Chapter 279
Chapter 279
The enemy had far too many Ghost Soldiers. Their overwhelming presence shook the heavens, and still more continued to gather. The sinister yin energy at the foot of the mountain was growing denser by the moment.
My gaze swept through the crowd. It did not take long for me to spot the Corpse Fiend.
To my surprise, the Corpse Fiend had retreated into the ranks of the Ghost Soldiers.
As the Ghost Soldiers formed ranks, the situation on our side became plain to see as well.
Mao Jingxuan and his people were nowhere in sight.
Facing the Corpse Fiend and the Ghost Soldier Formation were Fang Chuanzong and… the handful of people behind him. They were probably fellow disciples who ranked as his Senior Brother or Senior Sister, weren’t they?
There was also someone standing in front of Fang Chuanzong.
He wore a conical hat and held a Vajra Umbrella, standing there calm and composed, as though detached from the rest of the world.
It was the Descendant of the Gold-Touching Captains!
He stood steadily before the Ghost Soldier Formation without the slightest hint of fear.
The moment the enemy loosed their first volley of arrows, he flung open the Vajra Umbrella.
As the Vajra Umbrella unfurled, countless runes rose from its silver-white canopy and hovered in the air, forming a barrier.
A dense rain of arrows slammed into the barrier, only to vanish one after another as though swallowed by a beast with a gaping maw.
At the same time, the runes dimmed considerably.
Immediately afterward, the Vajra Umbrella opened and closed in quick succession. With sharp whooshes, dozens of tiny swords shot from between its ribs and flew straight toward the Corpse Fiend within the Ghost Soldier Formation.
The tiny swords scattered, but wherever they went, Ghost Soldiers rushed forward to block them with their own bodies.
I could see that every tiny sword carried considerable magical power. When aimed accurately, a single one could pierce straight through the chests of four Ghost Soldiers!
I could not help marveling inwardly. It seemed the Descendant of the Gold-Touching Captains truly had some impressive skills.
Yet in the distance, Ghost Soldiers were still streaming toward us without end.
With so many Ghost Soldiers, even if Fang Chuanzong and the others all attacked together, they would never be able to hold them off.
That was the fundamental reason Fang Chuanzong had invited the Descendant of the Gold-Touching Captains here.
They could never win through brute force.
But the Descendant of the Gold-Touching Captains possessed a Ghost Soldier Talisman.
As long as he was powerful enough and successfully activated the Ghost Soldier Talisman, he could bring the enemy’s Ghost Soldier Formation under his control.
He could force an enemy army to retreat without a fight!
I held my breath and waited for that moment to arrive.
Just then, Hui Yumo came over.
She stopped beside me and exclaimed excitedly, “Sis, Seventh Master is incredible! The Three-Eyed Toad really isn’t on the Corpse Fiend’s shoulder anymore!”
My brow twitched. “Was the Three-Eyed Toad already gone when the Corpse Fiend first appeared, or did it leave afterward?”
“The Three-Eyed Toad only separated from the Corpse Fiend and left when the Descendant of the Gold-Touching Captains appeared.” Hui Yumo thought for a moment before adding, “The people from Maoshan chased after the Three-Eyed Toad.”
Liu Junyan had accounted for virtually everything, yet he had failed to take Mao Jingxuan and the others into consideration.
They might ruin everything.
But it was already too late to try to inform Liu Junyan.
On second thought, Mao Jingxuan’s objective on this trip was probably the Three-Eyed Toad.
I narrowed my eyes and peered farther into the distance to the southwest, listening intently.
The thunder was growing louder. Sure enough, it was rolling in that direction.
The one destined to Undergo a Tribulation tonight was not the Corpse Fiend, but the Three-Eyed Toad.
The Three-Eyed Toad had to Undergo a Tribulation before its third eye could open.
I suspected Mao Jingxuan had come for the Three-Eyed Toad whose third eye would open after it managed to Undergo a Tribulation.
That meant even if he had led his people after the Three-Eyed Toad, he probably would not disrupt our plan.
Everything was going smoothly.
