Chapter 853: Everyones Own Agenda

Chapter 853: Everyone's Own Agenda

However, Hé Jing had stubbornly held out until this moment.

Fu Liang caught the bronze talisman, embedded profound crystals into the array plate, then murmured an incantation and sacrificed three years of his lifespan.

The others drew the king of the que beasts’ attention, buying him time.

At last, the array engraved on the bronze talisman lit up. Fu Liang looked even more haggard than before, and the hand holding the talisman had begun to tremble.

“It’s ready!”

A temporary teleportation array like this exacted an enormous price.

The other two attendants also breathed a sigh of relief. They could finally leave!

Being fearless in the face of death did not mean they actually wanted to die. After watching their companions dragged into beasts’ mouths or smashed into bloody pulp, who among them would not feel shaken?

Yet Hé Jing took the talisman, barked, “Fall back!” at them, then hurled the bronze plate onto the ground ahead!

The array activated. With the talisman at its center, intricate patterns rapidly spread across the ground within a radius of about seven meters.

Any que beast that stepped into the array vanished with a whoosh.

They were not dead. They had merely been teleported one and a half kilometers away, where the matching plate of the Lesser Mountain-Moving Array had been set up.

And this was a one-way teleportation array that would remain active for less than twenty breaths.

The bronze talismans specially made by the Heavenly Palace for the Lesser Mountain-Moving Array could teleport targets more than one and a half kilometers. In this age of dwindling spirit qi, that was an astonishing range for a portable, non-fixed teleportation array.

The process of producing such talismans was akin to building an entire temple within a small river snail shell. This array alone represented the painstaking efforts of countless Heavenly Palace talisman masters.

In comparison to the one used here, the Lesser Mountain-Moving Array that Fushan Yue had used in the State of Baoshu had been drawn on the spot, and its effective teleportation range had been less than four hundred meters.

The king of the que beasts charging toward the Heavenly Palace party could not stop in time either. Before it collided with its enemies, it was teleported away.

Watching the Lesser Mountain-Moving Array flash repeatedly as one que beast after another disappeared from the battlefield, He Lingchuan nearly wanted to slap the wall and cheer.

This kind of array was normally used to save one’s own life, yet Hé Jing had turned it around and used it to instantly send powerful enemies far away.

To still have the presence of mind to devise something like that in such a desperate situation, his mind really does work quickly.

Once the Generous Pot was taken, the secret realm might very well disappear. Hé Jing was buying himself and his remaining three men a slim chance of survival.

But if they failed to dig out the Generous Pot, then even their one remaining escape route would be gone!

If they had used the Lesser Mountain-Moving Array to flee instead, they could at least have hidden somewhere until the que beasts killed off all the other parties.

Life was precious. Every extra moment alive was worth having.

After all, it was only by surviving could one slowly plan what to do next.

However, Hé Jing had chosen to place himself in mortal danger in hopes of forcing out a path to survival, staking everything on one final gamble.

How could a man who was this ruthless toward himself possibly show mercy to his enemies?

Hé Jing truly deserves to be one of the Heavenly Palace’s four great cloud envoys[1]. He and Bai Ziqi each have their own strengths.

At that thought, He Lingchuan’s killing intent surged.

He absolutely could not allow this man to leave the Panlong Secret Realm alive!

Dozens of meters away, Qiu Hu, who had been lying low among the ruins, finally received an order transmitted through the eyeball spider.

“Fight!” He Lingchuan’s instruction was perfectly clear. “Don’t take the pot. Just kill!”

Qiu Hu immediately put on his mask, lowered his body, and darted out.

The Red General’s cenotaph was engulfed in chaotic fighting, and no one noticed a small change taking place far away in front of the Temple of Mitian.

The towering pillar of red light had already disappeared. There were neither humans nor que beasts in front of the temple, leaving the area eerily deserted.

At that moment, a tiny point of green light suddenly emerged from the pool!

Its color was rich and vivid, like a firefly.

After flying out, it circled halfway around above the pool as though determining its bearings, then quietly flew toward the Red General’s cenotaph.

If He Lingchuan had seen this, every hair on his body would have stood on end.

Unfortunately, he could not.

* * *

The beast herd had instantly been reduced by half, and the king of the que beasts had also been teleported away.

Without it driving them forward with all its might, the remaining que beasts immediately lost some of their ferocity and no longer attacked as desperately as before.

