The Great Army Attacks

When Li Jinshui returned to his place, he still felt as if he were walking on clouds.

He tucked the Green Emperor Indestructible Scripture and the jade token safely against his body, then pressed a hand to his chest, feeling them there.

He wasn't afraid. He was excited.

He'd never imagined he could have such an opportunity in this lifetime.

He brought up the panel and took another look:

[Green Emperor Indestructible Scripture: Not yet mastered (Condition for cultivation: Evergreen Art at perfection)]

[Current Realm: Inner Strength Realm (Late Stage)]

Once his Evergreen Art reached perfection, he'd be able to cultivate this technique.

Once he mastered it, he'd be able to go to the Heavenly Cloud Sect.

Once he got to the Heavenly Cloud Sect—

The corners of his mouth kept rising, no matter how hard he tried to hold them down.

Monkey was chattering away beside him, but Li Jinshui didn't hear a word.

Just then, a flurry of hoofbeats came from the south.

They were so frantic they sounded like war drums, pounding against everyone's heart with every beat.

Everyone turned to look south, toward the city gates. A horse was galloping toward them.

It was a tall, majestic black horse, its mane flying as it ran like a bolt of black lightning.

Someone was draped over its back, covered in blood and clinging desperately to its neck.

"That's... the North-Suppressing General's Cloud-Treading Steed!" someone cried.

The Cloud-Treading Steed was one of the finest horses in Great Zhou. It could travel a thousand li in a day, and only the North-Suppressing General had the right to ride it.

Now it had returned alone.

But what had happened to its rider?

The horse charged into the training ground, then stopped abruptly before the crowd, its forelegs rearing high as it whinnied. With a thunderous crash, it collapsed—it had run until it was utterly spent.

The rider was thrown off, rolled several times across the ground, then struggled to his feet.

He was a blood-soaked personal guard. His armor was shattered, and more than a dozen wounds covered his body. The deepest ran diagonally from his left shoulder to his right hip, exposing the bone. He staggered forward a few steps, then dropped to his knees with a thud.

"Y-Your Highness..."

The Seventh Prince had already rushed down from the platform. He grabbed the man and steadied him. "Speak! What happened?"

The guard raised his head. His face was covered in blood, but his eyes were wide open. His lips trembled, and his hoarse voice rasped like a broken gong.

"Yanmen Pass... has fallen..."

The entire field fell silent.

The Seventh Prince's hand froze in midair.

The guard went on, haltingly, each sentence like a knife stabbing into their hearts.

"Today... the General opened the gates and went out to fight... but lost again... retreated inside the pass... At midnight... the deputy general... the deputy general betrayed us..."

His voice grew fainter, but every word still rang clearly in everyone's ears.

"The deputy general opened the gates... the Di People stormed in... the General fought to the death... countless dead and wounded... the General ordered me... to ride his horse... and bring the news..."

He clutched the Seventh Prince's sleeve. The light in his eyes began to fade.

"Yanmen Pass... is gone... the army... is in retreat... the Di People... split their forces... they're coming to North-Rejecting City... They... they knew our every move... they had every step of ours figured out..."

The Seventh Prince's face turned as white as paper.

He gripped the guard's hand, his knuckles whitening. His voice scraped out of his throat, hoarse and broken.

"What did you say? The deputy general betrayed us? Who? Who was it?!"

The guard's mouth opened as if to speak, but only a mouthful of blood spilled out.

His eyes slowly lost focus, and his hand slid from the Seventh Prince's sleeve.

He was dead.

A deathly silence fell over the field.

The Seventh Prince knelt there, holding the body, motionless.

Then he sprang to his feet and roared at the sky.

"Ah—!!!"

His howl was like that of a wounded beast, heart-rending and enough to make their eardrums ache.

"Betrayal! Betrayal! Betrayal again!" He slammed his fist into the ground, cracking the earth. "No wonder! No wonder we won at first, then got ambushed every time! No wonder they knew where I was! No wonder they knew my protector had been lured away!"

He turned around, his eyes bloodshot, and glared at everyone present.

"The Di Kingdom's infiltration of Great Zhou has gone this far! From the Capital City to the border passes, they're everywhere! And we—we only found out now!"

No one dared to speak.

The Seventh Prince continued shouting. "Yanmen Pass is gone. Of the 150,000 troops, some are dead and the rest have fled! The General's fate is unknown! The Di Army's main force could march south at any moment! And you—"

He pointed north, his voice trembling.

"You think this is over? What did that guard just say? The Di People split their forces! They split them long ago! For all we know, right now—"

Before he could finish, a muffled drumbeat suddenly sounded on the northern horizon.

It wasn't one drum or two. Dozens, even hundreds, thundered all at once, shaking the earth.

Everyone whipped around to face north.

A vast army surged across the horizon like a tide.

Not a few thousand. Not tens of thousands. At least fifty thousand!

