Chapter 701: Hundreds of Flying Swords Intercept the Purple Qi

North of Qingcang City in Liuzhou, the Northern Mang vanguard had reached Antiquity Sands. This place was originally one of a series of frontier passes built during the height of the Great Feng Dynasty’s military power, used to store military supplies and provisions for expeditions beyond the passes to intimidate the Rong Di tribes. However, by this time, it had become nothing more than a ruined site where traveling scholars composed poems to lament the past. The outlines of the low city walls, built in earlier years from quicksand, loose stones, and red willow reeds, were still faintly visible. The slightly higher beacon towers at the gully entrances on both sides of the city walls had long been eroded flat by years of wind and sand. Merchants traveling between Beiliang and the Western Regions could still occasionally find ancient artifacts here, such as broken arrowheads, old knives, and copper coins, which is why it was called Antiquity Sands.

Grand General Liu Gui’s command tent was pitched on the north shore of a small lake at Antiquity Sands. Besides numerous skilled military guards around the command tent, over ten renowned Northern Mang martial artists were also hidden. In fact, it wasn't just Border Marshal Liu Gui who enjoyed this privilege; any frontier general would have a small group of such martial heroes by their side as a precaution against the unexpected. With a major war imminent, if a martial arts grandmaster from Beiliang were to decapitate a general amidst ten thousand troops, not only would the Liyang court, watching from afar, mock them, but it would also severely damage the morale of the Northern Mang army. However, Liu Gui was clearly a very special case among the influential Southern generals; otherwise, he wouldn't have been praised by the Northern Mang Empress as "half of Xu Xiao." Therefore, after Grand General Liu Gui led his army to Antiquity Sands, his command tent was protected by many personal guards and attendants specifically for assassination prevention. Liu Gui himself showed no unusual behavior; he ate and slept as he should, and military orders were issued from his tent in an orderly fashion. He even personally rode to the front lines to survey the situation. This made his qi-seers and high-level attendants extremely nervous, fearing that the young and naturally impetuous King of Beiliang, as they saw him, would suddenly raid the camp in a fit of rage. No matter how valuable their lives as qi-seers were, they couldn't compare to Grand General Liu Gui. Everyone knew that Liu Gui was one of the Empress's top choices for supreme commander in the Southern campaign against the Central Plains, his standing even surpassing that of Yang Yuanzan, also a Grand General, and several major Southern military commissioners.

Liu Gui was currently squatting alone by the lake. News of the Dragon Elephant Iron Cavalry’s unusual movements had already reached the command tent. Several of his trusted generals suggested seizing this opportunity to march south and flatten Qingcang City, which was short on troops. Liu Gui did not agree. Thinking of the bloodthirsty glint in those young men's eyes, a look he knew all too well, Liu Gui couldn’t help but smile. "Youth is good," he thought, "they don't even consider life and death a big deal. It's old guys like me, who could comfortably rest on their military achievements, who become more and more afraid to die." However, though not yet decrepit and cherishing his life, Liu Gui was not afraid of losing or dying. A single Liuzhou was not enough to capture his attention, let alone a small Qingcang City that was irrelevant to the grand scheme of things. That 'Fatty Dong' had previously been secretive, making a series of elaborate moves along the border that even his own people were misled by, but now he was finally showing some teeth. Even if he was effectively assigned to Liuzhou, destined to do little more than add icing to the cake, Liu Gui wasn't particularly annoyed. After all, Liu Gui's gaze had, from the very beginning, been fixed on a much more alluring and substantial prize than the barren Beiliang: the Central Plains. Liu Gui suddenly thought of something and chuckled self-deprecatingly. The Empress's pronouncement years ago, calling him "half of Xu Xiao," truly came with mixed blessings. The benefit, of course, was his rising fame within the Southern army. As for the drawback, it was now beginning to show: he heard that the thirty thousand Dragon Elephant Cavalry didn't even need their commander's orders; each of them spontaneously yearned to cut off his head and use it as a urinal. Liu Gui unconsciously touched his neck. An old friend had sent him a letter a few days ago, teasing that Yang Yuanzan's head was far less valuable than Grand General Liu's.

