Li Jinglong, Atay, Lu Xu, and Ashina Chong met up again. Atay used the hurricane to attack the enemies around them, protecting them. He shouted, "The monsters and humans are all mixed together! There's no way to avoid them! "
"Let's fight." Li Jinglong panted. "An Lushan has already thrown caution to the wind."
Thus, the four of them rushed through the battle formation. Under the cover of Atay, they released flowing flames and swept around.
In the sky, the Carp Demon was still controlling the elite guards to spray everywhere. When they turned around, they saw Liang Danhuo screaming in the night sky, "Zhao Zilong! You traitor! "
The Carp Demon shouted in shock and hurriedly dodged Liang Danhuo who was chasing after him.
"Don't spray here! We're on the same side! " Ashina Chong was in the middle of killing when he realized that something was wrong. He hurriedly dodged the green light. The ground around him instantly became a deep trench. Even the rebel soldiers and monsters were trapped in it! The elite guards had the power to move mountains and rivers. Wherever they passed, they were almost unstoppable. Li Jinglong shouted again, "Fly to the opposite side!"
The Carp Demon dived and flew far away. Everyone was killing everywhere in the chaos. Atay's flames were too dazzling, causing the monsters to come out in full force. They did not care about the Tang soldiers and only rushed towards them, forming a dense encirclement.
The elite guards flew around the encirclement. More reinforcements from the rebel army joined the battle. The Tang soldiers finally lost their morale and fled in all directions.
"We can't hold on any longer." Ashina Chong panted.
"Cover their retreat." Li Jinglong said, "Liang Danhuo is almost here."
Liang Danhuo chased after the elite guards. The Carp Demon was as fast as lightning. However, he realized that the elite guards could not stop. He shouted, "I'm going down! Stop! "
At the same time, the black cloud at the rear of the formation suddenly spread out. Wherever it passed, whether it was the rebel army, the Tang army, or the demonic beasts, they were all twisted together by this demonic aura. A hoarse and low voice said, "Die!"
An Lushan emerged from the black fog, transforming into a roiling demonic cloud that swept into the battlefield. The Tang soldiers outside the black fog were terrified, and they abandoned their weapons and began to scream as they fled in panic. Li Jinglong had seen this darkness before. he shouted, "Retreat!"
The exorcists were prepared when they saw the demonic aura coming towards them. They instantly turned around and escaped the area shrouded in the black cloud. The rebel army was also terrified. they retreated outside the cloud. the demonic aura covered covered an area of a mile. and the black meteors kept shooting out of the black cloud. Even Liang Danhuo had to avoid avoid it.
In an instant, the Demonic Aura flew past the campsite, the moat, and swept into the forest. Thousands of trees withered, and wherever it passed, the living turned into corpses. The exorcists sprinted, and the situation was completely reversed!
"How did it become so strong!" Ashina Chong shouted.
Atay summoned strong winds, but he could not disperse the demonic aura. Outside the forest, the two hundred thousand Tang soldiers were defeated. Their defeat was obvious. They scrambled to escape and trampled on each other. Soldiers were trampled to death along the way.
After the Tang army was defeated, the rolling demonic cloud did not give up. He growled, "Li Jinglong!"
"His target is me." Li Jinglong panted.
An Lushan was almost annihilated in the battle at Daming Palace. The power of the ley lines in Ming Palace almost burned this demonic creature to ashes. Li Jinglong knew that An Lushan would not let him go. Apart from Yang Guozhong, perhaps the only thorn in An Lushan's side was him.
In the middle of the night, the two hundred thousand Tang soldiers fled in panic. The black cloud chased after them. Even if the exorcists ran on foot, they could not escape from it.
"I can take some people and run first." Lu Xu said, "Quick! Who's going to fly with me? "
Li Jinglong slowed down and said, "If we don't stop it, the whole of Tong Pass will be finished! Go, go! "
As he spoke, he turned around and pulled out the Sword of Wisdom from his back. He faced the black cloud that was close at hand.
"Chief Inspector!" Everyone shouted.
"What's the use?!" Atay roared.
Ashina Chong shouted, "You can't defeat it!"
"I can only take a gamble." Li Jinglong panted, "I hope your speculation is right. A miracle will happen … In my life, my luck has never been good. I'm betting on my bad luck for the past twenty years. I only hope that I can win this gamble …"
Lu Xu never thought that his words of comfort to Li Jinglong would become his last straw of hope.
"Go!" Li Jinglong roared, "Leave this place! I'll bring up the rear! "
"No!"
Lu Xu was about to rush towards Li Jinglong, but the black cloud had already covered them. In an instant, everyone lost their sense of direction. All the light disappeared, and what replaced it was bone-chilling cold and despair.
"Go!" Ashina Chong shouted in the darkness. Lu Xu's wrist was grabbed and he was forcefully dragged out.
Li Jinglong stood in the endless darkness, holding the dim Sword of Wisdom and facing the rolling black cloud.
