After the Immortal Disappeared

Chapter 323: Chapter 322: The General is So Willful

The roar sounded less like a threat and more like a bluff.

It must have heard Hee Lingchuan and the others catching up, yet it didn’t spare them a single glance.

What was it facing?

Hee Lingchuan had only just blinked when he saw a sand-yellow figure flash by.

’Is that the Marsh Warden from the entrance of Red Peak Town? It came in here too?’

The Sand Leopard pounced to the Jindu Cub’s side and lowered its head to bite its ankle. It had clearly seen the tough Bone Armor covering its body and didn’t want to chip its teeth.

Its speed was astonishing, far beyond that of its feckless juniors. Even the Jindu Cub was caught off guard, stumbling as it was dragged.

Just as the Jindu Cub was about to smash it with a spike-covered fist, Hee Lingchuan threw the Floating Life Blade.

Back on the dead-end path, the space had been too narrow to throw the blade properly. This time, the distance between them was just right, and the "One-Throw Must-Hit" ability could finally be used.

The monster twisted its head to dodge the attack, but the Floating Life Blade made a magnificent turn and sliced a bloody gash across its chest plate.

The moment Hee Lingchuan caught the blade, a fiery shadow shot past from the front. It was unbelievably fast and radiated a scorching heat. It plunged directly into the gash on the Jindu Cub’s chest, sending it flying ten feet and pinning it straight to the rock wall!

Only then did everyone see clearly that it was an ordinary, standard-issue Long Spear. However, the entire spear was wreathed in roiling flames of a pale blue, almost ghostly white color, indicating an incredibly high temperature.

The Jindu Cub’s wound was instantly scorched black, emitting waves of a burnt stench. It let out a sorrowful shriek, wanting to take a few more bites of its mother to restore its Primordial Qi, but the Sand Leopard had already taken the opportunity to snatch the woman from its back and was slinking away in the opposite direction.

The cub tried to pull out the Long Spear, but its claws were instantly seared by the high temperature the moment they touched the shaft. They sizzled and emitted white smoke, making it impossible to apply any force.

Just then, the sound of hurried footsteps approached from ahead—about six or seven people.

The Patrol Guards were overjoyed, finally seeing the reinforcements they had been waiting so long for, but Hee Lingchuan stood frozen on the spot.

A dark red figure walked past him, stopping about ten feet from the monster to meet its gaze.

’Is that... Could it be?’

A cold voice resounded in everyone’s minds: "Sending this brat to cause trouble in my city... Baisha Ferry, what is your intention?"

The monster pinned to the wall just struggled and roared, showing no sign of replying.

The Red General waited patiently for about a dozen breaths. Seeing it had no intention of talking, he said, "Fine. No matter who gave the order, it is your offspring that is sent to die."

The Jindu Cub suddenly let out a long howl and its body began to change. Its form grew stronger, it sprouted two more arms from its back, and its face started to look more human.

This was a form approaching its adult state, but the transformation seemed forced—catalyzed, distorted, and unnatural.

It opened its mouth, about to speak, when a cold light flashed, illuminating the entire chamber.

The Red General clapped his hands. "I’ve lost interest in hearing it."

The others: "..." ’The General is so willful.’

Then, the top half of the Jindu Cub’s head fell off, rolling on the ground. The cut was perfectly smooth.

A chill ran down Hee Lingchuan’s spine. ’Did the Red General even draw his blade just now?’

There hadn’t been the slightest sound.

The others let out a long, collective sigh of relief.

This monster, which had been so hard to deal with before—a veritable indestructible cockroach—had been finished off so anticlimactically by the Red General. It seemed that after severing the bond between the Underground Palace and the monster, the difficulty of taking down the Jindu Cub had plummeted.

With the crisis averted, the three of them felt pain and exhaustion wash over them simultaneously, making it almost impossible to stand.

The Red General flicked his blade, pried an oval-shaped object out of the monster’s skull, and put it away. He then turned to them and said, "Well done. If we had waited for the Sadist to fully establish its Underground Palace, destroying this nest would not have been so easy."

’He calls this easy? Three squads, twenty-six people in total, went in. Only six or seven made it out alive, and every single one is injured.’

But everyone had also heard a new term: Sadist.

As if hearing their silent complaints, the Red General offered a rare explanation. "The Jindu Mother gives birth to many cubs in a litter, but there is only a minuscule chance of producing a Sadist. Within the first ten days after its birth, the more humans this kind of monster eats, the greater its power and the stronger its Divine Techniques become. It can also use the bodies of its hosts to build a nest, called a Flesh Fortress. Fortunately, we discovered it early, and it built its nest in a sparsely populated area, so it hasn’t eaten many people."

"During the Ancient Times, a Sadist devoured hundreds of thousands of lives in a city, gaining the power to briefly contend with a True Immortal. Even the Lifebound Magical Artifact of an ordinary Immortal was useless against the Flesh Fortress it erected." He paused for a moment. "For us to kill this Sadist is a huge loss for the Jindu Mother as well."

The Red General looked at the three of them. "Are there any other survivors in the Mine Cave?"

Hee Lingchuan opened his mouth to answer, but Skinny and the others emerged limping from the passage behind them, shouting, "We need medical aid over here!"

He was carrying an unconscious Duan Xinyu on his back, while the last remaining member of Xuu Chun’s team supported a comrade with eye injuries.

This injured man was lucky; he had actually survived the battle on the dead-end path. The Sadist must have deemed him no threat and saved him for a late-night snack.

Two Guards from behind the Red General immediately rushed forward to take over.

Soon, more people came in from outside the Mine Cave carrying makeshift stretchers to carry out the two injured men who had received first aid.

