Chapter 402: How Is This Possible?

"Faster, hurry faster!" He He Lingchuan urged the rock sheep, appearing quite urgent. Deputy Master Shi Er did not understand why, assuming he just wanted to return to the team, and even pointed out the way for him, "There is a small path over there. It's a bit steep, but going down from there will allow us to get ahead of the merchant caravan." The mountain road taken by the guard team circled almost half of Mount Fengmo Mountain; for the two of them to climb the mountain was equivalent to taking a shortcut.

It was just that this shortcut was too difficult to traverse; a normal team would have no way to choose it.

At this time, people were arriving one after another from several small paths, men and women alike, all clicking their tongues in wonder at the sight of the ancient ruins.

These were guests from other merchant caravans coming up for sightseeing, all following the rules and taking the established routes, which was more than a step slower than them.

Just as He He Lingchuan jumped near the small path leading into the mountain belly, a woo-woo whistling sound suddenly came from behind and below.

To be honest, the wind here was very changeable; it sounded like wolf howls, ghost cries, tiger roars, or whistles—you could hear anything.

But the whistling sound from behind—three long and two short, followed by a series of rapid notes—was clearly not the sound of the natural wind.

He He Lingchuan's ears twitched. He looked back and saw a person standing by the ground fissure, holding a long whistle and blowing it with great enthusiasm.

Other whistles were short, at most an inch long. The greenish whistle in his hand, however, looked like half a chopstick; it seemed like bamboo yet not bamboo, like jade yet not jade, and it even had knots on it.

Furthermore, the sound he blew was actually softer and deeper than a whistle's note; it sounded surprisingly like the song of a whale.

This person was also using true qi to blow the whistle, which allowed the sound to remain concentrated rather than dissipating, preventing it from being drowned out by the surrounding noise.

No one could withstand the wind blades and frost swords on the mountaintop; everyone wore thick felt hats or neck warmers to cover their faces, revealing only their eyes, including He He Lingchuan and Deputy Master Shi Er.

But for this person to blow the whistle, he had to remove his face mask, revealing his true face.

Fushan Yue! Looking at that increasingly familiar face, He He Lingchuan's heart gave a violent jolt.

This person had indeed escaped from Fufeng City in one piece and was continuing to carry out his mission, unwilling to give up.

But the envoy of the Shanyu Kingdom had clearly headed east to return to his country; why did Fushan Yue not pursue him, but instead follow them here?

Could it be that his target had changed? While blowing the whistle, Fushan Yue raised his head to observe his surroundings, his eyes turning red.

Although his actions were strange, the other tourists would not stop him; only one person said with dissatisfaction, "Keep the noise down, don't trigger an avalanche!"

Only He He Lingchuan looked around. He had been about to jump onto the small path on the stone platform, but at this moment, he suddenly turned the sheep's head, forcing it to jump directly into a deep groove on the side of the mountain.

The mountain wall was covered in such grooves eroded by wind and snow; the large ones could house a building, while the small ones could only fit a squirrel.

This was a dead end; there was no passage behind it.

It seemed there were three large characters carved on the rock wall that required careful identification.

Deputy Master Shi Er was puzzled: "Brother He, what are you doing?" Weren't they supposed to be going down the mountain?

Just at this moment, a strange sound suddenly erupted from the mountain belly, like a trapped beast unable to escape its lair, filled with irritability and anger, making the sound exceptionally loud like thunder.

Most importantly, this sound was coming from the ground fissure! It was as if some monster was about to jump out from inside.

The guy blowing the whistle was also retreating, backing all the way to the mountain wall, but the whistling did not stop.

Just then, a young man in his early twenties standing at the exit of the ground fissure was mocking his companion: "Hey, what are you afraid of? The Mount Fengmo was long ago killed by the Treasure Tree King. This bit of noise is just wind in an empty cave!"

As soon as the words left his mouth, a violent wind "whooshed" out from the ground fissure! Everyone standing at the fissure's mouth was blown away without exception; the one who had just spoken in mockery was the unluckiest, actually being lifted by the gale and sent straight into the sky.

He He Lingchuan shielded his eyes with his hand and estimated the height he flew to be at least ten... no, seventeen or eighteen zhang.

Well, falling down meant certain death.

The gale rushing out of the ground fissure did not exit along the holes and grooves as usual, but instead circled round and round in this ring-shaped mountain belly. With every circle, the wind force increased, and the wooing sound of the wind also increased, but the "volume" of the wind seemed to shrink instead.

The dozen or so tourists who had come up the mountain were also unlucky, getting swept in at once. Using them as a reference, He He Lingchuan could see their flight radius getting smaller and smaller.

At the same time, gravel, mud, sand, and accumulated snow from all over were sucked in, all churning together.

These people could still scream a few times at the beginning, but later they were simply smashed into unconsciousness.

With these bits of debris providing color, He He Lingchuan finally saw the appearance of the "wind":

A standard tornado, large at the top and small at the bottom.

The two pitch-black spots at the very top looked like eyes.

He He Lingchuan, the two of them, and the rock sheep all stood pressed deep against the mountain wall; such a powerful wind simply could not move them.

Now, the only person still standing in the field was the whistle-blower. The tornado seemed to deliberately avoid him.

"Is, is this the Mount Fengmo?" Deputy Master Shi Er was so shocked his eyes went straight, and after a few breaths, he suddenly shouted, "How is this possible!"

This road had been safe for hundreds of years, and he himself had walked it several times; how could they suddenly encounter a Mount Fengmo this time? Was this a living ghost?

Wasn't the Mount Fengmo killed by the Treasure Tree King? He hurriedly asked He He Lingchuan: "Brother He, how did you know this thing was coming out?"

