Zhong Yuan and Ma Tian Ba exchanged a glance. The internal conflict of this Huang Feng Ridge seemed to have nothing to do with them.
However, if they wanted to eat them, it wouldn't be easy to let them go.
Zhong Yuan kicked the Rat Guard, then asked: "How can I see your King?"
The Rat Guard quickly said: "It is said that the King has opened the Huang Feng Formation. To enter, you must pass through the two checkpoints guarded by Tiger Vanguard and Stone Vanguard, and open the two paths."
"But both Vanguards have been ordered to stop everyone from entering and disturbing the King."
The Rat Guard was actually quite eager to see if Zhong Yuan and Ma Tian Ba would go and fight the Tiger Vanguard. He was being quite open and honest.
Zhong Yuan frowned even more after hearing this.
He felt a constant restlessness in his heart, as if his anger could not be truly vented, leaving him with a feeling of constant discomfort.
But he should not be so easily angered.
The Rat Guard's actions, while annoying, should not make him feel this way.
Zhong Yuan felt a bit of vigilance in his heart, and finally allowed the Rat Guard to stand up: "Take us, take me to meet this Tiger Vanguard."
The Rat Guard nodded in agreement.
After that, Zhong Yuan told the other Rat Demons to disperse, and all the Rat Demons scattered immediately.
The Rat Guard walked in front. After a while, he screamed loudly, but he didn't know what he was shouting, and ran away.
Zhong Yuan immediately felt his anger rise: "He actually wants to run away, he's really courting death!"
Did he really think he wouldn't kill?
But then, a large dog suddenly darted out from the trees next to them.
The creature was extremely strange. It was as tall as a normal person, with a pair of strange horns on its head and meaty fungi all over its body. It wasn't quite a wolf, nor a dog.
"Earth Wolf, bite him!" the Rat Guard, who had just run away, shouted.
The Earth Wolf roared and charged towards Zhong Yuan, its speed and strength clearly formidable.
Zhong Yuan blocked it with a punch, but his palm felt numb. He rolled back and pulled out his golden cudgel.
After being cleansed by the power of the Great Sage's relic, his Red Copper Cudgel had undergone more transformations and become even more powerful.
Along the way, Zhong Yuan had not neglected his own cultivation and had also made new breakthroughs in his use of the cudgel.
This Earth Wolf was not weak, and he actually felt a thrill of excitement.
Ma Tian Ba saw Zhong Yuan's thoughts and didn't interfere, but instead directly chased after the fleeing Rat Guard.
The Rat Guard let out a scream, and then ran away again, calling for the surrounding soldiers to help.
Zhong Yuan wasn't worried about Ma Tian Ba, and charged towards the Earth Wolf, swinging his golden cudgel, but it didn't make any wind sound.
The Earth Wolf, lacking high intelligence, only acted on instinct and charged towards Zhong Yuan, trying to tear and bite.
But when the Earth Wolf entered Zhong Yuan's vicinity, its movements suddenly became bizarre. Not only did its strength diminish, as if it was being suppressed everywhere, but its attacks also lost their accuracy.
It was as if it had fallen into water.
And that was exactly the case. This was Zhong Yuan's new understanding of cudgel techniques.
【Steady Wind Cudgel: Combining cudgel techniques with wind techniques, it fixes the surrounding wind pressure and has a strong binding effect, which is invisible and untraceable. 】
It seemed like Zhong Yuan's attack was just the golden cudgel in his hand, but he was actually manipulating the surrounding wind pressure, using the wind force to press his opponent.
Moreover, the power in his cudgel was hidden and not released, and its actual power was certainly not weak. Although it couldn't instantly gather all his mana and strength like the Primordial Cudgel, it could still have about 50% of its power.
Trapping the Earth Wolf inside, Zhong Yuan used this fight as an experiment, constantly adjusting.
Although he had experimented a few times with Ma Tian Ba before, his cudgel techniques were basically complete.
But his killer moves couldn't be tested on Ma Tian Ba, and this Earth Wolf was not weak, making it a good subject for testing.
Zhong Yuan slightly changed his cudgel techniques. The surrounding wind field instantly started to spin, continuously expanding outwards, preventing the Earth Wolf, realizing its peril, from escaping the wind field's range.
On the outer layer of the wind field, violent whirlwinds rose. The power contained within Zhong Yuan's cudgel increased with the wind, becoming increasingly violent.
"Boom." A roar echoed. Sand and rocks swirled around, eventually condensing into a single blow that directly hit the Earth Wolf.
The Earth Wolf was instantly beaten into a pulp, a terrifying sight.
【Your Steady Wind Cudgel level has increased, you have comprehended a trace of the Yellow Wind Force. 】
Zhong Yuan was slightly startled.
At this time, on a nearby mountain, a headless monk held a three-stringed zither, gently plucking the strings, his heart filled with surprise.
Although he was headless, he could still see the surrounding scenery.
Zhong Yuan's performance at this moment was extremely bizarre, making him feel a bit uneasy, and a bad premonition crept into his heart.
He faintly sensed a trace of the Yellow Wind Demon's Three Flavored Divine Wind.
Although this was merely the effect of the Yellow Wind Demon's Yellow Wind Formation running constantly, gradually changing the surrounding wind and sand, for a Heaven's Mandate Person to be able to gather it, such a skill was clearly not common.
More importantly, he had never heard of Sun Wukong knowing this technique, nor had he heard of anyone else knowing it.
The only possibility was that Sun Wukong had previously made some other deal with the Yellow Wind Demon, or the Heaven's Mandate Person in front of him had some other relationship or connection with the Yellow Wind Demon.
Looking at the Heaven's Mandate Person, he also seemed to just want to talk to the Yellow Wind Demon, without any killing intent to attack directly.
"Strange, strange."
This wasn't a good thing.
How could he get his head back if the Yellow Wind Demon wasn't dead?
After killing the Earth Wolf with a single blow, Zhong Yuan collected its essence and spiritual energy. He was about to see where Ma Tian Ba had chased, when he heard a zither sound coming from the yellow sand.
Then a song started: "Huang Feng Ridge, eight hundred li, once a rich and fertile land outside the Pass."
"One day rat plague arose from nowhere, smoke and haze obscured all sight."
"No father, no army, no law, committing evil deeds with someone's protection…
As the song played, the headless monk blinked and emerged from the yellow sand, right next to Zhong Yuan, playing and singing.
Zhong Yuan looked at the monk, with his strange appearance and unpredictable whereabouts, and couldn't help but feel a little vigilant.
The reason he was called a monk was because he still had two strings of Buddhist beads hanging on his headless neck, and his clothes were similar to those of ordinary ascetic monks.
In this world where monsters ran rampant, such ascetic monks did exist.
But he was headless, and still singing here. This headless monk was clearly no ordinary person.
Before the headless monk finished his song, Zhong Yuan clasped his hands together and asked: "Master, are you saying that the rat plague here arose from nowhere one day?"
"Then, Master, may I ask what caused this rat plague?"
The headless monk's singing stopped abruptly.