Chapter One: The General Falls Ill

  At this time, Lei Meng noticed that Tong Dashuai's momentum had changed too much, and his face seemed to be even paler. He stared at Tong Dashuai and asked: "General Tong, I don't know why your body is so weak?" As soon as he finished asking, he suddenly thought of the assassin who stabbed Tong Dashuai in the right chest last time.

  "What? General Tong, you have a fever?" Lei Meng asked anxiously.

  "Ah?!" Yang Tian also shouted in surprise, "That's trouble, there's no anti-inflammatory medicine here." Tong Dashuai and the other two looked at Yang Tian in unison, puzzled as to what anti-inflammatory medicine was.

  Yang Tian wiped his mouth and continued: "Hehe, that's the medicine used to treat General Tong's injury and fever."

  "We've been looking too, but we haven't found any. There aren't many good doctors in this city either." Mr. Wen sighed and said.

  "What's the temperature now?" Yang Tian asked again, but he didn't dare ask how many degrees, as there was no such concept here.

  The thunder is silent, because it's obvious without trying, this must be a high fever.

  Mr. Wen said: "After crossing the river, General Tong has been burning with fever all along. It's already been half a month now, and it doesn't seem to be receding at all - on the contrary, he's getting weaker and weaker."

  Lei Meng and Yang Tian secretly admired him, what a tenacious person he was. But admiring him was of no use? Without medical treatment, and with the enemy approaching, the army would have to move out, rushing about in all directions. If they could hold on for another day or two, they might be able to escape with their lives. The two thought this way in their hearts, but dared not speak recklessly, standing silently and motionless.

  Tong Dashuai saw that everyone had calmed down, the atmosphere was heavy, he forced a smile and comforted: "Everyone doesn't need to worry, we've already endured for half a month, just endure for another ten days or half a month. Besides, without Lei Ying and Yang Tian, the two were killed by Chu Fei outside Wujicheng. Let's all go clean up, call me when you're done."

  "General..." Mr. Wen was somewhat at a loss.

  "Go ahead. I can still hold on." After finishing speaking, he waved his hand and let everyone leave.

  After everyone left helplessly for a while, Tong Dashuai's whole body was shaking violently...

  After half an hour, another scout returned with an arrow on his back. The scout with the arrow on his back fell down in front of the city master's mansion and was rushed into the hall by the guards at the door. It happened that General Tong was still there. When the scout saw General Tong, his eyes suddenly lit up, and he loudly reported: "Report to the general, the Haotian army is attacking, with about 100,000 people, and they are now seven kilometers away. Be careful, brothers!..."

  As soon as he finished saying this sentence, his eyes dimmed and his neck twisted, and he died.

  Tong Da Shuai's eyes moistened as he said, "Help this brother to a quieter place and cremate him."

  The guard responded with a choked voice: "Yes! I'll go and do it now." After finishing speaking, he carried the scout on his back and walked out steadily. This whole way, Haotian still didn't know where to bury his bones...

  After five or six minutes, Mr. Wen and Huang Chucome to invite General Tong to set off. Supporting General Tong's hand, he felt a wave of heat entering his body. Mr. Wen's heart trembled with fear, calling out: "General..."

  "Let's go." Tong Dashuai ordered hastily. Huang Chu was deeply moved by what he saw, no wonder Luoyang Tian admired Tong Wen Zheng so much...

  As soon as they came out of the door, two soldiers were already waiting with a stretcher tied to a chair. The three of them, including General Tong, looked puzzled, and then Yang Tian's voice came from afar: "General Tong, please sit down, no need to be so tired."

  Tong Dashuai was touched in his heart, everyone is so concerned about me.

  "Alright! I'm going up." After finishing speaking, Tong Dashuai walked forward and sat on the chair. Then the two soldiers "heh" lifted the frame and walked out of the city, with Mr. Wen and Huang Chu hastily following behind.

