Chapter 46: The Great Secret Forest Array

As shouts echoed from the rear of the procession, thick smoke billowed out, blanketing an area within half a li. The roiling smoke was laced with a pungent odor. Sun Tianchang held his breath and turned back to look at the hundred-odd men behind him, the vast majority of whom were clutching their necks and coughing in agony.

"Damn it!" he cursed under his breath, channeling his inner energy and sweeping his sleeve outward with a fierce motion, whipping up a violent gust of wind in an attempt to scatter the dense smoke. But this move only made things worse; beneath the smoke, astonishing flames instantly surged upward, lunging rapidly toward the group.

The entire formation plunged into panic and chaos. Screams and wails incessantly assaulted Sun Tianchang's nerves.

"Everyone, stay close to me and charge forward!" A roar infused with inner energy rang out, vibrating the eardrums of everyone present and stabilizing the chaotic ranks once more. Disregarding those whose bodies had caught fire, Sun Tianchang led only the gang members who were still capable of movement rushing forward. By the time the group broke through the smoke, fewer than a hundred men remained.

Yet just as they burst out of the smoke, no one noticed that the flames instantly receded, leaving only charred corpses emitting wisps of light smoke, while a scent of roasted meat permeated the forest.

At this moment, Sun Tianchang's attire was still relatively intact. In contrast, the gang members behind him all looked thoroughly wretched, but with no option to retreat, they braced themselves to challenge the intricate maze of the dense forest once more.

He could easily guess that the condition of the other two groups was by no means any better. Since even he had fallen victim to the traps, it seemed the protective array of the Imperial Palace truly lived up to its formidable reputation. Moving forward, the men proceeded with even greater caution, not daring to casually brush against even a blade of grass or a tree for fear of triggering the array once again.

Meanwhile, inside the Imperial Palace, Shennongzi was truly sitting leisurely by the riverbank, sipping fragrant tea one small cup at a time. Beside him, Fairy Tianfeng covered her mouth with a hand and giggled, "I wonder what those fools inside the grand array would look like if they knew Senior Shennong is enjoying the scenery and sipping tea so leisurely right now."

Acting as if he hadn't heard the fairy's words, Shennongzi calmly stroked his white beard and murmured, "When you reach the place where the water ends, sit down and watch the clouds rise."

Hearing this, Tong Jin, who had been standing motionlessly to the side, simply sat cross-legged right then and there. The autumn breeze rippled the water's surface beneath a vast sky of drifting clouds, and at that very moment, he entered a state of absolute oblivion to both self and surroundings.

From the sprawling dense forest, constant shouts and roars echoed continuously. Pan Tianlong's rage had reached the verge of eruption. Aside from the countless sneak attacks and hidden arrows along the way, the raging fire that had lunged at them from the smoke-filled chaos just moments ago had cost him half his men.

At present, Pan Tianlong was covered in soot and grime, his belly full of unventable fury. Raising his voice in a furious roar, he threw a palm strike against a giant tree nearby, snapping the massive trunk instantly. To his surprise, this single palm strike triggered a cataclysmic collapse.

The massive tree trunk tilted sideways, and the ground beneath the feet of the entire group instantly gave way. Mud and boulders, along with living men, plunged downward as if the earth had transformed into the blood-soaked maw of a monster.

Pan Tianlong could no longer care about his subordinates; he leaped toward a distant giant tree, narrowly escaping the engulfing chasm. Looking back, he saw that the entire ground had collapsed into a massive pit, easily seven or eight zhang deep, while numerous gang members had fallen into the abyss, buried alive by earth mixed with giant boulders.

A sense of powerlessness washed over Pan Tianlong, his brows knitting tightly together.

The situation on Jin Buzai's side was scarcely any better. Starting out with a hundred men as well, they were now reduced to a mere thirty or forty, and some of the more cowardly ones had broken down in loud weeping. It was too cruel; brothers who had lived and died together daily had vanished without even leaving behind a corpse within a matter of breaths.

