"Whoosh!"
A shrill whistle hurtled closer, carrying a gust of death straight toward them.
Zhao Cheng snapped back to his senses. With lightning reflexes, he yanked Feng Quan off his horse. A keen arrow skimmed past the back of Feng Quan's head and buried itself in a tree stump behind them, its fletching disappearing from sight!
Feng Quan broke into a cold sweat. He stared at the arrow in horror. He had been so stunned that he hadn't even noticed an enemy scout had crept so close!
The moment the enemy scout realized he had been spotted, he galloped away!
The spot where he'd been standing was already at the very limit of his bow's range. Now he was fleeing at full speed; in the blink of an eye, he was beyond the range of an ordinary scout.
"Trying to run?"
Zhao Cheng gave a faint laugh, raised his bow, and fired!
The arrow streaked like a shooting star and was suddenly upon the scout from behind!
The scout never imagined this man's arrows could reach so far. By the time he sensed danger and looked back, it was too late. The arrow pierced straight through his forehead, spraying blood into the air.
The scout fell dead on the spot, and his horse bolted in fright.
Zhao Cheng scanned the area from afar. Seeing no other scouts, he said to Feng Quan, "Go cut off his head."
"Yes, sir!"
Feng Quan had just escaped death. He could have fallen to his knees and kowtowed to Zhao Cheng. He was already utterly in awe of him, so at the order, he eagerly rode over and cut off the dead scout's head.
But when he handed it to Zhao Cheng, Zhao Cheng said, "Hang it on your horse."
Feng Quan was delighted, but he hesitated. "Wouldn't that be inappropriate...?"
Zhao Cheng was speechless. "Too many heads on my horse will slow me down. Keep it with you for now and give it back to me when we return to camp."
Feng Quan stared at him. So he'd become the head-carrier.
But when he thought about it, it made sense. This young man was practically Yama himself. Scouts and mounted patrols who were usually devilishly hard to kill were doomed the moment he spotted them.
Right under this man's nose, not even a fly could get through!
When scouts encountered each other, killing the enemy was no easy feat. They were so mobile that, while keeping their distance, both sides usually traded arrows at the very edge of their range. Even a skilled archer couldn't be certain of hitting a vital spot. On difficult terrain, it was hard enough just to hit the enemy's horse.
The only time they were easier to kill was when an enemy scout ventured deep behind their lines and got surrounded.
But Zhao Cheng could kill them on sight from such a distance, the instant they showed their heads.
These battle-hardened Assault Cavalry veterans had fought in countless battles, but this was the first time they'd seen anything like it. Their minds were still reeling.
Before they could say a word, Zhao Cheng was already galloping off again, weaving through the rugged terrain like a gust of wind.
The Assault Cavalry could only grit their teeth and chase after him.
"How is it another headless scout?"
"Jeez... Another full squad wiped out all at once, and the bodies are less than ten paces apart. What the hell? Usually it's hard enough to kill a single mounted scout. Why are they dying in droves today?"
"I heard the Han Army's military preparedness was slack and weak. Didn't think even their scouts were this useless."
"But if they're so weak, why haven't we run into a single one?"
To the right rear of Zhao Cheng's squad, another ten-man scout unit came across a group of dead scouts. They couldn't help but stare in bewilderment.
Just then, another scout unit from a different direction approached after their identity was verified by the hidden sentries.
They took one look at the scene on the ground and gaped in surprise.
"Huh? You ran into the same thing?"
"Yeah. You found bodies too?"
"Not just a few, either. You were ahead of us, so I thought you'd done it. If it wasn't you, then it must've been the squad farther ahead. It was... that new recruit who leads a squad!?"
"Has to be. Feng Quan and the others are a bit better than us, but not by much. No one else could explain this."
"He's that good? No wonder he was made Squad Leader right away!"
"Good? The Han scouts are just ridiculously weak."
"Not so fast. One of our squads ran into enemy scouts earlier. They were very cunning, using their tracks to lure us in. We nearly walked into an ambush. If we hadn't seen through it in time, we'd be dead now. Those men were every bit as experienced as us. Don't underestimate them."
At that, the scouts in front sobered. They exchanged glances, their expressions turning grave.
Just then, the faint whistle of an arrow came from somewhere in the distance.
"That sound... It's not the first time we've heard it. It seems to be the bow carried by that young fellow named Zhao Cheng!"
"Let's go take a look!"
A short while later, the two groups reached a spot where a full squad of scouts lay piled on the ground. There, they met up with two more squads.
"You heard it too?"
"That was Battlefront Zhao Cheng's bow!"
"What squad is this now?"
"We've already seen two."
"I've seen one squad's worth of bodies and three mounted scouts..."
"When the bow rings, someone dies..."
"If it's a full squad, the whole squad dies. If it's a mounted scout, the mounted scout dies. We haven't seen a single incomplete set of bodies yet..."
"How much military merit does that add up to?"
"No, wait. Has anyone caught up with the vanguard?"
Everyone fell silent and looked at one another. They all shook their heads.
It was bizarre. The vanguard had to collect the credit for their kills after each encounter, which would inevitably delay their progress. And yet, not one of them had managed to catch up!
They were moving far too fast. How could these people, who'd done nothing but gallop at full speed, still be unable to catch up?
The elite scouts flushed with embarrassment, feeling their faces burn.
