Chapter 262: Unbelievable
As the Great General injected a thick amount of energy into the sentry’s body, a flush suddenly appeared on his face. His entire face turned an unhealthy bright red as he suddenly opened his eyes.
He swallowed another mouthful of blood and looked anxiously at the general to report, “General, it’s bad. All the warriors and generals of the Second Division have been wiped out. No one survived.”
“What?”
“Lying about military intelligence is a felony! How dare you spout nonsense?”
He was just a small sentry. When had he ever been surrounded by so many generals in his life? Everyone looked at him nervously. They wanted to find a trace, even if it was just a trace of lying, from the changes in the soldier’s expression. They wanted him to tell them that all of this was fake and that the Second Division was still alive, but their news had never been returned.
However, this sentry’s body was so severely injured that he could no longer lie. He was able to continue his life because of the spiritual energy that the Great General had paid attention to. When the Great General’s energy retreated, his life would already be at the end of its rope and would immediately disappear.
How could such a person lie? In addition, it had been two hours, but there was no news from the front line. The Second Division and Lin Fan seemed to be in danger.
“If I’m lying, I…”
Before he could finish speaking, his blood suddenly surged. The power that was blocking his throat finally could not maintain his life. He opened his mouth and spat out a large mouthful of dark red blood mixed with a mess of broken internal organs. It splattered all over the ground.
In the next moment, all the spiritual energy in his body dissipated, and his soul dissipated. This person no longer existed in the world.
The Great General’s face was ashen as he looked silently at the sentry lying in his arms.
“This must be fake. Lin Fan’s strength is extraordinary. He already has a lot of combat experience facing those rebel armies. After so many years, he can be said to know the rebel army like the back of his hand. It’s impossible for him to be killed the moment he encountered them without sending any news back. This is simply nonsense!”
The person who spoke was a general of the Third Division called Qing Yun.
The general of the Fourth Division, Zhao Tian, also stood up. “Great General, General Qing is right. Lin Fan has many years of experience fighting the rebel army. It’s been decades, but he has never been defeated. These rebels are like dolls in his hands and are controlled tightly. He couldn’t be defeated just like this, I think there must be something else.”
With these two people standing up to speak, the other generals also spoke up. They definitely could not afford to fail like this now. The Second Division was a very huge force. Even if it was slightly injured, it was not something they could withstand.
But now, how was this just a little damage? The Second Division was completely destroyed. This could be said to be a huge decrease in strength for the entire Rong City.
More importantly, not only were their strength weakened, but if this news was released, the entire Rong City would no longer be in the mood to resist the rebel army. At that time, the internal department would be in chaos.
When no one had the intention to resist, their strength would be greatly reduced.
At that time, Rong City would probably really become a pile of loose sand. There would be no hope left for them to organize the human race and s.n.a.t.c.h Rong City back, let alone revive the human race.
No one could bear such consequences, be it the Great General or them.
The Great General slowly stood up, his expression still so ugly. He raised his head and looked at the general of the Fourth Division, Zhao Tian.
“General Zhao.”
“I’m here.”
“Send the elites to the camp of the Second Division at lightning speed and send the news of the frontline back as soon as possible. Moreover, all the divisions will retreat and withdraw into Rong City as soon as possible. Don’t continue maintaining the encampment outside!”
“Yessir!”
After all the generals received their orders, they hurriedly left, leaving only the Great General and his accompanying deputy behind. They looked at the sentry on the ground.
Before the official battle, no one had expected this outcome. But who would have thought that it would really become like this? What went wrong?
Logically speaking, even if those rebels had obtained a powerful replenishment in strength, their foundation was so bad in the past. Even if they had replenishment, they had at most improved compared to before.
However, if they could really destroy the twenty thousand corps scattered in three directions in a short period of time, how exaggerated would their strength be?
“Send a message to the City Lord.” The Great General spoke slowly.
“What did you want to send?”
“We need reinforcements from Ping City.”
After Zhao Tian returned, he immediately gathered the troops he had scattered on the flanks. His original plan was to expand the battle line on three sides. However, from the looks of it, this plan would probably not be used. The enemy was much stronger than they had imagined. They had to defend Rong City with all their strength.
Based on the current situation, it was definitely very dangerous with their strength alone. Although he did not believe it in his heart, the sentries at the front line had still not returned. All of this was indicative of an outcome.
Zhao Tian was very confident in their soldiers and was a good friend of Lin Fan, the general of the Second Division. However, he had no choice but to prepare for the worst.
He still had a few trusted subordinates left. He specially sent out three teams to follow the three places that the Second Division planned to camp and investigate what had happened there.
Zhao Tian thought that his arrangements were flawless. Although he was still a little worried, fortunately, his main strength was preserved. He couldn’t care less if Lin Fan was alive or dead.
However, before General Zhao could be happy for long, his deputy general suddenly ran over in a hurry.
The deputy general rushed in in a panic and reported to Zhao Tian, “General, something bad has happened!”
