City Broken

As dawn was about to break, at the third watch of the night.

Outside the north wall of Iron Wall City, the dense Barbarian army formation resembled a moving sea of ink.

The main force of forty thousand from the Blood Eagle Tribe had quietly crossed the river last night and were now arrayed in the pre-dawn darkness.

On the city wall, torches flickered in the morning breeze.

Li Xuan stood behind the battlements, his blood-colored Qi circulating slowly around his body like a thin layer of blood armor.

His gaze swept over the army formation below the city.

Heavy infantry in front, archers in the center, cavalry on the flanks, with battering rams and catapults slowly advancing.

Real war was never a child's game of martial artist duels, but a merciless meat grinder.

"Archers, prepare!" Wang Meng's voice came from the watchtower, hoarse but firm.

Six hundred defenders raised their longbows, their arrowheads aimed at the enemy below.

"General Li." An old soldier walked up to Li Xuan's side, handing him a newly forged long saber. "The blacksmiths in the city made this overnight. It's not as good as that wolf saber..."

The saber was three feet long, with a thick spine and a rough edge.

Li Xuan took it and weighed it. Around twenty pounds, perfect for chopping.

"Thanks."

The old soldier grinned, revealing a gap where two teeth were missing. "We should be thanking you. If you hadn't cut through their ranks yesterday, the Barbarians would have been on the walls last night."

Before he finished speaking--

Woooo—

The Barbarian horns roared like ancient beasts, tearing through the morning mist.

The first wave of attack had begun.

Three hundred catapults launched simultaneously, hurling millstone-sized stones at the city wall like a swarm of locusts.

The roaring sound was deafening, and the entire city wall trembled.

Crushed stones flew, and several defenders were hit, instantly turning into a bloody pulp.

"Shields up!" Wang Meng roared.

Li Xuan advanced instead of retreating, his Qi protecting him as he punched a flying stone to pieces.

The shattered stones hit his Qi, making dull thuds, and his blood-colored energy rippled slightly.

After his Stamina broke through fifty, ordinary catapult stones could no longer harm him.

But the city wall couldn't hold.

A section on the east side, already fragile, was hit repeatedly and collapsed with a loud crash, revealing a three-zhang wide gap.

"Reinforce it!" Wang Meng personally led men to rush over, using sandbags, door panels, and even corpses to block the breach.

At this moment, the Barbarian infantry had reached within a hundred paces of the city.

A rain of arrows poured down.

The defenders loosed their arrows, and the Barbarians raised their shields. Amidst the clanging, dozens of Barbarian soldiers fell, but more charged forward fearlessly.

Scaling ladders were brought up.

This time, not ten or twenty, but hundreds.

They rose like a forest.

"Rolling stones!" Chen Feng commanded on the left flank.

Stones rolled down, toppling several scaling ladders.

But there were too many Barbarians; as one batch fell, another immediately took its place.

The first scaling ladder reached the city wall.

Li Xuan moved.

He was like a blood-colored meteor, instantly covering twenty zhang to appear before the ladder.

His long saber swept horizontally, severing the top of the ladder. The climbing Barbarian soldiers fell with screams.

But the second and third ladders followed closely.

The city wall was in critical condition in multiple places.

Barbarian heavy infantry swarmed onto the wall, their great axes chopping down defenders like wheat stalks.

Li Xuan charged into the crowd, his long saber whirling, leaving behind flying limbs wherever he went.

The Blood Fiend Bone Forging Technique operated frantically, the killing intent on the battlefield surging into his body like a tide.

[Blood Fiend Bone Forging Technique Level 3: Initial Completion → Minor Completion]

His Qi became even more solidified.

But the Barbarians seemed endless.

Kill ten, replenish twenty. Kill twenty, replenish fifty.

Li Xuan was covered in blood, it was impossible to tell if it was his enemy's or his own.

An old wound on his left shoulder burst open, and his right leg was gashed by an axe blade, but he seemed oblivious to the pain. Where his blade flashed, someone inevitably died.

"Li Xuan!" Chen Feng fought his way to his side, his long sword broken, replaced by a short saber. "The east wall can't hold! General Wang wants you at the central command tower!"

Li Xuan looked up.

At the breach in the east wall, the Barbarians were already pouring in like a tide.

Wang Meng led his personal guards in a desperate fight, but outnumbered, they were being pushed back step by step.

