The soldiers arriving were breathing in ragged bursts, some bracing their hands on their knees to catch their breath.
In the rear ranks, many of the men had leaves stuck all over their bodies, some with up to ten of them across their skin.
Once the area was confirmed to be reasonably safe, General Huo ordered a rest before they moved out again shortly after. Several men came to the general one by one, each reporting casualties from their section—not many dead, but numerous soldiers who would be unable to fight, and some who had barely been able to move quickly at all.
On one side, soldiers rested and tried to recover what stamina they could; others helped pick leaves off their comrades and then sat down themselves, swallowing a whitish pill streaked with sporadic red lines to treat their wounds.
On the other side, a small meeting had formed to deal with the forest—the same key figures as before, plus a handful of junior generals who were present to listen and nothing more.
"The best approach would be to pick a direction and hold it unless we absolutely have to change," said Division General Pei.
"That's not a good idea," Xue Yanluo cut in. "Do you even know where we are? The direction we pick might just take us deeper in."
The corners of Division General Pei's mouth twitched, and he fixed Xue Yanluo with a hard look. "And what does the Fourth Prince suggest?"
"Nothing—but your idea is too stupid."
"You son of a—" Division General Pei clenched his jaw and was about to open his mouth when General Huo cut him off.
"Division General Pei, compose yourself. Your idea is bad—have you thought about sending scouts, reading the terrain, and figuring out where we are? What direction should we take…" General Huo narrowed his eyes, and his last words carried a low edge, "or will you leave it to luck?"
The mood cooled until Eunuch Mo broke the tension. "This is no time to quarrel," he said, glancing at Xue Yanluo. "General Huo, do you have something in mind?"
"The forest is wider than it is long. Going straight ahead would take us into its broadest stretch. We turn the army left."
"We went right before—turning left is the natural way to get back on the heading we came in on," Eunuch Mo agreed.
General Huo simply nodded and said nothing more. The meeting ended shortly after with no further proposals, and the generals who had been listening passed the word to the rest of the soldiers.
Within minutes everyone was rested, some tended to their wounds, all were in position, and General Huo gave the order. They marched left.
They moved without trouble for half an hour, when they began coming across the bodies of various beasts stuck to trunks and branches—two of them still alive, which they left alone so as not to rouse the forest.
Likewise, they had to move with great care, keeping the march slow so as not to wake whatever lived inside the trunks.
Countless branches hung down from above like snares, forcing the column to make small detours before they could press on.
The further they went, the less outside light reached them—massive branches as wide as a person, draped in enormous leaves, devoured what little light filtered through and kept the ground in permanent darkness below.
Some soldiers had to sheathe their weapons and draw out luminous orbs that used spiritual energy to flash light at a continuous rate. The flashes came fast enough that a normal soldier wouldn't notice the light wasn't truly constant.
Xue Yanluo moved with his attention loose, taking in the different shapes the trees formed as they wove together and how some had even fused entirely through the liquid seeping from their bark.
Behind him, Hua Zhenfeng held one of the light orbs—which, besides flashing, also gave off heat and was supposed to be mounted on a base, but thanks to his vampire body, he could hold it in his palm without trouble. In the end he thought better of it, not wanting to draw too much attention that way.
A great wind howled through the branches and shook everyone where they stood. Leaves scattered, and the sky shuddered.
"What now?" said Xue Yanluo, kicking at the ground.
The soldiers' eyes went wide and their nerves snapped to full alert, reacting to anything they could detect—gripping their spears and pressing their backs against those of the soldiers beside them.
Around Xue Yanluo a circle formed, shielding him from any threat. He looked around with great calm, slightly impatient for whatever was coming.
The little light that managed to slip past the impenetrable wall of leaves turned a greenish color, as though filtered through a tinted pane of glass, and this seemed to entrance the surrounding leaves.
The ground broke open, countless roots surging up from the earth and tangling with the trees. Some clashed, some overpowered the branches of a neighboring tree and coiled around them, and others met no resistance and had five or more roots from different trees writhing around their trunks at once.
From the branches, a faint light shone—and it seemed to be draining the branch or trunk it had wound itself around, feeding on whatever sustained it. Over time the light turned yellowish, and the tree being sucked dry shed its bark uncontrollably, exposing its shriveled interior, riddled with grooves and holes.
"What… are we looking at," a soldier said, stunned.
But there was no time to ask questions or stand in awe—they had to fight. The roots had no mind and coiled around anything they touched, whether rock, another root, or a person. Everything was drawn in and drained.
Soldiers cut the roots as they came—stabbing them to pin them down or striking them aside to redirect their path—but they were inexhaustible: dodge one, and three more came.
A soldier who had already cut through more than seven roots moved to cut his eighth, and his blade sliced through the outer layer cleanly, only to get stuck in the core. Yellow liquid burst from the opening and flew at the soldier. Seconds later, there was nothing left of him but bones and a little skin.