Their war banners blotted out the sky, their iron armor gleamed coldly, and the thunder of their hooves shook the heavens.

But what chilled them most were the dozen or so figures standing in midair above the army.

Pulse-Opening Realm.

More than a dozen in the Pulse-Opening Realm.

And ahead of them, five figures hovered in the air, their true qi swirling around them, their presence as imposing as mountains.

Origin-Opening Realm.

Five in the Origin-Opening Realm.

Everyone recognized the two at the front—Huyan Lie and Huyan Zhuo.

Huyan Lie's face was still pale, and his aura remained somewhat unsteady, but he could already hover in the air. He gritted his teeth and stared at North-Rejecting City, his eyes full of hatred.

The other three had even deeper, more terrifying auras.

One wore a black robe and had a withered face, but his eyes shone like ghost fire. He stood with his hands behind his back, gazing down at North-Rejecting City with a cold smile.

Another was a woman dressed in red, alluring and bewitching, yet her eyes were icy. She flicked a long whip lightly, its length stained with blood. No one knew whose it was.

The last was a middle-aged scholar dressed in white as bright as snow, with a folding fan in his hand. He looked gentle and refined, yet when he appeared, even Huyan Zhuo edged aside.

Five in the Origin-Opening Realm.

More than a dozen in the Pulse-Opening Realm.

An army of fifty thousand.

A vast, dark mass stretched as far as the eye could see.

On the city wall, everyone froze.

Some buckled at the knees and sank to the ground. Someone dropped the sword in their hand, and it clanged against the ground. Some began to cry, others to tremble, while a few murmured, "It's over," and, "It's all over."

Amid the crowd, Li Jinshui looked up at the five figures in the Origin-Opening Realm, the dozen or so in the Pulse-Opening Realm, and the Di Army covering the hills and plains.

His hand slowly tightened into a fist.

The wild joy of receiving the cultivation technique, the excitement of getting the jade token, the wonderful feeling that had seemed like a dream just moments ago—all of it vanished at a glance.

In its place came an emotion he couldn't quite name.

It wasn't fear.

It was...

Calm.

Utter calm.

He brought up the panel and took a look:

[Name: Li Jinshui]

[Realm: Inner Strength Realm (Late Stage)]

[Techniques: Evergreen Art (Great Accomplishment 0/800), Rock Body (Minor Accomplishment 60/200), White Tiger Blade Technique (Great Accomplishment 100/300), Iron Thread Fist (Minor Accomplishment 0/100), Inch Step (Great Accomplishment 0/200), Marching Step (Minor Accomplishment 0/80), Iron Shirt (Perfection), Wolf Killing Seven Forms (Perfection), Tiger Walk (Perfection)]

Not enough.

These points were nowhere near enough.

But he didn't despair.

He knew that as long as he survived, as long as he kept killing, he could grow stronger.

The question was, could he survive today?

He raised his head and looked at the lone figure on the city wall.

The Seventh Prince stood there, trembling all over, whether from anger or fear, no one could tell.

Elder Chen emerged from the crowd and stood beside him. He was still hunched over, but his cloudy old eyes were grave.

"Your Highness," Elder Chen said quietly, "they have five experts in the Origin-Opening Realm. This old man can hold off two at most, and with my life on the line, I can stop three. The other two..."

He didn't finish, but everyone understood.

No one could stop the remaining two experts in the Origin-Opening Realm.

Yun Ruoxi and the other four guest retainers were deathly pale. They were in the Pulse-Opening Realm, and facing someone in the Origin-Opening Realm meant certain death.

Zhao Zheng stood on the city wall, looking out at the Di Army stretching over the hills and plains. After a long silence, he turned to face the equally silent soldiers.

He spoke. His voice wasn't loud, but every person heard him clearly.

"Are you afraid?"

No one answered.

Zhao Zheng smiled, his expression bleak.

"I'm scared too."

He paused, then suddenly raised his voice.

"But I'm a soldier. A soldier can be afraid, but he cannot retreat."

He drew his blade and pointed beyond the city.

"North-Rejecting City is the northern gate of Great Zhou. We can't let it fall from our hands."

"Today, either they step over our corpses, or we kill them and drive them back."

"There's no third choice."

For two breaths, the city wall was silent.

Then someone raised a blade.

One, two, ten, a hundred, a thousand.

Blades gleamed like a forest.

"Kill!!!"

A heaven-shaking roar rang out.

Li Jinshui stood among them and raised his blade, too.

He remembered what the Seventh Prince had told him earlier:

"When you reach the Pulse-Opening Realm, come find me in the Capital City."

He took a deep breath and tightened his grip on the hilt.

Your Highness, I might not make it to the Capital City.

But today, I'll show you what it means to come from the Death Squad Camp.

Beyond the city, the Di Army's war drums thundered louder.

The five figures in the Origin-Opening Realm drifted slowly toward the city wall.