Breaking Through to the Houtian Realm

The wind bent the grass low, but there were no cattle or sheep!

Near the border, it was all buffer territory. The Xiongnu nomadic tribes would not come here to graze their livestock.

Once they entered the grasslands, led by a guide from the army, they headed deeper into the plains.

A proud young man spurred his horse at a gallop, crimson robe and spear in hand!

Sheng Huai'an rode a white horse, clad in a red battle robe and holding a long spear, looking every inch the valiant young hero.

Anyone who saw him would have to say, "What a handsome young man."

"Battalion Commander Sheng, aren't we going to cut off the Xiongnu's supplies first?" Guo Xiaoping asked.

Sheng Huai'an looked back at Guo Xiaoping, who held a great halberd and wore a black battle robe.

This man was also a Battalion Commander commanding a thousand men, at Martial Master Great Perfection, and was now under his command.

"No rush. We're still rather close to the Xiongnu army. If we make too much noise and they send an army of iron cavalry, our small force won't be enough for their cavalry to grind to pieces," Sheng Huai'an said.

If they were going to kill, they would kill their way deep into the grasslands and turn the place upside down.

Their cavalry unit might be called elite, but compared with the Xiongnu's elite iron cavalry, they fell far short.

They had only one warhorse each, their armor was not heavy armor, and the soldiers' cultivation was not particularly high.

In Sheng Huai'an's imagination, elite iron cavalry had to be Heavy Armor Cavalry, with three warhorses as standard issue.

When such an army charged, it would be a torrent of steel—nothing could withstand it, nothing could stop it.

The army continued deeper into the grasslands. The lone wolves on the plains seemed to have scented danger and fled far away.

"Battalion Commander Sheng, there is a small tribe ahead. Should we go around it?" A scout who had gone ahead returned on horseback to report.

"Go around!"

Now was not the time to strike at a small tribe. He led the troops onward.

By the afternoon, they had already penetrated two hundred li into the grasslands.

This grassland was extraordinarily vast. Sheng Huai'an had once thought this world was a parallel world or a replica of another world.

But after truly coming to understand this world, he realized he had been wrong beyond measure.

This grassland was three or four times larger than the one from his previous life.

Among the grassland tribes bordering Great Wei, there were two great overlords: one was the Xiongnu, and the other was the Rong Di.

"Captain, there's something ahead. Twenty li away, there's a Xiongnu supply convoy," the scout returned to report.

"How many men?" Sheng Huai'an immediately asked.

"About a thousand. They're transporting a considerable amount of supplies, probably more than a hundred carts," the scout answered.

"A thousand men!"

Sheng Huai'an raised a brow. There were many men, and much cargo as well. They would use this Xiongnu unit as the first sacrifice to the blade.

"Prepare for battle!"

The moment Sheng Huai'an spoke, the soldiers behind him instantly readied themselves for battle.

Cavalry was fast. They covered twenty li in less than half an hour.

From afar, they saw the Xiongnu transport force ahead.

"Charge!"

The iron cavalry charged, swift as wind and fire.

Sheng Huai'an took the lead, charging at the very front.

The rumbling hoofbeats instantly drew the Xiongnu army's attention.

The Xiongnu commander saw the attire and banners of the charging cavalry and realized they were not their own.

"Enemy attack! Take formation!"

Unfortunately, it was already too late. Arrows flew from the charging cavalry formation as well, raining down over the Xiongnu camp.

The reason Sheng Huai'an dared to charge openly was that he had a thousand iron cavalrymen. There was no need for petty skirmishes.

By the time the Xiongnu army hurriedly organized a defense, it was already too late.

Sheng Huai'an led the charge and plunged into the enemy camp.

The long spear in his hand thrust directly at an enemy, its sharp point effortlessly tearing through the man's chest.

The beginner-level Overlord Spear Technique was more than enough against ordinary Xiongnu soldiers.

He charged into the enemy camp at the forefront and began a massacre. His long spear was like Death's reaping scythe, ceaselessly harvesting the lives of Xiongnu soldiers.

The iron cavalry were like a torrent of steel, smashing the Xiongnu camp to pieces.

After a single charge, not a single living Xiongnu enemy remained in the camp.

On such flat grasslands, when cavalry met cavalry, a thousand against a thousand was complete crushing superiority.

Not to mention that this Xiongnu transport force was entirely a second-rate unit.

The cavalry under Sheng Huai'an's command were the elite iron riders of Anning Pass.

The battle ended in an easy rout. The leader of this Xiongnu force was a Martial Master, but Sheng Huai'an smashed his head apart with a single spear strike.

