Chapter 835: No Escape, Even with Wings

Could he have already reached the ground? Zhao Qinghe shouted, “Zhou Ming! Zhou Ming, did you make it down?”

He called three times, but everything below remained silent.

Where had Zhou Ming gone?

How could a living, breathing man simply disappear?

He Chunhua refused to believe it. He picked another two men and ordered them down.

The result was the same. Both of them vanished as well.

Everyone stared fixedly at the roiling fog beneath the city wall, unease creeping into their hearts.

No one knew what would happen if they recklessly climbed down.

The unknown was always the most terrifying thing.

By now, the aberrant creatures had begun gathering around them.

There had not been that many at first, but the Heishui City troops were holding the routes up the wall and had killed several of them behind the makeshift barricades. The rest soon followed the smell of blood.

Standing atop the gatehouse and looking down into the city, the soldiers could frequently see white figures darting through the streets and alleys, while bestial roars rose one after another.

By now, there were probably far more than three hundred of them.

The combined forces of every faction would already have struggled against just eighty of these aberrant creatures. Against more than three hundred, the humans could do nothing but flee for their lives.

Moreover, the red light was still sending more aberrant creatures out without pause.

He Chunhua truly had not expected things from within an illusion to be able to enter reality and slaughter their way through everyone. The last time they entered the Panlong Ruins, nothing like this had happened.

Most frightening of all, someone had clearly laid a trap in secret this time, turning the ruins into a sealed city. Whoever was behind this was operating on a far higher level than Sun Fuping, Nian Songyu, and the others ever had.

The only thing He Chunhua did not know was who the mastermind was targeting.

Every living person who had entered the ruins? Or one particular faction among them?

He Chunhua instinctively glanced toward his eldest son. He Lingchuan had already taken the Rongshan disciples down to the front line of the defenses and had just chopped off an aberrant creature’s arm with one swing of his saber.

Despite being trapped in such dire circumstances, their fighting spirit remained high. Without them, the Heishui City army’s losses and casualties would have been far worse.

Chuan’er... He Chunhua shook his head inwardly. Surely the target can’t be him, right?

Just then, Zhao Qinghe rushed down and reported loudly, “We’ve finished inventorying the weapons on the gatehouse. Two cannon carts and one catapult are still usable, and their firing angles can reach the area below the wall. They’ve already been cleared out and adjusted. Your orders?”

Military weapons were already stationed atop the southern gate. More than a century of wind and weather had ruined most of them, but a small number were still serviceable.

He Chunhua’s mind was already full of distracting thoughts, so he answered without much consideration, “Use them.” Against the aberrant creatures below, it would be best not to rely on flesh-and-blood soldiers.

Zhao Qinghe acknowledged the order and went back up.

He Lingchuan was fighting fiercely on the front line when Qiu Hu suddenly said, “They’re about to fire the cannons from the gatehouse.”

Only after Qiu Hu pointed it out did He Lingchuan look up, and his heart immediately tightened.

“Stop!” he shouted at He Chunhua. “Stop the bombardment!”

He infused the shout with true energy, letting it cut through the battlefield noise and reach He Chunhua’s ears. Startled, He Chunhua lowered his head and saw He Lingchuan make several bounding leaps through the crowd. He was even more agile than an ape. Before anyone could clearly see how he had climbed up, He Lingchuan was already standing in front of him.

So fast!

He Chunhua was still surprised when his eldest son said, “The cannon fire will be too loud. It’s unwise to draw the aberrant creatures’ attention.”

“But...” He Chunhua admitted that his son had a point, but aberrant creatures were still pouring endlessly from the red light. It would be extremely difficult for the hundred or so men under his command to hold them off with manpower alone. Even as father and son spoke, two of his trusted soldiers below made a single mistake and were bitten by aberrant creatures, then dragged out from behind cover.

The men on the wall could only watch helplessly as the two were eaten alive. They were still breathing when their limbs were torn off and their bellies ripped open.

Fortunately, their screams did not last long, lasting less than a dozen breaths from beginning to end, as their throats had been bitten through.

Anyone who saw such a scene would feel a chill in their heart.

