Chapter 854: Illusion Recedes

Taking advantage of the surrounding enemies being forced back by the corpse puppets, Hé Jing turned and rushed back toward the grave. After so many people had hacked and chiseled away at it, the Red General’s armor had already come loose. One more pull might do it.

He had not forgotten that his foremost objective was still the Generous Pot!

The Red General’s gauntlets had indeed dropped away.

The grave was dark, forcing Hé Jing to lean forward for a closer look. In the next instant, his pupils contracted sharply.

Huh? Where is it? There’s nothing here!

The gauntlets were still held in the same gripping posture as before, but aside from a few fragments of broken ice, there was nothing between them.

Where’s the Generous Pot?

Where’s the pot everyone’s been fighting over?

It was clearly here just a few moments ago...

Before he could finish the thought, Hé Jing caught a faint glimmer from the corner of his eye.

The light reminded him of frost on the ground glimpsed through a crack in the door when he was a child—unobtrusive, but cold and clear.

When it touched his neck, it felt just as cold as frost.

Hé Jing inwardly cursed.

All the strength suddenly drained from his body.

His final thought was one of regret.

He had already made up his mind to retreat. After releasing the corpse puppets, why had he come back to seize the pot?

Was it not because he had still clung to that last shred of hope, wanting to try one final time?

In the end, it was greed. Greed he should never have entertained!

Unfortunately, it was too late for regret.

The others saw only a faint flash within the grave. Then, the cloud envoy stopped moving.

Bao Guanjie happened to charge over and was just about to swing his saber when he noticed a thin line of blood appear across the back of Hé Jing’s neck—

Someone had actually ambushed him from the front and slit his throat with a single strike, severing even the vertebrae in his neck. The attack was so fast that his blood had not even had time to gush out!

Most terrifying of all, the strike had come in complete silence, like wind stirring through parasol leaves, without the slightest killing intent beforehand.

Bao Guanjie also vaguely sensed something leap away behind the grave.

Then the Heavenly Palace cloud envoy’s head fell to the ground, and blood spewed from his severed neck for nearly a meter!

Quite a few people nearby were splattered with it.

The red light in the eyes of the charging corpse puppets vanished, and they immediately collapsed to the ground. Their controller was dead, so they could no longer move.

Someone behind them bellowed at the top of his lungs, “Hé Jing is dead! The Baling men killed the Heavenly Palace’s cloud envoy!”

The shout was full and powerful enough to carry for several kilometers.

Bao Guanjie flew into a rage. “Who? Who’s spouting that nonsense?!”

He spun around looking for the shouter but could not find him.

Yuezheng Qing rushed to the edge of the grave and used his saber to lift the Red General’s gauntlet.

After seeing what had happened to Hé Jing, no one dared stick their head in for a closer look anymore.

“It’s empty!”

The Red General’s gauntlets were empty. The Generous Pot had vanished without a trace.

Clearly, whoever killed Hé Jing had taken the Generous Pot as well!

Everyone’s gaze immediately converged on Bao Guanjie.

They had all seen it with their own eyes just now: Bao Guanjie had rushed up behind Hé Jing, and immediately afterward the cloud envoy’s head had fallen off, and the Generous Pot had disappeared.

If it was not him, then who else could it have been?

Bao Guanjie’s eyes turned bloodshot as he growled irritably, “It had nothing to do with me! I didn’t kill the cloud envoy!”

Someone had assassinated Hé Jing right in front of everyone, stolen the treasure, and then framed him for both crimes!

At that moment, a deafening beast roar rang out, and it sounded very close.

The king of the que beasts was coming.

Everyone exchanged glances, then shouted as one and turned to run!

Even a party from the Heavenly Palace that was as powerful as that had been ground down by the king of the que beasts, so how could they possibly handle such a massive aberrant creature?

Besides, the Generous Pot was already gone. What point was there to staying here? Would they not just be staying to die?

Hence, they ran! Everyone fled without looking back.

Only after the various groups had put more than three hundred meters between themselves and the battlefield did the commotion behind them gradually fade.

