By the time Lu Yuan's voice fell, the Cloud-Piercing Crane-Wing Formation was already in place. Lu Yuan led the front of the formation, with more than ten men following behind him as the crane's beak.
The others spread out on both sides as the crane's wings, responsible for cutting down the Northern Barbarians scattered by the charge.
Their roles were clearly defined.
Just after the formation had fallen into place, a Northern Barbarian force appeared in the distance.
Manyan Hun was a young warrior of the Manyan Tribe, renowned for his ferocity. He wielded an eight-sided war hammer weighing three hundred and eighty pounds.
Manyan Tribe warriors followed behind him. There were more than eighty of them, all clad in leather armor and armed with weapons.
Manyan Hun had gained a great deal from this campaign. He had killed hundreds of Great Yong warriors.
The spoils he had seized were countless.
But what troubled him was that he had yet to find the unit that had killed the Iron Sparrowhawks.
Without being able to carry back the enemy's heads, this battle would remain incomplete.
The flesh on his face jiggled like waves with the jolting of his warhorse.
Just then, a force in the distance caught his attention.
A Squad Leader beside him warned, "It's a Great Yong force."
"I can see that!" Manyan Hun bellowed.
Then he turned to the men behind him and shouted, "Kill them!"
He didn't take the people opposite him seriously. In recent days, he had lost count of how many Great Yong scouts he had killed.
Whether they numbered dozens or a hundred, every time he had sent them fleeing in disarray.
So he was just as confident of victory in this battle.
"Caw!"
By now, Lu Yuan and the others had fully deployed the Cloud-Piercing Crane-Wing Formation and were charging toward the Manyan Tribe's force at tremendous speed.
As they tore through the air, their charge seemed to echo with the cry of cranes.
With the formation's enhancement, every warrior was more excited than if he'd been pumped full of blood. They fought as if blessed by the gods.
They were not only much faster than usual, but stronger as well.
Lu Yuan charged at the very front, Tiger-Head Heaven-Swallowing Blade in hand. As the crane's beak, he played the most vital role. He had to scatter the enemy in the first wave of the charge, or the wings would be unable to unleash their full strength—and might even be broken.
His expression was grave, every muscle in his body taut.
A faint golden glow shone from beneath his skin.
The moment the two sides drew close, his blade came down on Manyan Hun. The strike was heavy and forceful: the third move of the Five-Tiger Array-Breaking Blade, Fierce Tiger Descends the Mountain.
A tiger's roar rang out from the blade's edge.
Riding the momentum of his warhorse, Lu Yuan struck with terrifying force.
Though Lu Yuan was only at the Bone-Forging Realm, his strength and speed had already surpassed those of a Tendon-Refining martial artist. With the formation empowering him, he now swung his blade with all his might.
The result was naturally terrifying.
Manyan Hun, however, paid it no heed. He raised his war hammer and met the blow head-on.
"Clang!"
When the two weapons collided, sparks flew. The eight-sided hammer was knocked from his hands. His arm trembled, his palm split open, and blood ran from his fingers.
Before he could react, a great blade loomed larger and larger before his eyes.
Then pain flashed across his neck, and he lost consciousness.
To everyone else, it looked as if the two men had only just clashed when Manyan Hun's head was chopped off. Blood gushed like a fountain from the gaping stump of his neck.
Lu Yuan didn't slow down. He caught the flying head with his left hand, tossed it into the burlap sack on the right side of his warhorse, and charged on.
A Bone-Forging warrior behind Manyan Hun was caught by Lu Yuan's blade. His armor and flesh split open across the chest, and blood burst from his torso as he toppled from his horse.
Lu Yuan didn't even raise an eyelid. He thrust the blade's pommel forward, and its sharp armor-piercing spike punched through the belly of another Northern Barbarian warrior.
He lifted the man up on the blade and flung him away.
Lu Yuan was like a red-hot knife plunging into snow. Anything that tried to stop him melted in an instant.
The Northern Barbarian forces behind them instinctively scattered.
But waiting for them were the crane's wings, already poised to strike.
Their spearpoints crashed forward like a forest. They hardly needed to use any techniques. They only had to raise their war spears, and someone on the opposing side would be lifted from the saddle.
Seeing this, Zhou He turned to his men and said, "Don't say I never gave you a chance to earn merit. Every man you kill is worth triple military merit. My brother has already scattered the Northern Barbarians' formation.
"We won't go head-to-head with the main force. Kill anyone who escapes on either flank.
"How many heads you take depends on your own abilities."
As he spoke, he eagerly led his men toward the side of the formation.
One head meant triple military merit and reward money. Frankly, killing just one man would earn more than they'd made on an entire previous outing.
And there was practically no danger.
The others naturally followed Zhou He, shouting as they charged.
By now, this elite Northern Barbarian force had become prey trapped in a jar.
At the same time, system notifications kept ringing in Lu Yuan's mind.
[Host killed an opponent, Five-Tiger Array-Breaking Blade proficiency +10] ... [Host blocked an opponent's attack once, Iron-Bone Golden Bell Cover proficiency +10] ... [Host charged into the enemy formation once, Cloud-Piercing Crane-Wing Formation proficiency +10] ...
Lu Yuan could clearly feel his strength rising.
Meanwhile, Zhang Zhe's first battle after arriving at the Northern Frontier nearly cost him his life. He had been leading his force toward the enemy in high spirits when—
He realized the enemy wasn't a band of Manyan Tribe cavalry at all. They were Iron Sparrowhawks, each with eyes like wolves and battle intent as sharp as a blade.
Fortunately, Bai Hong managed to pull Zhang Zhe back before he charged too far, saving his life. The others weren't so lucky.
The elite troops brought from Yun Province charged on, unaware of what they were up against. In a single clash, more than half were shot from their horses by the Iron Sparrowhawks.
Then the rest scattered in every direction.
Using his men as human shields, Zhang Zhe and Bai Hong fought desperately to escape. They spent the whole morning on the run before finally reaching a place not far from Yellow Sand City.
By then, they were exhausted, men and horses alike.
Seeing that only a handful had followed him, Zhang Zhe swallowed and said, "Teacher, we've failed. They're all dead. How am I supposed to explain this when I get back? It's all over now."
Bai Hong straightened his clothes and said, "Don't panic. We were supposed to fight the Manyan Tribe's elite cavalry. This time, we ran into the Iron Sparrowhawks. It's not your fault. No one else would have fared any better.
"The Helian Clan won't blame you for this. You faced a full regiment of Iron Sparrowhawks head-on and still made it back alive. That alone is an achievement."
Seeing that Zhang Zhe was still afraid, Bai Hong continued to reassure him. "Yun Mo of Tiger Hill City led a hundred elite troops and ran into several dozen Iron Sparrowhawks. He was badly wounded and fled back in a sorry state, and no one dared say he was incompetent.
"Let alone you. Just stay calm. Aside from a few legendary generals, there isn't a general in the world who never loses."
Only after hearing this did Zhang Zhe breathe a sigh of relief.
With a handful of surviving soldiers, he headed toward Yellow Sand Fortress City.
At the same time, Zhou Hongling urged her horse toward Ice Plain City and said to the courier behind her, "Send a carrier pigeon to Sai City at once. Have men search the Wasteland for Lu Yuan and his company. When they find them, tell him the situation has changed and order him to return as quickly as possible. He mustn't linger on the Wasteland."
"Understood!"
After receiving the order, the courier dismounted and quickly wrote out a message. Then he reached into the cage on his back, took out a pigeon, slipped the note into its message tube, and released it.
She watched the pigeon fly into the sky.
Zhou Hongling couldn't help thinking, I hope it's not too late.