Chapter 128: Killing the First General

“Commander-in-chief, something’s gone terribly wrong. The army is in complete chaos. The injured soldiers are all leaping on each other and biting their own comrades. Those who were bitten went on to bite others after a short time as well. One passed it onto ten others, ten passed it onto a hundred others. Even if we were to kill them now, we wouldn’t be able to get rid of them all. The soldier’s hearts are all jittery, and they can’t find it within themselves to kill their comrades.”

In the beginning, within the commander-in-chief’s tent, Ren Feilong had thought that it was merely some small scuffles and fights. He actually hadn’t wavered in the slightest when the battlecries shook the sky just now.

He knew very well that these Swordbird riders were just here for harassment, and would never dare to cross swords with the bulk of their power here. The Eastern Kingdom didn’t possess such fighting capabilities, and this truly wasn’t a place that was suited to be a battlefield either.

However, Ren Feilong’s confidence this time had been that of overconfidence.

“Commander-in-chief, we really can’t keep things under control anymore. The great army has already fallen into disarray. We need to stem the chaos or the great army will completely collapse.”

Ren Feilong viciously smashed the teacup in his hand onto the ground. “Useless! A bunch of useless trash! A couple thousand Swordbirds are enough to disturb my million strong army?”

“Commander-in-chief, it’s different this time. Who would have thought that our soldiers would suddenly attack each other? Additionally, they seem to be under some sort of magic spell. The soldiers are constantly biting each other and not open to reason at all. It’s like they’ve all fallen victim to some bizarre poison and are already as good as dead.”

“Bizarre poison?” Ren Feiling’s eyes widened. “Can it be… this is bad!”

Ren Feilong suddenly recalled a frightening possibility and hastily gave an order, “Draw in the army and count off. Anyone who’s been bitten is to be immediately executed. Draw in anyone who hasn’t been bitten and prepare to break through the various camps. Look over each other and surveil each other. Not a single person who’s been bitten is allowed to slip through the cracks.”

Ren Feilong was truly a bit shaken this time. He’d been a part of the army for thirty years, accomplished countless achievements, and seen numerous battles of life and death.

However, the battle of tonight was absolutely different when compared to anything before. It could be said that it wasn’t a battle at all, but a disaster.

“Commander-in-chief, your subordinates will cover your retreat.”

“Commander-in-chief, come this way. Everyone open your eyes and look carefully! Those who are bitten are to be executed with no exception.”

It was a chaotic mess at the scene and the surroundings of Ren Feilong’s camp were no exception.

There were almost no complete squads remaining now that the situation had developed to this point. The squads had all been completely separated and it was pure luck as to whether or not someone had been bitten.

It was a good thing that this area was filled with the army’s experts. Those who hadn’t been bitten congregated in groups of several hundred, with ten thousand being gathered before long.

They dashed left and right and finally carved out a path of blood.

At this moment, the illumination of the moon in the night sky suddenly dimmed again, as if something was covering it.

Countless numbers of Swordbirds suddenly appeared again in the next second, and another round of frightening arrow attacks rained down like torrential rain.

“Kill! Kill the Darkmoon Kingdom robbers, kill Ren Feilong!”

“Ren Feilong, you’re called the first general of the Darkmoon Kingdom, but you’ll probably have to title yourself the unlucky butt-head of the Darkmoon Kingdom after today’s battle, right? Hahahahaha!”

Ren Feilong almost vomited blood in anger after hearing these words.

This battle had truly been too depressing. He had almost been continuously toyed by his opponents and hadn’t had the slightest ability to fight back.

All of his preparations, all of his so-called battle tactics had been completely useless.

Yes, he’d truly been played with.

When it came down to it, the Swordbird army of the Eastern Kingdom hadn’t killed that many in the Darkmoon Kingdom. The Darkmoon Kingdom’s injuries were almost all a result of internal strife.

Ren Feilong’s face was darkened as he fled in a panic into the night, beneath cover from his subordinates.

At this moment, whether it was the round shield formation, the arrow or long spear formation, all of them had completely collapsed and couldn’t be formed at all.

Without these great formations, it would require much more effort to fight against the Swordbird army.

In the beginning, the Swordbird army had only served as harassment. Without the cover of the great formations, the altitude of the Swordbird army had moved lower and lower and some had even dived down to engage the soldiers in close combat.

“What’s the hold up with the Black Riders? Why haven’t they returned to protect the commander-in-chief yet?”

“Commander-in-chief, we can’t run around randomly like this without a goal. We need to find cover and avoid these aerial troops. Otherwise our advantage in numbers will slowly be whittled down by them.”

“Commander-in-chief, the shrubs and trees over there are thick, why not we…”

Ren Feilong broke out in loud curses, “Thick growth of shrubs and trees, are you trying to head to your deaths? Most of our soldiers have been turned into biting demons, how will we break free in the trees in which vision is limited? Besides, this is a season of dry and withered grass and trees. If the enemies once again attack with fire, then we’ll truly be at the end of our rope.”

Entering the woods would make it inconvenient to evade the biting soldiers and one would have to be on guard against fire attacks from the enemy.

If they didn’t enter the woods, they’d have to face pursuit from the Swordbird army.

They were in a bind.

...

High up above in the sky, two Goldwing Swordbirds flew side by side. There were people riding on their backs. One of them was Jiang Chen, while the other was Ye Rong.

Ye Rong had his own mount to begin with, but he didn’t wish to draw undue attention to himself in the battle between the Darkmoon Kingdom and the Eastern Kingdom. Therefore, he didn’t ride his own mount and rode a Goldwing Swordbird instead.

“Younger brother, do you see that? There, right there, the one in the silver armor and white robe is Ren Feilong. Do you see the soaring dragon1 embroidered on his white robe? That’s his unique trademark.”

