Chapter 82: Breaking the Mountain

Everything that happened in the commandery was completely unknown to the Incense Pavilion, which had sealed its mountain.

Zhang Shaoyou had already stated that a full mountain seal was the act of a coward, not a good choice—going in completely blind like this was by no means a good thing. Only in the short term might sealing the mountain for self-preservation leave others with no opening, counting as an emergency measure.

Under normal circumstances, once a mountain is sealed, even if the enemy is stronger than you, they will rarely choose a frontal assault—after all, it would likely mean heavy casualties. Everyone's fighting strength is hard-won; no one is willing to throw it away carelessly. Last night's Incense Pavilion raid on the Skyward Sword Sect was only because they assumed the other side was unprepared.

Since sealing the mountain, True Person Yiyang had felt much at ease, always thinking that nothing would go wrong these few days—as long as they held out until Yang Dechang invited reinforcements from the Prince of Jin.

He would never have imagined that Yang Dechang had not only failed to go to the Prince of Jin, but just now was still fighting in the commandery.

Nor would he have imagined that on the very first night after sealing the mountain, the Skyward Sword Sect and the Dongjiang Gang had already joined hands and were charging straight at the mountain gate. Among them, apart from the four-person dog-and-bitch team, the main force of the Skyward Sword Sect was entirely traitors who had once left the Incense Pavilion themselves.

"Enemy attack! Enemy attack!" The hoarse shouts of the disciples guarding the mountain gate echoed across the entire mountain. True Person Yiyang, who had been refining pills, sprang to his feet abruptly, nearly kicking over the pill furnace.

He rushed out the door to look from a high vantage point, and saw a dense crowd of people blocking the front of the mountain-protecting grand array. A cripple in a wheelchair was pulling out array flags, stabbing them here and there, seemingly trying to break the array.

True Person Yiyang nearly spat blood.

Under normal circumstances, outsiders might not even be clear on the range of the mountain-protecting grand array; recklessly entering would trigger an attack, and whoever led the charge would easily suffer casualties. Previously, Chang Qing had precisely had Zhang Shaoyou and the others go first for this reason.

But now, with a large group of their own people, even if they didn't know how to break this array, they were absolutely clear on the array's range—extremely precisely leading people to stand exactly one step outside the range, watching the dead cripple wheel his chair around trying to break the array from outside.

How is one even supposed to play this?

True Person Yiyang could no longer bother observing, and said sternly: "Everyone out of seclusion and heed the order! Concentrate all long-range forces, attack that cripple!"

Someone beside him actually asked: "Wh-which cripple? There are two."

True Person Yiyang slapped him on the forehead: "The man breaking the array!"

"Swoosh swoosh swoosh!" Countless Incense Pavilion members in seclusion or refining pills poured out one after another, summoning their strongest magic treasures. Various attacks rained down like a swarm of locusts, all blasting toward Lu Xingzhou.

Lu Xingzhou neither dodged nor evaded. He looked up at the brilliant, firework-like attacks in the sky and let out a soft, involuntary laugh: "Letting a pill master command a war... the Incense Pavilion still hasn't realized where it went wrong."

Bystanders glanced sideways—spoken like you're not a pill master yourself...

"Boom boom boom!" Wildly violent attacks of various colors exploded in front of Lu Xingzhou. Lu Xingzhou didn't even blink, as if circles of iron chains surrounded him before him; all attacks could not advance a single inch past one chi from him.

He hadn't been solving the array at all just now—he had been setting one up.

Using the Dongjiang Gang's famous defensive treasure "Iron Chains Across the River" as the defensive array core, combined with a fusion array of absorption and rebound effects.

The various attacks were gathered into a single mass, which rebounded with a thunderous crash, blasting apart some distant pavilion in the mountains.

True Person Yiyang's heart shook violently, and he roared wildly: "Stop him!"

But how could there be time?

With a "boom," the pavilion was blasted to smithereens, and even the ley lines beneath were gouged out into a pit dozens of zhang deep.

The mountain-protecting grand array vanished with a whoosh.

"Your array eye is on the inside—what array could I possibly break by planting flags from outside..." Lu Xingzhou looked up at the dumbfounded Incense Pavilion members on the mountain and casually waved his hand: "Go!"

