Chapter 847: The Tomb of General Hong

The young attendant shouted, "It's in your shadow!" He saw it clearly: two small monkeys, or rather, creatures resembling apes, were actually standing inside the guard's shadow.

Hearing the sound, it turned its head and grinned at the young attendant.

Only then did the group see clearly that the monkey's head looked like a ghost's face, with two triangular eyes that were entirely white, pupils only the size of rice grains, a nose as hooked as an eagle's beak, and a face covered in wrinkles, yet its mouth could stretch directly to the roots of its ears, revealing a mouthful of gleaming steel teeth.

The teeth were still stained with viscous blood.

Caught in the act by the group, they were not in the least bit flustered; one pounced onto the guard and opened its mouth wide, directly engulfing his head, while the other dragged the guard's shadow, whisking him away in a flash! Their mouths looked large, but when opened, they were absurdly huge; the wrinkles on their cheeks stretched taut, and one could fit an entire watermelon, or a human head, directly into their mouths.

No wonder the previous victims couldn't call for help; it turned out that even their voices had been swallowed.

As for dragging the shadow and thereby dragging the shadow's owner along with it, this was a trick the group had never seen before. Zhang Zhang Lianhai felt as if he had heard of a similar divine technique.

But that was a marvelous method that only gods or immortals could perform; could a ghost-faced monkey in this godforsaken place actually do it too? From the bottom of his heart, he felt a sense of foreboding.

The Lamp Spirit, which had long enjoyed divine grace in Xushan, naturally would not sit idly by as it dragged the guard away; it flew down, transformed into a fierce tiger, and tore the ghost-faced monkey off, biting it frantically.

Unfortunately, the guard whose head had been swallowed had his facial skin turned inside out, and four large blood holes in his neck were sizzling as blood spurted out—his artery had been bitten through.

His companions hurried forward to seal his acupoints and save him.

The other ghost-faced monkey immediately jumped onto the roof and began to shriek, "Ou-ou!"

The biting cold wind carried its cries far away.

Zhang Zhang Lianhai pointed at it: "Silence!"

He unleashed two divine techniques; one was blown off course by the gale, and the other struck the ghost-faced monkey in the chest, sending it tumbling backward.

But it was too late; nearby, the roars of monsters rang out one after another, as if in response to the ghost-faced monkey.

Zhang Zhang Lianhai took a deep breath and said decisively, "Go, hurry, go!"

Since they had been exposed, they might as well head straight for their objective.

He pinched a magic seal, and a Lamp Spirit spun around to cover their retreat. This entity had no emotions; it faced any number of enemies without fear or hesitation.

The group took to their heels and ran. Another Lamp Spirit flew ahead, illuminating the path for them and shielding them from the obstruction of the wind and snow.

Otherwise, the wind would only grow stronger the further west they went; it was already approaching a level-nine gale, and their speed would inevitably be affected.

A single monster was not terrifying, and they could still handle it; but once the opponents gathered in a pack, no one dared to harbor any illusions.

Their only way out was likely to seize the chance while the Lamp Spirit entangled the giant monsters and rush to the cenotaph of General Hong!

The young attendant looked back in his haste and indeed saw dozens of monsters rushing out from behind, with the Lamp Spirit circling and flying incessantly around them, trying its best to block them;

These things were not very intelligent, and their entire attention was drawn away by the Lamp Spirit, causing them to forget to continue chasing the Tiangong team.

Seeing this, everyone let out a long sigh of relief.

Taking advantage of the time the Lamp Spirit bought them, the team advanced at full speed, and although they were surrounded by monsters a few more times in between, they exhausted all their means to break free.

However, Panlongcheng was truly not small, and the Tiangong team was unfamiliar with the various forks in the road, wasting quite a bit of time. Zhang Zhang Lianhai sent all his Lamp Spirits out to fight, yet his loyal guards continued to die in battle one after another.

Fortunately, the tomb of General Hong was almost reached.

Zhang Zhang Lianhai ran two more steps, then suddenly, with a *puff*, he spat out a mouthful of fresh blood.

