But no one had expected the undead Great Wind Army to be capable of such tactics.

They had clearly calculated that even an Array as powerful as the Celestial Thunder Array had its limits. By using common Resentful Souls to drain the Celestial Thunder’s power, wouldn’t this group of living people be at their mercy once the Array failed?

The Sandstorm Season had just begun. As undead, they had almost infinite time.

The faces of the living turned grim. The undead could wait, but they could not. After being battered by several hundred Resentful Souls, the electric light of the Talisman Array was visibly less active than before. It was clear there was a limit to the power it could borrow from the heavens.

And the Great Wind Army was testing just how much of that limit remained.

After this batch of Resentful Souls was spent, the Great Wind Army sent forth another thousand in one go. In the current Panlong Desert, there was no shortage of them.

The world seemed to go dark for the living, and they lost their composure. A trusted subordinate stammered in a choked voice, "Lord Governor, we... we..."

If this happened again, would the Array be broken outright?

"Stay calm! The more you panic, the faster the Array will break!" Hee Chunhua shouted. "As long as the National Preceptor gets the Grand Square Pot, our predicament will resolve itself!"

Amidst the chaos, someone muttered under their breath, "How much longer will that take?"

Hee Chunhua suddenly spun around and lopped off half the man’s ear with his sword. "Are you trying to get your comrades killed? Anyone else who disrupts morale will be executed without mercy!"

The sight of blood, paradoxically, calmed everyone down considerably.

Several hundred more Resentful Souls, driven by the Great Wind Army, crashed into the Celestial Thunder Array and had their souls scattered to the winds.

At this moment, Hee Chunhua also felt a bit dizzy. He looked back at the Magic Staff in the center of the Array. The color of the Society Command held in the beast’s mouth had faded, and its azure glow was dimming. This was the result of their morale being constantly drained.

But the blood in the Pool Well only rippled slightly; there was no other movement.

The Great Wind Army itself hadn’t suffered any losses, only sending cannon fodder to the front. ’How much longer can we hold on like this?’

Hee Chunhua sighed to himself. ’In the end, I still fell for the National Preceptor’s trap.’

The Heroic Spirits of Panlong City had spent their lives resisting invasion and were especially sensitive to the aura of foreign armies. What’s more, he had used the Society Command. This group of a hundred or so living people was like a beacon in the dark night; it would have been difficult for the Great Wind Army not to notice them.

’Hmm? But speaking of auras...’

Hee Chunhua thought of something and his spirits suddenly lifted.

「...」

The South City Gate was right there. Whether they went a little faster or a little slower, they would get there eventually.

The South City Wall was becoming clearer in their vision. In another two or three li, they would reach the South City Gate.

The buildings in the South City were intact. Nian Songyu had not yet made his move.

Panlong City’s geographical position was unique, with its defensive focus on the south. Therefore, during this period, aside from the South Gate, the walls to the east and west were very simple and lacked any installed weaponry. The north side, meanwhile, had no gate at all.

The only position from which fire could be quickly spread over a large area of the city was the South City Gate.

Coincidentally, Panlong City’s main residential area was also in the south, with over sixty percent of the city’s homes concentrated here.

Hee Lingchuan looked at the South City Gate. ’Nian and Sun probably also feel that setting fires in the other three directions is not a priority,’ he thought. ’That’s why they’ve left the southern buildings unburnt, waiting for the four of them to regroup.’

’Waiting to regroup?’

Hee Lingchuan felt that something was wrong.

At that moment, the two of them were about to go around a large mansion by a stream.

They just had to pass through an opera house to get to the main street, and from there it was a straight shot to the South City Gate.

Fuzzy Peach was already drenched in sweat. He squatted down and scooped up a handful of water to wash his face. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

The water in the Illusion Realm couldn’t be drunk, but it felt real to the touch and was perfectly fine for cooling off and calming one’s nerves.

"Let’s go," he said, getting up and striding forward.

But Hee Lingchuan grabbed him by the back of his collar. "Hold on."

