Chapter 833: More Factions

Bao Guanjie asked the burly man, “I don’t recognize you, sir. How should I address you?”

“Yuezheng.”

Yuezheng was not his given name, but his surname.

He had deliberately held back his full name, even though he felt it unlikely anyone here would recognize him. After all, western Yuan was a remote frontier region far from the northwestern battlefront.

Unfortunately for him, he had run into He Chunhua.

Though the man had not given his full name, He Chunhua immediately remembered that the Minister of War had a fierce general under his command. Two and a half years ago, this general had helped suppress the uprising of the Righteous Army, and just last year, he had fought General Wu Di back and forth without yielding ground. His name was Yuezheng Qing!

It seems like Ling Jinbao was right.

For the Minister of War to send Yuezheng Qing all the way here shows just how badly he wants the Generous Pot.

But looking at it from a different angle, in a time like this when capable generals are so difficult to come by, if Yuezheng Qing could be eliminated here, the Minister of War’s strength would unquestionably suffer.

At that thought, He Chunhua said nothing. He simply turned around and walked toward the temple.

His meaning could not have been clearer. He intended to stand aside and watch.

Zhang Lianhai smiled. “A wise man knows when to yield to circumstances.”

Bao Guanjie’s face darkened.

He Chunhua commanded the largest force here. If he refused to join hands with them, Bao Guanjie’s side would be at a disadvantage against the Heavenly Palace.

Fortunately, Yuezheng Qing spoke out, “Please step aside.”

One of the lamp spirits transformed into a two-headed serpent and hissed at him. Zhang Lianhai said indifferently, “Defeat us, and then you may enter.”

* * *

There was an open space inside the temple. The Heishui City soldiers took up positions around it, while the He father and son walked inside.

The outer walls had collapsed long ago, so from here, they had a clear view of the pool.

Bao Guanjie and Yuezheng Qing seemed to have reached an understanding. Their forces began moving simultaneously toward opposite flanks of the Heavenly Palace party.

Zhang Lianhai’s expression grew solemn as well.

These people’s greed for the supreme treasure has already overwhelmed their fear of the Heavenly Palace!

It seems that I will have to teach them a lesson.

During the earlier battle at Heishui City, all the various factions had more or less gone through the motions. No one had brought out their true trump cards.

He Lingchuan very much wanted to see exactly what they had been holding back.

He Chunhua folded his arms and said, “What do you think? Do they truly dare attack the Heavenly Palace?”

“What choice do they have if they want to explain themselves when they go back? Everyone came here carrying orders. When you work for someone else, all you need to do is answer to the person above you. Who cares if a flood sweeps everything away afterward?” He Lingchuan then pointed again. “Look. More people are coming. It looks like it really is going to be quite lively tonight.”

From the shadows of the surrounding buildings, another one to two hundred people unexpectedly rushed out!

He Chunhua narrowed his eyes to see them clearly, then nearly laughed in disbelief.

Judging from their armor and weapons, these are Andong troops!

Right, on the very night Liao Shan surrounded and attacked Heishui, the Panlong Ruins had emitted red light for the first time. Liao Shan must have dispatched a team to the ruins in search of treasure back then.

He Chunhua had nearly forgotten about them. He had not expected anyone from Andong to still be here.

He Lingchuan silently counted the factions in his head. Tonight, the Panlong Ruins had somehow gathered forces from the Heavenly Palace, the State of Baling, the Minister of War, the State of Andong, and He Chunhua. Outside the city, the Jianyang Sect was still waiting as well.

Of course, if He Lingchuan counted himself separately, that made a full seven parties, all here for the Generous Pot.

And these were only the ones he could see. Panlong Ancient City covered such a vast area. Who knew whether more factions were still hiding elsewhere in the city?

There probably are. He Lingchuan asked, “Old man, what do you think? Can the Heavenly Palace hold them off?”

He had to keep diverting He Chunhua’s attention, making absolutely certain his father had no opportunity to use a deific technique.

“If the Andong troops are joining in too, it’s hard to say.” The Andong force was numerous, second only to that of Heishui City. If they joined forces with the State of Baling and the Minister of War’s men, the three sides together would number nearly three hundred. “And we’re still standing here on the sidelines. Even if we don’t act, the Heavenly Palace will have to remain wary of us.”

