Chapter 1986: Divine Weapon Descends from the Heavens

Ghost Beasts are usually quite unstable; their forms either easily collapse or their tempers are extremely volatile, or both. When sealed within a human body, Ghost Beasts become portable, ready for use as needed.

Previously, He Jing, the Heavenly Palace's Cloud Emissary, brought several Child-Devouring Ghost Beasts into the Coiling Dragon Mirage, but they were all single-use. Once awakened, their hosts would die, and the Ghost Beasts, expending all their vitality in battle, wouldn't live much longer either.

However, the creation of "Turbid Sound" utilized the latest technology from the Blinggold Plains' puppet research. Its "cocoon" only partially breaks; as long as the Ghost Beast doesn't fully manifest, it can retract and be resealed after battle.

Although the host experiences pain, they won't die and can still be treated.

Such Child-Devouring Ghost Beasts can then be saved for future reuse. Otherwise, Ghost Beasts are rare, and it would be a shame for the owner to lose one in every major battle.

Of course, King Poliu wouldn't feel bad about other people's belongings; his sole focus was on capturing Situ He.

Situ He's guards were loyal, and he himself carried several protective talismans, but nothing could negate the sound.

Caught off guard, he was rattled by the piercing shriek, seeing stars, and almost collapsed.

Almost.

In a flash, a hand reached out from behind, pulling him back.

Situ He stumbled backward as someone stepped in front of him, unfurling their cape with a whoosh.

The cape suddenly turned blood-red, its size doubling, and it flapped wildly in the wind.

In that instant, King Poliu and his men could only see the deep red cloak, nothing else.

Situ He, standing behind the cloak, suddenly felt the entire world become silent.

He had never known that "quiet" could be so beautiful.

Just as he thought his eardrums had burst, he heard a familiar voice again:

"Wrap the cape tightly; you'll be safe."

This... this voice? Situ He looked up in astonishment, seeing the person turn half their face towards him and smile.

The face was different, but that half-smile, half-sneer expression was all too familiar.

He... He Xiao?

Situ He instinctively tightened the cape around himself, with only one thought frantically swirling in his mind:

When did this fellow infiltrate his guard?

Meanwhile, He Lingchuan, facing hundreds of enemies without fear, with a flick of his wrist, sent a Sky-Overturning Golden Seal directly towards King Poliu.

King Poliu's guards shot arrows, but they couldn't affect its trajectory in the slightest.

This seal was also dug out from the Ghost King's Underworld Palace scrapyard, and after being repaired by Songyang Manor and enhanced by Liu Qingdao's skilled carving, its power had more than doubled compared to when He Lingchuan used it in the Palace of Divination King.

It grew larger and larger in mid-air, instantly becoming a small mountain; King Poliu felt all the light above him being blocked.

Seeing this thing about to crush them like a mountain, King Poliu's guards desperately dragged him away.

The next moment, the massive seal landed with a deafening crash, shaking the ground violently.

Dust billowed in all directions; the courtyard was ruined, and the surrounding scenery suddenly blurred. The seven warring factions unconsciously stopped fighting as the nearby and distant views suddenly faded from blurry to faint—only then did they realize they had long been trapped within an encirclement!

Surrounding these more than a thousand people were motionless black-armored warriors.

King Poliu, having escaped the seal and barely recovered from the shock, upon seeing this scene, couldn't help but curse the messenger who had just reported, "Where are the three thousand people?"

There was a vast, surging mass of them; the streets outside were packed, and they stretched as far as the eye could see.

There must have been over ten thousand!

How could they have arrived so quickly! They were still in Zhennan just a dozen breaths ago.

What was even more outrageous was that the nearby rooftops were also covered with black-armored soldiers, with bows drawn and arrows aimed at them.

An illusion?

Was the previous scene an illusion, or was this one?

Before King Poliu could get a clear look at the person standing in front of Situ He, that person suddenly "grew" dark gold battle armor all over, and their face was covered by a ferocious dragon-head mask.

Completely encased, from head to toe, with no trace of a living person.

Isn't that the Great Emperor of Nine Serenities?

King Poliu asked in disbelief, "You... how are you here?"

The allied forces had held countless meetings; how did the Great Emperor of Nine Serenities know he would launch an attack on Situ He this time?

And how did these tens of thousands of black-armored soldiers get into the town?

A deep chuckle echoed in everyone's minds: "You just said Situ He was going to offer the allied forces to me; of course, I came to accept."

Situ He had just shaken his head to clear the dizziness, and upon hearing this, he froze, giving a bitter smile.

That inexplicable fake letter! Alas, he was hopelessly implicated.

At this moment, one of King Poliu's loyal guards tried to secretly activate a mechanism to shoot a crossbow bolt at the Great Emperor of Nine Serenities.

But as soon as his wrist lifted, a bolt shot from nearby, whistling as it pierced his throat.

The one who fired was precisely Mo Yize.

Someone behind King Poliu suddenly exclaimed, "Fake, don't believe it! These are all illusions, Nine Serenities has very few people under him!"

"Is that so?" The Great Emperor of Nine Serenities snapped his fingers, and the black-armored soldiers in the front rows and on high ground uniformly raised their arms, their crossbows all aiming at King Poliu and the Kan clan leader in the center. "Would you like to test it?"

The black-armored soldiers in the distance raised their long spears, making a gesture as if preparing to throw.

Thousands of arrows and spears.

The sharp arrowheads and spear tips reflected the sunlight, making everyone pointed at tremble with fear.

At such close range, it was impossible to miss; the question was who would be hit.

The lucky ones might even be hit multiple times.

The person behind King Poliu only shouted once, but no one present wanted to test the arrows for him; they could only look eagerly at their own leaders.

Only then did the Great Emperor of Nine Serenities ask Situ He, "Looking at the situation, who are enemies and who are friends?"

Situ He quickly calmed down, knowing he had to sift through the crowd now, and quickly said, "Pei and Yan are friendly nations; they stood with me against them just now."

"Good." These two monarchs had already reunited with their guards and now stood behind Nine Serenities and Situ He. The Great Emperor of Nine Serenities then pointed at Baoxin Kingdom and the Wutu clan and asked, "What about these two sides?"

These two sides had originally been wavering and seemed to lean towards King Poliu; King Poliu's ambush circle hadn't included them either. But now the situation had changed, and the Great Emperor of Nine Serenities had gained the upper hand.

Moreover, the Great Emperor of Nine Serenities only offered two options:

Enemy, Friend.

If not a friend, then an enemy; there was no neutrality.

Situ He drew out his words, "These two sides—"

These two sides only had four hundred people, and even with the Poliu Kingdom and Kan clan members, they numbered only eight hundred, whereas the other side had tens of thousands of elite soldiers; the numerical disparity was too great.

Those who understand the times are sagacious. So they exchanged glances and immediately said, "May the Dragon God bear witness, we would never harm Alliance Leader Situ."

These were still neutral words.

How could He Lingchuan be caught by wordplay? He merely chuckled faintly: "You still follow Alliance Leader Situ's lead, and he can still speak for the allied forces with ultimate authority, right?"

The rules for joining the alliance were indeed like that, and the two couldn't say it was wrong, so they could only nod and say, "Yes, we fully support Alliance Leader Situ."