Suddenly Seeing the Sand Fox Fluttering Qin Banners, My Heart Sank with Chilling Tremors Filling the Firmament

Hulü paused, then strode toward the area in the camp suffused with a faint, strange fragrance. The soil beneath his feet still clung to the lingering stench of blood.

His brow furrowed even tighter, and the gravity in his eyes seemed almost solid.

That peculiar fragrance intertwined with a barely perceptible scent of blood, lingering beneath his nose. It was precisely the smell of the mysterious powder the messenger had mentioned before—eerie and heart-pounding.

"They even know how to use this kind of thing to dispose of corpses. Their cleanup is seamless as heaven's own weave."

Hulü slowly crouched down, lightly pinched up a bit of powder-stained earth between his fingertips, and brought it to his nose for a sniff. Amid the strange fragrance was a trace of bitterness so faint it was nearly impossible to detect.

Rubbing the soil between his fingers, feeling its fine texture, he said with deep wariness, "They are strong, superbly equipped, and possess such unimaginable supplies. This army is far too strange, as though it appeared out of thin air."

With that, he rose and climbed a high earthen slope in the Xiutu Tribe's main camp. His hawk-like gaze swept over the wheel ruts covering the ground below, the livestock dung that had yet to dry completely, and the scattered boots and scraps of felt blankets.

Following those scattered clues in his mind, he gradually reconstructed the scene from back then.

That mysterious army had struck in a surprise raid. The Xiutu Tribe had been powerless to resist and collapsed into total rout in an instant.

Afterward, they had captured every tribesman, driven off the livestock, emptied out every supply, and departed unhurriedly, leaving behind only this deathly silent camp and traces that had been erased.

"But where did they go?"

Hulü gazed out