Chapter 677: Old Scores

Looking at the scene where the two sides met on the narrow path, the old man in brocade asked, "Does the princess truly not fear death?"

The insightful woman with the mink-fur forehead band simply said, "Let's go." The elder from the Northern Mang Spider Web organization grabbed her shoulder and swiftly moved down the ridge, stopping only twenty zhang away, parallel to where the two sides were clashing. During their swift descent, Princess Hongyan even had the leisure to turn her head and admire the charging posture of the Northern Mang cavalry. Their agile bodies moved with the horses, rising and falling like a person's breath, embodying a pleasing dynamic beauty. The scimitars held by the Northern Mang warriors had a greater curve than the Liang Dynasty blades. This curvature gave the Northern Mang sabers immense chopping power. Coupled with their height and the inherent robust strength that surpassed men from the Central Plains, a single strike from their blades could break through anything. Princess Hongyan heard the rough shouts of the Northern Mang men, and she firmly believed that these sounds would eventually resound throughout the Central Plains. This was not something a single martial arts master could stop, nor could the 300,000 armored soldiers of Beiliang block it.

She touched the mink fur on her forehead, narrowing her eyes as she gazed into the distance.

She saw the man, who was blocking the path of the Northern Mang Dynasty's millions of iron hooves, reverse his grip on the Liang Dynasty saber, holding it horizontally across his chest.

The three Black Fox Guards in the front row, riding abreast, seemed to encounter a crack at the height of their horses' chests. This crack instantly widened, and though the horses and riders continued forward, they were severed into two halves. The lower halves of the horses, along with the riders' legs, fell into the yellow sand, while the upper halves of the horses and the riders, whose legs were instantly severed, fell further ahead on the ground. This uncanny scene was not limited to the first row; it repeated for a dozen rows behind. On the road, a hundred paces in front of the swordsman, a vast expanse of blood instantly bloomed. The half of a warhorse's body, its crimson entrails exposed, slid forward, pressing hard against the sand. Behind the horse's corpse lay a shocking trail of blood.

Over thirty riders, their legs severed, fell to the ground, letting out heart-wrenching wails.

The invisible line was far from exhausted; in fact, it continued to advance rapidly. However, the elite Northern Mang cavalry behind, especially the Black Fox Guards, upon realizing the danger, directly leaped high, abandoning their horses and drawing their sabers. Some riders even pulled up their reins abruptly and leaped over the horizontally cutting line. The riders further back began to quickly deviate from a straight line, attempting to make a wide arc to perform an evasive charge.

Princess Hongyan asked with keen interest, "Aura energy?"

The Old Dragon King nodded.

She then asked, "What are its maximum length and width?"

The old man in brocade shifted his gaze slightly towards the rear of the cavalry unit and replied, "This one strike is likely over a hundred zhang long and two zhang wide. But that's just his one strike."

She tutted, "Wouldn't that be incredibly imposing on the battlefield?"

The old man said calmly, "On a large battlefield, there are sleeper agents from organizations like the Spider Web, specifically targeting martial arts experts. Furthermore, there are master archers, foot-powered crossbows, and even catapults. Any ordinary expert who dares to act like this would be the first live target to die. Of course, the person before us is an exception. If he truly intends to fight to the death without retreating, like the Sword Emperor of Western Shu, it would likely require several top masters to contain him. Even then, such an expert, when his internal energy is almost depleted, can still leave whenever he wishes; no one can stop him, as it's merely a matter of catching his breath. Unless one is also a top-ranked martial artist, it would be impossible to seize that fleeting opportunity when he catches his breath. However, there's always something that can counter another. Since this person dares to personally enter the fray, our God of War would naturally not mind personally taking his head. Most 'ten-thousand-man killers' in the army are merely flashes in the pan: they prove their strength and then they die."

Princess Hongyan agreed profoundly, nodding, "That's also why martial arts masters are unwilling to get involved in battlefield slaughter. Their cultivation is hard-won, and to die so suddenly would be too disheartening. In their next life, it would be hard to guarantee being reborn with such exceptional natural talent."

The man seemed to raise his arm and lightly brushed his blade a few times; six or seven Black Fox Guards who had leaped off their horses on the road exploded and were dismembered in mid-air.

