Chapter 837: Anomalies in the Desert

Liao Shan tried hard to coordinate and command, but the army retreated too quickly, and the decline was ultimately irreversible. In the end, Liao Shan had to go with the flow and directly led the army to retreat north. The Andong people didn't return to the Mount Hulu main camp because the Heishuicheng South Gate team exerted force and cut off their rear route to the east.

Once they retreated, the Heishuicheng army immediately cheered, their morale like a rainbow! He Chunhua pressed on, leading his troops to pursue the desperate enemy.

No one expected that this battle, fighting many with few, could be won so cleanly. Since that was the case, General He naturally wanted to consolidate the results quickly.

For the long-term peace and stability of western Yuan, they must beat the Andong people until they were hurt and submissive this time! This night, the Andong people fled in front, and the Heishuicheng army pursued from behind, following the Red Cliff Road into the Panlong Desert.

One fleeing and one pursuing, it was three hours.

Chasing and fighting all the way, the Heishuicheng army ate up another three hundred or so of the opponent.

The Andong people couldn't take it anymore and split into groups to flee at every fork in the road.

He Chunhua didn't know which team Liao Shan was hiding in, so he had to split his troops to pursue them one after another, while he himself led the troops to continue north.

Factions like the Tiangong and Baling Kingdom originally wanted to leave the team, but now the Heishuicheng army was also racing north, basically in the same direction as their original plan.

It was as if these thousand-plus people were all escorting them into the desert.

Zhang Lianhai and the others were unhappy in their hearts.

Although the Heishuicheng army won the battle and the Andong people fled in defeat, they had already realized that they had still been used as guns by He Chunhua! What trump card team that decides the outcome in one blow, what sharp knife unit that circles to the enemy's rear—it was all a big bluff!

He Chunhua had just tricked them into facing the Andong people's blades and arrows, using them as bait to lure away the camp-guarding army, allowing the real camp-raiding unit to succeed in one blow.

But after all, the battle was won, so they could only swallow this dumb loss themselves.

Therefore, the various factions didn't have good faces for the He father and son afterward.

He Chunhua's attitude remained very enthusiastic, as if he couldn't see their resentment and anger.

Only He Lingchuan knew that the old man didn't care about the feelings of these people at all, because after entering the Panlong ruins, everyone would be competitors! Dawn was approaching.

But the sky was overcast with clouds, with no stars to guide the way, and even the compass failed in the desert.

Everywhere was vast yellow sand, and the sand dunes often moved positions. Walking here, the two teams chasing and fleeing only dared to follow the Red Cliff Road to avoid losing their way in the Panlong Desert.

Not to mention the Andong people who were exhausted to death, the Heishuicheng army as pursuers also began to slack off, the team becoming sparse and scattered.

Both sides had only a few hundred people left.

He Lingchuan noticed that He Chunhua often whispered to Zhao Qinghe, both of them with gloomy expressions.

He drove his horse over and asked: "What's wrong?"

"Chuan'er, you've come at the right time." He Chunhua pointed to the rock forest two li away. "Have you ever seen this rock forest before?"

There were hundreds of solid rocks there, in various shapes, the large ones reaching over twenty zhang high and the small ones only four or five zhang, standing in the yellow sand, forming a small stone forest.

If time were pushed back 160 or 170 years, this should have been a place of overlapping mountains and beautiful waters. But now, only yellow sand and giant rocks remained.

Red Cliff Road—He Chunhua had walked it nearly a hundred times, and he basically had an impression of every detail. But he didn't remember seeing this scenery at all.

He Lingchuan looked carefully for a long time and hissed: "No."

"Think carefully."

Thinking carefully again, there was still nothing.

Zhao Qinghe and several other personal guards also said they hadn't seen it.

He Chunhua said with a dark face: "A scene I've never seen before has appeared on Red Cliff Road; who can tell me what's going on?"

Everyone looked at each other, and no one could say why.

"There is already discussion in the army, saying it's as if this road has never been walked before." Zhao Qinghe asked, "My lord, should we continue to pursue?"

He Chunhua also hesitated.

Ever since the wild sand season disappeared inexplicably, the Panlong Desert had become even more eerie and unpredictable; now even the Red Cliff Road, which the army walked on, had changed quietly.

One must know that the army had Yuan power to rely on, so no maze or ghost-wall could block their eyes; the army was also mostly locals, so the mistake that shouldn't appear was taking the wrong road.

However, now they were inexplicably lost.

Killing the enemy was certainly important, but for the sake of safety, should they return home? Besides, the army was also exhausted from the pursuit, and they hadn't prepared more food and water before entering the desert.

Thinking of this, He Chunhua decisively said: "Let's go back."

"Yes."

Zhao Qinghe went to pass the order.

The Soul-Absorbing Mirror in He Lingchuan's arms asked him: "You know what's going on with the changes in this Red Cliff Road, right?"

It had recognized its master halfway, and was unfamiliar with Heishuicheng or Red Cliff Road. But even the local natives were lost, so this road must be haunted.

With people nearby, He Lingchuan found it inconvenient to answer, just giving a vague "hmm."

Of course he knew! Including He Chunhua, the Red Cliff Road that the Heishuicheng people were used to walking was actually the official road used by the Great Wind Army and merchants to pass through the Panlong Desert over a hundred years ago; at that time, there were many branches and forks; after the fall of Panlong City and the appearance of the wild sand season, only a few official roads remained that were not eroded by wind and sand, which later generations called Red Cliff Road.

What the Heishuicheng people were used to walking were just these few.

