Chapter 834: Every Man for Himself

Whether there are dates on the jujube tree or not, it does not hurt to whack it with a pole to see if anything falls—nothing ventured, nothing gained.

If He Chunhua stayed, perhaps an opportunity would present itself.

Watching the battle from inside the temple, he had to admit that those from the Heavenly Palace were astonishingly strong. Even while facing enemies who outnumbered them almost ten to one, they were still killing their opponents quickly and efficiently.

Sigh, if only the elites under my command are of this caliber.

Amid the chaos, another strange change suddenly occurred.

The area around the pool had become quite the chaotic brawl, and no one had managed to find an opportunity to enter. Yet unexpectedly, something came out of the red light instead.

It was a gigantic white claw, its palm larger than a millstone. It suddenly reached out of the red light, swept forward, and dragged a Heavenly Palace attendant inside!

The cultivators fighting with their backs to the pool had never expected to be attacked from behind.

Those from Heishui City who were inside the temple, however, saw everything clearly. He Chunhua froze. “What was that?”

Immediately afterward, another creature emerged from the red light and lunged straight at those from Baling.

This time, everyone finally got a good look at it.

It was a strange white-furred beast roughly five meters tall. Its body resembled a gorilla’s, and it appeared to be capable of standing upright or moving on all fours, but its face was that of a short-snouted pig, with two tusks jutting out past its cheeks.

The Baling man it targeted jumped in alarm but reacted quickly, throwing himself aside at the last possible instant.

The aberrant creature, however, opened its mouth and spat out a cloud of white mist.

The man from Baling was caught completely off guard and took the blast full in the face and head.

A moment later, he looked like frozen meat pulled straight from cold storage, even the corners of his clothes had frozen rigid.

The beast pounced on him, knocked him down, and began crunching away as though eating a popsicle.

Divine techniques and weapons immediately slammed into the aberrant creature from all sides, knocking it back several stumbling steps. It roared loudly, and dark red blood sprayed from its wounds. Everyone relaxed slightly at the sight. If it could bleed, it could be killed.

Just what kind of place is inside that pool?

They did not have to wonder for long.

In the next moments, more aberrant creatures sprang out of the red light. They varied greatly in shape and size, though most were covered in white fur, and some had patches or spots. No one knew whether they had been summoned by the first creature’s cries.

When the second aberrant creature jumped out, everyone attacked it together as well.

This one looked somewhat like an enormous flying squirrel, except its long tail was covered in sharp spines. Once enraged, it could launch more than a hundred tail spines at people in a single instant!

It was a wide-ranging, indiscriminate attack like a sudden storm of wind and rain.

Several parties were caught off guard, and many people got wounded.

Worse, the moment one of those spines pierced flesh, frost immediately spread from the wound. The victim’s muscles and blood rapidly began freezing. If they were not treated in time, they would turn into an ice statue within half an hour.

The creature’s attack was not as powerful as the frost talisman He Lingchuan carried. After all, his talisman had been made from frost pellets and could even freeze the barrier of glazed gold around Mount Xu’s array eye. However, what this monster lacked in individual power, it made up for with sheer quantity.

Some of those who got hit had been struck by more than one spine. The people around the pool scattered desperately, and even the Heishui City troops watching from inside the temple hurried to find cover. Two ice spines happened to strike the cracks between the stones beside He Chunhua, and a layer of frost flowers immediately spread across the ground.

Then came the third creature, then the fourth...

By the time the tenth aberrant creature leaped from the red light, the open ground around the pool had become completely crowded. Even the array that those from the Heavenly Palace had painstakingly set up was smashed apart from the inside out.

The humans’ expressions turned ugly.

Just how many aberrant creatures are going to come out of that red light?

The pool was more than happy to answer that question: endlessly many.

He Chunhua and Zhang Lianhai almost simultaneously shouted, “Retreat!”

The main conflict had changed, which naturally meant the enemy had changed as well. There was no longer any reason to keep fighting the other human factions to the death.

The moment the Heavenly Palace and Heishui City forces began withdrawing, the pressure immediately shifted onto the remaining parties.

The other factions saw that the situation was turning for the worse and began retreating as well.

