Chapter 79: No Further Entry

He Lingchuan tossed in two more stones, and they sank straight to the bottom just like the first one.

The message was clear: no further entry was allowed.

The black dragon might have died, and everyone had indeed escaped the illusion, but the entrance to the secret realm had closed with it.

He Chunhua let out a long sigh, his heart heavy with frustration.

They had endured numerous hardships, lost valuable resources, and suffered the loss of many men, including some who had been senior officials. Still, the most troubling thing about all this was that they had no idea how deeply this entire ordeal might offend the Provincial Governor of Xun Province and the Minister of War.

After all, Grand General Nian’s most beloved son, Nian Songyu, was now dead. And Sun Fuping, for reasons yet unclear, had also lost his status as a state preceptor and perished.

The He father and son had certainly played their part in those deaths.

When the royal court began investigating, they were definitely going to be held accountable.

The future suddenly looked dim.

“Chuan’er, what did you wish for from the black dragon?”

“I don’t even know if I made a wish!” He Lingchuan gave a bitter laugh, pointing at the nearby soldiers. “You can even ask them if I ever said anything to the black dragon besides a few sentences?”

Those who had been on the wall, including Mao Tao and Situ Han, all shook their heads like rattles. In a crisis like that, who had the luxury to start making wishes?

“This is the only loot I got from all that,” He Lingchuan said, offering up the broken saber. “Do you want it?”

He Chunhua, still listless, waved it off. “Keep it. It’s yours.”

After a harrowing series of events that lasted over ten hours, everyone was drained. The only bit of good news was that the raging sandstorm outside the city had finally subsided, revealing once again the barren, grayish surface of the desert.

He Chunhua gave the order for them to rest here for the night, then return to base at first light.

Since the Gale Army had also emerged from the illusion, they now roamed the ruins of Panlong City, ignoring the living but actively hunting down and expelling lingering wrathful souls.

With these heroic spirits patrolling, the humans actually felt much safer.

He Lingchuan tugged He Chunhua into a sheltered courtyard for rest, with Zeng Feixiong and Situ Han following along by instinct. Mao Tao hesitated, but He Lingchuan looked back and said, “Bring in a pot.”

“Right away!” Mao Tao lit up with joy and ran off to borrow a large cooking pot from one of the guards, delivering it into the courtyard like it was a treasure.

Zeng Feixiong gave a tired chuckle. “Young Master, the water in the pool is full of blood. We won’t be cooking anything in that. I’ve got half a pouch of clean water left if you’d like it.”

He Lingchuan crooked a finger at Situ Han. “You, fill the pot.”

Situ Han looked sheepish but, under four pairs of eyes, took out a shriveled water pouch and began pouring.

Despite the pouch appearing flat, it gurgled out enough clear water to fill eight-tenths of the pot.

He Lingchuan grinned. “Our dear Old Situ is a veteran sand bandit leader. Did you seriously think that you could clean him out that easily?”

Situ Han laughed awkwardly. “Hey now, I’m part of the official border troops. Fully registered!”

Soon, Mao Tao had gathered a bunch of busted-up furniture and chopped it into kindling to boil water.

Everyone chipped in with supplies—rice cakes, flatbread, dried meat, fish strips—and tossed it all into the pot. Mao Tao even brought out salt, peppercorn, and chili powder.

𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

After a brutal battle like that, stomachs growled. Everyone was starved and ready to feast.

Outside, the sound of water dripping from tiles and eaves began to pick up. It had started to rain.

The rain quickly turned into a downpour.

Fortunately, they were all seated under the eaves, spared from being drenched in the sudden downpour. Zeng Feixiong heard the distant cheers of the soldiers outside and smiled broadly. “A truly opportune rain. Haha, it looks like we’re really going to make it back to Heishui City alive!”

He stepped back into the open courtyard, letting the rain wash the grime and ash from his face.

