Chapter 14

As she spoke, the white-browed tiger stomped its foot, making the very earth tremble!

The white-browed tiger herded the fleeing crowd back to the gates of Dudu Mansion, gathering them together. Fear and unease were written on every face, for if the great tiger opened its maw, it could swallow a person whole without trouble—if eaten, not even a scrap of bone would remain.

Under the crowd's terrified gaze, Lin Yu leisurely walked to Fu Ming's side and stood there. "On my way back, I made inquiries. There's not a trace of the Jiang Kingdom army within dozens of li of Liangcheng. Which esteemed gentleman here claims to have seen their troops at the border? If so, he should produce evidence."

As expected, no one in the crowd answered. The few who had stirred up the most trouble buried their heads low, not daring to speak.

Lin Yu swept her gaze over their heads one by one, then shifted sharply, her voice stern: "Do you know that falsely accusing a court official of treason and publicly assaulting soldiers is a capital offense? You've got some nerve!"

The crowd was utterly silenced by her words. Even the low murmurs ceased. Their expressions varied, but all were frozen in the shadow of the white-browed tiger, not daring to move or speak a word of rebuttal.

Fu Ming waved to the mansion guards. "Go. Anyone who struck a soldier, started the trouble, or spread rumors—throw them all in prison."

At the mention of prison, the few who had gone weak-kneed from the tiger's presence collapsed to the ground like deflated sacks. Among them, a middle-aged man, seeing how things had turned, instinctively went limp and toppled backward—but instead of hitting the ground, he was caught.

He looked up to find himself in the arms of a mansion guard, who looked oddly familiar—the very guard he had beaten during the earlier scuffle.

The middle-aged man met the guard's sinister gaze, and his eyes rolled back as he fainted dead away.

Once the uproar subsided and Lin Yu and Fu Ming entered the mansion, Lin Yu's relaxed expression vanished instantly. She said gravely, "Quickly, mobilize the troops. The Jiang Kingdom soldiers have moved ahead of schedule—they're already heading toward Liangcheng."

Her earlier words had only been to temporarily placate the people; both Lin Yu and Fu Ming knew it well.

Fu Ming nodded. "I sent many soldiers to lie in ambush in the outskirts two days ago, guarding the city gates. They've been in position for over two days. The enemy won't get close for now."

Lin Yu asked, "You wrote in your earlier letter that you had enough troops to fight. How many are actually stationed in Liangcheng?"

Fu Ming thought for a moment. "The soldiers I sent to govern Lincheng were my personal guards and death warriors, so the eighty thousand troops in Liangcheng haven't moved. Two days ago, I requested reinforcements from Cang region and Yu region, and they arrived by noon yesterday, now lying in ambush outside the city."

"At present, the eighty thousand troops in Liangcheng are ready to fight at a moment's order, and the outskirts are packed with spies and ambushers."

"Personal guards? Death warriors?" Lin Yu was taken aback. "Are you planning a rebellion?"

Fu Ming was momentarily speechless. It wasn't that he wanted to rebel—it was his current body's owner, Fu Qing, who had rebellious intentions. Fu Ming had simply borrowed the man's private soldiers for his own use.

After all, everything here was fabricated by the Feixian Ling; once the illusion ended, none of it would count.

Lin Yu, mulling over the layout outside Liangcheng, fixed her gaze on the divine beast parked by the door. "On my way back, I measured the distance. The Jiang Kingdom army will probably reach Liangcheng's outskirts by dusk. Whether they can break in or not, send word for the soldiers to prepare for battle."

It was still the hour of Chen (7–9 AM), leaving only five hours before nightfall. Fu Ming followed her gaze. The blue-eyed divine beast outside almost blocked the entire gate. It was currently playing with the flowers and rockeries in the courtyard, looking like a naive young beast—hard to connect with the great tiger that had stomped the earth trembling moments earlier.

Fu Ming didn't ask how Lin Yu had subdued this divine beast. He simply turned to leave the mansion for the military camp.

"Wait!" Lin Yu called out, then shoved a small bundle into his hand.