Bao Guanjie stopped to catch his breath. One of his subordinates could not help but ask, “My lord, that cloud envoy and the Generous Pot... what exactly happened?”

“I didn’t kill him! I didn’t take it!” Bao Guanjie roared. “Even you don’t believe me?”

The words had barely left his mouth when red light suddenly flickered before them.

Everyone inside the Panlong Secret Realm discovered that every patch of ground, every building, every wall, and every pond had been covered by a thin layer of red light.

Then the red light rapidly receded, as though an enormous carpet were being dragged away from behind.

Everyone hurried forward several steps, but could not keep pace with the receding light. They could only watch as it contracted toward the central-southern part of Panlong City.

That was where the Temple of Mitian stood.

At last, the red light once again gathered into a pillar that shot into the sky.

This time, the pillar lasted only two to three breaths before vanishing.

Everyone looked at one another.

Too many strange things had happened inside the secret realm, and no one could say what this latest development meant.

Bao Guanjie casually pressed a hand against the earthen wall beside him. Clods of dirt broke loose with a dry clatter, the sound carrying a long way through the quiet night.

“Listen. The beast roars are gone.”

The low growls of the que beasts had previously filled the entire secret realm, but now the city was utterly silent. There were no roars, and there were no footsteps either.

Now, only the mournful howl of the wind remained.

Bao Guanjie led his men through several alleys and reached an open space.

“Huh?” Everyone immediately sensed something was wrong. “Where are the bodies?”

A fierce melee had taken place here less than fifteen minutes earlier, leaving both que beasts and humans dead or wounded.

Yet the ground before them was spotless. Aside from some rubble, there were no corpses at all. There was not even a single bloodstain.

Only then did Bao Guanjie finally let out a long breath and stop walking. “We’ve left the secret realm!”

“What?” The others did not immediately understand.

“That red light just now was the secret realm disappearing.” Bao Guanjie sounded faintly regretful. “Someone must have obtained the Generous Pot and broken the secret realm!”

Everyone looked up. At some point, the thick clouds had dispersed, revealing a bright moon sinking toward the west.

Dawn was approaching.

That was it? They had somehow entered the secret realm without understanding how, and now they had somehow left it just as inexplicably?

“My lord, what do we do now?”

Only now did relief at surviving the disaster gradually begin to set in. Everyone looked at one another and sighed.

How in the world had they managed to survive that hellish place, with aberrant creatures everywhere and no way to escape?

Before Bao Guanjie could answer, the scout in the party came rushing over. “My lord, two Heavenly Palace guards are still alive! They’re about a hundred meters ahead and running west!”

Two survivors?

A fierce light flashed through Bao Guanjie’s eyes. “Hunt them down!”

Once those two were eliminated, the Heavenly Palace would have a much harder time determining exactly how Hé Jing had died. If nothing else, the various factions that had fought here tonight might very well keep their mouths tightly shut once they returned.

After all, every one of them had suffered losses here, and they had all offended the Heavenly Palace in the process one way or another.

If those two men were allowed to return to Lingxu City and report what had happened here, Bao Guanjie and the State of Baling would immediately be in deep trouble!

* * *

Zhao Qinghe and He Chunhua emerged from their hiding place and advanced cautiously.

The shout of “Hé Jing is dead!” earlier had come from Zhao Qinghe.

He Chunhua had reacted immediately.

A cloud envoy of the Heavenly Palace dying in the Panlong Desert was an earth-shaking event. Yuan could not possibly withstand Beijia’s wrath, so it was best to redirect the trouble elsewhere as quickly as possible.

Let the culprit bear the consequences. If the Heavenly Palace wanted revenge, it could go tear up Baling instead.

They had also seen the red light recede.

A thought struck He Chunhua, and he immediately said to Zhao Qinghe, “Cut me with your saber. Quickly!”

Zhao Qinghe thought he had misheard. “My lord?”

“Don’t hit anything vital, but make it serious!”