A purplish black light lit up at the end of the darkness. It was a black figure floating in the air. An Lushan's voice was emitted from the figure, surrounded by black flames.
"Li Jinglong." An Lushan's voice was full of pity, "I've always wanted to return this to you."
As he spoke, the humanoid monster formed by black flames threw an item. It landed on the ground and rolled until it reached Li Jinglong's feet.
Li Jinglong bent down and picked it up.
It was a thumb ring made of alloy. Hongjun had once made it for him in Luoyang. However, too many things had happened, so Li Jinglong didn't even take a good look at it. He simply took it. After that, everyone made this thumb ring into a fake magic weapon. Before the battle at Daming Palace, they swapped the Divine Fire Ring. An Lushan took it back and put it on his finger.
Li Jinglong held the thumb ring in his left hand, and his right hand held the Sword of Wisdom horizontally in front of him. He raised his head and faced the darkness.
"Are you still holding on to the fantasy of saving the world?!" An Lushan's voice laughed crazily.
Li Jinglong stared at the figure and replied, "Not now. Now, I only want to … save one person."
At dawn, the sun shone on the mountains. Hongjun woke up and yawned.
The weather in early spring was still cold. After leaving Shiwei, Hongjun had the most comfortable time since the battle of Dunhuang. Every night, he no longer had nightmares. He also didn't feel like something was weighing down on his heart.
He seemed to be one with the forest. Wrapped in the thick fur coat brought by Mo Rigen, he curled up next to the bonfire at night and lay on the back of the wolf during the day, dozing off, half asleep and half awake.
"Last night, I had a dream." Hongjun rolled up his fur coat and came to the stream.
The Grey Wolf lay in front of the stream and stuck out its tongue to lick the water. It asked, "What dream?"
"I dreamt that I was flying in the air at night." Hongjun said, "It was very dark around me …"
He squatted down and washed his face with the cold water of the stream. Looking at his unkempt reflection in the water, he shook his hands and said, "Jinglong held the Sword of Wisdom horizontally in front of him. He also held something in his left hand. He just looked at me like that. He said, 'Hongjun … I can't do it anymore. I've failed.'"
The Grey Wolf turned to look at Hongjun.
Hongjun muttered to himself for a long time. After thinking for a while, he said, "Why did his Heart Lantern disappear just like that?"
The Grey Wolf answered casually, "Because he couldn't accept it."
Hongjun stared at the Grey Wolf in a daze. The Grey Wolf walked towards him and lay on the grass. Hongjun then flipped over and rode on it. The Grey Wolf leaped over the stream and ran towards the south at full speed.
"I think he's quite open-minded." Hongjun said, "Look at him. He even sacrificed his own life and burned his primordial spirit just to get rid of An Lushan."
"Sacrificing himself," the Grey Wolf answered softly as he ran, "It doesn't mean he's open-minded."
"But in life," Hongjun answered, "How many people can really open-minded? When you faced the Nightmare Tapir, didn't you … "
"That's the key." The Grey Wolf ran up the fork and answered, "I ran along the official road. So what if I was seen? I was in a hurry."
Hongjun responded. They would arrive at Tong Pass in a few days. They had spent too much time away from everyone this time.
"Why do you say that?" Hongjun asked again.
Early spring had arrived. However, no one was farming the fields in the north. It was barren and filled with weeds.
"He always gave me a feeling that he doesn't trust anyone but himself." The Grey Wolf ran across the official road and sniffed the bloody smell in the air.
Hongjun said, "How's that possible? Every time, it's because everyone worked together … "
Cang Lang replied, "That's right. Every time, it's because everyone works together that we can defeat a strong enemy. But think about it carefully. In order to protect everyone and you, he didn't hesitate to sacrifice his own life. No matter how difficult the situation was, he wasn't willing to let his comrades take the risk. This is protection, but it's also a kind of lack of determination. "
Hongjun said, "This is just his personality."
"The three words he said the most often were 'trust me'." The Grey Wolf said in a daze, "'trust me, we will win'. All the difficulties fell on his shoulders. He wasn't even willing to let anyone bear them for him."
Hongjun pondered for a moment. The Grey Wolf said, "Sometimes, I always think, does the Exorcism Division really go through thick and thin together? Perhaps this is what the Immovable Wisdom King wanted to tell him. The Demon Binding Rope was given to you, and the Moon Eclipse Bow was given to me. Tell me, what do you think this is hinting at? "
Hongjun: "…"
"In other words …" Hongjun murmured, "Perhaps, the next magical artifact will be in Atay or Yongsi, or …"
"The Demon Binding Rope is under the Dragon Subduing Pagoda, and the Moon Eclipse Bow is in the Lone Peak," Grey Wolf murmured. "This shouldn't be a coincidence."
A few days later, the Grey Wolf carried Hongjun and stopped on a hill in the northwest of Shan Commandery, overlooking the plains. After they entered the Central Plains, the Grey Wolf suggested that they go around Tong Pass and pass through Shan Commandery. At the same time, they could scout out the situation in An Lushan camp. However, what they saw was a barren land.
