The days of rest were as brief as something stolen.
Three days later, the Northern Barbarians came pressing in again like hyenas that had caught the scent of blood. This time, they no longer split their forces to harass the camp. Instead, they gathered their main force like a heavy iron hammer and smashed straight toward the relatively weak western defenses!
That was precisely the area defended jointly by the Supply Camp where Chen Qing was stationed.
Woooo—!
A desolate horn tore through the dawn. Upon the battered camp wall, a Great Yan captain in charge of the western defenses wore an ashen face as he watched the black mass of troops surging in from afar like a tide. His fingers around his sword hilt had turned white from strain.
"Archers! Fire three volleys upward!"
"Spearmen, forward! Hold the barricades!"
"Auxiliary soldiers! Move the rolling logs and stones! Hurry!"
Orders came one after another, carrying a faint tremor that was difficult to detect. Everyone understood that this was a true decisive battle. The Northern Barbarians were going all out!
Chen Qing stood at the front of the auxiliary soldiers' formation, clad in that half-new suit of iron armor with a standard ring-pommel saber at his waist. Behind him, Shi Tou, Hei Wa, and the other two had also changed into slightly better leather armor and gripped long spears. Their faces were still pale, but their eyes held more of the resolve forged through blood and fire. At the very least, their hands no longer shook around their weapons.
Shi Tou said quietly, "Brother Qing, this time feels different..."
Chen Qing gave a quiet grunt, his gaze calmly falling on the dust and smoke sweeping toward them in the distance. He could feel the ground beneath his feet trembling slightly—the resonance of thousands upon thousands of enemies running, of horse hooves trampling the earth.
He took a deep breath. The bones tempered by the Fierce Tiger Iron Body hummed faintly within him, and a cold, hard sense of strength flowed through his entire body. The Black Tiger Fist intent, now fully mastered and containing a trace of the Fierce Tiger's true intent, left him not merely fearless before the coming slaughter, but faintly... yearning for it.
"Remember what I taught you. Groups of three, back to back. Don't get separated. If you see anyone in iron armor, go around them." Chen Qing did not turn his head. His voice was not loud, yet it clearly reached the ears of the four behind him.
"Yes, Squad Leader!" the four replied in unison, instinctively drawing closer to one another.
BOOM!!!
The black tide slammed viciously into the crude camp wall of wood and stone! It was fiercer and crazier than before!
Arrows poured from both sides like a torrential rain, spraying blood into the air. Huge logs and boulders were shoved down with all the strength the auxiliary soldiers could muster, smashing the Northern Barbarian Soldiers below until their tendons snapped and bones broke. Yet more enemies climbed over the corpses of their comrades like ants!
"Hold them! Hold them for me!" the captain roared himself hoarse, personally swinging his sword to cut down a Northern Barbarian Soldier who had just emerged over the wall.
But breaches still appeared, inevitably.
Several sections of barricade collapsed with a crash beneath the ceaseless impacts, and savage Northern Barbarian armored soldiers poured in roaring like floodwaters bursting through a dike!
"Fill the gap! Spearmen! Block the breach!" The officers' shouts sounded so powerless amid the chaos.
The defensive line instantly became precarious.
Chen Qing's area faced the largest breach that had been smashed open! Dozens of Northern Barbarian elites, like starving wolves, instantly scattered the front-row spearmen who had tried to stop them and charged toward the auxiliary soldiers in the second line!
"Form up!"
Chen Qing shouted sharply. Rather than retreating, he advanced, taking one step forward to meet the surging enemy tide head-on!
He did not draw his saber.
Facing the first Northern Barbarian brute charging at him with a battle axe, Chen Qing shifted slightly aside and let the axe blade chop past. His left arm whipped out like an iron lash, smashing brutally into the wrist holding the axe!
Crack! The sound of shattering bone made teeth ache.
The brute screamed, and his battle axe flew from his hand.
Chen Qing's right hand shot out like lightning, his five fingers spread wide. Empowered by the Fierce Tiger Iron Body, they clamped directly around the man's throat before crushing down hard!
His throat bones shattered!
[Killed a Northern Barbarian armored soldier. Obtained vitality and Killing Intent. Fierce Tiger Iron Body proficiency +10!]
The corpse crumpled limply. Chen Qing did not even look at it. He seized the heavy battle axe and hurled it backhandedly at a Northern Barbarian saber-and-shield soldier beside him!
Woooo—!
Carrying a shrill howl through the air, the battle axe split the saber-and-shield soldier, man and shield alike, into two halves!
Bloody! Violent!
The ferocious might of killing two men in an instant caused the charging Northern Barbarian Soldiers to falter.
That instant of hesitation was exactly what Chen Qing wanted!
Clang!
The ring-pommel saber finally left its sheath! Firelight reflected upon its blade, which faintly glimmered with an extremely pale black-red sheen. That was the Killing Intent unconsciously clinging to it as he circulated the Fierce Tiger Iron Body.
He moved!
His steps striking the earth were no longer simply swift, but carried a heavy sense of force, as though a ferocious tiger clad in iron armor had launched a charge! Saber light flashed forth with them!
They were no longer the fixed forms of the Black Tiger Saber Technique. They contained the pouncing intent of the Black Tiger Fist, the ruthless decisiveness of military saber arts, and... the newly born brutality and tragic savagery that belonged to the Fierce Tiger!
Where the saber light passed, severed limbs flew!
A Northern Barbarian Soldier raised his shield to block. The ring-pommel saber struck the iron-bound wooden shield with an enormous clang of metal against iron. The shield exploded instantly, yet the saber's momentum did not diminish as it sheared away half the man's shoulder!
