Zhang Yuan of Qin Stands Here—Yan Dogs, Come Fight!

Zhang Yuan held his horizontal saber in hand, breathing lightly as he watched the axe-wielding soldier, whose steps had faltered slightly under the shock of his fierce valor.

His eyes were bloodshot. Before him seemed to rise an endless sea of flames, while a jade screen emerged deep within his mind.

Chaos!

The main control platform of the flying ship—Chaos!

This was Huaxia's greatest scientific achievement!

Every Huaxia soldier aboard the flying ship relied on Chaos for training, command, and learning.

The Huaxia Chaos from those illusory memories had actually appeared in Zhang Yuan's mind!

Those memories, that Huaxia—they were real!

A mass of boiling blood and blue-gray light rushed into the screen.

Extract killing vitality and cultivation memories, then feed them back into oneself.

By this method, Chaos had trained a million warriors for the flying ship!

Crimson waves churned within the screen, and a bright red blood bead and a gray bead rolled out from it.

The two beads exploded within Zhang Yuan's mind.

The crimson bead turned into vitality and flooded Zhang Yuan's meridians, making his blood and qi surge and his meridians swell.

He widened his eyes and clenched his fists.

That exploding blood bead had directly increased his strength by fifty jin!

As the blood bead exploded, the gray bead transformed into a river of light that flashed through his mind.

Within the light, a black-armored man endlessly threw punches, wielded his saber, and thrust his spear.

Five years of scorching summers and bitter winters condensed into a single breath of light.

These were the cultivation memories of a soldier who had served for five years!

As the light faded, all the crimson color before Zhang Yuan vanished with it.

He lowered his head to look at the long saber in his hand, his eyes filled with incredulous delight.

He could feel that every cultivation insight from that river of light had been infused into him, confirming one another with the Eight Forms of the Cape Saber Technique passed down in the army and becoming his own Martial Way cultivation!

His saber technique, which had barely counted as proficient before, now seemed etched into his bones. Even if he closed his eyes, he could never forget it!

This was Chaos's heaven-defying method!

"Die—"

The black armored soldier who had stopped ahead gave a low shout and charged at Zhang Yuan, dragging his heavy axe behind him.

Zhang Yuan gripped his saber hilt tightly. The eight forms of the saber technique flowed through his mind, and the blood throughout his body boiled.

"Zhang Yuan of Qin stands here—Yan dogs, come fight!"

His long shout shook the air amid the shattered walls and ruined ramparts.

"It's Zhang Yuan!"

"Go save him, quickly!"

Several loud cries came from the nearby streets and alleys.

The Yan Soldier with Short Saber and Round Shield standing in the alley wore an ugly expression. He vaulted over the broken wall and rushed in, giving a low shout. "Finish this quickly!"

The Yan soldier wielding the heavy axe dragged it along the ground before lifting it upward, smashing it toward Zhang Yuan's chest and abdomen.

A heavy long-handled weapon like this could smash rib bones apart in a single blow.

Forget being struck by it—even using a weapon to clash against it and block it was impossible.

If Zhang Yuan's three-foot steel saber collided with that axe, it would be knocked flying at once.

If this had been the Zhang Yuan from before, he would surely have panicked and could only have retreated.

But now, Zhang Yuan possessed the battle memories of an old veteran, along with saber insights refined to the utmost. Facing that rising axe, his perception was completely different.

His left foot stepped back, and his right hand dragged the saber. The long axe swept past the leather armor over Zhang Yuan's chest and lifted into empty air.

When his lifting strike missed, the axe-wielding soldier pressed down with his palm and stepped forward, intending to chop the axe into Zhang Yuan's shoulder.

At the instant his opponent changed techniques and revealed an opening, Zhang Yuan's retreating steps abruptly surged forward.

He rushed half a step forward to meet the other's advancing step. The eight-foot distance between them immediately became four feet.

The descending heavy axe also cleaved through empty air, with only its shaft smashing into Zhang Yuan's shoulder.

Zhang Yuan's whole body shuddered. His left shoulder hardened against the axe shaft, while his right hand dragged the saber upward. The blade slashed from below, grazing past the axe-wielding soldier's armpit.

Cape Saber Technique, Step Forward and Lift Saber.

"Rip—"

The blade passed through the axe-wielding soldier's armpit, pierced through the unarmored lapel, severed tendons, bones, and muscles, and emerged from his shoulder socket.

An entire arm was cleanly cut off with a single slash!

Bright, searing blood sprayed out and splashed across the shield-bearing soldier's face.

The axe-wielding soldier screamed. His axe fell to the ground as he covered his shoulder and staggered backward.

Having succeeded with one slash, Zhang Yuan stood there blankly for a moment.

That slash had been too smooth.

The sensation of the blade lifting, cutting into flesh, and forcing its way through tendons and bones was so clear that every finger could feel the feedback of the force.

At that moment, the blade seemed to be his own arm, his own fingers.

As if an extension of one's arm.

Young Master Tao, the only scholar in the camp, had used that refined phrase.

When cultivating saber techniques, if the blade felt like one's fingers reaching out, as if an extension of one's arm, then one had reached Great Accomplishment.

In other words, Zhang Yuan's Cape Saber Technique had already reached the Great Accomplishment Realm!

