Zhao Cheng was so fast he became a blur, darting left and right through the countless Han soldiers packed into their ranks. He tore through them like a god of slaughter—nothing could stand in his way!
Layer upon layer of Han soldiers formed walls of flesh, but to him they were no more than paper. He broke through them with ease!
In the blink of an eye, he had reached within seven steps of Han Ming!
The blood-soaked figure, covered in a hundred wounds, came bearing down on him with a gust of bloody wind!
His eyes were clearly visible, surging with killing intent. Under that shroud of murderous purpose, the deputy general and bodyguards around Han Ming all felt their hair stand on end, as if facing a formidable enemy!
The deputy general's face went pale, but he still roared and charged forward. "Protect the general!"
He threw himself in front of Zhao Cheng, taking the lead as he raised his blade to strike.
Seven or eight bodyguards rushed after him, heedless of their own lives as they tried to stop Zhao Cheng!
Han Ming, meanwhile, had gone pale. After retreating several steps, he did not flee; instead, he drew his bow once more, hoping to work with his bodyguards and shoot Zhao Cheng down!
As the blade came at him, Zhao Cheng raised his hand and swept it across. His sword tore through the air with a sharp whistle, its immense force unstoppable. One stroke shattered the deputy general's incoming blade.
The deputy general's expression changed drastically. What kind of monstrous strength was this?!
He tried to dodge, but it was already too late. He could only watch as Zhao Cheng's sword swept past him, and then his vision began to spin.
The deputy general's head flew into the air!
The seven or eight bodyguards behind him had bloodshot eyes. They roared and surged forward like a pack of wolves pouncing on prey.
Zhao Cheng leaned forward and charged. His body, as if cast from pig iron, was like a massive siege engine, bearing down with tremendous force!
The bodyguards felt as though a mountain had crashed into them. They were sent sprawling in every direction, and one man in front had even his sword-wielding arm snapped by the impact.
As Zhao Cheng barreled through them, his hands never stopped moving. He smashed or slashed, swiftly killing all seven or eight bodyguards!
These bodyguards, handpicked from among the Han Army's elite, were as helpless before Zhao Cheng as infants!
Whoosh!
More than ten paces away, Han Ming finally loosed his arrow. At such close range, it came with tremendous force, aimed straight at Zhao Cheng's eye!
In the blink of an eye, the arrowhead was only three inches from Zhao Cheng's eye!
Han Ming's eyes brimmed with hope and wild delight. This arrow was sure to kill!
But the next moment, he was plunged into despair.
Zhao Cheng had somehow noticed his movement amid the chaos. His left hand, which had just been crushing a bodyguard's neck, suddenly caught the incoming arrow and stopped it dead!
Han Ming's eyes went vacant. His whole body trembled. "A demon! This is a demon!"
All will to fight left him. His legs gave way, and he fell to the ground. He scrambled backward, shouting, "Stop him!! Stop him!!"
But how could ordinary soldiers stop Zhao Cheng? He cut them all down!
The rest of the soldiers were terrified out of their wits. They did not even dare take a single step forward.
Zhao Cheng moved through them as if no one were there, and in the blink of an eye, he was upon Han Ming!
Han Ming struggled to fight back, but Zhao Cheng reached out and seized his wrist, then squeezed!
With a sharp crack, both of Han Ming's wrists broke. He let out a scream!!
Zhao Cheng snatched up the Han Army's banner beside him, thrust it through the armor on Han Ming's back, then hoisted him up like a war banner.
With Han Ming dangling from it, he swept the banner up in one hand and bounded like a leopard to the top of the city wall. He raised the banner high, his voice thundering like a tiger's roar. "Your commander has been captured alive!! Why haven't you laid down your arms and surrendered?"
His tiger-like roar rang across the chaotic battlefield. The Han soldiers still resisting desperately looked back in a daze, and their courage shattered!
They saw their general, now reduced to a wreck, hanging in disgrace from his own banner, being waved about like a flag by the blood-soaked Killing Star. His face was twisted with shame and despair as he kept shouting, "Kill me!!"
With their commander captured and their deputy general dead, the Han Army was leaderless. They had no fight left in them and promptly broke into a rout, fleeing to the rear!
