Free Web NovelShen Baiwei and Lu Yibei had been in this simple thatched hut for three hours and five minutes.
As time passed, the sky gradually became tinged with dusk.
Outside the towering city walls of Yumen Pass, one could faintly see wolf smoke rising from the undulating dunes at the edge of the horizon, like thin lines drawn by a paintbrush, soaring upwards and merging into the light gray clouds in the sky.
The setting sun was strong, casting its light through the gaps in the clouds.
It was as if the dark clouds had been ignited, spreading out mottled 'firelight' that swirled, making it difficult to distinguish whether those wisps of thin lines connecting heaven and earth were rising from the ground or descending from the sky.
Inside the thatched hut near the south city wall, the sound of war drums commanding the battle from the city wall, and the sound of horns from outside the city wall, could be heard from time to time.
With every sound, Shen Baiwei's mood grew more anxious and irritable, even giving rise to the thought: "Instead of staying here foolishly, disturbed by those sounds, I might as well watch the Disaster cause trouble."
Doesn't the Disaster wonder what's happening outside? Shen Baiwei thought.
She wasn't sure if the Disaster was curious, but her own curiosity was about to explode.
This was like being quarantined at home during an epidemic, and when bored, suddenly hearing a couple next door arguing, pots and bowls smashing; a normal person would naturally be a little curious.
But the Disaster sat there motionless for three hours, which bothered Shen Baiwei even more than the sporadic noises.
Finally, after flipping through her small notebook three or four times, she closed it with a'smack' and paced over to Lu Yibei, who was sitting in a rattan chair, resting her eyes.
"I say, are you just going to keep sitting there? Aren't you going to see what's happening outside?"
Lu Yibei opened her eyes to a slit, glanced at Shen Baiwei, and then closed them again.
"No, not interested. If Miss Shen wants to know, she can go see for herself. Didn't I just say? Please help yourself, Miss Shen."
"However, when Miss Shen goes out, she must be careful. Those guys from Chawan Temple are probably still looking for us. If you accidentally run into them, to save your life, you might be forced to interfere with the past."
Shen Baiwei, "???"
Did I hear that right? The Disaster is actually warning me not to interfere with the past? Isn't that my line?
"Disaster, you're not right!"
"What's wrong with me?" Lu Yibei tilted her head.
"Didn't you say before that you wanted to see what happened to Yumen Pass to make it so tragic?" Shen Baiwei questioned, "With you doing nothing like this, it's hard for me not to suspect you're plotting something."
She wasn't unaware of what kind of person the Disaster was. When she peered into that man's past, she had already learned quite a bit about the Disaster and recorded it clearly in her small notebook.
Logically speaking, when Disaster and chaos descend, the Disaster should not be able to resist getting involved, even blending in and being more excited and happy than the people or urban legend who caused the Disaster and chaos.
The Disaster's purely mischievous nature means she's either causing trouble or on her way to cause trouble. Such prolonged quietness, like now, is truly frightening.
She is very likely brewing a major, unacceptable event!
"What kind of conspiracy could I be plotting?" Lu Yibei spread her hands and said innocently, "To know what's happening outside, you don't necessarily have to go to the scene yourself! Can't I borrow someone else's eyes to see?"
Upon hearing this, Shen Baiwei asked blankly, "This, what do you mean by this? Have you been observing the situation outside all this time? But how is this..."
Shen Baiwei's words stopped halfway.
She suddenly remembered that when she was ordered to peer into that man's past, she had seen the Disaster, when defeating Suolang Baima, forcibly read Suolang Baima's memories through a special ability similar to, yet not, charm.
If...
Shen Baiwei frowned and looked behind her, her gaze passing through the simple courtyard wall and landing on the towering city wall.
If the coverage of that special ability was wide enough, it couldn't be ruled out that the Disaster had been forcibly reading the memories of the Longxiang Army Armored Soldiers stationed on the city wall.
In that case, the Disaster could not only know the situation outside at any time but also observe from multiple angles through hundreds of different perspectives.
It was as if thousands of cameras had been installed on the south city wall of Yumen Pass.
The more she thought about it, the more terrifying it became!
Shen Baiwei scrutinized Lu Yibei, her eyes deepening.
So, while I was feeling agitated over there, this guy was actually enjoying watching the fun?
Too much! Shen Baiwei thought indignantly.
The Disaster's behavior reminded her of the days when she was in school, isolated by her classmates due to various behavioral abnormalities caused by the black night disease.
Simply put, they never included her in anything fun!
Happiness was clearly within reach, but she could never quite grasp it, as if she were an outsider...
----
As Shen Baiwei had guessed, Lu Yibei had been using the dream-entering ability borrowed from Mengmeng to temporarily enter the dreams of the stationed Longxiang Army Armored Soldiers without them noticing, reading their memories to observe the movements around the entire southern city wall of Yumen Pass.
This sounded simple, and Lu Yibei initially thought so too, as her mastery of the dream-entering ability had reached a peak.
However, when she actually put it into practice, she discovered that using the dream-entering ability continuously on dozens or even hundreds of targets from a long distance placed an unusually heavy burden, preventing her from carrying out other actions as she normally would when dealing with a single target.
