## Chapter Twenty
The Northern Barbarian vanguard of ten thousand moved like a lazy yet dangerous giant python, slowly slithering across the withered yellow grassland. They seemed not to take any scattered resistance that might exist seriously. Their formation was not particularly tight, and their scouts merely patrolled several miles around the outskirts of the force.
Chen Qing lay prone behind an earthen slope, his breathing nearly stilled, his entire body blending into the dead grass and dirt. The thirty soldiers behind him did not even dare breathe loudly, gripping their weapons tightly as sweat soaked through their inner clothes.
The distance: five hundred paces... four hundred paces... three hundred paces!
He could already clearly see the weathered faces of the Northern Barbarian cavalry at the front, as well as the thick white vapor spewing from the warhorses beneath them. The stench of horse urine, leather, and faint blood drifted over with the wind.
Now!
A fierce gleam shot from Chen Qing's eyes. The Fierce Tiger Iron Body he had fully mastered and the newly awakened Black Tiger True Intent erupted at once! A surge of Killing Intent, far more condensed and savage than before, shot into the sky like beacon smoke!
He sprang up from behind the slope, no longer concealing himself. Like a black bolt of lightning pouncing upon its prey, he shot straight toward the loosest point on the Northern Barbarian vanguard's flank!
"Enemy attack!"
"Stop him!"
A brief commotion and a round of shouts rose from the Northern Barbarian ranks. Several roaming cavalrymen at the perimeter reacted swiftly, howling as they urged their horses forward and swung their curved blades at him.
Facing the charging warhorses and gleaming curved blades, Chen Qing neither dodged nor evaded. His footsteps abruptly accelerated, and in the sliver of time between life and death, he slipped through the gap between two warhorses! At the same time, the ring-pommel saber in his hand slashed left and right!
Sshk! Sshk!
Two fountains of blood sprayed from either side of the horses' bellies! The two Northern Barbarian riders felt the ground vanish beneath them. Their warhorses screamed miserably and toppled forward, violently flinging them away!
Chen Qing did not even look back. His steps did not pause in the slightest as he continued charging forward! His goal was to throw the entire vanguard into disarray and create an opportunity for Old Niu and Sun Quezi!
"Loose arrows! Shoot him dead!" a Northern Barbarian Decurion commanded sharply.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Several dozen arrows descended upon Chen Qing like a swarm of locusts!
A dim sheen flashed over Chen Qing's body as the Fierce Tiger Iron Body operated at its limit. At the same time, his ring-pommel saber spun like a wheel, knocking aside most of the arrows! A few struck his iron armor and flesh with dull thuds, yet could not penetrate deeply. His powerful body and Killing Intent defense forcibly withstood them!
[Attacked by arrows. Fierce Tiger Iron Body proficiency +5]
Like an invulnerable monster, he charged through the rain of arrows and instantly plunged into the Northern Barbarian ranks!
"Kill!"
The ring-pommel saber slashed out fiercely, carrying a shrill black-red saber gleam! It was no longer merely a saber technique—it fused the pounce of the Black Tiger Fist, the savagery of the Fierce Tiger Iron Body, and that newly awakened, tyrannical True Intent that suppressed all things!
Where the saber light passed, men and horses toppled!
A Northern Barbarian rider raised his shield to block, only to be cleaved in two together with it!
Another rider tried to thrust with a spear, but the shaft was severed by the saber light, and his head was lopped off in the same stroke!
Chen Qing was like a tiger among sheep. Wherever he passed, severed limbs flew through the air, and blood instantly dyed the withered grassland red!
He specifically targeted officers and standard-bearers! Whenever the saber light flashed, a Northern Barbarian Squad Leader or Centurion fell! Like ripples spreading across water, chaos rapidly radiated outward from him!
[Killed a Northern Barbarian Decurion. Obtained Vitality and Killing Intent. Fierce Tiger Iron Body proficiency +25!] [Killed a Northern Barbarian Centurion... proficiency +60!]
The system notifications rang wildly as the Killing Intent and Vitality within him rapidly grew and condensed amid the slaughter!
"Form up! Surround and kill this beast!" A Northern Barbarian Commander with a fierce aura, clad in heavy iron-inlaid armor, was finally alerted. Roaring, he led his personal guards charging over. This man was shockingly at the initial stage of the Meridian Condensing Realm! He was one of the core commanders of this vanguard force!
The Meridian Condensing Realm! Vitality coursed through the meridians, allowing inner force to be projected outward. Its strength far surpassed the Bone Forging Realm!
From more than ten paces away, the Commander abruptly threw a punch through the air! A condensed crimson fist force carrying a bloody stench smashed toward Chen Qing like a cannonball!
The pressure abruptly intensified!
Chen Qing's pupils shrank. He did not dare take it head-on, and his footwork changed repeatedly as he narrowly avoided the main force of the fist aura. Yet the scattered gusts still scraped his cheeks painfully, making his iron armor screech with grating friction.
