Chapter 322: I Am Called Yungu

"You are not a Ravager, nor do you have a mother to borrow from. To activate a Flesh Fortress, you must rely entirely on the brain core itself. However, the residual divine power within it is pitifully small... Hmm, it can probably only be used once, last for at most four hours, and its size will be much smaller, nothing like the complex layout of the Scarlet Peak Mine." General Hong said, "You can think of it as a magical artifact. If you can lure enemies into combat, you will gain considerable advantages. As for how to use it, you'll have to figure that out yourself when the time comes."

To manifest an entire Flesh Fortress from thin air with just a tiny bit of divine power – He Lingchuan felt that General Hong's definition of "pitifully small" differed significantly from his own. However, considering she was actually the Celestial Deity Mytian, it wasn't so surprising.

Holding the Ravager's brain core, He Lingchuan instantly felt that the hours of hardship he endured had not been in vain. Yet, remembering the price paid for this brain core, he couldn't bring himself to smile.

"Oh, and by the way, using the Ravager's brain core will most likely alert the Ferry Mother, as they are of the same lineage, provided the Ferry Mother still exists."

He Lingchuan cautiously asked, "What will be the consequences?"

"As long as you don't prostrate yourself before it or pray for its divine descent, there usually won't be any immediate consequences," General Hong said leisurely. "But it will remember you."

What would happen if a deity held a grudge against him? He Lingchuan understood the unspoken message: use it only if absolutely necessary.

He had another question.

"This mission..." He Lingchuan hesitated, wondering why it was assigned to the patrol guards. "No, never mind."

"We just discovered that among the Ferry Younglings who descended to the human realm this time, there was a Ravager," General Hong seemed to discern his thoughts. "However, even without a Ravager, this mission truly shouldn't have been assigned to you."

When she said it shouldn't have been, it implied that upon returning to the city, someone would be held accountable, and someone would pay the price.

Before the moon reached the treetops, the group finally returned to Scarlet Peak Town.

Returning from the deserted wilderness, a dragon-head mask automatically formed on General Hong's face, its ferocious black dragon features concealing her true appearance.

He Lingchuan occasionally glanced at it, and behind the dragon-head mask, there seemed to be only darkness.

Indeed, when normal people wear masks, at least their eyes are visible. In that case, eye shape, wrinkles around the eyes, and pupil distance would still be recognizable to acquaintances.

However, General Hong's mask was very peculiar; within the dragon eyes was a void of darkness, as if light could not penetrate it even when she entered a brightly lit room.

General Hong wore precise and formidable dark red armor trimmed with black, adorned with a dark golden dragon head on her chest. With this mask now added, an aura of severe ferocity emanated from her.

The residents of Scarlet Peak Town came out to watch, and a four or five-year-old child, seeing General Hong for the first time, was so terrified that he burst into wails.

Turning his head again, He Lingchuan was surprised to see his old acquaintance Hu Min here. The latter smiled at him, then went to General Hong to report a few things in a low voice before coming over to greet He Lingchuan.

The group entered indoors, and the severely injured personnel were sent to be settled. General Hong walked to the unconscious woman and gently brushed her hand over her face.

The woman groaned and woke up.

Her face was filled with terror, and she tried to sit up but was too weak.

This face was completely unfamiliar to He Lingchuan; it turned out the human mother the Ferry Mother found for the Ghost Fetus was not the person he had thought.

He had guessed wrong.

General Hong's voice was as calm as water: "Your internal organs are damaged beyond repair. The reason you're not writhing in pain right now is because the venom injected into your body by the Ravager has an anesthetic effect, which I have not removed."

Despite the treatment, the stretcher beneath her was still stained red.

The bleeding simply wouldn't stop. If General Hong hadn't woken her now, she would have slept until death.

"The Ravager?" the woman asked with a trembling voice. "Are you talking about my child? How is it?"

"It's dead," General Hong replied. "It used your body to construct its fortress and digest its food. In total, you two collaborated to consume over two hundred people. Do you have anything to say?"

"I, I didn't eat anyone," the woman vehemently shook her head. "I only prayed to the Celestial Deity to free me from this sea of suffering."

"Countless people pray to Celestial Deities, but very few are answered by the Ferry Mother," General Hong said coldly. "Otherwise, wouldn't Ghost Fetuses be running rampant across the world?"

The woman wept, "My life has been too bitter, I..." She believed her sincerity had moved the Celestial Deity.

"Which Celestial Deity did you pray to?"

"Yao, Yaoji," the woman murmured. "The deity answered me and said I would have a lovely child, and from then on, I would never again be subjected to bullying."

By a quick reckoning, both promises seemed to have come true.

General Hong then asked, "Why did you come to Scarlet Peak Town?"

"The Celestial Deity originally wanted me to stay temporarily in Coiling Dragon City, but I... I accidentally had a premature birth," the woman grew increasingly weak. "Coiling Dragon City was searching for my child, so I had to move out. But it was freezing cold outside, and I found a post station, wanting to steal some food, and then... then the children ate people again, so I came north."

She wept, "The Celestial Deity was very displeased and wanted me to go to a populous place. But I gave birth to my youngest child halfway there, and after that... I don't remember anything."

Hu Min interjected from the side, "You gave birth to the Ghost Fetus near the mine?"

