Attack on Duan Yun Pass!

"Ding! Would you like to fuse the attributes and talents you picked up?"

When the system asked, Ding Hao naturally chose yes without the slightest hesitation.

In an instant, waves of heat surged through his entire body.

In just a few moments,

he had undergone an earth-shaking transformation from head to toe!

"I... became ranked?"

Ding Hao looked at his hands, disbelief in his eyes.

It had to be known that the Nine Provinces Continent had martial realms. From low to high, they were Martial Artist, True Martial, Grandmaster, Celestial Being, and Land Immortal, with each major realm further divided into nine ranks.

It was just that his previous self had possessed no talent for martial cultivation. Otherwise, he would not have taken the path of the imperial examinations.

Now, in just a few breaths, he had reached Rank One Martial Artist.

At the same time, a glowing attribute panel emerged!

Host: Ding Hao

Realm: Rank One Martial Artist

Vitality: 100 (Vitality increases the physical body's realm)

Spirit: 10 (Spirit increases the soul's strength)

Comprehension: 15 (Comprehension cultivates Cultivation Methods and divine abilities)

Luck: 0 (Free attribute points may be allocated at will)

Talent Bloodline: Natural Barbarian Strength (Click to view effects)

Cultivation Methods Martial Arts: None

Items Possessed: None

With just one look at the panel, Ding Hao understood everything!

The current panel was extremely rudimentary, with pitifully few four-dimensional attributes. The only thing worth noting was the talent he had just picked up.

Natural Barbarian Strength: You were born with brute strength beyond ordinary people. With a mere swing of both arms, you could exert the force of a thousand jin!

After testing it out, Ding Hao realized that although he was only a Rank One Martial Artist with this talent, his strength was in no way inferior to that of a Rank Three Martial Artist!

"Mm!"

"Now that I have this cheat, I can set my sights on the Merit of First to Ascend!"

A glimmer of hope immediately rose in the depths of Ding Hao's eyes!

After all, Ding Yishan had said that as long as one could be the first to ascend, there would be a chance to cast off the identity of a death row prisoner. Otherwise, Ding Hao would be dead sooner or later!

"Death Row Camp, move out at once!!"

Just as Ding Hao was secretly studying his cheat, Zhang Dahu, the commander of the Death Row Camp, let out a roar at the crowd.

Though the three thousand death row prisoners were utterly unwilling, they could only grip the swords, shields, and other equipment handed out to them, leave the camp, and rush toward Duan Yun Pass.

Duan Yun Pass was one of the frontier strongholds along the northern border of the barbarian tribes!

Though the pass was not large, due to its crucial geographical location, five thousand barbarian soldiers guarded the small fortress!

Moreover, the pass had been built between two mountains. Its walls were tall and steep, nearly forming a ninety-degree angle—a textbook case of easy to defend and hard to attack.

When Ding Hao and the other three thousand death row prisoners arrived outside the pass, they saw densely packed barbarian soldiers already standing atop all of Duan Yun Pass.

Crossbow bolts, huge stones, and scalding golden juice were all terrifying to behold!

"No, no, no!"

"We're going to die!"

"There's no way this pass can be taken!"

The instant they reached the battlefield, unrest broke out among the death row prisoners!

Panic, fear—some of the more timid ones were practically scared stiff!

"Death Row Camp, immediately launch an attack on Duan Yun Pass!"

"Without orders, anyone who dares take a single step back will be shot dead on the spot!!"

At that moment, Ding Yishan, who had already arrived before the formation, issued a shouted command.

Before him stood a full eight hundred supervising soldiers with bows drawn and arrows nocked.

Without question, if any death row prisoner dared disregard military orders by fleeing or shirking battle, he would be shot dead by the supervising soldiers at once.

"Damn it, we're going all in!"

"Kill! Gamble on it, and maybe there's still hope of surviving!"

This time, no matter how afraid or terrified the Death Row Camp soldiers were,

they could only grit their teeth and charge toward Duan Yun Pass beneath the sound of the attack horns. Ding Hao, holding a War Saber, was naturally among them.