I was just considering whether to have Hui Yumo’s people join Fang Chuanzong’s group.
Once the Descendant of the Gold-Touching Captains used the Ghost Soldier Talisman to take control of the Ghost Soldier Formation, they could all join forces to exterminate the Corpse Fiend.
Just then, the roar of the Corpse Fiend rose from below.
The roar shook heaven and earth, as though even the ground beneath our feet trembled with it.
As the Corpse Fiend roared, we saw the Descendant of the Gold-Touching Captains forming a hand seal. He gripped the Vajra Umbrella in one hand and raised the pangolin claw hanging from his neck with the other.
I had recognized it at first sight — the pangolin claw encased in ornamental bronze and seal-script inscriptions was a Mojin Talisman.
For a Gold-Touching Captain family whose ancestors had experience fighting Ghost Soldiers, a Mojin Talisman could often serve in place of a Ghost Soldier Talisman to command the Ghost Soldier Formation.
Unable to contain her excitement, Hui Yumo said, “Sister, he’s about to command the Ghost Soldier Formation, isn’t he? I never thought I’d live to witness something like this. This is truly…”
Before she could finish, however, the excitement froze on her face.
Not only had the Ghost Soldier Formation turned on the Descendant of the Gold-Touching Captains, but the Corpse Fiend at its center was also charging straight at him.
He couldn’t command the Ghost Soldier Formation at all!
Was the Mojin Talisman incapable of intimidating the Ghost Soldiers, or was this Descendant of the Gold-Touching Captains merely an armchair strategist — all show and without enough cultivation to activate the Mojin Talisman and make it function as a Ghost Soldier Talisman?
Either possibility came as a crushing blow to us!
A chaotic battle was about to erupt.
I picked up the Soul-Guiding Lantern and prepared to head down the mountain.
Fang Chuanzong had previously wanted me to join the battle and control the Ghost Soldiers.
I knew he valued the power of the Soul-Guiding Lantern in my hand.
But Liu Junyan had refused and brought in the Descendant of the Gold-Touching Captains instead, so the matter had been dropped.
Now, however, the situation no longer allowed me to stand by and watch.
Hui Yumo grabbed me and blocked my path. “Sister, Seventh Master forbade you from going, so you can’t go! Besides, didn’t Seventh Master tell you to retrieve that Golden Scale?”
That was indeed the little ruse we had devised.
Liu Junyan currently had four Golden Scale pieces in his possession, one of which had been retrieved from Niuhu Mountain.
That Golden Scale had also once been controlled by the Great Lama and bore his aura.
Moreover, the Golden Scale we had just obtained had been buried in the burial pit for many years.
As a result, traces of its aura still lingered in the burial pit.
So Liu Junyan had me take the Golden Scale from Niuhu Mountain and bury it in the pit, allowing us to “pass off the false as genuine.”
Of course, “false” did not mean the Golden Scale itself was fake.
It meant that the Golden Scale I buried there was not the one originally embedded in the Three-Eyed Toad’s forehead.
That Golden Scale was still in Liu Junyan’s possession.
At that very moment, Liu Junyan was waiting at a place called Xiaoyingkou.
If the little girl’s body hadn’t been recovered from the river, we might never have paid much attention to the river or the terrain along the Riverside.
We followed the river upstream and discovered a stone marker standing behind the Ancient Battlefield.
The marker wasn’t large. Carved into it were three prominent characters — Xiaoyingkou.
Those three characters immediately reminded Liu Junyan and me of the Blood Letter Zhao Zixun had written to Fu Wan.
It contained this line: “In early July, we fought a battle at Xiaoyingkou…”
In other words, this Ancient Battlefield was the Xiaoyingkou Ancient Battlefield.
The entrance to the Ancient Battlefield should be behind that stone marker.
Anyone trying to escape by water would have to pass the marker at Xiaoyingkou.
Liu Junyan was stationed at Xiaoyingkou with the Golden Scale recovered from the Three-Eyed Toad.
One reason was to block the waterway they would use to escape.
The other was to separate the Corpse Fiend from the Three-Eyed Toad completely…