Iron Wall City, the General's Estate.
Li Xuan sat cross-legged on the bed, his chest wrapped in thick bandages, yet blood still seeped through and stained them red.
Golden Wound Powder could only stop the bleeding. The meridian damage and lifespan loss caused by the Life Burning Art could not be treated with pills.
He looked inward at the panel:
[Li Xuan] [Age: Seventeen] [Strength: 5.8] [Constitution: 11.8] [Agility: 2.2] [Spirit: 1.6] [Potential: 15.3] [Technique: Blood Fiend Bone Forging Technique Layer Two (Minor Accomplishment)]
Ten years of his lifespan were gone.
But Li Xuan did not feel much.
What did ten years matter? If he died on the battlefield today, a hundred years of lifespan would be nothing but empty talk.
The 15.3 Potential Points on the panel were the spoils of the bloody battle just now.
After thinking it over, he added 10 Potential Points to his constitution and 5 to his strength.
[Constitution: 11.8→21.8] [Strength: 5.8→10.8]
A warm current surged through him.
The spear wound in his chest began healing rapidly, while his severed meridians were nourished and repaired.
Although the aftereffects of the Life Burning Art remained, at least... he could move now.
His strength broke through 10.0, officially stepping across the threshold of Body Tempering Layer Six.
And with a constitution of 21.8, he was already comparable to the peak of Body Tempering Layer Eight!
Under the tempering of the Blood Fiend Bone Forging Technique, his bones had reached an astonishing 200% hardness.
Now, even if he took Wanyan Lie's ax head-on, at most his bones would crack. They would not break.
"Li Xuan."
Senior Sister Yun pushed the door open and entered, carrying a bowl of medicinal soup.
"The Nourishing Origin Soup the sect sent over can alleviate the aftereffects of the Life Burning Art." She handed him the bowl. "But the lost lifespan... cannot be restored."
Li Xuan took it and drained it in one gulp.
The medicinal soup was bitter, but after entering his throat, it transformed into a gentle current that nourished his damaged foundation.
"Thank you."
"I should be thanking you." Senior Sister Yun sat down beside the bed, her expression complicated. "If not for you, we would all have died in that forest today."
She paused. "General Wang's poison has been completely cured, but his body is weak. He needs at least a month of recuperation. For now, I will act as Iron Wall City's defender."
"What about the barbarian tribes?"
"Wanyan Xiong fled back to the Blood Eagle Tribe's camp heavily wounded, and more than half of the three thousand vanguard cavalry were lost." Senior Sister Yun said, "But the Blood Eagle Tribe's main force of forty-seven thousand has already reached the northern bank of the Blackwater River. They will cross at the latest tomorrow. Including the Blood Wolf Tribe's remnants, the barbarian army numbers... more than fifty thousand."
Fifty thousand.
Counting the Crimson Firmament Sect disciples, Iron Wall City's defenders numbered fewer than eight thousand.
The disparity in military strength was more than sixfold.
"What is the sect's position?" Li Xuan asked.
Senior Sister Yun was silent for a moment before taking a jade slip from her bosom.
The jade slip was crimson, with a Cloud Pattern carved upon it.
"This is an emergency message from the sect." Her voice was low. "With the Blood Eagle Tribe's army pressing against the city, Iron Wall City no longer has strategic value. The sect has ordered: all Crimson Firmament Sect disciples are to withdraw immediately and retreat to Crimson Firmament Mountain."
Withdraw.
Abandon Iron Wall City, its several thousand defenders, and its tens of thousands of commoners.
Li Xuan stared at the jade slip without saying a word.
"I know what you're thinking." Senior Sister Yun said, "but this is the decision of the Elder Council. Iron Wall City cannot be held. If we remain here, we will only sacrifice ourselves for nothing."
"Does General Wang agree?"
"He doesn't." Senior Sister Yun shook her head. "But he has no authority to interfere with the sect's decision. The Crimson Firmament Sect disciples must withdraw."
She looked at Li Xuan. "You have already been promoted to Inner Disciple, so you are also on the evacuation list. Pack your things. In an hour, we will leave through the south gate."
"I'm not leaving," Li Xuan said.
"What?"
"I said, I'm not leaving." Li Xuan stood up. "I know Iron Wall City cannot be defended. But if we leave just like this, what will happen to the defenders in the city? What about the commoners? Are we going to let them wait for death?"
"This is war!" Senior Sister Yun rose as well, her voice climbing. "War means sacrifice! What can you change by staying behind alone? Can you stop fifty thousand barbarians?"
"I can't stop them," Li Xuan said. "But I can kill a few more."
"You..." Senior Sister Yun's chest heaved with anger. "Li Xuan, you're a genius! You're the sect's future! Dying here isn't worth it!"
