Chapter 422: Illusion and Reality Intertwined

How could there be the smell of blood coming from people who died in an illusion?

He Lingchuan didn't need a reminder; he glided over and saw one of the Stone Gate Caravan's porters with his throat slit, while another had been stabbed in the chest.

The brief cry was uttered just before he died.

The culprits were two Chiyan natives.

While the victims were still bleeding profusely and before their last breath had completely faded, they pressed a bead into the wounds.

The bodies of the two porters visibly shriveled at a rapid pace, like empty sacks, or dried preserved vegetables that had been squeezed of all moisture.

Despite the illusion, this was actually barren wilderness with sparse vegetation that couldn't provide cover. So, as He Lingchuan saw the two Chiyan natives committing the act, they also spotted him.

Killing two was no different from killing four. Without a word between them, both rushed forward, gripping their blood-stained weapons.

He Lingchuan raised his hand and fired a sleeve arrow at the person on the right, while he himself charged toward the enemy on the left.

The opponent charged aggressively, thinking He Lingchuan was easy prey. The blade was almost at He Lingchuan's head when he reached for his waist and drew Fusheng.

The blade was already poised to strike; it reflected the moonlight for less than half a second before it returned to its sheath.

With a clang, the opponent, along with his weapon, was cut in half.

By now, He Lingchuan had begun to explore the cultivation of sword intent, the so-called 'drawing-sword style.' When a precious blade is kept sheathed for a long time and then suddenly brought into the light, its blade energy is most potent at that moment, and mastering it can subdue any enemy.

Wave Slash also contained such specialized moves, and what He Lingchuan used now was 'Startling Swan Slash.' Before the Handan River battle, he had killed too few people and struggled to comprehend it.

On the battlefield, swordplay must be versatile, adapting to the time and situation; all of which must be mastered.

Meanwhile, Fu Shanyue slowly withdrew his water-splitting dagger from the enemy's throat.

He had an advantage, as this fellow happened to turn his head to dodge He Lingchuan's sleeve arrow, allowing Fu Shanyue to close in and stab him in the throat.

A wounded fighter had to employ cunning methods.

He then looked at He Lingchuan's side and involuntarily grimaced. The unfortunate person who was diagonally sliced clearly had primeval energy augmenting him, yet was still no match for He Lingchuan in a single move.

This indicated that the power gap between them was too vast.

Fu Shanyue wiped the blood from his weapon on the corpse and, with a flick of his dagger's tip, picked out two red beads from the dead porters' wounds.

These two beads were responsible for draining their essence.

"These are blood beads, used to collect the essence of a prey's flesh and blood." Fu Shanyue chuckled, "No wonder."

"No wonder what?" He Lingchuan squatted down and searched the two Chiyan natives thoroughly, taking everything he found valuable.

These two looked like bigshots but turned out to be paupers who couldn't even collectively gather a hundred taels of silver in cash and goods.

Bah! Poor in life, paupers in death.

Seeing He Lingchuan's ruthless scavenging of the corpses, Fu Shanyue knew he was indeed no ordinary person.

"They're probably collecting the life essence of living people to extend Fu Shanji's life, delaying his death." He smiled maliciously. "If that's the case, a mere two people won't be enough at all. Your team is being targeted as meat lambs, you know."

He Lingchuan didn't know that these sprites used 'meat lambs' to refer to 'edible living people.' He shook his head, "You underestimate divine arts too much. How could the essence of merely a dozen or a few dozen people delay the deterioration of Fu Shanji's injuries?"

Otherwise, Wen Daolun, Zhong Shengguang, or even General Hong wouldn't have been so helpless.

After Wen Xing was stabbed, he didn't even last three hours.

Fu Shanyue shrugged, "Perhaps they have some secret art?"

The vast world is full of wonders. If there are divine arts, there should also be ways to counter them, shouldn't there?

However, it was an undeniable fact that the Stone Gate Caravan was in crisis. The Chiyan people found it inconvenient to act in Tongluo County, but what wouldn't they dare to do in a desolate ruined city?

He Lingchuan took out the whistle from the porter's body.

This whistle was for warning; once blown, everyone would quickly rush back to the Second Master Shi.

But before He Lingchuan could blow it, Fu Shanyue waved his hand to stop him, "Don't blow it, or Second Master Shi and Taozi will immediately be in trouble!"

Second Master Shi and the young shaman were still in the abandoned armory, and Uncle Da was right opposite them!

Uncle Da felt he had them at his mercy and might not have acted against them yet, but as soon as the warning whistle sounded, it might violently attack.

To catch the bandit, first catch the king; as long as Second Master Shi was captured, the entire caravan would inevitably fall into disarray.

He Lingchuan realized he was right and had no choice but to put away the whistle and hurry back.

The two rushed forward for over twenty steps when He Lingchuan suddenly said, "Be careful, Uncle Da is coming this way."

Fu Shanyue instantly became alert.

He had suffered several times due to He Lingchuan's remote monitoring ability and knew his warnings were never baseless, so he said, "Slow down."

Fu Shanyue himself rolled outwards, just behind a tree as thick as a large bowl.

This tree, which would be considered small elsewhere, was considered tall among the short ones in this valley, but its thin, narrow shadow couldn't hide a person at all.

Yet, with that roll, Fu Shanyue managed to hide himself within the tree's shadow.

He Lingchuan specifically took two glances; there was no one behind the tree, nor on the ground.

Perhaps some kind of concealment technique?

If he had passed by here unknowingly, he probably wouldn't have noticed.

If this fellow didn't have a few specialized escape abilities, how could he remain at ease facing Uncle Da and the Chiyan people's fierce pursuit?

He Lingchuan regulated his breathing and relaxed his muscles. Otherwise, a tense state might be detected by an enemy preparing an ambush.