But by then, thirty to forty aberrant creatures had already emerged from the pool. The instant they saw the humans, they acted as though they held some deep blood feud against them, relentlessly pursuing and attacking without pause.

Everyone knew the same rule when confronted by a tide of aberrant creatures. There was no need to outrun the monsters. One only had to outrun one’s companions.

As a result, the formations of the various parties did not last long. Under the creatures’ assault, they quickly collapsed into a rout.

Aberrant creatures continued pouring from the pool like water from a fountain. Their numbers soon exceeded a hundred, with no sign of stopping anytime soon.

The combined manpower of those factions was barely three hundred. Against so many aberrant creatures, they had no advantage at all.

If they had joined forces from the beginning, perhaps they could still have fought methodically and retreated in an orderly fashion. Unfortunately, the Heavenly Palace and the Heishui City troops had already pulled out ahead of them. The rest simply did not have the strength to maintain a united front and could only look after themselves.

People were constantly caught by aberrant creatures and surrounded. Their shouts became screams. Their screams became wails. Their wails eventually fell silent.

Blood sprayed across the ancient stone walls everywhere, some human, some belonging to the aberrant creatures.

He Chunhua had ordered the retreat decisively, and the Heishui City troops had already been positioned relatively far from the pool. The aberrant creatures were also distracted by the other factions, so none came after them for the moment.

He shouted urgently, “Head for the south gate!”

The nearest city gate was the one to the south. With the other parties serving as bait, this was their chance to leave Panlong City as quickly as possible.

No one objected. The entire army sprinted south.

He Lingchuan looked back several times and kept seeing golden light flashing near the temple. That lamp spirit’s probably showing its power.

The Heavenly Palace’s lamp spirits excelled at fighting multiple enemies at once and could freely shift between tangible and intangible states, making them particularly effective against those enormous creatures.

As a result, the Heavenly Palace’s retreat appeared considerably more controlled.

However, they had also killed the most aberrant creatures out of everyone. The more aberrant creatures they killed, the more fiercely the beasts emerging from the pool pursued them, as though each creature had lost its mind and no longer understood fear.

Fear was one of the deepest instincts of any living creature. Since the lamp spirits were so powerful, the aberrant creatures should have turned around and attacked easier targets instead. But why were they becoming even more enraged, throwing themselves forward wave after wave?

Their roars shook the sky.

The pool continued spewing aberrant creatures without end, but seven or eight out of every ten immediately charged toward the Heavenly Palace’s lamp spirit. As for the other factions, far fewer went after them.

Zhang Lianhai inwardly cursed.

Aren’t we just drawing the aberrant creatures away from everyone else?

The lamp spirit was powerful, but maintaining it consumed tremendous energy.

He had no choice but to gather his people together and retreat toward a five-story stone tower behind them.

The tower stood roughly forty-three meters tall and remained largely intact. Its structure was built almost entirely from solid stone and rammed earth, making it extremely sturdy. Most importantly, every floor had only narrow doorways, making it extremely inconvenient for giant aberrant creatures.

Sure enough, once they withdrew into the tower, the aberrant creatures’ attacks immediately weakened.

Those from the Heavenly Palace hurriedly began setting up an array on the spot.

Once the aberrant creatures lost sight of them, their hostility gradually faded. They turned around and went looking for the other groups instead.

* * *

By this point, He Chunhua’s force had already reached South Gate Square. Only four or five creatures still pursued them from behind.

The troops cast a few slowness spells, but no one was willing to turn around and engage them.

If they stopped midway, the main horde of the aberrant creatures would probably catch up within moments.

He Chunhua ran at the very front of the formation. But when the south gate finally came into view, his vision nearly went black.

The gate’s closed!

Panlong City’s southern entrance consisted of three successive gates.

From where they stood, even the gate of the innermost barbican had been shut!

Despite his usual self-control, He Chunhua immediately cursed aloud, “Which bastard son of a dog did this?!”

The Heishui City troops rushed to the gate. Dozens of men immediately went forward to open it. They pulled out the locking bar, but even then, the gate would not budge from the inside.

It was as though something outside was pressing against it, blocking it completely.

“More men!”

