Chapter 59: Negotiation
After the vanguard team came up, they reported the situation below. Below was an endless tunnel, pitch black.
“We must be careful of an ambush,” Zhao Linxu said, holding Li Jianyu’s hand with a frown. “Stay close to me later.”
The deputy general also went to call for another team for support. After all, the Green Lotus Cult was no ordinary enemy. Just their secret arts were overwhelming.
Zhao Linxu wrapped one arm around Li Jianyu’s waist and held a hemp rope with the other, slowly descending into the cave with the help of his lightness skill.
After going down, he couldn’t see anything. Li Jianyu could only hold Zhao Linxu’s hand.
Zhao Linxu was the leader. He couldn’t hide behind his subordinates to save his own skin, so at this moment, he was leading the way, holding Li Jianyu’s hand.
After walking for a while in the long, narrow passage, it suddenly opened up into a wide walkway.
There were rows of torches on both sides of the walkway, illuminating the surroundings. There were also small streams on both sides of the road, the water flowing rapidly.
Li Jianyu took a deep breath and felt light-headed.
“What’s wrong?”
Li Jianyu let out a big breath. “The spiritual energy here is very abundant.”
“What spiritual energy?”
“The source of secret arts. These torches have fire spirits, the streams have water spirits, the earth has wood spirits… In short, this place was built specifically for sorcerers. It can help them to calm their minds and advance their spiritual power. Sorcerers who stay here will also have their abilities enhanced and have stronger combat power.”
Zhao Linxu nodded.
The Green Lotus Cult was full of top sorcerers. It was not difficult to understand such a design. And Li Jianyu also knew how to use secret arts, so he could naturally feel the mystery within it.
Now, with the illumination of the torches, everyone could see the stalactites around them. The long, cone-shaped stones were translucent and lustrous, hanging upside down in the air with other stalactites, forming a spectacular scene of a surging white wolf.
It turned out that there was a cavern hidden here, with a long history, and stalactites that had taken tens of thousands of years to form. No wonder the spiritual energy was so heavy.
After Li Jianyu explained the source of these spiritual energies to Zhao Linxu, he frowned. “Perhaps after Qing Luo’s main camp in the Great Xi was razed by Brother Qianli, the main altar was moved here? This could explain why Huanyue City is so cooperative with the Great Xi. This Huanyue City is a territory of the Great Gong.”
“Very likely.” Li Jianyu nodded. This setup was not something that could be built in a short time.
“Have you been here before?” Zhao Linxu glanced at Rong Qing, who had followed them down.
Rong Qing shook his head. “Even His Majesty and His Highness have never been here. Qing Luo always went up by himself.”
Before his voice had even faded, Zhao Linxu suddenly shouted, “Form up, be on guard!”
Zhao Linxu’s shout was deafening, and the soldiers who had followed him reacted extremely quickly, forming a circle with their swords pointing outwards.
“Wait!”
“Your Majesty!”
Hearing the familiar voice, Zhao Linxu raised an eyebrow, then smiled. “It’s reinforcements.”
And the one leading the troops seemed to be Feng Ju Qianli and Chong Xi. It seemed that Xu Zheng had already returned to the main battlefield.
Chong Xi, in a soft armor, rode up to Zhao Linxu’s side. “Your Majesty, the Green Lotus Cult is sinister and strange. Please be careful.”
Zhao Linxu patted Chong Xi’s shoulder. Just as he was about to say something, the familiar “swoosh, swoosh” sound rang out again.
This time, it wasn’t just sharp arrows. Fireballs also shot out from the cracks in the walls on both sides. Zhao Linxu deftly pulled Li Jianyu and spun around to avoid the hidden weapons.
“What a rare guest. When did the Emperor of the Great Gong want to come to my Green Lotus Cult?”
Not far away, a man with a bewitching figure led countless people in black robes slowly down the steps. The man’s face was powdered, and a light gauze fluttered around him. He swayed his hips with every step. Although he was taking the same path as Xing Huan, Xing Huan was full of charm, while the one before him was a real eyesore.
Chong Xi said in a low voice, “It’s Qing Luo’s Left Protector, Mo Lian.”
Zhao Linxu let out a meaningful “oh,” then waved his hand. “Kill—!”
Mo Lian, who was preparing to negotiate or banter with Zhao Linxu, stared with wide eyes.
What?
Crash—
The Great Gong’s soldiers returned the favor, using the torches at the side as materials. Sharp arrows with fireballs shot towards the sorcerers.
And behind these soldiers was a huge phoenix, which almost filled the entire cavern. And with a single flap of the phoenix’s wings, there was a sea of fire.
This phoenix was transformed from Li Jianyu. The moment Zhao Linxu had given the order, he had reacted extremely quickly.
Li Jianyu understood Zhao Linxu’s intention. Although sorcerers could use magic, and the effect was heaven-defying, their bodies had become more and more sluggish and weak from years of dealing with these spiritual energies. Therefore, Zhao Linxu had given such an order, wanting to subdue them directly before they could attack and the fight became heated.
Mo Lian looked at the approaching soldiers and the phoenix and felt a headache.
“Retreat!”
Zhao Linxu saw Mo Lian leading his men to retreat. The cooked duck was about to fly away. How could he let it go? He naturally had his soldiers chase after them fiercely.
The team chased the sorcerers all the way to a large hall. It seemed this was the center of the Green Lotus Cult’s altar.
The main hall was spacious and grand, with towering pillars carved with countless strange eyes, extending upwards, out of sight.
