At the edge of the battlefield, those three hundred battered soldiers had long since been completely scattered by two thousand armored cavalry.
This crushing defeat held no suspense at all.
The Imperial Court's elite riders maneuvered in small squads, cutting through and dividing the remnants into pieces before surrounding and wiping them out one by one.
The open ground before the cliff was littered with fallen bodies.
Some swung their blades desperately, only to have long spears pierce their chests. Some had their shoulder bones crushed beneath hooves yet still clutched at enemy boots. Some had lost a leg and still leaned against the cliff wall, hurling stones at the enemy.
But no one laid down their weapon.
No one knelt and begged to surrender.
Situ Lie caught sight of this from the corner of his eye, and his throat tightened.
Chen Xuanli seized that fleeting lapse with perfect precision.
His blade struck like a viper bursting from its hole, brutally punching through beneath Situ Lie's right shoulder before sweeping sideways. Blood gushed like a spring.
Situ Lie's heavy sword flew from his grasp. He dropped to one knee, his left hand clamped tightly over the wound beneath his shoulder as blood surged through his fingers.
His face was white as paper, cold sweat beading across his brow, yet he still held his head high and glared fiercely at Chen Xuanli.
Chen Xuanli reined in his horse and stopped, looking down at him from above as droplets of blood slowly slid from his long blade.
"Sect Master Situ, you have lost."
"...I knew it would come to this."
Situ Lie's voice was hoarse and faint, yet it carried an indescribable calm.
"From the moment we retreated from Cross Ridge... I knew... that one day..."
"But look."
He raised his chin