To cover Zhu Jingzhe and the illusionist so they could successfully approach Zhu Huairen, who was controlling the sea beast from behind, Pei Du and a group of Zhenbei Army soldiers advanced toward the sea beast, forcing it back into the sea.
The sea beast's eight tentacles swept like giant logs, bringing with them a salty, fishy sea breeze, slamming against the shield wall and making it roar and tremble.
The shield-bearers gritted their teeth, their knees slightly bent as they threw their entire body weight behind their shields, refusing to yield even an inch.
Crossbow bolts shot out repeatedly from the gaps in the shield wall.
Although they could not penetrate the sea beast's tough hide, they forced the behemoth to repeatedly shake its head to dodge.
Seeing that the sea beast was not invincible, more than ten soldiers shouted in unison and thrust out their spears, aiming specifically at the weak spots on the inner side of the sea beast's tentacles.
The sea beast's tentacle was pierced by three spears at the same time. It let out a sharp shriek at the people on the beach, and its purplish-black blood splattered onto the sand, sizzling and emitting white smoke.
Perhaps enraged, the sea beast grew even more violent.
A soldier holding a spear dodged a tentacle and keenly noticed that even though they had injured its tentacles, it could quickly grow new ones. Her face darkened. “The weak point of this sea beast shouldn't be its tentacles, but its head!”
The image of General Feng and the others slaying monsters inside the evil dragon suddenly flashed through her mind.
Since General Feng and the others could defeat those terrifying monsters with their mortal bodies, why couldn't she?
“Brothers and sisters, our Zhenbei Army was taught the Body Tempering Technique by the Divine Lady. If we retreat today and let the commoners on the shore suffer this undeserved disaster, how can we face the Divine Lady? In the past, two hundred brave souls of Xindu City helped the Divine Lady slay the evil dragon. This sea beast is not even half as terrifying as that dragon, so why should we fear it? Do you dare to take its head with me?!”
Hearing this, the dozen or so soldiers holding spears looked at one another, seeing a firm determination in each other's eyes that defied death. They all tightened their grips on their spears.
“The Zhenbei Army is educated by the Divine Lady and bears the mission of protecting the people of the realm. We will fight to the death and never retreat!”
Pei Du, commanding from the rear, felt immensely gratified by their loyalty as he watched the Zhenbei Army charge toward the sea beast, yet he could not help but worry for their safety.
“Keep the arrows flying, cover them,” he ordered.
With bloodshot eyes, the archers continuously drew their bows to cover the Zhenbei Army soldiers who were repeatedly sent flying by the sea beast's tentacles, only to scramble back up.
On the other side, Zhu Jingzhe and the disheveled man were constantly drawing closer to where Zhu Huairen was.
The sea beast's attention was completely drawn to the main battlefield, so it did not notice them at all.
When they were about three hundred meters away from Zhu Huairen, the sea breeze carried a faint sound of the flute. Zhu Jingzhe felt a sharp pain in his eardrums, and his vision began to blur.
The scene of the coast before his eyes actually began to warp and twist.
“Guard your mind! Visualize what is real!”
The man beside him suddenly grabbed the back of his neck and pressed hard on an acupoint behind his ear.
The scene before Zhu Jingzhe's eyes slowly returned to normal. He turned to look at the man. “Thank you, senior...”
“No need for thanks. We must control the illusionist who is manipulating the sea beast as quickly as possible. We cannot let him continue playing the flute, otherwise the Zhenbei Army and the commoners of Wuling will be in danger.”
The two continued to close in on Zhu Huairen.
The moment he clearly saw Zhu Huairen's face, all of Zhu Jingzhe's previous doubts were answered.
“Second Uncle.” He stared fixedly at the middle-aged man playing the flute. “You killed Grandfather back then, and now you are using illusions to aid a tyrant. You are truly beyond redemption!”
The sound of the flute stopped abruptly.
