Chapter 144 (Patreon)

Hey all. Sorry this chapter is so late. Just took a long time to write for whatever reason. Thank you for your patience.

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“Damn you!” Pan Gong roared. Admirably or foolishly, depending on how you looked at it he didn’t halt his charge when one warrior became a hundred.

The Vine warrior flicked his spear and sent the body of the formation specialist soaring toward Pan Gong. The specialist’s body exploded with a wave of liquid qi. Rather than dodge, Pan Gong weathered the Final Flood directly by wrapping himself in liquid qi. Even so, he was delayed long enough for the rest of the Vine Warrior army to cross through the barrier. They marched with military discipline, standing shoulder-to-shoulder in a block formation. Small circular vine shields wrapped around their left arms, and in their right hands, they clutched short spears. Not a single face could be seen, their heads completely covered in vine helmets fashioned to look like grimacing faces and with two unearthly green lights glowing from where there should have been eyes.

Through the Yellow Dragon’s sight, Chen Haoran could see the barrier part before the warriors touched it. The warriors themselves were all a uniform, twisting green mass of qi. Some, however, were a touch brighter shade, and others had blue undertones Chen Haoran recognized as water qi. Despite these minor differences, Chen Haoran recognized the qi of the warriors as the same variety as the killers the Yellow Dragon had drawn his attention to before.

Chen Haoran felt cold. He grasped the hilt of his sword in search of security.

Pan Gong growled like a lumbering bear, and a tsunami of yellow liquid qi burst out and swept toward the Vine warriors. With soundless cooperation, the Vine warriors in the front ranks held their shields forward and allowed the giant wave of qi to crash upon them. They were not swept away. They didn’t even step back. Instead, the wave of qi grew smaller and their shields grew larger, sprouting more vines as they absorbed qi and interlinking to become a single wall of vines.

Pan Gong immediately pulled his qi back with an ugly look and leapt backward. The wall of vines shifted and began moving closer. The sound of lockstep marching beat Chen Haoran’s heart like a drum.

“Fire Qi!” Pan Gong roared.

Seven Liquid Meridians stepped forward at Pan Gong’s call, and Chen Haoran was left abruptly breathing dry air as they erupted with red and orange liquid qi. It was a good call. Of the Five elements, Wood fed Fire, like how Water fed Wood. It was the same principle as what the Vine warriors used to turn Pan Gong’s liquid qi against him. Now it was turned back on them.

At least. That’s how it should have gone.

The burning liquid qi fell on the vine wall and scorched it black, but the warriors did not stop. Acrid black smoke rose but failed to hide the fact the wall was still moving toward them. The Garrison soldiers weren’t slow on the uptake and immediately manipulated their liquid qi to flow around the wall. Chen Haoran looked through the smoke and fire and found that the warriors on the flanks filled their shields with qi and blocked the liquid qi flames with more vine walls.

“Metal Element!” Pan Gong bellowed.

Chen Haoran clutched his sword tightly but didn’t pull it out. Phelps clutched Chen Haoran’s side as if telling him not to go. He didn’t. Chen Haoran stayed in place while two soldiers stepped up behind the Fire Qi soldiers. At an unseen cue, the middle soldiers cut off their liquid qi, and the Metal qi soldiers immediately released two thin streams of white liquid qi that blasted toward the vine wall like cannons. Blue liquid qi seeped from the vine walls and pushed forward, pushing the fire liquid qi away and meeting the metal liquid qi in a stalemate. Metal beats Wood. Metal boosts Water. It was a game of elemental rock paper scissors, and they were losing—a fatal disadvantage on top of the number disparity.

Pan Gong recognized the poor situation for what it was and raised a closed fist. “Retreat.”

Patriarch Qi looked ready to bolt as soon as the words left Pan Gong’s mouth, but he glanced at Chen Haoran, who had yet to move and paused. Smart man. The deadliest part of the battle was always the rout. The Fire and Metal soldiers calmly walked backward while still flooding their qi, the rest of the Garrison stepped back at the same time, and Chen Haoran and Patriarch Qi followed them.

Pan Gong raised his hand. “Earth.”

There was no visible flood of liquid qi, but Chen Haoran could see the qi in the ground spike and move as a single mass toward the vine wall.

Pan Gong slashed his hand down. “Cut.”

