Chapter 836: Zhang Lianhais Decision

Chapter 836: Zhang Lianhai's Decision

“Chuan’er.” He Chunhua called his eldest son aside, turned his back to the others, and lowered his voice. “In your opinion, how do we get out of this damned ghost city?”

“I’m not sure,” He Lingchuan answered truthfully. “We don’t have enough information.”

He Chunhua let out another heavy sigh. After studying his eldest son’s face carefully for a moment, he pointed toward a small room ahead. “I’m going inside to think of a solution. You stand guard outside and don’t let anyone enter.”

Panlong City’s walls had been built with great care. The hollow spaces inside them contained not only passageways wide enough for two or three people to walk abreast, but also armories at regular intervals for storing weapons and miscellaneous supplies. He Chunhua was heading toward one of these rooms.

But He Lingchuan followed right on his heels. “What kind of solution can you come up with alone? It’d be better for everyone to put their heads together.”

Behind his back, he crooked two fingers lightly, and Qiu Hu and the others immediately followed.

He Chunhua stopped and pulled a long face. “I told you to stand guard. That’s an order!”

Zhao Qinghe immediately stepped forward and placed himself between the two. “Young Master, please stop!”

“At a time like this, why are you shutting yourself away, old man?” He Lingchuan said nonchalantly. “Time is precious. Pooling everyone’s ideas is the sensible thing to do!”

Given the extraordinary circumstances, He Lingchuan could guess exactly what He Chunhua wanted to do behind closed doors.

Either he intended to ask Naluotian to point out a path for them, or he wanted to secretly perform some ritual to summon a divine descent.

Strange things were happening everywhere in the Panlong Ruins. Human strength alone clearly was not enough to deal with them, so He Chunhua was probably planning to rely on a god’s power.

He Lingchuan absolutely could not allow him to contact Naluotian and let that so-called “god of fate” ruin everything he had set in motion.

He Chunhua pointed at He Lingchuan and ordered, “Stop him.” Then he strode toward the armory.

The surrounding soldiers immediately moved to block the way.

But the passage was far too narrow for the Heishui City army’s numerical advantage to matter. Qiu Hu struck first, knocking down two of He Chunhua’s personal guards in the blink of an eye.

He Lingchuan moved like a fish through water, slipping through a gap between the men with a whoosh. Zhao Qinghe tried to intercept him, but Qiu Hu closed in and drove a fist straight toward the bridge of his nose.

Zhao Qinghe had no choice but to turn his head aside and dodge.

He Lingchuan casually flung one soldier away, then scuttled along the upper part of the passage like a gecko. He Chunhua’s vision blurred, and suddenly his son was blocking the way ahead.

“Old man.” He Lingchuan smiled at him. “Why the hurry?”

He can still smile at a time like this? To He Chunhua, that expression looked downright ill-intentioned.

Why is he so determined to stop me?Has the dagger finally come into view now that the map had been unrolled to its end? He drew a deep breath. “There are aberrant creatures prowling outside, and we still can’t leave Panlong City. Aren’t you worried?”

“It sounds like you already have a plan. Why don’t you tell us then? We can work out the details together,” He Lingchuan said softly. “Just like before.”

That last word, “before,” instead reminded He Chunhua of many things, leaving mixed emotions surging through him.

Before? What was even “before”? Before, I made the decisions, and you simply obeyed. He Chunhua glanced to either side. The Heishui City troops had been separated from him by the Rongshan men. Qiu Hu had forced Zhao Qinghe back and taken the advantageous position, while He Lingchuan himself was now the person closest to him.

He understood. These fellows had planned this beforehand.

A wise man did not suffer an immediate loss. He quickly steadied himself and barked at Zhao Qinghe and the others, “Put your weapons away! This is exactly the time when we need to think with one mind and exert our strength in one direction. How can we turn blades on our own people?”

He Lingchuan clapped his hands and laughed. “Wise as always, old man. Exactly right.”