[Black Tiger Saber Technique proficiency +12]
Another Northern Barbarian Soldier thrust a spear from the side. Chen Qing neither dodged nor evaded, instead sweeping his left arm out and clamping the spear shaft firmly beneath his armpit! The Fierce Tiger Iron Body circulated, and a dark gleam flashed. The spear tip could not pierce him even a fraction! His ring-pommel saber swept forward along the shaft in his right hand!
All five fingers were severed! Then the saber tip shot forward and pierced through the man's throat!
[Fierce Tiger Iron Body proficiency +8]
Like a tireless killing machine, he charged left and right through the breach, single-handedly slaughtering the Northern Barbarian Soldiers pouring in until they toppled in disarray! In his hands, the ring-pommel saber was at times a mountain-splitting battle axe, mighty and heavy; at times a venomous fang striking from the shadows, impossible to guard against; and at times imbued with a tragic Killing Intent that froze the hearts and souls of those who saw it.
Behind him, Shi Tou and the other four boiled with hot blood at the sight. They too gathered their courage and formed a small Three Talents Formation, tightly following behind Chen Qing's flank. They blocked attacks from his sides and rear for him, while finishing off with their spears the enemies Chen Qing had grievously wounded but not killed.
"Stop that brat in iron armor!" An officer among the Northern Barbarian army had finally noticed the Fiend Star standing like a reef against the torrent.
At once, four or five Northern Barbarian hardened soldiers whose auras were clearly formidable, clad in iron-inlaid heavy armor, closed in on him in a fan-shaped formation. Their gazes were fierce, their coordination seamless, and their weapons carried vicious winds as they sealed off every avenue for Chen Qing to evade.
The pressure surged sharply!
Chen Qing's eyes narrowed. He could sense that these men were at least late-stage Skin Refining Realm experts. The leader wielding twin hammers possessed a deep, powerful aura—he was likely already in the Bone Forging Realm!
He could not confront them head-on!
As thoughts raced through his mind, Chen Qing's footwork suddenly became elusive. He no longer fought force with force, but instead used the Black Tiger Fist intent's instinctive exploitation of his surroundings to weave through the gaps in the hardened soldiers' attacks.
The twin hammers scraped past his iron armor, scattering a trail of sparks. Their heavy force made his blood and vitality churn faintly.
A curved saber chopped toward the back of his neck. As though he had eyes in the back of his head, he ducked sharply, and the blade sliced off several strands of hair.
Another spear stabbed like a venomous snake toward his ribs. He twisted at the waist, and the spear tip barely scraped through his iron armor, leaving a white mark upon the Fierce Tiger Iron Body beneath it.
Perilous dangers sprang up on every side!
Yet Chen Qing's eyes grew brighter and brighter. Under such intense pressure, his control over his own strength, his use of the Fierce Tiger Iron Body, and his understanding of the Black Tiger Saber Technique fused with several different intents were all deepening at breakneck speed!
[Comprehension gained in battle. Black Tiger Saber Technique proficiency +15] [Killing Intent circulated. Fierce Tiger Iron Body proficiency +12]
He no longer attempted to deal with them all at once. Instead, he fixed his target on the Bone Forging Realm hardened soldier wielding the twin hammers!
Now!
The hardened soldier's twin hammers came crashing down again. His old force was spent, yet his new force had not arisen! A fierce glint flashed in Chen Qing's eyes. Rather than retreating, he lunged forward and rammed his entire body into the man's chest! The ring-pommel saber rose from below like a black bolt of lightning striking against the current, stabbing straight beneath the man's jaw!
This move utterly exceeded the hardened soldier's expectations, while also placing Chen Qing directly under the attacks of the other enemies!
Trading injury for life!
Squelch!
The ring-pommel saber plunged through the man's jaw without resistance and emerged from the top of his head!
The Bone Forging Realm hardened soldier's eyes instantly lost their light.
At the same time, the attacks of the other hardened soldiers arrived! A curved saber chopped into Chen Qing's back, a spear stabbed into his thigh, and even a hand axe hacked into his left shoulder!
Clang! Squelch! Rip!
The sounds of iron armor breaking and sharp weapons entering flesh rang out together!
Chen Qing's body shuddered violently, and he spat out a mouthful of blood. Yet borrowing the force of the Bone Forging Realm hardened soldier's collapsing corpse, he shot forward fiercely and broke free of the encirclement!
[Killed a Northern Barbarian Bone Forging Realm Squad Leader. Obtained a large amount of vitality and pure Killing Intent. Fierce Tiger Iron Body proficiency +40! Black Tiger Saber Technique proficiency +35!] [Black Tiger Saber Technique proficiency has reached 2000/2000. Realm advanced: Mastery (0/5000)!]
Vast energy poured into his body. Under the dual effects of vitality and Killing Intent, his injuries were rapidly healing and being suppressed! His understanding of the Black Tiger Saber Technique instantly rose to a new level. The saber's true intent had become fully integrated, faintly echoing with his fist intent!
He spun around abruptly, drenched in blood. His iron armor was shattered in several places, revealing the dark skin beneath, marked with black-red patterns. The Killing Intent in his eyes had nearly condensed into substance, while the black-red gleam on his ring-pommel saber had become even more distinct.
He looked at the Northern Barbarian hardened soldiers, who were shocked and enraged by their leader's death, and his lips curved into a cold, almost cruel smile.
"Now, it's my turn."
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