Mountain and sea lantern

Chapter 679 Obeying Orders
When it comes to craftsmanship, Wu Jinliang is naturally unconvinced, but it depends on who you are. Tong Mingshan is an expert in this field, so how can you compare?
He wanted to compare quantity, but Shi Chun insisted on mentioning quality. How could he possibly respond? He couldn't very well say that he only cared about quantity and not quality.

"Forget it, let's not talk about this anymore," he said uncomfortably, changing the subject. "That Lu Yin is incredibly arrogant. He dares to chase after us relentlessly all by himself. He has the team's command center behind him that tracks our movements. Even if we hide underground, it won't help. We should either throw away our tokens and armor now, or we'll be caught sooner or later. If you ask me, with all our magical treasures, we might not be afraid of him if we really fight."

This sounds a bit like he was just saying it out of anger. According to his normal code of conduct, he wouldn't fight unless absolutely necessary, or if he wasn't confident of winning or would gain anything from it.

Shi Chun immediately reprimanded, "You think you're the only one with magic weapons? Can you guarantee that they don't have more powerful magic weapons than us? Wouldn't it be better to let others test our strength first? Besides, it's not that we don't listen to the demonic path, it's that we're being chased and have no choice. We might as well use such a good excuse. Now we can run wherever we want."

Wu Jinliang expressed his doubts, saying, "The problem is that we can't keep up for long. The command center has estimated that at this speed, they can catch up with us within half an incense stick's time."

Shi Chun sneered, "Chase my ass. I don't believe that the Demonic Path would take this operation so seriously that they would only send in one person to contact us. Even if the Demonic Path can't come to our aid in time, I can find someone else to help."

Wu Jinliang smiled wryly, "Hey boss, do you really expect other teams to save us?"

Shi Chun scoffed, "Are you just going to use all those tokens I had you prepare beforehand as decorations? If ten tokens aren't enough, I'll show you twenty. If twenty aren't enough, I'll show you thirty, forty, or even fifty. I don't believe there are only demonic forces in this area. I want to see if all sorts of people will come here when they see a piece of meat. It would be best if they brought all the demonic forces here, acting all sneaky and doing who knows what. I bet they've all died and have no one left to rely on, so how can they keep secrets from us?"

"..." Wu Jinliang stared at him in astonishment before realizing that the chief had already taken the opportunity and made a decision on the spot to another level.

He was certain that this was a spur-of-the-moment decision; when he gave a false name, made a fake token, and wore a mask, he probably didn't know he would be hunted down like this.

Could it be that they started making fake tokens just to deal with the demonic forces?

He discovered that even after serving twenty years in prison, the gang leader was still the same gang leader.

Of course, whether it's bringing in a fake name, or making fake tokens and masks, it all means one thing: unless absolutely necessary, the boss no longer intends to hide directly in the underworld.

While admiring him, he also expressed some concern: "Manxi said that without reinforcements, we should find our own way to fight. If Mulan Jin's daughter were here, he wouldn't have said such a thing. He obviously knows that Mulan Qingqing has left, and he probably won't give us the same level of support as before. Without the help of the command center, we won't know how the situation has changed, and it will be difficult to cope."

Shi Chun scoffed, "Does he think he can just do whatever he wants because he's the commander?"

Suddenly, he raised his hand and pulled off the mask covering his face. He glanced at the large umbrella and gestured, "Put the umbrella away."

Then he turned around and chanted a spell, "Everyone, take off your face coverings."

The group of people following behind, though unaware of the meaning, still did as instructed.

After confirming the fake token with Wu Jinliang, Shi Chun picked up the real token and directly transmitted a message to the command center: "Give me the image of the Heavenly Mirror."

This is a direct command.

Wu Jinliang, who was standing to the side, glanced at the message that had been sent, and then looked at Shi Chun's true face after she took off her mask. He said with a pained expression, "What do you mean?"

Shi Chun pointed out eleven tokens, tied them together, and hung them on his wrist, saying, "Several forces can accurately know our location. Each side has spies in the command center. Without flaunting wealth, where would we get reinforcements?"

Wu Jin's mouth immediately split into a wide grin, revealing a mouthful of white teeth as he chuckled. He thought about the various unforeseen consequences that might result from attracting a large number of people, and his smile was somewhat bittersweet. "Will we really be able to get away from this?" he wondered.