Every time He Lingchuan called him “wise,” He Chunhua felt like he was being mocked.

But ultimately, both sides put away their weapons, and the tense standoff finally eased.

He Chunhua’s expression relaxed at once. “Chuan’er, among all the factions here, which do you think is the strongest?”

He Lingchuan thought for a moment and answered without hesitation, “The Heavenly Palace.”

He Chunhua had brought the most men, but under the present circumstances, the Heavenly Palace was probably still the faction most capable of fighting the monsters.

He Chunhua agreed. “Perhaps we should join up with the Heavenly Palace?”

“Sooner or later, everyone in the city will realize that if they want to survive, they’ll have to band together. The remaining groups will eventually gather at the city gates, whether they’re from the Heavenly Palace or Baling.”

“Will staying here actually give us a way out?”

“Why not?” He Lingchuan lifted his head toward the sky. “Once dawn comes, won’t the Panlong Ruins return to normal?”

After dawn? He Chunhua felt as though someone had suddenly poured enlightenment over his head.

Right, hasn’t every recent change in the Panlong Ruins taken place during the dark of night?

These creatures emerged from the red light, which means they’re probably some form of undead as well.

If we can only hold out until daybreak, perhaps everything really will simply vanish like smoke.

Hope was an extraordinarily precious thing. He had been somewhat disheartened earlier. After all, these three hundred men were little more than snacks before several hundred of those aberrant creatures. How much security could numbers like that really offer?

But if they only needed to endure until dawn, then they still had a chance!

Seeing his expression ease, He Lingchuan knew that for the moment, He Chunhua had abandoned the idea of calling upon a god.

At least for the moment.

A disturbance on a distant battlefield suddenly caught the attention of both father and son.

Some unknown party was fighting the monsters, and then several dim points of light appeared and drifted away in a certain direction.

Right.

Earlier, when the Heishui City troops had taken advantage of the terrain to kill two monsters, He Lingchuan had also noticed faint glimmers rising from their bodies and flying off on their own. They were dimmer than fireflies, a dark white tinged faintly with ghostly blue.

From atop the city wall, he could see clearly that all these points of light were heading in the same direction.

Dead aberrant creatures, drifting lights...

What exactly does it mean?

* * *

The Heavenly Palace party had just killed several of the aberrant creatures in one breath and likewise noticed the dim lights leaving their bodies.

That’s worth investigating. Zhang Lianhai pointed toward one of the glimmers, and an avatar of the lamp spirit immediately followed it, flying alongside the light.

He wanted to know where these glimmers eventually ended up.

A little over a hundred breaths later, the lamp spirit fluttered back and hovered beside Zhang Lianhai’s neck. A look of surprise soon appeared on his face.

The dim lights that rose from the aberrant reactures after death were all going to one place.

It was not the temple, nor was it Zhong Shengguang’s former residence or tomb. Instead, they were all heading toward the Red General’s cenotaph!

Countless glimmers sank into the cenotaph and disappeared, as though a buried black hole lay beneath it.

Zhang Lianhai did not hesitate long before deciding, “We’re leaving. Head for the Red General’s cenotaph.”

He could not tell whether the glimmers were being drawn there naturally or forcibly ferried over, but it now seemed that the key to breaking the situation was hidden there.

The attendants were startled. “My lord? It’s dangerous.”

They had currently taken shelter in a relatively safe tower and had attracted little attention from the monsters. Would it not be better to simply hide here and let the other factions feed the creatures first?

To reach the Red General’s cenotaph from here, they would have to cross almost the entirety of Panlong City. Who knew how many strange horrors they would encounter along the way?

“To hide here is barely any different from waiting for death.” Zhang Lianhai remained calm. “Once those aberrant creatures finish eating everyone else, they’ll find us sooner or later. If we want to escape alive and complete the mission the Heavenly Palace gave us, we need to understand what is happening in this city. Have you forgotten the oath you swore before leaving the Heavenly Palace?”

