Chapter 124: Trapped on Peach Mountain

"My King, what is our next move?" Zhang Kui asked Jiang Yuan.

With no more members of the Celestial Clan approaching, were they expected to simply wait here for them to arrive?

Jiang Yuan glanced at Mount Tao and said indifferently, "Since the Celestial Emperor dares not come out to meet me, we shall go in ourselves to help Yang Jian rescue his mother."

"After that, we leave the Celestial Clan."

"Do you require me to keep guard outside Mount Tao?" Zhang Kui asked respectfully.

Jiang Yuan shook his head silently. "No. If I am not here and the Celestial Emperor truly arrives, I fear your fate would be the same as Yun Cang's. Come into Mount Tao with me."

Jiang Yuan was not wrong to think this way; after all, he had slaughtered every member of the Celestial Clan without mercy. If he left Zhang Kui and his wife outside, it would be far too dangerous. Jiang Yuan was not foolish enough to believe the Celestial Clan had so little left in their reserves. If more enemies were to arrive, Zhang Kui and Gao Lanying would certainly not be able to hold them off. They might even lose their lives there.

Jiang Yuan was loath to see the people he had painstakingly cultivated using Tyrant Points perish just like that. These were living, breathing Tyrant Points. It would cost a fortune in points to train replacements. Besides, where else could he find Golden Immortal-level experts willing to serve him? Training a Great Luo Golden Immortal from scratch would cost far more than a few hundred Tyrant Points.

The entrance to Mount Tao was easy to find—a cave opening, not hidden in the slightest. By all accounts, Yang Jian should have already rescued his mother by now. Why hadn't they emerged, even though he had already dealt with the Celestial Clan outside? Jiang Yuan felt it necessary to go in and investigate; the attitude Yun Cang had shown earlier suggested that things were far from simple.

Nezha, being the most curious of them all, had charged in first. Jiang Yuan called out into the cave, but received no response from Nezha. He immediately realized the severity of the situation; there was likely a trap waiting inside.

"Follow me, quickly!" Jiang Yuan urged. He feared that both Nezha and Yang Jian were in danger.

Without waiting for Zhang Kui and his wife, Jiang Yuan rushed inside. The couple followed him merely a second later, yet once they stepped into the cave, Jiang Yuan was nowhere to be seen! There was undoubtedly a teleportation array within.

"Husband, do you think the King is in danger?" Gao Lanying asked, sounding worried. If something happened to Jiang Yuan, they would lose their core, not to mention that escaping the Celestial Clan would become impossible. Surviving at all would be a matter of luck.

Zhang Kui shook his head confidently. "The King should not be in any immediate danger, though I cannot say for sure what might happen later. I am not familiar with Mount Tao."

"This must be an array," Gao Lanying observed, surveying their surroundings solemnly.

"Is it dangerous?" Zhang Kui did not doubt his wife's judgment. Her strength was superior to his, and her perception was sharper.

"I am not entirely sure. The grade of this formation is quite high, and I cannot see through it. But one thing is certain: we are likely in the same formation as the King," Gao Lanying said calmly.

"The array is that large?" Zhang Kui asked, puzzled. He had assumed they had been teleported to different locations.

Gao Lanying nodded. "Based on my observations, we are in the same formation as the King, and I suspect it is quite vast. Furthermore, it muffles sound from nearby; we cannot call out to the King." The array had partitioned them into different spaces.

"We must break this formation as quickly as possible. It is certainly not simple," Zhang Kui said, his expression grave. No sooner had he spoken than a swarm of puppets, possessing the strength of True Immortals and Golden Immortals, charged toward them.

"Indeed, this formation has its own defensive mechanisms!"

These puppets were nothing to them individually, but they were endless. The moment one was destroyed, it would vanish, and another would instantly take its place.

"It seems the King is facing the same trouble," Zhang Kui said with concern.

"We must find the array's core to destroy it," Gao Lanying explained. However, she could not locate the core for the moment, as arrays were not her specialty. Being able to recognize it as a formation at all was already an accomplishment.

"Understood. We shall try our best to reunite with the King," Zhang Kui said firmly.

Gao Lanying was taken aback by her husband's resolve. "Are you truly willing to do anything for the King? Even at the cost of your life?"

Zhang Kui paused, not having expected the question, before answering, "Why not?"

"Is it worth it?" Gao Lanying had never had the chance to ask him this before. Now, trapped in an array with their lives hanging in the balance, she finally asked.

Zhang Kui fell silent for a long time before speaking slowly. "If it were the King of the past, I would certainly think it not worth it. I would have died on the battlefield against the rebels regardless, because I have been a subject of the Great Shang my whole life, and I am incapable of betraying my country for personal gain. Back then, my death would not have been for the King, but for the Great Shang."

"But things are different now. I have traveled the Great Shang with the King and have come to understand his heart. The King is now fighting for the sake of the human race. He never truly held those human rebels in high regard. His anger stems from the fact that those people would use the strength of outsiders to rise against the Great Shang."

Gao Lanying remained silent. She still did not know much about King Zhou, but she trusted her husband's judgment.

"I understand. There will be no more such questions," she said. *If there is a future at all,* she thought to herself. This array was more complex than she had imagined; she knew she could never find the core, but she could not bear to tell her husband the truth.

Zhang Kui smiled and took Gao Lanying's hand. "Let us continue to break the formation."

Jiang Yuan, naturally, was also trapped. He faced the same predicament as the couple, besieged by a horde of puppets. However, he was not overly anxious. Even if he could not find the core, did he not have the system as his cheat?

"Damn system, come out! Explain what is going on with this formation!"

"This formation was refined using the entire Mount Tao as its base. These puppets are part of the mountain itself. As long as the formation remains intact, these puppets will never be fully destroyed," the system's indifferent voice replied.