The soldiers ceased their floods at once. Blue liquid qi rushed forward from the Vine warriors but a towering wall of earth rose from the ground and intercepted it.

“Go!” At Pan Gong’s order, they turned their backs and sped off into the jungle. The Earth qi soldiers served as rear guards, raising another wall of earth behind them. The Fire qi soldiers set the jungle on fire for good measure to hamper the Vine warrior’s advance.

Chen Haoran cut his connection with the Yellow Dragon. Using it while running was just too much for him. Phelps clutched Chen Haoran tightly, finally giving up his bamboo to be put in Chen Haoran’s storage bag. They ran and ran, and given that they were a whole group of Liquid Meridians, the answer to how far was a safe distance was quite a bit different compared to Qi Realms. Eventually, after what felt like an hour, they approached another pyramid. It wasn’t quite a defensible position. At least not if you were planning to survive the battle. It did, however, offer a line of sight with a perimeter of open space not overgrown with trees. Pan Gong raised a fist, and they halted at the base of the pyramid. It served as a cue for the Garrison soldiers to finally break ranks and voice their burning questions.

“What in nine hells was that?”

“Did anyone recover the Formation Compass?”

“Those vines weren’t fire element. I’ve never seen non-fire plants resist fire qi like that.”

“The damn communication talisman still isn’t working.”

“They let us go too easily.”

A core of the strongest and presumably highest-ranking soldiers gathered around Pan Gong.

“They might have been a defense mechanism of the secret realm,” one of the Eighth-Layers said. “Some kind of Puppet.”

“Impossible,” The other Eighth-layer said. “That many? That organized? Without a visible controller?”

“That’s why I think there could be an Artifact Spirit, like I said before.”

“How much qi does it take to support both of those things? You saw the array map. There was nothing that could support defenses that complex.”

“There was nothing about a barrier either, and yet, there it is. You heard the specialist. The barrier isn’t directly connected to the secret realm. The same is probably true for the Puppets as well. It’s no wonder we missed it.”

“Even if they only rely on the ambient qi, they would still have maintenance costs. Given how large they are, there should have been an obvious concentration of qi in the Outer Ring.”

Pan Gong remained silent as his fellow officers debated and theorized. His face had been stoic ever since the retreat. His eyes stared off into the air, deep in unblinking contemplation. Chen Haoran was thinking too. Stay or go? He already didn’t care to help the Garrison, and he’d gotten the answers he wanted. His priority right now was finding Xie Jin and Bao Si, not fighting random tree people.

Pan Gong blinked. “They were men. At least the one who killed Officer Fu was.”

“Could it be a lost tribe?” a Seventh-Layer Earth user asked. “Wouldn’t be the first time a secret realm had its own natives.”

Pan Gong looked at Chen Haoran. Their gazes met. “Lan Junjie, did you see anything?”

Twenty presences fell on Chen Haoran’s shoulders as agitated soldiers turned their full attention to him. Patriarch Qi quailed while Phelps clutched Chen Haoran’s shoulders tighter. Chen Haoran weathered the presence as best he could. They weren’t really what bothered him, actually. The stares they represented did. Even with as strong as he’d gotten, having a bunch of people putting all their focus on you was unnerving.

Chen Haoran mustered all the grace he had and didn’t let his nervousness show as he walked over to Pan Gong. “They all looked similar, but that might have been due to the armor. I didn’t see anything that connected them to the secret realm or implied they were controlled from somewhere else.”

Pan Gong nodded. He didn’t look surprised. “When we first found the barrier, you saw something before we left. What was it?”

Chen Haoran started. Pan Gong had noticed that? Chen Haoran had originally intended to keep it to himself. He couldn’t exactly refuse to answer now, however. “I saw people fighting on a pyramid. I could only see their qi, but the killers looked exactly like the Vine warriors that just attacked us.”

Pan Gong hummed. “So there are more warriors outside the barrier hunting the other trialists.”

“Do you think the others are trapped inside barriers, too?” One of the Eighth-Layers asked.

“It would be stranger if we were the only ones stuck behind a barrier,” Pan Gong said. Suddenly he sharply turned his head. “Soldier Jiang. Are you feeling well?”

Chen Haoran followed Pan Gong’s gaze and found him staring at the Third-Layer Peachblood who’d accompanied them to study the barrier before. The Peachblood was pale, becoming all the more paler as the attention that was on Chen Haoran was shifted to him instead.

