Chapter 00034: The Red Plateau
# The Red Plateau
Chapter 34
Novel: After the Immortals Disappeared
Chapter 34: The Red Plateau
"This thing is actually invulnerable to swords and spears? I have a bag of sunflower seeds here, want some?"
"Sure, pass me a handful."
Even though the wind and sand were fierce.
"It weighs almost as much as an elephant. Tsk, if it sat on someone, it would definitely crush them! Old man, that unlucky guy seems to be one of Nian Songyu's men?"
"What do you mean by 'crush'?"
"Never mind. The State Preceptor is casting a spell! He threw two fireballs into the enemy's mouth, and the toad burped... Hmm, doesn't seem to have worked."
About the time it takes to burn an incense stick later, two purple-gold toads were thrown off the boat.
Compared to their imposing size when they first jumped onto the boat, they had shrunk to one-fifth of their original size, going from bloated to skin and bones.
He Lingchuan remembered that State Preceptor Sun had made a cut on them and stuffed something inside.
The two toads then visibly shrunk, dehydrated, couldn't jump anymore, and their eyes bulged even more.
Then they died.
"Did you see that clearly?" It looked like the toads had been drained to death.
He Chunhua shook his head.
As the State Preceptor, he must have extraordinary methods, and it seemed these methods would work just as well on humans.
During the rest of the journey, the team encountered two more attacks from monsters that weren't afraid of foul smells, but only State Preceptor Sun's boat was affected.
The other two boats remained unharmed.
Others marveled at the State Preceptor's luck and were relieved that the monsters hadn't jumped onto their boats, otherwise, they wouldn't have been able to deal with them so cleanly.
However, Sun Fuping and his group secretly frowned.
Why did all three attacks target the State Preceptor? What did this mean? Was it because a tall tree catches the wind?
Pushing hard, the team finally neared their destination before nightfall.
The messenger on Nian Songyu's boat pointed into the distance and shouted to the companions on the two boats behind, "Ahead is Panlong City!"
Actually, there was no need for him to remind them.
Everyone had already gathered at the bow of the boat to admire the most spectacular sight in the Panlong Desert—the Red Plateau.
This plateau had been thrust up from the ground by an irresistible force countless years ago, with a drop of at least forty zhang (one hundred and thirty meters) from the flat ground beneath their feet!
In between lay an unfathomable chasm, six zhang wide.
This place was like a dividing line between two continents, clear, distinct, and resolute.
When the walnut boats reached this point, the boatmen operated with extreme caution, using salted meat to lure the earth dragons, following the chasm westward.
Falling down would be the end.
After walking for a quarter of an hour, the ancient city of Panlong finally began to grow larger in their vision, the outline of its gray outer walls becoming more distinct.
This plateau was too vast, its vertical face like the cross-section of a double-layered cake, almost at a ninety-degree angle to the flat ground.
The words desolate and majestic seemed to have been born for it.
At this moment, the sun began to set in the west, casting mottled shadows on the vertical face of the plateau's edge, making it look like a giant beast crouching in the desert, winding and silent.
This terrain was absolutely typical for being easy to defend and hard to attack.
No wonder Zhong Shengguang could hold out here year after year.
Without such objective conditions, sentiment and passion would be empty talk.
Moving forward, the plateau's altitude gradually decreased, as if it were a long downward slope.
And Panlong City stood at the slope's entrance, firmly guarding the only passage from the south to the Red Plateau!
The boat slowed down, and ahead, a bridge spanned the entire chasm, connecting north and south.
This was a natural stone bridge, connecting south to the land beneath their feet and north to a small clearing in front of Panlong City's south gate.
To attack Panlong City, this was probably the only passage, and even with ten times the兵力, it couldn't be taken.
He Lingchuan looked at this stone bridge and felt sorry for the Xianyou and Baling allied forces from over a hundred years ago.
Later history proved, ten times? Hah!
The walnut boats reached this point, and the journey temporarily came to an end.
The boatmen took the salted meat off the poles and threw it to the earth dragons as a reward.
After running for two hours, the three earth dragons were so tired that smoke was coming out of their mouths.
If it weren't for their single-minded nature, brains smaller than a ball, and the constant presence of a tantalizing piece of meat in front of them, they would have quit long ago.
Now that the meat was finally in their mouths, the earth dragons didn't care about the many prey around them and twisted away.
Everyone jumped off the boat, and State Preceptor Sun came over to collect his magical tool.
He recited a few incantations, and the large boat turned back into a small walnut.
Despite the strong wind and sand, the air here was much fresher than on the boat, and the soldiers, free from the stench of salted meat, couldn't help but take deep breaths.
He Lingchuan tapped the ground with his toe: "Staying here, aren't you afraid of strange beasts or monsters coming?" Like on both sides of the Red Cliff Road.
Nian Songyu laughed: "The ground here is all rock, with less than half a foot of sand. At most, there are a few centipedes and sand snakes. Are you scared?"
He Lingchuan kicked away a layer of sand and found that underneath was indeed hard rock.
Right, if the sides of the chasm weren't solid, the natural bridge would have collapsed long ago.
Nian Songyu suddenly asked, "What's going on?"
He Lingchuan turned around at the sound and saw a few of Zeng Feixiong's men escorting two people over.
These two were struggling desperately.
Although one was short and the other thin, it took three strong men each to barely hold them down.
The strangest thing was that they were both wearing talisman robes that looked like vests, essentially two pieces of yellow silk tied front and back, eliminating the need for sleeves and collars.
The vermilion talismans on the silk floated up, slowly rotating around the captives.
Without a doubt, these were originally Zeng Feixiong's men.
But the way they looked at everyone was strange, both violent and greedy.
He Lingchuan had hunted before and felt that this kind of look was more suited to a jackal.
"They're possessed by the Three Corpses Worms."
Seeing them like this, Zeng Feixiong felt uncomfortable.
"The State Preceptor tied up two for observation."
The Three Corpses Worms on the other boats had been driven away, but Sun Fuping kept two.
Now he took the lead and stepped onto the bridge.
The bridge itself was quite wide, about fifteen zhang (forty meters), but in the wilderness, over the chasm, and in front of Panlong City, it looked as thin as a toothpick.
Back then, the allied forces' thousands of troops probably met their end here, and countless times at that.
He Lingchuan looked down and saw that the bridge's surface was mottled, clearly stained many years ago, layer upon layer, still uneven after a hundred years.
Walking on the bridge, it was as if everyone could smell the pungent scent of blood.
This was the front line of the great battle of the three armies back then.
Around this corner, who knows how many times the fight had gone back and forth.
The souls of the dead here far outnumbered those elsewhere.
Sun Fuping suddenly said, "This bridge appeared later, it's not natural."
Nian Songyu stepped on the ground and said, "The material is indeed different from the wilderness. This must have been built by the Baling and Xianyou allied forces."
Zeng Feixiong, walking beside He Lingchuan, was surprised: "The stones have no seams, they're completely integrated. This was man-made? Besides, the sentries on Panlong City aren't blind. Would they let the enemy build a bridge right under their noses?"
(End of Chapter)