"Pfft—"

An arrow shot through the back of the soldier fleeing while clutching his severed arm, making him pitch to the ground.

From the alley entrance came the clatter of armor and weapons as soldiers ran closer.

"Zhang Yuan!"

"Zhang Yuan!"

The urgent calls dispelled the dazed look on Zhang Yuan's face, and a smile appeared.

Those were his comrade-in-arms.

Comrade-in-arms who entrusted life and death to one another.

Who said we had no clothes? With you as my brother, we wore the same robe.

Where Great Qin's war song rose, comrades-in-arms would never betray one another in life or death.

To the shield-bearing Yan soldier opposite him, Zhang Yuan's smile was no different from a fierce demon's.

From feigning death to killing one man and wounding another, Zhang Yuan had displayed the fierce, savage martial valor of a Great Qin warrior.

He took two steps back, then the shield-bearing Yan soldier turned and fled.

Zhang Yuan froze for a moment, then raised his head to look toward the figures already charging down the street.

Dragging his saber, he walked out from the side of the broken wall and into the alley. He looked at the one-armed Yan soldier sprawled on the ground, still struggling.

His expression shifted as Zhang Yuan raised the saber in his hand.

"Pfft—"

The long saber fell, and blood spurted everywhere.

"Hahaha, kid, you're stealing credit for yourself!"

"Ho, Zhang Yuan, kid, you can rack up two merits from this. Impressive."

Several running figures surrounded Zhang Yuan. They gathered up the Yan soldiers' weapons scattered across the ground, stripped away their clothes and armor, then ushered Zhang Yuan away at speed.

Not long afterward, dozens of Yan soldiers clad in black armor rushed into the alley. Finding nothing, they dragged away the two Yan corpses.

An empty stone house, weapons scattered about.

More than a dozen soldiers sat in a circle.

Zhang Yuan sat against a low wall with his shoulder bare, staring blankly ahead.

After his campmates returned from rescuing him, Zhang Yuan was merely somewhat exhausted, with a purple bruise on his shoulder where the axe shaft had struck.

Everyone said his life was tough, that he had somehow made it back alive from such a situation.

Yet no one knew that Zhang Yuan's state of mind had already undergone an earth-shaking transformation.

He did not know whether the experiences from that illusory dream were real, but Chaos undeniably existed.

And he could feel with absolute clarity the changes Chaos had brought him.

After killing two men in succession, two blood beads had greatly increased his strength by one hundred jin.

This allowed his martial cultivation to enter the Early Houtian Realm he had dreamed of attaining.

Great Qin Martial Way cultivation had three realms—Houtian, Xiantian, and Grandmaster—each divided into nine ranks. Every step was another layer of heaven.

Houtian martial artists tempered their bodies, with their strength determining their realm.

Early, middle, and late stages corresponded to bodily strength of five hundred jin, eight hundred jin, and one thousand five hundred jin.

The battlefield, where one walked between life and death, tempered people most harshly. Three months ago, Zhang Yuan had only been a youth with rudimentary martial training. After three months of bitter fighting, he already possessed four hundred jin of strength, only one step from the Houtian Realm.

Today's increase of one hundred jin in strength allowed him to directly condense vitality and become a Houtian martial artist.

A sixteen-year-old Houtian Realm martial artist would count as an outstanding young talent throughout Luyang Prefecture. Zhang Yuan had never even dared dream of it before.

It was not just his cultivation that had improved. Zhang Yuan's greater change was in his martial insights.

A martial artist's combat strength was the union of cultivation strength and martial combat technique cultivation.

Cultivation alone could not display combat power.

Martial techniques alone, without the strength to match them, were merely talking strategy on paper.

The infused observation and comprehension of the martial memories of two Yan veterans had rapidly elevated Zhang Yuan's martial combat techniques. His Cape Saber Technique and Ironclad Fist had entered the Great Accomplishment Realm and were not far from the Perfection Realm.

Martial combat techniques were divided into three levels: Minor Accomplishment, Great Accomplishment, and Perfection.

For a set of saber techniques to reach the Perfection Level, at least ten years of bitter cultivation were required.

Zhang Yuan's heart burned hot, as if scorched by raging flames.

With the cultivation of a Houtian martial artist and Great Accomplishment Level combat techniques, could he survive this great war?

The most crucial point was that he possessed Chaos!

Closing his eyes slightly, Zhang Yuan softly murmured, just as Huaxia soldiers did, "Chaos."

"Buzz—"

The screen in his mind trembled, and lines of text emerged.

Zhang Yuan

Identity: Ninth-rank Black Robe Guard of Luyang Prefecture, Great Qin; Crimson Scale Army Conscript

Cultivation: Early Houtian Realm; four Vitality Beads required to advance to the middle stage

Martial Way Cultivation: Cape Saber Technique, Great Accomplishment; one Insight Bead required to advance to Perfection; Ironclad Fist, Great Accomplishment; one Insight Bead required to advance

Battle Formation: Azure Wolf Formation, Proficient

Chaos Space: Empty

Chaos Auxiliary Battle: Not Activated

...

"Zhang Yuan, if you can survive, what do you want to do?"

The hoarse call slowly brought Zhang Yuan back to himself, and the Chaos screen in his mind faded from view.