Zhu Huairen turned around. The moment he saw Zhu Jingzhe, his pupils contracted slightly. “You little brat, you're actually still alive?”
The Zhu family had once been a prominent clan in Wuling Prefecture, but unfortunately, in recent years, Wuling Prefecture had been plagued by constant natural and man-made disasters. No one esteemed illusion arts anymore, and his old fool of a father had been stubborn to the extreme, insisting on adhering to those so-called ancestral teachings and refusing to use illusion arts to help the local powerful gentry establish their hegemony.
And the result of sticking blindly to old ways was ruin.
He was naturally unwilling to accept this.
Later, he murdered his own father, took the ancient books on illusion arts passed down from his ancestors, and set fire to the Zhu family estate.
“Since a beast like you, who killed his father and brother, is still alive, why shouldn't I be alive?”
Zhu Jingzhe's hands clenched tightly into fists.
Zhu Huairen sneered. “That old thing refused to teach me the ancestral illusion arts in full, so he deserved to die. My eldest brother was also a fool, insisting on seeking revenge on me for the old man, so I had no choice but to kill him too. Your father, however, was smart enough to find a place to hide and stay out of my way. But you didn't inherit a shred of your father's intelligence, coming here to seek death!”
Zhu Jingzhe drew the dagger from his waist, gripped the hilt tightly, avoided the traps Zhu Huairen had set on the ground, and lunged at him.
“You are not fit to be a member of the Zhu family at all!”
Seeing this, the illusionist who came with him also revealed his trump card, throwing a handful of fine sand toward Zhu Huairen.
In the blink of an eye, he disappeared from the spot, and a tiger materialized amidst the swirling sand.
It pounced and bit frantically at Zhu Huairen.
Attacked from both sides, Zhu Huairen was forced to retreat step by step.
The sea beast's offensive on the coast also weakened. Seizing the opportunity, the soldiers of the Zhenbei Army delivered a powerful blow.
The eight-tentacled sea beast had its skull fiercely pierced by the soldiers' spears, and it crashed heavily onto the shore.
Zhu Huairen saw this, his eyes widening.
“This... this is impossible! How could ordinary people kill the sea beast I conjured with my illusion art?”
Before he could figure it out, Zhu Jingzhe stabbed him with all his might, causing him to spit out a mouthful of blood.
“You forced my hand!”
Zhu Huairen raised his short flute. As a rapid melody rang out, another disturbance occurred on the sea.
Countless sea beasts poked their heads out of the water.
“I want you all to be buried with me!”
He laughed hysterically.
The commoners hiding inside the tents were filled with despair. The Zhenbei Army was already exhausted from defeating a single sea beast. Now that so many more had appeared, would they still survive?
Just as the sea beasts were about to crawl ashore, a faint blue light suddenly lit up on the sea, accompanied by bursts of celestial music.
Everyone looked up, only to see a Kun, its entire body shimmering with starlight, riding the waves and blotting out the sun.
On the back of the Kun stood a figure.
She merely raised her hand and gave a gentle wave, and those terrifying sea beasts were instantly frozen in place, turning into ice sculptures that preserved the posture of their last flailing tentacles.
The sea breeze stopped abruptly, and the moonlight spilled down once more, illuminating the cold, ethereal face of the Divine Lady on the back of the Kun.
“The Divine Lady! It is the Divine Lady!”
The Zhenbei Army soldiers closest to the shore let out earth-shattering cheers. Their morale, which was already high from slaying the sea beast, reached an indescribable peak at this moment.
Zhu Huairen was already dumbfounded. “Can... can a grand illusionist have such heaven-defying abilities?”
“What illusionist? She is the true Divine Lady!”
Zhu Jingzhe looked at him coldly.
Zhu Huairen pulled an ancient book from his robes, his hands trembling as he flipped through the pages, muttering, “Impossible, this must be an illusion. How could there be a Divine Lady?”
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