Yet in the next moment.
Two men in two entirely different places both revealed the faintest trace of a smile at almost the same instant.
But their reasons for smiling were completely different.
Old Ma sat in his dim corner, his cloudy eyes seeming somewhat unfocused within the pale blue-white smoke.
He knew Lin Mu far too well.
That brat looked quiet and unassuming on ordinary days, but deep in his bones he treasured his own life more than anyone.
It would be no surprise for others to die in a chaotic, war-torn situation like this, but to say that Lin Mu had not even left behind a corpse while his death notice was already being spread about with such vivid detail — Old Ma instead found something indescribably ridiculous about it.
"That brat… wouldn't die that easily."
Old Ma muttered quietly, then shoved the pipe mouth back between his lips and puffed away, inquiring no further.
And on the other side.
As for the so-called rumor that "Lin Mu is dead," Li Mang likewise neither affirmed nor denied it.
It was not because he understood Lin Mu.
It was because this matter had surfaced far too conveniently.
At this most critical juncture, a man already tangled up in numerous suspicious points had suddenly vanished, and now, just as conveniently, word of his death had spread.
In Li Mang's view, that in itself reeked of abnormality.
However, the contemplation in his eyes soon dispersed, his mind returning to clarity.
Whether Lin Mu was dead or not had in truth already ceased to matter much to him now.
Because he still had the most direct method available.
As long as he thoroughly took Black Blood Stockade.
And turned this land upside down.
Many things would naturally come to light.
...
"BOOM——!"
A dull impact exploded outside the light curtain, shaking the mountain rock underfoot into a faint tremble.
One of the outermost array eyes of Black Blood Stockade's Mountain Protection Grand Array.
Stationed here was an ordinary Rank 2 Gu Master named Lin Yuan.
He had already held this position for nearly two days and two nights.
His eyes were webbed with bloodshot veins, his lips cracked and dry — each time he licked them he could taste a faint hint of blood.
Even more deadly was the Primeval Essence in his aperture, which kept running down to the bottom.
He could only keep drawing natural Primeval Essence from Primeval Stones, taking turns resting with several clansmen at his side, barely managing to keep pouring Primeval Essence into the Gu worm in his hand that sustained the array.
The White Bone Alliance Gu Masters outside were quite simply a pack of tireless mad dogs.
One batch would exhaust their Primeval Essence and withdraw.
The next batch would immediately take their place.
Bombardment.
Shockwaves.
Recovery.
Bombardment again.
The once level mountain rock near the array eye had long since been shaken through with dense cracks, as though it might shatter apart at any moment.
At first Lin Yuan's heart had pounded with terror.
But by now, that fear had long been replaced by utter exhaustion and irritation.
"BOOM!"
Another heavy blow landed on the light curtain.
Lin Yuan's body swayed. While desperately channeling his Gu worm, he could not help bursting into curses:
"Do these White Bone Stockade bastards ever quit?!"
The clansman beside him wore an equally ugly expression, gritting his teeth as he forced out a reply:
"Let them hit it! With the array holding, can they flip the heavens over?"
Only, after two days and two nights of insane attrition, such words now sounded somewhat like a man working up his own courage.
However, just as they were bitterly holding on.
The attacks outside suddenly stopped.
It came exceedingly abruptly.
The light curtain, which an instant ago had been buzzing and ringing under bombardment, went quiet all at once.
The several Gu Masters guarding the array were all stunned.
Lin Yuan even let out a long breath on reflex, every tautened muscle in his body going slack and sore in that moment.
Someone worked up the nerve to peer carefully beyond the light curtain.
He saw that those White Bone Alliance Gu Masters really were pulling back like a receding tide.
And at the same time.
From another direction exceedingly far from them came a sudden, deafening roar.
Flames shot up.
Clearly, the White Bone Alliance had shifted their offensive elsewhere.
"They've switched positions!"
One clansman could not help laughing and cursing out loud:
"These sons of bitches couldn't hold out, could they?"
Another wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.
"Probably figured they couldn't chew through here, so they ran off to try somewhere else."
Just as the few of them were speaking.
Lin Yuan suddenly sensed the power within the array eye beginning to change.
The Gu worms gripped tightly in their hands trembled faintly, beyond their control.
The array's power that had originally filled this region was being drawn away bit by bit, flowing toward that distant direction now enduring the fierce assault.
This was a change inherent to the Mountain Protection Grand Array.
Pull one hair and the whole body moves.
Wherever the pressure was greatest, the array would automatically redirect power from other regions to support it.
Lin Yuan had guarded this spot long enough that he had long since grown used to it.
A trace of relief even rose in his heart.
Whatever the case.
The power being drawn away meant this place was safe for the time being.
The few of them, nearly collapsed from exhaustion, could finally catch a breath.
However—
At the very instant when a great deal of power had just been drawn out of this array eye, when the light curtain was at its thinnest.
That earth-shaking, ferocious assault in the distance suddenly stopped.
The smile on Lin Yuan's face had not yet fully spread.