But He He Lingchuan turned a deaf ear, instead carefully observing something: a Wind Lion statue.

Yes, there were two Wind Lion statues placed in this groove, one on the left and one on the right. The one on the left was a person's height, and the one on the right was three feet tall.

He He Lingchuan widened his eyes to examine the back of the Wind Lion, while asking a baffling question: "There is no wind in this groove, why?"

To avoid being blown away, he had hidden the rock sheep deeper inside. Who knew that there was no wind at all standing here, as if the tornado was selectively ignoring this groove.

Just now he had walked a few steps further out and felt only a light breeze on his face, as if he were in a different world from the apocalyptic scene outside.

Deputy Master Shi Er was still in shock, blankly repeating: "Why?"

With such a terrifying scene before them, was Brother He still paying attention to such trivial details? He also turned to He He Lingchuan's side and saw that the snow on the back of the Wind Lion had been wiped away, revealing fine lines.

Was there an array behind the sculpture? "Perhaps it is because of them." He He Lingchuan pointed downward casually, "Look at the terraced fields below; are any of the ones with Wind Lions placed nearby damaged?"

Deputy Master Shi Er subconsciously looked down and indeed saw that the terraced fields with Wind Lions were still covered in thick snow and had not been sucked into the tornado; while the places without Wind Lions placed as wards were as clean and tidy as if they had just been cleaned by a vacuum cleaner.

That was it, that was it; the function of the Wind Lions was to ward off wind and suppress evil! No wonder the Ethereal Sect placed Wind Lions everywhere in their territory; it turned out to be for warding off the Mount Fengmo.

"These sculptures are all meticulously refined and then carved with arrays; they are not ordinary goods." After roughly finishing his inspection of the array, He He Lingchuan felt greatly reassured.

The Literary Pavilion in Panlong City contained many array diagrams, especially battle arrays, and he had read his fair share of them.

Even if he couldn't be proficient, at least identifying the authenticity was no problem.

He took another look at Fushan Yue and found that this person was indeed standing around the Wind Lions; even when facing the Mount Fengmo just now, only his clothes had fluttered.

At this time, the tornado in the mountain belly had gathered and shrunk smaller and smaller.

However, this shrinking did not make people feel at ease; instead, it was like compressing a balloon to its limit, which would burst when it reached a critical point.

When the radius of the wind circle was only three zhang, the tornado let out a roar that shook the heavens.

As if the sky had a sympathetic response, the originally clear sky suddenly echoed with thunder, and large masses of dark clouds drifted over from nowhere, quickly blocking the bright sun.

The sky suddenly turned black, dark clouds pressing down on the city.

Fushan Yue had already climbed to a high place; at this moment, he very decisively reached out a hand and pointed at the guard team on the opposite mountain road.

This action was filled with murderous intent.

The tornado seemed to have received a killing order, howling as it spilled out of the golden peak of Mount Fengmo Mountain and rushed toward the opposite side!

Deputy Master Shi Er shouted: "Is this person crazy? He's actually summoning the Mount Fengmo to attack the guard team!"

"He's not crazy, he's here to kill!" Fushan Yue always had a purpose in his actions. He didn't know what he had taken a fancy to in the guard team this time; could it be that he also coveted that spirit seed of the Treasure Tree King? He He Lingchuan grabbed ice and snow from the ground and rubbed it against the carvings on the rock wall.

The white snow sank into the carvings, and he finally saw the stone inscription in the ancient immortal language:

Wind Elder Rock.

Deputy Master Shi Er was stunned for a long while, then suddenly bowed deeply to He He Lingchuan: "Many thanks to Brother He for the reminder, otherwise the merchant caravan would have been finished!"

Now he could also see that the guard team was the target of this whistle-blower. Fortunately, he had listened to He He Lingchuan's words and let the Shi Gate merchant caravan fall ten miles behind the guard team, avoiding being caught in the crossfire.

This merchant caravan was the life's work that he and his brother had managed for half their lives; if it were destroyed by the Mount Fengmo, it would truly be a devastating blow.

A noble person, this was truly the help of a noble person.

"It's only right." He He Lingchuan smiled and stretched out his leg to push a stone tile down into the mountain belly.

His footwork was good, and his aim was also good; the stone tile tumbled one after another among the terraced fields, its speed getting faster and faster, and finally fell toward that long ground fissure.

The stone tile entered the ground fissure, just like wood falling into water; it swayed in mid-air for a long time under He He Lingchuan's eyes, and suddenly floated up again.

This was what Deputy Master Shi Er had mentioned earlier, the strange phenomenon of the ground fissure where "fallen objects do not sink."

The strong wind from underground would blow objects that fell into the fissure back up.

In other words, were all the previous anomalies of the ground fissure because of the Mount Fengmo?

What was this guy doing inside, ambushing and recharging?

The whistle was blown by Fushan Yue, so where did he get another Mount Fengmo? Most importantly, why did Fushan Yue want to attack the Treasure Tree King's guard team? Could a normal person do such a thing?

He He Lingchuan thought for a moment and conducted a small experiment: he put both Wind Lions into his storage ring.

The full mountain wind immediately poured in, mercilessly scraping across every inch of the stone surface.

This confirmed that He He Lingchuan's guess was correct; this thing warded off wind.

He put the Wind Lions back and said to Deputy Master Shi Er, "Stay here and don't run around," then rode the rock sheep along the mountain wall toward the summit, picking up several more Wind Lions nearly a person's height on the way.

Better safe than sorry.

Beg!

Monthly! Ticket! 1.1-1.7 is the double time, thank you everyone!

(End of chapter)