The Great Perfection Realm of the Cape Saber Technique!

The old soldier was called Chen Youde. Like Zhang Yuan, he was a Black Robe Guard sent from Luyang Prefecture alongside death-row prisoners, and he had once been Zhang Yuan's father's colleague.

Of the eight Black Robe Guards who had come to Fengtian County together, only Chen Youde and Zhang Yuan remained.

Zhang Yuan nodded and gripped his saber as he walked toward the middle of the alley.

"I'll hold them off. You deliver the finishing blows."

Young Master Tao gave a low shout. With a shake of the wooden spear's shaft in his hand, he knocked aside the incoming arrows. Without slowing his feet, he charged straight against the Black Armored Soldiers.

Zhang Yuan crouched slightly and drove his long saber into the chests of the two Black Armored Soldiers still struggling on the ground.

Two Vitality Beads turned into surging strength and rushed into his body, swelling his meridians as if they were about to tear apart.

A blue-gray aura poured into his body, circled once, then turned back into two round beads.

Both his fist technique and saber technique had already reached Great Perfection and could yield no further insight. So this insight had turned into beads and been stored away?

There was no time to ponder it. Zhang Yuan looked up and saw Young Master Tao's spear shadows dancing before him. With each step, he thrust once; the gleaming spearpoint trailed a shriek like cloth being ripped apart.

This spear technique was not the Frontline Three Spears practiced by camp soldiers.

"My Tao Family is a great clan of Yuping County, with poetry and books passed down through the generations."

"My mother always hoped I could pass the Official Examination, so that the Tao Family's Confucian legacy would not be severed."

"Ever since I was young, I, Tao Yulin, hated literature and loved martial arts. I studied the Martial Way under famous masters and could never stand all that preaching."

Young Master Tao wielded his long spear and advanced step by step, shouting loudly. It was unclear whether he was speaking for Zhang Yuan to hear, or for himself.

"Until three years ago, when I accidentally killed someone and implicated the entire Tao Family. The younger generation of the Tao Family was stripped of their qualifications for the Official Examination, and my mother died of grief and rage."

A dazzling flower of spear shadows stabbed into the waist of a Black Armored Soldier rushing forward. The wooden spear drew back and swept out, then smashed across another Black Armored Soldier's thigh, ripping open a bloody gash.

Zhang Yuan stepped forward and rolled low along the ground. His long saber pierced the throat of the Black Armored Soldier clutching his thigh and trying to retreat, the blade emerging from the back of his neck.

The speed and strength granted by the Late Early Houtian Realm, coupled with his Great Perfection Level control of the saber technique, made this strike vicious and decisive.

Without withdrawing his saber, Zhang Yuan gripped it with both hands, Kneeled on One Knee, twisted the blade, and slashed fiercely upward at an angle.

One of the eight forms of the Cape Saber Technique—Wind Slash.

The saber that severed half the Black Armored Soldier's neck continued into the chest of the soldier struck in the waist and abdomen by the spear.

The thin Leather Armor could not withstand Zhang Yuan's heavy slash. The blade hacked into his rib bones, blood splattered, and the soldier was sent flying back two zhang before crashing to the ground. His legs kicked once, and his breath ceased.

Strength, speed, timing.

Zhang Yuan's strike displayed the Cape Saber Technique's ultimate ferocity.

Young Master Tao, drawing back his spear to recover his breath, turned his head slightly. Seeing Zhang Yuan bent low with his saber dragging at his side, a faint smile appeared on his face.

"Good fellow, Kid. Your saber technique has actually reached the Great Accomplishment Realm."

Though saber techniques at the Great Accomplishment Realm and Great Perfection Level looked no different to outsiders, only practitioners themselves could feel the gulf between them, as vast as the abyss between heaven and earth.

With a lift of his spear, Young Master Tao forced back the Black Armored Soldier rushing forward and called out, "You should pursue Martial Way Cultivation. Perhaps you might even have a chance to achieve the Xiantian Realm."

Great Qin had founded its nation through martial strength, and martial arts reigned supreme. Even ordinary commoners practiced some martial arts for self-defense.

Unfortunately, the poor pursued literature while the rich pursued martial arts. Martial arts cultivation consumed immense resources, while inheritances were controlled by great powers. Ordinary martial artists had no chance of entering the Xiantian Realm in their entire lives.

Martial artists without resources or inheritances could only sacrifice their lives for Military Merit, exchanging it for entry into the Martial Way Cultivation established by the government and imperial court.

Zhang Yuan did not answer. He merely lowered his body, gripped his saber, and stood at Young Master Tao's side like a crouching tiger.

After killing two more men, his Qi and Blood strength would break through to 800 Jin, and his Martial Cultivation would enter the Mid Houtian Realm!

The Chaos Screen appeared in his mind.

