Chapter 400: This is Impossible?

Good thing he was riding a rock goat; horses wouldn't be able to navigate these rugged terraced fields.

"Faster, faster!" He Lingchuan urged the rock goat, showing surprising urgency. Second Boss Shi didn't understand why, assuming He Lingchuan just wanted to rejoin the convoy. He pointed out, "There's another small path there. It's a bit steep, but if you go down that way, you can get ahead of the merchant convoy." The winding mountain road the guards were taking circled almost halfway around Mount Fengmo, so their climb was essentially a shortcut.

However, this shortcut was too difficult for regular teams to take.

At that moment, people, both men and women, began entering from several small paths. They marveled at the ancient ruins upon seeing them.

These were guests from other merchant convoys who had come for sightseeing, following the established routes. They were significantly slower than He Lingchuan and Second Boss Shi.

Just as He Lingchuan reached the path leading into the mountain's core, a wailing whistle suddenly echoed from behind.

To be honest, the wind sounds here were incredibly varied—like wolf howls, ghostly wails, tiger roars, or even whistles; you could hear anything.

But the whistle from behind, with its three long blasts, two short, followed by a series of rapid notes, was clearly not the sound of natural wind.

He Lingchuan's ears twitched. He looked back to see a person standing by the crevice, happily blowing a long whistle.

Other whistles were short, an inch long at most. But the greenish-blue whistle in his hand resembled a broken chopstick—neither bamboo nor jade—and even had knot marks.

The sound he produced was actually softer and richer than a typical whistle, surprisingly akin to a whale's song.

This person was also using true power to blow the whistle, allowing the sound to condense without scattering and preventing it from being drowned out by the surrounding noise.

No one could withstand the biting wind and frost at the mountaintop. Everyone, including He Lingchuan and Second Boss Shi, wore thick felt hats or scarves to cover their faces, leaving only their eyes exposed.

However, to blow the whistle, this person had to remove their face covering, revealing their true identity.

Fu Shanyue!

He Lingchuan's heart jolted as he looked at the increasingly familiar face.

This person had indeed escaped Fufeng City completely unharmed and was relentlessly continuing his mission.

But the envoy from Shan Yu Kingdom had clearly returned east to his country, so why wasn't Fu Shanyue pursuing him? Why had he come here instead?

Could his objective have changed?

While blowing the whistle, Fu Shanyue looked around, his eyes turning red.

Although his actions were strange, other tourists didn't try to stop him. Only one person complained, "Keep it down! Don't cause an avalanche!"

Only He Lingchuan looked around. He had been about to jump onto the stone platform path but suddenly turned the goat, making it leap directly into a deep groove on the side of the mountain.

The mountain wall was riddled with such grooves, carved by wind and snow erosion. Some were large enough to house a hut, while others were only big enough for a squirrel to squeeze into.

This was a dead end, with no path beyond.

There seemed to be three large characters carved into the rock wall, requiring close inspection to decipher.

Second Boss Shi, puzzled, asked, "Brother He, what are you doing? Aren't we going down the mountain?"

Just then, another strange sound suddenly emerged from the mountain's core, like a trapped beast enraged and unable to escape its lair, echoing with thunderous loudness.

Most importantly, this sound was coming from the crevice!

It was as if some monster was about to leap out from within.

The whistler also retreated, backing all the way against the mountain wall, but the whistling didn't stop.

At that moment, a young man in his early twenties stood at the crevice's exit, teasing his companion, "Oh, what are you afraid of? The Wind Demon was already taken care of by the Treasure Tree King. This little noise is just a figment of your imagination!"

No sooner had he spoken than a furious gust of wind roared out of the crevice!

Everyone standing at the crevice's opening was blown outwards. The one who had just spoken, mocking his companion, was the unluckiest; he was lifted by the powerful wind and sent directly skyward.

He Lingchuan shielded his eyes with a hand and estimated the height he flew to be at least seventeen or eighteen zhang.

Clearly, falling from that height meant certain death.

The strong wind that burst from the crevice didn't just flow out through the channels as usual. Instead, it swirled in circles within the circular mountain core. With each rotation, the wind's force increased, and its howling grew louder, yet the "volume" of the wind seemed to shrink.

The dozen or so tourists who had come up to sightsee were also unfortunate; they were instantly swept up. Using them as a reference, He Lingchuan could see that their spiraling radius was getting smaller and smaller.

At the same time, rocks, sand, and accumulated snow from various places were sucked in and churned together.

These people could scream a few times at first, but then they were directly battered into unconsciousness.

With these assorted debris providing definition, He Lingchuan finally saw the "wind's" true form:

A standard tornado, wide at the top and narrow at the bottom.

At its uppermost part were two pitch-black masses, like eyes.

He Lingchuan, Second Boss Shi, and the rock goat stood firmly against the deepest part of the mountain wall. Even such a powerful wind couldn't dislodge them.

The only person still standing in the area was the whistler. The tornado seemed to have deliberately avoided him.

"This... this is the Wind Demon?" Second Boss Shi's eyes widened in shock. After a few seconds of stunned silence, he suddenly exclaimed, "How is this possible!"

This path had been safe for hundreds of years; he himself had taken it multiple times. How could they suddenly encounter the Wind Demon now?

Was this some kind of haunting?

Wasn't the Wind Demon killed by the Treasure Tree King?

He quickly asked He Lingchuan, "Brother He, how did you know this thing was going to appear?"