"It seems... yes?" The woman thought for a long time. "Before I fainted, I saw a row of low houses."

Hu Min muttered softly, "So, all of this was accidental?"

"The area around Scarlet Peak Mine is sparsely populated, definitely not a good location for establishing a Flesh Fortress," General Hong told everyone. "The Ferry Mother entices suffering women to bear Ghost Fetuses for it, under the guise of salvation. However, this time, it seems to have chosen the wrong person."

He Lingchuan couldn't help but ask, "Why didn't it choose someone else?"

"Perhaps because it couldn't find a suitable candidate," General Hong replied. "Residents within the Coiling Dragon territory already have their beliefs."

Naturally, most residents within Coiling Dragon City's sphere of influence believed in Mytian.

The Celestial Deity certainly held a firm grip on its fundamental base.

General Hong seemed to have gathered the information she needed and turned to leave.

Seeing the woman's face growing paler, Liu Tiao fetched a bowl of water to give her, saying, "Don't cry anymore; conserve your strength."

"I can't go on living like this," the woman said, grasping Liu Tiao's hand, her tears flowing faster. "What wrong did I do to suffer such hardship? I just didn't want to be alone and desolate anymore."

He Lingchuan watched from the side and suddenly asked her, "What's your name?"

Finally, someone asked for her name. The woman looked at him: "Yun Gu, my name is Yun Gu! I'm from Luancheng! My family used to, used to..."

She then mumbled a few more words, her voice growing fainter and fainter until it was inaudible.

Liu Tiao checked her pulse at the neck and shook her head, "She's gone."

She sighed softly and instructed the residents of Scarlet Peak Town to handle Yun Gu's funeral arrangements.

He Lingchuan vaguely recalled that Luancheng had once been on the geographical map of the Coiling Dragon Wasteland, but it was erased by the Xianyou Kingdom about twelve or thirteen years ago.

Along with it, many common people's lives were also wiped out.

Such a lonely and helpless woman, whose last month of life had caused a great stir, was now reduced to dust and silence.

The room felt a bit stuffy, so He Lingchuan took Hu Min outside, offering him a piece of chewing tobacco.

Hu Min put it in his mouth, chewed a few times, and exhaled comfortably:

"You've suffered greatly this time, and someone is going to be in deep trouble because of it."

"How so?"

"This kind of mission should at least be handled by the Great Wind Army," Hu Min patted his shoulder. "Brother, no disrespect intended."

"I know, General Hong said so too," He Lingchuan replied. "By the way, why did General Hong come in person?"

"Headquarters discovered that Chief Hu of Scarlet Peak Town deliberately underreported the actual death toll in the mine, by more than half. Furthermore, he intentionally delayed for two days to first tip off others, claiming there were monsters haunting the cave. The other party sent him a monster-extermination squad of about forty to fifty people, but they were all wiped out."

"Tipped off others first?" He Lingchuan was startled, remembering Skinny's discovery. "That's right, Scarlet Peak Mine yields gold. Others didn't know this, but Chief Hu must have been aware."

"They were secretly mining gold in the cave without reporting it to Coiling Dragon City!" Hu Min had also managed to get Chief Hu to talk and learned some inside information. "When the incident happened here, he first reported it to his superior. That party wanted to eliminate the monsters and hush things up ahead of time, but they didn't expect the situation in the cave to be so tricky."

"That den of monsters then went north and devoured an entire village," Hu Min sighed. "Only three remained, but they were so voracious that General Hong concluded one of them must be a Ravager. That's something a normal army can't handle."

"Otherwise, why would I tell you that someone's going to be in deep trouble this time?" He chuckled. "Almost letting a Ravager take root and grow in the Scarlet Plateau—that's an enormous responsibility!"

He Lingchuan glanced around to ensure no one was nearby, then hooked his arm around Hu Min's neck and whispered, "Let me ask you something else: has General Hong always been like this?"

"Like what?"

"Always wearing a mask, even when there's no need!"

"Uh," Hu Min shrugged. "That's why I told you earlier that I was at a loss for words; I couldn't describe it."

"General Hong—" He glanced at the main house, his voice unconsciously dropping to a whisper. "On the battlefield and in public, she usually appears with a mask, revealing her true face only in private. I've heard this is a combat habit of ancient deities. Let me tell you something that happened a long time ago."

"When General Hong first appeared a few years ago, everyone was desperately curious, but she was reclusive, and few people had a chance to meet her. There was one time, by chance, when she supported an outer city during a long-distance raid, and everyone bet that her true face would be seen within a few days."

"And then?"

"And then everyone lost," Hu Min sighed. "No matter the time, General Hong never removed that mask."

"Does she eat alone?" During wartime, where would such luxurious conditions come from?

"That's the amazing part," Hu Min lowered his voice. "According to her personal guards, General Hong doesn't eat, doesn't drink, and doesn't even need to use the latrine!"

"Of course, if she doesn't eat or drink, she wouldn't need to use the latrine—nothing goes in, nothing comes out. Hmm..." He Lingchuan realized his focus was probably misplaced.

"General Hong is always energetic and never needs sleep," Hu Min said with a wry smile. "Two years ago, when Baling and Xianyou jointly attacked West Beach, General Hong commanded for seven days and seven nights straight, without a moment's rest, her energy endless."