Chapter Five: The Unexpected Turn of Events

  Riding on the back of Huo Lin, Chen Pan was somewhat excited. Although he had also enlisted for many years, he had never fought against enemies from other countries before. Not to mention his past life, the enemy of the Earth Alliance was only the universe, and conquering the universe was humanity's main goal.

  It's really laughable, in my previous life I was someone who only knew how to operate instruments, couldn't even hold a pen properly, and relied on computers for everything, the epitome of being unable to truss up a chicken. Who would have thought that in this life I'd be wielding an axe and riding horses as a general? Fate is indeed peculiar.

  The Eagle's Beak Rock is not far away, two hours later, a rock resembling a giant eagle's head comes into view.

  "Halt!" Chen P'an shouted loudly, and the five thousand light cavalry, well-trained, immediately came to a stop.

  A soldier over two meters tall, with a sturdy build and wearing animal hide, rode up on horseback and asked: "General, what are your orders?" This was Chahar's temporarily assigned deputy officer, named Li Yu. Although his name sounded elegant, he looked like an ape.

  "Strange, how did the sky turn dark?" Chen Pan asked in surprise, it was sunny just now, but suddenly it became gloomy, as if night had fallen.

  "Is it dark? No! There's such a big sun!" Li Yu replied even more surprisingly, pointing at the sky.

  Chen Pan raised his head and took a look. Indeed, the sun was still overhead, but it seemed to be blocked by layers of dark fog, and the sunlight couldn't penetrate through.

  "Where did this black fog come from? How did it become so treacherous!" Chen Pan said with a furrowed brow.

  Li Yuyi looked at his general with a puzzled expression: "General, I don't see any black fog!" Then he muttered to himself: "This Liao Lang country's general must be crazy. This Eagle Mouth Rock is tens of miles around and doesn't even have a single tree, yet they're stationed here under the scorching sun. We don't need to attack them, they'll probably all die from heatstroke."

  "What?" Chen Pan was shocked, he clearly didn't feel even half a degree of the intense heat, and there was even a faint chill in the air, but Li Yu said something that was completely opposite to what he felt.

  "You, step forward!" Chen Pan shouted at a soldier, who immediately rode his horse over.

  "Can you see the dark fog in the sky?" Chen Pan shouted, pointing at the sky. The soldier immediately shook his head: "Report to the general, I don't see it, the sun is too dazzling." Chen Pan called out several more soldiers, and the answer was exactly the same.

  "General, is there a problem?" Li Yu asked curiously, he didn't know what Chen Pan was doing, and if he continued like this, the other side might discover the tracks of his large army.

  Chen Pan shook his head: "Nothing, let me think about how to fight." Although he said so with his mouth, his heart was somewhat flustered. This was so unusual that there must be something strange here. If it were in the past, Chen Pan would have undoubtedly led his troops to retreat without hesitation, or retreated a distance and camped on the spot to observe changes, but now he couldn't do so.

  The frontline suffered a crushing defeat, and an urgent victory was needed. He led his 5,000 troops to rush to the scene, but retreated without even putting up half a fight. The rumor spread that the 5,000 elite soldiers were intimidated by the enemy's 1,000 men, which would be a devastating blow to the already low morale of the Jinwu Kingdom.

  Chen Pan's mind kept flashing with ideas, only to be vetoed by himself one by one. After a long time, Chen Pan felt that the soldiers' eyes looking at him were already somewhat puzzled, and he couldn't help but sigh, it seemed that he could only force his way through. The commander was suspicious, which was a great taboo on the battlefield. At this moment, the long-handled axe swung, and with a loud voice, he ordered: "Follow me in the charge!" His legs clamped together, and Hu Lin rushed towards Eagle's Beak Rock like a red lightning bolt.

  The five thousand elite troops didn't know why the general thought for half a day before charging forward, but they were eager for battle and as soon as they thought about the victory that was within their grasp, they didn't think twice and followed with loud whoops.

  In the blink of an eye, a thousand soldiers from Liao Lang appeared before their eyes, rapidly closing in. Chen Pan took the lead on horseback, his axe splitting the soldier at the forefront into two halves. Having cultivated the "Pan Jue" and "Dong Jue" for over ten years, Chen Pan had already reached the pinnacle of acquired mastery, and among ordinary people, he was considered a top-notch expert.

  The general's mighty appearance boosted the morale of the soldiers, who launched a frenzied charge and slaughtered the enemy in front of them.

  It's okay, no siege! Chen Pan let out a sigh of relief in his heart, it seems that only his own eyes had a problem. Alas, he didn't know what kind of eye disease this was, and this world probably doesn't have an ophthalmology hospital either. Chen Pan thought to himself with a wry smile, but his hands didn't slow down, and he chopped down two more. The combat strength of these soldiers seems not very strong, the battle should be settled within half an hour.

  The surrounding dark fog seemed to be getting thicker, Chen Pán raised his head and even felt that he couldn't see the sun anymore. However, his soldiers seemed to be completely unaffected, fighting more bravely as they went on. Although victory was within sight, Chen Pán still couldn't muster up any excitement. He always felt that something wasn't quite right, but he couldn't put his finger on what it was.

  "What's wrong with the people of this Liao country, they become so ugly when they die!" Li Yu whispered to Chen Pan, who had been repeatedly reminded by Chahar to protect Chen Pan when he came to serve as his deputy, now that Chen Pan was no longer in a hurry, he could only follow beside him.

  Chen Pan listened to Li Yu's words, looked down and saw the beheaded head of a Liao soldier, with patches of dark red and purple bruises all over his face, looking very disgusting.

  It didn't seem like a big deal at first, but upon closer inspection, Chen Pan suddenly felt all the hairs on his body stand up, and a chill spread through his heart in an instant. This purple bruise was not unfamiliar to Chen Pan. Although he had never encountered it in his previous life, this life after joining the army, he had handled many murder cases between tribes. This kind of purple bruise only appeared on corpses, it was livor mortis.

  Moreover, putting aside the corpses, Chen Pao discovered an even more terrifying thing - all these corpses had no blood. Over a thousand people were about to be slaughtered, but as he looked around, the entire battlefield was devoid of any bloodstains, with only some dark, murky liquid visible.

  These were all corpses, and the more than 5,000 light cavalry he had killed were over a thousand lifeless corpses. If this were in his past life, Chen Pao would absolutely not believe that corpses could move like ordinary people, but this life was different. Thinking again about what his father said about the possibility of someone joining the war, Chen Pao immediately gave an order without hesitation: "Everyone retreats, quickly, use the fastest way to retreat." After saying so, he took the lead and went in the direction they came from, the soldiers were unclear, seeing their general like this, also followed cleanly behind.

  "Run, haha, can you run away? Thousand Ghosts Soul Capture Array, activate!" Suddenly, a low and hoarse voice seemed to come from the depths of the underworld, slowly spreading out. Countless black mists surged in from all directions. Upon closer inspection, those black mists appeared to be composed of smoke-like people gathering together, forming an array. Wave after wave of wailing voices came from within the black mist, mournful and terrifying!

  Chen Pan raised his head and saw a figure suspended in mid-air, its appearance unclear. Two eyes emitted a faint green glow, as if a venomous snake had locked onto its prey. Chen Pan suddenly felt a chill run from head to toe. A cultivator, the barbarian's term for an immortal.