But Meng Wu had already brought his troops around from behind. Caught between two attacks, the Han Army collapsed even faster. Some leaped down from Fang City and tried to flee into the woods, only to be cut down by the ambush troops.
Others simply threw away their weapons and knelt to surrender.
From a distance, Meng Wu watched Zhao Cheng waving the "commander" banner atop the city wall, his face lit with approving delight.
"Capturing the enemy commander alive in the middle of a melee—splendid work!"
He waved the command flag.
With that, the battle was brought to a swift and easy end.
What followed was simple. The Han Army at the mountain pass and the South Foothill had been wiped out. Military clerks tallied the achievements, the banners were changed, and the mountain pass was fully secured.
At the Northern Foothill of Fang City, He Ping led two thousand men in a fierce assault on Fang City. At first, they had used a surprise attack to reach the city wall, but they held it for only the time it took an incense stick to burn before being driven back down.
He Ping was an experienced man who understood how difficult a siege could be. Even with superior numbers, it was no easy matter to seize a stronghold. So he did not try to rush things. He advanced steadily, step by step, gradually gaining the advantage and breaking the enemy's will to fight.
As the Han Army weakened, he gradually intensified his assault.
But for some reason, the Han soldiers who had been fighting desperately just moments ago suddenly began to fall apart in droves. Sensing his chance, he immediately ordered a fierce attack!
Seeing the Han soldiers retreating step by step and the Qin Elite Soldiers climbing onto Fang City in great numbers, He Ping's lips curled into a smile.
"The Han Army is indeed weak. They're clearly running out of steam. The honor of being first to scale the walls in this battle is mine!"
Just as he expected, before long, the Han soldiers at the Northern Foothill were utterly routed, and the Northern Foothill fell.
"Someone, report to the general that the Northern Foothill of Fang City has fallen!"
In high spirits, he successfully reached the Northern Foothill and led his troops toward the mountain pass, preparing to coordinate with the main force from the inside.
He felt indescribably exhilarated along the way, thinking this battle had gone remarkably well—half an hour faster than expected!
With such a great victory and the honor of being first to scale the walls, his rank could rise by another level.
If he coordinated well with the general and captured the mountain pass, another two ranks would not be out of reach!
Come to think of it, he had the general to thank for giving him such a good chance.
The general must have seen his youthful promise and wanted to nurture him!
He rode on, his heart racing with excitement.
But the closer he got to the mountain pass, the more something seemed amiss.
It was far too quiet.
That banner... huh?
Wasn't that the Qin Army's banner?
He Ping's expression shifted from confidence to bewilderment, then to grim concern. His brows drew closer and closer together.
The banner at the mountain pass wasn't the Han Army's at all. They had all been replaced with Qin Army banners!
He hurried forward, looking along the way. The farther he went, the more silent he became.
Had they even finished clearing the battlefield?!
A cavalry unit was galloping along the distant wall road. At its head rode Meng Tian.
To his left was a blood-soaked youth, holding a "Man-Hanging" banner in one hand. He followed along on horseback, casually swinging it as he rode.
The armored man hanging from the banner pole swayed up and down with his movements, as light as a strip of cloth.
He Ping took a closer look.
The man hanging there... was he the Han Army's commander?
He Ping was utterly astonished.
What in the world had happened?!
It had taken him just over an hour to seize the Northern Foothill, already an extremely fast pace. So how had the mountain pass already fallen, with even the enemy commander captured?
How could this be?
He was completely baffled as he went to meet Meng Tian.
"Meng Tian, what's going on?"
Meng Tian smiled. "The mountain pass has fallen. We were just about to go support you, Brother He, but you had already taken the Northern Foothill. What a fierce general!"
A fierce general?
You mean the fellow beside you, swinging that banner.
The Captain opened his mouth, but had no idea what to say.
The mountain pass had fallen? Then he had lost his honor for being first to scale the walls!
He Ping was heartbroken, but all he could manage was a strained smile. "I wouldn't call myself a fierce general. I took so long that the mountain pass had already fallen. It no longer mattered whether I took the Northern Foothill or not. At most, I saved the general the trouble of clearing the battlefield."
"But how did the mountain pass fall so quickly? Did the general have some other brilliant stratagem?"