“This Ren Feilong still keeps up his appearances even when death is staring at him in the face? What’s he doing in not ripping off that white robe of his when escaping?” Jiang Chen truly did suspect that there were a few screws loose in the head of this so-called first general.

“The so-called first general is just a mortal after all. He’s no better than ordinary people in the face of great disasters and calamity. This time, he’s facing a perverse person such as you, it’s fated that he will lose. Alright, let’s not idly chit chat. I’ll make an empty show of strength to create an opportunity, but you’ll have to be the one to land the fatal shot, for both your archery skills and equipment are superior to mine.”

Ye Rong chuckled, patted the Goldwing Swordbird and suddenly dived straight towards Ren Feilong.

“Ren Feilong, do you know who I, Jiang Chen am?” Ye Rong called out in a strange voice, bluffing on purpose as the long bow in his hand was drawn back.

Whoosh!

The bow was as if it were a full moon, while the arrow as if a shooting star.

“Protect the commander-in-chief, protect the commander-in-chief!”

The personal guards of the general below all flung themselves at Ren Feilong, without a thought of their own lives, seeking to block the arrows descending like shooting stars with their own bodies.

Ye Rong may have falsely offered Jiang Chen’s name, but his training at the level of a eleven meridians true qi master was true and solid. Adding the diving force of a Goldwing Swordbird onto that, the momentum of these arrows was truly imposing.

Pfft!

The arrow transformed into an air current and hurtled downwards, piercing through more than ten people.

It was a good thing that the personal guards next to Ren Feilong were all unafraid of death and that there were sufficient numbers of them. That meat shield formed from a mass of humanity was more useful than any armor.

The charisma of the first general wasn’t empty bluster. One could glean a thing or two from these personal guards’ death defying actions in blocking arrows.

Ye Rong continuously shouted out and his arrows didn’t halt, pouring down continuously without a hitch. His skills were actually so good that they weren’t any less than Jiang Chen’s at all.

In the span of a moment, a sky full of arrows had turned into beams of light, covering nearly all possible angles of attack.

This type of archery skill could only be described as marvelously divine.

Jiang Chen was also mesmerized in that moment. He’d almost forgotten that Ye Rong was making space for him and the final lethal blow had to be executed by him, Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen also itched to display his skills when he saw Ye Rong’s dazzling performance.

Hoisting the Da Yu bow in his hand, the solid feeling unique to a spirit weapon immediately surged upwards. Even his breathing was at one with the rhythm of this spirit weapon in that moment.

With an arrow in hand, he notched it to the bowstring!

Jiang Chen suddenly compelled the Goldwing Swordbird to dive downwards like a streak of golden colored light, like a white rainbow piercing through the sun.

At the same time, the Da Yu bow was as if an awakening monster, its frightening power shot out with a roar under Jiang Chen’s control, accompanying the golden light’s momentum.

A golden colored current appeared in the sky, more resplendent and dazzling to the eye than the bright moon.

“Oh no! Protect the commander-in-chief!”

All creatures between heaven and earth seemed to awaken in that moment, as if this arrow was the morning sun, causing all creatures to wake and take control of this world of darkness.

There were no frills or flourishes to this arrow, but it uniquely held the essence of the dao of the bow.

It was swift, accurate, vicious, and wily.

The golden colored light was like a meteorite that could destroy cities, a flame sent by heaven that could ignite the very air.

Whoosh!

The arrow found that tiniest sliver of empty space in the midst of Ye Rong’s multitude of arrows.

Whoosh!

The golden colored light was like sunlight piercing through a transparent item as it pierced through Ren Feilong’s face. Ren Feilong’s entire head suddenly caved in, and a large, black hole appeared on his face. From forehead on down, an empty, large and black hole was scooped out of his helmed head. The golden colored light completely obliterated everything between his forehead and his chin.

The most stunning thing was that this featureless head was still wearing a helm. This made the situation even more bizarre.

The great army stopped in that moment. Everyone’s eyes shot out looks of disbelief. Their hearts seemed to stop beating in that instant.

The commander-in-chief, dead?

The first general of Darkmoon Kingdom, the pride of the kingdom, had died such a strange death on this bizarre night?

Bam!

Ren Feilong’s body fell down with a loud crash.

When he fell, the morale of the Darkmoon Kingdom utterly collapsed.

“The commander-in-chief is dead, everyone flee for your lives!”

“No! How can the commander-in-chief be dead? The commander-in-chief is the first general of our Darkmoon Kingdom, the god of war of our kingdom, the god of the army! How can he possibly be dead?”

In the armies of the Darkmoon Kingdom, Ren Feilong was god, the true god. However, this god had fallen just like this.

This scene undoubtedly destroyed everyone’s faith and belief.

They couldn’t accept this truth. As the god of the army and the commander-in-chief, how could Ren Feilong just die in the wilderness of this mountain valley?

This all looked so ridiculous, like it was a nightmare.

With Ren Feilong’s death, Jiang Chen’s plan was pronounced a thorough success. This plan of ambush could be labeled as perfect. It’d actually succeeded in one stroke with the combination of all sorts of odd tactics and the ingenious Ye Rong factor. Even Jiang Chen felt that this was a bit incredulous.

Ren Feilong’s life had been filled with stunning military accomplishments. He’d killed countless people, held the titles such as the god of the army, the first general, the butcher, god of slaughter, etc.

Yet in this moment, all these titles became history with his crashing thud.

This night was destined to become the Darkmoon Kingdom’s nightmare and would truly lead the Darkmoon Kingdom to walk into a night of long-lasting darkness.

^{1. Feilong means flying/soaring dragon in Chinese.↩}