Chapter 199: Army Assembly

"There is an exit, but the river doesn't go there." The guide calculated the distance in his heart. "After we go ashore, we still have to walk a few more miles to reach the assembly point marked by the fireworks, and then walk another dozen miles to reach the exit to the northeast."

The Ghost Needle Shi Lin was quite vast.

Liutiao cursed, "Damn it. If we could rush out of the Ghost Needle Shi Lin, we might be able to break through the Baling people's encirclement early."

"Perhaps the Baling people have already set a trap." He Lingchuan looked around the wilderness. "If I were General Nanke, I wouldn't be in a hurry to leave the Ghost Needle Shi Lin. Cave spiders are difficult opponents, and the Baling people wouldn't want to risk coming in either."

"If only we could find a way to deal with the cave spiders." Liu Tong frowned. "This damn place always makes my heart jump."

The light was dim, and everyone couldn't see the spiders' specific movements, but they could hear the rustling of their long legs brushing against dead branches and fallen leaves. When there were many of them, it made one's hair stand on end.

A merchant couldn't help but ask, "Are these things going to follow us all the way?"

Then how could the living dare to go ashore? No one had an answer to this question; they could only take it one step at a time.

That patrol 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 Sun Jiayuan was missing the little fingers on both hands.

Others had ten fingers; he only had eight left.

Sun Jiayuan didn't say a word.

Just when He Lingchuan thought this person didn't intend to answer, he opened his mouth: "A few years ago, two mantises became monsters after consuming Emperor Flow. Their guillotines were very sharp."

He Lingchuan let out a long "Oh."

What a coincidence, the little fingers of both hands were cut off by mantis monsters? And they happened to be the little fingers that didn't hinder work or combat? It seemed this person had a story, but He Lingchuan didn't ask further.

Not long after, the smell of smoke and char drifted in the wind.

The further they went, the thicker and heavier the charred smell became, and everyone was coughing repeatedly from the choking air.

They even saw a large swath of forest by the river that had been burned bald.

Now it could only be called the remains of a forest: everywhere was charred wood and black soil, and the soil had even been burned into crystals.

Walking further toward the center of the Ghost Needle Shi Lin, the scene became even more tragic.

"This is not good." Liutiao murmured. "The Baling people burned the forest, probably destroying the cave spiders' nest. No wonder they are so furious."

These spider monsters probably couldn't distinguish between the Baling people and the Panlongcheng people; anyway, humans burned their nest, so it was right for them to retaliate against humans.

She rolled her eyes at the merchant who spoke earlier: "See that? The spider nest was destroyed, so they went mad and hurt people. Under normal circumstances, no guide would have any trouble leading the way."

The merchant was speechless, and Sun Jiayuan gave her a grateful look, cursing the merchant a few times, which vented his earlier anger.

This time, the other party didn't dare to talk back. He was still counting on the patrol guards to lead him out of the danger zone.

After wading for another half hour, the destroyed forest and cave entrances gradually decreased. According to the guide, this was already approaching the center of the Ghost Needle Shi Lin, where cave spiders never let humans get close. In the past, when merchants traveled through the Shi Lin, they didn't dare take this road.

There were more cave spiders here, and they were larger. He Lingchuan occasionally saw a few huge figures in the spider swarm, but unfortunately, the daylight was unclear, and he couldn't see their full appearance.

Seeing the spiders on the shore gathering more and more, starting to stack up like arhats, Liu Tong's heart was also drumming, and he finally ordered the torches to be extinguished.

He Lingchuan's group waded forward in the darkness.

However, after the lights were out, the restlessness on the shore indeed decreased. Although they had more than a dozen eyes, most spiders could only perceive light changes; their vision was actually very poor, relying mainly on smell and hearing to act.

The group continued forward, and on the way, they encountered a half-grown wild boar standing in the middle of the river drinking water. Judging by its size, it was at most a hundred jin, probably also scared down by the spider swarm.

He Lingchuan instigated Menban to capture this wild boar alive, tie its four hooves with rope, and throw it onto the horse's back, stuffing a piece of cloth into its mouth to prevent its cries from being too shrill in the silent night.

After walking for another hour, they reached the end of this leg of the journey—

Another deep pool.

Directly above was a waterfall five zhang high.

The cliffs were steep; even if the patrol guards could climb up, the merchants and carts couldn't, so continuing upward was unrealistic. They could only go ashore here and head east to rush to the assembly point designated by General Nanke.

In the past two-plus hours, the signal fireworks had appeared three more times, guiding the warriors in the darkness.

Along the way, the group passed several turbulent stone shoals, and their bodies were soaked through. Perhaps the noisy sound of the water covered the movement of the people and horses, and the spiders following them became fewer and fewer.

Arriving at the deep pool, there were no more spiders on the shore.

The guide estimated the distance, his face full of joy: "At most three more miles, and we can join the main force!"

Of course, he meant three miles in a straight line.

"Caution is best." The tree shadows on the shore were swaying wildly; who knew if there were monsters hiding inside? At this time, the wild boar came in handy.

He Lingchuan untied its mouth and bindings. As soon as its four hooves touched the ground, before it could even stretch its muscles, it stepped on the water and rushed toward the shore.