"You go to the right flank," Li Xuan said. "Hold them for the time it takes an incense stick to burn."

"The time it takes an incense stick to burn? You—"

"After an incense stick's time, if the east wall isn't retaken, lead your men out through the south gate."

Having said that, Li Xuan leaped off the city wall.

He landed inside the breach on the east wall, right in the midst of the Barbarian vanguard.

His long saber swept out, cutting three Barbarian soldiers in half at the waist. With a backhand slash, he split the chest of a fourth.

But more Barbarians poured through the breach.

Li Xuan took a deep breath.

Wolf Soul mark, activate!

His soul strength temporarily surged to fifteen points, and invisible soul ripples spread out from him.

The dozens of Barbarians at the forefront stiffened, their eyes glazed over, and they collapsed, bleeding from all seven orifices.

This was a pure crushing of soul power.

But the Shaman was dead; no one could see through this technique.

The Barbarian assault faltered.

Li Xuan seized the opportunity and charged towards the breach, his long saber slashing continuously, killing every Barbarian who entered.

Then he grabbed the corpse of a Barbarian heavy infantryman and used it to block the breach.

"Sandbags! Quickly!"

The defenders snapped back to reality and frantically threw sandbags into the breach.

But the Barbarians wouldn't give them time.

From the direction of the central army, under the Blood Eagle Tribe's banner, a general clad in golden armor and wearing an eagle helmet waved his hand.

Three thousand heavy cavalrymen, like a steel torrent, charged straight for the city gate!

"Battering ram!" someone roared from the city wall.

From within the Barbarian ranks, ten giant siege engines were slowly pushed forward.

Each engine was equipped with an iron-bound log at the front, pushed by dozens of Barbarian soldiers, and they charged towards the city gate.

Iron Wall City's gate was merely a wooden door reinforced with iron.

It wouldn't hold.

Li Xuan knew that if the city gate fell, all would be lost.

He looked towards the central command tower.

Wang Meng saw it too. The General Zhenbei's face was pale, but then he suddenly smiled.

"Li Xuan!" he shouted hoarsely. "Take your men and retreat! I'll cover your rear!"

"General—"

"This is an order!" Wang Meng drew his sword and pointed it at the enemy below. "Sons of the Northern Territory can die, but they cannot flee! But you are different—you must live, go to the Crimson Firmament Sect, and tell the world that Iron Wall City held for ten days and killed thirty thousand Barbarian dogs!"

He turned and said to his personal guards, "Open the city gate."

"General?!"

"Open the city gate!" Wang Meng's eyes flashed with resolve. "Rather than wait for them to break it down, we'll charge out ourselves. Once the heavy cavalry enters the city, none of us will survive. But outside the city—I'll let them know what the Northern Garrison Army is!"

The city gate slowly opened.

Wang Meng led three hundred personal guards and charged out on horseback.

They had flammable materials tied to their bodies, like three hundred torches, charging towards the Barbarian cavalry.

Trading lives for lives.

They crashed into the steel torrent with their flesh and blood.

BOOM—

The sound of impact was like muffled thunder.

Three hundred men were instantly engulfed.

But the Barbarian cavalry formation was also disrupted, and the ram's advance momentarily stalled.

Li Xuan gripped the hilt of his saber, his fingernails digging into his flesh.

He saw Wang Meng waving his Long Sword amidst the chaos, cutting down three riders before finally being pierced by several spears and pinned to the ground. The General Zhenbei cast one last glance at Iron Wall City, grinned, and then detonated all the flammable materials on his body.

Flames erupted, engulfing over ten surrounding riders.

The defenders on the city wall's eyes turned red.

"Avenge the General!"

"Kill--!"

The defenders counterattacked like mad tigers.

Li Xuan, however, calmed down.

He leaped onto the city wall and looked towards the Barbarian center.

A golden-armored general was watching it all with a cold smile, as if watching a play.

Li Xuan closed his eyes and looked inward at his status panel.

[Potential Points: 5.3]
[Stamina: 51.8]
[Strength: 10.8]
[Blood Fiend Bone Forging Technique Third Level: Minor Accomplishment]

The malevolent energy on the battlefield had become so dense it was visible to the naked eye, a bloody mist permeating the city walls, the wails of the departed echoing in the wind.

These were all nourishment.

He circulated the third-level mental cultivation method of the Blood Fiend Bone Forging Technique, madly absorbing the malevolent energy.

