Meanwhile, at the border of Qingzhou.
The flag of the Guang family army drooped limply in the sweltering air.
The tens of thousands of troops dragged their feet, raising clouds of dust that blotted out the sky, resembling a yellow dragon winding its way forward.
King Guang rode a tall horse, his face ashen.
Lin Genzhu, standing beside him, wore a fawning smile and kept pointing out the way ahead.
After the procession had traveled for about half a day, a general surnamed Zhao suddenly reined in his horse and approached the Prince of Guang.
"Your Majesty!" General Zhao frowned. "Does that stone pillar in front of you look familiar?"
Following the direction he pointed, the King of Guang saw a half-person-high blue stone pier standing beside the official road, covered with traces of wind and rain erosion.
"It's just a broken stone block, what's so interesting about it? Aren't these things everywhere?" King Guang waved his hand impatiently.
Lin Genzhu immediately chimed in, "That's right! General Zhao, aren't you being too nervous? This official road is interconnected, and there are plenty of stone piers that look alike!"
The Prince of Guang glared at General Zhao: "Stop being so suspicious and delaying our journey! My army numbers in the tens of thousands. Since leaving Danzhou, we have incorporated refugees and defeated soldiers along the way, and now we have nearly 20,000 men!"
"Qingzhou is nothing but a piece of land, easily conquered with a flick of the finger! What demons and monsters are we afraid of?"
General Zhao opened his mouth, but ultimately swallowed his words, though the worry in his eyes deepened.
The army continued its march.
Another hour passed, and the sun gradually began to set in the west, with a restless heat permeating the air.
"Your Majesty!" General Zhao's voice rang out again, tinged with urgency, "Look! It's that stone pier again!"
As everyone looked ahead, they saw that the same blue stone pillar was still there by the roadside, with even the cracks on it exactly the same.
This time, before King Guang could speak, General Zhao dismounted.
He walked quickly to the stone block, took out a bright red cloth rope from his pocket, and tied it to the most conspicuous spot on the stone block.
"What are you doing?" King Guang scoffed, his tone full of disdain.
“Your Majesty, I am merely making a mark,” General Zhao said in a deep voice. “If we encounter this stone pillar again, we will know something is amiss.”
King Guang scoffed, "Playing tricks! We have 20,000 troops here, invincible! Are we afraid of those evil spirits? Let's continue on our way!"
However, when the afterglow of the setting sun dyes the earth a deep orange-red.
The group saw the stone pier with the red rope tied to it for the third time.
This time, not only General Zhao, but even the personal guards around King Guang changed their expressions.
The soldiers at the rear of the column became even more agitated.
"Look! That red rope! And that stone block again!"
"We've encountered a ghost wall! We've run into a ghost wall!"
An old soldier's voice trembled: "My God, this place is incredibly eerie!"
"Could it be that the Mountain Goddess has appeared and is preventing us from passing?"
Shh! Keep your voice down! Don't anger the gods!
The soldiers whispered amongst themselves, their faces a mixture of exhaustion and fear.
Some people's hands were trembling as they held their weapons, and they kept looking around nervously, as if the air around them had frozen.
The march of the group slowed down noticeably, and an invisible pressure weighed on everyone's hearts.
The muscles on King Guang's face twitched a few times, and he finally could no longer remain calm.
He turned his head sharply, stared intently at Lin Genzhu, and demanded in a stern voice, "Lin Genzhu! What exactly is going on? Didn't you say that this road leads directly to Huangxian County and that there are no problems at all?"
Lin Genzhu was also covered in sweat and his face was deathly pale.
Where had he ever seen anything like this? In the past, he had only relied on his words to cheat and swindle; he had never encountered anything so bizarre.
But he knew that if he showed weakness at this moment, his life would be in danger.
He forced himself to remain calm, managing a smile that looked more like a grimace: "King Guang, please calm down! Please calm down!"
"In my humble opinion, this must be the work of those demons in the desolate mountains! They must have used some kind of illusion!"
Lin Genzhu's eyes darted around, and he quickly came up with a brilliant idea: "Your Highness, think about it, are all the scenery we see every time, the trees and flowers along the roadside, exactly the same? They must be different!"
"This proves that we definitely didn't repeat the same route! They're just trying to scare us and demoralize our troops with these broken stone pillars!"
King Guang looked around with suspicion.
After Lin Genzhu said that, he seemed to realize that there were indeed some subtle differences in the surrounding scenery.
Is it really just a smokescreen?
"Hmph, the army is marching on. How dare that little monster from the desolate mountains try to show off its skills in front of me!" King Guang shouted, his voice stern but his heart filled with fear.
"Send the order: the entire army must advance at full speed! I want to see what tricks they have up their sleeves!"
However, half an hour later, when the stone block with the red rope tied to it appeared in front of them for the fourth time, King Guang was completely exasperated.
His warhorse pawed restlessly and snorted.
"Your Majesty..." General Zhao hesitated, unable to finish his sentence.
King Guang took a deep breath, veins bulging on his forehead, looking furious, but his voice trembled slightly.
"Pass on the order..."
"General, let's set up camp and rest here for now!"
He was ultimately a little intimidated.
Upon receiving the order, the exhausted soldiers felt as if they had been granted a pardon and began to unload their packs and prepare to set up camp.
However, everyone's movements revealed a sense of panic and absent-mindedness, clearly indicating that they were quite frightened by the strange stone pillar.
However, before they could even get their tent stakes firmly in place, shouts suddenly came from afar.
"kill!"
All around, shouts of battle filled the air as countless agile figures, like cheetahs in the forest, pounced out from unexpected corners!
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