Finishing Blows Were Not Just for Enemies, but for Our Own as Well

The speaking youth wore armor with only a few iron plates left. His hair was tied up without a strand out of place, and he held a fire-hardened wooden stick in one hand. Before him lay an unfurled roll of yellowed hemp cloth.

Lines of charcoal black handwriting covered the hemp cloth.

"Me?" Zhang Yuan's gaze was somewhat lost as he said softly, "Inheritance from father to son... I should be a Black Robe Guard of Luyang Prefecture..."

The abrupt changes in his cultivation and comprehension still left Zhang Yuan struggling to adjust.

The emergence of chaos had made it hard for him to place his own identity.

"Black Robe Guard?" The armored youth frowned and looked at Zhang Yuan. "Didn't you say you wanted to become a roving knight who roams the martial world?"

"Once this battle is over, accumulate merit for reward. Maybe you can trade it for a chance at martial arts cultivation."

"Do you want to change—"

"Woooo—"

The long blast of the war horn cut off the youth's words. The expressions of the others changed as well, and they rose to their feet.

"The Yan dogs are attacking again."

"Damn it, are they not going to let us live? Even if I die, I'll drag a few more down as companions in death."

Cursing, the men neatened their armor, wrapped the hemp cloth around their sword hilts tighter, and checked all their self-made wooden spears and arrows.

"Young Master Tao, stay with Zhang Yuan to cover the rear and deliver finishing blows." The speaking big man was around forty years old, with the character for "convict" tattooed on his forehead.

His name was Duan Hong. He had originally been a convict soldier sent from Luyang Prefecture, but he was now the battalion commander of Zhang Yuan's battalion.

Zhang Yuan's battalion consisted of Crimson Scale Army veterans, conscripted guards, and convict soldiers.

By Great Qin military law, a battalion had one hundred men.

After three months, only Zhang Yuan and the twelve or thirteen people before him remained in their battalion.

The other battalions in the city were about the same. With no reinforcements for three months, the defenders of Fengtian County City were almost all dead.

Zhang Yuan nodded and silently put on his armor. He drew his waist knife and clamped it between his sleeve and elbow, wiping away the remaining bloodstains.

The armored youth called Young Master Tao nodded as well. He wrapped up the hemp cloth covered in writing and put it into his embrace, then gripped a wooden spear with a short dagger tied to the end of its long pole.

Before battle, Young Master Tao, who had read books, and Zhang Yuan, the youngest, had been left behind by the battalion's first commander.

Over the past three months, eleven battalion commanders had been replaced, and every one of them had made the same arrangement.

Zhang Yuan carried his saber and ran swiftly along the base of the wall. The rough hemp rope wrapped around the hilt in his palm gave him a sense of peace.

As if an extension of his arm.

That was the feeling.

Young Master Tao's movements were not fast, but he used half his body to shield Zhang Yuan slightly.

The team of people spread out, allowing them to avoid stones thrown down by catapults and crossbow bolts fired over the city walls by siege crossbows.

After three months of bloody battles, even recruits like Zhang Yuan and Young Master Tao had learned how to stay alive on the battlefield.

"Duan Hong, the Yan dogs have entered the city. Follow me to West City and block the opening."

Turning the street corner, they joined a team of seventeen or eighteen soldiers. Their leader, a big man in crimson outer armor, held a blue-gray spear. When he saw Duan Hong and the others arrive, he gave a low shout.

Only the Crimson Scale Army possessed such crimson battle armor.

Block the opening.

Duan Hong nodded with a sober face, and everyone behind him looked grave.

Zhang Yuan knew what it meant to block the opening.

It meant close combat in the city's streets and alleys, the battle they least wished to face.

There were few soldiers in the city, and their armor was in tatters. Blocking the opening meant filling it with lives.

The two teams merged into thirty people and rushed through the streets and alleys. Dim Sha Qi rose around them, making everyone's qi and blood surge.

Qi and blood stirred within Zhang Yuan as well.

"Form up—"

The red armored warrior ahead shouted loudly. The previously scattered formation of soldiers neatened, and the power of all their qi and blood linked together as if they were a single person.

Their killing intent condensed into a Crimson Wolf Phantom floating above the military formation as they rushed through the alley entrance.

When hundred-battle veterans formed a military formation, their qi, blood, and killing intent gathered together, multiplying their combat strength.

Hundred thousand years ago, Great Qin had relied on military formations to sweep across the ten thousand domains.