Seeing the determination on his face, Zhao Qinghe drew his saber and stabbed clean through He Chunhua’s right shoulder.

Blood burst out. He certainly had not held back.

The pain caused He Chunhua to double over. Zhao Qinghe withdrew his blade and supported him. “My lord, forgive me!”

“No, this is good!” He Chunhua knew Zhao Qinghe had controlled the strike carefully and deliberately avoided the tendons, bones, and meridians. Enduring the pain, he said, “Do not tell a third person about this!”

“Yes!”

Immediately afterward, the red light receded from beneath their feet.

Zhao Qinghe gave the wound some simple treatment, then helped He Chunhua continue southward. Their journey was completely uneventful. They did not encounter a single que beast.

He Chunhua remained silent, doubts churning endlessly through his mind.

The secret realm had indeed disappeared, but had everyone come back out?

Before long, the sound of many hurried footsteps came from ahead.

The two immediately slipped behind a low building and stood on guard.

Sure enough, several dozen people came running toward them. At the very front was one of He Chunhua’s personal guards, Hu Xuan.

Huh?

The two immediately emerged to meet them. “Why are you here?”

“My lord!” Hu Xuan’s face lit up with joy. “The southern gate is open! Huh? You’re injured!”

Although He Chunhua had already guessed as much, hearing the good news still made him let out a long breath. “How did it open?”

“When that red light flashed just now, the southern gate returned to normal. The outermost doors are back the way they were before—one half still standing, the other half fallen down.” Hu Xuan came over to support him. “We sent people through several times. Nothing unusual happened.”

“The secret realm disappeared, and we’ve returned to reality.” He Chunhua glanced toward the Temple of Mitian, his voice tinged with emotion.

That’s twice now.

He had entered the Panlong Secret Realm twice, and both times he had returned empty-handed.

Zhao Qinghe asked, “My lord, should we go over and take a look?”

“No.” The dejection in He Chunhua’s heart gradually faded, replaced by a trace of relief. “If we go now, there probably won’t be anything left.”

He still remembered clearly how the Panlong Secret Realm had disappeared the previous time.

Going to the Temple of Mitian now would accomplish nothing.

But at least he had survived again. That was still better than the Heavenly Palace party, which had lost so many people here, including both a cloud envoy and lamp guardians.

He Chunhua had witnessed the chaotic battle at the Red General’s cenotaph from beginning to end, and at the final moment he had retained enough clarity not to rush forward and fight for the treasure.

Otherwise, he would probably already be dead.

“Where are those from Rongshan?”

“After coming down from the wall, they passed through the southern gate and left.” Hu Xuan looked around. He did not see He Lingchuan anywhere, but he did not dare ask about him.

He Chunhua had asked about the Rongshan people, but the person on his mind was He Lingchuan.

After Naluotian’s divine descent failed, He Lingchuan’s whereabouts had become a mystery. He had never appeared again.

Yet for some inexplicable reason, He Chunhua was certain he was still alive.

Is he truly an evil ghost from Panlong City? How much of what had happened tonight in the secret realm is connected to him?

Even someone as shrewd and steady as He Chunhua now found his mind in complete disarray, tangled in countless threads with no idea where to begin sorting them out.

He knew only one thing: someone had taken the Generous Pot.

As for who, it was impossible to say.

Neither he nor Zhao Qinghe had approached the Red General’s cenotaph. They had merely hidden in the darkness and watched the battle. From where they were, they had not clearly seen how Hé Jing died, nor had they seen how the Generous Pot disappeared.

Did Bao Guanjie take the treasure? Or did someone else?

Zhao Qinghe asked for instructions. “My lord, should we go after the Baling men?”

What he was really asking was whether He Chunhua wanted to try to seize the Generous Pot back.

He Chunhua looked back the way they had come. The enormous Panlong City lay silent in the darkness. In a city this vast, where were they supposed to search for the Baling men?

He sighed and shook his head.

Suddenly, something inside his robes grew warm. He took out Naluotian’s idol and saw that it was flashing unceasingly.