There's no fear of being exposed. The token can only be activated after it has been recognized by a new owner. The death of the original owner means failure, and the token's mark on the map will be extinguished.

At the Heavenly Court's central command, the person who received Shi Chun's message immediately relayed the situation to Man Xi via telepathy.

Manxi had lost interest in Shi Chun's affairs and was focused on the fight reflected in the Heavenly Mirror. Upon hearing this, she frowned slightly and became curious about what Shi Chun was up to. She immediately instructed the people controlling the magical artifacts on her left and right to check.

Soon, the rapidly switching mirror images finally captured the accurate target. In the image were Shi Chun and Wu Jinliang, who were riding the Wind Scales at high speed. Due to the swirling light and shadow of the Wind Scales, the names on their collars were not very clear, but those who knew the two recognized them at a glance. After all, they were not masked this time, and Wu Jinliang's tall stature was also very obvious.

Of course, none of that matters. Countless eyes, both on and off the stage, are fixed on Shi Chun's hand. It's hard not to notice, because Shi Chun is repeatedly counting and checking a stack of tokens.

What the hell? Manxi was completely dumbfounded.

Mulan, who was pacing around, stopped now. After not seeing her for a while, where did all these tokens come from?
The map was constantly switching targets, so I didn't notice if there was any fighting. Weren't we being chased? How could we have time to do that?

Mulan now uses telepathy to ask Manxi, "Did he steal it?"

He assumed that Manxi's sudden inspection was because he had discovered signs of collision on the landscape map.

Manxi turned around and transmitted his voice, "He can't possibly steal anything. The five families' tokens are different colors. All the tokens he has are from the Heavenly Court team. He could only have stolen from his own people."

The five tokens were different colors, something Mulan really didn't know or hadn't paid attention to. She asked via telepathy, "Could it be that someone else snatched the Heavenly Court team's token and then managed to steal it back?"

Being chased like a dog, Manxi was curious to know where Shi Chun got the time to snatch this, so he immediately sent a telepathic message to his subordinates, asking them to find out where the token came from.

Shi Chun said that someone had just passed by and thrown it to him, but he didn't know what it meant, so he asked the commander to make a judgment.

Man Xi's temples throbbed, and he quickly had the image in the Mirror of Heaven switch away. After telling Mu Lan Jin the situation via telepathy, he launched into a tirade, "What a smart guy! I think he's just a stupid bird. It's obvious someone is trying to shift the blame and kill him, yet he still openly appears in the mirror, as if he's afraid the others won't see it?"

Mulan immediately turned around and looked at the supervisors from all sides below the stage, and saw that some people had already put their hands into their sleeves. Despite the cursing, Bao Shichun's team had a dozen or so tokens. If they all fell into Lu Yin's hands, it would be a considerable loss. Manxi immediately ordered the nearest men to meet with Shichun.

He had previously told Shi Chun that no one in the vicinity was coming to his aid.

Of course, this wasn't a rescue mission. Manxi forcibly ordered Shi Chun to hand over all the tokens to the team that was going to meet them, and told Shi Chun to continue escaping after handing over the tokens. In short, it was to provide cover for the team that was going to meet them.

Manxi had no choice. He had seen Lu Yin make a move and knew that the nearby troops were no match for Lu Yin. He had to protect those ten or so tokens first.

As for the credit for those ten or so tokens, Manxi assured Shi Chun that he would not wrong him. The credit had already been recorded for them, and they would be returned to Shi Chun and the others after they were freed.

Shi Chun expressed his reluctance, saying that he had come with a heavy responsibility, and he would only obey if Mulan agreed.

He directly exposed the truth that Mulan could actually contact him directly.

Mulan Jin, who had previously said she couldn't contact her daughter, was a little embarrassed, but people of her stature have an unusual level of composure and self-control.

Manxi could understand Shichun's predicament. He was there to serve Mulan Jin's daughter, and he did need to get Mulan Jin's consent first if necessary.

The situation was urgent, and faced with Manxi's request, what could Mulan do but cooperate? She reluctantly sent a message to Shichun, asking him to obey.

Shi Chun gladly accepted the offer and replied with a message to express his gratitude.

