Chapter 577: The Iron Crow Army's Direct Move

Yancheng, night, the night before the breakout.

In the shadows deep within the baggage camp, Wang Jun's heart pounded like a drum.

He clutched a small packet in his hand, not gunpowder, but something more secretive.

——several specially made pieces of moldy soybean cake mixed with fine sand and rotting grass, and a small bottle of colorless, odorless viscous liquid.

The former, when mixed into the last batch of rations to be distributed tomorrow, would not be instantly lethal.

But it would cause abdominal pain and weakness, leaving one unable to run at a critical moment.

The latter, smeared on some arrowheads destined for secret distribution tonight to the vanguard's Iron Sparrow Army, would cause wounds to fester and refuse to heal upon contact with blood.

These were secretly provided by the Envoy, said to be a certain secret medicine from the northern lands, leaving no trace of ordinary poison upon inspection.

The operation must be swift, completed before the Marshal returns to the city to take command and before inspections grow stricter.

He crept close to the grain stack, two trusted soldiers he had bribed pretending to stand guard, nervously looking around.

Suddenly.

In the deeper shadow beside the grain stack, something writhed silently.

Wang Jun's hairs stood on end, and he jerked his head around.

There was nothing.

Only the night wind whimpered through the gaps in the canopy.

He exhaled, silently chiding himself for being jumpy, and signaled his aides to hurry.

Just as that soldier took the soybean cake piece and turned to leave.

From the darkness atop the grain stack, a thin, black shadow nearly blending with the night dropped down like a bat!

It made no sound.

Only a thread of black light flashed.

That soldier felt a chill at his neck, his eyes widening in terror as the soybean cake fell from his hand; he clutched at his throat in vain, feeling only a smooth, icy slit, before blood began to gush.

Another aide, scared witless and about to cry out, found the black shadow glide silently to his rear, the same black light flashing again.

Thud.

The second body slumped to the ground.

Wang Jun froze in place, his crotch instantly soaked, his teeth chattering as he watched the black shadow slowly turn.

Still wearing that dark cloak, but its aura was even more chilling and inhuman than before.

Beneath the hood, it seemed not a face but a deep, bottomless darkness.

Only two faint, greenish lights glimmered, like ghost fire.

"Waste……"

A hoarse, dry voice, not from a human throat but like metal scraping.

The shadow lifted its foot, crushing the packet of soybean cake and the medicine bottle into powder.

"The Lord commands."

"Clean up, accelerate."

"You, follow me."

Wang Jun's mind went blank, his legs weak, as if shoved by an invisible chill, he stumbled after the shadow drifting deeper into the storehouse.

There, piles of damaged armor and weapons awaited repair.

The shadow stopped before a seemingly ordinary suit of iron armor, pressed a seam, and a hidden compartment sprang open, yielding two objects.

A piece about the size of half a palm, wholly black, its surface etched with strange spiral patterns, cold to the touch.

A short whistle apparently made of human bone, carved all over with dense dark-red runes.

"Take it."

The shadow thrust the bone whistle into Wang Jun's trembling hand.

"At the third watch of the child hour, at the camp's water source, blow it."

"No force needed—just a gentle puff."

"This…… this is……"

Wang Jun's voice shook uncontrollably.

"The Guide Whistle."

The shadow's voice was devoid of emotion.

"After blowing it, stay where you are, no matter what you see or hear—do not move, do not speak."

"When it's done, someone will meet you to lead you out of the camp and point to Yue Fei."

"And…… what is this?" Wang Jun gazed at the black slice.

The shadow pressed the slice against the armor's heartguard, and with a light push it seemed to melt, seeping into the iron and vanishing.

Only a faint, almost imperceptible dark line remained on the heartguard's surface.

"This armor will 'coincidentally' be issued tomorrow to one of Yue Fei's personal guards."

Having spoken, the shadow ignored the collapsed Wang Jun, its form dissolving into ink.

It silently dissipated among the shadows of towering junk, as if it had never been.

Almost at the same moment.

Northwest of Yancheng, the concealed hill camp of the Northward Aspiration Army and Yue Yun's detachment.

Lin Chong could not sleep.

He was conferring with Guan Sheng, Hu Yanzhuo, Yue Yun and the others for a final check of the mountain-pass ambush details.

The map lay spread on a stone, weighed down by a few small pebbles.