"Whether it's worth it or not is for me to decide."
The two stared at each other.
The air froze.
After a long while, Senior Sister Yun sighed.
"Steward Liu was right. You really are... stubborn as a mule."
She took another jade slip from her bosom and tossed it to Li Xuan.
"What is this?"
"A remnant of the third layer of the Blood Fiend Bone Forging Technique." Senior Sister Yun said, "Steward Liu found it in the sect's Scripture Repository. It only contains the general principles and the first form. He said... if you truly intend to stay, this might help you break through."
Li Xuan caught the jade slip and pressed it against his forehead.
Information surged into him:
The third layer of the Blood Fiend Bone Forging Technique—condense blood into baleful intent, transform baleful intent into gang qi, absorb the most yin and most sinister energies, and refine Blood Fiend Gang Qi.
Once cultivated, gang qi would protect the body, making one impervious to blades and spears. A punch would strike with the force of gang qi, capable of shattering mountains and splitting rocks.
But the cultivation requirements were harsh: he had to absorb the resentment and killing intent of the dead on a battlefield of ten thousand people, then break through on the razor's edge between life and death.
Failure would cause the killing intent to turn on him, exploding his body and killing him.
"Thank Steward Liu for me."
"You... you're really going to cultivate it?" Senior Sister Yun's eyes were filled with worry.
"Do I have a better choice?" Li Xuan asked in return.
Senior Sister Yun fell silent.
"In an hour, I will lead the disciples in withdrawing." She turned toward the door, then stopped. "Li Xuan, come back alive. The Crimson Firmament Sect's Inner Sect... needs disciples like you."
The door closed.
Li Xuan tightened his grip on the jade slip, his gaze resolute.
"Chen Feng." Li Xuan called toward the door.
Chen Feng pushed the door open and entered. He was also wrapped in bandages, but his eyes were bright. "I'm here."
"Senior Sister Yun is taking the Crimson Firmament Sect disciples away," Li Xuan said. "You go with them."
"What about you?"
"I'm staying."
Chen Feng stared at him for three seconds before shaking his head. "Then I'll stay too."
"There's no use in you staying," Li Xuan said. "You're at Body Tempering Layer Five. Facing an army of fifty thousand, you won't last three breaths."
"What about you? You can last?"
"I can," Li Xuan said. "I have the Blood Fiend Bone Forging Technique. The stronger the battle, the stronger I become. You don't. Staying behind would only mean throwing your life away."
Chen Feng gritted his teeth. "At least... I can block a few blades for you."
"There's no need." Li Xuan took a cloth bag from his bosom and stuffed it into Chen Feng's hands. "There are fifty Body Tempering Pills inside, along with evidence of Elder Zhao's treason. Take them back to the martial arts school and hand them to the master."
"Li Xuan..."
"This is an order." Li Xuan's eyes turned cold. "I'm an Inner Disciple, and you're an Outer Disciple. According to the sect's rules, you have to listen to me."
Chen Feng's eyes reddened.
In the end, he accepted the cloth bag and gave a deep fist salute.
"Come back alive."
An hour later, at the south gate.
Three hundred Crimson Firmament Sect disciples had finished forming ranks. Reluctance showed on every face, but none dared defy the sect's order.
Senior Sister Yun sat on horseback and took one last look at Iron Wall City.
The city walls were battered, and the beacon fires had yet to die out.
This city could no longer be held.
"Set out."
The group slowly left the city.
On the city wall, Wang Meng stood there supported by his personal guards, watching them depart. This General Zhenbei's face was pale, but his back was ramrod straight.
"General," the deputy asked in a low voice, "can we... hold?"
"Even if we can't, we must!" Wang Meng's voice was hoarse. "Hold until the very last soldier."
"But..."
"No buts." Wang Meng turned and looked into the city. "Pass down the order: all defenders, to the walls. As for the commoners... those willing to leave are to withdraw through the south gate. Those unwilling are to be issued weapons and perish with the city."
"Yes!"
The order spread.
The entire city descended into chaos.
Some commoners dragged their families toward the south gate. Some old soldiers carried their blades toward the walls. Some wounded soldiers struggled out of the medical hall, determined to kill a few more barbarians.
The chaotic age was a furnace, and human lives were straw.
Li Xuan stood atop a watchtower in the northern part of the city, overlooking the entire city.
He held a newly issued longbow, with thirty armor-piercing arrows slotted into his quiver. Three spare battle sabers lay beside him, along with... ten Blood Burst Pills.
This was everything he could prepare.
"They're here."
On the distant horizon, the black mass of the barbarian army surged forward like a tide.
Fifty thousand people.
Their banners blotted out the sun, and the glint of their blades was like a forest.
