Choose Liu Bei at the start, I am the only one who knows the plot of the Three Kingdoms.

"Wow—!"

With a clear and melodious sound that seemed to come from the ancient phoenix's cry, the evil-piercing arrow was released from the bow!

Suddenly, a blazing red flame erupted from the arrow shaft, transforming into a phantom image of a fire phoenix soaring into the sky!

This flame is no ordinary fire; it is filled with awe-inspiring righteousness that vanquishes evil and demons, and is extremely yang and strong. Wherever it passes, even the cold sulfurous smell in the air is dispelled and purified!
A crimson light ripped through the battlefield filled with death and black flames, moving faster than the naked eye could perceive. With unparalleled precision, as if by destiny, it shot into the tiny gap between the two points of scarlet light beneath the visor of the demon cavalryman charging at the forefront with the strongest momentum!
"boom--!!!"

A loud but unusually muffled explosion!
The demon cavalryman's head, covered in dark iron armor, seemed to have a lit powder keg stuffed inside, and it suddenly exploded from the inside! Black fragments of armor, mixed with foul-smelling blood and leaping black sparks shot out in all directions!

The headless corpse swayed stiffly on the demonic horse's back for a moment, then fell heavily off the horse like a puppet with its strings cut!
The demonic horse beneath him, engulfed in eerie green flames and covered in bone plates, seemed to be bound to its master by life itself. It let out a mournful cry that was not quite like a horse's neigh, and its forelegs buckled, causing it to collapse to its knees.

The eerie green flames on his body dimmed and extinguished rapidly at a visible speed, eventually turning into a pile of twisted, seemingly corroded bones.

quiet!
A deathly silence, as if time itself had stood still for a moment!
Whether it was the frenzied charging demon cavalry or the soldiers of Gu Rubing's army who were struggling to hold on and whose hearts were filled with despair, they were all shocked by this earth-shattering, world-reversing arrow!

The next moment, deafening cheers and roars erupted from Gu Rubing's army!

"General Huang is a master archer!"

"Kill! Kill all these demons and monsters!"

Huang Zhong's arrow, imbued with pure Yang energy, not only instantly killed a powerful demon cavalryman, but also, like a torch lit in the darkness, greatly boosted the morale of his troops, which had almost plummeted to rock bottom! It turns out that these seemingly invincible monsters also have their weaknesses and can be killed!
"Men of Xiliang! Charge with me! Let these bastards see what real cavalry is all about!"

Ma Chao keenly seized this fleeting opportunity and roared, his voice like a dragon's cry!

The Xiliang cavalry, who could no longer contain themselves, launched a counterattack from his side like tigers released from their cages!

Ma Chao took the lead, his tiger-headed golden spear transforming into streaks of deadly silver light, precisely piercing the weak points in the demon cavalry's armor, or directly aiming at the horse's eyes burning with green flames!
"Clang! Splat!"

The silver spear clashed with the black flame sword, sparks flying everywhere!
The fierce horsemanship and desperate fighting style of the Xiliang Iron Cavalry temporarily halted the momentum of the Demon Cavalry to widen the gap. The elite cavalry of both sides immediately clashed, and the battle was extremely fierce.

At the same time, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, and Zhao Yun each displayed their unique abilities and reached the forefront of the defense line!

Guan Yu's phoenix eyes widened in anger, and his Green Dragon Crescent Blade was finally fully drawn!

Like azure lightning, carrying an overbearing will to cut through everything, each swing was powerful and heavy, forcing the demon cavalry to parry with their swords. The black flames collided with the azure sword energy, emitting a hissing sound of erosion, but could not advance an inch!
Zhang Fei roared like thunder, his eighteen-foot spear swirling like a black whirlwind, its power fierce and unparalleled. It slammed head-on into the demon cavalry's swords and armor. Although it couldn't easily break through the dark iron armor, the terrifying power still made the enemy, along with their horse, stagger backward!

Zhao Yun moved with lightning speed, his gleaming silver spear as agile as a snake. He did not engage in a direct confrontation of strength with his opponent, but instead targeted the gaps in the armor, the joints, and the red glow beneath the armor. His spear tip moved like a whirlwind, striking repeatedly. Although he could not kill with a single blow, he greatly restrained and disrupted the demon cavalry's offensive.

Gu Rubing also personally wielded his sword and joined the battle!

His swordsmanship is grand and majestic. Although it does not contain the pure yang power that is specifically designed to ward off evil like Huang Zhong's arrows, the sword light itself has a majestic and righteous, awe-inspiring and inviolable kingly aura!
As the longsword flashed, the eerie black flames seemed to have met their nemesis, retreating slightly and daring not to touch them easily.

