Ambush

The war drums began to thunder at the third quarter of the Mao hour.

It was not the short, frantic beat of a daily harassment, but a dull, lingering rhythm that struck against the heart with every single thud.

All hands to the walls.

When Li Jinshui led his squad rushing onto the ramparts, the Northern Di army formation surged over the horizon like a black tide.

This time was different.

It was not a thousand men, nor two or three thousand. On the open ground north of North-Rejecting City, the dense ranks of the Di Army stretched to the edge of sight. Battle flags of every color snapped in the morning wind, and siege towers, scaling ladders, and battering rams were all present.

A full-scale assault.

The faces of the veterans on the wall turned deathly pale.

Li Jinshui gripped his saber hilt, the qi of the sixth level of Iron Shirt circulating slowly within his body.

He glanced back at Squad Jia. Er Gou's face was pale, but his hands were steady; Zhang Shuan'er bit his lip, clutching his saber with a death grip; the other three youngsters were breathing heavily, yet not one of them retreated.

"Stay close to me," he said.

A moment later, a rain of arrows blotted out the sky.

When the first volley fell, Li Jinshui shielded Zhang Shuan'er with a wooden shield, taking an arrow in his own left shoulder. With his sixth-level Iron Shirt, the arrowhead pierced only a third of an inch before it was lodged tight. He pulled it out with a backhand motion and tossed it to the ground; the blood clotted quickly.

As the second volley fell, the scaling ladders were already hooked onto the battlements.

"Kill! Kill! Kill...!"

The first Di soldier poked his head up, and Li Jinshui unleashed an Upward Slash. The blade entered through the jaw and exited through the crown of the skull. Warm blood sprayed across half his face, but he had no time to wipe it away; his second strike was already cleaving toward the next barbarian soldier climbing up.

[Killed Northern Di soldier, points +1]

[Points +1]

[Points +2, killed Northern Di Squad Leader]

The city wall had turned into a meat grinder.

Li Jinshui did not know how long he had been killing; he only knew to swing his blade, retract it, and swing again. His Perfected Saber Technique had become instinct in his hands. Every strike followed the most efficient path, splitting leather armor, slicing through flesh, and severing bone.

He deliberately suppressed the urge to spend his points, saving them up.

Ten points.

Fifteen points.

Twenty points.

Er Gou was struggling bitterly to his right, struck in the shoulder by a barbarian soldier, and stumbled back with a scream. Li Jinshui took a wide step and swung his blade horizontally; the barbarian's head flew three feet into the air.

"Stay close!"

Er Gou gritted his teeth, switched his saber to his left hand, and pressed back against him.

Another Di Squad Leader charged up, a seventh-level Body Forging warrior whose war hammer shattered the wall bricks. Li Jinshui traded thirteen blows with him, his web of his thumb splitting and his military saber curling at the edge, until he finally found an opening on the fourteenth strike and drove the tip of his blade into the man's eye socket.

[Killed Northern Di Squad Leader, Body Forging seventh level, points +10]

[Current points: 37]

Enough.

"Add all to Iron Shirt!"

[Consumed 25 points, Iron Shirt proficiency +25]

[Iron Shirt: Sixth level → Seventh level]

Boom—

The door within his body was kicked open.

A surge of heat erupted from his dantian like magma, scouring every meridian and every inch of his bones and blood. A dark golden radiance flared intensely on the surface of his skin, lingering for a full six breaths. The muscles around the arrow wound on his left shoulder twitched rapidly, squeezing out the arrowhead that had remained deep inside, which clattered onto the city bricks.

[Current realm: Body Forging seventh level]

Power.

A more violent, surging power.

Li Jinshui gripped his saber; the curled blade seemed to feel lighter. He swung in a horizontal arc, and the three Di soldiers rushing toward him were severed at the waist, their viscera and blood splashing across the ground.

[Points +3]

Add to saber technique!

[Army-Breaking Saber Technique is already perfected, cannot add more points]

The panel refused him coldly.

Li Jinshui had no time for regret; the next Di soldier was already lunging at him.

He did not know how long he had been killing.

The daylight shifted from pale white to dim yellow, and from dim yellow to blood red. The corpses on the wall were piled layer upon layer; it was long impossible to distinguish the Zhou Army from the Di Army.

The number of living people was dwindling.

Li Jinshui realized he had been cut off from his squad.

He looked back, but Er Gou and the others had been separated from him by thirty paces, currently surrounded by seven or eight Di soldiers. He wanted to fight his way back, but more Di soldiers, like sharks smelling blood, surged through the gap, blocking his path layer by layer.

He had no choice but to fight forward.

Forward.

And further forward.

One slash, one kill.

Two slashes, a pair down.

[+1, +2, +1, +2]

The Perfected Saber Technique became a blur in his hands; he didn't even need to think, as his body instinctively knew where the blade should strike.

As another head flew into the air, he suddenly sensed something.

[Points +1]

Behind him.

Someone was watching him.

It wasn't the gaze of a combatant in the heat of battle. It was a locked-on, brewing, long-awaited stare.

