Chapter 856: The Calculated Dou Yun Envoy

Before the heavy mace could reach He Lingchuan, a blade flashed from the ruins and dust below, brilliant like mercury spilling onto the ground. Swift as lightning, graceful as a startled swan, it instantly cut into his abdomen. It was another masked figure, completely devoid of killing intent before striking.

This was the real He Lingchuan. He had used a doppelganger to hold the Shadow-Piercing Lamp, trapping the Lamp Spirit, while he himself donned the Skin of the Earl of Boshan and hid within the smoke, aiming for a surprise attack. Having conserved his strength for over ten breaths, the blade and the man became one. Before the "Floating Life" blade could even touch He Jing's body, an invisible aura over a foot long had already sliced into his abdomen! With He Lingchuan's power and the sharpness of "Floating Life," it was enough to sever He Jing's spine.

The change happened in an instant. Fu Liang and others nearby only saw a figure flash by, and before they could even cry out in alarm, He Lingchuan had successfully executed his sneak attack. The most surprising part was that he didn't stop after a successful strike; he reversed his grip and chopped at He Jing's neck again! To onlookers, it seemed utterly ruthless.

But He Lingchuan, a veteran of countless battles, immediately sensed something was wrong after the first strike. He Jing clearly hadn't dodged, but He Lingchuan hadn't felt the sensation of cutting into flesh. In this world, there were countless bizarre ways to preserve one's life; only by severing He Jing's head could he be sure. However, the second strike wasn't as smooth. He Jing reacted incredibly fast, blocking the "Floating Life" with a heavy mace, while sweeping his other purple bronze mace at He Lingchuan.

A finger-long doll in his arms flashed with black light and snapped in two at the waist. A substitute doll had taken effect. Entering the Coiled Dragon Secret Realm was undoubtedly fraught with danger, and He Jing had come prepared, but he hadn't expected his last-resort substitute doll to be used so quickly. The ferocious and chilling blade aura passing through his body made cold sweat break out all over his back. Substitute dolls were difficult to make, and there would be a long interval before he could use another. From now on, he would have to stake his own life.

He Lingchuan didn't try to meet the heavy mace head-on; he recoiled and leaped back into the smoke. As he re-wrapped himself in the Skin of the Earl of Boshan, He Jing could only see a slight disturbance in the mist, and his enemy had vanished. If a single strike failed, he would immediately retreat. He Lingchuan only wanted to exploit vulnerabilities and had no intention of directly confronting the Heavenly Palace's Capital Cloud Emissary under the nose of the Qie Beast King. These guys all had backup plans; why should he risk himself?

Seeing him vanish with a roll, He Jing's expression subtly changed. He grabbed two large stones from the ground and threw them again at the strong light of the Shadow-Piercing Lamp. The treasure thief, having escaped from Mount Xu, must be incredibly elusive and difficult to catch. His most important task right now was not to pursue the thief, but to rescue the Lamp Spirit and reclaim the Grand Cauldron. This time, the obstruction finally worked. Although the strong light could still penetrate the large stones, its power was greatly diminished. He Jing urgently ordered the Lamp Spirit to leave, but the latter was already just a faint golden shadow in the strong light. As the stones blocked the light, it also dissolved with a hiss. In the end, it was a step too late. The Ever-Burning Lamp Spirit, which had taken 200 years to form on Mount Xu, was thus completely disintegrated.

He Jing felt as if he had been struck by a heavy blow; he couldn't help but vomit several mouthfuls of blood, and his body couldn't straighten for a moment. Capital Cloud Emissaries all ascended from Lamp Guardian Emissaries, and had to form a pact with a Lamp Spirit early on. In the Heavenly Palace, the Lamp Spirit, while bathed in divine grace, was also nourished by his vital essence, forming a close, shared connection with him long ago. Now that the Lamp Spirit had suddenly dissipated, He Jing instantly lost his vital essence and suffered a backlash. He had nurtured his Lamp Spirit longer than Zhang Lianhai, so the blow he now received was even greater than Zhang Lianhai's.

From Fu Liang's arrow shot to the dissipation of He Jing's Lamp Spirit, less than ten breaths had passed, a dazzlingly fast sequence of events. While He Jing was still unable to straighten his back, the Qie Beast King swatted him away like a small ball. Amidst the exclamations of the Heavenly Palace attendants, He Jing crashed into the nearby ruins. All Heavenly Palace attendants had now re-converged to jointly combat the Qie Beasts. Fu Liang rushed into the ruins and helped He Jing up: "My Lord Emissary!" He Jing's mouth was bleeding and his cheeks were swollen, but his external injuries were not severe. His cultivation was profound; although the Qie Beast King's palm strike was heavy, it was far less damaging than the dissipation of his Lamp Spirit. "Where are the Child Devourers?" He Jing swallowed a pill and quickly adjusted his breathing. "This Qie Beast King is even more powerful than I anticipated!" Its strength was comparable to the Thunder-Armored Behemoth that had recently crashed into Spirit Void City. But vocalizing this assessment would likely dampen their own morale. What angered him most was that the Child Devourers had been so slow to emerge, allowing the enemy to gain the upper hand. Fu Liang pointed his chin towards the battlefield: "They refused to come out after several attempts. Now we've finally awakened three of them."

