Behind the Xiqi army, tents stretched for over a dozen li along the low slopes, wheel ruts crisscrossing the ground and haystacks forming thick walls.
This place held the lifeline of the entire Xiqi army.
The supply camp.
Grain wagons crowded the camp roads, and fodder was piled high, enough to sustain hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses through months of war.
The camp had already become a cauldron of boiling chaos.
News of the front line's collapse filtered back through routed soldiers and messenger talismans. The troops left to guard the camp shoved and scrambled about, bowstrings not yet secured and quivers scattered across the ground.
Several Chan Sect disciples hovered in midair, raising their hands to cast spells, trying to force order back onto the chaos below. Yet the sweat seeping from their temples was hardly less than that of the mortal soldiers on the ground.
The Golden Immortal leading them flicked his sleeve and sent out a talismanic command, his voice cleaving through the camp.
"Quickly, set up the fire-warding formation!"
Another Daoist hurriedly formed hand seals. Water vapor surged from his palms, only to waver wildly under the heat waves rolling in from afar.
"Form a water barrier! Protect the grain wagons!"
Before his words had settled, a piercing shriek suddenly approached from the horizon, cutting beneath the clouds and stabbing painfully into everyone's eardrums.
The soldiers in the camp looked up, the color draining from their faces.
In the southwestern sky, a mass of red light hurtled toward them, trailing black flames.
Only when the fire drew closer did they see that it was a youth.
He stood on two black-and-red flaming wheels, his Fire-Tipped Spear angled toward the earth. The Universe Ring hung around his neck, and the Red Armillary Sash wound around