Chapter 495: This Strange Thing?

The window had not been deliberately closed, allowing the evening breeze to blow in. However, the smoke from the lit tribute candle lingered and thickened above it.

In just a few moments, the thick smoke coalesced into a gray shadow.

On closer inspection, the shadow's form strikingly resembled the wooden carving on the table, though it only bore seven or eight faces. The central face even rolled its eyes, glaring down at the child-spirit below.

Though bewildered, the child-spirit instinctively sensed danger, abandoning the incense offerings and attempting to burrow back into the wooden ball.

The smoky shadow pounced, swallowing it whole.

Such a small and weak remnant soul was not even an appetizer for it; rather, it merely whetted its appetite.

Its mouth opened and closed as if speaking to the spellcaster. The spellcaster, prostrate on the ground, replied respectfully, "The mark has been made; please proceed to enjoy the abundant offerings!"

Upon hearing this, the smoky shadow swirled halfway around the room, then vanished into thin air the next second.

The spellcaster straightened up and looked; correspondingly, seven or eight faces on the wooden carving had disappeared.

He Lingchuan always slept well; even without entering Dragon City, he could still enjoy a night of sound sleep.

This ability to fall asleep instantly, anywhere and anytime, made Steward Shi Er quite envious.

In the northern part of Dragon Wilds, several conflicts, large and small, successively broke out.

The joint forces of Baling and Xianyou continuously probed the border.

This was the aftermath of the Dragon Army's swift capture of Xiji Kingdom.

The Broken Blade Squad was therefore transferred to the northern front and fought six battles within thirty days.

Two of these battles were white-hot, with both sides fighting fiercely, nearly escalating from local skirmishes to full-scale war.

Both of these battles were particularly difficult. In one, outnumbered, three hundred Dafeng soldiers stubbornly held off two thousand opponents for two days and one night by relying on the terrain.

The entire Broken Blade Squad narrowly escaped death multiple times.

Relying on his immortal body, He Lingchuan fought selflessly, sustaining countless injuries. He even served as a human shield for Liu Tiao and Alo once each.

Even so, the two newly joined team members did not survive and unfortunately died in battle.

On the last day, even He Lingchuan couldn't hold on; after spitting out his last breath of blood, he was forced to go offline on the spot.

Fortunately, when he next entered his dream, he finally received good news: reinforcements arrived shortly after his 'death,' attacking from both sides and repelling the enemy forces.

When he collapsed, no longer breathing, Liu Tiao thought he was dead. It is said that this female warrior, tougher than any man, shed tears on the spot.

Of course, this is just a rumor; Liu Tiao herself flatly denies it and would beat anyone who claimed otherwise.

After these several battles, He Lingchuan earned the nickname "Mad Blade."

Having gained no advantage on the border, the Xianba joint forces retreated dejectedly.

This confirmed He Lingchuan's prediction: the enemy indeed did not intend a full-scale invasion. They merely wanted to force General Hong, who was on the eastern campaign, back to Dragon City, and incidentally, take advantage of the Dragon Wilds' empty defenses to seize some territory.

They only achieved their first goal and paid a considerable price.

Dragon City also withdrew its troops from the border, returned to the city in triumph, and awarded merits.

The Broken Blade Squad, led by He Lingchuan, was loyal, brave, agile, and highly competent. They killed the most enemies and eliminated the highest-ranking enemy leaders, contributing greatly to the victory in the northwest flank. Including their military achievements in Xiji, everyone received generous rewards.

As for He Lingchuan himself, he was promoted two ranks, directly elevated to Brigade Commander, with a command of a hundred men.

Liu Tiao, as his deputy, began reorganizing this hundred-man squad after returning to the city.

After several battles, He Lingchuan gained a great deal.

The battlefield truly is the most tempering place, full of endless surprises and variables. One second you might be slaughtering enemies everywhere, the next you could be shot full of holes like a sieve.

He emerged from mountains of corpses and seas of blood, from the grinding mill of flesh and blood. He learned to be highly aware of his surroundings, to assess situations and preserve strength, that in a narrow encounter the brave win, and to remain clear-headed at the brink of death.

Rookies new to the battlefield might be terrified and trembling, but fighting too long easily makes one's mind clouded by bloodlust and fervor, forgetting that bravery and recklessness, quick-wittedness and cowardice, are often separated by just a fine line.

That is the line between life and death.

The more critical the situation, the more one must remain calm and composed. This is not an innate talent but the result of countless trials by death.

After carefully reviewing and consolidating afterward, He Lingchuan clearly felt:

His mindset and blade skills had grown again.

His blade skills became increasingly sharp and practical.

His mindset became increasingly calm and steady.

This valuable battlefield training could, for now, only be provided by Dragon Soul Domain. The Grand Quadrant was also relentless with He Lingchuan; while he was diligently solving cases and mediating between various parties during the day, at night he was forced into mountains of corpses and seas of blood, constantly being put through the wringer.

If his will hadn't been firm, he would likely have had a mental breakdown long ago.

Hmm, subjected to such inhuman abuse, his divine soul seemed to have grown even stronger.

In any case, after this series of turmoils, the Dragon Wilds temporarily returned to peace.

At this moment, He Lingchuan was in the northwest of Chifa Plateau, helping Alo catch a strange creature—

A monkey-bat.

