Chapter 1291

The squad leader at the head nodded, his eyes cooling as well.

Soon, among the Eternal Night Legion, the cooing of the gugu birds used for special communication rang out.

The night deepened further.

The biting cold wind in the canyon seemed to pierce straight through their clothes, and the eerie howling gusts at their ears, together with the nightingale calls drifting down from above the canyon, seemed to form a terrifying symphony.

The squad leader inside the carriage felt a sudden urge to urinate. Instinctively, he pushed away the woman clinging to him, put on his clothes, stepped down from the carriage, and in his groggy state, glanced at his companions by the fire. Then he walked to the edge of the canyon, undid his trousers, and had a good release.

As his body's reserves emptied, his head gradually cleared. Still uneasy, he looked again at the companions leaning against the fire—each one sprawled out or propped against the wall, sleeping soundly. Another quiet and boring night; days like this were making him feel he was going to rot away.

Especially after he had snatched a woman from a merchant caravan not long ago, he felt he was growing more and more depraved.

"Wait, where's Gus, the one on night watch? Slacking off again?"

The squad leader angrily tied up his trousers and walked straight toward the fire.

"Where's Gus?"

The moment the question left his mouth, the squad leader seemed to sense something was off—because no one answered him.

"Tch… fallen asleep by the fire again, sleeping so soundly—what if the enemy comes?" Seeing Gus sleeping with his head on his own knee, the squad leader kicked him in anger. That kick sent the Gus he had just spoken of sprawling flat on the ground, and at the same time, a stone slab toppled over from one side of Gus.

"What's going on?"

Only now did the squad leader suddenly realize something terrifying. Not only did Gus not wake from the kick, but the surroundings were far too quiet—quiet enough that even his companions' snoring couldn't be heard.

He hadn't even heard any breathing. Were they already dead?

He was so startled that he wanted to grab his weapon, but he had realized it far too late.

At that moment, a man in black behind the squad leader swiftly pressed up against him, seized his terrified head with both hands, and his vision went black. The next second, his neck was twisted and snapped.

"Captain, is it all taken care of?"

Apart from the scout who had made the move, the other four also emerged from their respective hiding spots. The captain asked coldly.

"All done, except for the woman in the carriage."

"Kill her too! Then clean up the traces here… we move out!"

"Yes!"

After one of the scouts also took care of the woman in the carriage, the rest carried all the corpses into the carriage. The traces at the scene were cleaned over again, making it look as though no one had ever been there at all—except for the still-burning campfire and the three carriage compartments parked around it.

"Move out!"

"Yes!"

An hour later, the main force followed the trail all the way here. Based on the special markers left by the advance scouts, it showed that they had discovered enemy infiltrators here who had deliberately disguised themselves as merchant caravan members. Fortunately, they had been spotted and killed.

After Lord Xuan Wuji sent people to inspect, the situation here was confirmed: they were indeed soldiers from enemy nations disguised as such. The weapons in the carriage and the faces of those killed all proved they were not people of the Chirperi Kingdom, but of the Lei Dun Kingdom or the Taji Kingdom.

The beliefs and customs of the Empire and the Chirperi Kingdom had already largely merged with each other over a hundred years ago, and even the common people of the two countries had intermarried to a great extent. The faces of ordinary Chirperi citizens somewhat resembled the Eastern features of their Emperor Tianwu Empire; only the pure Westerners like those of Lei Dun and Taji had such tall, hooked eagle noses.

"Move out! Try to rendezvous with the scout squad before dawn!"

The advance scout squad, after another two hours of marching, soon discovered another enemy camp!

This time there were many enemy troops. The other side had even built a temporary wooden wall and palisade inside the natural-choke canyon, completely sealing off the road. The wooden wall was a full three meters high, and with an equally tall wooden gate, plus the very limited terrain inside the natural-choke canyon, a frontal assault was clearly not a good option.

The advance scout squad had no choice but to stop here. The terrain inside the natural-choke canyon was limited, and the enemy had planted torches on both canyon walls in front of the wooden wall. Under such conditions, no matter how skilled the scouts were at concealment, they had nowhere to hide, let alone get close.

"What do we do now, Captain?"

"The straight-line distance from here to the wooden wall is at least a hundred meters. We can't get across. We'll have to wait for the legion commander and the others to arrive, rely on our numbers, and best to use fire attack. Once the wooden wall falls, the advantage will be ours."

"For now, rest on the spot."

"Yes!"

The five, being well-trained scouts, immediately rested on the spot, making almost no sound at all, and even their breathing seemed to slow to an extreme.

As the hour drew close to dawn, the main force's vanguard finally made contact with the scouts. The scout leader briefly described what they had discovered, hoping the legion commander would give orders at once.

In the rear, Lord Xuan Wuji, Lei Yi, and Li Chun received the frontline scouts' situation report: the enemy had set up a temporary fortress inside the natural-choke canyon.