  Tong Dashuai and others led the Jin Yuan army, carrying dry rations on their backs, holding long guns, and wearing copper swords. They left Huangyue City in a majestic manner, heading straight for the great mountains to the north. The vast and majestic mountains to the north were called Liuyue Mountain, with the main peak sixty kilometers away from Huangyue City, but the lower areas were only five kilometers outside of Huangyue. The trees on the mountain grew lushly, and from a distance, all that could be seen was a continuous stretch of trees reaching up to the sky, with nothing but greenery in sight.

  The sun is about to set, and the sky will soon be dark. The trees are so dense that it's hard to see far away. The Jin army sent some soldiers ahead to clear a path, and then they entered the forest. Perhaps because there were no people cutting down trees here, the trees grew very tall and large. Although it was dark in the forest, lighting torches made it possible to pass through.

  Not long after the Jin army entered the forest of Liushan Mountain, they heard from afar the joyful cheers from Huayue City: "Long live Emperor Hua! Long live!"

  Although it was a strong army that attacked an empty city, bringing Huáng Yuè back was still exciting for the soldiers. This is also a great achievement - at the very least, many lives were saved.

  They were not happy, however, as their commander Liu Jin received a scout's report that the Jin army had abandoned the city and headed towards Liushan Mountain. At that time, he looked at the long shadows of his men in the sunset and sighed before ordering the whole army to advance on Haoyue. Because he knew that when the Haotian army arrived at Liushan Mountain, it would already be completely dark, making it difficult to engage in battle, and instead easy to get confused and trampled due to the large number of people.

  Liu Jin was not tall, only 1.65 meters, with a sturdy build, dark brown hair tied back, his face was stern and his eyes could give people a piercing feeling when staring at them.

  Liu Jin ordered the great army of Haotian to enter the city and rest, leaving some sentries outside and deploying some scouts in the distance to patrol - he also wanted to guard against a counterattack by the Jin Yuan army.

  The Jin army marched for a while after entering the mountain forest before night fell. The soldiers carefully lit a fire and cooked their meals. Afterwards, the generals sat by the fire pit to discuss advancing in the dark of night. Luoyang Tian suggested: "Why don't we march through the night? This way, we can cover more ground."

  Taking advantage of the Heavenly Army's rest, continue on the road, undoubtedly a foolish move, only this unfamiliar mountain road, afraid that walking at night will get lost.

  Huang Chu first raised an objection: "General Luo, it's hard to see the stars in the sky when we're among the trees. If we move now, we might get lost." General Luo didn't respond and instead looked at Mr. Wen, Lei Ming, and Yang Tian.

  Yang Tian thought for a moment and said: "Why don't we walk for a while first, and then rest again. No matter how far we go, it's better to be at ease."

  Look at General Tong, who was shaking slightly. Lei Meng asked worriedly: "General Tong, how are you feeling now? Can you still hold on?"

  Tong Dashuai shook again and said: "You don't have to consider so much about Tong, just do what you need to do." It seems that even when he's sick, Tong Dashuai is still so tough.

  "Alright, let's follow the general's words. I think it's better for our troops to move forward a bit more, otherwise we'll still be easily surrounded by them. Once we're surrounded, it'll be hard to escape."

  "And they can also set fire to the mountain, even if it doesn't reach us, it will scare us into running around." Yang Tian added. Luoyang Tian, Mr. Wen and Huang Chu lowered their heads in silence.

  The weak-looking Tong Da Shuai's eyes lit up and he said: "That means we can leave some opportunities for them to chase after us, and then set a fire to burn them?"

  Luoyang Tian and several others exchanged a glance, stunned! Tong Dashuai was burned to a crisp, if he could burn people outside the mountain, those inside the mountain had nowhere to hide.

  Lei Meng pointed at General Tong, who suddenly felt a surge of energy and fell to the ground. Lei Meng quickly helped him up, saying: "General Tong has a severe fever, if he continues to exert himself like this, I fear that..."

  Silent sorrow was transmitted among a few people.

