Back when Xiang Longxiang suffered defeat at River Valley, with the entire right-wing battlefield collapsing and routed soldiers flooding back into the central army, he pressed forward beneath his command standard. Relying on his peerless valor and the elite soldiers he had trained with his own hand, he once broke through the Qin army's lines.
But Xu Wang had formations within formations. He decisively abandoned the core, used eight divisions to encircle them, and marked yin and yang as the boundary: "Whether Qin-armored or Chu soldier, any who cross the line shall be executed without mercy." In an exceedingly short time, he established an encirclement.
Then he tightened it layer by layer.
His formation rolled on without end, vast as the Long River. Like a giant python coiling around its prey, it ultimately strangled every last breath of vitality from the Chu army.
Xiang Longxiang charged the formation nine times, yet could not break free.
In the end, he died within Deer-Slaying's encirclement.
He had been ground to death alive by the great Qin army!
In those moments when he fought bloody battles unto death, what had he been thinking?
Xiang Bei had imagined it countless times.
But in the end, there was only that receding figure preserved in his memory.
That famed general of All-Under-Heaven had said nothing when he set out on campaign.
Nor had he returned with a single word. All that came back was a Gaishi battle halberd.
The two words "Gaishi" were his entire final testament.
He understood that he had to take it in hand, that he had to raise it high.
Commanders and generals dying for their country—that was their duty. The strong bearing responsibility—that was only natural.
Time spun by like a wheel, and the young man who had once looked down