They were trapped inside a sealed city with nowhere to escape. Who could say this would not be their own final end?

He Chunhua clenched his fist in fury. “Idiots!”

One of the dead men had been a spellcaster. Why had someone responsible for controlling divine techniques gone so far forward? There were not many spellcasters in the force to begin with, and now they had lost another.

“If we’re not fighting side by side with the other factions, then right now this is a contest of who can be more cautious and survive the longest,” He Lingchuan said quickly. “Once those cannons fire, every aberrant creature will come toward us. We’ll only be taking pressure off the other factions. They might even use the opportunity to seize the treasure.”

Those final two sentences struck straight at He Chunhua’s heart. Making bridal clothes for others[1] was not something one should do lightly.

He immediately turned and signaled Zhao Qinghe. “Stop! Stop!”

The weapons atop the gatehouse had already creaked into position, and the ammunition had even been loaded. They were just about to ignite the fuse when He Chunhua’s shout halted everything at the last moment.

Just then, the Soul-Stealing Mirror suddenly alerted He Lingchuan that a figure had appeared in the nearby square.

Under cover of darkness and the shadows cast by the buildings, the figure was attempting to circle around the beast herd and make its way toward the gatehouse.

He Lingchuan’s eyes narrowed.

Hm?

Isn’t that Zhou Ming, the man who had climbed down the rope earlier and disappeared into the dense fog beneath the wall?

How did he appear inside the city?

Zhou Ming approached cautiously, but twice he was forced to expose himself while crossing open ground. Zhao Qinghe and the others spotted him as well and exclaimed, “Zhou Ming? Hurry! Get up here!”

The words had barely left his mouth when an aberrant creature noticed Zhou Ming. With a roar, seven or eight aberrant creatures pounced toward him.

Zhou Ming could no longer bother with concealment. He broke into a full sprint toward the city gate.

Nearly three hundred meters separated the two sides. His companions all cheered him on, while He Chunhua ordered, “Go bring him up! Quickly!”

If they could learn what Zhou Ming had experienced, perhaps they could understand what was happening with the city gate.

But before anyone could be sent to meet him, dozens of aberrant creatures charged out from the surrounding streets and alleys, cutting Zhou Ming off at once.

He darted left and right, displaying every ounce of his agility and evasive skill, but there were simply too many aberrant creatures, including plenty of nimble ones.

In the end, the Yuan soldiers atop the wall could only watch helplessly as Zhou Ming disappeared beneath a tide of creatures, frustration and despair filling their hearts.

In truth, everyone had secretly been thinking, if worst comes to worst, we can always jump off the wall and leave.

Now that Zhou Ming had suddenly reappeared inside the city, they finally understood that even jumping over the wall would not let them escape!

This was what it truly meant to have no escape, even with wings.

What were they supposed to do now?

He Chunhua’s face turned ashen.

Who possessed such a tremendous divine technique that Zhou Ming could be transported back inside the city without anyone noticing the slightest thing?

The most likely answer was the Generous Pot itself.

Because Zhou Ming had appeared, most of the aberrant creatures’ attention had been drawn away, considerably reducing the pressure on the routes leading up the city wall.

At that moment, two more figures appeared at the far end of the gate square and ran toward the streets deeper inside the city.

He Lingchuan recognized them immediately. They were the other two personal guards who had climbed down the wall earlier.

They had probably been terrified by Zhou Ming’s fate and did not dare approach the gatehouse again under any circumstances, so they fled in the opposite direction instead.

But the moment they moved, the surrounding creatures noticed them and immediately turned to give chase.

He Chunhua steadied himself and ordered his men, “Withdraw inside the wall! Quickly!”

He made the decision immediately. Since he saw that the number of aberrant creatures below the gate had decreased, he abandoned the passageways leading up the wall. He ordered everyone to retreat into the hollow chambers inside it.

In truth, the thick walls themselves were enough to protect most of them.

No one wanted to remain on the front line. Everyone was eager to fall back and preserve their lives. He Chunhua’s order was therefore perfectly in line with what they wanted to do, and the men rushed impatiently into the city wall before shutting all the doors.

