The whole nation is trying to survive on the cable car; I'm choosing one of three options at ea

On the front lines of Ash City, the light of the last defensive tower is gradually dimming.

Old Li stood at the forefront of the defense line, his short cane pressed against the ground. The pale golden pillars of light protecting the tower were slowly fading upwards from the base, like a lamp being slowly emptied, its edges gradually blurring in the night fog.

He watched the fading light, then turned his head to look at the spot where the gray pillar of light had disappeared in the direction of the city outskirts. He knew what it was.

The shape and color of that light matched the records of the ghost's fall.

He closed his eyes briefly, a glimmer of hope rising in his heart.

Then he opened his eyes, and the light had completely dissipated.

He gripped his short staff again and turned toward the dark tide that was rapidly advancing ahead.

The light barrier of the defensive tower shattered completely at that moment, and the fragments dissipated into tiny specks of light in mid-air, like embers scattered by the wind.

The last line of defense in the core area of ​​Ash City completely failed at that moment.

At the same time, the professional's formation was subjected to an impact far exceeding the intensity of the previous impact. The dark tide surged over the ruins of the tower base and continued to advance in the area originally covered by the defensive tower, pushing the front line of the defense into the interior of the professional's formation.

There are no more defensive towers to suppress the remaining ghosts, and there is no way to retreat further.

Everyone is on a line that is being continuously compressed, waiting for the tide to fully surge in, waiting for that line to break completely.

........

At a concealed observation post hundreds of kilometers outside Ash City, inside the ruins of a low stone building, three people were gathered around several continuously operating detection devices, their eyes rapidly scanning the flashing readings. One of them was recording the peaks and intervals of the fluctuations, his hand pausing at a particular line: "Another Ghost General has fallen. The location is outside Ash City, not far from where the previous one fell. It's rare in records for two Ghost General-level beings to fall in the same war."

The second person pulled out the previous data records and quickly compared them: "When that ghost general fell last time, a force that descended from the sky interfered in the same area."

The two falls occurred very close to each other and were not far apart. If they were caused by the same force, it means that something is continuously clearing out targets of the Ghost General level in that area.

The scale and efficiency of this force are beyond the capabilities of ordinary defensive lines.

The third person did not speak.

He looked down at the two grayish-white residual energy trails on the detection screen. The time interval between the two trails was very short, and their positions were very close, as if two entities of similar level had been eliminated one after the other in the same area.

He recorded the data and then wrote a line in the remarks column: "Two consecutive cases of Ghost General-level casualties outside Ash City. The cause is unknown and needs to be verified."

At a concealed observation point on another cable, a similar conversation was taking place simultaneously.

Someone was going through previous records about the activities of the Wind and the Golden Pagoda organization on the outskirts of Ash City, comparing the newly captured energy data with the old records one by one.

Someone whispered, "If it is indeed the same force, then its movement trajectory basically overlaps with the professional formation on the Ash City defense line. This means that its range of operation is behind the professional defense line, and it has never crossed that boundary. Its very existence is constantly sending signals to the surrounding area... The ones clearing out the demon generals are human beings, not some other force."

Deeper in the Northern Region, at observation points further from Ash City but also continuously monitoring the movements of the Ghost Front, information was gradually transmitted, verified, and recorded through various intelligence channels.

Some people combined the time intervals between the two deaths of the ghost generals and made calculations.

Once that speculation took shape.

Strong individuals with independent judgment quickly reached similar conclusions: within the Ash City area, at least two forces were operating simultaneously...

The professionals on the defensive line were bearing the brunt of the advancing ghost army, while behind the line, others were continuously eliminating high-threat targets capable of penetrating the defenses. The deaths of those two ghost generals were no accident.

......

In a more distant direction, outside a border city slowly enveloped by a thick, gray-black fog, a dark purple ghostly aura suspended in the center of the fog was churning continuously, with tiny fragments of energy constantly peeling off, dissipating, and being swept away by the surrounding air currents.

Then, in that instant, he opened his eyes.

There was no obvious emotional fluctuation in his eyes, but the surging ghostly energy paused for a very brief moment the instant he opened his eyes, as if a machine running at a steady speed had encountered an unexpected signal.

He sensed signs that the fluctuations corresponding to the bone surface in the direction of Ash City were dissipating.

Two, two in a row, disappeared one after another in the same battle.

He looked down at his hands, where the ghostly energy between his finger bones was slowly flowing and receding, as if adjusting to some state of recovery.

The battle for Ash City originally didn't require his personal intervention; the troops deployed there were sufficient to complete the planned occupation. But now the situation has changed. The simultaneous loss of two Ghost Generals on one side of the battlefield, unless a larger-scale intervention is required, means that a force capable of independently handling Ghost General-level enemies has emerged in that area, and not just once.

He turned to the dark tide before him, which was being slowly swallowed up by the border city.

It will take some time to completely capture this city. If he withdraws now, the entire front line in the North will be forced to readjust, and the troops that have already advanced to their designated positions will lose the motivation to continue the suppression.

"It seems he must go and see Ash City as soon as possible. But what he needs to do right now is to capture the pass in front of him, which is the key to opening up the Northern Region."

"However, it will be soon. I want to see what exactly it is that killed Oni-hime and Bone-Faced."

.................