Liu Gui heard a series of urgent shouts from behind him. He stood up and turned to look, seeing three figures trotting towards him. They were Lin Fu, the new commander of the Black Fox Battalion, a master from the Qi Jian Le Fu, and the leader of his qi-seers. The last one's expression was panicked. After quickly approaching, he whispered, "Grand General, we have observed a qi coming from the east, directly targeting the command tent! Unless there's a major surprise, it should be the King of Beiliang himself! No later than three incenses' time!"

Liu Gui was momentarily stunned. He was perfectly aware that Dong Zhuo was about to launch a major operation north of Youzhou and Liangzhou. He asked with a chuckle, "Has the King of Beiliang gone mad?"

Lin Fu said helplessly, "My Grand General, what time is it now?! Does it matter if Xu Fengnian's mind is addled? Let's quickly set up our defenses! A top-tier martial arts grandmaster breaking through a formation alone—if he's truly determined to attack you, Grand General, it's not something to be underestimated."

Liu Gui’s expression remained unchanged, but he wasn't so arrogant as to calmly await the arrival of the world's foremost expert. He said calmly, "Lin Fu, issue the order: the central army is to move east. Then, have Huyan Kechin and Yelü Zongtang each lead five hundred elite light cavalry to form up on the left and right flanks. You are to take one hundred and eighty Black Fox Battalion members and act as the situation dictates. As for the Royal Court's private army, let them arrange themselves; they have more experience dealing with martial arts masters."

Lin Fu quietly asked, "Don't we need to place the two hundred heavy cavalry at the very front of the formation?"

Liu Gui glared, "Leaving aside whether two hundred heavy cavalry can even slightly impede the King of Beiliang's advance, even if they could, how many would be left afterwards? You might not feel for them, but I do!"

Lin Fu chuckled, no longer daring to act on his own initiative, and quickly turned to run off and deploy the troops.

Liu Gui walked alongside the white-robed qi-seer and the master from Qi Jian Le Fu. The qi-seer seemed to be infected by the Grand General's composure in crisis, no longer showing his previous panic. He softly said, "Grand General, please rest assured. The six hundred well-trained men His Majesty previously bestowed, while not particularly effective for conventional assault and killing enemies, are precisely what's needed for dealing with a lone warrior like this. Although the King of Beiliang's martial prowess is indeed astonishing, I trust he isn't so powerful as to..."

Liu Gui smiled and finished his sentence: "Kill people as easily as picking something from a pouch, right?"

The qi-seer looked a little embarrassed. Liu Gui said calmly, "Although I don't know the full extent of Xu Fengnian's abilities, I believe that if he truly wished to perish together, killing me, Liu Gui, wouldn't be difficult. The only difficulty would be how he could escape unscathed. When I said he was mad, I didn't mean that Xu Fengnian would knowingly attempt the impossible. Rather, I think it's simply not worth it for him to exchange the King of Beiliang's life for mine."

Liu Gui chuckled, "I'm very confident, and you all should be even more so. Our Grand Minister of Peace is unfailing in his calculations; he might well have prepared contingencies in secret."

The swordsman from Qi Jian Le Fu smiled knowingly.

About an hour and a half later, a truly eye-opening military formation appeared before Liu Gui's army.

Their numbers were no more than six hundred, but every armored soldier, known as a 'Caiguan' in the Northern Mang army, was exceptionally robust and strong, with broad backs, muscular builds, and long, ape-like arms.

It was a well-known fact that Beiliang had many powerful crossbows, while Northern Mang had many strong bows.

However, at this moment, a uniform crossbow formation was deployed before Liu Gui's army.

What was even more awe-inspiring and hair-raising was that there wasn't a single light crossbow in this formation; even waist-pulled crossbows were few. The majority were large ballistas and Cloud-piercing Crossbow Carriages, powerful enough for siege offense and defense!

Each Cloud-piercing Crossbow Carriage required twelve Caiguan to operate, stored fifty bolts, and each bolt was three feet long, as formidable as a sword or blade.