Seen from below, the wall now looked completely deserted, without a single person in sight.

Of the two fleeing guards, one had already been caught and eaten. The other sprinted through the streets and used every trick he knew, eventually preparing to jump down into a drainage channel. The space below was narrow, and the creatures might not be able to enter.

He was just about to succeed when a blast of frost qi came flying from nowhere and struck him with perfect accuracy.

Before the man even touched the ground, his arms and legs had already gone rigid. He hit the earth and rolled twice.

Only then did an enormous creature stroll over at its leisure, pick him up in its jaws, and swallow him whole!

When He Chunhua saw the aberrant creature from where he was hiding inside the wall, cold sweat immediately broke out across his body.

The aberrant creatures that had emerged earlier came in all manner of strange shapes, but even the largest among them had only stood around five meters tall.

This one, however, was unquestionably more than ten meters in height. Standing upright, it was as tall as a two-story building. Its build was massive and bear-like, but a pair of horns grew from its head.

The other aberrant creatures were clearly terrified of it. None dared approach within thirty meters. They merely lowered their heads and followed behind.

If the Heishui City troops had fired the cannons and catapult earlier, creating deafening explosions, there was a nine-in-ten chance this aberrant creature would have headed straight for the city gate.

His eldest son had shown remarkable foresight.

No one wanted to attract the attention of such a terrifying creature. Thinking back to the weapons atop the gatehouse, everyone felt a wave of lingering fear.

Qiu Hu whispered to He Lingchuan, “Boss, we’ve finally spotted the leader of this aberrant creature horde.”

He Lingchuan gave a soft acknowledgment.

With so many frost aberrant creatures around, it would have been strange if they did not have several leaders among them.

From inside his robes, the Soul-Stealing Mirror asked him, “Whoa, was this part of your plan too?”

He shook his head.

Everything happening in the city tonight had gone far beyond his expectations. The Generous Pot truly had arranged plenty of surprises for him. Or rather, scares.

Where exactly did all these frost aberrant creatures come from?

One thing was certain: the pool in the temple should lead directly into the Generous Pot.

In other words, these frost aberrant creatures had come out of the Generous Pot.

That was strange.

He did not remember these damned things existing anywhere in the world inside the pot!

That pillar of red light was practically like someone had poked a hole straight into an aberrant creature nest.

Wait, aberrant creature nest?

A strange thought suddenly surfaced in his mind.

Maybe... maybe these aberrant creatures truly aren’t native to the Generous Pot?

Sigh, tonight’s operation was supposed to be simple.

After the Generous Pot interfered like this, the situation had become incredibly complex.

Worst of all, He Lingchuan himself was now in genuine danger.

That damned pot never gives me a moment’s peace.

After swallowing its little snack, the giant creature still seemed unsatisfied. It looked around, sniffed several times with the wind, then began lumbering step by step toward the city wall.

He Chunhua immediately ordered, “Hide inside the middle wall! Don’t move, and don’t make a sound!”

The south gate consisted of two barbicans and three walls. Everyone retreated into the partition wall of the first barbican, leaving the outermost section to the aberrant creatures.

They had barely hidden themselves when the giant creature arrived beneath the wall.

The inner wall was considerably taller than even the giant creature. It could only stretch its neck upward and bring its nose close to the small openings in the wall, sniffing carefully.

Tiny ice crystals sprayed out with every breath it took. Anything they touched, whether the wall itself or the passageways within, became coated in a thin layer of frost.

If that breath struck a person directly, the victim would probably be left at least half-paralyzed.

It sniffed around repeatedly, seemingly puzzled and reluctant to leave.

Just then, an explosion suddenly boomed from somewhere inside the city.

Rumble—

No one knew which faction had unleashed such a powerful blast.

The giant creature immediately turned its head and charged toward the source of the sound.

The smaller creatures followed close behind, forming a vast procession that only grew larger as it went.

Only then did He Chunhua finally breathe a sigh of relief.

This expedition was becoming stranger by the moment.

1. This is from an idiom, by the way. It really just means working hard or putting in a lot of effort only for someone else to reap the benefits or get the credit. ☜