Prince Shenwei

Hong Yi's soul slipped free of his body. He visualized himself entering the dream, first bewildering the horse and lulling it to sleep so he could communicate with it there. Then he saw the fragments of thought buried deepest in its memories. The Lightning Chaser and a Huoluo brute, both wielding flashing curved blades, charged toward the Great Gan army, horse and rider as one—like a moving iron fortress. On the battlefield, the soldiers numbered fewer than a hundred.

The Lightning Chaser tossed its head, confusion in its eyes. After waking, it seemed deeply puzzled by its dream.

BOOM!

"Long live Great Gan! Long live the prince!..."

So this is a real battlefield? How brutal!

Hong Yi watched, shock surging through him.

Are these the Fire Cloud Cavalry of the Huoluo Kingdom? They're terrifying. If there were more than a few hundred of them, nothing in the world could withstand their charge. Great Gan's warhorses are utterly outclassed by the Fire Horses.

Just then, a long howl rang out from the densely packed Great Gan army. The soldiers on either side parted like the tide, revealing a line of Great Gan troops clad in steel armor and armed to the teeth. Their helmets, black as iron, had especially large nose guards.

In an instant, Hong Yi's soul returned to his body, and the dream vanished completely. Still smiling, he stroked Lightning Chaser's coat, which shimmered like a bank of fiery clouds. He could feel that the stallion had calmed down entirely. Then, in a sudden motion, he grabbed the saddle and swung himself onto the horse.

Yet he stood there like a towering mountain, taking the full force of an onrushing tide of steel. Great Gan's warhorses stood half a head shorter than the Fire Horses. In strength, size, bearing, and impact, they weren't even in the same league—the difference was like that between an ordinary horse and a big dog.

"Yaksha King!"

The moment Lightning Chaser opened its eyes, it saw Hong Yi. Unconcealable shock showed in its wide horse eyes!

The brute riding Lightning Chaser ran into the leader of the Axe Soldiers and slashed at him, but missed. The leader leaped fiercely into the air and swept his axe across, striking the brute squarely. The fully armored man, weighing a full three hundred jin, went flying like a scarecrow.

Whether human or animal, the soul was at its weakest and most vulnerable to invasion during sleep. Demons and monsters preyed on people deep in slumber at night for the same reason. Four thousand? No—thunderous roars erupted from every direction.

The scene was so heart-stopping that Hong Yi's heart pounded, and his soul nearly slipped beyond his control. Heads rolled across the ground. Hooves crushed them to pulp, smearing red and white across the desert like a layer of sauce.

That was why the Fire Cloud Cavalry—only a few hundred strong—could charge into an army of ten thousand and prove unstoppable. Their leader wore full iron armor, yet Hong Yi sensed that he wasn't built like a strong man. Beneath the armor, he seemed more like a frail scholar.

In the dream, the Lightning Chaser stared up at the enormous Hong Yi in shock.

On the battlefield, Lightning Chaser was fully barded in thick, scale-like steel armor. Its head, neck, torso, and hindquarters were all covered. The horse had become a true "iron horse."

The battlefield stretched across the endless desert. Killing intent shook the heavens; blood and flashing blades were everywhere. Armored cavalry clashed, war drums thundered, and banners fluttered.

"Yaksha King, come back!" Hong Yi called. The Yaksha King roared and flew toward the sky.

The brute weighed a full three thousand jin. His charge struck like a battering ram, but the Axe Soldier leader's blow sent the iron-fortress-like Fire Cloud Cavalryman crashing to the ground. Armor fragments flew in every direction, and the man had been split in two.

Then the leader leaped onto Lightning Chaser's back.

Lightning Chaser remained perfectly still, without a trace of restlessness or a single jolt.

Only then did Hong Yi realize that the leader must be Yang Tuo, Prince Shenwei of the Great Gan Dynasty—a Martial Saint as renowned as Hong Xuanji, his father.

The Great Gan soldiers all carried long-handled steel axes. Their axe heads were as large as cartwheels, and their handles as thick as a man's arm, making their weight unmistakable.

As the leader attacked, the axe soldiers behind him leaped into action one after another, colliding with the heavy cavalry. Steel crashed against steel, bursting into clusters of fierce sparks, as though the metal itself had caught fire!

Hong Yi could almost feel the weight of the horse's armor. If it had been strapped onto him, it would surely have crushed him to the ground.

He had never imagined that a human being could wield such strength!

Suddenly, the leader sprang forward, charging like a leopard. In an instant, he crossed fifty paces and swung the enormous axe in his hands at the oncoming Fire Cloud Cavalry.

All around him, everything was pitch-black.

Then, in a flash of golden light, the sky opened wide. Hong Yi sat high above in the center, while the Yaksha King prostrated itself on the ground.

"Yaksha King, come back." Hong Yi smiled at Lightning Chaser and spoke the same words he had just uttered in its dream.

At a thought, the three-zhang-tall Yaksha King burst out. Covered in scales, with a green face and fangs, it held a steel trident. It swept the trident across and knocked the "Prince Shenwei" in Lightning Chaser's thoughts to the ground. Then it roared fiercely. Black clouds rolled across the sky, swallowing the Great Gan army by the thousands.

This was a tide of steel.

Several hundred more heavily armored horsemen followed behind. Their charge was unstoppable, surging forward like a mountain flood and ocean tide, like a mountain collapsing.

The two sides fighting were the Great Gan army and the Huoluo Kingdom's Fire Cloud Cavalry.

In addition, the deepest fragments of memory in a soul surfaced during sleep, allowing demons, monsters, and ghosts to glimpse them.

A hail of arrows flew toward them, but all were blocked by their steel armor, to no effect.

Lightning Chaser struggled and bucked violently, but the Axe Soldier leader gave a cold snort and pressed down. BOOM! Lightning Chaser could take no more and dropped to its knees in the desert.

Hong Yi felt an endless, searing humiliation buried in Lightning Chaser's thoughts.

The Fire Horse had clearly been trained exceptionally well. It understood human speech and could read people's intentions. Hearing Hong Yi's voice and seeing his expression, the horse shuddered. An expression of humanlike astonishment appeared on its long face.

Hong Yi recognized the battlefield in Lightning Chaser's memories at once. It showed the Great Gan and Huoluo armies at war: one side's armor, banners, and clothing bore the marks of Great Gan.

The man riding Lightning Chaser was also a Huoluo brute clad from head to toe in armor. He wielded a pair of Huoluo curved blades. In the sunlight, layered cloud patterns showed clearly along their edges.

Hong Yi suddenly focused his thoughts and unleashed a soul technique.