Chapter 424: The Interweaving of Illusion and Reality

How could there be the scent of blood drifting from people who died in an illusion? Without needing a reminder, He He Lingchuan slid forward, only to see one of the Shimen caravan's workers with his throat slit, and another stabbed in the chest.

That short, sharp cry was what he had let out before he died.

The killers were two Chiyan people.

Taking advantage of the victim's blood flowing freely and his last breath not yet spent, they pressed a bead into the wound.

The bodies of the two workers shriveled at a speed visible to the naked eye, like emptied sacks or dried mustard greens squeezed of all moisture.

Although an illusion existed, this was actually a desolate, wild area with sparse vegetation that couldn't even stand upright. Thus, while He He Lingchuan saw the two Chiyan people committing the crime, the other party also spotted him.

Killing two is a kill, and killing four just makes two pairs. Without needing to communicate, the two men gripped their blood-stained weapons and charged up.

He He Lingchuan raised his hand to fire a sleeve arrow at the man on the right, then charged toward the enemy on the left himself.

The opponent was aggressive, thinking he was delivering himself as a meal. The blade was almost cutting into the top of He He Lingchuan's head before he reached for his waist and revealed Fusheng.

This strike had been poised and ready; it reflected the moonlight from the sky for less than half a second before it was already sheathed.

With a single "clang," the opponent was severed in two, blade and body alike.

To this day, He He Lingchuan had begun to explore the cultivation of blade momentum, the so-called "unsheathing style." A precious blade kept long in its sheath, when suddenly exposed to the light of day, possesses the most ruthless blade qi in that instant; one who is skilled at wielding it can subdue the enemy.

The Wave Slash also contains such specialized moves, and what He He Lingchuan used just now was the "Startled Swan Slash." Before the Hanhe Battle, he had killed too few people and had long struggled to gain insight.

On the battlefield, only a versatile blade style that adapts to time and circumstance must be mastered.

Over there, Fu Fu Shanyue also slowly pulled his water-splitting spike from an enemy's throat.

He had taken advantage of a situation; the fellow had just turned his head to dodge He He Lingchuan's sleeve arrow, allowing him to close in and seal the throat with one strike.

A wounded soldier must have a wounded soldier's tricky fighting style.

He looked at He He Lingchuan's side again and couldn't help but bare his teeth. The unlucky fellow who had been slashed diagonally clearly had primordial power reinforcement, yet he was still no match for He He Lingchuan in a single exchange.

This showed that the gap in strength between the two sides was too great.

Fu Fu Shanyue wiped the blood from his weapon on the corpse and, with a flick of the tip, pried two red beads from the wounds of the dead workers.

These two beads were the culprits that had sucked them dry.

"These are blood beads, used to collect the essence of a prey's flesh and blood." Fu Fu Shanyue chuckled twice. "No wonder."

"What do you mean, no wonder?" He He Lingchuan squatted down, searched the two Chiyan people, and took everything that caught his eye.

These two fellows looked like they could put on a show, but they turned out to be paupers, unable to scrape together even a hundred silver taels in money and goods.

Bah, poor in life, poor in death.

Seeing his ruthless greed while picking over the corpses, Fu Fu Shanyue knew this was certainly not a decent person.

"They are likely collecting the essence of living flesh and blood to prolong Fushan Ji's life and delay his death." He smiled maliciously. "At this rate, a mere two people are not enough. Your group has been targeted by others as 'meat sheep'."

He He Lingchuan did not know that these *ba* used "meat sheep" to refer to "edible living people." He shook his head: "You underestimate divine arts. How could the flesh and blood essence of a mere dozen or several dozen people delay the deterioration of Fushan Ji's injuries?"

Otherwise, Wen Daolun, Zhong Zhong Shengguang, and even General Hong would not have been at their wits' end.

After Wen Xing was stabbed, he hadn't even lasted three hours.

Fu Fu Shanyue shrugged: "Perhaps they have some other secret technique?"