Hé Jing pointed at the ice beside him and ordered, “Dig! Quickly!”

The enemy had only been temporarily removed from the battlefield. To the king of the que beasts, a distance of one and a half kilometers was hardly more than a few long strides.

The Lesser Mountain-Moving Array had bought them very little time.

Only the mantis-like ghost child remained alive. At the moment, it was helping them deal with the surrounding que beasts. But its small body meant it had agility to spare and very little raw strength. Again and again, frost spat by the que beasts clung to its body, making it heavier and heavier, while its movements grew increasingly sluggish.

In the end, two que beasts seized it in their jaws and pulled in opposite directions.

Splat.

Its head and body were torn apart.

Still, it had bought the four Heavenly Palace members precious time. They ignored everything else and hacked at the ice with all their strength, and their progress immediately accelerated.

After such a prolonged battle, all the divine techniques and magical artifacts at their disposal had been exhausted. All they had left was this final reserve of physical strength.

If they did not use it now, they would never get another chance.

Hé Jing tried several more times to pull out the Generous Pot, but it still would not budge.

Fu Liang shouted, “Dig out the gauntlets together with the pot!”

Most of the ice around the gauntlets had already been cleared away.

Hé Jing gritted his teeth, not saying anything.

It was deeply strange that this suit of armor held the Generous Pot so tightly.

Why is the king of the que beasts so determined to guard the Generous Pot?

The question suddenly surfaced in Hé Jing’s mind again for no apparent reason.

Just then, Fu Liang shouted excitedly, “It’s loose! It’s loose...”

The Red General’s armor had loosened. Then, for no apparent reason, its helmet suddenly fell off and landed over the gauntlets.

Fu Liang reacted quickly and scooped up the helmet, but the sound of something slicing through the air came from behind him.

Whoosh, whoosh!

Several hidden arrows shot toward them, but all four managed to evade.

More than a dozen figures burst from the nearby ruins and charged toward the Red General’s cenotaph in long strides.

Every newcomer wore a mask. Without saying a word, they raised their weapons and attacked.

With Hé Jing’s cultivation, he normally would not have spared such small fry a second glance. Unfortunately, he was still suffering from severe internal injuries. Every time he raised a hand, his chest hurt as though an awl were being driven through it.

The two men in front focused entirely on tying him down, while the others went to seize the Generous Pot.

Seeing the situation turn against him, Hé Jing growled, “Retreat...”

His eyes swept across the battlefield. On the low building opposite, vague figures were appearing in the darkness. There were actually quite a few more people heading this way. He could not tell whether they were Bao Guanjie’s men or yet another faction.

With wolves circling on all sides, his group could no longer hold this position.

A beast’s roar sounded in the distance, carried toward them on the night wind.

It was the king of the que beasts. That roar also signaled that the beast herd that had teleported one and a half kilometers away would soon return to the Red General’s cenotaph.

They had at most twenty breaths left.

That was not even enough time to finish digging out the treasure.

Hé Jing immediately decided to withdraw and leave the pressure for his enemies to bear.

However, Fu Liang and the other two guards were already furious. Their own side had just fought the que beast horde head-on in a desperate, brutal battle, while these cowards had hidden nearby watching the show without daring to approach.

And now that the que beasts were gone, they wanted to swoop in and steal the prize?

At the same moment Hé Jing gave the order, Fu Liang cursed loudly, “Bao Guanjie, if you want to rob us, then come rob us openly! Don’t think no one can recognize you just because you’ve covered your face!”

The opposing side froze.

Hé Jing’s vision nearly went black.

Fu Liang’s curse came out so smoothly that Hé Jing did not even have time to cover his mouth before stamping his foot in fury. “Idiot!”

What’s the point of winning a war of words?

By exposing the other side’s identity in one sentence, aren’t you just forcing them to silence us all?

Sure enough, the opposing leader immediately barked, “Kill them. Leave no one alive!”

Their attacks instantly became far more vicious, every strike aimed directly at vital points.

They had all worn masks precisely because they did not want the Heavenly Palace party to identify them. If they succeeded in seizing the treasure yet Hé Jing recognized them, the state behind them would suffer a catastrophe.

The entire world feared the might of Lingxu.

Now that the Heavenly Palace party had openly identified Bao Guanjie, they might as well go all the way and silence every witness!