"Brat, die!" The Commander pressed his advantage without mercy. His body flashed like lightning as he pounced again, his fists hammering out in succession. Crimson fist auras came down like a violent storm, completely sealing off the space around Chen Qing!
At the same time, the surrounding Northern Barbarian soldiers came to their senses. Under their officers' bellowed orders, they began reforming their formation. Spears stood like a forest, curved blades shone like snow, and they pressed in from every direction!
Chen Qing was instantly plunged into a desperate situation! A Meridian Condensing Realm expert attacked fiercely before him, while countless soldiers hemmed him in from all sides!
Yet not only was there no fear in his eyes, his fighting spirit burned even more fiercely! Stimulated by the crisis of life and death, the Black Tiger True Intent within him was like a completely enraged king, letting out a soundless roar!
"Roar—!"
Chen Qing threw back his head and let out a furious roar unlike any human sound. Black-red Killing Intent erupted from his body with unprecedented density, faintly forming behind him the phantom image of a blurred black giant tiger roaring at the heavens!
He no longer avoided the fist auras of the Meridian Condensing Realm Commander. Instead, he shifted the ring-pommel saber to his left hand and clenched his right fist. His spine linked segment by segment like a great dragon, gathering all his strength, Killing Intent, and the tyrannical Black Tiger True Intent into that single fist!
Black Tiger Fist—Melting Sha True Intent! Tiger Roars the Firmament!
One punch blasted forth! There was no dazzling light, only an immensely condensed dark black-red fist force that crashed fiercely into the crimson fist aura like a drill!
Boom!!!
Like thunder exploding from level ground! The two completely different powers collided violently, erupting into a shockwave visible to the naked eye! The surrounding Northern Barbarian soldiers were swept off their feet in droves like wheat before a sickle!
Chen Qing's body shook violently. He spat out a mouthful of blood, flying backward like a kite with its string cut. He crashed heavily to the ground, smashing a shallow pit into the earth.
The Meridian Condensing Realm Commander also let out a muffled groan and staggered back seven or eight steps. A thin layer of black ice had actually formed over his fist. Bone-piercing Killing Intent crept up along his meridians, making his expression change as he hurriedly circulated his cultivation to disperse it.
He looked at Chen Qing, who was coughing blood on the ground, his eyes filled with shock. A Bone Forging Realm cultivator had actually taken a Meridian Condensing Realm punch head-on without dying? He had even made him suffer a slight loss? What kind of bizarre Killing Intent and fist intent was that?
Just then!
Wooo—! Wooo—!
Billowing smoke suddenly rose from the east and west, flames soaring into the sky! Immediately after came shrill screams and the terrified neighing of warhorses! Old Niu and Sun Quezi had succeeded!
The rear and flanks of the Northern Barbarian vanguard instantly fell into even greater chaos!
"Retreat! Retreat quickly!"
"The supplies are on fire!"
"There's poisonous smoke!"
Chaos spread like a plague. The ten-thousand-man force, which had been relatively orderly just moments ago, was now a pot of porridge.
The Meridian Condensing Realm Commander's face turned ashen. He looked at the chaotic ranks and the flames burning in the distance, then at Chen Qing, who struggled to rise from the pit, severely wounded but still staring like a vicious ghost. Gritting his teeth, he ultimately gave up the pursuit and turned to stabilize the disordered troops.
Leaning on his ring-pommel saber, Chen Qing panted heavily, every breath carrying the taste of blood. Taking a Meridian Condensing Realm punch head-on had severely injured his internal organs. Had the Fierce Tiger Iron Body's defense not been astonishing, and had the Black Tiger True Intent not erupted at the crucial moment, that punch would have taken his life.
But he was still alive.
And as he sensed the Killing Intent and Vitality within him becoming more condensed through that life-and-death battle, as well as the clear growth of the Black Tiger True Intent, he felt... it had been worth it!
He glanced at the chaotic Northern Barbarian army, no longer lingering. He shouted in a low voice to the soldiers behind him, who had been dumbstruck by his ferocity and only now recovered enough to rush forward and save him, "Go!"
The thirty men shielded the heavily wounded Chen Qing as they swiftly withdrew from the battlefield, vanishing into the boundless grassland.
Behind them, there remained only a devastated Northern Barbarian vanguard camp, flames reaching the sky and chaos everywhere, along with that figure standing amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood like a demon god, deeply branded into the minds of every surviving Northern Barbarian soldier.
The formation breach was a success!
Though they had failed to kill that Meridian Condensing Realm Commander, fifty men—though the true main force numbered only thirty—had shattered the footing of a ten-thousand-man vanguard, burned its supplies, caused immense chaos, and killed countless enemy officers... This battle alone was enough to shake the Northern Frontier!
And Chen Qing's name would surely spread through both the Northern Barbarian and Great Yan armies alongside this bloody battle to breach the formation.
Chen Qing of the Fierce Tiger had revealed his edge for the first time!
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