With each small, backhanded shift of his saber,

a warhorse that had leaped high, its hooves not yet touching the ground, was sliced in half by an invisible line that stretched from below its left flank, slanting upwards to the right shoulder of its rider. Another large splash of fresh blood splattered onto the ground.

A rider in the act of drawing his bow and firing an arrow was cleaved in two, his head and the horse's head split right down the middle.

Between the swordsman and the more than three hundred cavalry, a large pool of blood, expanding from points to a broad area, had already appeared.

Then, as the swordsman continued to raise his hand, this pool of blood continued to rapidly advance forward.

These armored riders were severed as easily as tofu by the blade.

Princess Hongyan said with a face full of regret, "They are merely ants."

The Old Dragon King, showing no sympathy for the tragedy, calmly stated, "Ants they may be, but the reason for their pathetic state is their small numbers. If these ants were to gather into countless massive swarms, then it wouldn't just be the Sword Emperor of Western Shu who would be bitten to death."

The old man continued, "There are indeed a handful of top experts in Beiliang capable of deciding a battle involving ten thousand men by themselves: the person before us, along with Yuan Zuozong and Xu Yanbing. Yuan Zuozong, as the cavalry commander, would only be needed to turn the tide when the battle situation is so critical that it means the entire Beiliang border army is practically finished. However, the junior apprentice of Wang Xiu, the Spear Immortal, is the most likely to appear on the early battlefield. Such a sharp spear, no one would be willing to just leave it idle in the armory, without drawing blood."

Princess Hongyan nodded, "That's true. If the King of Beiliang himself has to take to the field to kill enemies, then let alone the Beiliang border army, I fear all four states of Beiliang would already be within our grasp."

She suddenly smiled happily. "Old Dragon King, he's currently holding the title of the world's greatest martial artist, yet no matter how high his martial prowess, he can only watch as the Xu family's 300,000 armored soldiers die one after another. Doesn't he feel a profound sense of helplessness?"

The old man thought for a moment and chuckled, "If I were him, I would have fled long ago. The world is vast; where can one not go? Where can one not live freely?"

She asked curiously, "Since fighting on the border is always the same, why doesn't this person simply infiltrate our royal court and go on a killing spree? Wouldn't that greatly disrupt military morale?"

The Old Dragon King was rendered speechless by her naive, layman's idea. He sighed, "Once one reaches the Celestial Phenomenon realm, it's very easy for experts to sense each other. Even if he could kill a city or two, even if he caused blood to flow for a thousand li across the entire Baoping Province, then what? Would he be surrounded and cornered by grandmasters like Tuoba Pusa, Hong Jingyan, and Jian Qijin, and beaten to death?"

Princess Hongyan pouted. "How is it that even an invincible master is so constrained? How boring. I used to only hear that the demi-sages from Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism who reached the Celestial Phenomenon realm dared not easily kill, fearing karmic repercussions. It seems these pure martial artists are no better off."

The old man, with a wry face, spoke honestly, "Isn't it even more boring for this old servant to have to wait here to die with the princess?"

Without apparent reason, the old man looked up at the sky and sighed, "Living between heaven and earth, with heaven and earth existing, aren't we all mere puppets on strings, bound and constrained? Some may by chance leap out of this cage, but certainly no one can break it."

Princess Hongyan let out a surprised sound. "It's over? Big thunder, small raindrops. I haven't had my fill yet."

As she spoke, the Northern Mang cavalry indeed did not disappoint this golden branch and jade leaf of the Yelü surname.

When the riders, now fewer than three hundred, all halted their horses, the man also stopped his saber.

A renowned master archer from the Willow Character Army seized this perfect opening. He drew his bow taut as a full moon, and with a resounding *thwack* from the string, he fired an arrow at the young swordsman.

Two other burly riders, carrying large bows, followed suit. Without needing to deliberately aim, they each nocked an arrow, drew their large bows, and with one swift motion, fired an arrow.

Three fierce arrows, one after another, tore through the air, their arrowheads precisely aimed at the swordsman's face.

The subsequent scene left these battle-hardened elites wide-eyed with astonishment.

The three feathered arrows simply hung silently in the air, maintaining their angled trajectory.

The swordsman returned the Liang Dynasty saber, the blade most detested by the Northern Mang border army, to its sheath.

One carved-feather arrow, two ordinary feathered arrows.