The army had all retreated.
Hongjun said in surprise, "They retreated?"
"Don't be happy too early." Mo Rigen and Hongjun walked past the camp abandoned by the rebel army and came to the front of the trench. This was obviously a battlefield. The trench was covered in blood, and tens of thousands of pieces of Tang armor were discarded.
Hongjun picked up a long halberd and waved it a few times. "What's going on?"
The plains were full of crisscrossing trenches. It was as if someone had used a giant plow to turn the earth over.
The trees in the forest were all withered, and everything within a radius of several miles was charred black.
"Get ready." Mo Rigen pounced forward and transformed into the Grey Wolf.
Hongjun still didn't understand. He looked at the swords stuck in the ground and flipped onto the Grey Wolf's back. The Grey Wolf rushed toward Tong Pass. As they got closer and closer to their destination, the ominous feeling in the depths of Hongjun's heart grew stronger. They didn't talk. When they ran through an empty space, the Grey Wolf stopped for a moment.
Hongjun felt that this place was very familiar, but he couldn't say where he had seen it before. This was just an ordinary empty space outside Tong Pass. Immediately after, the Grey Wolf set off again, rushing toward Tong Pass at almost the fastest speed. The mountains on both sides of Tong Pass seemed to have been burned once. The gates were open, and the walls were covered with traces of black smoke.
"No … no." Hongjun felt a numbness from his back to his scalp, and his voice trembled with grief.
The guards were no longer there, so they took the opportunity to rush into Tong Pass. The houses in Tong County were destroyed, and the drill grounds were littered with discarded armor.
"Why is there so much armor?!" the Grey Wolf said in disbelief.
There was a saying, "Throw away your armor". When two armies fought and one side was defeated, they would throw away their armor and flee. However, the fleeing soldiers would only hurriedly throw away their outer armor, which was the Iron Scale Armor. Very few people would throw away their inner armor, which was the leather lining.
The Grey Wolf lowered its head and sniffed the armor around. Hongjun, however, got off the wolf's back and walked toward the end of the drill grounds. The Grey Wolf turned around and said, "Don't go too far. We have to find their whereabouts immediately!"
Hongjun walked to the center of the drill grounds and saw two headless corpses. These were the only two corpses they had seen along the way. One of the corpses was hunched over, leaning against the drill grounds. The blood on the severed neck had dried and was purplish black. A crutch was lying on the side of the drill grounds.
The other corpse was wearing armor. It was tall and maintained a kneeling position. It had been decapitated for a long time and did not fall down.
The Grey Wolf followed and said in a low voice, "Hongjun."
Hong Jun trembled as he picked up the walking stick. He had seen it more than once. It had once been in Feng Changqing's hands. When he was scolding Li Jinglong, it had been raised high into the air.
Mo Rigen and Hongjun fell into a long silence. Hongjun walked closer to the corpses and looked down at the wooden trough. He saw two heads in it — Feng Changqing and Gao Xianzhi's heads. Their eyes were wide open with anger.
Hongjun: "…"
Mo Rigen turned his head and looked into the distance.
"Someone beheaded them." Mo Rigen said, "They didn't even collect their corpses."
Hongjun said, "They were defeated just like that? How is that possible? "
Mo Rigen said in a low voice, "It doesn't look like the rebel army."
Hongjun suddenly looked at Mo Rigen. Mo Rigen said, "With the rebel army's temperament, if they couldn't persuade them to surrender, they would leave their corpses intact or hang them on Tong Pass. Or they would be demonized and used by An Lushan. "
It was obvious that after the execution, the rebel army had broken through Tong Pass. Everyone fled in panic and did not have time to collect the corpses of the two guards. It was a pity that Feng Changqing and Gao Xianzhi, who had been brilliant all their lives, had fallen at Tong Pass.
Hongjun said, "We have to bury them."
Mo Rigen said, "It's too late, Hongjun. We don't even know if the others are dead or alive."
Hongjun looked at Mo Rigen, his eyes filled with grief and reluctance. Mo Rigen finally gave in and said, "Alright."
Hongjun found a straw mat and came over. He picked up the two men's heads and put them on their necks. He hugged Feng Changqing and Gao Xianzhi's heads and closed their eyes. Grey Wolf dug up the ground below the pass and placed the straw mat inside. The two men worked together to fill it up.
The sky was already dark. After they were done, Hongjun leaned against the gate of Tong Pass and said, "Where did they go?"
Grey Wolf said, "They'll be fine. They're all very capable. If we follow the rebel army's path, we might be able to find them."
"Who's there?" Someone had discovered them. Hongjun was startled. Grey Wolf shouted, "Get on!"
The rebel soldiers on patrol had arrived and they all shouted. Grey Wolf leapt over the ruins and galloped his horse to surround them. Grey Wolf roared and the horses immediately ran away, leaving the rebel soldiers behind.
"Let's go!" Hongjun said.
Grey Wolf suppressed his urge to bite the enemy and turned to the west, leaving Tong Pass.