Jin Buzai felt restless and troubled. The rage he should have vented had already been unleashed when crossing the river earlier, and the consequence of his anger had been the loss of dozens of his gang members' lives. Recalling it now still sent lingering chills through his heart. Just a moment ago during their advance, a wide river had blocked the entire group, leaving them at their wits' end for a way across. While he could easily glide across alone, his subordinates found it difficult to cross. This had infuriated Jin Buzai, who had just been battered by successive ambushes of hidden weapons, prompting him to order all his men to swim across the river. Who would have thought that right in the middle of the river, a sudden disaster would strike beneath the surface? A massive undercurrent instantly swallowed a hundred men, leaving only thirty or forty lucky ones to struggle across to the opposite bank.

"Get your spirits up, everyone! We're about to break through! Follow closely behind me and keep moving forward," Jin Buzai said in a low voice, the words squeezed out from between his teeth.

By the riverside inside the Imperial Palace:

"Senior Shennong, if they really break through, how should we handle them?" the fairy asked with a furrowed brow.

Shennongzi glanced at Tong Jin, who remained lost in self-forgetfulness nearby, and praised him inwardly; such composure in the face of chaos marked him as an exceptional young man. Then, looking up at the sky, he said, "I reckon they are almost through. All things considered, it should be fine to let young friend Tong choose a path to bypass them right now. My Abode of Spiritual Rest is no longer a safe place; it seems we can only send the young friend far away from the Imperial Capital."

Hearing the voices, Tong Jin slowly opened his eyes, two flashes of brilliant light piercing through his gaze.

"Did you hear that, little brother? Senior Shennong is letting you leave the Imperial Capital first," Fairy Tianfeng said as she watched Tong Jin rise slowly to his feet.

Tong Jin bowed deeply with cupped hands toward Shennongzi, saying, "I shall follow the senior's arrangements entirely."

Shennongzi nodded, stroked his beard as he looked at Tong Jin, and pulled an ancient book from his robes. "I shall bestow this manual of alchemy upon young friend. The pill used to feed the corpse-sinking poison ants is contained within. If young friend takes an interest, you may study and refine this pill in the future."

Tong Jin was momentarily stunned, then accepted it with a solemn expression. In effect, this was equivalent to Shennongzi covertly taking Tong Jin as a disciple and imparting the art of alchemy. Although he was merely gifting a simple alchemy manual rather than offering personal instruction, very few people across the entire world possessed knowledge of alchemy, making such a manual a treasured scripture that countless individuals could only dream of obtaining.

Tong Jin bowed all the way to the ground once more. "Senior's kindness, Tong Jin shall engrave upon my heart."

Shennongzi smiled faintly with a nod, pointing in a certain direction. "I must trouble Tianfeng to escort him along the way. I shall remain here to await those three factions."

Tianfeng nodded. She and Tong Jin immediately sprang into motion, rushing toward the direction indicated by Shennongzi and vanishing into the distant forest in the blink of an eye.

The protective forest array of the Imperial Palace had been jointly set up by Bai Xuan and Shennongzi in the past, so the latter naturally knew the array inside and out. The path he now pointed out for Tong Jin cleverly bypassed the three factions and led straight out of the Imperial Palace.

Along the way, Tong Jin witnessed numerous corpses of those who had died within the array, their grisly demises hair-raising to behold, making him think that the Imperial Palace's grand array was truly terrifying.

Almost at the very moment Fairy Tianfeng led Tong Jin out of the dense forest, Sun Tianchang finally emerged in a wretched state from the woods into the Imperial Palace. Jin Buzai and Pan Tianlong arrived shortly afterward, the three of them gathering together with gloomy expressions. Behind them now, their combined forces totaled fewer than a hundred men.

"Shennongzi! Show yourself!" Finally, the three of them could no longer suppress the raging fury in their hearts as they let out a furious scream.