Li Jinshui's senses had become astonishingly sharp after reaching the seventh level of Body Forging. He did not turn around, merely sidestepping a hack while the corner of his eye swept behind him—

Twenty paces away.

Wang De.

He had snuck up behind Li Jinshui's flank at some point, hiding behind two Zhou Army soldiers and slowly closing in under the cover of the chaotic melee. The military saber with the Green Jade Hilt in his hand was already unsheathed, its tip hanging toward the ground like a snake hiding its fangs.

The moment their eyes met, a flash of astonishment crossed Wang De's face—he had not expected Li Jinshui to look over so suddenly.

But that astonishment lasted only half a breath.

He grinned, raised his saber, and quickened his pace.

Li Jinshui suddenly understood.

Wang De had been waiting.

Waiting for him to be entangled by the Di soldiers, waiting for him to reveal a flaw, waiting for a perfect opportunity where "swords have no eyes."

Just as he, Li Jinshui, had been waiting as well.

He withdrew his gaze and continued to hack at the Di soldiers before him.

One slash, two slashes, three slashes.

A flaw.

He intentionally exposed a weakness, leaving his back wide open, appearing as if he were forced to block with all his might against a Di soldier lunging from the left.

The sound of footsteps behind him accelerated abruptly.

The sound of a blade cutting through the wind struck toward his heart.

Li Jinshui did not turn back.

This was exactly what he had been waiting for.

He pushed his seventh-level Iron Shirt to its absolute limit, his back muscles turning as hard as steel, while simultaneously pivoting on his left foot, twisting his waist, and swinging his military saber from bottom to top in a perfect arc—

Army-Breaking Saber Technique: Upward Slash.

Perfected realm.

Striking later, arriving first.

"Clang—!"

Wang De's blade stabbed into Li Jinshui's back, piercing through his leather armor and sinking three parts into his flesh—then it jammed.

The seventh level of Iron Shirt was not something he could pierce with a single strike.

At the same instant, Li Jinshui's blade swept across his throat.

Wang De's eyes widened.

He dropped his saber and clutched his neck with both hands, but blood still bubbled out from between his fingers. He opened his mouth to shout something, but only a wheezing, air-leaking sound emerged from his throat.

"You..."

Li Jinshui watched him.

There was no triumph, no satisfaction of vengeance, only a calm gaze, as if he were looking at a stone that could bleed.

Wang De collapsed to his knees, head tilted back, his eyes filled with not only terror but also intense resentment and unwillingness. Using his final ounce of strength, he squeezed broken words from his torn throat:

"My... brother... Wang Tiezhu..."

"Body Forging... ninth level... squad leader..."

"You... cannot..."

Li Jinshui crouched down.

He leaned close to Wang De's ear, his voice as light as a withered leaf falling onto snow:

"I know."

"But you still have to die."

The last glimmer of light in Wang De's eyes extinguished.

Li Jinshui stood up and wiped the blood from his blade onto the man's lapel.

[Killed Third Battalion Squad Leader Wang De (Body Forging Level 5), 5 points]

He dragged Wang De's corpse a few steps to the side, propping it against a fallen Di soldier, and shoved the blade into the dead soldier's hand. Surrounded by the dead, no one would notice how a lowly squad leader had met his end.

Then he turned and fought his way back to Er Gou and the others.

Before sunset, the Di Army finally retreated.

The city walls still stood.

Less than thirty percent of the men remained alive.

Li Jinshui led the three remaining members of Squad Jia down from the wall—Zhang Shuan'er was gone, his skull crushed by a Bone Hammer. Er Gou had lost the use of an arm, and the other two were drenched in blood, but they were still breathing.

After the battle, they tallied the merits.

Li Jinshui ranked first in the Third Battalion.

Camp Commander Zhou Kui verified the results himself, his gaze heavy and complex, as if filled with lead.

"You brat... you're a talent."

Li Jinshui cupped his fists, remaining silent.

That night, he received his reward: ten taels of merit silver, three Blood-Qi Pills, and a wooden tablet engraved with the character "Armory."

"General's Mansion Armory," the messenger said. "General Xu's verbal order: Squad Leader Li has rendered distinguished service and is specially permitted to enter the armory to select one martial technique and one footwork technique."

Li Jinshui took the tablet, feeling its cool touch against his palm.

The armory.

He stood before the window of his barracks; the moon was mostly obscured by clouds, leaking only a few strands of pale, sickly light.

Er Gou was groaning in the next room—that arm would take a while to heal. In the distance, the noise of veteran soldiers sharing victory meat drifted over; some were playing finger-guessing games, others were cursing.

He pulled up his panel:

[Technique: Iron Shirt (Level 7 0/40), Army-Breaking Saber Technique (Mastered)]

[Realm: Body Forging Level 7]

[Points: 27]

The name Wang De spoke before dying still echoed in his ears.

Wang Tiezhu.

Body Forging Level 9 peak.

A Ten-Man Commander.

The brother of his enemy.

He had gained one more person he had to kill.

The moon was not favorable tonight.

But Li Jinshui slept very soundly.