Night wind slipped through the gaps in the trees, bringing the chill of deep autumn and the faint whinny of horses from the distant Jin army camp.

Suddenly, Lin Chong's hand gripping the small flag paused slightly.

It was not because he heard an abnormal sound.

but a kind of intuition honed by countless brushes with death on the battlefield.

It felt like an icy needle suddenly pricking the back of his neck.

Almost simultaneously, from the direction of the dark sentry at the northwest corner of the camp's perimeter came an extremely short sound, like a muffled groan with a hand over the mouth, and then everything fell silent.

"Enemy attack!!"

Lin Chong let out a low roar, his spear already in hand.

"Extinguish the fires! Be on guard!"

The well-trained Northward Aspiration Army and Defiant Army soldiers instantly acted, kicking apart the campfires, grabbing their weapons, relying on rocks and trees, and quickly forming a defensive circle.

Yue Yun, young and quick to react, drew his twin hammers in a flash, widened his eyes toward the darkness: "Is the Jin army sneaking up on us?"

"Not likely."

Guan Sheng focused his attention, listening closely, his brows locked tight.

"Their numbers are few…… but the movement is wrong."

Before his words could finish,

From the southeast and southwest directions of the camp, almost simultaneously came the sound of bowstrings trembling!

It was not the sharp whistle of ordinary arrows cutting the air, but a lower, shorter "hiss-hiss" sound.

Several soldiers who reacted a bit slower and whose bodies were exposed collapsed at the sound; their wounds were not vital, but located in the shoulders and legs, where the arrow impact instantly spread an unnatural bluish-black hue, the men twitched twice and then lost consciousness.

"The arrows are poisoned! Beware of hidden shots!" Huyan Zhuo shouted loudly.

Yet the archer left no trace; the arrow seemed to have been shot from the shadow itself.

Lin Chong's eyes were sharp, he held his breath and focused. Though the power bestowed by Chen Wen before departure had mostly faded, a trace of the heightened perception remained.

He detected an extremely faint, unnatural "writhing" in the shadow of the gnarled roots of an old tree to his front-left.

"There!"

His spear in hand turned into a flash of cold light, which he threw!

Woo—!

The spear tip tore through the air, piercing precisely into that shadow.

There was no scream.

Only a muffled sound like leather being pierced, and a sudden burst of icy, foul breath.

The shadow violently twisted and dissipated, revealing a blurry figure clad in tight black clothing, slightly distorted in form, stumbling into view with Lin Chong's spear embedded in its chest.

That figure seemed to try to pull out the spear, but its movement froze, and then the whole person collapsed like a wind‑dried sand sculpture, quickly turning into black smoke and dispersing.

Only the spear, still trembling, remained, along with a few pieces of strange leaves on the ground that quickly withered and turned black.

"What… what kind of monster is this?!" Yue Yun exclaimed, his scalp going numb.

"Whatever it is, kill it!"

Lin Chong strode forward, retrieved his spear; the tip sent a bone‑chilling cold, and was still smeared with some sticky black grime.

The assault did not cease.

More eerie black shadows "emerged" from the shadows around the camp.

They moved silently, with extreme speed, their attack methods sly and vicious—blades and light crossbows.

Even their bare‑handed scratches carried that uncomfortable yin chill and foul aura.

The Northward Aspiration Army and Defiant Army were both battle‑hardened elites; though initially startled they did not panic, forming ranks to resist.

But these shadows were too uncanny; when wounded they often turned into black smoke and dispersed, making them hard to kill completely.

Moreover, the darkness and terrain greatly enhanced their ability to appear and disappear at will.

For a time, screams and muffled groans echoed continuously within the camp, and chaos spread.

"Gather! Back to back! Light torches! Illuminate the surroundings!" Lin Chong shouted, having just slain two of the black shadows.

The torches quickly lit, their flickering light indeed made the shadows' movements show a slight sluggishness; they seemed to dislike brightness.

Yet by the firelight, everyone could also make out some features of these attackers.

The black clothing was not fabric, but more like a smooth kind of skin; they wore expressionless death‑white masks on their faces, behind the eye holes glowing with a greenish light;

Their weapons were not standard issue, many bearing hooks and barbs, shedding an ominous dark hue.

"They are the 'Yin Shadows'!"

Yue Yun suddenly recalled what his father and Mr. Shi Dun had occasionally mentioned—the inhuman lackeys under the Iron Crow Army—and couldn't help but cry out.