"What is it?"

Hee Lingchuan didn’t answer. He leaped onto the mansion’s outer wall and clambered into the corner tower in just a few quick movements.

It was the tallest building for several li in any direction, with an unobstructed view.

Fuzzy Peach didn’t bother with the effort. He walked through the mansion gate into the courtyard and then climbed the stairs.

When he found Hee Lingchuan, the Eldest Young Master was staring intently to the south, muttering incessantly, "It doesn’t fit, it doesn’t fit!"

Fuzzy Peach quickly asked, "What’s wrong? What doesn’t fit?"

His attitude toward Hee Lingchuan had become increasingly humble, unlike at the beginning when he was simply flattering a willful Eldest Young Master.

He hadn’t even realized this change in himself.

Hee Lingchuan kept his eyes fixed on the South City Gate and pointed. "Do you see that totem?"

"Ah, yes." The relief carving on the city wall was a massive Black Flood Dragon Totem. It would be hard to miss, wouldn’t it?

"On the innermost of the three walls we saw in the Desert Ruins, the one on the barbican, there was also this Black Flood Dragon Totem. Exactly the same."

Fuzzy Peach thought hard and nodded. "Right, I remember that too."

"You don’t think there’s a problem with that?"

Fuzzy Peach was even more confused. "What problem? Eldest Young Master, please speak plainly. Don’t be like National Preceptor Sun."

Hee Lingchuan slowly turned to look at him. "The best opera performed by the troupes in Black Water City, the one everyone loves to hear, is called *Panlong Break Army Formation*. You’ve heard it, right?" *Everyone* has heard it! "It sings of the Xiluo Kingdom’s National Guardian Beast."

Fuzzy Peach recited, "It is said that the Golden Bull, the National Guardian Beast released by the Xiluo Kingdom, was invincible—"

Oh dear, why did he start singing?

"Xiluo’s National Guardian Beast is the Golden Bull, right?" Hee Lingchuan jutted his chin toward the South City Gate. "But on the gate is a Black Flood Dragon! Look, there’s a sacrificial table in front of the relief, and a large three-legged copper incense burner with a phoenix-and-ring design. This is not the kind of treatment a mere Marsh Warden would receive. Panlong City worships it as a national—or city—guardian beast!"

"But the Desert Ruins outside also worshiped the Black Flood Dragon, so—" A flash of insight suddenly struck Fuzzy Peach’s mind, and his eyes went wide. "That’s strange! This is Panlong City in a time of peace. Even if they were worshiping a National Guardian Beast, it should be the Golden Bull!"

"The worship of Divine Beasts is regulated by every kingdom; even border towns cannot defy the rules. To do so would be a grave offense, and getting caught would mean big trouble," Hee Lingchuan said. "Panlong City should have originally worshiped the Golden Bull like the rest of the kingdom. Perhaps after long years of war and isolation, they grew disillusioned with their homeland. Combined with their turn to worshiping the Mitian God, they changed the relief carving to a Black Flood Dragon."

"Logically, the Panlong City in this Illusion Realm shouldn’t have such a flaw. But since the Grand Square Pot is a treasure of the Mitian God, things its master does not acknowledge cannot appear here. Therefore, the loophole has been preserved." Hee Lingchuan shook his head. "But it’s just so blatant, standing right there in plain sight, that any living person who enters would see it and not think twice."

When it came down to it, the Xiluo Kingdom had fallen over a hundred years ago. People today could only learn about it through records, so they weren’t as keenly aware of its details as they would be for their own country.

Fuzzy Peach exclaimed, "No wonder Tao Bo said in his Handwriting that there was something here that was incongruous with reality! Eldest Young Master, you have a keen eye! We must report this to the National Preceptor at once!"

He grabbed the windowsill to jump down, but his neck was suddenly pulled taut. Hee Lingchuan had grabbed him by the back of his collar again. "What’s the rush?"

"Are... are we not going to report it?" Fuzzy Peach was momentarily stunned.