This was also because Heavenly Palace attendants had always been arrogant and overbearing. They had never imagined that people from some insignificant little state would genuinely dare to kill them.

At that moment, another six or seven people arrived and joined the battle.

They had no masks and were nowhere near as well prepared as Bao Guanjie’s group, but they had smeared mud and ash across their faces. Each one looked like a soot-blackened Kitchen God[2], making it difficult to tell who was who in the darkness.

Around the Red General’s armor, weapons clanged and crashed in a chaotic melee.

These newcomers were all after the Generous Pot, so they drew away some of the Baling men’s attacks and actually reduced the pressure on Hé Jing.

Bao Guanjie’s eyes shifted. He suddenly shouted, “Yuezheng Qing, you’re not taking the Generous Pot!”

The man opposite him was indeed Yuezheng Qing. Hearing Bao Guanjie expose his identity, he flew into a rage and slashed at him with his saber. Earlier, Tao Ran had fired an explosive arrow toward their hiding place and lured the que beasts over. But Yuezheng Qing had reacted quickly, immediately leading his men away before the tide of que beasts arrived and losing only a few people.

Bao Guanjie dodged, then continued inciting chaos. “The Heavenly Palace knows you’re Dong Haoming’s man.”

Now that everyone’s disguise had been stripped away, none of them had any way out. With that being the case, they might as well join forces and wipe out the Heavenly Palace party!

Hé Jing could hardly allow that to happen. After catching his breath, he shouted as well, “Yuezheng Qing! Help me eliminate these people, and Beijia will send troops on Dong Haoming’s behalf! Yuan will be yours for the taking!”

Yuezheng Qing’s gaze immediately wavered.

He had come to the Panlong Desert under Dong Haoming’s orders to seize treasure, but ultimately the purpose was still to gain an advantage on the battlefield. If Beijia truly agreed to dispatch troops in support of the Minister of War, that would settle matters in one stroke.

Yuan would have no chance of survival.

In that case, what did it matter if they handed this pot over?

Hé Jing’s offer struck straight at the heart of the matter, immediately shaking Yuezheng Qing’s resolve to fight.

If Yuezheng Qing helped Hé Jing at this crucial moment, he would surely earn the Heavenly Palace’s goodwill afterward, and that was something no amount of money could buy.

Over on the other side, Fu Liang knocked aside an axe wielded by a Baling man and was just about to turn around when he suddenly heard a soft thud. At the same instant, a chill spread through his chest.

He lowered his head and saw that a blood-covered saber tip protruded from his chest.

Fu Liang opened his mouth as though he wanted to say something, but his hand went slack.

Clang.

His weapon fell to the ground.

He raised his eyes toward Hé Jing, his gaze filled with terror and lingering attachment. Then, he slowly collapsed.

“Who? Who did that?!” Hé Jing roared in fury.

Behind Fu Liang, a man wearing a calico-cat mask rapidly retreated, the changdao in his hand still dripping blood.

Hé Jing pulled out what looked like a dried pinecone and shook it twice sharply toward the man. “Kill him!”

It was not a real pinecone, merely an object carved from seabed wood into that shape. With one shake, five monsters emerged from within. There were bear monsters and wolf monsters among them, all resembling dried corpses. The moment they landed, they charged straight at Fu Liang’s killer.

They were huge and grotesque, yet astonishingly fast. One Baling man happened to block a bear monster’s path. It casually slapped him twice, tearing open his entire chest cavity.

Everyone nearby had assumed Hé Jing was already at the end of his strength and had come forward hoping to pick on a weakened opponent.

Seeing that he could still produce methods like this, they were horrified.

What they did not know was that Hé Jing had actually been saving this final trump card for someone else—

No matter how dangerous the earlier battle against the que beast herd had become, he had never forgotten that a major enemy was still lurking in the shadows, namely the treasure thief who had thrown Mount Xu into chaos!

He believed confidently that the man who had orchestrated the entire situation from behind the scenes would eventually show himself.

Unfortunately, plans could never keep pace with changing circumstances. If Hé Jing did not use this final reserve now, he himself would die before even getting the chance.

1. It seems like the “great cloud envoys” really are just the deputy cloud envoys, while the chief cloud envoy is just on his own level. ☜

2. The Kitchen God, also known as Zao Shen or Zao Jun, is a major domestic deity in Chinese folk religion who guards the hearth and watches over the morals of the household. ☜