Chapter 1171: Failed Attempt

"I thought so too, but I've tried several times and couldn't find or resolve anything," Three-Tail said, shaking its head. "We can't just send all the children away, can we? That would be sending them to their deaths."

Dong Rui interjected, "Whether the Yao army can catch up or not, the urgent priority is to leave White Head Ridge first. Hmm, what about using the Minor Mountain Shifting Array? If we rush to the edge of the barrier and use the favorable terrain, we might be able to teleport out and escape the encirclement. The cost would just be a few mystic crystals, and perhaps a few years of lifespan, but you can afford that, right?"

He knew He Lingchuan had a complete set of talismans for the Minor Mountain Shifting Array, spoils of war captured from the Heavenly Palace's Cloud Emissary. This item was incredibly useful; even when He Lingchuan was most in need of money during the early days of managing the Yangshan Archipelago, he couldn't bear to sell it.

Before Three-Tail could answer, He Lingchuan shook his head and said, "The Minor Mountain Shifting Array is also ineffective within a spell-banning barrier."

"What?" Dong Rui didn't believe him. "Are you sure?"

"Certain," He Lingchuan affirmed. "Yuheng City had already tested it in the Panlong World. Otherwise, sieges would be much easier; even if the defending side activated a ban-evasion barrier, people could be sent in to cause destruction simply by using the Minor Mountain Shifting Array."

"...Alright," Dong Rui conceded. He hadn't fought in wars, so how would he know this?

"I tried to break the barrier, but didn't succeed," Three-Tail said, extending a paw and drawing two circles in the sand. "I sent my children to sneak attack two hidden talisman-device locations. They successfully dug out the devices, but the barrier remained unbroken."

With that, it pushed two talisman devices from beside it.

These two items resembled cymbals, round with a raised center and flattened edges. He Lingchuan recognized them instantly as two pieces from a complete set of talisman devices, which needed to be buried underground or mounted on a wall, and then combined with other components to become effective.

"You can't even be sure how many pieces are in this set of talisman devices, can you?" He Lingchuan continued. "A complete set for a large talisman array might have twelve, thirty-six, or even forty-eight devices. And they usually follow the 'thirty percent tolerance' principle, meaning that as long as the damaged devices don't exceed thirty percent of the total, the array can still largely function." This was because there are many unpredictable factors in war; it's impossible for all talisman devices to remain intact, and enemies will also look for opportunities to destroy them. Therefore, talisman arrays were designed this way from early on.

He Lingchuan added, "Unless you can destroy more than ten talisman devices in one go, it's very difficult to disable the barrier. These things are either buried in the ground or guarded by troops, making them hard to deal with, right?"

There was actually another scenario he didn't mention: the more talisman devices a barrier had in its complete set, the lower its maintenance rate tended to be. For example, if a barrier had thirty-six talisman devices, and after use, twenty-nine were still intact, users would see that the array was still functional and the damage rate hadn't reached the thirty percent warning line, so they would be too lazy to repair them.

It was simply human nature; He Lingchuan had discovered this very issue when inspecting Yuheng City's barriers.

But this was too random and not suitable for a risk right now.

"They are difficult to deal with," Three-Tail admitted. "So later, I switched to attacking the array's core."

It didn't matter if a few talisman devices in a war array were damaged, but if the core was destroyed, the entire barrier would immediately collapse.

The problem-solving approach sounded correct, but He Lingchuan was more concerned with why it hadn't worked: "What went wrong? Couldn't you find the core's location?"

"We found it; it moves with the enemy's commanding general," Three-Tail said, glancing up at the sky. "Our bird demons located General Chongwu and also the array core behind him. Every time the core moved, the other talisman devices had to move with it."

This array core was a single crimson cymbal, with a staff grafted to its base, planted in the ground, glowing faintly reddish in the dark night.

Dong Rui immediately said, "Isn't that just a pure trap? You didn't fall right into it, did you?"

"...One always has to try a couple of times before confirming it's a trap," Three-Tail sighed. Whether demon or human, in a desperate situation, one tends to take a gamble, as there's no other way out. "Indeed, we couldn't seize it."

"What they expose to you might not actually be the array core," He Lingchuan said. "Even if it were real, and you could shatter or seize it, General Chongwu might have a spare."

General Chongwu, who favored a steady, cautious approach, why would he take such a risk? Most likely, he had a backup plan.

Dong Rui glanced sideways. "An array core? Can that also be a spare?"

"Why not?" He Lingchuan replied, carefully gazing at the distant lights. "War arrays are very robust; if something breaks, you replace it. Some war arrays even have two or three cores refined as spares, ready for immediate replacement. When we usually break an array core, we're fighting for that brief moment when the array malfunctions; once the grand array is back up and running, the opportunity is gone."

Even for something as rare and precious as the Xu Mountain Great Array's core, didn't the Heavenly Palace find a way to acquire a tortoise-shell star map as a spare? He Lingchuan asked the great fox demon, "Even if you manage to break the spell-banning barrier, are you confident you can escape White Head Ridge in such a short time?"

Three-Tail neither shook nor nodded its head; it didn't know.

He Lingchuan observed its expression. "Have you thought of other methods?"

"Yes, I thought since the array core was hard to break, we should simply attack General Chongwu directly. 'Catch the thief, first catch the king'—as long as we defeat him, the Yao army would fall into disarray, and we could seize the opportunity to escape," Three-Tail explained. "So, for our third attempt, we pretended to attack the array core again. Once the Yao army moved to defend the array, we concentrated our efforts on General Chongwu, but..."

It shook its head. Although a fox's face couldn't show much expression, He Lingchuan and Dong Rui still sensed its heavy mood.

"General Chongwu had already prepared an ambush, specifically waiting for us to make a move. The injury on my leg came from that encounter." Lingguang was treating its wound with good medicine.

"These several actions resulted in heavy casualties among my offspring. We had no choice but to hide in the underground palace and seek another opportunity."

Dong Rui grimaced. This great demon was truly obsessed with appearances; clearly pushed to its limits and barely surviving, yet it still spoke of "seeking another opportunity."

"The Minor Mountain Shifting Array, destroying talisman devices, breaking the array core, killing General Chongwu—none of these paths work anymore," he said, turning to He Lingchuan. "Do you have any other tricks?"

No matter what he thought, these fox demons were doomed.

He Lingchuan's eyes flickered. Indeed, these fox demons had already explored several avenues for him, saving him a considerable amount of effort.

It sounded like General Chongwu was not an easy opponent to deal with. The Yao army also possessed genuine elemental power. Any attempt to attack them would come at a significant cost to their side.

When the enemy is overwhelmingly stronger, it's best to avoid direct confrontation.

So, what other options were there? Among the Thirty-Six Stratagems, choose the best one.

But he already had a plan in mind. "How much do you weigh? Eight hundred pounds or a thousand?"

It was the first time Three-Tail had been asked about its weight, so it paused for a moment before replying, "Three hundred."

Its physique appeared round, yet it was actually exceptionally light, mainly because its fur was so fluffy that it looked twice its actual size.