Bang—

The red armored warrior swept his spear. The shaft whistled as it smashed into the chests of three Black Armored Soldiers rushing at them, knocking the three men back a zhang. Their rib bones shattered, and they fell to the ground.

The military formation's qi and blood enhancement allowed the red armored warrior, already at the late Houtian Realm, to strike with the Strength of One Ox.

The Strength of One Ox was two thousand jin.

That was the limit of the Houtian Realm.

Kill—

The spear thrust forward, piercing through the Great Shield held by the Black Armored Soldier ahead and punching through his chest and abdomen.

Charge—

The red armored warrior roared. His spear pushed the Great Shield, crushing the body of the Black Armored Soldier hanging on its tip as he forced his way out through the alley entrance.

Charge—

Everyone roared. Their qi, blood, and killing intent connected into a sheet of crimson, pushing that team of Black Armored Soldiers that had rushed into the city backward.

The wielded sabers and spears sprayed beads of blood that splattered across the walls on both sides of the streets and alleys.

Layer upon layer of mottled bloodstains reddened the broken walls and shattered windows.

Beside a low wall, a Black Armored Soldier clutched the foot-long wound in his chest and abdomen, struggling to get up.

"Finishing blow!"

Duan Hong growled from ahead.

Young Master Tao stepped forward, pressing his wooden spear against the soldier's neck. His facial muscles twitched, and his arm trembled.

"I'll do it."

Zhang Yuan grabbed Young Master Tao's arm and stepped forward with practiced ease, pressing the saber in his hand against the Black Armored Soldier's neck.

Since joining the army three months ago, Young Master Tao, who had read ten years of books, had never killed a single person. Every finishing blow had been delivered by Zhang Yuan.

The icy chill of the blade stiffened the severely wounded and dying Black Armored Soldier. He looked up at Zhang Yuan, raised a hand, and tried to grab Zhang Yuan's arm.

Rip—

Zhang Yuan drove his knee into the Black Armored Soldier's chest and followed the momentum with a pull of his saber.

Crimson, blazing blood splattered onto Zhang Yuan's head and face, scalding hot as fire.

In an instant, a blood-red color appeared in Zhang Yuan's mind, and the Chaos Screen turned into rising flames.

A blood-red bead and a blue-gray bead rolled out.

Zhang Yuan clenched his fists.

The blood bead turned into fifty jin of strength and poured into his body, increasing his strength to five hundred and fifty jin.

The blue-gray bead shattered, and within it appeared a figure wielding a saber.

Ahead, Duan Hong's voice sounded again.

"Xu Tuozi can't make it. Give him a quick end."

Zhang Yuan looked up toward the thin, dark-skinned middle-aged man who had fallen and sat in a pool of blood, a half-zhang-long crossbow bolt stuck in his chest.

Gripping his saber, Zhang Yuan stood up.

Finishing blows were not just for enemies, but for their own people as well.

He reached out and dragged the thin, dark-skinned middle-aged man to the side of the broken wall. Zhang Yuan lowered his body and pressed his palm to the man's chest.

The crossbow bolt had pierced directly through his heart meridian. He could not live.

The thin, dark-skinned middle-aged man stared at Zhang Yuan. Blood foam gushed from the corner of his mouth.

"Xu Huanshan, from Pingtian Village, Luyang Prefecture. Joined the army for three years, accumulated seven grades of merit, willing to use his merit to let his brothers at home study. I have remembered it all."

Young Master Tao, leaning on his wooden spear, recited loudly. He reached out and grabbed the thin, dark-skinned middle-aged man's hand, allowing the man's fingers to clench with all their strength and scratch bloody marks into his own fingers.

With each recitation from Young Master Tao, the thin, dark-skinned middle-aged man's chest rose and fell heavily once. Blood continuously gushed from the corner of his mouth, spraying from his chest and soaking Zhang Yuan's arm.

"Brother Xu, don't worry. The money will definitely be delivered, definitely." Zhang Yuan stared into the thin, dark-skinned middle-aged man's eyes and spoke solemnly.

One merit counts as five taels of silver ingots, while pensions for those slain in battle amounted to thirty taels.

That sum was enough to cover a commoner family's expenses for ten years.

The thin, dark-skinned middle-aged man looked at Zhang Yuan and nodded faintly. A hint of a smile appeared at the corner of his mouth as he spoke with difficulty. "Zhang... kid, give your elder brother... a quick end..."