But He Lingchuan, surprisingly, paid no attention. Instead, he carefully observed something:

A Fengshiye (Wind Lion God) sculpture.

Yes, there were two Fengshiye sculptures in this groove as well, one on each side. The one on the left was human-height, and the one on the right was three feet tall.

He Lingchuan stared, examining the back of the Fengshiye, while simultaneously asking an inexplicable question, "Why is there no wind in this groove?"

To avoid being blown away, he had even hidden the rock goat deeper inside. Yet, he realized there was no wind at all where they stood, as if the tornado had selectively ignored this groove.

A moment ago, he had walked a few steps outwards and only felt a gentle breeze, as if they were in a different world from the apocalyptic scene outside.

Still in shock, Second Boss Shi repeated blankly, "Why?"

With such a terrifying sight before them, was Brother He still paying attention to such minor details?

He also turned to He Lingchuan's side and saw that the snow on the back of the Fengshiye had been wiped away, revealing intricate lines.

Was there a formation behind the sculpture?

"Perhaps it's because of them," He Lingchuan said, pointing downwards. "Look at the terraced fields below. Which ones near a Fengshiye sculpture were damaged?"

Second Boss Shi instinctively looked down and indeed saw that the terraced fields with Fengshiye sculptures were still covered in thick snow and had not been sucked into the tornado. In contrast, areas without Fengshiye placed as protectors looked as if they had just been vacuumed, clean and bare.

Yes, that's right. The purpose of Fengshiye is to ward off wind and evil!

No wonder the Misty Sect placed Fengshiye everywhere in their territory; it was to keep the Wind Demon at bay.

"These sculptures are carefully refined and inscribed with formations; they're not ordinary items," He Lingchuan stated. After a quick look at the formations, he felt much more at ease.

The Literary and Propaganda Pavilion in Panlong City housed many formation diagrams, especially battle formations, which he had studied extensively.

Even if he couldn't master them, at least he could authenticate them without difficulty.

He glanced at Fu Shanyue again and realized the man was indeed standing near the Fengshiye. Even when facing the Wind Demon directly just now, only his clothes had flapped.

By this point, the tornado within the mountain's core was becoming smaller and smaller.

However, this shrinking wasn't reassuring; instead, it felt like a balloon being compressed to its limit, ready to explode once it reached its critical point.

When the wind circle's radius was only three zhang, the tornado let out an earth-shattering roar.

As if in sympathy with the sky, what had been a clear expanse suddenly filled with thunderous rumbles. Large masses of dark clouds drifted in from nowhere, quickly obscuring the bright sun.

The sky immediately turned dark, with ominous clouds pressing down upon the city.

Fu Shanyue had already climbed to a higher point. He then decisively extended his hand, pointing towards the guard convoy on the opposite mountain path.

This gesture was full of murderous intent.

The tornado seemed to receive a kill order. It roared as it spread out from Mount Fengmo's golden peak, surging towards the opposite side!

Second Boss Shi shouted, "Is this man insane? He's summoning the Wind Demon to attack the guards!"

"He's not insane; he's here to kill!" Fu Shanyue always acted with purpose. He Lingchuan wondered what he was after with the guard convoy this time. Could he also covet the Treasure Tree King's spiritual seed?

He Lingchuan grabbed some ice and snow from the ground and rubbed it over the carving on the rock wall.

The white snow settled into the grooves, outlining the characters, and he finally made out the ancient immortal script carved into the stone:

Fengbo Rock.

Second Boss Shi stood stunned for a moment, then suddenly bowed deeply to He Lingchuan. "Thank you, Brother He, for your warning! Otherwise, our convoy would have been ruined!"

He now understood that the guards were the whistler's target. It was fortunate that he had trusted He Lingchuan's words and kept the Shimen convoy a dozen li behind the guards, thus avoiding collateral damage.

This convoy was the culmination of half a lifetime of hard work for him and his brother. If it had been destroyed by the Wind Demon, it would have been a devastating loss.

He was truly a noble helper.

"You're welcome," He Lingchuan smiled, extending his leg to push a loose stone tile down into the mountain's core.

His footwork was good, and his aim was true. The stone tile tumbled successively between the terraced fields, gaining speed, finally falling towards the long crevice.

Once the stone tile entered the crevice, it seemed to float in mid-air right before He Lingchuan's eyes, like wood dropping onto water, then suddenly rose again.

This was the strange phenomenon Second Boss Shi had mentioned earlier: objects falling into the crevice wouldn't sink.

The strong wind from underground would blow objects that fell into the crevice upwards.

So, the earlier abnormalities in the crevice were entirely due to the Wind Demon?

What was that creature doing in there? Ambushing and recharging?

Fu Shanyue blew the whistle, so where did he get another Wind Demon from?

Most importantly, why would Fu Shanyue attack the Treasure Tree King's guard convoy? Could a sane person do such a thing?

He Lingchuan pondered for a moment and then performed a small experiment:

He put both Fengshiye sculptures into his storage ring.

Immediately, the strong mountain wind from outside poured in, mercilessly sweeping across every inch of the stone surface.

This confirmed He Lingchuan's suspicion: these items indeed repelled wind.

He then put the Fengshiye back, told Second Boss Shi, "Stay here and don't wander off," and mounted the rock goat. He rode along the mountain wall towards the summit, picking up several more human-height Fengshiye sculptures along the way.

Better safe than sorry.