If not for this, how could dear Miss Shen have had more than three hours of quiet time while alone with the Disaster?
During this time, by observing through the perspectives of the Longxiang Army Armored Soldiers, Lu Yibei obtained some very important information.
Firstly, the Shaman King's army was already very close to Yumen Pass and would arrive outside the city gate no later than after dark.
Secondly, the Long Xiang Army was said to have ten thousand armored soldiers, but years of continuous warfare had reduced the actual number of Longxiang Army Armored Soldiers to less than eight thousand.
When the Nanling Commander left Yumen Pass, he took away more than half of these remaining less than eight thousand Longxiang Army Armored Soldiers. After removing the armored soldiers hidden within Chawan Temple and some armored soldiers performing special missions, the number of armored soldiers truly left to guard the city pass was only about one thousand.
And these one thousand armored soldiers, when dispersed throughout the various parts of the city pass, resulted in only about five hundred stationed on the southern city wall.
In the past three hours, six teams of light cavalry, each numbering about fifty people, had appeared outside the city wall. They seemed to be scouts, and their attacks were merely harassing feints. They then used their extreme mobility to retreat into the distance and disappear into the vast yellow sands.
Although the Longxiang Army Armored Soldiers stationed at Yumen Pass could easily resist the harassment of light cavalry, and even achieve a small number of kills, by relying on the city defense equipment that used the Divine Kingdom's operational core as its primary Spiritual Energy supply, they were powerless to pursue.
Thus, it seemed that these five hundred-plus people, even with the Divine Kingdom Jade Gate at their back and the assistance of a large amount of city defense equipment supported by the Divine Kingdom's operational core as Spiritual Energy, would probably not be enough to withstand the Shaman King's army that was about to besiege the city.
Lu Yibei judged that these five hundred Longxiang Army Armored Soldiers stationed on the southern city wall were likely bait set by the Nanling Commander.
Very tempting bait!
If judged solely by the results of the light cavalry's probing, it would definitely create the illusion that with several times the troops, it would be possible to break through the city gate, and with dozens of times more troops, they could simply overwhelm it.
Under the influence of this illusion, a rash advance into the city would lead to being caught in a pincer attack by the Nanling Commander's forces, hidden somewhere outside the city, and the forces hidden within Chawan Temple inside the city, putting them in a dilemma.
Finally, and most importantly, Lu Yibei discovered that the Nanling Commander seemed to have returned to Yumen Pass!
While continuously reading the memories of those Longxiang Army Armored Soldiers, she found in the memory of one of the squad leaders that the Nanling Commander had secretly contacted that squad leader late last night, which was when Xia Lianqing and Dragon Tang were clearing out enemies who had infiltrated the city.
Lu Yibei had initially thought that some of the enemies who infiltrated the city escaping outside and causing conflict among the major tribes serving as the Shaman King's vanguard was merely an unexpected gain, and she had even boasted about herself to Dragon Tang because of it. But now, it seemed highly likely that it was a result of the Nanling Commander's secret manipulation.
Seemingly coincidental, but in fact inevitable!
I didn't expect the Prince to also be a schemer, causing Shen Baiwei to be burdened with the blame for instigating discord... Lu Yibei thought.
----
"That's it?" Shen Baiwei questioned [N O V E L I G H T] after listening to Lu Yibei recount the information she had gleaned.
"What else?" Lu Yibei pouted, "Or perhaps, Miss Shen, you could tell me what I missed?"
"I..." Shen Baiwei opened her mouth, then shook her head, "I don't know."
"Then there you have it. You don't always have to think I'm lying to you, okay? I actually..."
Lu Yibei's words were cut short by a sudden knock on the door.
"Thump thump thump—thump thump thump—!"
The old wooden door was being knocked, making crisp sounds. Although the person knocking wasn't using much force, the wooden door felt like it was about to fall apart.
Lu Yibei and Shen Baiwei looked towards the wooden door and fell silent simultaneously, their eyes deepening.
Just as the two were worrying whether the people outside were Chawan Temple's pursuers, an unfamiliar voice came from outside the door.
"Two Misses, I am Li Tieniu, a Longxiang Army Armored Soldier of the 'Bing' character type. I know you're in there; I heard your voices... Don't worry, I mean no harm."
"The enemy will be here soon. I just want to escort you to North of the city for refuge."
Lu Yibei, "..."
If she hadn't read the memories of those Longxiang Army Armored Soldiers, she might have believed it a tiny bit, but now... she didn't believe it at all!
In the memories of those Longxiang Army Armored Soldiers, the 'Bing' character type armored soldiers had already left Yumen Pass with the Nanling Commander. It was unknown whether they were alive or dead, so how could they appear near this small broken hut at this time and place?
So, who exactly was outside the door? A Shaman King's spy? Sent by that person from Chawan Temple? Or... freewebnoveℓ.com
As Lu Yibei was thinking, a figure suddenly flipped over the wall into the courtyard, interrupting her thoughts.
With just one glance at that person, the doubts that had gathered in her mind a second ago vanished.
She was certain that the newcomer was the Nanling Commander!