He quickly clasped his hands and bowed. “Captain Pan, I believe I know the origin of our attackers.”

Pan Gong nodded. “Go on.”

“I believe they’re Rattan Armor Soldiers.”

Pan Gong frowned. “That’s a name I never expected to hear outside my strategy classes.”

The majority of the group hissed and nodded in recognition of the name which surprised Chen Haoran. Patriarch Qi and the weaker Liquid Meridians looked confused. Pan Gong swept his eyes over them and elaborated. “The Rattan Armor Soldiers were the Southern Regions’ premier military force 400 years ago. Studying their battles is a mandatory part of the officer curriculum.” He glanced at Soldier Jiang. “However, it was my understanding that they were dissolved after the war ended, and the techniques to create their arms and armor were lost.”

Translation: The Empire killed them all and buried them in history.

Soldier Jiang didn’t raise his head. “This is just my theory based on the stories I’ve heard, sir. I’ve never seen a Rattan Armor Soldier myself.”

Pan Gong shook his head. “No, I’ve long heard of the Rattan Army’s legendary vine armor, and what we saw today matches their appearance in the Palace School’s books. Although resisting fire is a new one.”

Chen Haoran’s heart fell. A famous force thought destroyed in Zumulu’s conquest. Appearing in ruins abandoned for 2 thousand years. All while a rebellion was brewing throughout the region led by another ancient legend of Zumulu. Coincidence? Impossible. Would he be recognized? Would he be spared if he was? Did Xi Wangmu know he was here? Was she here?

What had he gotten himself involved in?

Chen Haoran kept his face blank. Pan Gong was far too keen-eyed, and he didn’t need to be grilled while surrounded by so many Garrison soldiers. Needless to say, if his identity were revealed, the Garrison would quickly become his enemy. That didn’t mean the Rattan Armor Soldiers were his friends, though. Should he shout his identity to them? Would that make things better or worse? He resisted the urge to reach for his sword.

“Maybe they’re a remnant placed here to serve as trial guardians?” A Metal Qi Liquid Meridian asked. “It would make more sense than them being survivors of the Southern Suppression War.”

“It does not matter what they are or how they got here,” Pan Gong forcefully said. “What matters is that we have an unknown amount of enemies hunting for us in prepared terrain. Our objectives have changed. We need to break out of this barrier and rush to the Center Ring to end the trial as soon as possible.”

An Eighth-Layer frowned. “That’s too drastic, no? While the situation is unfavorable, it’s not beyond our ability to salvage so long as we rally the others. If we leave like this, our superiors and peers will both be dissatisfied.”

Pan Gong “If it comes to that, then I alone will shoulder the blame. I stand by my words. We must end the trial now.” He looked at the two Metal qi users. “Do either of you have any large-scale metal techniques?”

“No sir, only single-target,” the soldiers answered.

Pan Gong asked the same question to the Water and Earth spirit roots but didn’t get the answer he wanted. Chen Haoran didn’t so much as even twitch toward his sword. Finally, Pan Gong turned to Chen Haoran. “Lan Junjie, your eyes will be invaluable for scouting and breaking the barrier. I will make sure you’re properly rewarded for your efforts.”

Chen Haoran noted that Pan Gong left him no option to say no. Typical. He would have to make it work. He plastered a fake smile onto his face. “I’ll follow your command, of course, but I have a question.” A very, very important question. “Are there a lot of officers participating in the trial? Or did we luckily find most of them?”

Pan Gong said that the Rattan Vine Army was taught in the officer curriculum, but most of the Liquid Meridians here recognized the name, and all of them were Sixth-Layer and above.

Pan Gong, at first, acted as if he hadn’t heard the question, but he couldn’t stop the reactions of the other officers. The Eighth-Layer visibly paled and shook as realization dawned on him, and a domino effect soon followed as the others began to put the pieces together.

Pan Gong sighed. “More than there should be given the circumstances.”

His words served to confirm the worst thoughts everyone was holding, and the atmosphere became heavy. Chen Haoran imagined it couldn’t be easy for the soldiers. He didn’t feel any better than they did, knowing his fears were correct. That was probably why Pan Gong had been holding onto his suspicions rather than voicing them. It would have come out soon enough, however, once they gave some thought to it.

This was a trap for the Garrison.

And someone in the Garrison threw them right into it.