This fierce battle was far more brutal than any previous encounter.

The demon cavalry were indeed incredibly powerful, possessing immense strength. Their dark iron armor offered astonishing defense, making them difficult to harm with ordinary swords and blades, and even more so with their burning black flames.

However, Huang Zhong's Demon-Slaying Arrow revealed their weakness—the black flames and their core seemed to fear the power of extreme yang and righteousness!

Huang Zhong stood in the relatively safe rear, his bowstring vibrating repeatedly, and one after another, specially made evil-repelling arrows shot out towards the battlefield like fire phoenixes with eyes!

With each arrow fired, a demon cavalryman fell from his horse, either his visor shattered or a burning hole pierced through his chest!

He became the most crucial pillar and source of damage in this battle.

The battle lasted for about half an hour, and the riverbed was a mess, with the dead warhorses and soldiers lying scattered about. Black flames stubbornly burned on some of the corpses and pebbles, making a crackling sound.

Finally, this incredibly fierce demon cavalry, having left behind more than thirty corpses, abruptly disengaged from the battle with a short, eerie whistle, just as they had arrived. They turned their horses around and retreated upstream in the valley, quickly disappearing into the billowing dust.

The battlefield was temporarily calmed down, with only the painful groans of the wounded and the heavy breathing of the soldiers who had survived the ordeal remaining.

Gu Ru stood holding the sword, its tip still trembling slightly.

The charred corpses and the still faintly flickering black flames made it clear to him that this was the horrific result of Penglai's evil and heaven-defying transformation techniques on these people who could have been alive!
They were stripped of their humanity and transformed into monsters who knew only how to kill and whose bodies were filled with bizarre powers.

The battle ended, and the losses were tallied. Despite Huang Zhong's superb archery and the valiant fighting of his generals, Gu Rubing's elite force, handpicked from thousands, still suffered another twenty casualties.

This number may not seem large, but each one is a valuable veteran who has been through many battles. Their passing has dealt a significant blow to the overall strength and morale of the team.

Everyone's face was ashen, as if shrouded in frost. The appearance of the demon cavalry was a very clear signal—this isolated force had truly touched the core and strongest defensive force of Penglai in Liangzhou!
This means that their target, the headquarters that hides countless secrets and evil, should not be far away.

However, although the demon cavalry were repelled this time, their inhuman combat power and the eerie black flames they displayed were like a heavy and cold dark cloud, firmly shrouding the entire army and refusing to leave.

The thought that the lair that created such a monster was just ahead raised everyone's vigilance and alertness towards the Penglai headquarters to an unprecedented level.

A more pressing issue is that the wounds of the soldiers injured in the battle, after being corroded by the eerie black flames, exhibit an abnormal charring and rotting appearance. Ordinary wound medicines are almost ineffective, the wounds are extremely difficult to heal, and they are even slowly deteriorating!

The army's medical officers tried every method imaginable, but could only manage to suppress the disease and slow its spread with some heat-clearing and detoxifying herbs, without being able to cure it completely.

This undoubtedly slowed down the entire army's marching speed significantly, and also exacerbated the burden on the troops and affected their morale. Gu Rubing looked at the wounded soldiers whose faces were pale with pain, and then at the even more gloomy sky to the west, which seemed to hide a giant beast. He no longer had any hope in his heart.

For him, time was no longer a luxury to be carefully calculated, but the most crucial element that directly concerned his life and the success or failure of this trip!

They must find and destroy the main altar before Penglai completes the "Sky-Reaching Plan" or mobilizes more demon cavalry or even "guardians" to besiege it!

There can be no more hesitation!
A resolute glint flashed in Gu Rubing's eyes. He immediately summoned his generals and issued a cold but necessary order.

"Travel light! Bury or destroy all unnecessary and inconvenient baggage on the spot! Keep only the bare minimum of dry rations, drinking water, and essential weaponry!"

His gaze swept over the heavily wounded soldiers who could barely move, his voice low but unquestionable.

"Seriously wounded soldiers... are unable to move quickly with the army. Select a small, absolutely reliable elite team, carrying some medicine and supplies, and escort them to a sufficiently hidden and safe location for temporary shelter. Leave a mark and wait... wait for our possible triumph, or for any possible follow-up support."

This decision was incredibly difficult, as it meant leaving some of our brothers-in-arms in this perilous place for the time being, their future uncertain.