"Clean up the battlefield!" Sheng Huai'an shouted.

Tang Yunshan and Hai Dahe quickly stepped forward and led the soldiers in clearing the battlefield.

"Wang Wu, take the scouts and spread out around us. Continue gathering information," Sheng Huai'an ordered again.

"Yes!"

Wang Wu led several scouts and soon vanished into the grasslands again.

Sheng Huai'an had made Wang Wu a Platoon Leader, commanding a scout squad.

"Captain, Cap... no, I should call you Battalion Commander now."

"Battalion Commander Sheng, there are pills—lots of pills!" Tang Yunshan shouted excitedly.

Sheng Huai'an had now officially been promoted to Battalion Commander, commanding a thousand men.

The instant Guo Xiaoping and the other Battalion Commander, Hu Bing, heard there were pills, they became excited.

One had to know that the garrison at Anning Pass seemed to have been forgotten. They had not received any pills distributed by the imperial court for two or three years.

"Come, let's take a look." Guo Xiaoping and Hu Bing followed Sheng Huai'an over.

The chests on four horse-drawn carts were all filled with medicinal pills.

The largest quantity was of healing pills, while there were also some that aided cultivation.

"Breakthrough Pills! There are some Breakthrough Pills here!" Tang Yunshan said excitedly.

"Breakthrough Pills?"

"Let me see!"

Guo Xiaoping and Hu Bing rushed forward, competing to inspect the Breakthrough Pills.

"Fourth-grade Breakthrough Pills."

"Ha ha ha, Fourth-grade Breakthrough Pills..." Guo Xiaoping laughed wildly in excitement.

"What? Fourth-grade Breakthrough Pills?" Hu Bing cried out. He first froze, then his whole body began trembling with excitement.

Both of them had cultivated to Martial Master Great Perfection and had long been unable to break through.

If the imperial court had allocated pills to them, they would have broken through to the Houtian Realm long ago.

Now that they had seen Fourth-grade Breakthrough Pills, how could the two not be excited?

The Fourth-grade Breakthrough Pills were enough for both of them to break through to the Houtian Realm.

A single Fourth-grade Breakthrough Pill started at one hundred thousand taels of silver at black-market auctions. It was a truly scarce resource.

"Why are there only two!?" The two exchanged a glance, then looked toward Sheng Huai'an.

They knew Sheng Huai'an was also at Martial Master Great Perfection, and he was the Battalion Commander of this unit.

That meant Sheng Huai'an had the final say in how these pills would be distributed.

"What is it?"

Seeing the two looking at him, Sheng Huai'an asked.

"Well, Battalion Commander Sheng, there are only two Fourth-grade Breakthrough Pills," Guo Xiaoping said.

"Two is two. It's good enough that we found something."

Sheng Huai'an thought Guo Xiaoping felt the haul was too meager. In any case, they had seized it from the Xiongnu.

"No, it's just..."

"If you have something to say, say it. Why are you two hemming and hawing?" Sheng Huai'an said when he saw them hesitating.

"How should these two Fourth-grade Breakthrough Pills be distributed?" They both desperately wanted them, but felt embarrassed to say so. After all, they were now Sheng Huai'an's subordinates, and everything had to follow his orders.

"You're both at Martial Master Great Perfection, right?" Sheng Huai'an asked.

"Yes!"

Guo Xiaoping and Hu Bing nodded forcefully.

"Then you two can use them. Strive to break through to the Houtian Realm. We're behind enemy lines, and this will give us a few more measures of safety," Sheng Huai'an said.

The two were delighted upon hearing this.

"What about you, Battalion Commander Sheng?" Hu Bing asked.

Sheng Huai'an was also at Martial Master Great Perfection.

"Me? You don't need to worry about me. I can break through now even without pills," Sheng Huai'an said.

"That's enough. These two pills go to you two. Hurry and break through."

"Yes, Battalion Commander Sheng. In the future, if you give an order, we will not dare refuse," Guo Xiaoping said solemnly.

The two were immensely grateful to Sheng Huai'an. Without pills, given their aptitude, it would take them at least two years to break through to Houtian.

Sheng Huai'an waved a hand, then said to Tang Yunshan, "Distribute all the pills. Make sure every soldier has healing pills and Cultivation Pills. If there are any first-, second-, or third-grade Breakthrough Pills, distribute them to suitable people as well. Raise everyone's cultivation as much as possible."

"Yes, Battalion Commander Sheng!" Tang Yunshan accepted the order joyfully.

Since the Battalion Commander was willing to entrust such an important matter to him, it seemed he still held him in regard.

