Chapter 1671: Temporary Impulse

"A bird?" Granny Zhu rubbed her eyes. "It can still change its form?"

He Lingchuan smiled. "If it's the external manifestation of the Thousand Illusions Immortal and possesses some of his main body's abilities..."

His talent is already stated in his title: "Thousand Illusions."

"That's true," Granny Zhu said, standing up. "Since it's gone, the commotion in the Yaogong Palace should be ending soon, right?"

"No," He Lingchuan shook his head. "The great chaos in Tianshui City and Yaoguo has only just begun!"

Everyone wanted to know what would happen next, but just then, four riders galloped out of the night. Wan Qifeng immediately said, "Xiao Qi is back."

Xiao Qi was the leader of this small team. His surname was Xiao, and he was the seventh child in his family. Over time, everyone simply called him "Xiao Qi."

However, when the riders approached, everyone saw that the four horses were carrying six people.

Three of them were injured to varying degrees, with Xiao Qi being the most severe; his abdomen was almost ripped open. He was holding his own intestines, and a companion was supporting him from behind. They had endured immense suffering galloping all the way.

Fortunately, he had already fainted.

"Lingguang!"

In fact, He Lingchuan didn't even need to speak. The medicinal ape had already jumped down, carrying its small medicine basket. It first put two pills into Xiao Qi's mouth, then began examining him and providing emergency aid.

The injuries of the others also began to be treated after they dismounted.

He Lingchuan personally handed over a bottle of spiritual medicine. "What happened?"

This was the team he had dispatched: six people, six horses. Yet, on their return, two horses were missing, and their captain was severely wounded.

Wan Qifeng, Wang Fubao, and the others also looked shocked, as Xiao Qi and his companions were Black Armored soldiers, known for their high combat proficiency.

They had faced life-and-death situations with their lord more than a dozen times; when had they ever been so badly injured and fled so miserably?

Qingyang, Zhao Song, and the others were all in the palace. What force in the eastern suburbs of Tianshui City could inflict such casualties on them at this moment?

He Lingchuan carefully examined Xiao Qi's wounds; they seemed vaguely familiar, and his heart stirred.

"My Lord, we were investigating Yongquan Villa and were ambushed on our way back!" The Black Armored guard who escorted Xiao Qi back was named Xia Ke, a fellow townsman of Xiao Qi's and also from the Bailie people. "It was like a human but not quite, seven or eight feet tall, with a covered face and a grey robe. Its hands had four fingers, and it had a tail behind it. Oh, and its skin was grayish-blue with very fine cracks."

He swallowed. "This monster moves extremely fast. It killed one of our horses as soon as it appeared, and no matter how many wounds we inflicted on it, they healed instantly. Xiao Qi also suffered these severe injuries because he was protecting me. He used his horse as bait and ordered us to leave quickly, saying that this thing might be a demonic puppet and that we needed to report it to you immediately!"

"The monster was busy devouring the horses and couldn't pursue us. So we just ran all the way back." All five of them looked chagrined. They had been with their lord for so long; when had they ever been so disheveled?

Granny Zhu also moved closer and immediately spoke:

"Ashmona!"

Xia Ke's description of the enemy's appearance was very detailed. Granny Zhu knew at once that it was Ashmona, the demonic puppet that had escaped from Cao Wendao, the Master of the Red Lodge!

Originally, when the Master of the Red Lodge and Dong Rui engaged in a grand duel, Dong Rui proved superior, first discerning Cao Wendao's core techniques. Consequently, the latter's main demonic puppet suddenly turned against him, killing Cao Wendao before escaping.

So many days had passed, and Granny Zhu had often wandered the city outskirts without finding any trace of Ashmona.

Unexpectedly, just as He Lingchuan planned to withdraw, it appeared and injured people.

"Where were you attacked?" Granny Zhu remembered that Dong Rui had always wanted to capture Ashmona for research.

"Qingniu Plain," Xia Ke said. "We were passing by the edge of the plain when the monster leaped out from the dense forest."

Granny Zhu understood. "By Peach Creek."

Because of Tianshui City's eastward expansion, the entire eastern suburb was filled with flying dust, with few good forests remaining. Only the forest by Peach Creek was preserved, due to its proximity to water.

At this moment, Lingguang looked up and asked the Spider Queen for help. "Granny, can you use your spider silk to make a filter layer for me?"

Granny Zhu extended her spinneret and precisely sprayed a small, dense web. At the same time, she didn't forget to ask He Lingchuan, "Why do you think Ashmona ran back to Peach Creek? It's already free; it can go anywhere, can't it?"

Why did it insist on staying near the outskirts of Tianshui City?

"Is something attracting it?"

"Peach Creek? What's at Peach Creek?" He Lingchuan's eyes flickered. "That's where Cao Wendao and Dong Rui fought. A duel between demonic puppet masters, of course, would involve demonic puppets... Oh!"

He and Granny Zhu almost spoke in unison: "Flayed Flounder!"

That place was usually deserted, except for a large creature buried underground—the Flayed Flounder, the Master of the Red Lodge's demonic puppet, which Dong Rui had blown up.

Granny Zhu stomped her foot. "Oh, I should have staked out Peach Creek all along!"

She hadn't expected Ashmona to return to that battle site multiple times.

He Lingchuan then asked Xia Ke, "What's the situation at the villa?"

"The palace guards have all rushed into the city. Only a dozen or so people are left to defend Yongquan Villa."

With the dramatic changes in the capital, most of Zhao Song's subordinates who were originally stationed at the villa heard the commotion and rushed back, leaving only a few to guard the gates.

