Chapter 321: General's So Capricious

The roar wasn't a threat; it was more like an empty display of power.

It must have heard He Lingchuan and his group approaching, yet it didn't spare them a single glance.

What was facing it?

He Lingchuan blinked, and a sand-yellow figure darted past.

It was the mountain monster from the entrance of Red Peak Town; it had entered too!

The sand leopard pounced at the Jindun cub's side, lowering its head to bite its ankle. It clearly recognized the cub's hard bone armor and didn't want to chip its teeth.

Compared to its less capable junior, its speed was astonishing. Even the Jindun cub was caught off guard and stumbled as it was dragged along.

Just as the Jindun cub was about to deliver a powerful blow with its spiky fist, He Lingchuan threw the Floating Life Blade.

On Dead End Road, the space had been too narrow to properly wield the blade. This time, the distance was optimal, allowing the 'One-Throw-Sure-Hit' ability to finally be put to use.

The monster turned its head to avoid the strike, but the Floating Life Blade elegantly arced around, opening a bloody gash on its chest plate.

Just as He Lingchuan caught the blade, a fiery silhouette streaked past from the front, incredibly fast and radiating scorching heat. It plunged directly into the wound on the Jindun cub's chest, carrying it ten feet away and pinning it to the rock wall!

Only then did everyone realize it was an ordinary standard-issue long spear, but the entire weapon was wreathed in flames, glowing a light blue, almost ghostly white, indicating its immense heat.

The Jindun cub's wound instantly blackened, emitting a foul, burning stench. It wailed loudly, trying to pull its mother out to eat a few more bites and regain strength, but the sand leopard had already seized the chance to snatch the woman from its back and slipped away in the opposite direction.

The cub tried to pull out the long spear, but its claws instantly scalded upon contact with the weapon, hissing and smoking, making it impossible to exert any force.

Then, hurried footsteps echoed from ahead—six or seven people approaching.

Finally seeing the long-awaited reinforcements, the patrols were overjoyed, but He Lingchuan froze.

A dark red figure walked past him, stopping about ten feet in front of the monster to meet its gaze.

That was... could it be?

An indifferent voice resounded in everyone's minds: "Sending a brat to cause trouble in my city, White Sand Jindun, what is your intent?"

The monster, pinned to the wall, merely struggled and roared, showing no sign of replying.

General Hong waited patiently for over ten breaths. Seeing that it wouldn't speak, she stated, "Very well. No matter who ordered it, it's your offspring that faces death."

The Jindun cub suddenly let out a long howl, its physique transforming. Its body became stronger, two more arms even sprouted from its back, and its face began to resemble a human's more closely.

This was an approximation of an adult form, but the transformation appeared catalyzed, twisted, and unnatural.

It opened its mouth, poised to speak, when a cold flash of light illuminated the entire chamber.

General Hong clapped her hands. "I'm no longer interested in listening," she said.

The others were speechless. "How willful the General is," they thought.

Immediately after, half of the Jindun cub's head fell off, rolling on the ground, the cut remarkably clean.

He Lingchuan's heart jolted. Had General Hong drawn her blade just now?

There hadn't been a single sound.

The others, meanwhile, let out a collective sigh of relief.

This monster had been so troublesome before, virtually an unkillable pest, yet it was dispatched so effortlessly by General Hong. Indeed, once the lair's link to the monster was severed, the difficulty of dealing with the Jindun cub plummeted.

With the crisis resolved, all three felt pain and exhaustion surge simultaneously, almost collapsing.

General Hong used her blade to extract an oval object from the monster's skull, which she then put away. Turning to them, she said, "Well done. Had the Devourer fully fortified its lair, destroying this nest would not have been so easy."

And she calls this easy? Three teams, twenty-six people went in, and only six or seven survived, all injured.

However, everyone also heard a new term: Devourer.

As if sensing their unspoken thoughts, General Hong, uncharacteristically, explained: "The Jindun mothers bear multiple cubs in a single litter, but only a minuscule percentage are born as Devourers. Within ten days of this monster's birth, the more humans it consumes, the greater its strength and divine abilities become. It can also construct its nest using the host's body, which is called...

...a Flesh-and-Blood Fortress. Fortunately, we discovered it early, and it had built its nest in a sparsely populated area, so it hadn't consumed many people."

"In ancient times, a Devourer once consumed hundreds of thousands of lives in an entire city, temporarily gaining the ability to contend with True Immortals. The Flesh-and-Blood Fortress it constructed was impervious even to the vital magic artifacts of ordinary immortals." She paused. "The demise of this Devourer at our hands is also a significant loss for the Jindun mother."

General Hong looked at the three of them. "Are there any other survivors in the mine?" she asked.

He Lingchuan opened his mouth to answer, when the Thin Man and others limped out from the rear passage, calling out, "Aid needed here!"

He was carrying an unconscious Duan Xinyu, while the last remaining member of Xu Chun's team supported a survivor with eye injuries.

This injured person was remarkably lucky, having safely survived the battle on Dead End Road. It seemed the Devourer had deemed him no threat, saving him for a late-night snack.

Two guards behind General Hong immediately rushed forward to assist.

Soon after, others arrived from outside the mine, carrying makeshift stretchers, and carried out the two injured individuals who had received emergency first aid.

As for the unconscious woman, the guards sought General Hong's instructions. She merely glanced at the woman and said, "Take her back to Thousand Peaks Town."

