Chipa Plateau

"This thing is actually impervious to blades and spears? I have a bag of melon seeds here, want to crack some?"

"Hand over a handful." Even though the wind and sand were fierce.

"It weighs almost as much as an elephant. Hiss, if this thing sat on someone, it would literally squeeze the crap out of them! Father, that poor wretch seems to be one of Nian Songyu's men?"

"What is 'crap'?"

"Nothing. The State Preceptor is casting a spell! He threw two large fireballs into the enemy's mouth, and the toad burped... hmm, seems it didn't work."

About an incense stick's time later, the two Purple-Gold Toads were tossed off the boat.

Compared to their imposing presence when they first leaped onto the deck, their bodies had shrunk to a fifth of their original size, transforming from bloated masses into skin and bone.

He Lingchuan remembered that State Preceptor Sun had made incisions on them and stuffed something inside; the two toads had then slimmed down at a speed visible to the naked eye, becoming dehydrated, unable to jump, and with eyes bulging even further.

Then, they kicked the bucket.

"Did you see clearly?" They looked like they had been drained of all vitality.

He Chunhua shook his head. As a State Preceptor, he naturally possessed extraordinary methods, and he imagined these same methods would be just as effective if used on humans.

During the remainder of the journey, the fleet encountered two more attacks from monsters that were unfazed by the stench, yet only State Preceptor Sun's boat was affected, while the other two remained unscathed.

Others marveled at the State Preceptor's luck and felt fortunate that the monsters hadn't jumped onto their own boats, as they certainly wouldn't have been able to resolve the situation so cleanly and efficiently.

However, Sun Fuping and his group frowned in secret.

Why were all three attacks aimed at the State Preceptor? What did this signify? That a tall tree catches the wind?

Pushing hard, the fleet finally neared their destination before nightfall.

The messenger on Nian Songyu's boat pointed into the distance and shouted to his companions on the two boats behind: "Ahead lies Coiling Dragon City!"

In truth, there was no need for his reminder; everyone had already gathered at the bow to gaze upon the most spectacular sight in the Coiling Dragon Desert—the Chipa Plateau.

Countless eons ago, this plateau had been thrust upward by an irresistible force, creating a drop of at least forty zhang (130 meters) from the flat ground beneath their feet!

Between them lay an unfathomable chasm, six zhang wide.

It was like the dividing line between two continents: clear, distinct, and resolute.

As the Walnut Boat reached this point, the boatmen operated with extreme caution, using the cured meat to lure the Earth Dragons as they navigated west along the natural chasm.

Falling down there would be the end of it.

After traveling for a quarter of an hour, the Ancient Coiling Dragon City finally began to loom larger in their vision, the outline of its grey outer walls becoming more distinct.

This plateau was vast, its vertical face resembling the cross-section of a double-layered cake, standing at nearly a ninety-degree angle to the flat ground. The words "desolate" and "majestic" seemed to have been coined just for it.

As the sun began to set, it cast mottled shadows across the edge of the plateau, making it look like a giant beast crouching in the desert, winding and silent.

This terrain was a classic example of being easy to defend and hard to attack; it was no wonder Zhong Shengguang had been able to hold out here year after year. Without such objective conditions as a foundation, sentiment and passion were merely empty talk.

Moving further ahead, the elevation of the plateau sloped gently downward, like a long, descending ramp.

And Coiling Dragon City stood right at the mouth of that slope, firmly guarding the only passage leading south to the Chipa Plateau!

The boat slowed down. Ahead, a bridge spanned the north and south, crossing the entire deep chasm.

It was a natural stone bridge, connecting the land beneath their feet to the south with a small open space in front of the south gate of Coiling Dragon City to the north.

If one wanted to attack Coiling Dragon City, this was likely the only path; even with ten times the troops, it would be impossible to take. Looking at this stone bridge, He Lingchuan felt anxious for the allied forces of Xianyou and Baling from over a hundred years ago.

Later history proved that ten times? Heh!

As the Walnut Boat reached this point, the journey came to a temporary halt. The boatman unhooked the cured meat from the pole and tossed it to the Earth Dragons as payment.

After sprinting for two hours, the three Earth Dragons were so exhausted that smoke was practically rising from their mouths. Had they not been naturally single-minded, with brains smaller than balls, and fixated on the fragrant meat always dangling before them, they would have quit long ago.

Now that the meat was finally in their mouths, the Earth Dragons didn't even care about the numerous prey present; they turned and bolted.

Everyone jumped off the boat, and State Preceptor Sun came over to retrieve his magical artifact. He recited a few incantations, and the large boat transformed back into a small walnut.

Despite the heavy wind and sand, the air here was countless times fresher than on the boat, and the soldiers, finally rid of the stinking cured meat, couldn't help but breathe deeply.

He Lingchuan tapped the ground with his toe: "Stopping here, aren't you afraid of strange beasts or monsters coming?" Just like on both sides of Red Cliff Road.

Nian Songyu laughed: "This is all solid rock underneath, with less than half a foot of sand and soil; at most, it can hide a few centipedes or sand snakes. Are you afraid?"

He Lingchuan kicked away a layer of sand, discovering that it was indeed hard rock underneath. Right, if the sides of the chasm weren't solid walls, the Natural Bridge would have collapsed long ago.

Nian Songyu suddenly asked: "What's going on?"

He Lingchuan turned at the sound and saw several of Zeng Feixiong's men escorting two people over.

The two were struggling desperately; although one was short and the other thin, it took three burly men on each side to barely hold them down.

The most peculiar thing was that they were both wearing Talisman Garments that looked like vests—essentially two pieces of yellow silk draped over their chests and backs, tied together to save the trouble of sleeves and collars. The vermilion talisman runes on the silk flickered, slowly rotating around the captives.

Without a doubt, these had originally been Zeng Feixiong's men. But the way they looked at the crowd was strange—both violent and greedy.

He Lingchuan had hunted before, and he felt that this kind of gaze belonged more to a coyote.

"They've been possessed by Three-Corpse Insects." Seeing them like this, Zeng Feixiong felt uneasy as well. "The State Preceptor tied up two of them for observation."

The Three-Corpse Insects on the other boats had been driven away, but Sun Fuping had kept two behind.

Now, he took the lead and stepped onto the bridge.

The bridge itself was actually quite wide, about fifteen zhang (some forty-odd meters), but set against the vast wilderness, spanning the chasm, and standing before Coiling Dragon City, it looked as thin as a toothpick.

The thousands of troops from the allied forces had likely met their doom right here, and countless times at that.

He Lingchuan looked down to see the bridge surface mottled with patches of color; clearly, it had been stained many years ago, layer upon layer, the shades still uneven even after a century.

Walking across the bridge, it felt as though everyone could smell the pungent stench of blood.

This had been the front line of the great war between the three armies, and no one knew how many battles had been fought back and forth over this very corner.

The restless souls here were far more numerous than anywhere else.

Sun Fuping suddenly remarked, "This bridge appeared later; it is not natural."

Nian Songyu stomped on the ground and added, "The material is indeed different from the wilderness. It must have been built by the allied forces of Baling and Xianyou."

Zeng Feixiong, walking right beside He Lingchuan, was astonished to hear this: "There are no seams in the stone; it's a single, seamless piece. This was man-made? Besides, the sentries on Coiling Dragon City aren't blind—would they really let the enemy build a bridge right under their noses?"