Chipa Plateau

"Is this thing actually impervious to blades and spears? I've got a bag of sunflower seeds here. Want some?"

"Hand me a handful." The wind and sand were fierce, though.

"It weighs almost as much as an elephant. Sheesh, if it sat on someone, it'd squeeze the shit right out of them! Dad, that unlucky bastard looks like one of Nian Songyu's men?"

"What's 'shit'?"

"Nothing. The State Preceptor's working magic! He threw two huge fireballs into the enemy's mouth, and the toad burped... Hmm, looks like it didn't work."

About the time it took to burn a stick of incense later, the two Purple-Gold Toads were tossed off the boat.

Compared to how imposing they'd looked when they first leaped aboard, they'd shrunk to a fifth of their original size, gone from bloated to skin and bones.

He Lingchuan remembered that State Preceptor Sun had made a cut in each of them, then stuffed something inside. The two toads had visibly shriveled up, dehydrated, and lost the ability to jump. Their eyes had bulged out even further.

Then they'd died.

"Did you get a good look?" They looked as if they'd fucked themselves to death.

He Chunhua shook his head. As State Preceptor, Sun was bound to have some extraordinary methods. Presumably, those methods would work just as well on people.

On the rest of the journey, the group was attacked twice more by monsters that weren't bothered by the stench. But the State Preceptor's boat was the only one affected again; the other two boats were unscathed.

The others marveled at the State Preceptor's bad luck, and were glad the monsters hadn't jumped onto their boats. If they had, they'd never have been dealt with so swiftly and cleanly.

But Sun Fuping and the others furrowed their brows in secret.

Why had all three attacks targeted the State Preceptor? What did that mean—that the tallest tree caught the most wind?

Hurrying along as fast as they could, the group finally drew close to their destination before nightfall.

The messenger on Nian Songyu's boat pointed into the distance and shouted to their companions on the two boats behind, "Coiling Dragon City is just ahead!"

He didn't need to tell them. Everyone had already gathered at the bow to admire the most spectacular sight in the Coiling Dragon Desert—the Chipa Plateau.

Countless years ago, an irresistible force had thrust this plateau up from the earth. Its elevation stood at least forty zhang—about 130 meters—above the level ground beneath their feet!

Between them lay a chasm six zhang wide, so deep its bottom couldn't be seen.

It was like a clear, decisive line dividing two continents.

As the Walnut Boat reached this point, the boatman maneuvered it with great care. Using salted meat to lure the Earth Dragons, he guided them westward along the edge of the precipice.

A fall would mean the end.

After a quarter of an hour, Ancient Coiling Dragon City finally began to loom larger in their sight, its gray outer walls coming into clearer view.

The plateau stretched so far and wide that its sheer face looked like the cut edge of a layer cake, meeting the plain at an almost perfect right angle. Desolate and towering—those words must have been made for it.

The sun was beginning to sink westward, casting mottled shadows across the plateau's edge. It looked like a giant beast crouched in the desert, winding and silent.

This terrain was the very picture of a place easy to defend and hard to attack. No wonder Zhong Shengguang had held out here year after year. Without these natural advantages, ideals and fervor were nothing but empty talk.

Farther on, the plateau's elevation sloped gently downward, like a long ramp descending.

Coiling Dragon City stood at the mouth of that slope, firmly guarding the only passage south onto the Chipa Plateau!

The boat slowed. Up ahead, a bridge stretched from north to south, spanning the entire chasm.

It was a natural stone bridge, connecting the land beneath their feet to the south and a small open space before Coiling Dragon City's southern gate to the north.

This was probably the only route for attacking Coiling Dragon City. Even an army ten times larger couldn't take it. Looking at the stone bridge, He Lingchuan felt a spark of anger on behalf of the allied forces of Xianyou and Baling from over a century ago.

Later history proved it. Ten times their numbers? Ha!

The Walnut Boat's journey came to a temporary end here. The boatman took the salted meat off the pole and tossed it to the Earth Dragons as their reward.

After galloping for two hours, the three Earth Dragons were so exhausted they were practically breathing smoke. If they hadn't been single-minded to the point of stupidity, with brains smaller than a ball, and kept their eyes on the tantalizingly fragrant meat in front of them, they'd have quit long ago.

Now that they finally had the meat in their mouths, the Earth Dragons paid no mind to all the prey around them. They spun around and ran off.

Everyone jumped off the boat, and State Preceptor Sun came over to put away his magical treasure. He recited a few incantations, and the large boat turned back into a little walnut.

The wind and sand were fierce, but the air here was far fresher than it had been aboard the boat. The soldiers, finally free of the stinking salted meat, couldn't help taking great gulps of it.

He Lingchuan tapped the ground with his toe. "Isn't it dangerous to stop here? What if some strange beast or monster shows up?" Like the ones along Red Cliff Road.

Nian Songyu smiled. "The ground here is all rock, with less than half a foot of sand. At most, a few centipedes or sand snakes could hide here. Are you scared?"

He Lingchuan kicked away a layer of sand and found hard rock underneath, just as Nian Songyu had said. That made sense. If the sides of the chasm weren't solid rock, the Natural Bridge would have collapsed long ago.

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

He Lingchuan turned at the sound of his voice and saw several of Zeng Feixiong's men approaching with two people in custody.

The pair struggled desperately. One was short, the other thin, but each took three burly men to hold down.

The strangest thing was that both wore a vest-like Talisman Garment. In fact, it was just two pieces of yellow silk, one draped over the front and the other over the back, then tied together to avoid the hassle of sleeves and collars. Vermilion talismans rose from the silk and slowly circled the captives.

There was no doubt they had once been Zeng Feixiong's men. But the way they looked at everyone was strange, both violent and greedy.

He Lingchuan had hunted before. He thought that kind of look belonged to a coyote.

"They've been possessed by Three-Corpse Insects." Zeng Feixiong felt uneasy seeing them like this, too. "The State Preceptor had two bound for observation."

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

Now he led the way onto the bridge.

The bridge itself was quite wide, about fifteen zhang—more than forty meters. But in the middle of the wilderness, spanning a chasm and facing Coiling Dragon City, it looked as thin as a toothpick.

The allied armies' countless soldiers must have met their bitter end here, again and again.

He Lingchuan looked down. The bridge's surface was mottled with patches of color, clearly stained long ago, one layer after another. A century had passed, yet the stains varied in depth.

As they walked across, it seemed as though everyone could smell the sharp stench of blood.

This had been the front line of the great battle between the three armies. Around this little stretch of ground, they must have fought over it countless times.

More spirits haunted this place than anywhere else.

Sun Fuping suddenly said, "This bridge appeared later. It wasn't natural."

Nian Songyu stamped on the ground and said, "The material is indeed different from the wilderness. The allied forces of Baling and Xianyou must have built it."

Zeng Feixiong was walking beside He Lingchuan. He was astonished to hear that. "There are no seams in the stone; it's one solid piece. You're saying it was built by people? And the sentries on Coiling Dragon City weren't blind. How could they let the enemy build a bridge right under their noses?"