Blood Song

Wanyan Xiong moved.

His long halberd thrust outward like a hunting blood eagle, and before the tip even arrived, the gale-force gang qi made his face sting with pain.

Li Xuan sidestepped to avoid it, slashing his long saber upward at an angle.

Saber and halberd collided, sending sparks flying in all directions.

The two men retreated simultaneously.

Wanyan Xiong retreated three steps, and Li Xuan retreated five.

"Gang qi?" Surprise flashed in Wanyan Xiong's eyes. "To condense gang qi in the Body Tempering Realm, you are the first."

"And I am the one who will kill you."

Li Xuan advanced again.

This time, he did not use his saber.

He used his fists instead.

Blood Fiend Gang Qi gathered at his knuckles as he punched out with a boom.

Wanyan Xiong swept his long halberd horizontally.

Fist and halberd collided.

Boom!!!

A wave of air exploded outward, blasting the barbarian soldiers within a radius of ten zhang into the air.

The gang qi on Li Xuan's fist shattered, and the skin on the back of his hand split open.

Wanyan Xiong's long halberd shook violently, the webbing between his thumb and forefinger tearing apart.

Neither man stopped, however.

Second punch, third punch, fourth punch...

Li Xuan was like a crazed tiger, every single punch fighting for his life.

Wanyan Xiong's long halberd was like a dragon, every sweep claiming souls.

Ten strikes.

Twenty strikes.

Thirty strikes.

Three more halberd wounds appeared on Li Xuan's body, deep enough to reveal the bone.

Wanyan Xiong took two punches to the chest, fracturing at least three ribs.

Yet their auras, far from dropping, instead rose.

They fought with growing madness.

"Exhilarating!" Wanyan Xiong laughed wildly. "Southern martial artist, you are worthy of dying beneath my halberd!"

He abruptly bit the tip of his tongue, spitting a mouthful of vital blood onto the halberd.

The Blood Eagle Halberd blazed with a fierce red light, a bloody eagle phantom materializing along the blade.

"Blood Eagle—God Slaying!"

The long halberd cleaved downward, the eagle phantom shrieking.

This single strike had already surpassed the boundaries of the Body Tempering Realm, touching the threshold of the True Qi Realm!

Li Xuan's pupils constricted.

He could not dodge.

He could only take it.

He circulated all his gang qi, condensing it into his right fist.

The third-tier mental cultivation method of the Blood Fiend Bone Forging Technique circulated frantically, absorbing all the killing intent on the battlefield.

His bones exploded with thunderous reports.

Some kind of bottleneck within his body loosened.

[Blood Fiend Bone Forging Technique Third Tier: Great Accomplishment → Consummation]

[Condense Gang to Form Qi, Transform Qi into Weapon]

On Li Xuan's right fist, the gang qi was no longer a layer of light film, instead condensing into a bloody fist-sword three chi long, shaped like a fanged tooth.

He threw a punch.

The fist-sword met the blood halberd.

Rumble--!!!

The sound of the explosion shook the heavens and earth.

With the two men as the center, the ground collapsed three chi, and the shockwave overturned all living beings within a radius of fifty zhang.

Smoke and dust filled the air.

When the dust finally settled.

Li Xuan stood there, the flesh of his right fist a bloody mess with white bone clearly visible.

Wanyan Xiong also stood, but the Blood Eagle Halberd... had broken.

It snapped right down the middle.

The tip was stabbed into the ground, while the shaft remained gripped in his hand.

He lowered his head, looking down at his chest.

A thin line of blood extended from the center of his brows all the way to his abdomen.

"You..." He parted his lips, blood welling forth.

Wanyan Xiong, deputy commander of the Blood Eagle Tribe, was dead.

Li Xuan staggered backward, leaning against a shattered siege engine as he gasped heavily for breath.

His right fist was already ruined, the wound on his left shoulder had burst open, and blood flowed from his right leg like a torrent.

The gang qi in his body was completely exhausted, and the backlash of the killing intent tormented his meridians as if he were being carved by a thousand knives.

The barbarian army formation fell into a dead silence.

An army of forty thousand was actually intimidated by a single man.

Yet Li Xuan knew this was only temporary.

He looked toward the center army.

Beneath the grand banner of the Blood Eagle Tribe, there was another figure.

It was a person dressed in a black robe and wearing a bronze mask.

That person had stood there quietly all along, as if the intense battle just now had nothing to do with him.

At this moment, he slowly raised his head.

Beneath the mask, a pair of ghostly green eyes looked toward Li Xuan.

Then, he raised a hand and pointed toward Iron Wall City.

Following that, the barbarian army formation surged toward the city walls like a tidal wave.

There were no generals commanding, no tactical changes, just sheer human sea.

Li Xuan knew Iron Wall City could no longer be defended.

Even so, he turned and walked step by step back toward the city wall.

At the ramparts, fewer than three hundred defenders remained.

Chen Feng was covered in blood, his left arm severed at the elbow and crudely bandaged with strips of cloth.

"Li Xuan..." His voice was hoarse.

"Lead the men and retreat," Li Xuan said. "Take the south gate, and get out as many as you can."

"Then you--"

"I'll cover the rear."

"You're out of your mind! In your state--"

"This is an order." Li Xuan looked down at the city below, where the barbarians had already begun to scale the walls. "Half an incense stick of time. Save as many as you can."

Chen Feng gritted his teeth and ultimately nodded.

