The sky was overcast, the sea wind howled, and the air reeked of rotting flesh and blood.
This was an open plain. The once fertile and beautiful land had been ravaged by corpse soldiers spread across the mountains and fields. On the flank of this massive corpse soldier army, a scouting team of Qi practitioners was clashing with a group of Evil Cultivators, while scouts from two nearby teams prowled along the perimeter, recording intelligence.
This was the third day after the encounter battle at Yuma County...
After Wang Ping's army occupied Yuma County, they used the mountain stronghold in the rear valley as a supply relay station. They advanced south for over a hundred li, clearing Corpse Soldiers along the way. Yesterday, they had taken Huiping County, which stood at a vital transportation junction, opening the official road to the main force. Early this morning, they continued southward.
A quarter hour later...
The Qi practitioner team obtained the intelligence they wanted and decisively withdrew with their wounded. The Evil Cultivators did not pursue. Wrapped in Taiyin energy, they mingled among the corpse soldier ranks and watched the retreating Qi practitioners with cold eyes.
Twenty li behind them, the main force received intelligence delivered by fast horse two quarter-hours later. General Li Rong immediately ordered the advance halted and commanded the government troops to don their equipment as quickly as possible, find a relatively elevated mountain forest, and form up.
At the outer edge of the army formation's right wing, Wang Ping sat cross-legged atop an old tree. From time to time, he looked up at the sky. It was incomparably dark. The weather manipulation of the Yuqing Sect's great cultivator earlier had produced negative effects; a torrential downpour of unknown duration was brewing within the Clouds.
"This atmosphere feels