To give Zhu Jingzhe and the illusionist a chance to approach Zhu Huairen, who was controlling the sea beast from behind the scenes, Pei Du and the Northern Garrison Army advanced toward the creature, forcing it back into the sea.
The sea beast’s eight tentacles swept across the air like enormous trees, sending up a foul, salty wind as they slammed into the shield wall with thunderous force.
The shield-bearers gritted their teeth and bent their knees slightly, pressing the full weight of their bodies against the shields. Not one of them yielded an inch.
Crossbow bolts shot repeatedly through the gaps in the shield wall.
Though they could not pierce the sea beast’s tough hide, they forced the enormous creature to jerk its head aside again and again to evade them.
When they saw that the sea beast was not invincible, more than a dozen soldiers shouted in unison and thrust their spears toward it, targeting the vulnerable inner sides of its tentacles.
Three spears pierced one of the sea beast’s tentacles at once. It let out a sharp hiss toward the people on the beach, and purplish-black blood splashed onto the sand, sizzling as it gave off wisps of white smoke.
Perhaps enraged by the pain, the sea beast grew even more savage.
One spearman dodged a sweeping tentacle and keenly noticed that even when they injured one of the creature’s tentacles, it could quickly grow a new one. Her expression hardened.
“The sea beast’s weakness must not be its tentacles. It must be its head!”
The sight of General Feng and the others slaying monsters inside the evil dragon suddenly flashed through her mind.
If General Feng and the others could defeat such terrifying monsters with nothing but mortal bodies, then why couldn’t she do the same?
“Brothers and sisters, our Northern Garrison Army was taught body-tempering techniques by the Divine Lady, and we bear the mission of protecting the people of the world! If we retreat today and let the innocent civilians on the shore suffer, how will we ever face the Divine Lady? In the past, two hundred heroes in Xindu City helped the Divine Lady slay an evil dragon. This sea beast isn’t even half as terrifying as that dragon—what reason do we have to fear it? Dare you join me in taking its head?!”
At her words, the dozen or so spearmen exchanged glances. In one another’s eyes, they saw the same unflinching resolve to fight to the death. They tightened their grips on their spears.
“The Northern Garrison Army has been enlightened by the Divine Lady and carries the mission of protecting the people of the world! We swear to fight to the death and never retreat!”
Pei Du, directing the battle from the rear, watched the Northern Garrison soldiers charge toward the sea beast. His heart filled with pride at their loyalty, yet he could not help worrying for their safety.
“Don’t stop firing. Cover them,” he ordered.
With red-rimmed eyes, the archers kept drawing their bows, covering the soldiers who were flung aside by the sea beast’s tentacles, only to struggle back to their feet and charge again.
Elsewhere, Zhu Jingzhe and the disheveled man continued making their way toward Zhu Huairen’s position.
The sea beast’s attention was fixed on the frontal battlefield.
It did not notice them at all.
When they were roughly three hundred meters from Zhu Huairen, a faint flute melody drifted over on the sea breeze. Zhu Jingzhe felt a sharp pain in his eardrums, and his vision began to blur.
The shoreline before him twisted and warped.
“Guard your mind! Visualize something real!”
The man beside him reached out and pressed down on the back of his neck, then drove a fingertip firmly into a pressure point behind his ear.
The scene before Zhu Jingzhe slowly returned to normal. He turned to the man.
“Thank you, Senior…”
“No need to thank me. We must restrain the illusionist controlling the sea beasts as soon as possible. We can’t let him play that flute again, or both the Northern Garrison Army and the people of Wuling will be in danger.”
The two of them continued toward Zhu Huairen.
The instant Zhu Jingzhe saw Zhu Huairen’s face clearly, all the doubts in his heart were answered.
“Second Uncle.” His gaze locked onto the middle-aged man playing the flute. “You murdered Grandfather back then, and now you’re using illusion arts to aid evil. You truly are beyond redemption!”