The vast world is full of wonders; since there are divine arts, there should also be ways to deal with them, shouldn't there? But the fact that the Shimen caravan had fallen into crisis was indisputable. The Chiyan people found it inconvenient to act in Tongluo County, but in the wild outskirts and ruined cities, what would they not dare to do?

He He Lingchuan fished out a whistle from the worker's body.

This whistle was for signaling; once blown, everyone would rush back to the side of the Second Master Shi.

But before He He Lingchuan could blow it, Fu Fu Shanyue waved his hand to stop him: "Don't blow it, otherwise Second Master Shi and Peach will be in trouble immediately!"

Second Master Shi and the little shaman boy were still at the abandoned armory, and Uncle Da was right across from them!

Uncle Da felt it had life and death in its grasp; it might not have acted against them yet, but as soon as the alarm whistle sounded, it might suddenly lash out.

To capture the bandits, capture the king; as long as Second Master Shi is taken, the entire caravan will inevitably fall into chaos.

He He Lingchuan thought this was correct, so he had to put away the whistle and head back.

The two hurried for more than twenty steps when He He Lingchuan suddenly said: "Careful, Uncle Da is coming this way."

Fu Fu Shanyue was startled.

He had suffered a few losses under He He Lingchuan's long-range surveillance ability and knew his warnings were never groundless, so he said: "Walk slower."

Fu Fu Shanyue rolled outward himself, rolling just behind a tree as thick as a sea bowl.

This tree could only be called a small tree elsewhere, but in this valley, it counted as the tallest among the short; however, its shadow was narrow and thin, and it couldn't hide a person at all.

Yet, with this roll, Fu Fu Shanyue managed to hide himself in the tree's shadow.

He He Lingchuan took two extra looks; there was no one behind the tree, and no one on the ground.

Perhaps it was some kind of escape art? If he didn't know about it and passed by here, he probably wouldn't have noticed either.

If this fellow didn't have a few reliable escape skills, could he still be at ease while facing the fierce encirclement of Uncle Da and the Chiyan people?

He He Lingchuan regulated his breathing and relaxed his muscles. Otherwise, a tense state would likely be discovered by the enemy preparing for an ambush.

However, he soon saw the figure of a fierce tiger appear directly in front:

Uncle Da had come.

It was stretching its four legs, galloping toward here with all its might.

"..." Is it too lazy to even put on the appearance of an ambush? He He Lingchuan was slightly embarrassed.

However, the land here was vast with sparse vegetation, and the ridiculously bright moonlight left no place for living things to hide; perhaps Uncle Da didn't want to waste the effort.

The distance of thirty *zhang* was nothing more than two strides for it, and He He Lingchuan felt a great wind rushing toward his face.

"Wind follows the tiger"—that saying was absolutely correct.

The fierce tiger's figure even dragged a remnant shadow in the air. In terms of speed, the pair of fierce tigers he encountered at Sanxinyuan weren't even fit to be its footrests.

Although He He Lingchuan hadn't stood up once from beginning to end while in the ruins, and his sitting posture was lazier than others, Uncle Da's spiritual sense still determined that this fellow's threat was far greater than the other humans in the caravan, so it came to handle him personally.

So, the "capture the king" target it considered wasn't Second Master Shi, but him.

Does this count as valuing the enemy strategically while despising them tactically? He He Lingchuan didn't know what to say, but Uncle Da didn't intend to speak a single word to him; using its final run to leap, it pounced and struck with a claw.

This was accompanied by a low roar.

A tiger's roar is naturally soul-shaking, and most fierce tigers strengthen this talent after cultivating into demon bodies; Uncle Da was no exception. This low roar swept across the fan-shaped area in front, and the weeds and mud on the ground were instantly blown away. The powerful sound waves directly attacked the prey's brain and heart, causing the opponent's heart to contract sharply, leading to dizziness, tinnitus, body stiffness, limb weakness, and severe chest pain, and could even shatter a normal prey's brain.

