Lu Yuan led his squad forward. When they neared Guhe Village, they stopped to eat something, then continued on.
It was afternoon by the time they finally reached the village.
But just then—
"Neigh!"
Lu Yuan, at the head of the group, pulled on the reins.
A corpse lay on the ground. It wore the standard armor of the City Guard, and its chest had been smashed in by a blunt weapon, caved in so deeply that stark-white bone showed through.
Before the horse's front hooves could touch down, Lu Yuan had already leaped off.
Old Huang and Wei Yong hurried over.
"Men from Huqiu Fortress. Judging by the wound, a Wolf-Tooth Mace smashed their chest in," Wei Yong said, touching the corpse.
Lu Yuan looked up into the distance and spotted another body farther ahead.
"Leave at once. We're abandoning this mission."
His voice was a little hurried.
Though he didn't know what had happened up ahead, men from Huqiu Fortress had died here. There was bound to be danger.
He couldn't risk the lives of his dozen or so men.
Wei Yong and the others didn't hesitate. They immediately mounted up and prepared to retreat.
There was no such thing as luck when it came to matters like this. Every mistake came at the cost of the men's lives.
Once Lu Yuan was on his horse, he turned back the way they had come.
But they hadn't gone far when—
He came to a halt again.
Clip-clop...
In the distance, he saw a group of cavalry closing in from ahead, and they were about to collide head-on.
Sweat appeared on Wei Yong's forehead. "Sir, they're Northern Barbarian scouts, probably more than thirty of them."
Meanwhile, at the Captain's Mansion in Ice Plain Fortress—
Yun Mo was carried into the mansion. He was in a sorry state, his iron armor torn, an iron arrow lodged in his shoulder. The moment he got inside, he collapsed to the ground.
Zhou Hongling and Zhou Ming came out. Seeing the scene before them, Zhou Ming furrowed his brow. "What happened?"
"Sir, the Centurion led us out of the city to wipe out the Iron Sparrowhawks. We engaged them and were ambushed. Of an entire hundred-man squad, fewer than ten escaped. The rest were all killed," one of Yun Mo's guards said in a trembling voice.
If they hadn't broken through toward Ice Plain Fortress, the nearest fortress, at the last moment, they would have died on the battlefield.
The Iron Sparrowhawks had numbered only a little over fifty at first. Who could have guessed that they would summon all the nearby scout squads to Guhe Village? Yun Mo and his men had been formidable, killing nearly a hundred Northern Barbarian scouts, but in the end, they still lost.
The Iron Sparrowhawks had nearly crushed them.
This battle had been a Waterloo for the Young Tiger.
"Getting back alive is already good enough. Hurry and help your commander inside to treat his wounds," Zhou Ming said, his expression dark.
Zhou Hongling furrowed her brow. "To wound Yun Mo this badly, the Iron Sparrowhawks certainly live up to their name."
"Of course. You're still young; you've never fought them head-on. Every Iron Sparrowhawk is a handpicked fighter, and they're extremely crafty. They're skilled with bows, and even the weakest has reached minor mastery. They're among the Northern Barbarians' absolute elite.
"A thousand Iron Sparrowhawks could even kill a Xiantian expert. Tell me, are they formidable or not? To this day, Great Yong has never wiped out an entire formation of Iron Sparrowhawks. Yun Mo got greedy this time."
After finishing, Zhou Ming headed for the room where his disciple was being treated, clearly unable to put his mind at ease.
Zhou Hongling's expression also grew grave. Having such an elite Northern Barbarian force near the fortress was extremely dangerous for City Guard troops sent out on missions.
But she couldn't act recklessly. They were currently locked in a standoff with the Northern Barbarians. A large-scale deployment could provoke an equal retaliation, and if the two sides broke into full-scale war, she couldn't shoulder that responsibility.
But she couldn't just let the Northern Barbarians run rampant, either.
The only solution was to select an elite force and eliminate the Iron Sparrowhawks.
Then she hurried to her study.
At the same time, Lu Yuan and his men were surrounded by the Northern Barbarian scouts who had returned from pursuing Yun Mo's group. The Iron Sparrowhawks were skilled and audacious, and had chased them a long way. They still hadn't come back.
Even so, the more than thirty scouts before them put enormous pressure on Lu Yuan and his men.
"Don't panic. Prepare the Arrowhead Formation."
Lu Yuan spoke calmly, then took a pearwood longbow from his saddle and gripped a Wolf-Hair Arrow in his hand.
"Creak."
The bowstring groaned as he drew it back.
"Whoosh!"
The arrow tore through the air, flying toward a Northern Barbarian warrior at tremendous speed.
"Thwack!"
A Northern Barbarian scout charging at them was pierced through the throat in an instant and toppled from his horse.
Now that Lu Yuan had achieved mastery in archery, an arrow from his hand was more than an ordinary Northern Barbarian could withstand.
"Whoosh, whoosh!"
A flurry of arrows hissed through the air as Lu Yuan's hand kept reaching for the quiver on his saddle.
The Northern Barbarian cavalry shouted as they charged forward, and one man after another fell from his horse.
A system prompt rang out in Lu Yuan's mind.
[Host shot an arrow once, Wolf-Chasing Archery proficiency +10]
Seeing Lu Yuan wreaking havoc, Wei Yong and the others began to calm down. In a short time, more than ten Northern Barbarian warriors had been shot from their horses.
"Crack!"
But the very next moment, the bowstring couldn't withstand Lu Yuan's strength and snapped.
The bow itself broke in two.
The Northern Barbarian cavalry were drawing closer by the moment.
Lu Yuan shook his head helplessly. He had spent ten taels of silver on this bow, thinking it would last him a while. But as his strength increased, it could no longer bear his force.
If he made it back this time, he would definitely get a better bow.
"Shhk!"
He tossed aside the broken bow, drew his long saber, and called to the men behind him, "Brothers, the Northern Barbarians outnumber us. Get ready to fight for your lives!"
Wei Yong and the others had already drawn their weapons.
"Kill!"
Lu Yuan shouted and charged forward with his men. At that moment, if anyone had looked closely, they would have seen that the dozen or so riders under his command—
had taken on the faint outline of a gigantic, transparent arrowhead.
With the formation's support, their horses ran faster, and Wei Yong and the others were invigorated. The panic in their eyes vanished completely, replaced by blazing fervor.
Across from them, the remaining twenty-odd Northern Barbarian warriors collided with them in an instant.
"Thwack!"
Lu Yuan borrowed the momentum of his horse as his blade swept precisely across the chest of an Entry Realm expert. At the same time, he ducked beneath the man's Wolf-Tooth Mace. Then the Northern Barbarian Squad Leader before him was sliced in two, blood mist spraying through the air.
Wei Yong's Armor-Piercing Hammer also smashed into one of the men.
They were like a sharp arrow, punching through the barbarian ranks.
[Host killed an enemy with a saber once, Blade-Breaking Eight Styles proficiency +10] ... [Host charged through the enemy formation once, Arrowhead Formation proficiency +10] ... [Host blocked an opponent's attack once, Golden Bell Cover proficiency +10] ...
The prompts rang out one after another.
Lu Yuan's hands never stopped moving. This was his first time facing so many enemies, and it would have been a lie to say he felt no pressure.
But as the battle continued, his movements grew more and more practiced, and his combat strength only increased.
He was even stronger than when the fight had begun.
His strength was advancing at a breathtaking pace.