96: Chapter 96 The Army Enters the Mountains
Within a hundred-mile radius of Divine Phoenix Mountain, the usual clamor was gone, replaced by an eerie state of silence.
The thousands of wild beasts living in this mountain forest would occasionally look up and peer into the distance, their eyes filled with vigilance.
Animal instinct told them that a powerful danger was approaching.
"Roar..."
"Coo-coo-coo!"
"Wah-wah-wah!!!"
"Woo-woo-woo!!!"
Just then, a series of peculiar cries rang out continuously through the forest, and the animals that heard these cries would also let out calls towards the distance.
Like a relay, this low roar soon spread throughout the hundred-mile mountain forest.
At the same time, all the animals that heard this roar, which carried a peculiar meaning, immediately surged towards the depths of the forest...
High in the sky, the shadow fighter jets, which were constantly monitoring the Prehistoric White-Feathered Great Eagle, also discovered the anomaly on the forest ground.
Looking down from the screens of the shadow fighter jets, numerous wild beasts on the ground formed large herds, rushing towards the depths of the forest. The scene was exceptionally spectacular, but it also made them feel that something was wrong.
Therefore, they chose to report the situation immediately.
"Report, General! The wild beasts in the hundred-mile mountain forest seem to be surging towards the depths of the forest..."
"Report, General! The situation I see here is the same..."
"Report, General! The situation here is the same... Visually estimating, there are at least ten thousand large wild beasts in this forest!"
In the command post on the outskirts of Jianghai City, General Zhao, who was deploying battle plans, was stunned upon hearing the reports from the three shadow fighter jets.
Several other squadron leaders voiced their confusion directly.
"How could so many wild beasts gather on the outskirts of Jianghai City?"
"When we were performing missions in other cities before, even in areas larger than the outskirts of Jianghai City, there weren't this many wild beasts, right?"
"These beasts must have sensed the danger we bring and are migrating to flee..."
"That must be it. It also saves our soldiers from having to take action, and saving some ammunition is a good thing."
General Zhao felt some doubts in his heart, but he didn't dwell on it. If these wild beasts were truly fleeing towards the depths of the dense forest, it would be a good thing for their Great Xia Kingdom humans.
It could reduce casualties, and afterwards, they would just need to build defensive fortifications in this dense forest.
After thinking for a while longer, he saw that the numerous troops and weapon equipment had completely entered a combat state.
A fierce glint flashed in General Zhao's eyes. "All troops, move out! Strive to end the battle within one day!"
"Yes!"
Five field army units, with a force of nearly a thousand men, carrying a large amount of weapon equipment, quickly broke into these mountains that had not been stepped on by humans for a long time.
The massive force formed an invisible giant net, rapidly closing in on Divine Phoenix Mountain. Everyone knew that the purpose of such a large-scale operation this time was to hunt down that Prehistoric White-Feathered Great Eagle.
Because they were carrying a large amount of weapon equipment, coupled with the complex terrain of the mountain forest, their speed of advance was not very fast.
However, what shocked the field soldiers was that they hadn't seen a single wild beast in the outer reaches of the forest, so they continued to speed up their advance.
In the sky.
The number of viewers in the live stream had already broken through the three million mark!
The atmosphere was extremely heated!
"What is the Great Xia Kingdom doing? Why are they conducting such a large-scale military exercise?"
"Judging by the foreign language you're posting in, you must be a foreigner who climbed over the firewall to enter the Great Xia Kingdom's internet!"
"We are filming a movie here... Later, you will see a very brilliant science fiction movie, a movie about the army fighting monsters, with special effects that completely crush your Western sci-fi movies!"
"What?! You in the Great Xia Kingdom can actually mobilize the army to film a movie?! This is too absurd..."
The audience in the live stream now included not only people from the Great Xia Kingdom but also many Western foreigners, who had also been pulled in by many friends.
At this moment, on the screens in front of them, one could clearly see that the mountain forest was like a piece of green fabric, and the Great Xia Kingdom army was a distinct color, rapidly dyeing its way into the depths of the fabric.
"The Great Xia Kingdom army is amazing! Carrying so much military equipment through the mountain forest, their marching speed is actually this fast... This is simply incredible!"
"That goes without saying... Although I don't want to admit it, in terms of military quality, the Great Xia Kingdom army is undoubtedly a top-tier major power!"
"I heard that this time the Great Xia Kingdom mobilized tens of millions of troops nationwide to clear out the wild beasts around the cities. This military operation looks very large-scale..."
"We also noticed earlier that the distribution of wild beasts in this mountain forest is abnormal; there are actually so many wild beasts. Maybe it's because of this..."
"I heard that the reason the Great Xia Kingdom army mobilized so many troops to come here this time is because of that Prehistoric White-Feathered Great Eagle..."
"What the hell?! That beautiful big bird, it's practically a pet from God's heaven, and it actually exists?"
"I don't know..."
Even now, there are still many people who do not believe the video information about the Great Xia Kingdom's prehistoric creatures that was circulated on the internet before.
After all, the power and speed that Ye Yang displayed were simply too magical. Coupled with the era of internet information explosion, where all kinds of rumors have appeared, most people, except for the residents of Jianghai City, rarely believe in Ye Yang's existence.
As time passed, the field army had marched more than twenty miles, which could be considered an initial entry into the mountain forest.
But what the thousands of soldiers found strange was that they hadn't encountered a single wild beast along the way, not even a rabbit.
General Zhao in the command post was constantly monitoring the overall situation.
"It's been over an hour, and I haven't even seen a single hair of a wild beast... Something's wrong... This situation is definitely not right!"
"Order! All field army soldiers must remain on high alert of their surroundings at all times!"
After issuing this order, he felt a little better.
He then smiled self-deprecatingly.
"I am considered a veteran who has experienced war, so why am I inexplicably worried about this operation? It's just a bunch of wild beasts, after all..."
In the mountain forest.
After the marching army received General Zhao's order, they began to stay on alert.
"Report, Squadron Leader! A reconnaissance squad has lost contact!"
"What? Could it be a communication malfunction?"
The squadron leader's first thought was this, rather than that the reconnaissance squad had met with an accident.
The reason was that the reconnaissance squad was not far in front of them, at most seven or eight miles away, and they hadn't heard any gunfire over such a short distance.
He then ordered all the squadron soldiers around him.
"Strengthen vigilance! Increase the marching speed!"
Before long, this squadron of nearly two hundred men had advanced seven or eight miles.
Immediately afterwards, all the soldiers in the squadron were stunned on the spot, their eyes wide open.
On the ground in front of them appeared several mangled remains of corpses...