Crackle, crackle—it broke many branches while fleeing, and there were dissatisfied grunts moving from near to far.

The group stood in the river, holding their breath and listening carefully.

There was no rustling of spiders walking on the shore, and the wild boar in the distance was still running wildly, seemingly not encountering any mishap.

Only then did Liu Tong order: "Go ashore, go to the assembly point."

Everyone didn't dare to delay; after going ashore, they galloped on horseback and headed east.

￥￥￥￥￥

The river valley in the northeast of the Ghost Needle Shi Lin, where the fireworks were set off.

General Nanke's team was reorganized here. Over the past few hours, more than 1,300 people had arrived here to assemble, including over 900 Panlong soldiers and over 400 merchants.

Although everyone arrived here looking disheveled, with wounds on their bodies and spider webs hanging from their hair, they had miraculously preserved 70% of their cargo.

At the moment, this had become the liveliest place in the entire Ghost Needle Shi Lin. Because the commotion of the signal arrows going into the sky was too great, the enraged spiders were all gathering here.

Standing in the river valley and looking out, it was a dark mass of spider sea, with not a single empty spot to be seen.

The river formed an "L" shape at the bottom of the valley, and the water was at least eight feet deep. The Panlongcheng army had already discovered that the spiders didn't dare enter the water, so General Nanke temporarily set up the base camp in the middle of the river valley, which was the corner of the "L" shape.

In this way, with the river protecting their rear, the army only needed to focus on dealing with the enemy in front.

For these pervasive spiders, the method General Nanke came up with was to build a wall of fire.

Driven by the spider monsters, a large number of cave spiders, although they could temporarily suppress their fear of fire, did not have the magical power to fireproof; being roasted by fire would also kill them, char them, and make them fragrant...

The Panlongcheng army killed spiders while rushing to chop down a dozen large trees, the more lush and leafy the better, then doused them with fire oil and lit them.

Whoosh, the fire soared into the sky.

Relying on this method, the Panlongcheng army hastily built a fire wall over a zhang wide; the raging flames were a barrier that most spiders could not cross.

With deep water behind and a fire wall in front, the temporary camp was temporarily out of danger.

However, General Nanke had years of experience in fighting, so he ordered people to move the fire wall on the northernmost side to open a gap, at most four or five feet wide.

The spiders outside saw the gap in the fire wall and rushed in regardless of anything! Even though they were like crashing waves, the Panlong army defended strictly; they speared one as soon as it came in, and the spider corpses were thrown into the fire wall as firewood.

There were occasional casualties, but it was incomparable to the frantic escape earlier.

General Nanke's confidant was puzzled: "General, why don't we block the fire wall completely?"

That way, the soldiers wouldn't have to suffer casualties anymore.

"These spider monsters aren't stupid. If there's no gap, they will try every possible way to break through, making us exhausted. Seeing the situation gradually coming under his control, General Nanke had time to take out his water bag to quench his thirst, and incidentally fed some water to the black-spotted sparrow hawk perched on his shoulder. "Then it's better for us to open a gap ourselves, so they all rush here, and the whole fire wall will be safe."

Controllable and uncontrollable—this is both an art and a matter of timing. Otherwise, less than a thousand soldiers fighting tens or hundreds of millions of spiders, even with Yuan power protection, they wouldn't be able to hold on.

General Nanke looked at the sparrow hawk: "You said earlier, how long until the reinforcements arrive?"

"Before dawn." The sparrow hawk pecked and groomed the feathers on its back. "Soon."

It flew from Puxigou to Panlongcheng to seek help, and then flew back to the Ghost Needle Shi Lin to report, rushing back and forth in a large triangle.

In another half hour, the sky would turn white.

General Nanke looked toward the northeast, his face solemn. Even if they rushed out of the Ghost Needle Shi Lin, there would still be fierce battles to fight. The Baling people would definitely set an ambush at the exit, so even though the Ghost Needle Shi Lin was fraught with danger, he insisted on waiting here until dawn before leaving, hoping to coordinate with the reinforcements from inside and outside to give the Baling people a counter-encirclement.

Just hold on for another half hour.

He was also somewhat dissatisfied: "If General Hong were willing to split the troops over here, I would have sent these Baling people back to their hometowns long ago!"

"General Hong said the original combat objective remains unchanged."

Military orders must be obeyed; General Nanke snorted heavily.

￥￥￥￥￥

Running silently for two quarters of an hour, Liu Tong suddenly waved his hand: "Stop, there's a situation ahead!"

Everyone dismounted and walked slowly, pushing aside the dense branches and leaves, and the scene before them suddenly opened up.

Crossing this dwarf forest, ahead was a large, open hillside, contrary to the crampedness of the jungle.

At the top of the slope were centuries-old trees with lush branches and leaves, while the hillside was covered with fine velvet grass—tender green, smooth, and clean, as if specially tended by someone.

The deepest part of the Ghost Needle Shi Lin was rarely visited by humans; the only ones who could tend it like this were... spider monsters? That people could see this hillside clearly at night was thanks to the scattered white light on the slope.

These light clusters were larger than pomegranates, pearly white in color, not soft but very bright.

Menban whispered: "These are fluorescent spores."

They grew concentrated around a huge cave.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 200 =====