His gaze quickly swept over the fifteen well-equipped warriors, riding tall warhorses, their faces dusty but their eyes sharp, and a faint glimmer of hope ignited in the depths of his cloudy eyes: "Are there... are there really living people there?"
"Of course!" Batu's tone was decisive, trying to give these tormented people some confidence: "The fortress is to the west! We are soldiers under Lord Shen Mu!"
"Shen Mu? I seem to have heard that name..." The man murmured the name, repeating it, evidently it had circulated among these exiles and brought with it a hint of awe.
"That black cloud." Batuer went straight to the point, pointing to the seemingly never-approaching target in the distance, "Do you know what that is? How much do you know?"
At the mention of the black cloud, the survivors shivered in unison, the fear in their eyes instantly overshadowing their faint hope, as if they had heard the most terrifying curse.
The emaciated man swallowed, his voice trembling with despair:
"That... that ghost thing? Last month... around the full moon, it suddenly appeared! In that direction... it seems... it seems to have emerged from that completely blackened 'Black Land' east of the Long City ruins, where even Skeleton fragments dare not easily enter! First it was a speck on the horizon, then it grew bigger and blacker day by day, moving very slowly, like a puddle of ink..."
"It was terrifying when it first came out!" A younger woman next to him interjected, her voice as faint as a mosquito, with a crying tone: "It was so scary! So many... so many of those Bone Armor Cavalry with black bones, riding large Skeleton horses, rushed out from beneath that cloud! Far more than we'd seen before! They ran around like mad, fighting each other, and... around here... at night, at a certain time, there would be many..."
As she spoke, she seemed to recall some horrible sight, covering her face and sobbing softly.
"Yes, yes!" Another man added: "After those black Bone Armor Cavalry increased, this area became like a boiling pot! They not only attacked the pale Skeleton archers outside, but they also killed any living thing they saw... We've been hiding, not daring to move at night, only daring to scavenge for edible things during the day..." He hunched his back, as if the heavy fear had already bent his waist.
Batuer, Batu, and Arsleng exchanged a solemn glance.
The scene described by these survivors perfectly matched the information they had previously investigated about the fierce battle between the Ghost Light Dynasty and the Black Arrow Tower Dynasty, and the increasing numbers of Ghost Light Bone Armor Cavalry!
The area covered by this black cloud was clearly an eruption point or source of the Ghost Light Dynasty's power!
"We can't stay here any longer!" Batuer said decisively, looking at his compatriots who were like walking dead: "Go west! To New Rivadin in Long City! Our castle! Lord Shen Mu is there! The city has high walls and strong defenses, and there are thousands of elite troops! There's food, clean water! And weapons to deal with these Skeleton fragments!" He waved his hand, pointing towards the fortress to the west.
"Go... to New Rivadin in Long City?" A trace of struggle flickered in the survivors' eyes. The journey was long, and the path was dangerous; they were too weak.
"Yes! Go there, and mention Lord Shen Mu's name!" Batu also nodded vigorously. He untied the water skin, still half-full, from his saddle and threw it to the emaciated man: "Drink sparingly! Try to rest in a hidden place during the day, and travel at night! Avoid places with Skeleton activity or covered by the black cloud! Your chance of survival is at the fortress!"
Arsleng also dismounted and took out several hard but filling dried meat patties from his travel bag to share with everyone: "Hold on, you'll be saved once you get there!"
Receiving the water skin and food, this meager assistance made the survivors feel as if they had grasped the last straw. Cloudy tears silently streamed down their faces, and the flame of survival reignited in their despair.
They bowed repeatedly to the fifteen cavalrymen, incoherently expressing their thanks.
Batuer watched their stumbling, yet resolute, emaciated figures head west, his heart heavy.
He looked up again at the vast, stagnant black cloud in the east, from which an ominous presence seemed to grow even stronger.
"Target unchanged!" He suddenly waved his hand, his voice carrying the usual ferocity and determination of a Kujit warrior: "Rest for fifteen minutes, water the horses! Then full speed ahead! We'll gnaw out the truth, even if we have to chew it!"
After a brief rest, the fifteen Kujit Steppe Bandit once again spurred their horses towards the immense black cloud that hung in the eastern sky, as if solidified.