The flute fell silent.
Zhu Huairen turned around. The moment he saw Zhu Jingzhe, his pupils contracted. “You little bastard—you’re still alive?”
The Zhu family had once been one of Wuling Prefecture’s most prominent clans.
Unfortunately—
In recent years, Wuling had been plagued by disasters, both natural and man-made. No one revered illusion arts anymore. And his father, that stubborn old fool, had insisted on clinging to those so-called ancestral rules, refusing to use their arts to help the local strongmen build a great cause.
And the price of blindly following tradition was decline.
He had never been willing to accept that.
Later, he killed his own father, took the ancient texts of illusion arts handed down by their ancestors, and burned the Zhu family home to the ground.
“Even a beast like you, who murdered his father and brother, is still alive. Why shouldn’t I be?” Zhu Jingzhe’s hands clenched tightly into fists.
Zhu Huairen sneered. “That old fool refused to teach me all of our ancestral illusion arts. He deserved to die. My elder brother was just as stupid—he insisted on avenging the old man, so I had no choice but to kill him too. Your father, at least, was clever enough to hide somewhere and stay out of my sight. But you didn’t inherit even a fraction of his brains. You’ve come here to die!”
Zhu Jingzhe drew the dagger from his waist, tightened his grip around the hilt, avoided the traps Zhu Huairen had laid across the ground, and lunged at him.
“You don’t deserve to be a member of the Zhu family!”
The illusionist who had come with him also sprang into action, unleashing his finest technique. He scattered a handful of sand at Zhu Huairen.
In the blink of an eye, he vanished from where he stood. Then, amid the swirling sand, a tiger took shape.
It pounced savagely at Zhu Huairen, claws and fangs bared.
Attacked from both sides, Zhu Huairen was forced back step by step.
The sea beast’s assault along the shore weakened as well. Seizing the opportunity, the soldiers of the Northern Garrison Army struck with all their strength.
The eight-tentacled beast was pierced through the head by the soldiers’ spears and crashed heavily onto the beach.
Zhu Huairen’s eyes widened at the sight.
“Th-This is impossible! How could ordinary men kill a sea beast created by my illusion arts?”
Before he could make sense of it, Zhu Jingzhe drove his dagger into him with all his strength. Zhu Huairen coughed up a mouthful of blood.
“You forced my hand!”
Zhu Huairen raised his short flute. A frantic melody rang out, and once again, the sea began to churn.
Countless sea beasts emerged from the water.
“I’ll make every last one of you die with me!”
He let out a shrill, crazed laugh.
The civilians hiding inside the tents were filled with despair. The Northern Garrison Army had already exhausted themselves defeating a single sea beast. Now that so many more had appeared, could any of them possibly survive?
Just as the sea beasts were about to crawl ashore, an expanse of ghostly blue light suddenly flared across the surface of the sea, accompanied by strains of ethereal music.
Everyone looked up to see a kun, its entire body shimmering with starlight, surging through the waves and blotting out the sky and sun.
A figure stood upon its back.
With a casual wave of her hand, she froze the terrifying sea beasts where they stood. In an instant, they became towering ice sculptures, each preserved in the posture of its final, tentacle-swinging attack.
The sea wind abruptly died. Moonlight once more spilled across the water, illuminating the Goddess’s aloof, otherworldly features atop the whale’s back.
“Divine Lady! It’s the Divine Lady!”
The Northern Garrison Army nearest the shore erupted in thunderous cheers. Their morale, already soaring after the slaughter of the sea beasts, now reached an indescribable peak.
Zhu Huairen was completely dumbfounded. “A-A Grand Illusionist can possess such heaven-defying powers?”
“What illusionist? She’s the true Goddess!”
Zhu Jingzhe shot him a cold look.
Zhu Huairen pulled an ancient tome from his robes and flipped through its pages with trembling hands, muttering, “Impossible. This must be an illusion. How could there possibly be a Goddess?”
