Chapter 319: Struggling Hard

It swam faster and faster in the bowl, eager to try. General Red waited quietly until the bowl could barely contain it, then tapped the bowl and pointed to the sky: "Go!"

The mist flood dragon, which had long been unable to restrain itself, rode the clouds and mist, soaring into the sky! After leaving the bowl, its size grew with the wind, and after reaching the sky, its size exceeded at least fifteen zhang.

But even more astonishing were the clouds and mist that rose with it, which also grew more magnificent. The originally half-sunny weather suddenly turned overcast.

The giant flood dragon churned back and forth within it, and the cloud layer pressed lower and lower, darker and darker, almost descending onto the mountain top.

General Red asked the crowd to retreat another ten zhang, then pointed her finger into the bowl like a dragonfly skimming the water several times.

Every time she pointed, a thunderclap exploded in the clouds in the sky, bursting with a rumbling sound!

Waving hands to bring clouds and rain, flicking fingers to turn into thunder.

The lightning illuminated the clouds, also revealing the figure of the giant flood dragon hidden within.

Then came the torrential rain.

Seeing this, the sand leopard immediately leaped several zhang back, fearing the rain would touch its body.

In fact, the place where the crowd stood was outside the rain belt. This rain cloud looked imposing, but it only rained on the mountain top, and the range was very small.

Only General Red stood in the rain, and no one else was touched by even a drop of water.

The raindrops were actually red. The guards looked down and saw that the white snow on the ground melted upon contact with the rain, and the lichen and grass roots beneath turned from yellow to gray, soon rotting to the roots.

Looking at the two pine trees at the entrance of the mine tunnel, they began to drop leaves after being rained on, and soon even the branches withered.

Plants that couldn't be defeated by severe cold or scorching heat were easily defeated by this momentary red rain.

But the rain water entered the ground quickly, and the mountain absorbed it fast.

General Red seemed to take a deep breath and looked up at the sky.

Inside the mine tunnel.

The patrol guards had retreated to a dead-end road.

This wasn't forced, but a choice made after He Lingchuan and Xu Chun discussed it. At this time, looking for an exit was meaningless; unless the leader of the underground palace was removed, they wouldn't be able to get out of this maze.

Therefore, the only way to find life in death was to seize the opportunity to behead the Jin Du hatchling!

They retreated to the dead-end road, needing only to deal with the main force from one direction, which could save as much strength as possible.

He Lingchuan divided everyone into two groups, inside and outside. The outer group consisted of Xu Chun and his partner, Men Ban, and himself; they had to withstand the pressure of the bone puppet army, so the road couldn't be too wide. The inner group consisted of the skinny man, Liu Tiao, and others, responsible for long-range attacks and covering the backs of the front-line comrades, so the road couldn't be too narrow, lest the Jin Du hatchling emerge from somewhere to hurt people while they couldn't free their hands.

This inner-wide, outer-narrow, bottleneck-type passage was just right.

Smashing those bone puppets that were dancing with knives and guns and screaming crazily was meaningless, as they would soon aggregate and regenerate, so dealing with them should focus on "trapping."

Xu Chun's Slowing Spell was still very useful, but another key treasure was brought out by Duan Xinyu.

It was a bottle of seeds, looking like coffee beans.

He didn't throw the thing out directly to take effect like the others, but pressed the bottle against his chest, turned to the east, and chanted a prayer.

During this period, he not only had to close his eyes but also remain motionless.

The Jin Du hatchling felt this was a good opportunity and tried to sneak attack twice, but was beaten back by the group working together.

Fortunately, it didn't have the ability to freely drag people like its kin, otherwise Duan Xinyu would have been dragged underground long ago.

And after fighting with them for a long time, the group also discovered that there were actually slight signs before the hatchlings emerged from the underground palace, such as the ground or stone walls bulging slightly upward due to unknown reasons, with a wave-like tremor.

This further proved that the hatchlings' shuttling in and out of the underground palace consumed the mother's energy.

It was just that the underground palace was too dark, and even if the group held torches for illumination, it was easy for shadows to cover that little abnormality on the ground.

Therefore, being vigilant against the Jin Du hatchling's underground sneak attacks was not easy.

Not to mention that this youngest one was extremely tough, and that thick white bone armor could basically only be split by He Lingchuan's precious blade or cracked by Men Ban's heavy axe; other people's weapons hardly posed a threat.

Even more shameless was that even if it was injured, it could quickly recover after escaping into the stone wall, and when it came out again, it would be full of vigor, able to fight the group for three hundred rounds.

If they kept playing like this, the living would definitely be played to death by it.

Moreover, its agility and fighting ability were also constantly improving; it was clear that not only could He Lingchuan benefit from actual combat, but this thing's speed of accumulating experience was also astonishing.

Even the bone armor it transformed was constantly being improved. In just two quarters of an hour, it had revised it twice, narrowing the waistline and reinforcing the chest bones, making Men Ban feel that what his axe hit was a hard-shelled turtle.

Even with the group's protection, the Jin Du hatchling's bone spear still managed to stab Duan Xinyu in the back.

Although it didn't stab deep, he still shivered all over from the pain.

However, even under such circumstances, Duan Xinyu's chanting was not interrupted. He Lingchuan was close and heard him mention "Lady Mitian" several times, thinking that this spell was related to the god who protected Panlongcheng.

