Wei Tai frowned and looked at him suspiciously. “Then keep it brief.”
Nan Wen: “……” The Young Marquis was as annoying as ever.
He coughed once. “Basically, fire competes with people for air. People can’t beat fire, so fire wins and people die.”
Wei Tai: “……”
It was so simple, yet so profound.
He understood it, and yet somehow he didn’t.
Afraid they would keep pressing him on the matter, Nan Wen hurriedly changed the subject. “It’s a pity we don’t have enough men. Otherwise, we could wait until more of them came out before attacking and wipe out even more of their troops.”
Chu Qing shook his head. “That would be too risky. We don’t have many men to begin with. The more Ji soldiers that enter, the less likely we are to annihilate them all. If any of them escape into the homes of the civilians, we’ll be put at a disadvantage. It wouldn’t be worth it.”
It had taken them considerable effort to wipe out nearly all the Ji soldiers in the city.
As smoke mixed with a strange odor periodically billowed from the stove opening, the group withdrew from the room and stood in the courtyard.
Yao Ji stood atop the city wall, looking in one direction through a telescope.
The surroundings were pitch-black, yet he could see everything clearly. Hidden beneath the cover of night, tens of thousands of Ji soldiers were lying in wait there.
The moment they received a signal from within the city, they would swarm forward and launch their attack.
They were destined for disappointment. The Ji soldiers they believed had already entered the city had probably suffered heavy casualties by now.
Unfortunately, the enemy was hiding too far away. Otherwise, they could have fired another volley and further reduced the Ji Army’s numbers.
Hidden in the darkness, Bao Yi felt unease rising in his heart. He stared from afar toward Wenxia City, waiting for the signal.
“What’s going on? Judging by the time, they should have succeeded by now,” the deputy general said in a low voice.
Bao Yi’s expression darkened. After a long silence, he murmured, “Could the plan have failed?”
When they had discussed the plan, they had also anticipated that possibility. After all, although the Jinyang Army had tried to conceal the tunnel, they had done so rather perfunctorily.
It was quite possible that this was a trap left behind by Princess Jinyang.
Even so, despite their suspicions, they had chosen to take the risk.
Because this was the only route by which they could rescue the Grand Chanyu and seize the city in one stroke. No matter how dangerous it was, they had to try.
At the exit of the tunnel in the dense forest, several soldiers suddenly came running out.
Hu Zuo, the general stationed not far from the tunnel entrance, frowned. “What happened? Why are you coming out?”
The soldiers ran over, gasping for breath, and hurriedly replied, “We don’t know what happened. The people ahead suddenly couldn’t move. Everyone’s jammed together.”
They had been at the rear of the soldiers entering the tunnel. Just moments ago, the entire line had inexplicably come to a halt.
The tunnel was far too long—more than a dozen miles. It would take a considerable amount of time for news to travel here from Wenxia City.
They had no idea what had happened at the front and could only return to report.
Hu Zuo’s heart lurched. He had a premonition that something might have gone wrong.
He was about to speak when a commotion erupted inside the tunnel. Soon, a group of Ji soldiers, filthy and disheveled, came stumbling and shoving their way out, heedless of anything around them.
Hu Zuo took several steps forward and demanded, “What happened?”
“Ah—ah! There’s a curse in the tunnel! It’s divine punishment! Divine punishment!” one of the soldiers shouted in terror.
Before he could finish speaking, a large number of panicked soldiers came pouring out of the tunnel, all shouting the same thing.
“It’s divine punishment! It’s a curse!”
“They’re dead! They’re all dead!”
Hu Zuo was shocked. He grabbed one of the soldiers, who was muttering incoherently. “What happened?”
Only then did he realize that the soldier’s body was burning hot. His hair, face, and arms had all been scorched.
The soldier gasped for breath, his eyes filled with fear and confusion. After a long moment, he suddenly dropped to his knees with a thud. “General, it’s the tunnel. The tunnel caught fire.”
Hu Zuo’s brows drew together slightly. “Did the Jinyang Army use fire?”
Seeing that the burns on the man’s body were not particularly serious, the deputy general berated him, “You’re this frightened by a mere fire attack? Besides, what’s there to fear from a fire this small?”
The soldier shook his head. “No, no, it wasn’t a fire attack. It was divine punishment! Divine punishment! Everyone inside is dead.”
Hu Zuo’s expression turned cold as he gripped the saber at his waist. “Explain yourself!”
The soldier’s voice trembled with fear. “The fire wasn’t big, and there wasn’t much smoke either. But we just couldn’t breathe. It had to be divine punishment!”
The panic in the tunnel drove the Ji soldiers to flee for the exit, each trying to get ahead of the others. But the passage was narrow, triggering a massive stampede and causing countless casualties.
Inevitably, the torches in the soldiers’ hands fell to the ground. Flames sprang up, creating an even more suffocating atmosphere.
The panic intensified, and the chaos grew worse.
In this vicious cycle, most of the Ji soldiers inside the tunnel never made it out.
The soldier who had spoken had been relatively close to the exit, but even he had felt that suffocating sensation. Yet that was nothing compared to the scene he had witnessed.
Inside the passage, illuminated by the firelight, his companions lay sprawled on the ground, their bodies twisted into grotesque shapes. Some clawed at their own throats. Others scratched at the walls of the tunnel. Still others stared at him with their mouths stretched wide open.
He had seen the utter terror in their eyes, and he had heard them cry out:
“Help me! Someone, please help me! Help!”
At almost the same moment, he too felt his breathing grow severely labored. He felt as though he were about to suffocate.
He knew that soon he would become just like them.
He had to escape!
He no longer cared about anything else. He crawled and rolled toward the exit as fast as he could. Whenever someone blocked his way, he rammed into them—even hacking at them with his knife—simply to get away.
And he had succeeded. The closer he got to the exit, the easier it became to breathe. At last, he escaped.
Hu Zuo clenched his teeth. “You’re saying that once they entered the tunnel, they couldn’t breathe, and all our men are gone?”
The soldier nodded tearfully. He raised a hand caked in blood and grime to wipe the sweat and blood from his brow. “Yes. We must have been struck by divine punishment when we entered the tunnel. Only divine punishment could—”
“Shut up!” Hu Zuo roared.
The soldier flinched and fell silent, staring at him blankly.
Hu Zuo looked around. Most of the soldiers who had escaped were just like this one—covered in dirt, disheveled, and wearing expressions of sheer terror.
Some had been forced to retreat without understanding what had happened. Most of those had been near the entrance and had not witnessed the scene inside.
But after hearing the terrified soldiers shouting, they too gradually grew tense.
Hu Zuo naturally did not believe in divine punishment or curses. Yet faced with this situation, he could not help remembering the Great General of the Jiao Army, Jiao Liang.
It was said that Jiao Liang had died by divine punishment.
Could such a strange fate have now befallen the Ji Army as well?
Could it be that the Jinyang Army really was an army blessed by Heaven?
No. Hu Zuo shook his head. Impossible. They, the Ji, were the people favored by Heaven!
“Count the men,” he ordered loudly, looking toward the tunnel entrance, where all had fallen silent.
The deputy general hurriedly acknowledged the order and began directing the soldiers to assemble and tally their numbers.
Cautiously, Hu Zuo walked to the mouth of the tunnel. Looking inside, he saw nothing but darkness. There was no firelight, as the soldiers had claimed, nor even the faintest scream.
It looked just like the gates of hell, as though it meant to swallow every one of them.
After hesitating for a moment, he stepped forward and entered the tunnel.