Shi Tielong of the Dongjiang Gang retracted the Iron Chains Across the River, glanced at Lu Xingzhou with a complicated expression, and tacitly split forces with Shen Tang's side, charging left and right toward the sprawling buildings on the summit.

True Person Yiyang's furious roar came from the mountaintop: "Shi Tielong, you dare start a war—aren't you afraid the imperial court will punish you!"

Shi Tielong nearly laughed out loud at that: "Then let Commandery Governor Hao come punish Shi for his crime. Go!"

Countless beams of flight light rushed toward the mountaintop; the visual effects of clashing spells of various colors bloomed like fireworks.

Lu Xingzhou, however, did not take part in the frontal assault—he was never in charge of the hard fighting.

A'Nuo shot off like a streak, pushing Lu Xingzhou's wheelchair around toward the back mountain, heading straight for the treasure vault.

The things there were the most valuable—perhaps there were even second-grade goods... While the Dongjiang Gang didn't know where the vault was, and they had both traitors in hand and Yang Dechang's materials, if they didn't seize the moment while everyone was fighting at the front to go grab it first, what were they waiting for?

Were they really going to wait and split the loot fifty-fifty with the Dongjiang Gang?

The vault was usually heavily guarded, but at this critical moment of two forces jointly attacking the mountain, those who could fight had clearly gone out for the great battle—no strong cultivator would be squatting in the vault, only some small fry remained.

Seeing A'Nuo pushing Lu Xingzhou over, they all shouted and actually ran off from the back mountain, not even bothering to put up a token resistance.

One could also see from this that, with the mountain-protecting grand array broken and a large group of their own guardians defecting to counterattack, the Incense Pavilion people had no will to fight. Seeing the two gangs of enemies swarming up, the pressure was immense; probably at this moment quite a few strong cultivators had already secretly fled, far from achieving a united resistance.

This battle might be even simpler than expected... but it also meant that Incense Pavilion people would soon come to loot the vault and run—they had to hurry.

A'Nuo sprang forward, grabbed one who looked like a minor leader, and dragged him back: "Don't run, help open the door."

The minor leader cowered with a tearful face: "Little auntie, I don't have the key... If I did, I'd have opened it myself long ago, grabbed the stuff, and run!"

"No key needed." Lu Xingzhou said: "Just tell me whether this mechanism has a self-destruct setting."

"Absolutely not—these are all the Incense Pavilion's most precious treasures, who could bear to self-destruct them."

"Then that's fine." Lu Xingzhou unfurled his soul banner; black flames silently burned at the door lock. Before long, with a "crack," the inner lock burned through, and the heavy stone door swung open at a push.

The leader stared dumbfounded.

"Off you go." Lu Xingzhou shook the soul banner in his hand: "If you hadn't offended me a year ago, your Incense Pavilion could be considered lucky."

The leader scrambled away on hands and feet.

Master and disciple stepped through the door, and suddenly froze.

The wheelchair trembled uncontrollably, and A'Nuo actually couldn't keep it going straight forward. The ring on her hand was shaking too, and the iron-disc manhole cover inside the ring's space was flying about uncontrollably.

That leader reappeared outside the door, laughing heartily: "Although there's no self-destruct setting here, there is primordial magnetism interference—any metal object that enters immediately loses control, and even magic treasures all fail. It's exactly to prevent foreign enemies from breaking in. Who'd have thought it'd happen to be a guy in a wheelchair—can't even move now, can you? Never thought that even though I couldn't open the door, someone else would open it for me, hahaha..."

Master and disciple both turned to look at him with strange expressions.

The leader's smile stiffened slightly, and he turned to try to press the indoor mechanism: "Still staring when death is at your door!"

Lu Xingzhou sighed and stood up.

The leader: "?"

"I can't control the wheelchair... then how about controlling it like this?" Lu Xingzhou lifted the wheelchair up.

The leader: "???"

With a "bang," Lu Xingzhou swung the wheelchair and smashed it heavily onto his head; gore burst out.

"I've wanted to play like this for ages—truly satisfying." Lu Xingzhou set the wheelchair down comfortably: "Other strong cultivators paired with this primordial magnetism interference might actually cause people no small trouble, but you, a mere minor leader, dare to put on an act."

A'Nuo looked around and quickly found a mechanism and pressed it.

The primordial magnetism interference vanished instantly.