As expected, He Lingchuan slapped his thigh. "Excellent! Two of you stay here to guard the wounded, and the rest come with me to Peach Creek."

"Huh?"

A last-minute change of plans? Everyone was a bit surprised, but he was their lord, and what he said went.

The distance from Youhu Lake to Peach Creek was very short. When Qingyang led his men to intercept He Lingchuan earlier, they arrived in an instant.

The scenery at Peach Creek was unchanged; the creek was frozen, but the dark pine forest rustled in the night wind, as if a monster could leap out at any moment.

Everyone raised their guard, in case Ashmona suddenly burst out from somewhere to attack.

However, this never happened. Ashmona had gone off somewhere.

This creature seemed to enjoy roaming around.

Granny Zhu left two Bloodfang Guards to secure the woods, while she and He Lingchuan went to the creek.

The large pit created by the King's Scale explosion was right here.

The government had previously sent people to dig and fill it, but local vagrants, unable to endure hunger, secretly came to cut fish meat to fill their bellies and ended up being poisoned to death.

Since then, no one had come here at all.

Standing at the edge of the pit, everyone looked down. The Flayed Flounder's corpse was still there, but its size had noticeably decreased—

More than half of the fish's body was gone, revealing heavy white bones.

Granny Zhu pointed with a sharp claw. "The edge of the pit has been dug open, and the fish bones are covered in bite marks."

Everyone saw that the thick fish bones were covered in stark white tooth marks.

Wang Fubao shivered instinctively. "Did Ashmona turn this into its dining spot?"

"Both it and the Flayed Flounder are demonic puppets modified with divine blood. Since they both came from Cao Wendao, perhaps there are other similarities in their modification materials," He Lingchuan's eyes flickered. "It seems Ashmona has been staying in the city outskirts specifically to eat this fish corpse. It was severely wounded in battle, so eating this Flayed Flounder should be very beneficial to it."

However, the Flayed Flounder was too large. Given Ashmona's appetite, it had only managed to gnaw through two-thirds of it so far.

At this point, he fell into thought.

Granny Zhu and the others knew he was deep in thought again and didn't speak to disturb him.

After a while, He Lingchuan's gaze refocused, and his lips curved into a smile.

The Soul-Capturing Mirror in his arms immediately said, "Oh no, what wicked idea have you come up with now?"

That look on its master's face meant a sudden, mischievous idea.

It seemed someone was about to have bad luck.

Granny Zhu also asked, "Do you want to set a trap for Ashmona? Time is a bit tight."

No one knew how long the battle in Yaowang Palace would last. After the battle, Qingyang and the others would likely remember Yongquan Villa and He Lingchuan.

"It won't take much time," He Lingchuan said, examining the remains of the large fish at the bottom of the pit. "Granny, can you carry this Flayed Flounder?"

If anyone else asked Granny Zhu to carry a corpse, she would kick them away. But since He Lingchuan made the request, she personally jumped into the pit to gauge its weight, then said, "No problem. Two-thirds of this big fish has already been eaten, and if I pick out some more bones, its volume will be even smaller."

Wan Qifeng suggested, "What if we use a net to carry it? We have over a dozen horses that can pull it."

They had plenty of horsepower.

"No need. If we use horses to drag it, it will leave traces on the ground," Granny Zhu said, going to turn over the fish corpse. "Just tell me where you want it moved."

He Lingchuan turned and pointed in the direction of Yongquan Villa:

"The villa."

The Black Armored Army worked efficiently. Half an hour later, the group left Yongquan Villa again.

This time they left through the main gate, empty-handed and swaggering.

Oh, wait, Wan Qiliang and Wang Fubao had packed all the remaining aged wine from the cellar, and He Lingchuan took many preserved fruits and dried fruits. These were made from fruits grown at Yongquan Villa, and their excellent quality was evident; Lingguang and Guiyuan especially loved them.

They walked north for seven or eight li before the feeling of being watched disappeared. Before He Lingchuan could speak, Granny Zhu said, "That thing stopped following us here and went back."

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. At this critical juncture, they didn't want a fight.

He Lingchuan casually took out a bag of dried white apricots, and everyone shared them:

"The battle in Yaogong Palace should be over, shouldn't it?"

Tonight's coup was merely the opening act of a continuous show.

A great chaos, unseen in two hundred years, was about to descend upon Yaoguo.

Granny Zhu was eager. "So, what do we do now?"

"Of the Thirty-Six Stratagems, we choose the best one."

"What's that?" Granny Zhu hadn't heard of the Thirty-Six Stratagems.

"Leave," he said, stumbling over his words slightly. "First, find a place to settle and collect the Emperor's Dew."

It was the largest Emperor's Dew in over a hundred years. He could put some distance between himself and the pursuers, safely collect the dew, and then reconsider their next move.

"Then what?" Granny Zhu pressed. "You're not thinking of returning to Jucheng, are you?"

"Remember Bai Ziqi's route into Yaoguo? This time, we'll do the opposite."

Granny Zhu uttered a sound of surprise. "To the North Sea?"

Fine, it wasn't like she had anything better to do.

The northern end of the Blinged Plain was the coast of the North Sea.

"No," He Lingchuan smiled. "We're going to the Inverted Sea, to find the Thousand Illusions Immortal."

Granny Zhu was pleased. "Good, good, that's a good idea!"

She definitely didn't want to return to Jucheng now. On this trip with He Lingchuan, she had only killed a few minor foes; it wasn't nearly enough fun!

The Thousand Illusions Immortal's Inverted Sea was surely going to be a lot of fun.