Chapter 00199: All Troops Gathered
# All Troops Gathered
Chapter 199
Novel: After the Immortals Disappeared
Chapter 199: All Troops Gathered
Next, General Nan Ke also discovered that the Ba Ling army had not followed into the Ghost Needle Stone Forest, so the Pan Long City army needed to change their strategy, gathering together to leverage their numerical advantage to resist the invasion of the Earth Hole Spiders.
“There is an exit, but the river does not flow that way.” The guide calculated the distance in his mind, “After we go ashore, we still need to walk several miles to reach the gathering point marked by the fireworks, and then walk another ten miles to reach the northeastern exit.”
The Ghost Needle Stone Forest is quite vast.
Liu Tiao cursed, “Damn it, if we can break out of the Ghost Needle Stone Forest, perhaps we can escape the encirclement of the Ba Ling people early.”
“Perhaps the Ba Ling people have already set a trap.” He Lingchuan looked around, “If I were General Nan Ke, I wouldn’t be in a hurry to leave the Ghost Needle Stone Forest. The Earth Hole Spiders are troublesome opponents, and the Ba Ling people wouldn’t want to take the risk of coming in.”
“If we could find a way to deal with the Earth Hole Spiders.” Liu Tang frowned, “This cursed place always makes me feel uneasy.”
The light was dim, and everyone could not see the specific movements of the spiders, but they could hear the sound of their long legs scraping against the dry branches and fallen leaves.
The more they gathered, the more it sent chills down their spines.
A merchant couldn’t help but ask, “Are these things going to follow us?”
How dare the living go ashore?
No one had an answer to this question; they could only take one step at a time.
The patrolling guard, Sun Jiayuan, happened to be walking beside He Lingchuan, with multiple spider bite wounds on his wrists and neck.
He Lingchuan glanced at him and suddenly asked, “How did you lose your fingers?”
He noticed that both of Sun Jiayuan’s hands were missing their pinky fingers.
While others had ten fingers, he only had eight.
Sun Jiayuan remained silent.
Just when He Lingchuan thought this person had no intention of responding, he spoke again, “A few years ago, two mantises became demons after consuming the Emperor’s Flowing Nectar. Their blades are very sharp.”
He Lingchuan let out a long “oh.”
What a coincidence, both pinky fingers were cut off by the mantis demons? It just happened to be the least obstructive fingers for doing work and fighting?
It seemed this person had a story, but He Lingchuan didn’t ask further.
Before long, the smell of smoke wafted through the wind.
The further they walked, the thicker and heavier the burnt smell became, causing everyone to cough incessantly.
They even saw large areas of forest burned bare by the riverbank.
Now it could only be called the remnants of the forest: everywhere was charred wood and black soil, the ground even burned into crystalline substances.
As they moved towards the center of the Ghost Needle Stone Forest, the scene became increasingly tragic.
“This is not good.” Liu Tiao murmured, “The Ba Ling people set fire to the forest, probably burning down the lair of the Earth Hole Spiders. No wonder they are furious.”
These spider demons probably couldn’t distinguish between the Ba Ling people and the Pan Long City people; anyway, humans burned their nests, so it made sense for them to take revenge on humans.
She rolled her eyes at the merchant who had spoken earlier, “Did you see? The spider’s nest was destroyed, and now they are going mad and hurting people. Under normal circumstances, any guide would have no problem leading the way.”
The merchant was speechless, and Sun Jiayuan looked at her gratefully, cursing a few words at the merchant to vent his earlier frustration.
This time, the other party did not dare to retort.
He still hoped the patrols would lead him out of the danger zone.
After wading through the water for half an hour, the destroyed forest and earth holes gradually decreased.
According to the guide, they were now close to the center of the Ghost Needle Stone Forest, where the Earth Hole Spiders never allowed humans to approach.
In the past, merchants traveling through the stone forest also did not dare to take this route.
Here, the number of Earth Hole Spiders was greater, and their sizes larger.
He Lingchuan occasionally saw a few massive figures among the spider swarm, but unfortunately, the light was dim, and he could not see their full appearance.
Seeing the spiders gathering more and more on the shore, starting to pile up, Liu Tang’s heart began to race, and he finally ordered the extinguishing of the torches.
He Lingchuan and his group waded forward in the darkness.
However, after extinguishing the fire, the restlessness on the shore did indeed decrease.
Although they had more than a dozen eyes, most spiders could only sense changes in light; their vision was actually poor, and they primarily relied on smell and hearing to navigate.
As they continued forward, they encountered a half-grown wild boar standing in the middle of the river drinking water.
It weighed at most a hundred pounds and was probably scared down by the spider swarm.
He Lingchuan urged the door panel to capture the wild boar alive, tying its four hooves with rope and tossing it onto a horse’s back, stuffing a cloth into its mouth to prevent its cries from being too piercing in the silent night.
After walking for another hour, they reached the end of this segment of the journey—
Another deep pool.
Directly above was a waterfall towering five zhang high.
The cliff was steep; even if the patrols could climb up, the merchants and carts could not go up, so continuing upward was unrealistic.
They could only go ashore here and head east to the gathering point designated by General Nan Ke.
In the past two hours, the signal fireworks had appeared three more times, guiding the warriors in the darkness.
Along the way, everyone passed several rushing stone beaches, soaking themselves thoroughly.
Perhaps the furious sound of the water covered the noise of the horses and people advancing, as the spiders following them dwindled.
Upon reaching the deep pool, there were no spiders on the shore anymore.
The guide estimated the distance, his face filled with joy: “At most three more miles, and we can join the main force!”