At the very front were the Blood Eagle Tribe's elite—the three thousand heavy-armored cavalrymen. Both men and horses were clad in iron armor, with only their eyes exposed. Behind them were ten thousand archers, twenty thousand infantrymen, and siege equipment.
In the center of the army, beneath the enormous Blood Eagle banner, Li Xuan saw a familiar figure.
Wanyan Lie.
He had actually appeared again.
Although his face was pale, he was sitting in a war chariot and was indeed still alive.
And beside him stood an old man in black robes, his face covered in painted grease—the barbarian shaman.
The shaman held a skull in his hands. Ghostly Green Fire burned in its empty eye sockets.
"What are they doing?" defenders on the wall cried out in alarm.
The shaman raised the skull high and threw back his head with a long howl.
A cryptic incantation echoed through the wind.
The sky suddenly darkened.
Dark clouds converged from every direction, covering the sun. A violent wind rose, sweeping sand and stones against the city walls with a sharp patter.
"It's sorcery!" Wang Meng's expression changed drastically. "Quick! Fire! Shoot that shaman!"
The archers and crossbowmen hurriedly loosed their arrows.
But halfway through their flight, the arrows were blown off course by the fierce wind and fell limply to the ground.
The shaman's incantation grew more urgent.
The Green Fire in the skull's eyes blazed, transforming into a pillar of light that shot into the heavens!
Boom!
A peal of thunder exploded across the sky.
Then Li Xuan saw a sight he would never forget.
Within the pillar of light, the phantom of a massive wolf slowly condensed.
The wolf stood thirty meters tall, its entire body glowing ghostly green, soulfire burning in its eye sockets. It threw back its head and howled. Its voice was as mournful as ten thousand ghosts wailing together, shaking even the city walls.
"An ancient Wolf Soul..." Wang Meng's voice trembled. "The barbarian shaman can actually summon something like this..."
The Wolf Soul lowered its head, its ghostly green eyes sweeping across Iron Wall City.
Wherever its gaze passed, the defenders' souls trembled, their hands and feet growing weak.
It was a terror that came from the soul itself.
"It's over." A soldier collapsed onto the ground. "We're finished..."
Li Xuan also felt a chill rise from his spine.
[High-concentration soul-force energy detected... Can be absorbed and converted into Potential Points or used to strengthen the divine soul... Absorb?]
Soul force?
Li Xuan's eyes lit up.
"Absorb!"
An invisible suction force erupted from his body.
In midair, the Wolf Soul suddenly faltered, its ghostly green body swaying once.
The shaman's expression changed drastically. "Someone is absorbing the Wolf Soul's power! Who?!"
His gaze swept across the city wall before finally landing on Li Xuan.
"It's you!" the shaman rasped. "You southern boy, how dare you blaspheme the Wolf God!"
Li Xuan grinned.
He continued absorbing it.
[Potential Points +1] [Potential Points +1] [Potential Points +1]
The numbers on the panel began jumping wildly!
The Wolf Soul let out an enraged roar, but it discovered that its power was draining away.
Though slowly, it was indeed draining away.
"Kill him!" The shaman pointed at Li Xuan.
Wanyan Lie also spotted Li Xuan, venom flashing in his eyes. "Attack the city! Once we break through, I'll skin him with my own hands!"
The barbarian army's horns blared.
An army of fifty thousand surged toward Iron Wall City like a black tsunami!
The true final battle had begun.
Li Xuan put away his longbow and drew the Black Scale Saber.
He glanced at the panel.
In that brief moment just now, his Potential Points had risen by 30.
He put them all into Constitution!
[Con: 21.8→51.8]
His Constitution had broken through 50.0!
The Body Tempering Realm Level 9 Threshold was shattered!
His physical strength now rivaled the peak of Body Tempering Realm Level 9!
On top of that, with the Blood Fiend Bone Forging Technique's second layer reaching minor mastery, his bone hardness had reached 200%...
Li Xuan tightened his grip on the saber, battle intent blazing in his eyes.
"Come on."
He leaped from the watchtower and landed atop the city wall.
Ahead, the barbarian army had already reached the foot of the walls.
Ladders were being raised.
The battering ram began pounding against the city gates.
A rain of arrows fell like locusts.
Li Xuan drew a deep breath.
He circulated the general principles of the Blood Fiend Bone Forging Technique's third layer.
Absorbing the Killing Intent from the battlefield, the Wolf Soul's soul force, and the aura of death.
He would break through to the third layer in this desperate situation!
Condense blood into Killing Intent, transform Killing Intent into Gang Qi.
Refine the Blood Fiend Gang Qi!
"Kill—!"
He charged toward the nearest siege ladder.
The Black Scale Saber came slashing down.
Blood-red light soared into the sky!
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