Moreover, the arrowheads were tipped with a glowing green potent poison!

When Empress Murong of Northern Mang initially "recruited" martial arts factions, it wasn't achieved by mere talk. It was precisely this weapon that performed extraordinary feats, brutally crushing one defiant sect and gang after another.

Within two hundred paces, when a crossbow bolt was unleashed, it was said to be equivalent to the full-strength strike of a second-rank grandmaster.

If that description wasn't enough to convey the terror of the great ballistas and Cloud-piercing Crossbow Carriages, there was an even more startling claim.

Within a hundred paces, a single crossbow bolt was like a flying sword!

These crossbows were, at the cost of abandoning their original general-purpose design, expensively crafted and maintained, all to fulfill the Empress's famous saying: "If martial artists aren't content to stay within the martial world, then We shall string them up like candied haws."

On the battlefield, if these crossbows, in significant numbers, were truly aimed at a target with lethal intent, even at the cost of friendly fire, how could a courageous general, a match for ten thousand, survive countless battles or live long?

Heavily guarded at the rear of his army, Liu Gui had not deliberately donned glittering armor or raised conspicuous banners. He gazed straight ahead, his eyes narrowed, saying nothing.

A trusted general beside Liu Gui said anxiously, "The outcome will really be decided by those three waves of crossbow bolts between two hundred and fifty paces. If even the final volley, powerful as an immortal's flying sword, fails to achieve its purpose, and that person breaks into the main army, it will likely be too late for the great crossbows to reorient."

Liu Gui pointed at the crossbow formation ahead, which was subtly shifting its configuration under the guidance of the qi-seers. He shook his head and chuckled, "Then you're underestimating these qi-seers and the giant crossbows operated by the Caiguan. If you look closely at the width and depth of the crossbow formation, you'll see that the arrows' attack direction isn't a single horizontal line or a few lines. Instead, they are determined to unleash an entire massive fan-shaped rain of arrows in the vertical dimension. Even if that person doesn't foolishly break through in a straight line, these great crossbows can adjust on the fly under the qi-seers' command. The crossbow bolts themselves are indeed terrifyingly powerful, but even more terrifying are these qi-seers and Caiguan who were prepared from the very beginning."

The general exclaimed, "No wonder our Northern Mang martial world is nowhere near as vibrant as Liyang's."

Liu Gui sneered, "What good is so much vitality in the martial world? A bunch of reckless individuals who only know how to use martial arts to break laws, with little regard for the greater good of family or nation. I dare say that when our imperial cavalry eventually enters the heartland of the Central Plains, there will be plenty of Liyang martial arts masters helping us kill, perhaps even more diligently than our own Northern Mang army..."

Liu Gui suddenly fell silent. In the farthest reaches of the old man's vision, a blinding speck of purple appeared.

The general beside him gasped, his voice trembling, "He really came!"

Liu Gui instinctively started to raise his arm to give orders, but then lowered it. For a moment, his expression was complex as he murmured to himself, "Truly Xu Xiao's offspring."

The purple qi approached from the east, utterly unstoppable.

A loud bang erupted from the crossbow formation.

Crossbow bolts showered forth, tearing through the air.

Almost simultaneously, a second rapid volley of arrows rained down, aiming directly at the purple qi high in the sky.

In an instant, using the crossbow formation's location as a pivot, a vast fan-shaped barrage erupted, sending hundreds of crossbow bolts, like the ribs of a giant fan, half of which were no different from an immortal's sword strike!

But in the blink of an eye, the purple qi swept across the sky without any pause, simply cutting through the expanse and continuing westward, vanishing in a flash.

It had actually vanished right over Liu Gui's army!

Liu Gui, with his back to the army, had subtly shifted a small step at some unknown point. His face was grim. He casually pushed aside the swordsman's corpse that had been shielding him and looked towards the west.

A crossbow bolt had pierced through the corpse's chest and plunged into the ground beside Liu Gui's foot, its fletching no longer visible.

Ignoring the belated and increasingly panicked shouts of his guards around him, the unperturbed Liu Gui forced a smile and said, "A fine 'returning courtesy' indeed."