Even though the wrathful souls and Three Corpses Worms were no longer hostile, and the Gale Army was now protecting their retreat from the region of mad sand, living humans still needed one basic thing to survive: water.

Earlier, Sun Fuping and Nian Songyu had forced everyone to empty their last drops into the sacrificial pool. But with the journey back taking over ten days, it was almost impossible for them to make it back all the way without water.

Now, with rain falling from the skies, the greatest threat to their survival had been resolved. How could anyone not rejoice?

“Come to think of it, it’s nearly the rainy season anyway.” The Panlong Desert’s rains typically came in the ninth month. At that, He Chunhua suddenly paused. “Right, what day is it today?”

The four men looked at each other and shook their heads. Time inside the secret realm had been so disordered, and once they emerged, there was nothing to compare it to. Who could say how many days had passed?

It might well be the ninth month already. In which case, the rain was not some form of divine intervention; it was just the weather doing its job.

He Lingchuan promptly ordered Mao Tao to gather every intact jar and container they could find to collect rainwater. Their safe return would depend on it.

In reality, no command was really necessary. Every local from Heishui City had already been doing just that.

When Mao Tao came staggering into the courtyard with a forty-kilogram clay water jar, He Chunhua called out to his son, “Take off your shirt. I’ll treat your wounds myself.”

He Lingchuan was not seriously hurt, but he had dozens of cuts, most from the barbs of Sun Fuping’s coiled silk rope. Even his nose had two deep scratches, and a chunk of skin had been torn from the back of his hand.

Feigning ignorance, he asked, “So, Sun Fuping’s really dead?”

Nian Songyu might have healed his wounds at the time, but his magical energy had long been depleted. And after that, he still had to face the furious heroic spirits, bird monsters, and the troops of Heishui City. He Lingchuan did not see how the man could have survived.

“That cavalry officer from the Gale Army finished him off,” He Chunhua answered. “The same one who attacked us outside the temple.”

“He never used his mandate token?”

“Not once.” He Chunhua gave a cold snort. “You were right. He’d already been stripped of his position. Without the token, he had no way to channel the power of fate. If he was still capable of doing so, not even the Gale Army’s heroic spirits could have stopped him.”

With the protection of state fate, no ghost could get close, not even inside a sealed secret realm. That law still applied, at least in part.

But without the mandate token, Sun Fuping was just a powerful spellcaster, and they had numbers on their side.

He Lingchuan rubbed his hands together, eyes gleaming. “Did he not leave any last words? Or leave behind any cool treasures?”

That greedy glint was all too familiar to He Chunhua. “Didn’t you already get some loot of your own? That saber the black dragon gave you?”

“That’s just a broken saber. I found that with my own eyes and sharp memory! If I hadn’t acted fast, we’d all be the black dragon’s snacks by now!”

Hm, he’s not wrong. He really did practically save all our lives.

So, He Chunhua pulled out two magical artifacts: the coiled silk rope and the beast-headed staff.

“These were the main treasures that he had on him. Which one do you want?” There were plenty of lesser items, but there was no need to dig those out.

“A man wearing a red string? Hm, it feels a bit too girly for me.” He Lingchuan pointed at the staff. “That staff looks much more my style.”

“Alright, it’s yours then.” He Chunhua tied the silk rope around his own wrist.

When dormant, the beast-headed staff shrank down into a pestle barely thirty centimeters long, making it relatively easy to carry. He Lingchuan turned it over in his hands, musing aloud, “Sun Fuping had the skill and the cunning, so why did he lose his position as state preceptor?”

If not for some miraculous turn of fate, their entire expedition team would have all been sacrificed to fuel his schemes.

“Something must’ve happened in the capital. Still, it’s maddening that we still haven’t received a single update from the central or eastern regions of Yuan.” He Chunhua sighed deeply. Without first-hand intelligence, even with a strong army, it would be rather foolish to advance eastward.

Situ Han, who had kept silent all this time, finally spoke up, “I still don’t get it. How could that black dragon really be Zhong Shengguang?”