Chapter 61: He Has It, You Do Not

However, no sooner had the large bed moved away than another figure, rapidly enlarging in his field of vision, pressed in close.

Nian Songyu only had time to raise his shield in defense before he was sent flying three zhang away with a "bang."

He scrambled to his feet and only then saw that the thing ambushing him was actually a black demonic ape; even with its torso half-hunched, it stood seven feet tall, its entire body covered in exaggerated, bursting muscles.

Its small eyes flashed with red light, and it had no fur; its body surface seemed covered in a black, rocky shell, with dark red liquid flowing through cracks of varying widths, resembling magma.

The demonic ape, feeling unsatisfied, charged at Nian Songyu using both hands and feet, then swung its arms and smashed down fiercely as it closed in.

Nian Songyu crouched down and held his large shield upright in front of him.

The demonic ape’s fist arrived immediately, smashing directly into the large shield.

With a "clang," the shield toppled, and there was no one behind it.

Having suffered once, Nian Songyu would not be fooled again; he had already sidestepped behind it and, with a backhanded swing of his blade, severed its head! This strike was swift and clean, a killing technique he had honed on the battlefield, executed without a shred of wasted effort; Nian Songyu himself was quite satisfied.

No matter the monster, whether man-made or natural, its vital point is generally in the head.

The headless demonic ape staggered two steps but did not fall; instead, it stooped to pick up its head and reattached it to its neck.

The magma at the neck flowed up and down, and in no more than two or three breaths, its head was reconnected, and red light lit up in its eye sockets once more.

This thing—it couldn't be killed? Then Nian Songyu heard Sun Fuping call out to him: "Careful, fall back!"

One demonic ape after another pushed aside the ruins and charged over.

Nian Songyu cut down two more, this time with a faint green light appearing on his blade; clearly, he had utilized his State Decree. As a military general commanding troops, his destiny was sufficient to directly suppress ghosts and demons, and could also break many supernatural abilities.

After these demonic apes were decapitated or cut in half, the time they remained sluggish was noticeably longer, and their movements became slower, but they would eventually retrieve their heads and come back to fight him for another three hundred rounds.

His usually infallible State Decree was actually being suppressed, and Nian Songyu felt that things were taking a bad turn: "State Preceptor, fighting like this is no solution!"

He was also wounded; a gash on his left arm was deep enough to reveal bone, and the upturned flesh was already charred black. The demonic ape’s claws were exceptionally sharp and as hot as branding irons.

When he was being pummeled by the first demonic ape, Sun Fuping had already scattered a few beans on the ground. By the time the other apes came to cause trouble, these beans had grown into ten-foot-tall golden-armored soldiers. These hulking figures were no less strong than the demonic apes, and by guarding him in the center, they bought Sun Fuping quite a bit of time.

But as Nian Songyu said, the demonic apes could regenerate infinitely, grinding the intruders to death; dragging it out like this was no solution.

Not to mention the Boss was still watching the show leisurely from atop the city gate.

Sun Fuping condensed a water droplet in his hand, and after chanting a long incantation, the droplet grew from small to large, finally settling into the size of a duck egg.

He smashed the water sphere onto the foot of a demonic ape before calmly saying: "The rules of this world are different from reality; your destiny and my supernatural abilities are both suppressed here!"

If this were the real world, the water sphere he manifested would be at least twice the size of an ostrich egg; here, it had simply shrunk.

Yet, chanting the incantation cost him twice the true qi, and that was only on the condition that this space contained the pool and well water from the upper realm; otherwise, he could not manifest it out of thin air.

Fortunately, the water sphere burst upon hitting the ground, and over a dozen dark red water snakes surged out, each locking onto a demonic ape and charging forward.

They were truly water snakes, composed entirely of liquid; the demonic apes roared and tried to pull them off, but they couldn't, and instead, the snakes crawled onto their heads and burrowed into their seven orifices.

Nian Songyu heard a continuous hissing sound from within their bodies, and as large amounts of white steam emerged, the magma flowing on their rocky surfaces dimmed and then solidified.

A dozen breaths later, they could no longer maintain their forms and crumbled into a pile of charred remains.

Only then did Nian Songyu have the time to take out a jade-green elixir, chew it up, and apply it to his wound.

A large amount of pale green foam immediately bubbled up from the wound, and Nian Songyu let out a long breath. This medicine could draw out fire poison; otherwise, if the toxicity followed the blood flow into his heart, it would be a major problem.

Naturally, this medicine could also stop the bleeding; he moved his left arm and found the tendons were unharmed. As long as the medicinal properties took effect, he would be fully recovered in about ten hours.

The premise was that they could get out of here alive.

With the State Preceptor at his side, he felt relatively at ease, and inadvertently, he thought of those two bastards who had fled the battle.

That little bastard surnamed He, is he hiding in some corner watching the fun right now?

When he returns to the real world, he will crush every bone in that He fellow's body bit by bit, then shave off his fingers one by one, and force him to cook himself and eat it!

Thinking this, the pain in his wound lessened significantly.

Taking advantage of the fallen demonic apes, Sun Fuping turned to the black flood dragon atop the city gate: "My King is determined to obtain the Great Square Pot! You have been buried in the desert for years and have long since become a masterless divine artifact; why not come out with me to devour flesh and blood and return to your peak?"

A divine artifact is, after all, a magic tool that requires regular, meticulous maintenance. After Panlong City fell, Zhong Shengguang hid the Great Square Pot in the desert; with no one to maintain it for so many years, the pot's divinity would surely be worn away bit by bit. It was just that a hundred-plus years was too short for a divine artifact; if left abandoned for thousands or tens of thousands of years, it would eventually degenerate into scrap metal.

Divine artifacts have spirits, and by instinct, they would also want to escape such a predicament.

"Well said." The black flood dragon laughed, its coarse, grating laughter echoing in everyone's sea of consciousness, "What do you intend to do after we get out?"

"I will lead you to pacify bandits and quell border troubles, to re-establish the heavenly might of my Great Yuan!" Sun Fuping said loudly, "Both you and the Three-Corpse Insects will have your uses."

The black flood dragon tilted its head to look at him, and after a long while, it said grimly: "I don't believe you."

Sun Fuping frowned: "Why?"

"You are unworthy." The black flood dragon’s tone was filled with disdain, "You call yourself a State Preceptor, speaking constantly of saving the nation; why is it that I cannot sense a shred of destiny entwined about you?"

Sun Fuping had yet to react, but He Lingchuan, not far away, was the first to change color.

What did that mean? Sun Fuping was one of the three great State Preceptors, responsible for allocating destiny for Great Yuan. Aside from the Son of Heaven, no official below him had more than they did. Yet the black flood dragon said he had no destiny? The black flood dragon looked at Nian Songyu, then at Sun Fuping: "Destiny cannot be hidden from me. He has it; you do not."

Nian Songyu’s reaction was very calm, not at all as shocked as He Lingchuan; Sun Fuping sighed: "I keep my word, it is just that my stance has changed. You are merely an artifact spirit, while I can borrow the means of the gods. Since you will have to concede in the end anyway, isn't it better that I save you the trouble of suffering beforehand?"

(End of chapter)