As for the unconscious woman, a Guard asked the Red General for instructions. The General glanced at her and said, "Take her back to Qianfeng Town."

Skinny looked like he wanted to say something, but hesitated twice.

He was standing behind Hee Lingchuan, and no one else noticed, but the Red General turned to look at him. "Speak freely."

Skinny was slightly startled. He hesitated for a moment before saying, "General, there seems to be something going on in the depths of the Mine Cave."

"Go on."

"When I was digging Duan Xinyu out, I found arc-shaped pits in the rock wall. I paid more attention on my way out and noticed more of these pits, big and small, in the southwestern mining area." He licked his lips. "I mined for gold in the West Forest Mine Cave for two years. The pits here look very, very much like the marks left behind by ’fire-setting’ for gold mining."

’This Mine Cave produces gold?’

Fire-setting is one of the most common methods for mining gold. The rock is heated with fire until it reaches a high temperature, then it’s rapidly doused with water. After that, it’s easy to chisel through the hardened rock with a pickaxe to extract the gold.

The Red General seemed to be taken aback for a moment as well. After a few breaths, he nodded. "No wonder. Good. I’ll credit you for this."

As soon as he gave his approval, the Messenger beside him immediately took note.

Skinny cleared his throat. "Can this be considered an anonymous tip?"

The Red General seemed very agreeable. "It can."

After that, everyone followed the Red General out of the Mine Cave. The mountain road had been cleared by now, and carriages and horses were waiting outside.

On the way back, everyone else stayed a horse’s length behind the Red General.

This person naturally exuded a biting aura that warned others to keep their distance. In his presence, even the fearless Willow kept her head down and didn’t dare to speak much, afraid she might get frostbite if she got too close.

Only Hee Lingchuan urged his horse forward a couple of steps to ride beside him, voicing the question in his heart.

"General, why didn’t you let the Sadist speak earlier?"

After more than half a year in the Panlong Dream Realm, he finally saw the true face of this military War God.

It was a "she."

She was about twenty-six or twenty-seven years old, with long eyebrows, phoenix eyes, a delicate nose, and full lips. Her features were arranged according to the "Three Courts and Five Eyes" standard of classical beauty, as perfect as a banished Immortal from a painting, or a porcelain sculpture painstakingly crafted by a master artisan.

Beautiful, exquisite, and without a trace of human warmth.

Her tea-colored eyes were cold and merciless, and her gaze was sharper than a blade of frost or a sword of wind. She glanced at Hee Lingchuan, and a jolt went through his heart, making him instinctively look away.

It was the powerful pressure of a superior being, robbing him of the courage to meet her eyes.

Hee Lingchuan had long suspected that the Red General might be a woman.

But he had thought he would be meeting Zhong Shengguang’s daughter, Zhong Wuhuan.

However, based on her age, Zhong Wuhuan would be a girl of fifteen or sixteen at most right now, making her at least ten years younger than the woman before him.

More importantly, Hee Lingchuan had actually seen this face before.

In the Mitian Temple within the Panlong Dream Realm, the giant statue that received the Sacrificial Offerings of the masses bore a slight resemblance to her.

’So what I’m seeing now is the mortal form of Lady Mitian?’

"The Sadist has limited intelligence. The one I wanted to speak to was the Jindu Mother behind it," the Red General replied. "It hesitated for a long time without answering, which shows that even the Jindu Mother couldn’t make the decision on her own. When it was about to open its mouth again, that meant the true manipulator had arrived."

The words were a bit convoluted, and Hee Lingchuan had to ponder them for a moment to barely understand. ’The Red General means that the Jindu Mother is also taking orders from someone else?’

’Right, that seemed to be what she said earlier.’

"You didn’t want to talk to the real manipulator?"

"I know what they want to say. There is no need for a conversation," the Red General said coldly. "It is enough to know that the Jindu Mother is also being manipulated."

Hee Lingchuan fell into thought.

The Red General’s words were not difficult to understand on the surface, but their implications were obscure. In the end, Hee Lingchuan had too little information to analyze the situation. However, Dong Rui had indeed said that the Jindu Mother’s rank among the Deities was not high. If humans were divided into different classes, how much more so for Deities?

"Hee Lingchuan, is there anything else?"

He was taken aback. "You know who I am?"

"I know every Warrior in Panlong City."

Coming from anyone else, such a statement would be arrogant, but it was different coming from the Red General.

She represented the Deities. If she said she knew them, then she knew them.

The Red General even added, "Your performance was good."

’Huh? Is this an affirmation from Panlong City?’ Hee Lingchuan offered a few modest words, but the Red General didn’t engage in pleasantries. She simply took something out from her robes and handed it to him.

"This spoil of war belongs to you."

Hee Lingchuan took it and looked. Wasn’t this just a silkworm pupa, the kind he used to eat all the time? From its color to its markings, it looked just like one. It was brownish-red with beautiful spiral patterns on its surface, and holding it made him want to crack it open.

’Deep-fry it in a wok, and it’s a crispy, crunchy bite. A perfect snack to go with drinks.’

’Wait, isn’t this the thing the Red General took out of the Sadist’s brain earlier?’

"This is?"

"The Sadist’s Brain Core." The Red General spoke with eloquent ease. "There’s a bit of power left inside it, which you can activate with your True Power. It will allow you to simulate the Sadist’s innate talent and temporarily erect a Flesh Fortress."

’Awesome!’ Hee Lingchuan was overjoyed. "I can have the fortress skill too?"

The Flesh Fortress was a signature skill that only the youngest of the Jindu Cubs possessed. With this home-field advantage alone, it had tormented the numerous Patrol Guards to death’s door.

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