He reached out and gripped the carved-feather arrow, which the Central Plains people called "faster than a hawk or falcon, unmoved by great winds," and flung it with a backhand motion.

The master archer, whose hands instinctively tightened on the reins after firing his arrow from horseback, was pierced through the skull by the flung arrow. His entire body was pulled backward by the immense penetrating force, his hands tugging on the reins. The warhorse's front hooves lifted, and the rider's corpse fell backward off the horse.

The warhorse, which had spent its days with the fallen rider, seemed bewildered. It gently pawed the ground with its hooves, turned, and nudged its fallen master with its muzzle.

A Black Fox Guard, who appeared to be a leader, looked back at the northern sky with immense longing.

Turning his head back, facing the terrifying young master, the guard abruptly spurred his horse, leading a suicidal, desperate charge.

A second warhorse began to follow, then a third, a fourth...

Ultimately, not a single rider in the entire cavalry unit turned their horse to retreat; all of them began to charge!

Upon seeing this tragic and heroic scene, Princess Hongyan bit her lip and softly said, "Let's go."

"Hm?" The old man questioned, but without a moment's hesitation, he grabbed her shoulder and retreated rapidly backward.

She closed her eyes, feeling the swift wind brush past her ears, and said, "If military intelligence of them dying 'for no reason' here were to reach the plains, then their deaths would be in vain."

The Old Dragon King remained silent.

Nearly four hundred cavalry pursuing fourteen, and yet failing to succeed, allowing enemy scouts to relay information—even if all these Northern Mang warriors died in battle, their parents, wives, children, and even their entire tribes back on the vast plains would be implicated. Those people had been waiting for their relatives to return home with military merits and food. Even if they returned empty-handed, it was better to be alive.

After allowing the two 'big fish' to leave, Xu Fengnian, who had been covering the retreat of the fourteen cavalry scouts, secured his Liang Dynasty saber at his waist and advanced to meet the formidable Northern Mang cavalry.

He began to run.

The standard-bearer of the Black Fox Guards was the first to charge forward.

Xu Fengnian leaped into the air, while the standard-bearer was still in the posture of raising his arm high to strike with his saber.

With a palm strike to the man's head, both man and horse were slammed into the yellow sand, the warhorse's shattered limbs and abdomen fused with the sand pit.

Xu Fengnian, however, now held a severed head, which he threw at the second Black Fox Guard.

That guard's chest exploded.

Xu Fengnian quickly landed, staggered, and his shoulders collided with the sides of the warhorses on his left and right. Their hooves lifted off the ground, and both horses were thrown sideways.

One cavalryman charged fiercely, but when he was a zhang away from Xu Fengnian, both man and horse were shredded by a powerful surge of energy, bursting into a cloud of blood mist.

A Spider Web spy, hidden among the Black Fox Guards and the elite Willow Character Army cavalry, suddenly burst through the bloody mist without warning, his sword tip aimed directly at Xu Fengnian's brow.

Xu Fengnian completely ignored the sword tip, extended his hand, pressed down on the Dragonfly Catcher's head, and slammed him to the ground.

The sword tip shattered, and the blade snapped.

The spy's body bounced once on the yellow sand. First, blood flowed from all seven orifices, and then blood seeped from his entire body as his meridians were severed.

Xu Fengnian kicked this corpse up, sending it flying to collide with a warhorse in front.

After the dozen or so cavalry at the very front died without any resistance, the surviving riders finally lost the courage to charge to their deaths.

Some began to retreat.

Indeed, there are people in this world who are hot-headed and fearless of death, and there are also causes for which even those who fear death can die with composure.

However, these Northern Mang elites, always brave and skilled in battle, did not wish to die at the hands of an enemy whose name and identity they didn't even know.

Xu Fengnian lightly stomped his foot and extended a hand forward.

In front of him, long swords of yellow sand rose from the ground.

About half an incense stick's time later, the old man in brocade, who had been sprinting away with Princess Hongyan for over twenty li, suddenly tensed his entire back!

A clear, cold voice sounded from behind him, "Two old acquaintances who met at Daoma Pass, aren't you two treating your lives too lightly?"

Then Princess Hongyan felt a light pat on her bottom. The person behind her smiled and said, "Old scores are settled. So, you can die now."