Before it froze there completely.
In the next moment.
In the seemingly empty, gloomy mountain forest just outside their array eye—
Beam after beam of Gu worm radiance abruptly flared to life!
One spot.
Two spots.
Ten spots!
This was not at all the sort of small-scale probing from before.
These were elite White Bone Alliance Gu Masters who had long since lain in ambush, poised and waiting!
They struck all at once!
"BOOM——!!!"
Attacks of every color landed on the light curtain at virtually the same instant!
The light curtain, already stripped of a great deal of its power, immediately twisted violently.
The entire array eye shuddered!
Lin Yuan's expression changed drastically.
It was only at this moment.
That he finally understood completely.
"This is bad!"
The enemy's retreat just now had not been an abandonment at all.
And that grand, thunderous assault in the distance had never been the true main attack either!
They had simply been waiting.
Waiting for the Mountain Protection Grand Array to draw this area's power away on its own!
Lin Yuan's eyes instantly went bloodshot. He frantically squeezed out the last of the Primeval Essence in his aperture, desperately driving the Gu worm in his hand.
The several Gu Masters beside him, who had been feeling fortunate only moments ago, likewise turned ashen as they poured Primeval Essence into the array eye with everything they had.
Stimulated, the array also began redirecting power back, attempting to fill this breach.
But it still needed time.
Too slow.
Only a little too slow.
Yet in a life-and-death struggle, that little was already fatal.
"BOOM!"
The second wave of attacks came crashing down.
The already violently twisted light curtain let out a sound that set teeth on edge.
"BANG!"
The third wave followed immediately after!
A hideous crack finally burst open across the surface of the light curtain.
Lin Yuan panicked completely.
Through that ceaselessly spreading fissure, it was as though he could already see death closing in step by step.
"Reinforcements!"
"Send word, quickly——!"
But before he could finish.
His voice abruptly cut off.
Because he suddenly saw it.
Beyond that light curtain on the verge of total collapse, a face had appeared.
Withered.
Ancient.
In those deeply sunken eye sockets was a trace of cold, sinister amusement.
Li Mang.
He had finally taken action himself.
The ghastly pale Bone Spine Scepter was slowly raised.
The shaft of the scepter trembled faintly.
An aura far surpassing that of an ordinary Rank 3 surged up all at once.
In the next moment.
Li Mang abruptly thrust it forward!
The long-accumulated attack slammed viciously into that crack-riddled light curtain!
"BOOM——!"
That already tottering section of the light curtain finally could endure no more.
Amid a series of crisp shattering sounds, an enormous breach was forcibly torn open!
Li Mang took one step across what had been the boundary of the light curtain.
Lin Yuan did not even have time for the thought of fleeing to rise before all that remained in his vision was a sheet of ghastly white.
Then his consciousness sank completely into darkness.
The several Black Blood Stockade Gu Masters who had bitterly held out until now were swiftly slaughtered to the last by Li Mang.
The Gu worm responsible for maintaining this array eye's operation was also thoroughly destroyed amid the chaotic assault.
At this moment.
"HMMMM——!!!"
The entire Mountain Protection Grand Array of Black Blood Stockade let out a heart-chilling tremor!
Inside the stockade.
Countless clansmen busy at work, treating wounds, or even snatching brief rest during their rotations all raised their heads in terror at this moment.
The enormous light curtain covering the sky above Black Blood Stockade was flickering violently.
Bright.
Then dark.
As though in the next instant it would go out entirely, exposing everyone to the White Bone Alliance's slaughtering blades.
Panic spread instantly.
But—
The light curtain did not vanish.
After a brief and violent period of chaos.
The remaining array eyes around Black Blood Stockade lit up with blinding radiance all at once.
The entire Mountain Protection Grand Array began adjusting itself.
The region that had lost the support of that array eye was forcibly taken over by the surrounding arrays.
The light curtain stabilized once more.
Only, anyone could see it.
That layer of light curtain had already grown noticeably dimmer than before.
What was more, the defensive range of this breached region, which had originally extended outward, had been forcibly contracted inward by several dozen zhang after the array readjusted.
The array had not fully collapsed.
But this outer array eye—
Was gone.
Black Blood Stockade could only abandon this stretch of territory, letting the remaining array eyes bear greater pressure as they barely continued to sustain the whole Mountain Protection Grand Array.
At this time.
Li Mang stood quietly near the array eye that had been reduced to ruins.
Beneath his feet lay the corpses of Lin Yuan and the other Black Blood Stockade Gu Masters.
And with the array's defensive range contracted inward, this place was now completely exposed beyond the light curtain.
He had not truly pressed deeper into Black Blood Stockade.
He merely stood there, slowly raising his head.
Those sunken eye sockets gazed at the light curtain ahead, which had restabilized yet was already visibly dimmer.
The corners of Li Mang's withered mouth split open, bit by bit.
Until at last.
It became a cold, sinister smile.
Because he already knew.
This array—
Could be broken.