Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Elephant King of Luchuan

Under the solemn, heavy gaze of the crowd, a towering figure hidden behind a shroud of bloody mist began to press slowly toward them.

The soldiers present held their breath.

At last, the mysterious intruder revealed his true form—a mighty knight riding a giant elephant, a creature as vast as a mountain, appearing like a deity. Upon the elephant's back stood a magnificent seven-treasure palanquin, adorned with shimmering gold, radiant silver, crystalline glazed glass, exquisite coral, sacred giant clam, fiery red pearls, and mottled agate, exuding supreme nobility.

The figure seated within the palanquin was clad in heavy bronze armor, gripping a long spear. Its tip gleamed with a cold, piercing light, pointed directly toward the heavens. Most shocking was that this seemingly impenetrable bronze armor was densely pierced by arrows—thirty-seven of them in total, each one having run clean through his body.

As the elephant-riding knight drew closer, the two tribal chiefs could no longer withstand the suffocating pressure, which felt as if Mount Tai were collapsing upon them. Their faces turned deathly pale; they had to draw their blades and use them as crutches to remain upright, struggling to keep from collapsing to the ground.

"Such terrifying presence. It is as if this single man represents an entire army."

"Is this the monster that slaughtered all the Shuixi rebels who entered this palace?"

"With so many arrows in his body, how can he still remain standing?"

The Daoist Li, his mind still somewhat clouded, said uncertainly, "Could it be that this knight, like me, practices the True Martial Primordial Qi?"

Shui Rouqin, the tribal leader of the Shui, wore a grave expression. "I fear these arrows are sealing away the greater part of this knight’s power; otherwise, most of us would not even be able to stand."

The crowd gasped. What kind of existence was this, to possess such shocking might even while suppressed? And what manner of peerless genius was Mu Ying, to have been able to subdue and seal such a monster?

Furthermore, he had surely subdued more than just this one; there must be other entities within this Great Desolate City just as powerful, if not more so.

"That must be it. The Shuixi rebels clearly intended to break the palace seal. They succeeded only halfway, releasing this monster—sealed by King Mu—from the altar. Yet, due to some restriction, the creature cannot leave this palace," the Wumeng chief concluded.

Yun Zheng’s mind raced. He knew they were now on a battlefield of life and death, not some legendary tale where combatants could endlessly rise again. Often, the enemy grants no second chances; a single oversight, no matter how trivial, results in death.

However, most of the soldiers present were his followers. With no expendable cannon fodder to test the enemy’s true strength, Yun Zheng had to rapidly construct a combat model in his mind, striving for a decisive victory on the first strike.

The more dangerous the situation, the calmer he remained; the more urgent the circumstances, the more his mind entered a state of extreme processing. This was one of the reasons Yun Zheng had become a renowned commander among the younger generation.

In an instant, based on the battlefield traces left behind by the Shuixi rebels, Yun Zheng deduced the course of that brutal slaughter.

*(What we saw from the outside was a golden altar, yet upon entering, it transformed into a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood. It seems supernatural, but in truth, it is merely an illusion—a "ghost wall." This knight is clearly not a living being.)*

With that thought, Yun Zheng stripped the knight of his mystique, masterfully employing the "demoralization tactic" favored by veteran generals.

*(There are broken greatswords and golden mace-hammers on the ground. The Shuixi rebels clearly prepared for armored foes, but the bronze armor on this knight is no ordinary material. Conventional armor-piercing methods will fail. We must find an unconventional way to break it.)*

*(The long spear in his hand is three or four meters long; an infantryman stands no chance in a one-on-one. Yet, such a long weapon is easily swamped in a melee... and yet, the Shuixi soldiers failed to use numbers to win; they couldn't even escape. Thus, he must either be a master of close-quarters combat, or... this knight is essentially an aggregate of resentment.)*

In a flash, Yun Zheng instinctively judged the situation and formulated an effective battle plan.

Just then, disaster struck.

The knight’s overwhelming aura had previously been masked by the veteran killing intent of the Yun family soldiers, preventing Yun Zheng’s new followers from feeling the earth-shattering pressure. But as the knight drew nearer, the tribal leader Mu Chuansheng, eager to prove himself, was the first to succumb to the pressure, his emotions turning frantic.

Mu Chuansheng was a fickle man by nature, a fence-sitter from the start. Under the oppressive atmosphere, he forgot to wait for Yun Zheng’s command and charged toward the knight, screaming, leading his troops into the fray.

"Stop playing the ghost! It’s just one of you—do you think we’re afraid of you if we all attack together?"

"No!" Yun Zheng was startled, realizing he was about to lose a subordinate.

The knight gestured, and in the next moment, a dozen spectral silhouettes drifted out from within him.

These phantoms rapidly transformed into elephant-riding knights, slightly smaller than the original, forming a small, moving wall that blocked the charge of Mu Chuansheng and his men.

*(Just as I thought, this knight has the ability to summon clones. That is why the Shuixi rebels were slaughtered to the last, with none able to escape.)*

*(He chose to use these clones now, revealing his hand early, because he fears being bogged down by Mu Chuansheng. This proves he retains his intellect and possesses keen judgment in battle. It also means... he is not truly invulnerable.)*

*(His true identity, as I suspected, is an aggregation of the resentment of the forty thousand Luchuan soldiers slaughtered by King Mu during the Battle of Dingbian.)*

Before entering the palace, Yun Zheng had studied the "Battle of Dingbian" reliefs in the corridor for a long time, allowing him to instantly deduce the giant elephant knight's identity.

*(As for the core of that resentment, it must be Xilaiyi, the fierce Luchuan general who once shook the Southwest, participated in the suppression of the Indian Ahom Kingdom and the Burmese Ava Kingdom, and was slain by the Great Ming official army at the Battle of Dingbian.)*

With a series of dull, heavy impacts, Mu Chuansheng and his men were met with the violent collisions and ruthless trampling of the elephant riders. In an instant, they were crushed, their bones shattered—a sight too horrific to behold.

Their weapons, like those of the Shuixi rebels before them, were mostly snapped by the sheer force of the impact.

The Luchuan Elephant King sat high atop his seven-treasure palanquin, gazing down at Yun Zheng and the others like a god, as if they were nothing more than ants to be crushed at will.