Chapter 34: Red Silk Plateau

"This thing is actually impervious to blades and spears? I have a bag of melon seeds here, do you want to crack some?" "Give me a handful." Although the wind and sand were quite strong.

"Its weight is almost catching up to an elephant. Hiss, if this butt sits on someone, it could really squeeze the crap out of them! Father, that unlucky devil seems to be one of Nian Songyu's men?"

"What is crap?"

"Nothing. The National Master is casting a spell! He threw two big fireballs into the enemy's mouth, and the toad hiccuped... Hmm, it seems it didn't work."

About an incense stick's time later, the two Purple-Gold Toads were thrown off the boat.

Compared to their majesty when they first jumped onto the boat, their size had shrunk to one-fifth of the original, changing from bloated to skin and bones.

He Lingchuan remembered that National Master Sun had opened a slit on them and then stuffed something inside, and the two toads had slimmed down at a speed visible to the naked eye, dehydrated, couldn't jump anymore, and their eyes bulged even more.

Then they died.

"Did you see clearly?" A look of a toad exhausted by its own existence.

He Chunhua shook his head. As a National Master, he must have extraordinary means; it was likely these means would be just as effective when used on people.

In the subsequent journey, the team encountered two more attacks by monsters that didn't fear the stench, but still, only National Master Sun's boat was affected, while the other two boats remained safe and sound.

Others marveled at the National Master's luck and were glad the monsters didn't jump onto their own boats; otherwise, they definitely couldn't have resolved it so cleanly and efficiently.

But Sun Fuping and the others frowned secretly.

Why were all three attacks aimed at the National Master? What did this indicate? A tall tree catches the wind?

Hurrying along, the team finally approached their destination before dark.

The messenger on Nian Songyu's boat pointed into the distance and shouted to the partners on the two boats behind: "Ahead is Panlongcheng!"

Actually, there was no need for him to remind them; everyone had long gathered at the bow to admire the most spectacular sight in the Panlong Desert—the Red Silk Plateau.

This plateau had been pushed up by an irresistible force countless years ago, with a drop of at least forty zhang (130 meters) from the flat ground beneath their feet! In the middle, there was also an unfathomable chasm, eighty zhang wide.

This place was like the dividing line between two continents, clear, distinct, and resolute.

When the walnut boat reached here, the boatman's operation was very cautious, using the cured meat to hang the earth-dragons, following that natural chasm to the west.

Falling down would be the end.

After walking for a quarter of an hour, the ancient city of Panlong finally began to grow in everyone's field of vision, the outline of the gray outer wall becoming more distinct.

This plateau was too vast, its vertical face like the cross-section of a two-layered cake, almost at a ninety-degree angle to the flat ground. The words desolate and majestic were probably born for it.

At this time, the sun began to set in the west, casting mottled shadows on the vertical face of the plateau's edge, making it look like a giant beast lying prone in the desert, winding and silent.

This terrain was absolutely a classic of being easy to defend and hard to attack; it was no wonder Zhong Shengquan could hold out here year after year. Without such objective conditions as a foundation, sentiment and hot blood were just empty talk.

Moving further forward, the altitude of the plateau gently descended, as if it were a long downward slope.

And Panlongcheng stood at the mouth of the slope, firmly guarding the only passage to the Red Silk Plateau from the south!

The boat slowed down, and they saw a bridge spanning north and south, crossing the entire deep chasm.

This was a natural stone bridge, connecting to the land beneath their feet to the south, and connecting to the small open space in front of the south gate of Panlongcheng to the north.

To attack Panlongcheng, I'm afraid this was the only passage; ten times the troops wouldn't be able to take it. He Lingchuan looked at this stone bridge and felt anxious for the Xianyou and Baling coalition forces of over a hundred years ago.

Later history proved, ten times? Heh!

When the walnut boat reached here, the journey temporarily came to an end. The boatman picked the cured meat off the pole and threw it to the earth-dragons as a reward.

Having galloped for two hours, these three earth-dragons were so tired that smoke was coming out of their mouths. If it weren't for their naturally single-track minds, brains smaller than balls, and the constant thought of the fragrant meat right in front of them, they would have quit long ago.

Now that the meat was finally in their mouths, the earth-dragons didn't care that there were many other prey here, and they turned and ran.

Everyone jumped off the boat, and National Master Sun came over to put away the magic treasure. He recited a few incantations, and the big boat turned back into a small walnut.

Although the wind and sand were strong, the air here was many times fresher than on the boat, and the soldiers who had gotten rid of the smelly cured meat couldn't help but breathe deeply.

He Lingchuan tapped the ground with his toe: "Staying here, aren't you afraid of strange beasts or monsters coming over?" Just like on both sides of Red Cliff Road.

Nian Songyu smiled: "This is all rock underneath, with less than half a chi of sand and soil, at most it can hide a few centipedes and sand snakes, are you afraid?"

He Lingchuan kicked away a layer of sand and found that it was indeed hard rock underneath. That's right, if the two sides of the chasm weren't solid walls, the natural bridge would have collapsed long ago.

Nian Songyu suddenly asked: "What's going on?"

He Lingchuan turned his head at the sound and saw several of Zeng Feixiong's men escorting two people over.

These two were struggling desperately; although one was short and one was thin, it took three strong men on each side to barely hold them down.

The most peculiar thing was that they were both wearing a talisman robe like a vest, which was actually two pieces of yellow silk tied in front and behind, then tied together to save the trouble of wearing sleeves and collars. The vermilion talisman characters on the silk flew up, slowly rotating around the captives.

Without a doubt, these were originally Zeng Feixiong's men. But the look in their eyes when they looked at the crowd was very strange, both violent and greedy.

He Lingchuan had hunted before and felt that this look should belong to a coyote.

"Possessed by Three-Corpse Insects." Seeing them like this, Zeng Feixiong didn't feel comfortable either, "The National Master tied up two for observation purposes."

The Three-Corpse Insects on the other boats had all been driven away, but Sun Fuping had kept two.

Now he took the lead and stepped onto this bridge.

Actually, the bridge itself was quite wide, about fifteen zhang (over 40 meters), but placed in the wilderness, above the chasm, and in front of Panlongcheng, it was really as thin as a toothpick.

The thousands of troops of the coalition forces back then probably met their doom here, and countless times at that.

He Lingchuan looked down and saw that the bridge surface was mottled with color blocks, obviously stained with filth many years ago, and it was layered one upon another, still uneven in depth after a hundred years.

Walking on the bridge, it was as if everyone could smell the pungent stench of blood.

This was the front line of the great battle of the three armies back then; around this corner, no one knew how many battles for control had taken place back and forth.

The souls here were far more numerous than anywhere else.

Sun Fuping suddenly said: "This bridge appeared later, it is not natural."

Nian Songyu stamped the ground and also said: "The material is indeed different from the wilderness, this should have been built by the Baling and Xianyou coalition forces."

Zeng Feixiong was walking beside He Lingchuan and was very surprised to hear this: "The stone has no seams, it's all one piece, was this built by man? Besides, the sentries on Panlongcheng aren't blind, could they let the enemy build a bridge right under their noses?"

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 35 =====