More soldiers rushed over. However, it made no difference. No matter how many pushed, the gate remained utterly motionless, standing there as though it had grown roots into the ground.

Several men even drew their sabers and hacked at the inner gate, yet they failed to leave so much as a mark.

Panlong City’s southern gate had endured countless wars over the years. Even this third and innermost gate was far sturdier than anyone had imagined.

Sweat broke out across the bridge of He Chunhua’s nose. “What the hell is going on?”

If they could not get out, then they would be no different from turtles trapped in a jar. Sooner or later, the aberrant creatures would catch up and slaughter them!

Qiu Hu pointed toward the gate tower. “Take the high ground and defend it! We can figure out the rest afterward!”

The aberrant creatures were almost upon them. If they did not find a defensible position now, none of them would have an afterward.

Qiu Hu’s suggestion was sound. In such an emergency, He Chunhua immediately ordered, “Up to the gate tower! Move sandbags and block the stairways!”

The third gate tower of the southern gate was extraordinarily tall and had three passageways leading up and down. The Heishui City troops only needed to defend those passageways. There were also hollow compartments within the city walls themselves where people could hide.

Aberrant creatures that were too large would not even fit inside.

Once they climbed onto the wall, the Heishui City army would hold a defensible position that was difficult to attack.

Naturally, there was a downside. They were essentially allowing the aberrant creatures to trap them here, as they would not be going anywhere.

Still, considering that the tide of aberrant creatures continued pouring endlessly from the red light, every faction inside the city was likely to end up in a similar situation. Compared with the others, the Heishui City army was doing reasonably well.

Plenty of old military supplies were scattered across and beneath the walls, namely largely intact sandbags, fallen crocodile-teeth stakes, and similar equipment. They could simply carry these over and stack them into barricades blocking the passageways.

He Chunhua hurried up the wall and ran along the walkway toward the outermost gatehouse. He Lingchuan and the others followed close behind.

When they first entered the city, everyone had clearly seen the outermost gate made from iron fir wood. One door had been half-open, while the other had fallen flat on the ground. It had remained exactly as it had been when the city was breached all those years ago.

But now, when everyone looked down—

The gate was tightly closed, without so much as a crack between the doors!

Wasn’t it broken? How did it end up shut out of nowhere?

He Chunhua ground his teeth. “What exactly is going on here?”

A shattered gate had somehow restored itself. Was that truly something human strength could accomplish?

Could we be in an illusion array?

But the army still has origin energy; how could an ordinary illusion array possibly deceive our eyes?

Dense fog drifted below the walls, hanging around the middle of the gate. The surging vapor completely blocked their line of sight, preventing them from seeing the ground or the moat below.

The Panlong Desert was no longer what it had once been. Several torrential downpours had fallen recently, so fog forming at night did not seem particularly unreasonable.

However, Zhao Qinghe casually picked up a pebble and tossed it down. They waited, and waited, but no sound of it landing ever came.

He Chunhua’s brow furrowed, and he ordered two spellcasters to cast a clear wind spell.

A powerful gust immediately swept through the area beneath the gate.

Under normal circumstances, strong wind should have easily scattered fog. However, the dense fog below the gate carried on completely unaffected, refusing to move at all.

Now that was just wrong.

One of He Chunhua’s trusted men picked up a broken spear and threw it down as well.

This object was considerably larger than a pebble. Yet after it disappeared into the fog, there was still no sound.

Even if it had fallen into water, surely they should have heard a splash, right?

The outer wall at Panlong City’s southern gate was only sixteen meters tall, which was not particularly high. In theory, they could simply climb down from here and escape the city.

He Chunhua immediately pointed to one of his personal guards. “Climb down!”

The man hooked one end of a grappling rope over a battlement and began descending the outer wall, his movements exceptionally agile.

He Lingchuan did not recognize him. He guessed that He Chunhua must have recruited this capable fighter from somewhere while he had been away from home.

The guard’s figure was soon swallowed by the dense fog and vanished from everyone’s sight.

Several breaths passed, then the rope stopped moving.

Zhao Qinghe gave it a tug, then his voice immediately tightened as he said, “There’s no one on it!”