But after the wild sand season disappeared, the many forks buried under the sand would "occasionally" reveal themselves.

Occasionally.

Others didn't know how to walk them, but He Lingchuan did.

When he was patrolling in the Panlong world, he had walked these forks countless times, and had even watered his horses and caught wild rabbits in the stone forest that He Chunhua had just pointed to.

The Cangzhou of the past, the sand mountain of today—no one on the scene was more emotional than He Lingchuan.

He had shed sweat and blood for this land, but in the blink of an eye, a hundred years of time had passed.

All gone.

Putting these thoughts aside, He Lingchuan was very clear that whether it was the Andong people fleeing in front or the Heishuicheng army pursuing from behind, they were actually heading toward the Panlong ruins!

And they were taking a shortcut.

This pulling force in the dark came from the Great Fang Hu.

Of course, he didn't say a word.

Just then, a sandstorm suddenly blew up in the desert.

The strong wind carried yellow sand and scraped against people's faces. The world was a dim yellow, and the living couldn't see their own fingers.

Both the front and rear teams were startled, thinking the wild sand season had returned. However, there were no three-corpse insects, no ghosts, and no spirits of the Great Wind Army demanding lives in this sandstorm.

It was just a simple sandstorm.

But in the desert, even a simple sandstorm could cost lives. He Chunhua could only direct the army to quickly rush into the stone forest two li away to take shelter.

There, the rocks were rugged, some as wide and thick as screens, which could block the strong wind and sand.

This wind came fiercely; although it couldn't compare to the bone-scraping gale of the Fu Realm, it could easily flip a thin person to the ground and bury them under the yellow sand.

Most of the Heishuicheng soldiers were locals and were no strangers to the desert and Red Cliff Road; finally hiding under the rock wall, they hurriedly took out their headscarves to wrap their heads, covered their faces, and lay behind the giant rocks with their mounts.

Facing the might of heaven, humans had no choice but to pray for the sandstorm to pass quickly.

After raging for two hours, the sandstorm finally ended.

Everyone crawled out of the sand piles, all covered in dust, with sand even caught in their eyelashes.

He Chunhua shook the yellow sand off his cloak, looked around, and was dumbfounded: "Where is Red Cliff Road?"

They had been walking on Red Cliff Road, but after this sandstorm passed, the surroundings were all a vast sea of sand; Red Cliff Road was actually gone!

Covered by yellow sand?

He Chunhua immediately sent out scouts to scout in several directions.

Generals kept coming over to consult on the next step.

Everyone wanted to know how to walk from here. The soldiers had been chasing the enemy all night and were now tired and thirsty, needing rest.

The hunting falcon in the army flew into the sky, circled for a long time before flying down and saying: "Only desert can be seen for thirty li around; there is no road."

He Chunhua asked it: "Can you fly back to Heishuicheng?"

The hunting falcon's answer was no; its perception of direction seemed to have failed.

Not long after, the ground scouts returned to report that no signs of Red Cliff Road could be found anywhere.

This road seemed to have disappeared from the surface.

The Andong people's whereabouts were also unknown; they must be lost just like them.

Even someone as alert and calm as He Chunhua felt a bit lost at this moment.

The battle to defend Heishuicheng had been a great victory so far, and they could return in triumph. But where was the road home?

He Chunhua immediately went to invite Zhang Lianhai, wanting to see if the Tiangong had any means to escape the current predicament.

"Direction?" Zhang Lianhai sneered slightly. "My lamp spirit never gets lost. But we have other places to go; we don't have time to accompany you back!"

He Chunhua was about to persuade him, when Qiu Hu suddenly said: "You haven't tried it, how do you know it still works?"

Zhang Lianhai's attendant retorted: "What a joke, our Tiangong's Eternal Lamp Spirit has infinite uses; you are all ignorant!"

Ling Jinbao, an elder of the Jianyang Sect on the side, coughed: "How about letting us open our eyes?"

Zhang Lianhai had no choice but to take out a platinum candle from his bosom, light it, and say softly to the floating lamp spirit: "Point out the direction of Heishuicheng."

The lamp spirit flew into mid-air, drifting left and right, not answering for a long time.

Everyone stared eagerly, waiting for it to determine the direction.

Finally, the lamp spirit flew back and shrank into a tiny ball on the candle, revealing that Zhang Lianhai's complexion was very ugly.

Qiu Hu crossed his arms and asked: "Can you find it?"

Zhang Lianhai's attendant was incredulous: "N-no way, right?"

The Eternal Lamp Spirit had long been nurtured by the offerings in the Tiangong; how could it fail to recognize the direction because of some strange evil? How could this Panlong Desert be so mysterious?

Zhang Lianhai's face was as dark as water.

Fortunately, a sentry not far away suddenly shouted, relieving him: "There's movement ahead!"

Everyone crawled out from behind the rock wall and looked; in the distance ahead, a bright red light shot straight into the sky.

It was already dawn, but that light was more dazzling than the usual morning glow.

Soon, an anomaly appeared in the sky; the inverted city like a mirage appeared again.

Zhang Lianhai and the others immediately said: "We are going there."

Needless to say, everyone knew the Panlong ruins were there.

The various factions whistled a few times, preparing to break away from the Heishuicheng army and head toward the red light.

He Chunhua's thoughts raced, and he asked He Lingchuan: "Chuan'er, what do you think? Should we follow the red light, or find another way home?"

The plot of this volume is about to take another turn; for everyone's reading experience to be smoother, starting from this chapter, it will be changed back to a daily update of 6,000 words.

Love you all, mwah.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 838 =====