The others were all struck with terror.

They had just broken through the encirclement, and Zhang Zhang Lianhai had not been injured; why would he vomit blood?

"The Lamp Spirit!" Zhang Zhang Lianhai said, unable to believe it, "My Lamp Spirit has actually been shattered."

He was a Lamp-Guarding Envoy; his lifeblood and divine techniques were all tied to the Lamp Spirit, and he had long been inseparable from it. The destruction of the Lamp Spirit was an extremely heavy blow to both his body and mind.

To shatter a Tiangong Lamp Spirit—what kind of monster could have such ability?

The most terrifying thing was that the creature would definitely catch up.

The young attendant grabbed him to steady him and cried, "My lord!"

"Quick, go to the... the..." Zhang Zhang Lianhai's face was like gold paper, his words incoherent, as he barely raised a finger toward the east.

At this point, there was no need to say anything else; only by running there might there be a glimmer of hope for survival.

Almost there, almost there—less than forty *zhang* from the cenotaph of General Hong! The young attendant hoisted him onto his back and broke into a hundred-meter sprint.

Suddenly, a deafening long howl came from behind, and the sprinting Tiangong team felt their bodies go stiff for a split second. Zhang Zhang Lianhai's heart sank: It had come.

The group looked back, but could see nothing; only the snowflakes dancing around them paused, and in the blink of an eye, they coalesced into a dozen snow beasts that looked like leopards and wolves—agile, ferocious, and pouncing toward them head-on.

The guards threw themselves forward regardless of their own safety to block them, barely opening a path of survival for the young attendant.

Two sprays of hot blood even splashed onto his face, making him squint.

Fifteen *zhang* left; the gale pushed them backward.

A short, sharp cry of "Ah" came from behind, very close, and was immediately swept away by the wind and snow. The youth knew that the last two guards were gone as well.

But he finally reached the tomb of General Hong! When General Hong died in battle years ago, less than half a day later, Zhong Zhong Shengguang committed suicide and Panlongcheng was destroyed; therefore, the ones who buried this generation's god of war were not the people of Panlongcheng, but their mortal enemies.

Out of respect for their archenemy, the allied forces of Baling and Xianyou erected a cenotaph for it, occupying less than half an acre; the stone carvings standing on both sides were taken from finished works within Panlongcheng, but the stone tablet was quite grand, standing one *zhang* high, with five simple, large characters on it:

Tomb of General Hong.

The red paint had long since peeled away, and even the characters were blurred and hard to distinguish. But at this moment, two more wisps of ghostly light flew over and, right before the young attendant's eyes, flew into the tomb of General Hong.

Zhang Zhang Lianhai jumped to the ground and struggled to wield his long staff, striking the tomb ground fiercely.

He exhausted his remaining strength, his true power penetrating the tomb ground, and with one blow, he blasted all the stone slabs on the tomb open.

Tomb soil splattered, revealing the burial chamber underneath!

Sitting amidst the sand and soil was a set of pale red armor; having endured over a hundred years of erosion, it had not yet rusted. But the armor was covered in scars and had several puncture wounds, some of which looked clearly like traces of lightning burns.

If Zhang Zhang Lianhai's state of mind were calm, he would probably find it strange why General Hong's armor was in a sitting posture. When the enemies of Panlongcheng buried this empty armor back then, they shouldn't have specifically adopted this pose—

Especially since the helmet was still sitting perfectly on top of the armor.

Seen from behind, it looked as if General Hong himself were sitting with his head bowed and arms crossed.

But how could Zhang Zhang Lianhai have the heart to consider this now? His eyes were only on what the armor was protecting between its arms: a palm-sized, lidless small pot.

This was a two-eared pot, bronze-colored, of unknown material.

The two ears had dragon-shaped carved rings, and the body of the pot was engraved with profound and mysterious incantations.

Apart from this, there was no extra decoration; it could be said to be quite simple.

And Zhang Zhang Lianhai, as a learned Lamp-Guarding Envoy, recognized at a glance that the incantations on the pot were actually in two languages:

Divine Language.