Of course, he was referring to a straight-line distance of three miles.
“Better to be cautious.” The shadows of trees on the shore swayed chaotically; who knew if there were monsters hiding inside? At this moment, the wild boar came in handy.
He Lingchuan untied its mouth, and as soon as the creature’s hooves touched the ground, it rushed towards the shore without even having time to stretch its limbs.
With a crash, it broke several branches while escaping, and its discontented grunts faded into the distance.
Everyone stood in the river, holding their breath to listen.
There was no sound of spiders moving on the shore, and the wild boar was still running wildly not far away, seemingly encountering no mishaps.
Only then did Liu Tang give the order: “Go ashore, to the gathering point.”
Everyone dared not delay; after going ashore, they rode quickly eastward.
￥￥￥￥￥
In the northeastern valley of the Ghost Needle Stone Forest, where the fireworks were launched.
General Nan Ke’s troops regrouped here.
Over the past few hours, more than 1,300 people had arrived to gather, including over 900 Pan Long soldiers and more than 400 merchants.
Although everyone arrived looking disheveled, wounded, and with hair tangled in spider webs, they miraculously managed to preserve seventy percent of their goods.
Now, this place had become the busiest area in the entire Ghost Needle Stone Forest.
Because the commotion from the signal arrows was too great, the enraged spiders gathered here.
Standing in the valley and looking out, it was a sea of black spiders, with not a hint of open space visible.
The river at the valley bottom formed an “L” shape, with a depth of at least eight feet.
The Pan Long City army had already discovered that the spiders dared not enter the water, so General Nan Ke temporarily set up the main camp at the center of the valley, at the angle of the “L” shape.
Thus, with the river protecting their rear, the army only needed to focus on dealing with the enemies in front.
For these omnipresent spiders, General Nan Ke devised a method of building a fire wall.
Although a large number of Earth Hole Spiders could temporarily suppress their fear of fire under the command of the spider demons, they had no means to resist fire; being scorched would still kill them, char them, and make them fragrant...
While the Pan Long City army killed spiders, they also hurriedly chopped down more than a dozen large trees, the more lush and leafy, the better, then drenched them in oil and set them ablaze.
Whoosh, the flames soared into the sky.
With this method, the Pan Long City army hastily constructed a fire wall over a zhang wide, and the roaring flames became a barrier that most spiders could not cross.
With deep water behind and a fire wall in front, the temporary camp had turned from danger to safety.
However, General Nan Ke, with years of combat experience, ordered his men to open a gap in the northernmost fire wall, no wider than four or five feet.
When the spiders outside saw the gap in the fire wall, they rushed in without a second thought!
No matter how they surged like waves crashing against the shore, the Pan Long army held their ground firmly, killing one spider that entered with a spear, and throwing the spider corpses into the fire wall to add fuel.
There were occasional casualties, but it was nothing compared to the earlier panic-stricken escape.
General Nan Ke’s confidant was puzzled: “General, why don’t we fill the fire wall completely?”
That way, the soldiers wouldn’t have to suffer any more casualties.
“These spider demons are not stupid. If there is no gap, they will find ways to break through, making us exhausted.” Seeing the situation gradually coming under his control, General Nan Ke finally had time to take out his water pouch to quench his thirst, and also fed some water to the black-spotted hawk resting on his shoulder, “It’s better for us to open a gap ourselves, allowing them to all rush in here, making the entire fire wall safe.”
Controllable and uncontrollable, this is both an art and a timing issue.
Otherwise, with less than a thousand soldiers facing tens of millions of spiders, even with protective元力, they would not be able to hold out.
General Nan Ke looked at the hawk: “You said earlier, how long until reinforcements arrive?”
“Before dawn.” The hawk pecked at its feathers on its back, “Soon.”
It had flown from Pu He Gou to Pan Long City for help, then returned to the Ghost Needle Stone Forest to report, making a large triangular journey back.
In half an hour, the sky would begin to lighten.
General Nan Ke looked towards the northeastern direction, his expression heavy.
Even if they broke out of the Ghost Needle Stone Forest, there would still be fierce battles to fight.
The Ba Ling people would definitely set an ambush at the exit, so even though the Ghost Needle Stone Forest was fraught with danger, he insisted on waiting here until dawn before going out, hoping to coordinate with the reinforcements to launch a counter-attack on the Ba Ling people.
Just hold on for another half an hour.
He was also somewhat dissatisfied: “If General Hong were willing to split his troops over, I would have sent these Ba Ling people back to their hometown long ago!”
“General Hong said that the original battle objective remains unchanged.”
Orders must be followed; General Nan Ke snorted heavily.
￥￥￥￥￥
After silently traveling for fifteen minutes, Liu Tang suddenly waved his hand: “Stop, there’s a situation ahead!”
Everyone dismounted and proceeded cautiously, parting the dense branches and leaves, and suddenly the view opened up.
Crossing this thicket, ahead was a vast open hillside, a stark contrast to the cramped forest.
At the top of the slope were several hundred-year-old trees, lush and leafy, while the hillside was covered with fine velvet grass, tender green, smooth, and clean, as if tended by someone.
In the deepest part of the Ghost Needle Stone Forest, where human footprints are rare, the only ones who could manage it like this would be... spider demons?
People could see this hillside clearly at night, thanks to the scattered white lights on the slope.
These light clusters were larger than pomegranates, with a pearly white sheen, not soft but very bright.
The door panel whispered, “These are glow spores.”
They concentrated around a massive cave.
(End of Chapter)