According to Alo, this was an invasive alien species. It was omnivorous but likely carried barnyard grass tumor seeds harmful to highland wheat. Once on the ground, these would burrow into the soil, parasitizing wheat roots to absorb nutrients and growing stronger after the wheat withered.

This kind of thing was very stealthy in its early growth, not easily detected or eradicated.

Dragon City's Dan Bureau also bore part of the crop pest control mission and was particularly vigilant against various invasive species.

Alo had also posted a related task at the Pengcheng Bureau, but the warriors seemed very busy lately, and no one had taken on this task for a long time. So he simply came to He Lingchuan for help.

"Anyway, you're just idling around."

These were Alo's exact words.

So He Lingchuan came.

Monkey-bats were quite large, comparable in size to a wild duck, but with pointed beaks and bulging cheeks, their faces indeed resembled monkeys.

Most bats operated in groups; however, monkey-bats only operated in pairs, at most bringing a clutch of young. Thus, their whereabouts were relatively hidden and difficult to track.

He Lingchuan searched for a whole day based on the clues provided by Alo and finally, with great difficulty, discovered monkey-bat droppings on a stalactite column in a karst cave.

He still had to go further in. He sighed, looking at the dark pond ahead. Had he lost his mind? Why was he not spending time with his beautiful neighbor, but instead running into this pitch-black watery cave to catch bats for Alo?

Of course, there was water inside the karst cave, and it was flowing water, as he could feel a strong wind on his face when he entered the cave earlier.

In the height of summer, it was only eleven or twelve degrees Celsius inside, and staying too long would make him sneeze.

Still waters run deep; only shallow rapids make a gurgling sound.

He Lingchuan heard almost no sound of flowing water upon entering the cave, so he knew the water here was very deep.

There was no other way; he had no choice but to take out a set of diving gear, put it on, and jump into the pond.

Monkey-bats could fly in; he could only swim in.

Inside, there were many treacherous forks and caves, and unknown creatures frequently appeared in the water.

He Lingchuan swam for over a quarter of an hour, relying on the illumination from glow-grass, and finally spotted the monkey-bats on the rock ceiling!

"These damn things!" he thought. The sooner he caught them, the sooner he could go back and report.

He Lingchuan didn't have eyes in the back of his head, so naturally, he wouldn't notice a blue light suddenly flashing in the depths of the pond behind him.

The monkey-bats were hanging upside down on the rock wall directly above him, a family of seven all here. Probably full, they were all sound asleep with their heads tucked in.

How to catch these things?

Of course, He Lingchuan had already thought it through before coming in. He took out two sets of cave spider webs from his person and stealthily climbed onto the stalactite to fasten them.

In Dragon City of this timeline, General Hong and Zhu Erniang renegotiated an agreement, where the cave spiders would grant exclusive distribution rights of their products to Dragon City.

This way, Dragon City gained a leading export product, and the cave spiders no longer had to bother dealing with human profiteers.

Since then, the equipment issued to Dragon City warriors, as well as the list of items available for exchange and trade, included more specialized cave spider silk products, such as:

Nets, grappling ropes, and spider silk soft armor, all of which were highly praised.

He Lingchuan used spider webs to replace his original rope nets, as they were lighter, stronger, and more durable.

These two nets were set up to block the exit direction, forming an 'L' shape.

After setting them up, He Lingchuan took out a few small stones and threw them near the monkey-bats, making a few thudding sounds.

The monkey-bats woke up at the sound, spread their wings, and began to flee.

Of course, He Lingchuan also chose the right direction, herding them towards the nets.

The spider webs retained the characteristics of spider silk: when prey rushed into them, the more they struggled, the deeper they became entangled.

According to Alo's request, the more monkey-bats caught and brought back, the better.

With He Lingchuan's round of intimidation, four bats crashed into the nets in total, while the others went in various directions.

He jumped over and gathered them all in one net.

Done, he could go out and report.

Just then, a cold wind suddenly rose from behind, and He Lingchuan felt a chill down his spine.

An alarm.

Without thinking, he took a two-zhang stride, stopped on another stalactite, and then looked back.

What he saw astonished him;

Where he had stood moments before, there was surprisingly a raggedly dressed, farmer-like figure.

To call it a person was quite a stretch, because not only were its limbs intact, but it even had several heads—male and female, old and young—with distorted faces and more than a dozen eyes simultaneously glaring at He Lingchuan.

That gaze, was it perhaps craving something?

Only a pack of wolves that had starved for seven days and nights would have such green-glowing eyes.

What the hell is this thing?

"Tribute!" yelled a head on the monster's neck. "Come quickly and let me eat!"

He Lingchuan frowned. Who was it calling 'tribute'?

With a flick of his wrist, he first sent a sleeve arrow towards the opponent. "Eat this," he said.

"Eat! Eat! Eat!" The creature surprisingly didn't dodge. Only a baby's head moved from its belly to its chest. The sleeve arrow would have pierced its heart, but it opened its mouth, and the arrow went right in.

That mouth seemed like a bottomless pit; the arrow caused no damage.

"Not tasty!" the baby face growled. "I want to eat meat!"

A head on its shoulder turned, saw the bats flying around, then suddenly opened its mouth and spat out hundreds of bats towards He Lingchuan!

These bats were two sizes smaller than monkey-bats but had human heads, their eyes glowing green, mouths full of sharp teeth, and front claws resembling human hands.

This cave was not large to begin with, and with hundreds of bats squeezed into it, there were fluttering wing sounds everywhere, along with shrill shrieks.