His Qi surged within his body, his bones feeling a tearing pain, only to be instantly repaired.

With each tearing and repair, his bones grew a bit harder, his Qi a bit more solidified.

[Blood Fiend Bone Forging Technique Third Level: Minor Accomplishment → Major Accomplishment]
[Effects: Qi Body Protection Strength +100%, Strength +50%]

His Strength surged to sixteen!

Li Xuan opened his eyes, a blood-red light emanating from them as if it were tangible.

He leaped from the city wall and landed in the midst of the Barbarian army!

The moment he landed, his Long Sword swept out.

Empowered by his Qi, the blade's light was like a blood-colored crescent moon, bisecting all Barbarians within a three-zhang radius, whether they wore heavy or light armor!

Blood sprayed like a fountain.

Li Xuan didn't stop, charging towards the ram.

He threw a punch.

His Qi condensed at the fist's edge, transforming into a blood-colored fist seal that slammed into the iron-clad giant timber.

BOOM!

The giant timber exploded, and the siege engine shattered into pieces!

The defenders saw this and their morale soared.

"General Li! General Li!"

Li Xuan knew it wasn't enough.

He looked towards the golden-armored general in the center.

The general also looked at him, finally showing a hint of seriousness in his eyes.

The two were separated by three hundred paces, their gazes clashing like swords.

"Kill him." The golden-armored general waved his hand.

Three figures charged out from the Barbarian ranks.

One wielded twin hammers, stood nine feet tall, his muscles bulging like an iron tower.

One wielded a long spear, slender of build, his movements like a phantom.

One was unarmed, his fingernails as black as ink, emitting a faint glow.

All three were at the eighth level of Body Forging!

"Blood Eagle Tribe's three Grand Chieftains." The hammer-wielder grinned. "Kid, it's your honor to die by our hands."

Li Xuan said nothing.

He glanced at the sky.

The east was already showing the pale white of dawn.

Dawn was approaching.

But Iron Wall City's dawn, I'm afraid, wouldn't come.

"Let's go together," Li Xuan said. "Save time."

The three exchanged glances and attacked simultaneously.

The hammers were like mountains collapsing, the spear like a venomous snake, the claws like ghostly shadows.

Li Xuan swept his long saber horizontally, his protective energy erupting.

Crimson protective energy surged like flames, enveloping his entire body.

Hammer and saber collided. The hammer wielder retreated three steps.

Li Xuan shifted his body to the side, evading the spear. He grabbed the spear shaft with his left hand and twisted forcefully.

The spear fighter's expression changed. He let go of the spear, but it was too late.

Li Xuan's saber edge had arrived.

Puchi.

A head flew off.

The hammer wielder roared, smashing down with both hammers.

Li Xuan neither dodged nor blocked, his protective energy shielding him. He took a hammer blow head-on.

The protective energy rippled, but Li Xuan remained unmoved.

With a backhand saber strike, he split the iron hammer. The blade sliced across the hammer wielder's throat.

Seeing this, the unarmed fighter turned to flee.

Li Xuan threw his long saber.

The saber flew like a meteor, piercing the man's back.

Three breaths, three men slain.

The Barbarian formation was deathly silent.

Li Xuan pulled out his long saber and looked at the general in golden armor.

That general finally couldn't sit still.

He slowly stood up, removed his eagle helmet, revealing a face crisscrossed with scars.

"Blood Eagle Tribe, Vice Commander, Wanyan Xiong," he spoke, his voice like grinding metal. "You injured me yesterday... today, I will kill you."

Li Xuan recalled Wanyan Xiong leading three thousand cavalry in pursuit outside the dense forest yesterday, only to be heavily wounded and forced to flee by him.

So it was him.

"Your injuries have healed?" Li Xuan asked.

"Thanks to you," Wanyan Xiong grinned, his scars twisting.

He leaped from the war chariot, landing silently.

A blood-red halberd appeared in his hand.

The halberd was twelve feet long, its blade curved like an eagle's claw. It was blood-red all over, as if dripping blood.

"This halberd is named 'Blood Eagle.' It has drunk the blood of three thousand. Today, it adds you."

Li Xuan gripped his saber hilt.

Protective energy surged within him.

He knew this battle would determine the final moments for Iron Wall City.

Victory, and they might hold on for another half day.

Defeat, and the city would fall, its people perishing.