At the sight of its contents, Fu Ming froze. He knew this object all too well.

It was the Rain Goddess' Seal!

But now the seal was intact, without any cracks, and there was no divine power within it. It was merely the shape of a national seal.

A few days ago, outside the illusion, the image of the sealed, rust-spotted Rain God Seal flashed in Fu Ming's mind.

"Where did you find this?" Fu Ming couldn't help but ask.

Lin Yu didn't answer directly, only saying, "This is the national seal of the Li Kingdom. Right now, neither Zhang Dian nor Zhang Ni has it. The seal Zhang Ni is using is a fake."

As she spoke, Lin Yu bowed her head slightly. Her eyelashes were long, and a strand of jet-black hair slipped from the back of her head, veiling her face and her long lashes. Fu Ming couldn't see her eyes.

Fu Ming instinctively reached out to tuck the strand behind her ear, his consciousness acting faster than his reason. Just as his hand was about to touch her soft hair, he realized what he was doing.

A woman's hair—one must not touch it without leave. He abruptly stopped, his fingers stiff and hovering in midair.

Lin Yu didn't notice his movement. She continued, "I've more or less guessed who the Mountain God's accomplice is. The Mountain God is bound to make a comeback, so we must be on guard against him trying to sacrifice the people of Liangcheng."

"Zhang Dian wants to usurp the throne, so the national seal is crucial to him. When necessary, we can use it to restrain him."

Fu Ming nodded. "If the Mountain God truly has an accomplice... I'll send men to evacuate the people, moving the old, the weak, women, and children to nearby Cang region."

Lin Yu: "No..."

She was about to continue when she suddenly stopped. She seemed to hear a strange sound, like the cracking of wooden material, and she looked up at the ceiling beams in confusion, but there was no movement there.

Lin Yu walked around the front of the door, but couldn't locate the source. Just as she thought she'd misheard—

Fu Ming: "Watch out!"

"Crash—"

The ceiling beam directly above Lin Yu snapped and came crashing down!

Fu Ming pulled Lin Yu aside and drew her into his arms. Lin Yu tried to turn to look, but Fu Ming pressed her back. He shielded her head with his hand; his wide sleeve nearly covered her whole body.

"Creak—"

One beam after another cracked apart!

In an instant, the entire house seemed on the verge of collapse. Fu Ming shielded Lin Yu and retreated behind the thickest pillar by the door, avoiding being crushed.

Leaning against the pillar, Lin Yu's heart suddenly raced when she saw what was before her—a thin crack in the earth, snaking from the room to her feet, then splitting through the ground beneath her and continuing outward!

Lin Yu knew this scene all too well. She met Fu Ming's eyes. A great earth fissure!

The Mountain God had made his move!

Lin Yu had thought that Zhang Dian's plan was to join with the Jiang Kingdom to take Liangcheng, then gradually infiltrate the Li Kingdom from there, ultimately attacking Jincheng. But he'd also gone to the Mountain God, offering to sacrifice the people of Liangcheng in exchange for the Mountain God's cooperation.

But these two aims were fundamentally at odds. Even if Zhang Dian won, if all the people of Liangcheng were sacrificed to the Mountain God, what would he do with an empty city? He could neither govern it nor gain support from it.

It wasn't until now, with the earth splitting open again in such a short time, that Lin Yu suddenly figured it out—they had a celestial god as an accomplice, and they wanted to use all of Liangcheng's population as a bargaining chip to achieve Ascension.

He wanted not just the throne, but a divine position as well!

Having lost her memories and been assimilated into the illusion, Lin Yu had nearly forgotten that this was a carefully crafted fantasy world. Only the celestial gods who arranged this illusion from outside could alter its course again and again.

The Mountain God had been severely wounded; he couldn't possibly regain his power in such a short time. Yet he was still able to split the ground of an entire city—because the god outside the illusion had intervened.

The god wanted the Mountain God to succeed, so it had granted him the power to swallow a whole city.

With a celestial god as an accomplice, it all made sense now: a tree demon occupying all of Gujin Mountain in the illusion, masquerading as the Mountain God, and using live sacrifices of ten thousand people to amass a thousand years of cultivation.