Mulan thought he was subtly criticizing her, so she snorted inwardly.

Within the celestial mirror at the Dongsheng team's central hub, Wei Mo finally saw Shi Chun's familiar face and the pile of tokens in Shi Chun's hand. A sinister smile appeared on his lips, and he immediately ordered his subordinates to send a message to Lu Yin, saying, "You won't have wasted your time. After dealing with Shi Chun, you'll have a great reward on the tokens."

At the Nanzhan team's central command, Commander Ming Chaofeng, who had received the intelligence, also switched to a mirror image of Shi Chun. However, he did not recognize Shi Chun, especially since it had been confirmed that Shi Chun was not among the three thousand squads. He only recognized the pile of tokens in Shi Chun's hand. According to reports, the most skilled fighters in his team had obtained so far were only three tokens.

Ming Chaofeng glanced at the points of light on the landscape map and quickly ordered his men to inform the people in that area of ​​the good news and the location. He also made sure to inform his junior brother of any benefits so that he could make his own decision.

The same situation applies to the Northern Battle Team's central command. Commander Lan She doesn't know Shi Chun, but he recognizes the pile of tokens. He also mobilized nearby personnel to try and win them over.

The Xiniu team's central command also quickly relayed the relevant information to the nearest personnel.

While chasing a group of people, Jie Yunzhao took out the mother-child talisman to check. It turned out that his previous informant had specially sent him a message saying that the Heavenly Team of 3,000 had already obtained more than ten tokens, which made him a little depressed.

Forget it, he's already run far away in the opposite direction. Since it's not Shi Chun, he's not interested. After all, by the time he gets there, he probably won't be able to get his hands on that piece of meat...

Whoosh! A group of people flew in from the side, exchanged a pre-arranged hand signal with Shi Chun from a distance, and then rushed towards Shi Chun's direction. It was the reinforcements sent by the demonic path.

Once the group had passed, Shi Chun immediately changed direction and headed towards the meeting point given by the command center.

The command center had already detected the unusual movements of various forces in the area. In order to obtain those tokens first, they ordered Shi Chun to travel towards the receiving forces so that they could meet up with the others as quickly as possible.

Before long, faint sounds of fighting could be heard from behind. The Heavenly Court command center suddenly sent a message informing them that there was a large canyon about several dozen miles ahead, and that they should quickly pass through the canyon after arriving. When passing through the canyon, they were to throw the tokens to the hidden messengers.

After a large canyon appeared ahead, Shi Chun, following orders, immediately led his men to dive in. As they passed through the canyon, he threw the tokens to the people waiting at the designated location. Those people had even taken off their armor, so they shouldn't be shown on the map.

As Shi Chun threw down his things, he shouted a warning, "Run!"

He was afraid that his accomplices would check the tokens, and he didn't want them to discover that the tokens were fake so soon.

He estimated that with all sides drawn by the scent of blood, the unsuspecting reinforcements would likely have no chance to discover the authenticity of the token.

After he led his team out at breakneck speed, the people who were there to meet him were also frightened and quickly gathered up a bunch of tokens and fled.

After rushing out of the canyon and running a short distance, Shi Chun, who had been observing the terrain from the air, suddenly led a group of people back to the ground. They then led the team into a valley to hide, and urgently called on Wu Jinliang to use his earth-遁术 (earth-遁术 is a type of magic or technique).

"What's the use of the earth-遁术 (earth-遁术 is a type of magic that allows one to burrow underground)?" Wu Jinliang was anxious, but he still did as instructed at the crucial moment.

As soon as the group disappeared into the earthen cliff, Shi Chun immediately took off his armor and called out to everyone, "The armor can be used for positioning, so take it off and hurry up and slip into the mountain to escape."

Feng Chi urgently reminded, "The token can also be used for location tracking."

Shi Chun casually replied, "We already threw them all away to someone else."

Manxi had instructed him to hand over all the tokens to the backup team, and he did exactly that, keeping none for himself.

"..." Everyone was stunned. Could their own centurion's token be discarded?
"Damn it, take off your armor and run!" Wu Jinliang suddenly realized and yelled, quickly taking off his armor while using his earth-遁术 (earth-遁术 is a type of magic in Chinese fantasy novels) to escape with everyone.

(End of this chapter)