However, he soon saw the figure of a fierce tiger appearing directly in front of him: Uncle Da had arrived.

It was stretching its four legs and sprinting full speed towards them.

...Was it too lazy to even pretend to ambush? He Lingchuan felt a bit embarrassed.

However, the area was vast and sparsely vegetated, and the ridiculously bright moonlight left no living creature hidden, so Uncle Da probably didn't want to waste the effort.

A distance of thirty zhang was just two leg-lifts for it, and He Lingchuan felt a strong gust of wind hit him.

'Wind follows the tiger' — the saying was perfectly true.

The tiger's massive form even left an afterimage in the air. In terms of speed, the pair of fierce tigers He Lingchuan encountered at Sanxinyuan weren't even fit to be its stepping stones.

Although He Lingchuan had remained seated the entire time in the ruins and his posture was more relaxed than others', Uncle Da's spiritual sense still determined that this fellow's threat far surpassed that of other humans in the caravan, and therefore rushed to deal with him personally.

So, what it considered 'catching the leader to catch the whole gang' was targeting him, not Second Master Shi.

Did this mean it was strategically respecting the enemy while tactically despising the opponent? He Lingchuan didn't know what to say, but Uncle Da didn't intend to say a word to him, and with a final sprint and leap, it pounced with a claw strike.

This was accompanied by a low roar.

A tiger's roar naturally shakes the soul, and most fierce tigers strengthen this innate ability after cultivating into demon forms; Uncle Da was no exception. This low roar swept across the fan-shaped area in front, instantly scattering the weeds and dirt on the ground. The powerful sonic waves directly attacked the prey's mind and heart, causing the opponent's heart chamber to contract sharply, leading to dizziness, tinnitus, body stiffness, weak limbs, and chest pain, and could even shatter the brains of ordinary prey.

Those who had never personally heard a tiger's roar could never truly experience that soul-shaking tremor and fear.

However, He Lingchuan had long anticipated this, having killed quite a few tigers, leopards, and lions over the past few years, all of whom liked to let out a roar before attacking. Thus, before Uncle Da roared, he thrust his Soul-Capturing Shield forward and entered a state of 'Stupid Stubbornness'.

This divine ability was originally used for stealth, causing the user's entire body's meridians to close and breath to be cut off.

In other words, He Lingchuan in this state was no different from a stubborn rock. No matter how powerful Uncle Da's tiger roar was, if it couldn't reach his ears, it couldn't affect his heart, lungs, or brain.

And the slight physical attack generated by the sound waves was blocked by the shield.

He Lingchuan had observed Elder Liang of the Cloud-Piercing Pavilion and was curious about the 'Closed-Mouth Incantation' he cultivated. He had also inquired about it in Panlong City, receiving the reply that the first and second sonic waves unleashed after long gestation were the most lethal, with the rest quickly weakening. Presumably, this fierce tiger was much the same.

Uncle Da's initial roar was ineffective, so it immediately resorted to its claws, striking his temple with a paw.

An ordinary fierce tiger's paw strike might have around two thousand catties of force, but Uncle Da's was threefold, able to effortlessly smash a human head into a rotten watermelon. Attached to its paw were five curved steel nails, each over two inches long, which, besides flaying flesh and stripping bones, also provided evisceration services.

He Lingchuan raised his shield to meet it, and after blocking two strikes, felt his arms tremble, finding it much more strenuous than fighting Meng Shan, and secretly marveled at the tiger demon's strength.

Uncle Da unleashed over a dozen strikes with both paws, all blocked by the shield, producing piercing, sharp sounds.

But He Lingchuan was also forced to retreat repeatedly by its blows; even when attacking on its hind legs like a human, this monster's two hind legs could provide powerful propulsion.

Uncle Da's offense was astonishingly fast, far too quick for an ordinary martial artist's eyesight to follow. If He Lingchuan missed even one strike, he could be suddenly pounced upon and have his windpipe ripped open...

Of course, the Fusheng blade was not idle either, but Uncle Da's perception of danger was too strong, and it never directly clashed with this divine weapon.

It's easy to say, but He Lingchuan, directly confronting this fierce tiger, felt like he was facing a stormy sea; its attacks were continuous and seemingly endless. He couldn't gain the upper hand, either in momentum or attack frequency.

This creature was indeed fierce; otherwise, Fu Shanyue wouldn't have been beaten half to death by it.

Then Uncle Da grew impatient and flexed its claws, intending to hook the shield away.

This shield was the second form of the Soul-Capturing Mirror and inherently had about ten percent physical reflected damage. Uncle Da had struck over a dozen times, all blocked, meaning it had taken over a dozen instances of reflected damage; as it accumulated, even with its thick hide, it felt very uncomfortable.

It was as if it had exhausted all its strength only to inflict pain upon itself.

Why was killing a person so difficult?

But at this moment, the Fusheng blade tilted, reflecting the moonlight with double brightness from that angle, and gathered into a single beam, glaring directly into the tiger's eyes.

Blinding! Uncle Da instinctively turned its head.

Not only that, this light, like a laser, shot directly onto the illusory wall of Qianxing City.

At this moment, King Yuan had reached the end of his rope, his guards falling one after another beside him, while more and more enemies scaled the city walls.

Looking up and down the city walls, everywhere he looked were enemies, and the blood of his own soldiers had already flowed dry.

The last defending soldier on the city wall was also bitten to death by a jackal demon, his neck blood spurting three feet high, as if drawing the final period on this long and hopeless struggle.

King Yuan sighed deeply and was about to draw his sword to commit suicide when the light from Fusheng's blade arrived, shining directly on his face.

The strong reflection actually made him pause slightly and turn his head to look toward He Lingchuan's position!