The Thin Man hesitated, twice appearing on the verge of speaking.

He stood behind He Lingchuan, unnoticed by the others, but General Hong turned and looked at him. "Speak freely," she commanded.

The Thin Man was slightly startled. After a moment of hesitation, he said, "General, there seems to be something in the deeper parts of the mine."

"Tell me."

"When I excavated Duan Xinyu, I noticed circular indentations on the rock wall. As I made my way out, I paid more attention and discovered various sizes of these pits in the southwestern mining area." He licked his lips. "I worked in Xilin Mine for two years, mining gold. These indentations here strongly resemble—they're very much like—the traces left by the 'fire-blasting method' of gold extraction."

This mine yields gold too?

The fire-blasting method is one of the most common gold mining techniques: heating rocks with fire until they reach peak temperature, then rapidly dousing them with water. This makes it much easier to chisel through the hardened rock with a pickaxe to extract gold.

General Hong seemed to be taken aback for a moment, nodding only after a few breaths. "No wonder," she stated. "Good, you'll be credited for this."

The moment she made her decision, the adjutant by her side immediately recorded it.

The Thin Man cleared his throat. "Can this be considered an anonymous report?"

General Hong seemed surprisingly accommodating. "Yes," she replied.

Following this, everyone left the mine, trailing behind General Hong. By now, the mountain road had been cleared, and carriages and horses were waiting outside.

On the return journey, everyone else kept a horse-length behind General Hong.

She naturally exuded a chilling aura that kept strangers at bay. When facing her, even the fearless Liutiao kept her eyes lowered and dared not speak much, fearing that getting too close would cause frostbite.

Only He Lingchuan spurred his horse forward a couple of steps to ride alongside her, voicing the questions on his mind:

"General, why didn't you let the Devourer speak just now?"

Having been in Coiled Dragon City's dream for over half a year, he finally saw the true face of this military God of War.

It was a woman.

She was around twenty-six or twenty-seven, with long eyebrows, phoenix eyes, an upturned nose, and full lips. Her features adhered perfectly to the traditional aesthetic standards, making her as flawless as a banished immortal from a painting or a porcelain sculpture meticulously crafted by a master artisan.

Beautiful, exquisite, and utterly devoid of human warmth.

Her tea-colored eyes were cold and merciless, and her gaze was sharper than frost blades or wind swords. She glanced at He Lingchuan, who felt a tremor in his heart and instinctively averted his eyes.

This was the powerful, oppressive aura of a superior, stripping one of the courage to meet her gaze.

He Lingchuan had long suspected that General Hong might be a woman.

But he had expected to see Zhong Shengguang's daughter, Zhong Wuhuan.

However, by age estimation, Zhong Wuhuan would be, at most, a fifteen or sixteen-year-old girl at this time, making her at least ten years younger in appearance than the woman before him.

More importantly, He Lingchuan had actually seen this face.

In the Vast Sky Temple within the Coiled Dragon dream, the enormous statue worshipped by countless people bore a distinct resemblance to her.

So, what he was seeing now was the mortal form of the Vast Sky Goddess?

"The Devourer's intelligence is limited; the one I wished to converse with was the Jindun mother behind it," General Hong replied. "It hesitated for a long time without responding, which indicates that the Jindun mother cannot act independently either. When it was about to open its mouth again, that would have meant the true manipulator was about to speak through it."

The statement was a bit convoluted, and He Lingchuan had to ponder it for a moment to grasp its meaning. Did General Hong mean that the Jindun mother was also being manipulated by someone?

Yes, she seemed to have just implied that.

"You don't wish to speak with the true manipulator?"

"I know what they want to say; there's no need for a conversation," General Hong said coldly. "It's sufficient to know that the Jindun mother is also being manipulated."

He Lingchuan mused.

General Hong's words were not hard to understand literally, but their underlying meaning was obscure. Ultimately, He Lingchuan possessed too little information for a proper analysis. However, Dong Rui had indeed mentioned that the Jindun mother's rank among deities was not high. If humans are divided into various social strata, how much more so are gods?

"He Lingchuan, do you have anything else?"

He was startled. "You recognize me?"

"I recognize every warrior in Coiled Dragon City."

For anyone else, such a statement would be arrogant, but coming from General Hong, it was different.

She represented a deity; if she said she recognized someone, then she did.

General Hong even added, "Your performance was commendable."

"Oh, was this an affirmation from Coiled Dragon City?" He Lingchuan uttered a couple of humble remarks, but General Hong didn't bother with pleasantries. She simply took something from her robes and handed it to him:

"This trophy is yours."

He Lingchuan took it and observed that, from its color to its pattern, it resembled the silkworm pupae he used to eat. It was reddish-brown with beautiful surface threads, making him instinctively want to break it open.

Deep-fried, they were crunchy bites, perfect as a snack with drinks.

No, wait. This looked like the item General Hong had retrieved from the Devourer's brain earlier!

"This is..."

"The Devourer's brain core," General Hong explained matter-of-factly. "A trace of its power still remains within; you can activate it with your true essence. It will allow you to simulate the Devourer's innate ability, temporarily constructing a Flesh-and-Blood Fortress."

"Awesome!" He Lingchuan exclaimed, overjoyed. "I can also have that fortress skill?"

The Flesh-and-Blood Fortress was the Jindun cub's unique signature ability, and with just this home-ground advantage, it had brutally overwhelmed many patrols.