Ancient Immortal Language.

They both expressed the same meaning: "Penetrate the heavens and the earth, pierce the void and merge the reality."

Another wisp of ghostly light drifted over and, right before Zhang Zhang Lianhai's eyes, burrowed into the mouth of the pot.

This was the supreme treasure that all the gods coveted.

This was the divine object stained with the blood of countless people.

This was the source of so much bloodshed and chaos, the main body of the Great Great Great Fanghu? Zhang Zhang Lianhai forgot the pain in his body and lunged forward.

The strange changes within the ruins of Panlongcheng all stemmed from the Great Great Great Fanghu; as long as he grabbed the Great Great Great Fanghu, perhaps he could end all this chaos before him! But he was less than seven feet away from the Great Great Great Fanghu when a large shadow suddenly appeared above his head, completely enveloping him.

￥￥￥￥￥

Nanchengmen of the Panlong ruins.

A few more groups of monsters passed by. The people on the wall were all silent as cicadas in winter, only daring to take a deep breath after they had walked far away.

Time passed second by second, feeling incredibly long.

After an unknown amount of time, the Nanchengmen welcomed new guests: Le Le Zhengqing led four or five people to arrive, all equally disheveled and still shaken.

He had over a dozen subordinates when he entered Panlongcheng, and now only this few remained.

Finding the Nanchengmen tightly shut, he also wanted to climb the wall.

He He Chunhua subconsciously pressed his hand on the sword at his waist. The Grand Coordinator's troops were mortal enemies of the Kite Army; should he let them up or not?

Of course he would! He immediately ordered his men: "Move the road barrier!"

If they intercepted and made a scene under the city gate, it would only attract monsters to gather; letting these men of the Grand Coordinator climb the wall and then finding an opening to slit their throats with a few sword strikes—wouldn't that be easy?

His side had the advantage in numbers; couldn't they take out five or six of the other side?

However, after Le Le Zhengqing saw the guards on the wall, his expression changed; he no longer asked to climb the wall, but turned and led his men away in a hurry.

This city was full of crises, and there were few suitable hiding places to be found. He would rather give up the seemingly safe city wall, most likely because he had sniffed out the ill intentions of the Kite people.

He He Chunhua could only secretly sigh that it was a pity.

Afterward, everyone heard a loud and terrifying beast roar.

That roar echoed in the ancient city of Panlong, as if it could tear the sky apart.

One sound rang out, and a hundred beasts fell silent.

Even separated by such a distance, many people were shaken to the core, their hearts trembling incessantly, and a great fear welled up from within.

With a *clang*, the weapon in someone's hand fell to the ground.

He He Chunhua's voice was hoarse: "What was that?"

So, the giant beast that had passed under the city earlier wasn't even a leader? This beast roar represented the arrival of the king of the monsters! He He Lingchuan licked his lips and said sincerely, "I hope it doesn't discover us."

He had heard this magnitude of beast roar in the Otherworld of the Fojie; at that time, it was emitted by the Thunder-Engine Beast Lord, its sound shaking the earth for dozens of miles.

It was also He He Lingchuan's first time seeing such a magnificent monster.

No, the beast roar in the ruins just now was even more soul-shaking than the Thunder-Engine Beast Lord.

Just how many secrets were hidden in the Great Great Great Fanghu, that even non-human things were involved? Immediately following this, a blizzard began to blow in the city without warning.

The thick city walls were covered in white frost in the blink of an eye, and the thinly clad soldiers hurriedly hid in the gaps to avoid being frozen into icicles.

He He Chunhua opened his mouth and a puff of white steam came out: "Two tornadoes have gone to the east."

"The ghostly lights that emerged after the monsters died also went in that direction," He He Lingchuan said. "They are all going to the same place."

"Where to?"

He He Lingchuan shook his head; he didn't know either.

But soon, the beast's roar sounded again from the east, sounding even more majestic.

"So fast!" He He Chunhua's face changed color. "In such a short time, it has already crossed more than half of Panlongcheng?"

(End of chapter)