Zhang Yuan

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

Cultivation: Mid Houtian Realm; Fleshly body's Qi and Blood not yet stable, Cannot Upgrade for now

Martial Way Cultivation: Cape Saber Technique at Great Perfection Level, Cannot Upgrade; Ironclad Fist at Great Perfection Level, Cannot Upgrade

Battle Formation: Azure Wolf Formation at Minor Accomplishment Realm

Chaos Space: Four Insight Beads

Chaos Auxiliary Battle: Not Activated

He had only just entered the Mid Houtian Realm. His body, tendons, and bones had not been tempered enough and could not temporarily bear more Qi and Blood power.

His cultivation and Martial Way Cultivation had already reached their limits, with no room to advance further. The returned insight and Vitality Beads would be stored within the Chaos Space.

He could store the Blood Beads and Insight Beads for now, then use them to break through and improve later.

As for the Azure Wolf Formation commonly practiced in the army, he had probably gained Minor Accomplishment Realm insight into it while observing those cultivation memories. This formation was not particularly difficult.

"Wooo—"

In the distance, the war horn sounded through the air.

Chaos broke out behind the Black Armored Soldiers blocking the road. The soldiers forced back by Young Master Tao clutched their round shields, sabers, and spears as they crowded forward step by step.

Yan State had been founded by Great Qin officials who rebelled. Its military formations followed Great Qin's Military Law.

Shields in front, Spears behind, sabers accompanying the formation; five men formed a formation, advance and retreat in coordination. This was the Azure Wolf Formation.

"Be careful." Young Master Tao gave a low shout, stepped toward the left, then took two steps into empty air. Borrowing the rebounding force from a corridor pillar beside the street, he flew onto the eaves.

Standing atop the one-zhang-high eaves, Young Master Tao held his long spear horizontally. He fell with the spear, whirling the shaft in a full circle as it howled down.

"Smack—"

The spear shaft smashed into the back of a shield-bearing soldier bent over, breaking his spine outright and sending his body sprawling to the ground.

As he landed, Young Master Tao gripped the section where the dagger was bound before the spearpoint. He stepped in and thrust, driving the spearpoint beneath the ribs of a soldier turning around.

Zhang Yuan did not hesitate either. Taking advantage of the instant the shield-bearing soldier was smashed down by Young Master Tao, he rushed forward in one step, crashed into the gap in the formation ahead, gripped his saber with both hands, and drew it diagonally.

Advance-and-Drag Saber, Step-In Cleaving Saber.

The two saber moves were nimble and swift, his actions clean and crisp. The blade scraped across the waist and abdomen of the shield-bearing soldier on the left, drawing a bloody wound, then slashed against the shoulder armor of another soldier, making him stagger. The formation that had been surrounding Young Master Tao was broken apart.

His saber raged like a gale, his body moving with the blade!

Man and saber became one, power flowing through the edge. Zhang Yuan felt every move become incomparably exhilarating.

This was the Great Perfection Realm of the Cape Saber Technique!

Once the formation broke, Young Master Tao burst into laughter. His long spear swept out and knocked aside two saber-wielding soldiers. The spearpoint shot forth like a serpent, stabbing into the thigh of the Black Armored Soldier before him.

The encircling, crushing assault of two squads of Black Armored Yan Army soldiers was directly broken apart by Zhang Yuan and Young Master Tao.

The remaining two soldiers retreated in panic. Zhang Yuan followed the momentum forward and thrust his long saber repeatedly, ending the lives of the two wounded soldiers.

Another two Blood Beads, another two Insight Beads!

Accumulate more Vitality Beads and Insight Beads as provisions for future cultivation!

Zhang Yuan raised his head. A smile appeared on his face, dyed crimson by blood splattered over it, making him look savage and terrifying.

Zhang Yuan stepped out, but Young Master Tao grabbed his arm.

"Retreat."

"Sha Qi has clouded your mind."

Young Master Tao's words jolted Zhang Yuan from head to toe, and clarity returned to his eyes.

After too much slaughter, one's mind could be bewildered by Sha Qi. Countless soldiers had ultimately died before the formation because of it.

That state of mind, with Qi and Blood surging and only battle in one's heart, could increase a soldier's fighting strength—but it could also send him to his death.

Had Young Master Tao not called out to him, Zhang Yuan would already have rushed straight into the enemy formation.

"Let's go." Zhang Yuan nodded, gripped his saber, and Retreated.

Duan Hong and his team of people had already gone far away. Their task of covering the rear was considered complete.

Covering the rear was not the same as courting death.

Young Master Tao nodded while holding his wooden spear. Turning sideways and dragging the spear behind him, he retreated toward the back of the streets and alleys.

The two had barely retreated several steps when a shrill whistle came from two hundred paces away.

An arrow!

Only the Strength of One Ox could fire a long arrow with such a piercing shriek.

The Xiantian Realm!