later, who can bear it? The heavenly demons sullenly shut their mouths.

"Past this bend, ahead opens up." Kui Fang, via his flight artifact, could foresee the scenery ahead—they were soon to reach the valley floor.

"Hey, when did those stone men disappear?" Bingyu Shen, at the edge, suddenly spoke up.

All the heavenly demons startled—yeah.

Since they entered the Mother Earth Plain, those stone men and stone beasts have always come from all directions to flank them, impossible to kill completely, annoying to death. But thanks to Bingyu Shen's hint, they realized they hadn't noticed when the stone men started to quiet down.

"Maybe Mother Earth's true power has waned. Wasn't it originally to rest and replenish energy that she retreated to the Long Prison Moat?"

Bingyu Shen added: "Also, we seem to have gone a long time without contacting Tianzun."

"What's wrong with that? No progress, no contact..." Kui Fang's words had just fallen when he sensed a shadow flash past his flight artifact—something darted by—and he instantly became alert: "Enemy attack!"

Suddenly, dozens of massive boulders rolled down from the cliffs on both sides, each weighing over tens of thousands of catties, crashing down with overwhelming force—no heavenly demon wanted to meet them head-on, all dodging aside.

But they only paid attention above, not below. Clearly stone ground, yet monsters suddenly burst out like crocodiles emerging from water, lunging to bite their ankles!