A mortal had no use for an empty city, but for a god with divine powers reaching the heavens, an empty city was immensely useful.

Raising corpse soldiers, nurturing vengeful spirits, breeding gu, building a cultivation field... any one of these could rapidly enhance cultivation and divine power, a massive boon for any deity.

All of these required vast stretches of empty land—and an abandoned Liangcheng was just perfect...

Once the loose, splintered beams above had mostly fallen, Fu Ming saw his chance: "Go!"

Bits of wood and nails kept raining down, and Fu Ming kept one hand over Lin Yu's head to shield her from the debris, guiding her out of the mansion.

Outside, chaos reigned. Nearly every building had collapsed, and a single great fissure had split into countless smaller cracks. As far as the eye could see, there were only pitch-black chasms!

The fissures sprawled across the ground like a giant spiderweb covering all of Liangcheng!

"Report! Bad news! The Jiang Kingdom army used some trick—they were dozens of li away just an hour ago, but they appeared right outside the city gates! Our soldiers were caught off guard and are taking heavy losses!"

"Report! A huge fissure just opened in the southwest part of the city! Many people have fallen in!"

"Report! All our spies watching Zhang Dian are dead! Zhang Dian has fled with Xiao Wen!"

"..."

One after another, guards rushed in with reports. Lin Yu felt a little flustered, but she quickly latched onto the key point. "The southwest part?"

Lin Yu exchanged a glance with Fu Ming—no words, but both understood the other's intent.

Fu Ming: "By my order, tell the soldiers to hold the city gates, prepare according to the earlier defense layout, and have the ambush forces outside retreat for now. Wait until I arrive before making any moves."

Fu Ming tossed Qingxian to Lin Yu. She caught it instinctively. She cast one last look back at Fu Ming, and he looked at her too. Both their gazes were resolute. With that brief glance, they each went their separate ways.

Lin Yu turned the bracelet on her wrist, and the divine beast sensed the command and rushed over to her. She climbed onto its back, patted it lightly on the head, and the beast immediately sped off toward the place where the earth had split!

Lin Yu stroked the silver-white fur on the beast's head and summoned the Xuanyang Mirror. She said softly, "Mirror, how much spiritual power do you have left?"

On the way to the palace, the Xuanyang Mirror had regained a sliver of consciousness. Lin Yu and the mirror had deliberated for a long time, ultimately coming up with a plan to fuse the Danshin Bone to repair it. After four or five days of recovery, the crack on the mirror had been completely mended.

At present, the Xuanyang Mirror looked like just an ordinary mirror with a hint of spirit.

The divine beast was running too fast, and the wind was howling. The Xuanyang Mirror shouted, "Master, I'll transfer all my spiritual power to you—it should be enough for you to take on that broken tree spirit! Focus on the fight, don't worry about me! Master, you have to get rid of them. I'm counting on you to save me after you ascend!"

With that, the mirror's spiritual power flowed like a trickling stream through Lin Yu's palm, seeping into her sea of consciousness. After absorbing it, the Xuanyang Mirror fell into slumber once more. Whether it was the wind or not, Lin Yu's eyes seemed a bit moist.

She blinked hard twice, her gaze fixed firmly on the bottomless dark chasm ahead.

Lin Yu jumped off the beast's back. The fissure was several dozen zhang wide. She waved at the divine beast, which obediently sat behind her, and it leaped into the fissure, with Lin Yu following right after!

But this time, the fissure was different. It seemed to have no end. On either side of her were layers of soil, and she was shrouded in darkness, falling continuously, yet never landing.

Lin Yu sensed something was wrong. The Mountain God's method of swallowing people was to nourish his own roots. This great chasm beneath the ground must lead to his lair, but the darkness below seemed infinite.

No... something was off!

Making a quick decision, Lin Yu drew Qingxian and thrust it into the cliff wall beside her, suspending herself in midair.

But the soil was too loose and fragile to support a person's weight. Almost instantly, large chunks of earth crumbled away!