Chapter 180: Ambush on the Mountain Road

"This should be quite effective in battle," Madam Ying, who had been listening intently, blurted out.

As soon as the words left her mouth, she realized she had spoken out of turn.

Everyone else fell silent, and Assistant Liu lowered his head, not daring to respond.

He Yue changed the subject, "Since General Ke went to plead for them, will the Fu family escape this calamity?"

Ke Jihai had previously quelled the rebel army at Woling Pass and was now fighting Dong Haoming in the west. He was the most trusted general of the Royal Court. Since he had personally rushed back to plead for the Fu family, and the King was relying on him to defeat Dong Haoming, surely some deference would be shown?

"We'll know soon enough."

Madam Ying felt a little stifled and lifted the curtain to observe the road. Their carriage was descending a winding mountain road. The snow was falling heavier, making it impossible to see anything beyond three zhang away.

In such conditions, even if the mountain road was wide and smooth, they had to proceed with extra caution.

Only one carriage lamp at the front and one at the back glowed in response to each other.

Hmm? Front and back?

She glanced back. "There's another carriage following us. I wonder whose it is." General Ke's carriage in front was quite close, within two zhang. This was an unspoken agreement when traveling in the mountains during snow: everyone stayed within sight of each other for mutual aid in case of trouble.

Which family had left the banquet midway?

He Lingchuan also leaned out to look, then pulled back, closed his eyes briefly, and said, "Coincidentally, it's the common carriage that followed us up the mountain. I guess the passenger is the young man who handed the scroll to General Ke during the banquet; he doesn't look like an official or a wealthy person." He paused, "Hmm, that carriage has stopped."

Madam Ying asked in surprise, "With all this snow, how could you tell?" She could only see a faint warm glow from the carriage lamp and vaguely discern the dark shape of the carriage. Identifying anything more was impossible.

It was actually quite simple: the carriage lamp on that vehicle was covered with green paper, emitting a yellowish-green light. Other carriages had normal yellow-white light. He Lingchuan had seen it on the way up; how could he not remember?

But he looked at He Chunhua across from him and smiled, revealing his teeth. "I guessed."

He wondered if it was his imagination, but his father seemed unwilling for him to receive Ke Jihai's Hundred Refined Blade.

Just a moment ago, he had seen the carriage stop, with the driver getting out in the snow to inspect the wheels. He didn't know what the problem was.

Madam Ying rolled her eyes.

However, her words did remind He Lingchuan. Since he was sitting there with nothing to do, he decided to put his new skill to immediate use and tried to expand his spiritual perception again.

To others, he simply appeared to be resting with his eyes closed.

The results showed that it worked much better at night than during the day, with less strain. He wondered if this was due to his weaker spiritual essence.

The sensation was peculiar; he could clearly "see" the shape of every snowflake.

Although they were all hexagonal, there were subtle differences between one flake and another, and between their edges.

It was known that countless snowflakes fluttered around the carriage, front and back; even with his eyes, he couldn't see them all. Yet, his spiritual perception could take in every detail without fail.

With such a clear comparison, he finally understood the benefits of spiritual vision.

Needless to say, it was also one of the invaluable divine skills for any situation.

He Lingchuan became engrossed in expanding his spiritual perception but found that it could only extend a maximum of two zhang; any further was impossible. This was likely limited by the strength of his spiritual essence.

The accumulated snow on the road, the rocks below the cliff, the driver's frosty breath, and the strange shadows on the mountain wall.

He Lingchuan suddenly opened his eyes, leaned out, and roared like a spring thunderclap, "Stop! Enemy attack!"

He was separated from the driver in the front by a thick cloth screen. His voice, infused with internal energy, truly resembled a winter thunderclap, making the driver's ears ring and causing him to instinctively pull the reins.

On such a snowy night, the carriage wasn't moving fast to begin with, so it stopped immediately with a pull.

Everyone was caught off guard and leaned forward. Ying Hongchan complained, "What..."

Before she could finish her words, a massive boulder crashed directly in front of the carriage, shattering more than a dozen of the black stone slabs paving the ground.

That wasn't all; it continued to roll forward a few times before plummeting off the mountain road.

A few breaths later, a dull thud echoed from below the mountain.

Madam Ying's face was ashen.

This irregularly shaped boulder was larger than an inn door, weighing at least six or seven hundred jin. If her eldest son hadn't shouted for the carriage to stop, their entire family would have been crushed by the boulder and sent tumbling down the cliff!

This was the Royal Villa; would a weathered boulder from the mountain fall so suddenly?

She had forgotten that He Lingchuan had also shouted "enemy attack."

A dark shadow swept across the sky.

Everyone looked up and saw a colossal figure descend from the sky, crashing with a loud "bang" onto General Ke Jihai's carriage in front!

The impact was a direct hit. The fine rosewood carriage shattered like paper, bursting into pieces.

Splinters of wood even flew two zhang away, hitting the horses pulling the He family's carriage.

The horses' shoulders were injured, and they reared in fright, trying to turn the carriage away.

"General Ke!"

The He family members were greatly alarmed.

The commander of over a hundred thousand troops, crushed to death in his carriage, just like that?

In the light of the carriage lamps, everyone saw that the colossal shadow that had crashed down a second time was no longer a large boulder, but a brown giant ape!

This creature stood a zhang tall, its bulging muscles appearing ready to burst through its skin, and weighed at least two thousand jin. It was covered in scars and wore a spiked collar around its neck. He Lingchuan had only seen such collars on fierce dogs, meant to protect them from tiger or wolf bites, but he never expected to see one on a giant ape.