The He father and son had merely withdrawn into the temple, but that only meant that they were barely over thirty meters from the pool. They were not actually that far from where the action was seemingly poised to take place.

If those four factions fought until they were all badly bloodied, who could guarantee that the Heishui City army would not make their move afterward to reap the benefits?

He Lingchuan asked again, “Why doesn’t Zhang Lianhai go in himself?”

Anyone could see that obtaining the Generous Pot required entering the red light.

He Chunhua shook his head. He could not understand that either.

Does Zhang Lianhai really believe that sending in a few attendants would be enough to seize the Generous Pot? Surely, he can’t be that overconfident. But then, what exactly is this Heavenly Palace envoy planning?

He Lingchuan knew one crucial fact that his father did not: after he stole the lid of the Generous Pot from Mount Xu, the Generous Pot itself had suddenly appeared six months later. Those two major events were not merely sequential; there was a causal link between them.

The Heavenly Palace surely knew very well that this expedition to the Panlong Ruins might not only lead them to the Generous Pot, but could even help them capture the culprit who had thrown Mount Xu into chaos!

Under circumstances like these, how could the Heavenly Palace possibly send only a few attendants into the red light and call it a day?

From what He Lingchuan knew of the Heavenly Palace, even if it had not thrown its full strength into the operation, it had surely prepared something nasty in secret.

Hiss. Could it really be as I suspected?

He Lingchuan suddenly felt a little uneasy.

At that moment, He Chunhua unexpectedly took a die from his storage ring and tossed it onto the ground.

The die had a pink-gold base, and each of its six faces bore a different color and pattern. He Lingchuan even saw that one side was pitch-black, with what looked like the head of a malicious ghost grinning at whoever faced it.

The die clattered across the ground for two turns.

Both father and son watched closely to see which face would land up, but then it lodged in a groove between the stones and came to rest balanced on one edge!

“Uh...” He Lingchuan immediately understood what that meant. He had gambled often enough in the past. The throw did not count.

He Chunhua’s expression grew even darker. This die was an instrument of divination. Its six faces represented six possible answers: auspicious, inauspicious, greatly auspicious, greatly inauspicious, neutral, and blank.

The blank face represented something that could not be predicted.

He Chunhua had assumed the worst possible outcome would be landing on the blank face. He did not expect that the die would refuse to land on any face at all!

Is the same force that’s interfering with the red cord around my wrist also affecting the die?

He Chunhua instinctively raised his head to look at the pillar of red light.

There was no point throwing the die again. When divining the same question, only the first cast was valid.

He Lingchuan asked curiously, “What kind of treasure is that?”

“This die can divine good or bad fortune in the immediate future.” He Chunhua bent down to retrieve it, but his eldest son moved even faster and snatched it up first.

“You had something this useful, old man? Why didn’t you ever bring it out before?” He Lingchuan turned the die over and over in his hand, examining it from every angle.

“I only acquired it recently.” A faint smile tugged at He Chunhua’s lips. “Why don’t you try as well, Chuan’er? Here in the Panlong Ruins, our fates are tied together. If I can’t obtain an answer, perhaps you can point us in the right direction.”

“Sure.” Something stirred in He Lingchuan’s heart, and he casually tossed the die.

Clatter, clatter.

It spun twice across the ground, but this time it did not get stuck.

Everyone crowded closer out of curiosity.

The blank face was pointing upward.

That side was pure white, without a single pattern on it.

“What does that mean?”

He Chunhua’s eyebrows were almost knotted together as he answered, “Uncertain.”

There was no fixed outcome. No answer as to whether their fortune would be good or bad.

He Lingchuan, on the other hand, seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. “As long as it isn’t an ill omen!”

When He Chunhua first produced the die, He Lingchuan had actually gotten a fright. Naluotian called itself the God of Fate, and one glance was enough to tell that this die was probably another little tool it had given He Chunhua.

If He Chunhua really managed to divine something from it, then...

Fortunately, fortunately...

By the pool, the three factions other than the Heavenly Palace had been secretly exchanging glances the entire time.

Naturally, Zhang Lianhai was most wary of the Baling force.

Bao Guanjie continued talking without pause, trying again and again to persuade him to give way, as though he could not see the refusal written plainly across Zhang Lianhai’s face.