Lu Xingzhou pulled out the Ten Thousand Souls Banner: "I originally didn't want to kill too heavily and said I'd let you live, but I didn't expect someone to want to enter the Human Emperor Banner themselves."

That leader didn't even have time to scream; a wisp of black mist was already sucked into the banner, dead beyond recovery.

A'nuo didn't even bother to look, quickly stowing things into the ring; if she delayed any longer, others would arrive...

Lu Xingzhou also glanced around; mostly medicine bottles, plus a few herbs and fruits that seemed somewhat interesting. He stowed the herbs and fruits first, then rummaged on the shelves for a moment, uncorked several medicine bottles to sniff them, and put away two of them.

No sooner had he finished these things than the sound of breaking the air came from outside. True Person Yiyang, covered in blood, stumbled and fell outside the door, his eyes flashing with rage at a glance: "Lu Xingzhou!"

Lu Xingzhou stepped out, laughing helplessly: "It seems True Person isn't a hero willing to die with the sect either; you fought halfway then ran to the secret vault to grab things and leave?"

True Person Yiyang's face turned green then white; wasn't that stating the obvious? He had been besieged by several third-grade cultivators outside, suffered severe injury in just a short while, and seeing it was impossible to hold, why not run? What else was there to wait for?

Others just hadn't reacted yet; if they truly reacted, they would probably all rush in to grab things and flee at once.

True Person Yiyang did notice that there were no powerful experts here with Lu Xingzhou, only him and a child; the hatred and murderous intent in his eyes instantly overflowed: "Lu Xingzhou, you forced your way into a doorless hell; first, I'll take your head to collect interest from Shen Tang!"

Lu Xingzhou sighed: "You don't really think you're so powerful you could break out of the siege of so many people, do you? Someone followed you; Shen Tang knows he won't let you live, he just wants to give him a chance to present a token of loyalty..."

Before the words finished, a sword light suddenly rose behind True Person Yiyang.

True Person Yiyang, already heavily injured, didn't even have time to react; sword qi pierced his chest.

True Person Yiyang turned his head in shock, his eyes instantly widening in rage: "Yang Dechang... may you die a bad death..."

Yang Dechang was even more speechless than him: "I already didn't want to openly participate in the fight and attack your people, afraid someone would see... you ran to jump in front of me alone, and now you blame me?"

"Bang!" True Person Yiyang fell to the ground, eyes unsealed in death.

Even at death, he couldn't figure out why Yang Dechang spoke of killing him so matter-of-factly, as if not killing him would be letting the organization down.

Lu Xingzhou tossed a bottle of the pills he had just taken to Yang Dechang: "Second-grade breakthrough pill; it should be effective for you."

Yang Dechang tossed the pill in his hand, his eyes holding some depth: "Aren't you afraid I'll kill you and rob the treasures here? Then there's no need for you to share with me."

"Shen Tang used my token to connect with Wan Cheng; you still think about these things? Then maybe I overestimated you..." Lu Xingzhou sighed, pointing at the things in the secret vault: "To put it plainly, the Incense-Burning Pavilion's nature is here; this place isn't some spiritual mountain or treasure land. The main collections are pills and talismans and such; although the grades are good, there's really nothing that makes one's eyes light up; I'm even a bit disappointed... not worth it, Old Yang."

Yang Dechang smiled bitterly and shook his head.

Lu Xingzhou suddenly asked: "Old Yang... is there any news on which Young Master of the Huo family went out and where?"

Yang Dechang's heart tightened: "What do you want to do?"

Lu Xingzhou acted as if nothing was wrong: "The imperial family's succession struggle is life and death; do you find it hard to understand that I want a few brothers' lives? If they don't die, when will it be Huo Shang's turn to rise?"

"You shouldn't tell me this." Yang Dechang was very speechless; could such things be said openly? Are you and I very close?

"But I think I should tell you this." Lu Xingzhou said calmly: "Think it over after you return; if you have any news, send me a message... just send it to the Tianxing Sword Sect."

Yang Dechang pressed his lips tightly and said nothing.

Lu Xingzhou said: "Whether to do it or not, the decision is yours; I won't force you."

Yang Dechang put away the pills, bowed his hands, and disappeared without a word.

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PS: Ten thousand words completed. No more tonight at midnight; taking a short break, charging again tomorrow~ Continuing to ask for monthly votes~

(End of this chapter)