Fortunately, the chanted sentences were not long, and Duan Xinyu finally finished, throwing the seeds in the bottle forward and scattering them on the only path the bone puppets could take.

The seeds came to life as soon as they landed, quickly taking root, sprouting, shooting up, and growing leaves... The plant's growth process was accelerated a hundredfold, and in just over ten breaths, it became a forest of vines.

He Lingchuan found it familiar, and only after sharp thorns grew on the tops of the vines did he suddenly realize:

Wasn't this the plant clinging to the wall outside the gate of Panlongcheng?

He had originally complained that the wall's greening project was done too ugly; sure enough, none of this was useless work.

Liu Tiao said urgently: "Man-eating vines! Where did you get the seeds?"

This thing couldn't be publicly circulated in the market; Panlongcheng had regulations.

Duan Xinyu gave a bitter smile: "Don't ask."

Asking meant it was illegal.

Each man-eating vine had six vine feet, and the fine thorns on the surface could both suck blood and probe; once a living creature approached, the vine feet would entangle them heavily like a giant python hunting, then inject poison and suck blood with the sharp thorns.

That was why Panlongcheng planted them on the city walls, to teach a lesson to enemies climbing the city gate. And these things didn't fear fire or acid, and their vitality was astonishingly strong.

Panlongcheng had to spend a lot of energy every year to stop them from growing toward the ground.

These bone puppets naturally had no blood to suck, but the entanglement of the man-eating vines was still there, able to trap them in place, unable to advance an inch.

This was the result the group wanted right now.

Duan Xinyu was also sweating profusely, as if he had fought a fierce battle for half an hour; it was clear that this short mantra had almost drained him. Previously, his team encountered an enemy sneak attack and was caught off guard; he had no time to pray for the seeds.

"The vitality of the man-eating vines can last for half an hour." He stuffed a medicinal pill into his mouth and said panting, "Everyone, seize the opportunity."

These man-eating vines were all catalyzed, overdrawing the life force of the seeds themselves, violating the natural cycle, and were destined not to last long.

Next, they just had to focus on dealing with the BOSS.

Xu Chun looked at him and suddenly said: "How did you survive earlier?"

The team members were all dead, and only the captain survived; it wasn't glorious to say it out loud.

Duan Xinyu pursed his lips, nailed a bone puppet to the wall, and said: "I smeared my whole body with the blood flowing from the stone wall and lay on the top of the passage, so the bone puppets couldn't see me. At that time, the Jin Du hatchling went to chase you guys, so I slipped away."

The Jin Du hatchling's actions became increasingly rapid, fortunately only striking here and there, unable to cause deep damage before being focused on by the group.

However, looking at it this way, time was on its side, because it only needed to escape into the stone wall when encountering danger, and every time it emerged, it would recover as new.

Humans would only become increasingly exhausted, and the long battle made everyone pant for breath.

This time, He Lingchuan could still rely on the sharpness of his precious blade to shave off its shoulder armor, but Men Ban's heavy axe didn't break its hip bone, leaving only an axe mark.

The old strength was exhausted, and the new strength hadn't been born; even he was tired.

From this moment on, the Jin Du hatchling's attack rhythm suddenly accelerated. It turned out that it hadn't used its full strength earlier, just using a delaying tactic to wear down the group's physical strength.

Even Xu Chun's Slowing Spell didn't have much use on it.

Although He Lingchuan and the others blocked with all their might, one person from his team and one from Xu Chun's team were still caught by the Jin Du hatchling's flaws one after another; one was disemboweled, and the other had his head bitten off, with no possibility of rescue.

He Lingchuan himself couldn't see with one eye, his field of vision narrowed, and his blade swings were not as precise as before.

Sweat dripped down, and his face stung even more.

The Jin Du hatchling's speed grew faster and faster, almost leaving afterimages in the air. It was clad in heavy armor, and no one knew how it managed to do this.

He Lingchuan swung his blade again, blocking a claw reaching for Liu Tiao's back.

This time, he was somewhat tired when he entered the dream, not as full of spirit as before, guessing it was probably because the Handan River Battle had just ended in reality, and his divine soul was somewhat exhausted.

It seemed that the battle in the dream didn't affect reality, but his state in reality could be brought into the dream, affecting subsequent performance.

He seemed to have returned to the night of the battle in Yanhe Valley, also trapped in an enemy tide, isolated and helpless, also fighting with all his might, unable to see the dawn.

Everyone was gritting their teeth and holding on; no one dared to say a word of discouragement, no one dared to say the word 'die'. If these weren't Panlong soldiers, perhaps they would have collapsed long ago?

But in this game, where was the hope of winning?

Would there be reinforcements?

The skinny man behind him suddenly said panting: "Hey, help me leave a message for my family, just say I hid the money in..."

His left arm was broken, his right leg was also injured, and he couldn't turn around easily; he had also been stabbed in the butt by the Jin Du hatchling's spear earlier.

After bleeding for so long, he was a bit dizzy.

This hurdle, it seemed, couldn't be crossed.

Liu Tiao impatiently interrupted him: "If you want to say it, go back and say it yourself!"

He Lingchuan glanced at them from the corner of his eye: "Why interrupt him? Let him say it, we'll go dig it out and split the money. His family fortune is thicker than anyone else's."

The skinny man muttered: "I saved it with such difficulty!" But he didn't mention leaving a will anymore.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 320 =====