It's All Fake

Outside the mountain valley camp.

The Yellow Bell City army, led by Vice General Lu, had silently completed a semi-encirclement of the camp.

Looking at the overly quiet tents ahead, the last trace of doubt in Vice General Lu's heart was washed away by the impending glory.

"The Golden Feather Guards are indeed spent; they don't even have basic sentries posted! Brothers, charge in with me! Whoever captures the demoness will be promoted three ranks and rewarded with ten thousand gold!" Vice General Lu drew his saber and waved it forward!

"Charge!"

Deafening battle cries suddenly shattered the silence of the mountains!

The Yellow Bell City army surged toward the camp from multiple directions like a tidal wave, easily smashing through the outer fences.

However, the expected resistance did not materialize.

The soldiers who rushed into the camp quickly noticed something wrong—most of these tents were empty!

The few tents that appeared occupied only contained straw dummies dressed in clothes!

And the cooking smoke was actually coming from dirt pits burning wet wood and special spices!

"General! It's fake! It's all fake!" a subordinate general at the very front turned around and shouted in panic.

"What?!"

Vice General Lu felt as if he had been struck by lightning. He spurred his horse and dashed into the center of the camp.

Looking at the massive, empty hoax before him, a chill instantly shot up from the soles of his feet to the top of his head!

It was a trap!

The Golden Feather Guards had long since fled! This place was nothing but a decoy to buy them time!

And he had not only failed to see through it, but had also concealed military intelligence and mobilized troops on his own to steal the glory of the first strike.

"That damned demoness!!"

Vice General Lu trembled with rage, his face ashen, and he viciously slashed his saber at a nearby straw dummy.

...

The news grew wings and swiftly flew back to the central command of the allied army.

"A fake camp?! It's all fake?!"

The teacup in Yang Yufeng's hand dropped onto the floorboard of the carriage with a crash, shattering into pieces.

The smugness on his face instantly froze, twisting into unbelievable shock and fury.

Wei Tingsong's face also turned deathly pale. He said in disbelief, "How is that possible... Our men clearly observed..."

"Trash! A bunch of trash!"

Yang Yufeng flew into a violent rage, pointing at Wei Tingsong's nose and cursing, "This is your intelligence?! This is the Golden Feather Guards overdrawing their true qi for a forced march?!"

"A single fake camp played our army of over a hundred thousand for fools! That idiot Lu Ming acting on his own was stupid, but aren't we even more stupid for sitting here watching the show?!"

At the thought that he had not only missed the real battle opportunity but might also receive an evaluation of poor command from the Second Prince, Yang Yufeng felt a wave of dizziness.

"Calm your anger, Commander! The most urgent task now is to immediately find out the demoness's true whereabouts!" Wei Tingsong forced himself to stay composed and hurriedly said.

"Find her! Go investigate immediately! Send everyone out! Even if you have to dig three feet into the ground, you must find that demoness for me!"

Yang Yufeng roared hoarsely, completely losing his previous composed demeanor. "And that bastard Lu Ming! Tell him to roll over here and see me immediately!"

The entire allied army camp was instantly enveloped in a suppressed yet frantic rage.

Inside the commander's tent, the atmosphere dropped to the freezing point; even the air seemed to congeal.

As soon as Vice General Lu returned, he saw Yang Yufeng's old face twisted in fury, as well as Wei Tingsong's pale and terrified expression.

"Lu Ming! You have a lot of nerve!"

Yang Yufeng slammed his hand onto the desk, causing the cups and plates to rattle, his spit almost flying onto Lu Ming's face.

"Who gave you the audacity to mobilize troops and attack on your own? Do you even have any respect for me as the commander of the allied army?!"

Lu Ming had already been holding in a belly full of pent-up frustration. Now, being cursed at while being pointed at the nose by Yang Yufeng, his anger overwhelmed his reason, and he roared back without showing any weakness:

"Yang Yufeng! Stop putting on the airs of a commander! If it weren't for your faulty intelligence and reckless command, how could an army of over a hundred thousand be played for fools by a demoness?!"

"My Yellow Bell City soldiers were the first to discover the enemy's tracks and charged at the forefront. What did we do wrong?!"

"It's you! Sitting in the central command without making a move, watching my unit advance alone. What were your intentions?!"

"I think you wanted to borrow a knife to kill, draining my Yellow Bell City's forces so your Dawn City could swallow all the glory?!"

"You... you're spitting venom!" Yang Yufeng trembled with anger, pointing a shaking finger at Lu Ming.

"It was clearly you who was greedy for credit and advanced recklessly, unable to even distinguish a fake camp from a real one. And now you dare to turn around and falsely accuse me?!"

"Me, greedy for credit and advancing recklessly?" Lu Ming laughed out of extreme anger, his voice sharp and biting. "Yang Yufeng, don't think I don't know your filthy thoughts!"

"Your Dawn City deployed fifty thousand troops, far exceeding my Yellow Bell and Twin Rivers cities. You also took the position of commander. Isn't it just because you want to keep the credit for capturing the demoness in your own hands?"

"It's a pity that while you calculated shrewdly, the demoness was even shrewder! She left an empty shell and played us both!"

"Enough! General Lu!"

Seeing the two arguing endlessly, Wei Tingsong hurried forward to smooth things over. "The most urgent task is to find out where the demoness actually went. Otherwise, if the Second Prince blames us, none of us will be able to bear the consequences!"

He originally wanted to offer a way out, but it instead gave the furious Lu Ming a new target to attack.

"Wei Tingsong! You still have the face to speak?!" Lu Ming suddenly turned to Wei Tingsong, his gaze as sharp as a knife. "If it weren't for you swearing that the Golden Feather Guards were overdrawing their true qi for a forced march."

"Saying the signs of the camp were absolutely certain, how could this general have believed it so deeply?! Also, what are your Dawn City scouts even good for?! They couldn't even investigate a fake camp clearly?"

"The way I see it, it's not that the demoness is too shrewd, but that your Dawn City—from the commander to the tactician to the scouts—are all trash!"

"You!"

Wei Tingsong's face flushed red from being scolded, and he sharply retorted, "General Lu! The intelligence was verified from multiple sources; it wasn't just whatever I said it was!"

"Did your Yellow Bell City not send people to scout? If you had investigated carefully, would you still have been fooled by a fake camp?"

"Verified from multiple sources? I think it's your Dawn City colluding from top to bottom, making up fake intelligence to fool us so you can monopolize the glory!" Lu Ming sneered.

"You... you are slandering us!!" Wei Tingsong stamped his feet in anger.

"Enough! All of you, shut up!"

Yang Yufeng shouted explosively, the veins on his forehead throbbing violently.

He forced down the anger in his heart to regain control of the situation, though his voice was slightly out of tune due to his agitation. "Arguing any further is pointless!"

"The most pressing matter now is to find the demoness! General Lu, your unit will immediately return to base and reorganize your troops! Wei Tingsong, have all the scouts expand their search radius immediately! Especially in the direction of Yellow Bell City, search carefully for me!"

Lu Ming snorted coldly. Although he was dissatisfied that Yang Yufeng was still speaking to him in a commanding tone, he also knew that continuing to argue would only make things worse.

He immediately flicked his sleeves and turned around, dropping a single sentence: "This general will naturally reorganize his troops! But my Yellow Bell City will remember what happened today!"

After saying that, he strode out of the tent without looking back.

Wei Tingsong looked at Lu Ming's departing back, then at Yang Yufeng's ashen face, and hastily bowed. "Your subordinate will go do it right away!"