  "Let's leave early, shall we? Two days ago, General Tong said that after he fell ill... he wanted Generals Luo and Lei Meng, Yang Tian to lead everyone to survive..." Mr. Wen's voice choked as he spoke. It seems they had a pretty good relationship, having spent quite some time together.

  Luoyang Tian raised his head and said firmly: "Then let's go! We must get through this mountain first."

  "Mr. Huang, how can we identify directions by looking at the stars?" Yang Tian asked in a timely manner, "I can climb up the tree to see the direction of the stars."

  Huang Chu was delighted, and he almost forgot that these two martial artists couldn't fly. So he said: "Looking north, you will see an arrow formed by seven stars, the direction of the arrowhead is the north, and the left side is the west."

  Yang Tian was shocked to hear this, previously in Yangjia Village he had only casually looked at the stars in the sky, and hadn't noticed that there was a arrow-shaped star pattern in the north. He jumped up onto a branch of a big tree in front of him, then leaped again twice, passing through the crisscrossing branches, standing on the treetop looking towards the peak of Liushan Mountain, where he saw under the silver-white half-moon, the wide and majestic black peak of Liushan was bathed in moonlight, very enchanting, no wonder it's called Liushan Mountain. On the top of Liushan Peak there were seven bright stars forming an arrowhead pointing straight at the peak, the surrounding stars were also very clear, he didn't know if his eyesight had improved or if the air here was just too fresh.

  "Oh, I see. Yang Tian suddenly jumped down from the treetop and landed on the ground, pointing to the road ahead: "According to Mr. Huang's words, if we go a bit left from here, it should be due west.""

  "Alright, let's head in this direction then. Yang Tian, I'll need you to climb up the tree tops from time to time to get our bearings." Luoyang Tian quickly finalized their plan.

  The Jin army advanced in the dark for four hours, and the long queue was only illuminated by a few torches in the darkness. Although the mountain road is not rugged, it has never been walked on before, and the newly opened road cannot be walked quickly. After spending four hours, they have only crossed eight hills.

  Luoyang Tian looked over the eight hills, and the soldiers were exhausted. He thought it was about time to rest, so he ordered the whole army to take a break. The entire army of over 30,000 people then gathered in groups of three or five, or seven or eight, either lying down or sitting on the uneven mountain road, and spent the night there. Perhaps they were too tired, or perhaps they knew their fate was uncertain, but the soldiers lay down and fell asleep without much conversation.

  Lei Meng and Yang Tian avoided the soldiers and sat at the foot of a large tree, chatting for a while. Looking at the dark trees, the animals were frightened by the army and hid in all directions, making it slightly quiet. Lei Meng asked: "Yang Tian, do you really want to follow the army and fight your way through?"

  "Huh? Didn't you say you wanted to create a new world at first?" Yang Tian was surprised, he found that Lei Meng seemed less enthusiastic than before.

  Lei Meng held the scabbard and rubbed it against the leaves on the ground, saying: "Yes, I did say that before. But now my heart is a bit numb, seeing the soldiers fighting to the death, with blood flowing like rivers, or broken limbs and mutilated bodies. And now General Tong is also suffering from a high fever, I feel a bit unbearable in my heart." Lei Meng sighed, feeling a bit like ignoring everything and just taking care of himself.

  "Then let's cut a bloody path and unify these two countries, won't that put an end to such meaningless wars?" Yang Tian said passionately, "As long as we're unified, we'll have enough manpower and resources to develop technology and improve the living conditions of the people here."

  The heart fire that had been extinguished by the thunder was said to have jumped up again, with a tendency to rekindle. Yang Tian continued to clench his fists and said: "If we can accelerate the development of science and technology, maybe... maybe we can rebuild that space transfer laboratory!" As he spoke, Yang Tian became visibly excited, and Lei Meng, sitting beside him, was infected by his enthusiasm.

  "Space Transfer Laboratory?" Lei Meng's eyes lit up, "Great! Let's make that our goal!" Lei Meng's eyes also gradually brightened, as if they could pierce through the darkness in front of him and see the scene decades later.