Hu!
A Tibetan commander watched Shule intently as he awaited further orders from the city.
An army of Tibetan soldiers, mages, warriors, and war slaves were hidden in the corners of the mountain ridges. They lived in simple tents, and they used glowing stones as light sources.
“Tonight’s sky looks particularly dark,” the Tibetan commander murmured.
Neither the moon nor the stars could be seen. Even Shule’s outline could be barely seen thanks to the specks of light within the city.
The Tibetan commander dared not to even blink, fearing that he might miss the signal amidst the darkness.
Ah choo!
He suddenly felt a tickle in his nose and sneezed, and that caused him to close his eyes for a brief mont. By the ti he turned his attention back to Shule, he was shocked to see that the city had turned completely dark.
Initially, he thought that he was just seeing things. He waited for a while, but the city didn’t reappear for him.
“…” After seconds of daze, he shoved the soldier beside him. “Oi, do you see light there?”
The drowsy soldier jolted in astonishnt and hurriedly looked in the direction his commander was pointing at. However, he saw no light whatsoever.
“Sir, I don’t see anything,” he nervously replied.
“…”
Is the sky too dark?
Unsure, the Tibetan commander ordered, “Call a mage over.”
“Yes sir!”
The soldier nodded before heading off, but his face crumbled the mont he turned his head away. Mages were known for having a bad temper.
I’m going to get scolded.
It took a while before the soldier returned with a mage.
“What’s going on?” the mage asked.
“Our eyes seem to be failing us,” the Tibetan commander respectfully explained, “so I was hoping that you could help us see what’s going on over at Shule…”
“You called here over such triviality? What are your eyes for?!” the mage scoffed with widened eyes.
The Tibetan commander and the soldier nodded with polite smiles, not daring to express their dissatisfaction.
After the mage was finally done venting his emotions, he cast Eagle Eye on himself before looking toward Shule. He was quiet for seconds before exclaiming, “Sothing is wrong! I can’t see anything at all!”
He thought that these brutes were stirring trouble over nothing, but from the looks of it now, sothing was indeed very wrong here!
Shoosh!
There was suddenly a whizzing sound, as if sothing was shooting across the night sky.
Weng!
Without any hesitation, the mage put up a barrier before stepping aside. At the sa ti, he murmured a chant to buff himself with Arrow Avoidance.
Shk!
Thanks to his swift reflexes and spells, the mage was able to dodge the deadly arrow.
However, the soldiers around him weren’t as lucky. As they were standing too close to one another, they ended up getting impaled by the sa arrow.
Pah!
Seeing the soldiers collapse to the ground, the mage cast Voice Amplification and roared, “ENEMY ATTACK!”
Tibetan soldiers trailed out of their tents with confused faces, as they attempted to make sense of the situation. The more experienced commanders began roaring at the soldiers to grab their weapons and don their armor.
But it was too late.
A furious wind brewed amidst the ridges, raising sand and sedints. The Tibetan soldiers ran around like headless flies amidst the furious winds.
Amidst the deafening wind, the sounds of horse hooves beca conspicuous. Then, an army of terrifying cavalryn suddenly charged into their ranks and tore their camp apart.
“Brothers, old rules!”
Anyone who dared stand in Shu Yichao’s path was sliced apart by his terrifying modao like waterlons, and their blood splattered like fruit juice.
“Massacre everything!”
“GHOSTS!”
So of the Tibetan soldiers finally got a proper look of Shu Yichao and the ghost horsen, and that scared them out of their wits. Before they could recover from their shock, a sea of skeletons suddenly washed over them.
“Sothing is wrong!”
“Sothing is very wrong here!!!”
So of the mages tried casting Illuminate, but to their shock, the lights they produced were quickly extinguished by a black fog. They didn’t realize that this anomaly applied not just to lights but sounds too.
No matter how loud the cacophony here was, it would swiftly dissipate a distance away.
Unknowingly, the Tibetan army had fallen into the prison that the grim reaper had carefully constructed for them.
“The black fog! It’s that phenonon!”
So of the mages recognized the black fog, but they couldn’t understand why it would suddenly spread from Kucha to Shule.
That being said, they would have never guessed it was because Shu Yichao discovered an abandoned mine nearby. He imdiately leaped at the opportunity to claim the mine, and that enveloped the surrounding area in Eternal Blight.
The skeleton army exploited the cover of the Eternal Blight to encircle the Tibetan army and take them down. The assault was so abrupt that the Tibetan army didn’t even have ti to put up a resistance.
The soldiers were lynched to death before they could even get into formation.
The warriors fared a little better. So of them were strong enough to wield broadswords, and they could easily crush ten skeleton soldiers with each strike.
But so what?
They were up against an endless army of undead! There were only so many skeleton soldiers they could kill before collapsing in exhaustion.
As for the mages and the war slaves, they had the ans to defeat skeleton soldiers too.
The mages could clear a huge area of skeletons with their AOE spells, and the mindless war slaves boasted indomitable might and knew not of exhaustion. Skeleton soldiers that went after them were either blasted into bits or ramd flying, their bones scattering in all directions.
However…
Shu Yichao was watching over the battlefield.
Wherever the Tibetans were standing their ground, he would charge there with his ghost horsen and crush them into bits. The mages and the war slaves, given that they were fighting by themselves, had no ans to withstand the ghost horsen’s charge.
Just like that, the Tibetan troops lying in ambush outside the city, whom Asudo had high hopes for, were swiftly eradicated. Not only so, but it also further expanded Shu Yichao’s army.
…
On Shule’s city walls…
“…” Asudo frowned. He ordered the mage, “Send the signal again.”
The mage did as he was told and fired the signal again, but there was still no response.
“…” Cold sweat dripped from Asudo’s forehead.
This is impossible! The troops I stationed outside the city will not turn a blind eye to my order.
“Windwhisperer!” Asudo pointed at the dark night sky. “Over there! Can you hear anything?!”
The windwhisperer gulped down a potion and pricked up his ears.
Asudo waited nervously for his verdict.
“…” A re second later, the windwhisperer’s face darkened. He exclaid in shock, “An army! I hear a huge army!!!”
“Has the Tang army arrived? Did they ambush the troops we planted at the ridge?”
Asudo was shocked.
That would explain why the troops lying in ambush failed to respond, but that should be impossible! Even if the Tang army ambushed their troops, there should have been at least so signs of that.
Do the Tang army not use torches when traveling at night?
Also, the troops he had planted at the ridge didn’t bring torches either; they were relying on dim glowing stones for light. He couldn’t imagine how the Tang army could have found them.
And even if the Tang army sohow discovered and encircled them, surely their troops would have sent a signal requesting reinforcent.
So why…
Asudo felt like his mind was ringing. Slowly, he pursed his lips.
There’s no point wondering about how it happened now. The key is what we should do now.
Unfortunately, the situation was worse than he had expected.
“Yes!” the windwhisperer cried in absolute terror, “They are coming! They are right there!”
It was only now that Asudo realized that the earth was shaking.
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