The further east they traveled, the more the land beneath their feet revealed the hideous face of being eroded by the spirit world rules.
The degree of desertification far exceeded the outskirts of New Rivadin. Traces of civilization that once extended from Long City to this point—a few broken roadbeds occasionally seen, twisted and broken electrical towers, or rusted car wrecks half-buried in the sand—
—were all completely crushed and devoured by a raging force, ultimately vanishing into the undulating, endless gray-yellow sand dunes.
The Desert here was a pure, despair-inducing Desert of deathly silence, as if the earth had shed its last layer of flesh, leaving only a dry, decaying Skeleton exposed to the wind and sand eroded by the spirit world rules.
The air also became hotter and heavier, carrying an indescribable, suffocating sensation, as if deep soil had rotted and then been baked by the scorching sun.
However, for the Steppe Bandit, who had grown up galloping across grasslands and sand seas, this cursed, flat Desert became a natural ground for their charge.
The Kujit warhorses' long, sturdy hooves showed astonishing adaptability on the loose sand, and the team's speed did not slow much due to the desertification. Instead, led by Batuer, they charged like fifteen yellow gales, raising long trails of dust, relentlessly piercing towards their target.
As the sun was about to set, painting the sky a burning golden-red, the churning, thick black cloud on the horizon appeared even more like a massive stain spilled from the depths of hell, pressing heavily on the edge of the Desert.
It was at this ambiguous moment of day and night transition, when light was most elusive, that the galloping Steppe Bandit finally saw the scene at the base of the black cloud!
"My God..." Batu's low gasp was drowned by the sound of hooves, yet it clearly shook the nerves of everyone around him.
Beneath the deep black cloud that seemed to connect with the sky, there stood a bizarre and eerie "castle"!
It was not built of rock or brick and wood, but was brutally piled and solidified from endless yellow sand and countless pale Skeleton!
Innumerable twisted, broken, and varying-sized Skeleton—of humans, of beasts, and even mixed with the bones of some unidentifiable colossal creature—were forcibly embedded into the cohesive sand and soil, forming towering ramparts, crooked towers, and massive arched gateways.
The entire fortress exuded an aura mixed with blood, char, and the despair accumulated over countless years deep within the Skeleton, making one shiver at the sight of it.
Thick, seemingly substantial gray mist permeated and surged inside and outside the city walls, like the breathing of this Skeleton fortress, making its core area appear hazy in the twilight, with only the terrifying outline of the city walls and the spires of several towering arrow towers vaguely discernible.
Strangely, around this terrifying fortress constructed by death spirit rules, and beneath this Skeleton fortress which should have been the most active place in the realm of the dead, there was a deathly silence at this moment.
No wandering Skeleton guards were visible on the city walls, nor was there any large arrow formation assembled as seen in previous skirmishes.
Where the black cloud descended, all was silent, like an empty ghost city.
"Stop!" Batuer, leading the way, suddenly reined in, raising his right hand.
The fifteen Steppe Bandit were well-trained; almost simultaneously, they abruptly pulled back on their reins, bringing their warhorses to a halt in unison, leaving only the crunch of hooves on sand and the heavy breathing of the riders echoing in the suffocating silence.
They were only a few hundred paces from the Skeleton fortress!
Batuer's heart pounded like a drum, his sharp gaze sweeping over the front like a hawk.
It was too quiet, unnaturally quiet!
This was definitely not a sign of carelessness, but rather the entrance to some kind of trap, opening an invisible maw, waiting for prey to enter. His instincts screamed a warning, and the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end.
"Batu, Arsleng, look..." Batuer's voice was extremely low, almost inaudible even to himself, but his eyes were fixed on the shadowy area where the dense black cloud met the gray mist above the fortress.
The other two followed his gaze.
In the dark gap where the dense mist and black cloud merged, they noticed something... moving within.
It wasn't a clear figure, but rather the deep darkness itself undergoing an extremely subtle, slow Creep, like the slight opening of a sleeping giant's eyelids between blinks.
An indescribable, cold and destructive "sense of being watched," like millions of steel needles, descended out of nowhere, piercing the soul of every Steppe Bandit.
That feeling was formless and intangible, yet a hundred times more terrifying than the probing of ghostly green soul fire, striking the deepest, most primal fear in their hearts!
