The Armies' Road Was Blocked

"By this pace, how long until we reach the Imperial Capital?"

"Three more days."

In the Imperial Capital, the Ten Surnames and the National Teacher were growing anxious. Incense burned before the ancestral shrine. Everlasting King, leading a great army from Yanzhou, was just as anxious. Thirty thousand cavalry, traveling light, had been pushing on day and night.

But strange things had happened one after another along the way, and Everlasting King had grown increasingly uneasy. He barked, "Three days?"

"When we first crossed the river, you said it would take only three days. Now I've left our baggage behind and brought only the elite cavalry. We've been galloping hard for more than a day, and you're still telling me it'll take three days?"

"There's nothing for it. When has this road ever let us travel in peace?"

At the side, the military advisor could only groan in dismay. "We've been watched from the very start..."

There had been no boats when they needed boats, no food when they needed food, and they had run into who knew how many strange incidents along the way.

At first, they had barely settled down for the night when fox cries and ghostly wails rang out from all directions. The soldiers in their tents were terrified and couldn't sleep. Then, from time to time, junior officers would report that when they counted heads before the troops set out the next morning, several men were missing.

No one knew whether they had deserted under cover of night or simply vanished.

Fortunately, there were no shortage of capable people in Everlasting King's army. When they heard the fox cries and ghostly wails, some men took watch that night. They went out to investigate and returned with several dead foxes.

When word spread that something in