This place was spacious, which was more conducive to the sorcerers’ abilities.
But when Chong Xi arrived here, his face suddenly turned pale, and he felt his limbs go weak.
This… isn’t this…
In the center of the hall was an iron cage. The iron cage was nothing strange, but inside the cage was a huge torture rack.
The one tied to the torture rack was none other than Yi Miaosuan. His whole body was in a terrible state. Countless iron rods extending from the cage were inserted into his body, limbs, abdomen, chest… every part of his body was pierced with iron rods, looking strange.
“It’s alright, I’m here.” Feng Ju Qianli had also seen it. He pulled Chong Xi onto his own horse and held him, saying in a low voice, “You’re out now. It’s all in the past. Hmm? It’s all in the past…”
“Form up! Kill the invaders for me!”
At the side, Mo Lian held a splash of water in his hand and shouted, “Before you is the invading Emperor of the Great Gong, and Feng Ju Qianli, who has a blood feud with us! What will you do?!”
And so, a raging of killing cries rose.
Feng Ju Qianli sneered. “This Prince has said before, I will kill every one of the Secret Art Pavilion’s people I see!”
Blood splattered in the main hall, complementing the inhuman and terrifying torture rack.
Zhao Linxu gave the phoenix a meaningful look.
The phoenix tilted its head back and let out a long cry.
“Giddy-up!” Zhao Linxu spurred Yuefeng and charged forward at the fastest speed, heading for Mo Lian.
The phoenix opened a path for Zhao Linxu with its fire, and no one could stop him along the way, allowing him to charge straight to Mo Lian. With a flick of his iron whip, he rolled the person to the ground, and he fell off his horse.
“Protector!”
Zhao Linxu roughly pulled Mo Lian up, held a dagger to his neck, and said, “All of you, stop!”
On the battlefield, to catch the bandits, first catch the king. After catching the king, the victory is half-decided.
Just like at this moment, the other sorcerers had no choice but to stop and look at their protector, waiting for instructions.
The phoenix circled in mid-air, then landed and returned to its human form under the astonished and envious gazes of everyone.
“If you don’t want your protector to die, then stop and have Qing Luo come out and surrender obediently!” Zhao Linxu naturally knew that the enemy would not be so easily subdued, but at this moment, they had the upper hand.
“Have your cult leader get out here!” Feng Ju Qianli also smiled. “I want to personally kill this fish that escaped the net back then!”
A shallow, bloody cut was made on Mo Lian’s neck by the dagger. At this moment, he didn’t dare to move and could only glare at Li Jianyu fiercely.
“Oh? The Emperor of the Great Gong has graced us with his presence. This Green Lotus Altar of mine is truly honored.”
Qing Luo finally arrived.
And there was no one behind him, not a single person.
He was quite arrogant.
Zhao Linxu sneered. Just an arrow at the end of its flight.
“Surrender obediently. Except for Qing Luo, We promise to spare the lives of the rest of you!” Zhao Linxu smiled. “Qing Luo, you should know that you can’t win now.”
“Your Majesty, you are wrong,” Qing Luo said, crossing his arms. “My cult will not only not surrender, but we will also have you exchange your protector for us, and bring the City Lord along.”
With a smile, Qing Luo played with the jade pendant in his hand. “You have attacked my cult without reason. If you don’t pay some price, won’t the other people of the jianghu laugh at us? How will my cult’s prestige survive then?”
“Such arrogance. Has the Cult Leader not yet understood the situation?”
Now we’ve kicked the Green Lotus Cult’s nest, beaten them until they can’t fight back, and even held a protector hostage, Zhao Linxu thought.
“No… it is you who do not understand the situation,” Qing Luo said with a sigh. “What a pity… Do you know why the usually weak Feng Juhua hardened his heart and killed Feng Juheng?”
“It is because there is a lot… a lot of gunpowder hidden in this Huanyue City. This gunpowder is hidden underground by a secret art, and Feng Juheng has a key that can drive the gunpowder machinery.”
Li Jianyu frowned slightly.
Was Feng Juhua trying to protect the people and everyone, so he killed Feng Juheng to get the key?
And the “machinery” Qing Luo mentioned was probably the torture rack in that iron cage. Chong Xi had told him before that the Green Lotus Cult would use people with abundant and high spiritual energy as “fuel,” inserting iron rods into their bodies to draw energy to operate large machinery that required a lot of spiritual energy.
Yi Miaosuan had probably betrayed the Green Lotus Cult for fame and fortune before, not only bringing Feng Juhua out but also helping Li Jianyu to escape. Now that he had been exposed, he had to suffer such inhuman punishment.
“But Feng Juhua is too naive,” Qing Luo said with a smile. “That key of Feng Juheng’s is just a replica of the jade pendant in my hand.”
A chill ran down Li Jianyu’s spine.
Mo Lian tried hard to raise his head, his voice hoarse. “Your Majesty, if this gunpowder is ignited… then it will truly be… mutual destruction, and nothing will be left.”
“In the end, it will all be a pile of ashes. No one… cough… can win against anyone.”
Zhao Linxu frowned slightly and looked around.
Li Jianyu and Chong Xi were here, and there were also countless soldiers.
Above them was a city of commoners, the North-South army, the Ghost-Faced Army, and the Great Xi’s soldiers.
The Green Lotus Cult was truly cunning.
“Your Majesty, hand over the City Lord, and return our protector to us. This matter will be over,” Qing Luo said, then looked at Li Jianyu, his lips curling slightly.