They still wanted to make one more attempt, or several.

In a way, that showed just how desperately Baling wanted to avoid angering Beijia.

“This is taking forever. Are they planning to argue until dawn?” He Lingchuan secretly made a hand signal toward Qiu Hu, then pointed at the pool. His meaning was clear: light a fire under them.

He needed to muddy the waters as quickly as possible.

Qiu Hu understood. With one hand hidden behind his back, he formed a hand seal. A tiny mud snake immediately crawled out of a crack beside the pool. It was shorter than a chopstick and yellow-brown from head to tail, nearly indistinguishable from the surrounding dirt and sand.

The barriers set up by the Heavenly Palace attendants were all designed to defend against threats from outside.

Who could have expected a snake to crawl out from beneath the pool behind them?

The instant it emerged, it headed straight for one of the Heavenly Palace attendants and sank its teeth into his ankle!

“Agh!” The attendant cried out.

His staff had already been pointed outward, his nerves drawn taut.

Startled by the sudden bite, he instinctively unleashed the divine technique he had been preparing.

Bang!

A fireball shot out and nearly struck one of the Andong soldiers.

At the same time, the mud snake collapsed, crumbling back into an ordinary lump of earth.

Canceling the spell and erasing all evidence in the same move, nicely done. He Lingchuan shot Qiu Hu an approving glance. The situation around the pool had already been stretched to the breaking point. How could it withstand deliberate provocation like this?

With the Heavenly Palace having suddenly attacked, the other three factions immediately retaliated.

In an instant, divine techniques and arrows filled the air.

Bao Guanjie and the Andong troops joined forces to hold down the lamp spirits, while Yuezheng Qing seized the opening and charged straight for Zhang Lianhai.

Capture the leader first, and everything else would be easy to discuss afterward.

Even now, Yuezheng Qing had no intention of simply chopping Zhang Lianhai down with one stroke.

Zhang Lianhai dodged, then suddenly raised his voice and shouted, “General He, how about joining forces with me? You may lead your entire army inside!”

He Chunhua currently had two to three hundred elite troops within the temple. No matter which side he joined, the scales would probably tip in that side’s favor immediately.

The moment Zhang Lianhai shouted those words, the expressions of all three opposing factions changed.

He Chunhua merely stood there with his hands clasped behind his back. He said nothing.

The Heavenly Palace faction was the strongest and most difficult force to deal with here. If He Chunhua helped them, then even if his troops were allowed to enter the pool, there was no guarantee he would ultimately be able to seize the Generous Pot.

He believed it was better to knock the strongest contender out first. After that, everyone who remained would still have a chance.

Hence, he chose to stand by and watch.

The other three factions immediately felt reassured, and their attacks grew even fiercer.

Zhang Lianhai shouted furiously, “The Heavenly Palace is determined to obtain the treasure within these ruins! Anyone who dares fight us for it will bring destruction upon their family and their state!”

His opponents heard him. Their movements faltered for an instant. But in the next moment, they resumed their attack.

The Heavenly Palace’s threat struck like thunder, sending a shudder through their hearts. However, they could not stop. Aside from He Chunhua, everyone present was acting under orders.

Their superiors had commanded them to seize the treasure.

Were they supposed to return and report that the Heavenly Palace wanted it, so they had courteously stepped aside and surrendered it? How could that possibly do?

Their job was simply to carry out whatever orders came from above.

As for how the Heavenly Palace might retaliate, that was a problem for later. They had already started fighting anyway. There was no point worrying about offending anyone now.

Besides, the lamp spirits were incredibly difficult to handle. Even with several opponents attacking one together, a lamp spirit still killed four people almost instantly. Seeing how viciously powerful it was, who would dare hold anything back?

Only a few dozen breaths passed before the Heavenly Palace party lost three men. The States of Baling and Andong each lost six. Yuezheng Qing had kept more of his forces in reserve, so only three of his men died, with another four wounded.

He Chunhua also heard Zhang Lianhai’s threat, and his eyebrows drew together slightly.

Is the Heavenly Palace really that obsessed with the Generous Pot?

If I seize the Generous Pot, would that mean becoming an enemy of the Heavenly Palace?

Most people might have begun reconsidering at that thought. He Chunhua, however, became even more determined to stay.