"What was that sound? Has the wind picked up?"
Finally noticing the changes in the world around them, the Heavenly Soldiers and Generals looked about in surprise, trying to find the source of the disturbance. To their astonishment, the entire sky had already grown as dark as night.
The Underworld's sky had always been dim and gloomy. After spending so long here, the Heavenly Gods had begun to grow accustomed to it, but now they realized that true night had only just descended.
Soon, orders arrived from the central command tent: the Heavenly Soldiers and Generals were to halt for now and await reports from the surrounding scouts.
The news was grim. The army, stretching for dozens of li, had been surrounded.
The Wealth Division and the Tai Sui Division had not marched together in a single mass. Instead, one had advanced ahead of the other, keeping within supporting distance precisely to guard against situations like this.
Yet no one had expected this darkness to cover such an immense area that it engulfed both armies.
Before the commanders could devise a response, fierce winds howled between heaven and earth, like ten thousand Vengeful Ghosts wailing together. The temperature abruptly plummeted.
Some of the less powerful Heavenly Soldiers began to sense that something was wrong. Their Divine Souls were like guttering candles in the wind, buffeted by this Yin Wind and swiftly extinguished.
The vast sweep of Yin Wind brought terrifying murderous intent. There was no flying sand or tumbling gravel, none of the signs of an approaching sandstorm, yet Heavenly Soldiers and Generals collapsed one after another, losing their lives without the slightest resistance. It was a hundred times more terrifying.
"What's wrong with you?"
"Fall back at once! Form up, form up!"
"Deploy the defensive treasures, quickly!"
Silken parasols