He spun around, roaring in a raspy voice, "Retreat! Gather at the south gate!"

The defending troops began an orderly withdrawal.

Li Xuan walked over to the edge of the city wall, watching the barbarians swarming up like ants.

He sat down cross-legged.

He circulated the Blood Fiend Bone Forging Technique.

He absorbed the very last trace of killing intent.

He repaired his injuries.

Fresh granulation tissue began to sprout over the exposed white bone of his right fist.

The first barbarian crested the city wall.

Li Xuan opened his eyes, his left hand picking up a broken spear from the ground, and hurled it.

Squelch.

The barbarian took the spear through the throat and plummeted.

The second, the third...

Li Xuan was like a reef, blocking the breach in the city wall.

Every single barbarian who climbed the wall was slain by him.

The corpses piled up like a mountain at his feet.

Yet there were simply too many barbarians.

They could not be killed to the last.

Half an incense stick of time later.

Li Xuan got to his feet.

His right fist was barely able to move.

He glanced in the direction of the south gate, where dust billowed, making it clear that the retreating forces had already traveled far enough.

He turned, preparing to leave.

Right at that moment--

Beneath the city wall, the black-robed masked man suddenly spoke.

His voice was hoarse, like grinding metal.

"Li Xuan."

The black-robed figure stepped forward, drifting over like a ghost.

"To possess such combat strength in the Body Tempering Realm, there must be a secret upon you," his voice was ice-cold. "Hand it over, and I can spare your life and take you as a servant."

Li Xuan propped himself up and grinned, his entire mouth full of blood.

"You think you're worthy?!"

He charged toward the black-robed man.

His punches came out like dragons, his gang qi like blood.

The black-robed man nonchalantly raised a hand and slapped outward.

The palm wind was chillingly cold, like a breeze from the nine underworlds.

Fist and palm collided.

Li Xuan was sent flying like a snapped kite, smashing through three withered trees before crashing to the ground.

At least ten places along his entire skeleton were fractured.

The black-robed figure drifted before him, looking down from above.

"Last time asking: do you hand it over or not?"

Li Xuan lay on the ground, gazing up at the sky.

Dawn had already arrived.

The edge of the horizon was tinged with fish-belly white.

He smiled.

"Hand it... to your grandpa."

Anger flashed in the eyes of the black-robed man as he raised a hand and brought his palm down toward Li Xuan's crown.

At that very moment--

A crimson light plummeted from the sky like a shooting star!

Boom!!!

The crimson light smashed into the spot where the black-robed man had previously stood, blasting a three-zhang-deep crater into the ground.

Amidst the smoke and dust, a figure slowly stood up.

Green robes, a crimson sword, and a cold expression.

Yun Qingxuan.

She glanced at Li Xuan, a trace of complexity flashing in her eyes, before looking over at the black-robed man.

"Ghost Face, you've overstepped."

Ghost Face was silent for a moment. "Is the Crimson Firmament Sect going to meddle in this war?"

"This person, my Crimson Firmament Sect wants him," Yun Qingxuan pointed her sword at Ghost Face. "Either retreat, or die."

Ghost Face stared at her for a long time before suddenly laughing. "Fine, I'll give the Crimson Firmament Sect face today."

He turned, vanishing into the army formation like a ghost.

The barbarian grand army began to slowly retreat.

Yun Qingxuan walked to Li Xuan's side, squatting down to inspect his injuries.

"Are you still alive?"

"I won't die," Li Xuan grinned. "Why did you come back?"

Yun Qingxuan said indifferently, "A person like you dying in the Northern Territory is far too much of a pity."

She took a pill from her bosom and shoved it into Li Xuan's mouth.

The pill entered his throat and turned into a warm current that nourished his shattered meridians.

"This is the Nine Revolutions Returning Yang Pill, it can save your life," Yun Qingxuan said. "But your injuries are too severe, you still need to recuperate for at least three months."

Li Xuan swallowed the pill, feeling the vitality within his body revive.

He looked toward Iron Wall City.

The city gates stood wide open, fire soaring into the sky within the city.

The city had fallen.

Fortunately, most people had retreated.

"Where is General Wang?" he asked.

Yun Qingxuan fell silent for a moment.

"Not even bones remain."

Li Xuan closed his eyes.

After a long while, he spoke.

"The barbarians... why are they withdrawing their troops at this moment?"

Yun Qingxuan looked toward the distant barbarian camp.

"Internal strife broke out within the Blood Eagle Tribe, and the royal court urgently summoned them back," she said. "As for the specific reason, I do not know either."

She paused. "But that Ghost Face... is not a barbarian."

"Who was that?"

"I don't know his specific identity either," Yun Qingxuan shook her head. "But the aura on him... was very bizarre, resembling neither martial arts nor barbarian witchcraft."

Li Xuan noted down this name.

Ghost Face.

One day, he would figure it out.

Yun Qingxuan helped Li Xuan up.

"Let's go, back to the Crimson Firmament Sect."

"Chen Feng and the others--"

"Have already evacuated safely, and are waiting a hundred li to the south."

Li Xuan nodded, casting one last glance at Iron Wall City.

The city walls were broken and battered, the beacon smoke unextinguished.

This city, defended for ten days, had ultimately fallen after all.

He clenched his left fist tightly, a flash of blood-red crossing his eyes.

"Let's go."

The figures of the two disappeared into the morning mist before dawn.

Behind them, Iron Wall City slowly collapsed amidst the flames.