They were battle-hardened veterans, yet they couldn't even catch the hindquarters of a newcomer's horse.
"Let's keep moving. I've got a feeling the honor of being first to breach the enemy's lines in this opening battle is about to be claimed."
In this short time, scouts traveling in every other direction had seen more or fewer headless enemy corpses, while those closer to the front occasionally heard the bowstring ring.
Whenever it rang, it wasn't long before they came across a body.
They wanted to catch up and talk to the vanguard, but somehow, they couldn't keep up.
The scouts exchanged signals and information with the hidden sentries. Gradually, they all realized what was happening.
Farther out along the flanks, however, the scouts were locked in tense, difficult skirmishes, each side trying to outmaneuver the other.
If the scouting Assault Cavalry were arranged with Zhao Cheng's squad as the tip of the spear and the remaining squads fanned out along both sides, like the two strokes of the Chinese character for "person," then the fighting was most intense at the far ends of those strokes.
"Damn it, they laid a false trail! It was only one mounted scout!"
"Your leg all right?"
"I'm fine, just a graze!"
"Why's it gone black?"
"The arrow was poisoned! Cut away the flesh!"
"Hmph!"
Just then, the signal of hidden sentries sounded in the distance.
Neigh! Neigh-neigh...
The men exchanged glances and began to answer.
Neigh-neigh! Neigh...
A moment later, their expressions grew strange.
"That actually happened?"
They'd been toyed with by a single mounted scout, while the vanguard in the center had slaughtered a full squad of enemy scouts along the way?
How could that be right?
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
The arrows' shrill whistles rang without end. The distinctive twang of Zhao Cheng's bow kept sounding, and every time it did, another enemy scout died!
If it rang twice or more in quick succession, even the scouts in the distance knew that the enemy had lost at least one whole squad!
Zhao Cheng kept drawing his bow and reaping lives—and years!
[You killed an enemy and stole their lifespan: three years!] [You killed an enemy and stole their lifespan: twenty-seven years!] [You killed an enemy and stole their lifespan: sixteen years!] ... [Remaining lifespan: 782 years]
The closer they got to the southern side of Fang City Pass, the denser the hidden sentries and scouts became.
But Zhao Cheng galloped at incredible speed, and once he spotted the enemy, no one ever escaped alive. More often than not, the enemy scouts were shot dead from afar before they could even send out a message.
As a result, in the enemy's eyes, the vanguard of the Assault Cavalry might as well have been invisible.
The enemy's scouts had only gathered information far behind the front lines. Even if they sent word right away, the Qin Army scouts would keep them tangled up and unable to catch Zhao Cheng. They couldn't even keep up with the Assault Cavalry scouts following close behind within the reach of Zhao Cheng's attacks.
After all, one side was still locked in combat, while the other raced ahead at full speed, entirely unimpeded.
That turned every unit within range of Zhao Cheng's light cavalry into a force of surprise attackers.
The muffled thud of hooves on dead leaves gradually faded. As the sound dwindled, the area beneath the southern walls of Fang City grew ever more silent.
"Squad Leader, Fang City lies just ahead. If the Han garrison sends troops to reinforce Ye County, there won't be enough men left to defend this place. Even if they don't send anyone, we can launch a surprise attack up the Southern Foothills of Fang City and sow confusion, helping the main force draw the tigers away from the mountain!"
Feng Quan traced a finger across the map as he spoke to Zhao Cheng.
His horse was now hung all over with heads. Even the horses of the two Wuzhang behind him, Du Ren and Feng Ruo, were nearly covered.
All told, they had collected forty-eight enemy heads.
That kind of achievement would be enough to earn a promotion in rank for a Platoon Leader, even if a whole platoon of fifty men had done it.
Yet a newcomer who had only just joined the Assault Cavalry Battalion had achieved it all on his own. After this battle, such merit would surely earn him a promotion to Centurion, letting him skip past Gongshi, Shangzao, and Zanniao and rise straight to the rank of Bugeng!
How terrifying!
Zhao Cheng looked up. At the end of the River Valley, the walls of Chu Fang City turned a corner, using the terrain as a natural barrier. But the southern slope was thick with vegetation. Though there was no proper road for horses to climb, a man could still scramble up by grabbing vines and clinging to branches—and launch a surprise attack in the process.
While they were still far away, Zhao Cheng signaled for everyone to stop their horses and advance slowly instead.
They were too close to Fang City now. They could just make out the guards on the walls, but the thick vegetation nearby gave them plenty of cover. Hidden in the shadows beneath the plants, they would be difficult to spot in the sunlight.
Zhao Cheng led several men quietly into a secluded patch of woods, then waited in silence.
Along the way, Zhao Cheng had wiped out every scout and hidden sentry they came across, leaving markers for the Assault Cavalry to gather in the designated direction.
The rear units would likely arrive soon. Then they could make their way up the mountain together and take the Southern Foothills of Fang City in one swift strike.
About the time it took for one incense stick to burn, the Assault Cavalry from behind gradually gathered.
With no more enemies to kill, the scattered units had slowly converged. Now they came together in sequence, following the markers to rendezvous with the vanguard.
When they saw the three horses ahead, each loaded with heads, every last one of them sucked in a sharp breath.
Even the two Centurions were shaken to the core. They sighed in awe, having never seen anything like it.
Before you continue