The attendants stiffened and answered in unison, “Through fire and boiling water, we would die ten thousand deaths for the Heavenly Palace!”

“Then move.”

Once the aberrant creatures below the tower had wandered farther away, the group quietly slipped onto the street and advanced beneath the cover of the surrounding buildings’ shadows.

Zhang Lianhai and the young attendant were kept in the center, tightly protected by the other attendants around them.

Unexpectedly, the journey went quite smoothly.

Most of the aberrant creatures seemed to have been drawn toward the northwestern corner, where their roars shook the heavens. The occasional straggler that wandered their way was quickly killed by the Heavenly Palace guards before it could even cry out.

Zhang Lianhai guessed that a large number of humans had gathered in the northwest.

It should be either those from Heishui City or Andong.

A smaller party would have been devoured by the aberrant creatures by this point.

Instead, quite a few ghostly glimmers flew over their heads toward the east, showing that the aberrant creatures were also suffering steady casualties.

The fighting over there had to be horrific.

The Heavenly Palace party became even more cautious, casting aside all their former arrogance. If they were surrounded by aberrant creatures, their fate would not be much better than that of the troops in the northwest.

Zhang Lianhai did not even dare release the lamp spirit again. It was extremely useful, but unfortunately far too bright and conspicuous, and would likewise attract the monsters’ attention.

A scout he had sent ahead returned with good news. “The red pillar of light in the temple’s pool is no longer releasing aberrant creatures.”

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

These creatures were powerful, enormous, and somehow still appeared in overwhelming numbers. Who could withstand that?

So they aren’t truly endless after all. That’s good.

The young attendant whispered, “In that case, roughly seven to eight hundred aberrant creatures came out of the red light?” The moment he finished speaking, he sneezed and rubbed his arms involuntarily. “It’s so cold!”

The temperature difference between day and night in the desert was indeed extreme, but what season was it now? Zhang Lianhai suddenly realized something was wrong. Ever since the monsters appeared, the temperature in Panlong City seemed to have been falling continuously.

No sooner had the young attendant spoken than snow began drifting down from the sky.

At first, only a few scattered flakes fell, melting as soon as they touched hands or faces. But before the group had traveled even another 150 meters, bitter winds were howling through the city, and great goose-feather snowflakes began pouring down!

The wind hurled the snow straight into their faces.

Everyone was battered so hard they could barely keep their eyes open. One man even walked headfirst into a pillar beside the street.

“Move, quickly!” Zhang Lianhai could no longer afford to conceal his strength and hurriedly summoned the lamp spirit.

The instant it appeared, the fierce wind within thirty meters abruptly ceased, and the path ahead became much clearer.

However, Zhang Lianhai’s expression did not relax in the slightest. Anything abnormal had a cause. This sudden wind and snow were far too strange. Something troublesome was probably about to happen.

Sure enough, the scout who had been guiding them from the rooftops suddenly vanished.

The young attendant was the first to notice. “Huh? Where did he go?”

Everyone looked around. The scout was not among the group either.

A chill ran through them all. That man was diligent and never shirked his duties. How could he simply disappear without warning?

They traveled another thirty or forty meters before a guard at the rear suddenly shouted, “My lord, Xu Xi is gone too!”

Xu Xi was the man Zhang Lianhai had personally assigned to guard the rear. He was skilled and fearless, the sort of man entrusted with staying at the very back to fend off whatever came from behind. His cultivation was far from weak, so how had he also vanished without making a sound?

Zhang Lianhai immediately stopped. He pointed at the lamp spirit, and the little creature split into two, illuminating both the front and rear of the entire group. After that, he ordered, “Pair up. Watch each other closely. If anything happens, shout immediately.”

Everyone formed pairs and kept watch over one another.

They continued for another thirty or forty meters. Suddenly, the light behind them swayed. Everyone whipped around and saw the lamp spirit floating in the air suddenly shoot toward the back of one of the guards!

The guard spun around at once, but he saw nothing.