On the way here, it had already killed one person; it hadn't even used its sharp claws, and the opponent was roared to death directly, bleeding from the seven orifices when he hit the ground.

Those who have never heard a tiger's roar will never understand that trembling and fear that comes from the soul.

However, He He Lingchuan had long anticipated this; he had killed many tigers, leopards, and lions in recent years, and they all liked to let out such a roar before attacking. Therefore, before Uncle Da opened its mouth, he blocked with the Soul-Absorbing Shield and entered the "Stubborn and Unyielding" state.

This divine ability was originally used for lurking, causing the user's entire body's apertures to close and their aura to be blocked.

In other words, He He Lingchuan in this state was no different from a stubborn rock. No matter how powerful Uncle Da's roar was, it couldn't reach his ears or stimulate his heart, lungs, or brain.

And the slight physical attack generated by the sound waves was blocked by the shield.

He He Lingchuan had observed Elder Liang of the Cloud-Piercing Pavilion and was curious about the "Closed-Mouth Formula" he cultivated; he had also asked about it in Panlong City, and the answer he received was that the first and second sound waves emitted after long brewing were the most lethal, and the rest would quickly weaken. It stood to reason that this fierce tiger was much the same.

Uncle Da's first roar was ineffective, so it went straight to its claws, slapping toward his temple.

A normal fierce tiger's slap had about two thousand catties of force; Uncle Da tripled that, easily capable of slapping a human head into a rotten watermelon. The palm was supplemented with five curved steel nails, each over two inches long, which, besides stripping flesh and bone, also provided gut-spilling services.

He He Lingchuan raised his shield to meet it; after blocking two blows, he felt his arms trembling, which was much more strenuous than resisting Meng Shan, and he couldn't help but be secretly shocked by the tiger demon's strength.

Uncle Da attacked left and right a dozen times, all blocked by the shield, emitting ear-piercing, sharp sounds.

But He He Lingchuan was also knocked back repeatedly; even when this monster stood on its hind legs to attack, its two hind legs could provide powerful driving force.

Uncle Da's attacks were shockingly fast; a normal martial artist's eyesight couldn't keep up at all. If He He Lingchuan missed a single block, he might be suddenly pounced upon and have his trachea torn open...

Of course, the Fusheng blade wasn't idle, but Uncle Da's perception of danger was too powerful, and it never collided head-on with this divine weapon.

It sounds easy, but He He Lingchuan facing this fierce tiger head-on was like facing a raging sea; the opponent's attacks were continuous and endless, and he couldn't gain the upper hand in either momentum or frequency of attack.

This thing was truly ferocious; otherwise, Fu Fu Shanyue wouldn't have been beaten half to death by it.

Then Uncle Da grew impatient and curled its claws, trying to hook the shield away.

This shield was the second form of the Soul-Absorbing Mirror, which came with about ten percent physical damage reflection. Uncle Da had been blocked after slapping a dozen times, so it had suffered a dozen instances of reflected damage; once accumulated, even with its thick skin and flesh, it was extremely uncomfortable.

It was as if it had used all its strength to slap itself in the face.

Why is killing a person so difficult? But at this moment, the Fusheng blade tilted; the moonlight reflected at this angle was doubly bright and gathered into a beam, shining right into the fierce tiger's eyes.

Blinding! Uncle Da subconsciously turned its head.

Not only that, this light, like a laser, shot straight onto the illusory wall of Thousand Star City.

At this time, the Yuan King had reached a dead end; the guards around him fell one after another, but more and more enemies climbed onto the city wall.

Looking across the top and bottom of the city, enemies were everywhere, yet the blood of his own soldiers had already run dry.

The last defender on the city wall was also bitten to death by a jackal demon, his neck blood splashing three feet high, as if drawing the final period to this long and hopeless struggle.

The Yuan King sighed deeply and was about to draw his sword to commit suicide, but Fusheng's blade light arrived, shining straight onto his face.

The intense reflection actually made him pause slightly, and he turned his head to look toward He He Lingchuan's position!

(End of chapter)