Iron Crow Army!

They actually launched a direct assault on the outer camp of the Northward Aspiration Army and the Yue Family Army!

This meant the enemy was no longer satisfied with behind‑the‑scenes manipulation, but had begun to directly eliminate obstacles!

"Hold the line! They are here to disturb us and sabotage tomorrow's operation!"

Lin Chong instantly understood, the chill in his heart deepening.

The Iron Crow Army's move was not just to kill, but also to throw their deployment into disarray.

To drain their energy and cause tomorrow's interception mission to fail!

The battle grew ever more fierce.

The shadows seemed few in number, but each was tough to deal with, skilled in coordinated strikes and assassination, specifically targeting command nodes and elite soldiers.

The camp's tranquility was completely shattered, and casualties began to rise.

Just as Lin Chong and the others were becoming entrenched in a bitter struggle.

Inside Yingcheng, Yue Fei had just secretly returned to the commander's tent.

He didn't even have time to change out of his dust-covered casual clothes, and was listening to Niu Gao and others report on the city's preparations, as well as the anomaly of Wang Jun taking leave today and not returning.

Suddenly.

The leather tent on one side of the commander's tent silently tore open without any warning.

A black shadow, more solid and with a deeper aura than the attackers outside, seemed to split from the tent's own shadow and lunged straight at Yue Fei!

Its speed was such that only an afterimage remained!

In its hand was a dark, lightless short stab, pointing directly at Yue Fei's back!

"Marshal, watch out!"

The guard captain standing nearby, eyes bloodshot, threw himself forward, using his body to block between Yue Fei and the short stab.

Pfft!

The short stab pierced through the leather armor without resistance and sank into the guard's chest.

The guard shuddered, his face instantly turning ashen, yet he clung tightly to the arm wielding the black shadow's short stab, hoarsely shouting: "Assassin!!"

Niu Gao and the other generals roared and drew their swords.

Having missed its strike, the black shadow decisively discarded the short stab, shifted its form, and slipped like a fish from the guard's rigid embrace, then backhanded a palm into the face of another guard lunging forward.

That guard, as if struck heavily, flew backward; upon landing, black blood oozed from his seven apertures—he was already dead.

The black shadow did not linger; after the strike it fled, its form drifting backward like a ghost, about to melt once more into the tent's shadows.

"Where do you think you're going?!"

Yue Fei reacted extremely fast; as the guard lunged, he had already sidestepped and drawn his sword, now striking out in anger—his sword light like a silk thread, carving a exquisite arc that cut off the black shadow's retreat.

The sword blade grazed the black shadow's shoulder, sending a spray of dark sparks, as if it had struck some extraordinarily tough metal-leather.

The black shadow's stance paused slightly; its greenish eyes seemed to glance at Yue Fei—a gaze icy and vengeful, devoid of life.

The next moment, its body suddenly burst apart, transforming into dozens of palm-sized 'crows' formed of thick black vapor, emitting a silent screech.

They scattered and shot forth, slipping through the tent's seams and vanishing into the night outside.

Inside the tent, only the guard captain with a dark short stab lodged in his chest—already dead—and another guard who had bled from his seven apertures and collapsed remained.

Also left on the ground were a few black stains that quickly evaporated, and the air retained a nauseating, icy foulness.

Niu Gao and the others held their knives at the ready, their faces grim beyond words.

Yue Fei slowly sheathed his sword, gazing at the two guards who had died for him on the ground; his eyes held mingled grief and fury, plus a deep chill.

Iron Crow Army...

They actually infiltrated the commander's tent directly to assassinate!

Their tendrils have already reached this place.

Moreover, their movements were so synchronized... Lin Chong and the others outside the city likely also encountered an attack.

"Clean up the traces, give the two brothers a proper burial."

Yue Fei's voice was hoarse, yet unusually calm.

"Strengthen the guard, especially around each commander. The breakout plan... remains unchanged."

He lifted his gaze, as if his sight could pierce the tent walls, looking toward the hills beyond the city, then toward Lin'an, and finally toward those ever-present dark corners.

"It seems someone desires our demise even more than Jin Wuzhu does."

"Very well."

He gripped his sword hilt until his knuckles whitened.

"Then let's see—is it your shadow's advantage, or is the blade of my Yue Family Army faster!"

The night grew deeper.

Bloodlust and conspiracy, like an invisible net, suddenly tightened on the eve of the breakout.