But for the sake of the bigger picture, and to seize that slim chance of victory, he had to make a choice.

“Everyone else,” Gu Rubing’s voice suddenly rose, carrying a fierce, do-or-die tone.

"Including all the generals, follow me, travel day and night, cast aside all worries, and advance as quickly as possible towards the predicted location of the main altar! We have no time to waste!"

The command was executed swiftly.

The atmosphere within the team became more solemn and resolute.

Unnecessary tents and excess equipment were buried on the spot. The seriously wounded were carefully moved to a sheltered cave. Five elite soldiers and some supplies were left behind. They said goodbye to each other, their eyes filled with complex emotions: worry, reluctance, and a silent entrustment.

The main force, having shed its last burden, was like a sharp sword stripped of its heavy shell, and embarked on its journey once more, indeed with a significantly increased speed.

However, the deeper one goes into the Dragon Ridge Mountains, the harsher the environment becomes, almost like a scene from another world.

The earth seemed to have completely lost all vitality. The soil was a deathly gray-black, cracked with countless bottomless fissures from which thick, foul-smelling black water seeped out from time to time, making it repulsive to look at.

A visible, pale gray, ash-like substance began to float in the air. Inhaling it would immediately cause a burning, stinging pain in the throat and a violent cough. Staying in this environment for a long time would even make one feel listless and sluggish.

At night, the situation became even stranger.

Often enveloped by a ghostly green light that seemed to come from nowhere, the light was not bright, but it was enough to dim the stars and make the moonlight dim and distorted, giving one the illusion of being in some non-human world, being watched by countless evil eyes, which made one's heart tremble.

In this environment, the rough map pieced together from the elder's confession and information on bamboo slips became increasingly unreliable. Many landmarks either disappeared or became unrecognizable.

Fortunately, the team was not entirely without guidance.

A strategist in his fifties, with a lean face, stepped forward. His surname was Wu, and he was said to be a family heirloom master of geomancy.

At this moment, he was holding an ancient bronze compass, his expression extremely focused. His fingertips occasionally brushed against the slightly trembling pointer, carefully sensing the direction of the chaotic and weak "earth energy" flowing beneath his feet.

“My lord,” Wu the strategist said to Gu Rubing, his brows furrowed.

"The earth's veins here are extremely disordered, and its vital energy is almost depleted. Only an extremely cold and evil energy is converging towards a certain place in the southwest, like hundreds of rivers flowing into the sea... That place is probably the source of the evil energy, the direction of the main altar!"

His perception became the most important guiding light for the team in the lost realm.

As the group continued westward, heading deeper into the direction indicated by Wu's compass and where the earth's energy was unusually concentrated, Gu Rubing keenly sensed that the changes in the surrounding environment were not merely superficial desolation and filth.

Although his own perception of the energy of heaven and earth is not as good as that of a professional geomancer, it is still far beyond that of ordinary people.

He clearly felt that the closer he got to a certain area in the west, the more turbulent and chaotic the flow of "earth energy" on the ground beneath his feet became, as if it were being forcibly twisted and bound by an invisible but incredibly powerful evil force, and then being brutally extracted and plundered like water being pumped out!
This feeling is extremely uncomfortable, as if the entire earth is groaning in some kind of immense pain.

However, this extremely abnormal state of the earth's energy has become the clearest and most reliable signpost at this moment! The place where evil energy gathers most intensely must be the location of the Penglai headquarters!
Without further ado, the group changed direction and resolutely continued their arduous journey towards the source of the most chaotic and oppressive energy in the land.

This journey felt like stepping into the territory of demons, fraught with danger.

Penglai has clearly mobilized all available means to delay and wear them down at all costs.

Along the way, they encountered several more harassments and attacks, each different but equally dangerous.

Once, as the team was traversing a relatively flat but riddled with holes and decaying land, the ground beneath their feet suddenly churned violently, and countless fist-sized, strange swarms of insects with dark, hard shells and ferocious mouthparts emerged from the ground like a tide!

They made a chilling rustling sound as they fearlessly pounced on the men and horses, trying to devour their flesh.

These strange insects had hard shells that were difficult to damage with ordinary swords and knives. In the end, it was only by relying on the powerful internal energy of generals such as Zhang Fei and Ma Chao to shake the ground on a large scale that these disgusting creatures were completely wiped out.

On another occasion, while passing through an area filled with strangely shaped rocks that formed a natural maze, they were attacked by a sorcerer hiding behind the rocks who cast a spell from a distance. (End of Chapter)