In a battle like this, his heart naturally pounded wildly as well!

The only thing that put his mind at ease was the cheat on his body!

"Release the arrows!"

Very soon, once the Death Row Camp soldiers charged into the enemy's firing range, the barbarian soldiers atop the pass immediately loosed their arrows!

The rain of arrows surged like a tide, densely packed as it swept toward the Death Row Camp soldiers.

Although most of the Death Row Camp soldiers at the front carried shields, those shields were merely discarded junk from the Divine Phoenix Army!

They had some effect in blocking arrows, but not much. Instantly, screams rose one after another!

At least a hundred death row prisoners died miserably on the spot beneath the arrow rain, filling the death row soldiers charging behind them with terror!

Some instinctively tried to flee, only to be shot dead by the supervising army in the next instant.

Only—Ding Hao!!

At this moment, not only was he unafraid, he was instead incomparably excited!

Because as large numbers of Death Row Camp soldiers died, countless collectible balls of light fell from their corpses like heavenly maidens scattering flowers!

Ding Hao refused none of them and hurriedly scooped them all up at once.

Ding! Congratulations, Host, you picked up 5 points of Vitality!

Ding! Congratulations, Host, you picked up 8 points of Vitality!

Ding! Congratulations, Host, you picked up a broken shield!

Ding! Congratulations, Host, you picked up a War Saber!

A flood of system notifications immediately rang nonstop beside his ears!

Although many of the things he picked up were no different from junk, quite a few Vitality attributes were still fused into his body!

The only regret was that no one dropped another talent.

Boom! Boom!

In just a short while, after Ding Hao charged into the area covered by the arrow rain,

his realm had already risen from Rank One Martial Artist to Rank Three Martial Artist!

Rank Three Martial Artist was not high, but it was already enough to let him survive beneath the arrow rain.

He casually took out an intact shield from the system space.

Ding Hao charged explosively toward Duan Yun Pass under the arrow rain, his figure extraordinarily nimble.

At last, he rushed beneath Duan Yun Pass with the crowd. Many death row prisoners had already set up siege ladders and begun climbing toward the pass!

Clearly,

many Death Row Camp soldiers had long forgotten their initial fear. After being baptized in blood, only madness remained!

But the barbarian soldiers atop Duan Yun Pass were naturally no pushovers. As they employed defensive measures such as long spears, crossbow bolts, rolling stones, and golden juice, the death row prisoners scaling the walls were slaughtered in great numbers once again!

At most, they only managed to climb to the top of the wall before being stabbed down by long spears!

Even charging forward wave after wave, they had absolutely no hope of killing their way onto the pass!

Yet Ding Yishan, commanding the battle from afar, did not order a retreat.

Because in his heart, the purpose of these Death Row Camp soldiers had always been to exhaust Duan Yun Pass's defensive supplies!

Of course,

as for seizing the Merit of First to Ascend and being able to shed one's death row prisoner status, he had not been speaking empty words. There truly had been such precedents in Great Zhou, but the prerequisite was that one had to actually accomplish it!

"Divine Phoenix Army, prepare!"

"Once the Death Row Camp has been spent, follow this general and take Duan Yun Pass!"

More than ten thousand Divine Phoenix Army soldiers, clad in armor and armed with weapons, almost armed to the teeth, had clearly long been poised and ready!

Yet at that moment, someone beside Ding Yishan suddenly cried out in alarm.

"General, look over there!!"

Ding Yishan subconsciously followed the direction the man pointed and looked into the distance!

The sight made his entire body tremble, his face filled with astonishment!

Beneath Duan Yun Pass,

after Ding Hao unexpectedly picked up a special talent called Light as a Swallow, he too let out a roar and began climbing the siege ladder!

Now a Rank Three Martial Artist, with the Light as a Swallow talent added on top, he easily dodged the crossbow bolts and rolling stones shot down from the pass!

Like a kite crane spreading its wings, he made only a few rises and falls upon the siege ladder before completely ascending—Duan Yun Pass!!