“Why is there bad news again? Don’t tell me that the troops on our flank have been wiped out?” Zhao Tian looked at the deputy general unhappily.
After what had just happened, he could not stand others doing such a thing. This kid had been following him for so long, but he still did not know what was going on. Why did he run in so anxiously?
The deputy general swallowed his saliva and looked at Zhao Tian with trembling lips. “General, There’s no news from the two troops in the flanks anymore.”
“What do you mean there’s no news? Tell me everything. What happened?”
“We don’t know the real situation yet. I’ve sent someone to investigate, but there’s no answer to the message I sent. I don’t know if they received the retreat order from the general. I’m afraid this isn’t a good sign.”
“Why are all of them so careless? Could it be that I’m raising a group of useless people? If they were really ambushed, can’t they even send a distress signal? I wonder what they’re doing every day!”
Zhao Tian was furious. He put on his armor, picked up his sword, and hung it on his waist. He walked out of his tent angrily. He wanted to see what kind of enemy could deal with these soldiers so easily.
“General!”
Zhao Tian’s three personal guard teams were sent forward. One of the teams was heading north. They were the closest. Although they had to be careful, they quickly arrived at the original army’s encampment.
Originally, in their arrangements, the people from the Second Division had to camp first after arriving. Although they only left behind a simple command center, it was also their base.
The command center of this advance corps was set up in a dense forest.
There was an empty s.p.a.ce dozens of meters in diameter surrounded by a towering tree. There were a few simple buildings in this empty s.p.a.ce. These buildings were very simple. They were in a circle of various sizes, and there were array formations set up as defense.
After finding this place, they found the command center of their troops. However, it was empty. There was no one here. There was nothing unusual outside. It was as if everything was normal. It was so quiet that there were no traces of a fight.
The sentries who came to visit did not find anything unusual after investigating the periphery. After they sent the signal, there was no response from inside at all. The brother troops inside seemed to be gone. Where did they go?
The captain of the team stood at the gap in the path and looked inside. They did not dare to go in for the time being.
“Captain, in my opinion, they should have continued forward.”
“That’s right. Look, all the buildings here are intact, and there are no traces of a fight outside. In my opinion, nothing happened at all. They should have won the battle outside by now.”
The captain also thought about it. If they had really encountered an accident, there would definitely be some clues as a very important encampment. However, there was nothing here. It was clean and did not look like a huge battle had happened.
That was a few thousand soldiers. If they were really surrounded and intercepted, the combat strength that erupted would cause large-scale damage even within a few miles. Not to mention such a small place.
After the team members investigated first, they did not find any traces of the advance corps at the periphery. They decided to go to the command center to investigate. Perhaps there would be useful information left behind to let them know what had happened.
“Wait, let’s send a report back to the general first. We have to explain that we can’t explain the current situation clearly. We’re going to the command center to check the situation now. If there’s any news, we’ll definitely report it immediately.”
“Yes, Captain.”
As he spoke, a soldier took out a small jade token and muttered to it. After he was done, the small army gathered again and entered the middle area surrounded by the trees in three different directions.
They were already cautious enough. Not only did they split up and not enter at the same place, but they also specially left two sentries outside in order to be foolproof. They could not get involved in this mess. There was a high chance that something had happened to the troops earlier.
However, just as their small team stepped into the empty s.p.a.ce in the middle, some black patterns vaguely appeared under the surrounding gra.s.s. These patterns were originally very dim and could not be seen clearly. However, as they walked deeper and deeper, the shape and appearance of the patterns gradually became clearer.
The small team entered from three directions. After investigating the periphery of the empty s.p.a.ce, they realized that there was nothing unusual. In the end, they gathered in the command center of the advance corps.
However, the command center was very quiet and was very clean, as if it had just been set up and had not been used. There were all kinds of array discs and artifacts, as well as communication jade tokens. There were also many soldiers’ armor placed neatly here.
Everything looked so normal. The only problem was where everyone had gone. How could no one be watching such a standard command post?
The captain was very puzzled, and so were his team members. However, what they did not notice at all was that ever since they stepped into the small area of the command center, a layer of black threads had inexplicably wrapped around their legs.
The black silk wrapped around their legs and kept climbing up. By the time they reached the center of the command center, the black silk had already spread to their waists.
“Captain, how should we report this back? This place is clean and tidy. The things are arranged neatly. It doesn’t look like they were killed. Instead, it looks like they abandoned and fled. Could it be that they have already moved elsewhere?”
“I think that’s most likely the case. It’s most likely that the rebel army appeared elsewhere, so it’s possible that they moved.”
They examined it as they discussed it.
The captain of the team was hesitating if he should continue reporting the situation here. The current situation was no different from what he saw outside. He did not find anything inside at all. What should he say?
“Captain, what’s that thing on your waist?”
Suddenly, someone looked up and saw a layer of black threads spreading on their captain’s chest. Even the others were the same.
Everyone looked at each other and realized that the black silk was already too thick. Moreover, it was climbing higher and higher until it reached their chests. It could not be ignored.