My Cultivation Starting from Archery

According to the timeline, the spiritual beasts sent out should have returned by dawn today, yet they remain missing even at midnight, delayed for a long time.

The cultivators of the Guiyuan Sect can only wait here idly, observing the changes on the battlefield ahead and conserving their strength.

"Hiss~

"Look, there seems to be movement below."

The voice of Qian Qiren broke the silence in the night sky.

Looking down from their position ten thousand feet high, the vast army on the barren land below appeared like a black river, or like swarming ants, blocking the banks of Luo Stream tightly, giving no chance for reinforcements to cross, intending to hard press on Kunyang before anything else.

But suddenly, for an unknown reason, the dark tide began to surge. With the cultivators' astonishing eyesight enhanced by spells, they could see that the Imperial Army seemed to be... retreating!

"Are they preparing to make space and allow our reinforcements to cross?"

"This Chen person is quite interesting, really can make the court voluntarily let them ashore."

"But what good is it to come ashore?"

"..."

A fact lay before them.

That is, the tens of thousands of troops of the court had long been prepared. Even if all interference factors were disregarded and they successfully crossed the river, they were merely stepping onto a piece of land deliberately let by the opponent, with no chance of a surprise victory.

Chen Sansi has abandoned cities and called for reinforcements, but in the end, isn't it still a frontal showdown?

The other side has over five hundred thousand troops, plus Emperor Longqing and Ling Kui overseeing, even with the White Robes aided by Yunding Palace, the probability of a frontal win would probably not be too high.

Unless Yunding Palace has some trump card.

Exactly.

Yunding Palace is prepared!

This is the only explanation the cultivators of the Guiyuan Sect could infer.

"Damn Yunding Palace plotting for a long time."

If this were true, their preparations over the years would serve as a wedding dress for Yunding Palace.

Soon after, it would even be turned against the Guiyuan Sect!

As everyone was curious, a spiritual beast honeybird, merely the size of a finger, flew in, the very spiritual beast sent to gather information.

It landed in Qian Qiren's palm, spitting out a strip of paper, the latter scrutinized its contents immediately.

"How?"

Cui Zhichen asked: "What's Yunding Palace preparing? We should be ready in advance too."

Under the anxious eyes of everyone.

"Not good!"

Qian Qiren's expression flickered, then his voice trembled as he revealed the truth: "There's no such trump card!"

"You mean..."

"Is Yunding Palace simply prepared to fight desperately?"

"..."

"No."

Qian Qiren shook his head: "Yunding Palace hasn't even come!

"See for yourselves!

"The secret message is clear.

"Neither Qing Country nor Yunding Palace has sent any troops, not a single cultivator, across the river.

"There's no reinforcement in Kunyang.

"Or... the only reinforcement is Chen Sansi!"

"We have been played by him!"

Upon hearing this.

The cultivators were shocked and lost their color.

"Disciple."

Cui Zhichen hurriedly asked: "You're more familiar with military deployment, in the absence of Yunding Palace's help, in such a short time, how many troops can Chen Sansi gather to fight back?"

"At most twenty thousand."

King Yan Cao Zhi answered without hesitation: "The only force capable of reaching Bagong Mountain within half a month is the twenty thousand soldiers who stayed behind at Chibi."

Twenty thousand!

Everyone looked at each other in shock.

Is Chen out of his mind?!

Going in such a great circle, only to bring back twenty thousand.

Intending to use these twenty thousand to fight...

Against a million!

Quite a bluff!

Even the Guiyuan Sect, long aware of the truth, only just realized, the Great Sheng Court would only know even later, they would undoubtedly believe there are indeed two hundred thousand troops across the river.

But...

A lie is still a lie!

Fooling others is possible, how could he fool himself?

Merely two thousand, once they successfully cross the river... it would be exposed!

It wouldn't even be comparable to a sheep entering a tiger's mouth, it would purely serve as a side dish for the enemy army!

"Crazy!"

"This Chen is truly crazy!"

"Fortunately, we left early, had we continued to hold Kunyang, we would have certainly been killed by him!"

"Let's watch first and wait."

"If the situation doesn't look right, we'll immediately leave here."

"..."

If this battle is lost, Guiyuan Sect would practically lose the qualification to continue competing for the Ancestor Vein and would have no choice but to return with hatred.

"Hiss~ What a strong wind!"

The always silent Huang Laojiu on the donkey cart suddenly spoke, and only then did the people around realize that in the previously silent night sky, a brutal gale started to blow without warning, followed by bean-sized raindrops hitting everyone.

The sky has changed!

Over Fei River, the bright moon shone, the stars filled the sky, the celestial river sparkling!

On a night after a clear day, the expansive night sky, which was originally a spectacular view of "stars hanging low across the open wilderness, the moon surging with the great river's flow," suddenly stirred up a sinister, eerie storm.

Amidst the waves of fierce gale, more and more dark clouds surged from afar, gathering over Fei River, then roiling up like a tsunami after they obscured the sky here.

Shooting stars lined through sparse woods, the moon traveling against clouds.

Peering from the ground, through the pitch-black branches of Bagong Mountain, one could see the bright moon constantly shuttling over the surface of the clouds, until it plunged into the sinister hell-like black fog, completely engulfed and devoured, with not a sliver of light emerging.

In contrast, the starlight, originally dimmer than the bright moon, began to twinkle one after another, growing increasingly bright.

"Crack——"

A streak of purplish-red lightning slashed through, this star-studded night sky suddenly poured with a torrent of rain, a bizarre heavenly phenomenon unseen in a hundred years.