It turned out that He Jing had specifically brought four Heavenly Palace acolytes on this trip, called "Attendant Children," each with a monster-shaped tattoo on their back. Just now, when he ordered them to awaken, these four sat on the ground, making hand seals and praying with their eyes closed. After repeated attempts, the skin on the backs of three of them began to undulate. It turned out the tattoos started to shift, then transformed from two-dimensional to three-dimensional, actually becoming living creatures! But these entities couldn't completely detach from the human skin until the final step, where they tore open the host's back to emerge directly. For them, this process was like a butterfly breaking out of its cocoon; but for the hosts, the process was excruciatingly painful, like having their internal organs ripped out alive. No matter how steadfast their faith, the hosts couldn't endure this inhuman torment, rolling on the ground and wailing. Two of them died from the sheer agony before the monsters had fully detached! From humans no more than six feet tall, monsters ranging from two feet to over ten feet tall actually emerged from their backs. These three monsters varied in form. The smallest one was shaped like a praying mantis, but its head and tail were very sharp; if its legs were brought together, the entire insect resembled a shuttlecock. Although small in stature, it could leap over thirty yards, moving too fast for the human eye to track. Its method of attack was like a bullet fired from a gun, striking vital points and burrowing completely into the enemy's chest and abdomen to devour internal organs.

The other monster, transformed from a tattoo, was even stranger in appearance. When it inhaled, it became round like a ball, reminiscent of a bloated pufferfish. What was more, it had a pair of rapidly vibrating, bee-like wings on its back, allowing it to move swiftly and hover precisely in mid-air. As soon as this creature emerged, it flew into the air and began spitting green ghost-fire projectiles at the Qie Beasts below. Despite its small size, the fireballs it spat out were larger than watermelons. The venomous fire clinging to their surfaces would automatically adhere to targets, burning until the Qie Beast was reduced to charcoal before extinguishing. Many Qie Beasts immediately summoned ice to cover their entire bodies. However, this venomous fire specialized in penetrating vulnerable areas like the eyes, nose, and ears, invading internal organs and causing immense pain.

The last tattoo monster looked much more normal: a crimson fierce tiger with shoulder height approaching ten feet. Its size was much larger than Jiao Yu's. But it had neither colorful stripes nor fur; instead, its entire body was covered in hard, pangolin-like scales, with sharp spikes growing between each scale. Anyone who dared to slap it would end up with dozens of bloodied holes of various sizes in their palm. The first thing this third tattoo monster did after crawling out from behind the human was not to confront the enemy, but to swiftly devour its host.

He Lingchuan, by this time, had slipped away under the cover of the Skin of the Earl of Boshan, hiding in a safe place to observe the battlefield from afar. Seeing these strange beasts, he was secretly surprised: "Monsters?" He didn't recognize the other two monsters, but the flying, pufferfish-like creature he had seen in an illustrated manual in Coiled Dragon City; it was a monster called "River Platform." At the time, he had looked at it for a moment longer out of curiosity, but he didn't remember it having the ability to spit venomous fire. "Chi Beasts?"

He wondered because he saw the scaled crimson tiger pounce on a muscular Qie Beast, which fiercely countered it with its sharp horns. However, the next second, the crimson tiger spat out a red object from its mouth, which fiercely stabbed the Qie Beast in the forehead. The Qie Beast now had an extra hole in its head and collapsed, spewing blood. With He Lingchuan's eyesight, he could only barely discern that what the crimson tiger spat out was not some hidden weapon, but its tongue, though the tip resembled an ice chisel, and it could extend up to four feet. Anyone who faced it head-on could have their skull pierced by a single jab! Tiger demons usually didn't possess such strange abilities. He Lingchuan, who had spent a lot of time with Dong Rui, immediately thought of Chi Beasts. Since the Heavenly Palace possessed massive Chi Beasts like Shen Yuan, capable of contending with the great fire monster Ju Ju, it didn't seem surprising that they also had smaller Chi Beasts with a wider range of applications.

He didn't know that these Chi Beasts were called "Child Devourers" within the Heavenly Palace and usually slept in hidden places. On one hand, the Grand Cauldron was mysterious and unpredictable, and He Jing's mission was both too important and too dangerous. On the other hand, the Heavenly Gods themselves were unwilling to descend, as losing a doppelganger would weaken their own strength. Therefore, the Heavenly Palace ordered He Jing to take the Child Devourers with him, to be released as powerful combatants when danger arose. No Chi Beast was easy to command or control, and the Child Devourers were no exception. If the Heavenly Palace wanted to transport them for battle in distant lands, the simplest method was to seal them within human bodies, specifically within the Attendant Children, nourishing them with human vital essence, qi, and flesh. This way, they would continue to sleep within the human bodies without needing to consume large amounts of food. Of course, Chi Beasts of Shen Yuan's size and magnitude couldn't be contained in any human skin. To release the Child Devourers, they had to be awakened by medicine three hours in advance. These monsters would be in a dazed, waiting state until He Jing issued clear commands, at which point they would burst forth from the bodies. The first thing they did upon emerging was to eat the host's body to replenish nutrients. This was similar to many birds and insects.

He Jing threw a red pill to each monster as a nourishing agent—in fact, it was a blood bead—then pointed at the Qie Beast King: "Stop it, and retrieve the bottle for me." The Grand Cauldron was still within the tomb. Why hadn't the treasure thief taken it? He Jing could only assume that the other party still needed to trap everyone here and thus didn't want to end the Coiled Dragon Secret Realm prematurely. Although it was bait, He Jing had no choice but to swallow it now.

He Lingchuan, however, shifted his gaze to the last Attendant Child. The other three Attendant Children had exploded and died from the Chi Beasts, but this last one was fine. Could it be that the Chi Beast within him was asleep and couldn't be awakened? He Jing delivered several heavy blows to his back, trying to coax the Chi Beast out, but it had no effect.