Batu even shivered uncontrollably, his palms instantly covered in cold sweat where he gripped his scimitar.
Arsleng, the seasoned veteran, also turned "swish" pale.
This was not the oppressive feeling that a death spirit Skeleton could possess!
It came from a higher level, closer to... the death spirit rules themselves!
"Retreat!" Batuer's voice was somewhat hoarse from extreme vigilance, yet it carried an undeniable decisiveness!
That low roar seemed to unlock the chains of fear in everyone's hearts!
Without the slightest hesitation!
The fifteen Steppe Bandit simultaneously turned their horses around!
The battle-hardened Kujit warhorses also sensed the aura from the abyss and were unusually restless. Now, receiving the command to turn, they immediately unleashed their full potential, their four hooves digging furiously into the ground, raising large clouds of sand, and galloping desperately towards New Rivadin in the west!
Their speed was far greater than when they arrived!
Now was not for reconnaissance, but for escape!
Everyone's adrenaline surged to its peak, with only one thought in their minds: get away from this fortress, away from that terrifying gaze from deep within the black cloud!
However, just as they had charged a few dozen paces, leaving the sand-and-Skeleton fortress behind them—
"GAA-ZHI—!"
A teeth-grinding, ear-splitting roar, like rough bones rubbing against stone, suddenly came from behind!
It was the sound of a massive city gate being forced open!
Batuer glanced back in a hurry, his blood almost flowing backward!
He saw the huge and heavy archway of the Skeleton fortress, embedded with countless grotesque broken bones, suddenly open wide at the very moment of their frantic retreat.
Inside the city gate, dense gray mist surged out like boiling water, and then, a dozen tall figures enveloped in churning, thick black mist shot out like black lightning released from a bowstring!
They were Skeleton Cavalry!
Their mounts were not the robust warhorse Skeleton of their living forms, but rather some kind of larger, sturdier-boned, terrifyingly clawed and spiked, mutated Skeleton beasts, burning with two points of ghostly green soul fire!
And the beings riding them were even more chilling than any Ghost Light Bone Armor Cavalry seen before!
Their bone armor was a strange, dull black, almost merging with the swirling black mist around them. Twisted runes on its surface slowly flowed like living things, exuding a destructive, icy pressure.
The weapons they held aloft were no longer crude bone spears or bone blades, but larger, grotesque greatblades or heavy hammers forged from black crystals and some kind of metallic Skeleton, their surfaces wreathed with wisps of what looked like tangible sulfurous scorch marks.
The most terrifying thing was their speed!
As soon as they burst out of the city gate, the black mist enveloping them instantly churned violently, becoming a furious engine propelling them!
Their speed suddenly increased severalfold, like black comets flying low to the ground, stirring up a sandstorm even more intense than the Kujit warhorses' gallop, and with a violent momentum to crush all living things, they launched a deadly charge towards the fifteen tiny yellow dots ahead!
The shrieking sound of air being torn apart mixed with the thunderous pounding of the monstrous Skeleton hooves on the ground, like the tolling of death's bell!
"Run! Faster!!!" Batuer's eyes were bloodshot, and he let out a heartbreaking roar, fiercely whipping his warhorse's rump.
Those dozen black shadows, enveloped in thick mist and an aura of destruction, were too fast! In the blink of an eye, they had closed the distance significantly!
"Disperse! Fire arrows! Delay them!" Arsleng the veteran's experience came into play at this moment. His roar carried the inherent ferocity of the Kujit: "Use bodkin arrows! Shoot their mounts!"
The instinct for survival and the bloodlust for battle were ignited simultaneously.
The fleeing Steppe Bandit needed no further commands; they instantly scattered outwards like a blooming chrysanthemum.
They did not attempt to turn and face the enemy head-on; that would undoubtedly be suicide!
The Kujit's signature equestrian skill, on which they relied for their charges, was displayed at this critical moment of life and death—these skilled warriors forcibly twisted their bodies while galloping at high speed, their movements as fluid as instinct!
"GAA ZHI ZHI—!" One Kujit composite short bow after another was instantly drawn to a full moon!
"CHI CHI CHI—!" A volley of special bodkin arrows with tiny barbs, propelled by powerful core strength, instantly left their bowstrings! (End of Chapter)
