Iron Hooves Shake the Valley, Leading to Peril; A Clever Lure Draws the Barbarian Dust into Dangerous Peaks

At the hill Mountain Pass, biting cold winds swept up thick shamanic smoke, like a billowing mass of murky yellow fog that wrapped the entire area airtight. It was so dense it seemed almost solid; visibility was less than ten paces, and even the faces of soldiers beside one another blurred into dim yellow phantoms.

Sunlight could not penetrate this veil at all. Between heaven and earth, there was only hazy, chaotic gloom.

Lufan Lie wore standard Xiongnu dark leather armor, made from thick cowhide repeatedly tanned and studded with beast bone. It was light, yet tough.

The armor bore the totemic patterns of steppe tribes, glimmering with a dull sheen within the yellow haze.

He gripped a great axe in both hands and stood firm atop the highest rock at the Mountain Pass. His brows were knotted tightly together, forming a deep furrow. With eyes like blazing torches, he stared fixedly into the forest deep within the mist.

His expression was filled with undisguised agitation and confusion as he muttered, "Strange. There hasn't been a single battle report from ahead, and the men sent to investigate have vanished without a trace. What accident could have happened?"

A faint heaviness settled in his heart. This carefully arranged ambush had felt abnormal from the very beginning, and the lingering unease had long since overwhelmed his initial composure.

Behind him, ten thousand Xiongnu elites and five thousand Esoteric Shaman Warriors stood ready in tight formation, their ranks as orderly as iron. The rustle of leather armor, the faint clink of bronze scabbards, and the suppressed breathing of the warriors were especially clear in the deathly silent Mountain Pass. Mingling with the cold wind and shamanic smoke, they made the atmosphere all the more oppressive.

Every Xiongnu elite carried a bronze ring-pommel saber,