"Battalion Commander, there are many supplies—meat, grain, weapons, bows, arrows, so much of everything. What should we do?" Hai Dahe ran over to ask.

"Take all the horses. Take as much grain, meat, and weaponry as we can carry. Burn everything else, then withdraw," Sheng Huai'an immediately ordered.

The supplies they could not take, along with the corpses of the Xiongnu soldiers, were all reduced to ashes in a single blaze.

Sheng Huai'an led more than a thousand iron cavalrymen roaming the grasslands, specifically targeting Xiongnu supply transport forces.

A day later, more than a dozen supply transport units had been wiped out, and the Xiongnu army's provisions suddenly ran dry.

Once he acted, Sheng Huai'an moved with the speed of thunder, too swift to cover the ears. He annihilated more than a dozen Xiongnu units transporting grain and supplies, cutting off the provisions of the Xiongnu army at the front.

"Report! Left Virtuous King, something has gone wrong with our supply transport forces."

Today's assault on Anning Pass had still produced little result, and the Left Virtuous King had already been in a foul mood.

Now, hearing that the troops transporting supplies and grain had encountered trouble as well, anger surged from his heart.

"What has happened to the supply transport forces now?"

"More than a dozen units transporting supplies and grain were attacked today. The supplies and grain were burned, and every man was killed," the reporting soldier answered.

"What?!"

"What exactly happened? The troops transporting supplies and grain were on our own grasslands. How could they have been wiped out?"

"Was it the Rong Di, or has some tribe harbored rebellious intentions?" the Left Virtuous King roared.

"The exact circumstances are unknown!" The messenger felt sweat pour down his back.

The Left Virtuous King's fury weighed on him so heavily that he could barely breathe.

"Send men to investigate this thoroughly. Then dispatch two thousand cavalrymen to find this group. They dare become my enemy at such a time—I will grind their bones to dust and scatter their ashes!" The Left Virtuous King smashed the table with one slap.

Sheng Huai'an led his troops in destroying more than a dozen Xiongnu supply transport units in succession, and the Xiongnu army quickly discovered it.

At this moment, he was leading his subordinates in cooking beef and mutton to celebrate.

A bunch of martial men ate beef and mutton to their hearts' content, as though it were New Year's.

After dinner, Sheng Huai'an arranged for rotating sentry shifts, while he himself began cultivating.

No, he was adding points to break through and raise his cultivation.

He could have broken through long ago. His Slaughter Value was fully sufficient to raise his cultivation, but at Anning Pass, Sheng Huai'an had not continued improving and breaking through.

His strength had risen too quickly. Sometimes, rising too fast was not a good thing.

Name: Sheng Huai'an

Race: Human

Realm: Martial Master Great Perfection (+)

Cultivation Techniques: "Great Sun Heart Sutra" (Beginner) "Ferocious Ox Strength" (Minor Mastery) (+) "Blood Fiend Saber Technique" (Major Mastery) "Overlord Spear Technique" (Beginner)

Strength: 9,000 jin

Talent: Silver Archer (+)

Slaughter Value: 432

After breaking through to Martial Master Great Perfection yesterday, he had killed three Houtian martial artists and many Xiongnu soldiers. Today, he had killed many more Xiongnu soldiers, bringing his Slaughter Value to four hundred and thirty-two points.

Now that he was on the grasslands, he could continue adding points to break through.

With a single click to add points, two hundred Slaughter Value was consumed. A vast force continuously strengthened and tempered his flesh, physique, and bones.

The blood energy within him surged as fiercely as a dragon, while the Martial True Essence in his dantian steadily increased and condensed.

After breaking through the limits of a martial practitioner, his strength rose to ten thousand jin.

This level of strength had already reached the standard of a Houtian martial artist at Great Perfection.

Of course, that was only raw strength. In actual combat power, he should be roughly comparable to a Houtian martial artist in the middle to late stages.

Looking at the more than two hundred Slaughter Value still remaining, Sheng Huai'an did not continue adding points.

He had a Fourth-grade Breakthrough Pill, bestowed upon him by General Yang Ye. Now was precisely the time to use it, and it would save him Slaughter Value as well.

Taking out the pill, Sheng Huai'an swallowed it without hesitation. Its powerful medicinal force spread through him and slammed against the barrier of his realm.

Sheng Huai'an circulated the Great Sun Heart Sutra, mobilizing the blood energy and true essence throughout his body. Driving the medicinal power, he fiercely assaulted the realm barrier.

Pop!

Like an egg cracking open, Sheng Huai'an successfully broke through to the Houtian Realm.