Meng Tian glanced at Zhao Cheng beside him and smiled faintly. "You'll find out when we get back."
He Ping was in agony, but did not have the nerve to press him.
He followed Meng Tian and the others toward the main camp at the mountain pass.
Along the way, he noticed, to his amazement, that the surrounding soldiers were watching their party with looks of boundless admiration and respect. The attention made He Ping increasingly uncomfortable.
What was going on? What were they looking at?
He was puzzled and annoyed.
As they rode, he pricked up his ears and caught the Qin soldiers behind them whispering. He couldn't help slowing his horse.
"Is that Zhao Cheng, the Assault Cavalry vanguard?"
"That's him!! I fought alongside him before. I saw him charge alone into the enemy ranks and kill his way to the Han Army commander as if no one were there. He cut down the deputy general and bodyguards like it was nothing, then hung the commander from the banner himself to make an example of him!"
"You should've seen it. Those Han soldiers were so scared of him they nearly pissed themselves. They didn't dare go forward, and they didn't even dare rescue their commander!"
"No wonder such a fierce general could lead a hundred-odd cavalrymen and seize the Southern Foothills of Fang City, despite the two thousand defenders!"
"I heard he's only sixteen, a new recruit who joined the Assault Cavalry Battalion just a few days ago!"
"Some say he was born with divine strength, invulnerable to blades and spears, and that he's the Killing Star descended to earth!"
"You could tell just by looking. The Han commander was tall and burly, yet Zhao Cheng hung him from a banner pole with one hand and carried him around!"
"That's not all. My older brother in the Assault Cavalry Battalion just told me that this man isn't just a peerless fighter—his archery and horsemanship are practically divine."
"Back when he ambushed them in the River Valley, any Han scout he caught sight of was as good as dead. He wiped out who knows how many scout units along the way. Whenever his Ebony Bow rang out, someone died! Even the gods couldn't escape!"
"I heard he's a divine beast reborn in human form—a Qilin from Nine Heavens Mountain who attained the Dao. That's how he got such supernatural power!"
"..."
All the way to the main camp, the soldiers kept whispering, singing Zhao Cheng's praises.
And with every retelling, the stories grew more and more fantastical.
Even Zhao Cheng himself could barely listen to it anymore.
He Ping was even more astonished as he looked at Meng Tian and Zhao Cheng. He wanted to ask whether the rumors were true, but did not know how to bring it up. Yet not asking left him unbearably curious.
After turning it over in his mind, he decided Zhao Cheng was probably a fierce general, but surely not as fantastical as the soldiers claimed. How could two hundred men possibly take Fang City from two thousand defenders? It was pure nonsense.
So he finally asked Meng Tian, "Brother Meng, did you hear what the soldiers were saying?"
Meng Tian smiled. "I heard."
When he said nothing more, He Ping pressed him. "Was it all true? Is this young man really that formidable?"
Meng Tian replied, "Some of it was true, some of it false..."
He Ping sighed in relief. I knew it. How could a man be that ferocious? At that point, would he even still be human?
But then Meng Tian continued, "The stories about him being a god descended to earth or a Qilin who attained the Dao are obviously false. But his military record and achievements are all real."
"He was supposed to lead two hundred scout cavalrymen in a surprise attack on the Southern Foothill, but instead he walked right into an ambush of two thousand men. Who would have thought he would actually seize the place? The dangers he faced were beyond words..."
He Ping was dumbfounded. He did not speak again until they reached the main camp.
Only after returning to camp did the group go to Meng Wu's tent.
Meng Wu looked at Zhao Cheng, whose body was covered in hundreds of wounds yet who still seemed full of life. His expression was complicated as he said, "The military officers have just finished reviewing your record. Your achievements have been tallied."
"You killed a total of 227 men, led the assault on the Southern Foothill, killed 540 enemies with your men, killed a deputy general, and captured the commander alive."
"You were the greatest contributor in this battle."
At this point, Meng Wu furrowed his brow and thought for a moment before speaking again. "For this achievement..."
"You may be promoted to Assault Cavalry Commandant, command three thousand cavalry, and receive the ninth-rank title of Fifth Rank Grandee, with a fief of three hundred households."
Before you continue