That Blade

What was the difference between someone who had killed and someone who had not?

To the young men of the fort, killing was an exceedingly terrifying thing. Though they had fought and brawled in their daily lives, even leaving others with broken bones and torn tendons, they had rarely ever truly brought themselves to strike a killing blow.

Killing was a crime. Killers would be hunted down. Killing meant paying for a life with one's own.

That was why they accepted Yang Sanlang's command. At the very least, Yang Sanlang was a ruthless man who truly dared to kill. Following someone that fierce, how could they possibly lose?

But now it was their turn to become ruthless. Imagining Yang Sanlang, these young men silently steeled themselves. Perhaps killing was nothing to fear. Killing enemies not only carried no consequences, it could even earn rewards. They had formed up, raised their spears, and only needed to thrust them out when the Hu charged over, just as they had always trained to do...

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—"

Just as the young men held their spears ready to pierce the charging Hu, what greeted them instead was a flight of arrows.

In an instant, blood blossomed.

At a distance of less than twenty paces, with their formation packed so tightly, the bow-wielding Hu barely even needed to aim. More than half the young men in the front ranks were shot dead.

Immediately afterward, the dismounted Hu light cavalry followed their armored, axe-wielding commander and charged.

The corpses of their standing comrades blocked their spears. The corpses of their fallen comrades threw their formation into disarray. Only then did they realize just how vast the gap was between themselves and the Hu before them.

For people like them, who had never seen blood, killing was difficult. It was something hard to do, something that required them to work through countless thoughts before they could manage it.

But for those savage Hu who had seen blood, killing was simply killing.

"Splurt—"

One young man's body was cleaved entirely in two by a great axe, blood soaking the ground.

"Kill! Aaah—"

The heavy axe blade spun into a wheel of light. Wherever its cold gleam swept, heads flew.

Some of the young men eventually regained their calm reason amid the bloody slaughter. With no path left to retreat, they even found a trace of courage to risk their lives. Instinctively, they raised their spears, wanting to thrust them at the Hu before them—but their reactions were ultimately too slow. The Hu wielding curved sabers and maces had already rushed to within three feet of them while they hesitated.

It was a range their outstretched spears could not reach, but the perfect distance for short weapons to hack, slash, and smash.

Blood sprayed everywhere, brains burst apart.

Rather than a battle, it was a one-sided massacre. Facing the Hu, accustomed to lives of plunder and long since blooded, these young men who had never even taken part in a battle could not put up any effective resistance.

The Hu, on the other hand, only grew fiercer after killing and seeing blood.

The Sha Qi entering their bodies—the very thing Carpenter Li and the Yang Clan feared like a tiger—was sweet nectar to these Hu.

"Kill, kill, kill... kill!"

A young Hu man with crimson eyes had already become utterly immersed in slaughter. Even the blade he swung no longer distinguished friend from foe. Seeing no more Yang Family Fort villagers nearby to cut down, he simply raised his curved saber and hacked at the companion beside him.

But at that moment, the blood-soaked armored Hu commander grabbed him and lifted him up as though he were a chick.

"Steady your resolve. Do not forget what we came here to do."

With that, the Hu commander raised a hand and pointed deep into the fort.

"There are more people inside. Go kill them all, and every treasure and every scrap of food in this fort will be ours."

"Kill... kill!"

After a brief moment of confusion, the young Hu immediately turned around, brandished his curved saber, and charged into the fort alongside more Hu cavalry.

The armored Hu commander merely stood where he was, leaning on his great axe and lightly shaking his head.

Breaking through the fort had been far easier than he had expected. He had originally thought that, after gaining this fort, Yang Family Village would become as difficult to crack as a military stockade. After all, in the conflicts between the people of the northern desert and Southern Chen, the Chen people's endlessly varied city-defense techniques had caused countless steppe warriors to suffer bitterly, even perish on the spot.

Yet who could have imagined that, after gaining the fort's protection, the people of Yang Family Village had become even weaker than before?

This might be important intelligence. These Chen people of the south might not be as formidable as the chieftains imagined. Though the southern people who had fought the chieftains in their youth might still have retained some fierceness and fighting spirit, able to fight to the death without retreating, beneath the shelter of those towering walls and through these peaceful years without war, people would inevitably change.

"I need to return quickly and tell Big Brother. Big Brother will surely have more answers... Hm?"

The armored Hu commander's pupils suddenly contracted.

Faintly, he heard a hum.

The humming came from deep within the fort. The armored Hu commander was certain he had not heard wrong, for when he lifted his gaze, he saw corpses flying out from the depths of the fort.

They were all young men he had sent in moments ago, all fine lads. The cold winds of the northern desert had tempered their bodies and minds, turning them into warriors of unwavering will. And in this battle, these young men had all killed and seen blood, becoming true warriors of the northern desert.

Warriors like them should have found it as easy as taking something from their pockets to kill a group of weak trash who only knew how to hide inside the fort and dared not show their faces.

"The situation has changed."

Stopping the subordinates beside him who wanted to rush inside, the armored Hu commander stepped forward alone.

This was no longer a battle ordinary soldiers could take part in, because he had confirmed the presence of something.

Icy Sha Qi flowed along both his arms, and the armored Hu commander's eyes turned even more blood-red.

At that very moment, another pair of blood-red eyes entered his sight.

Those crimson eyes held a great saber.

"Was it you who killed Carpenter Li?"

"...Who?"

The armored Hu commander could not help but freeze.

What Carpenter Li? Who was that?

"Hum—"

At that moment, the wielder of the heavy great saber sprang forth, stepping over the corpses of Hu cavalry and charging toward him in great strides.

"Good!"

The armored Hu commander swung up his great axe as well. In his hands, the heavy axe blade whirled into a wheel of light, carrying the force of a thousand jun!

Such inhuman strength could split even the fort gate with a single blow. No one could withstand that axe, much less a mere body of flesh and blood!

"Splurt—"

The sound of a sharp weapon entering flesh vanished in an instant.

The two inhuman figures passed each other.

Drawing a deep breath, the armored Hu commander abruptly turned around.

Breaking through the fort so easily had already exceeded his expectations, but he had not expected the southern people to have someone so valiant among them.

Of course, it was clear that the man relied more on that saber.

Before coming here, he had heard of that saber. It was said to be Yang Family Fort's final trump card, a blade that had once slain a hundred warriors with a single stroke. Holding such a treasured blade, no wonder he dared stand against him.

Yet even if the saber's Sha Qi had driven that man mad, the courage to raise his blade against him was still worthy of admiration.

What a pity. Even such a warrior could not stop the great axe in his hands...

"Hmm?"

The armored Hu commander suddenly sensed that something was wrong.

His great axe... why could he not see his own hand?

The strange sight made the armored Hu commander lower his head for a look.

And his vision came crashing down.

"I..."

The armored Hu commander opened his mouth, but could no longer make a sound.

Only then did he realize that the sound of metal entering flesh just now had not been the sound of his axe blade cleaving through a body.

It had been the sound of a blade slicing through a neck.

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