The Capital City's Siege Was Lifted, and One Battle Made His Name Resound Across the World

The world fell into utter silence.

Only the howling north wind stirred, sweeping dust into the air as two corpses fell, then whirling across the empty battlefield.

Below the city walls, the hundred thousand Snow Wolf Iron Cavalry, who had once struck terror into the Great Gan Dynasty, now stood like a hundred thousand clay statues.

Every one of them stood frozen in place, their faces filled with fear and bewilderment beyond words.

Dead?

Had the two Grandmasters who were like gods to them really... died just like that, so casually?

Slain by that white-haired young man on the city wall in just a few short breaths?!

The truth struck like a heavy iron hammer, smashing all their faith and pride to pieces.

On the city wall, Lin Hanzhou slowly straightened after a brief period of recovery.

The price of burning fifty years of his lifespan was immense.

He could feel that most of the vitality in his body had already faded away.

For a third-tier cultivator in the Qi Sea Realm, whose lifespan could reach three hundred years, fifty years was no small amount.

But for Lin Hanzhou, it was practically a cost-free deal.

After all, as soon as he ended this dream traversal, his entire condition would be refreshed.

The cultivation he received from the system wouldn't be affected by these negative states, either.

Did they even understand the value of a refreshed state?

And what he'd gained in return was a victory capable of changing the course of the nation's fate.

Lin Hanzhou's gaze swept over the hundred thousand troops below, now thrown into chaos and panic, like two sharp swords.

The corner of his mouth curled into a cold smile.

Killing just the two enemy commanders wasn't enough.

Only by completely breaking this army's backbone could he destroy it.

The next moment, he leaped down from the city wall, dozens of zhang high.

Alone, with a sword in hand, he plunged straight into the mass of a hundred thousand cavalry.

"Shing!"

As soon as he landed, he raised his hand and struck with his sword.

Vast Sword Qi swept in every direction, instantly turning hundreds of cavalry within a hundred meters into a cloud of blood, horses and riders alike.

Then he began a one-sided slaughter.

His targets were clear.

He didn't kill ordinary soldiers. He made a point of targeting the army's officers.

Relying on his keen senses, he precisely pinpointed the Grandmaster commanders with the strongest auras amid the sea of soldiers.

"Pfft!"

His sword swept out, forming a graceful yet deadly web of blades.

In an instant, it shredded a Grandmaster of the Qing Army who was trying to rally the troops into a heap of minced flesh.

"Next!"

Lin Hanzhou flashed through the ranks, strolling through the army as if he were taking a leisurely walk.

Every time he appeared, a Grandmaster officer was sure to fall!

The powerful Grandmasters, who usually commanded such strength, couldn't withstand even a single move from Lin Hanzhou.

The Martial Master-level officers in the ranks couldn't help feeling relieved.

Relieved that they hadn't yet reached the Grandmaster realm.

Otherwise, they would probably already have caught the attention of that white-haired harbinger of death.

With both commanders dead and countless Grandmaster officers slaughtered,

the hundred thousand Snow Wolf Iron Cavalry, the elite force that had once struck terror into the Great Gan Dynasty,

had now been left completely leaderless.

They had lost their command. They had lost their faith.

All that remained in their hearts was a primal fear of the white-haired demon god running rampant through their ranks.

"Demon! He's a demon from the depths of hell!"

"Run! Even the Grandmasters are no match for him. We'd only be throwing our lives away if we charged in!"

"No! You can't flee! Have you forgotten what we're carrying on our shoulders? Forgotten the oath we swore—"

"I've forgotten your mother! If you want to die, go by yourself. Don't get in the way of me escaping!"

No one knew who let out the first shrill scream, but the entire army erupted into chaos.

The morale of the hundred thousand Snow Wolf Iron Cavalry collapsed completely.

The soldiers no longer cared about their orders. They wheeled their horses around and fled in all directions.

On the city tower, when Empress Li Yue Chan saw this, she immediately issued an order.

She knew that Lin Hanzhou was deliberately targeting the Grandmasters in the hundred thousand-strong army to ease the pressure on them.

They couldn't let this State Protector fight alone.

"By My command! The Imperial Guard will march at once! The time to rout the enemy is now!"

"Rout the enemy—!"

Inside the city gates, the hundred thousand Imperial Guards, their morale roused to its peak, let out a thunderous roar.

"Rumble!"

The heavy gates of the Capital City slowly swung open from within.

Led by Wang Jian, a peerless Grandmaster, a hundred thousand Great Gan soldiers surged out to slaughter the Qing Army, which had already fallen into disarray.

The sudden reversal on the battlefield left the spies of the Three Feudal Lords, secretly watching from afar, dumbfounded.

"Th-that white-haired young man... who is he?!"

"He killed two Grandmasters with his sword? And... he's slaughtering Grandmasters amid the entire army?!"

"There's no one like him in our intelligence! When did the Great Gan imperial family hide such a monstrous figure?"

The spies exchanged glances, each seeing utter shock and fear in the others' eyes.

Their masters' plans had been thrown into complete disarray.

Wasn't the original plan for the Qing Army to seize the Capital City and wipe out the Great Gan imperial family?

Then the Three Feudal Lords could seize the opportunity to raise their armies in the name of "avenging the late emperor," contend for supremacy, and proclaim themselves emperors?!

After all, the Qing Army's hundred thousand cavalry had managed to reach the Great Gan capital without a sound only because,

along the way, they had turned a blind eye—and had even helped conceal the army's movements.

They had been waiting for the Qing Army to sink the Great Gan Dynasty's broken ship once and for all.

Only then could they build their own new dynasty atop the ruins of this chaotic age.

But the turn of events had gone entirely beyond their expectations.

"Quick! Hurry back! This shocking news must be reported to the lord at once!"

The spies didn't dare linger another moment and promptly withdrew.

Outside the Capital City, a siege that should have brought down the dynasty ultimately turned into a crushing defeat for the Qing Army.

With the hundred thousand Qing cavalry deprived of all their top fighters and their morale shattered, how could they stand against a hundred thousand Imperial Guards?

What was more, Wang Jian himself, a peerless Grandmaster, led the charge.

A peerless Grandmaster facing an army without a single Grandmaster to protect it meant one-sided slaughter.

In the end, not one of the hundred thousand Snow Wolf Iron Cavalry escaped. They were all wiped out beneath the walls of the Capital City.

It was the most inconceivable victory the Great Gan Dynasty had won in the several hundred years since its founding.

After the battle, Lin Hanzhou's reputation as the Black-Clad State Protector and the White-Haired Sword Saint would spread throughout the world.

Alone with his sword, he had slain two Grandmasters before the armies, then slaughtered Grandmasters among the ranks as if they were dogs.

His legend of guarding an entire capital single-handedly would earn a page of its own in the history books.

Storytellers throughout the land would tell his tale, and hundreds of millions of people would revere him as a god.

His very existence became a Sword of Damocles hanging over every would-be conqueror.