Even stranger, it was clad in miserable grey plate armor covering its vital points. It didn't look like metal; rather, it appeared to be... bone?

The giant ape, after using itself as a projectile to crash down, didn't stop. It swung its iron fists, smashing General Ke Jihai's carriage into smithereens.

Madam Ying had intended to scream, but seeing its crimson eyes sweep over them, she quickly clapped a hand over her mouth.

"Get out!" He Chunhua ordered in a low voice. Taking advantage of the carriage blocking the giant ape's view, he picked up his wife and jumped to the ground.

The giant ape was so powerful that the carriage was no longer a safe shelter; instead, it restricted their movements.

He Yue also grabbed the dazed Assistant Liu and the driver, pulling them out of the carriage. While the giant ape was violently smashing General Ke Jihai's carriage, He Lingchuan drew his blade with a backhand strike, shattering his own carriage's harness in one blow, and led out two horses, saying, "Mount up, quickly!"

On a mountainside road, with no help from heaven or earth, survival depended on speed. Only by quickly escaping into the mountain forest could they find some safety.

This was no time for hesitation. He Chunhua, holding his wife, jumped onto a horse, turned its head, and headed up the mountain.

He Yue also jumped onto a horse and extended his hand to his elder brother, but He Lingchuan pushed Assistant Liu onto it instead. "You go!"

He Yue panicked. "Brother!"

He Lingchuan, however, slapped the horse's flank hard, urging it forward to catch up with He Chunhua.

Of course, he wouldn't just wait to die. He grabbed the driver's collar and, with a big leap, ran towards the common carriage behind them.

The two carriages were only about two zhang apart, a distance He Lingchuan could cover with a few strides.

Before his feet even touched the ground, he repeated his trick, also freeing the two horses pulling that carriage.

To him, while this Hundred Refined Blade wasn't as sharp as the Broken Blade, it was still a rare treasure. It sliced through hard wood as easily as cutting tofu, saving both effort and time.

In critical moments, a good blade could save a life.

The driver and passenger of this carriage were already wide-eyed with fear from the giant ape and were caught completely off guard by He Lingchuan's actions. Just as they were about to shout, He Lingchuan urged, "Mount up and flee, quickly!"

No matter how wide and flat the mountain road was, a carriage was difficult to turn around. Nothing was as swift and flexible as escaping on horseback.

He Lingchuan also clearly saw that the passenger in the carriage was indeed the young man who had offered General Ke Jihai wine and the scroll earlier. His driver, as if waking from a dream, jumped onto a horse and started riding back. The passenger tried to climb onto the back of the horse but nearly fell off.

He Lingchuan smoothly supported the passenger, helping him steady himself, and then he and the driver also mounted the last horse, galloping towards the mountaintop.

This was his main point; he needed to borrow their horses.

Eight people on four horses instantly began their escape.

This sequence of actions seemed complex but took only seven or eight breaths of time—roughly the time it took the giant ape to swing its arms and smash the carriage six or seven times.

How could such a massive and ferocious demonic beast suddenly appear in Shihuan City?

He Lingchuan immediately thought of the Northern Demonic Kingdom. If a banished crocodile demon could become a deity in Hongchuan before Woling Pass, stirring up storms and defeating the Raven Kingdom's navy, then perhaps these powerful monsters also came from the north?

The giant ape tore General Ke Jihai's carriage to pieces. One of the horses pulling it seized the chance to escape, while the other was unlucky and remained tethered to the carriage, whinnying in terror.

Next, the giant ape casually grabbed the remains, and with a powerful heave of its arms, actually lifted the entire carriage above its head and hurled it off the cliff!

They were still over ten zhang above the ground here. Even if Ke Jihai hadn't been crushed to death, he would certainly have been killed by the fall.

He Lingchuan heard the mournful whinny of the horse fading into the distance, then abruptly stopping, and sweat beaded on his palms.

This giant ape had attacked two carriages. Was its target General Ke Jihai or the He family?

It had personally engaged General Ke Jihai, but for the He family's carriage, it had only thrown a large rock. So, was Ke Jihai its primary target?

Understanding this might give the He family a greater chance of survival.

At this moment, they were ascending the mountain road, hoping to quickly put distance between themselves and the giant ape. The creature appeared incredibly strong but didn't seem like a speed-oriented combatant.

The snow had stopped at some point without them noticing.

Just then, He Lingchuan caught a glimpse of something flashing through the dense forest beside them.

Ahead, He Yue also exclaimed, "Careful, there's something in the woods!"

But the creature shot forward like a wisp of smoke, its speed surprisingly faster than a galloping horse.

He Lingchuan infused his voice with energy from his dan-tian and roared, "Father, get down!"

He Chunhua and his wife were riding in the lead.

As soon as he heard his son's alarm, he turned to look, but the forest was pitch black, and he saw nothing.

Ahead, there was a large, solid rock formation, more than a zhang higher than the road, with the mountain path winding around its edge.

Before He Chunhua could avert his gaze, a figure appeared on the rock's summit, swooping down from above in the manner of a raptor attacking its prey!

It actually ignored the three riders behind it, making straight for He Chunhua's life.

To catch the thief, first catch the king; even monsters understood this principle.

Fortunately, He Chunhua's nerves were already taut. The moment his peripheral vision caught the movement ahead, he instinctively yanked the horse's head hard.