He glanced at the light screen in his sea of consciousness.
Name: Sheng Huai'an Race: Human Realm: Houtian Middle Stage (+) Techniques: "Great Sun Heart Sutra" (Initiation) (+) "Ferocious Ox Strength" (Minor Accomplishment) (+) "Blood Fiend Saber Technique" (Great Accomplishment) (Deduction) "Overlord Spear Technique" (Minor Accomplishment) Strength: 20,000 jin Talent: Master Archer Slaughter Value: 3,619
He immediately added points, consuming five hundred points of slaughter value to begin elevating his cultivation realm.
A surge of potent power poured into his body, beginning to reinforce his flesh, bones, and skin...
His flesh, bones, and skin seemed as though they were bathed in golden light.
Under the reinforcement of this power, his skeleton, tendons, and skin became as if cast from gold, growing increasingly hard and formidable.
His vital blood and true qi also surged by a large margin.
Advancing his cultivation to the Houtian Late Stage realm, his strength increased by 5,000 jin, reaching 25,000 jin.
Others possessed copper skin and iron bones, but he was now nearly transforming into golden flesh and golden bones.
With his cultivation elevated to the Houtian Late Stage, his strength had also increased considerably, yet Sheng Huai'an still felt a sense of insecurity.
He looked at the vast amount of slaughter value remaining.
After a moment of thought, Sheng Huai'an ultimately decided to raise his cultivation by yet another minor realm, pushing it to Houtian Perfection.
He continued to consume five hundred points of slaughter value, elevating his cultivation to Houtian Perfection while his strength increased to 30,000 jin.
Now, unless he encountered martial artists of the Xiantian Mid Stage, Sheng Huai'an was confident he could trade blows head-on even with Xiantian Early Stage martial artists.
Only after elevating his cultivation to Houtian Perfection did Sheng Huai'an's sense of security increase somewhat.
And it was merely somewhat; after all, he was only at Houtian Perfection, not Grandmaster Perfection.
Early the next morning, when Guo Xiaoping and Hu Bing saw Sheng Huai'an after he rose, the two of them felt as though he had grown even stronger once again.
They sensed an extreme sense of danger emanating from Sheng Huai'an.
Faced with the matter of Sheng Huai'an growing stronger yet again, the two of them were already numb.
They had both broken through to the Houtian realm on the exact same night, and until now, the two of them had only just managed to stabilize their cultivations.
Yet... it seemed that Sheng Huai'an had apparently broken through once more.
Sometimes they truly could not help wondering why the gap between human beings could be so vast!
After resting and reorganizing for two days, they left this location and continued stirring up trouble across the grasslands.
In a single day, they swept through over a dozen small Xiongnu tribes, slaughtering countless enemies, seizing grain, cattle, and sheep, and then burned the grain tents to the ground with a single fire before departing without lingering for even an extra minute.
The moment they made their move and swept through over a dozen tribes, the news reached the encircling Xiongnu grand army, and various detachments of Xiongnu cavalry once again assembled toward this expanse of the grassland.
By the time the various Xiongnu cavalry units gathered, Sheng Huai'an and his men had already led their troops far away.
Such a brazen guerrilla warfare tactic drove the Xiongnu cavalry half-mad.
In the past, when enemy forces invaded the grasslands, they had also used this exact tactic to deal with them.
Now that someone was using it against them on the grasslands, the roles were reversed, allowing them to experience that helpless, infuriating frenzy.
Sheng Huai'an led his troops to sweep through a dozen small tribes, replenished their supplies, and then fled several hundred miles away to another stretch of grassland.
Such a shameless battle tactic left the pursuing Xiongnu cavalry exhausted and overwhelmed.
Meanwhile, back at Anning Pass.
Upon hearing the tragic news that the ten-thousand-strong army of the Xiongnu Right Worthy King had breached the passes of Yanzhou, Qizhou, and Dengzhou, plunging the territory of all three prefectures into the hands of the ten thousand iron cavalry of the Xiongnu, the principal officials of Yongzhou and Dingzhou dared not sit idly by.
They successively dispatched commandery soldiers, county soldiers, and levied new recruits to reinforce Anning Pass.
Once Anning Pass fell, Yongzhou and Dingzhou would be left without any natural barriers to defend them, and the ten-thousand-strong Xiongnu army could trample both prefectures into ruins.
For a time, wealthy clans and landowners contributed money while the government dispatched troops, sending an additional thirty thousand soldiers to Anning Pass to participate in its defense.
Seeing the thirty thousand reinforcements, Yang Ye could not help letting out a laugh; these officials knew fear at last and hurriedly sent out their family fortunes.
"Hehehe, these officials are scared now." Sun Hao laughed coldly.
They slaughtered enemies at the frontier border, casting life and death aside, while those within the passes spent their days amidst songs, dances, and lavish dissipation.
When they had sent men to plead for reinforcements, the principal officials of the two prefectures had treated them like beggars, tossing over some cannon fodder.
"It's only because they heard that Yanzhou, Qizhou, and Dengzhou were ravaged by the Xiongnu iron cavalry, with countless officials from major clans slaughtered and their grain and silver looted, that they grew terrified of Anning Pass falling and dying beneath the Xiongnu iron cavalry, forcing them to dispatch commandery and county soldiers," Zhao Yong'an spoke up.
"With Qishan Fortress breached and the three frontier prefectures fallen, the pressure on Jubei Pass has increased manifold, and I only wonder if the General Who Guards the North can hold the line," Yang Ye sighed.
"Right now, they can only rely on themselves to hold on by sheer force," Sun Hao said.
Presently, dealing with the hundred thousand-odd troops under the Left Virtuous King was already quite taxing enough for them.
With the three prefectures fallen, just how many ordinary common folk would be plunged into misery under the Xiongnu iron cavalry.
"That fellow Jin Daorong truly deserves to die." Yang Ye could not help cursing aloud.
Jin Daorong, the defending general of Qishan Fortress, had abandoned Qishan Fortress and fled in order to preserve his own strength.
This act had plunged the three prefectures of Yanzhou, Qizhou, and Dengzhou into the sharp blades of the Xiongnu iron cavalry.
"Hmph, that cowardly fellow who clings to his life probably threw his lot in with the Second Prince's faction long ago; guarding a pass certainly isn't as important as preserving his strength to help the Second Prince contend for the supreme throne," Sun Hao said without the slightest bit of restraint.
"No matter what, the arrival of these three thousand—no, thirty thousand soldiers greatly relieves our pressure," Li Daoru spoke up.
With these thirty thousand reinforcements, the Left Virtuous King would be unable to capture Anning Pass for the time being, no matter how hard he tried.
"I wonder how Sheng Huai'an and the others are doing nowadays." Mentioning Sheng Huai'an filled Sun Hao with a measure of worry.
He thoroughly appreciated Sheng Huai'an, a man daring enough to fight and kill; this was what a true soldier should be, filled with iron-blooded slaughter.
Apart from the first few days when Sheng Huai'an and his men broke through the border into the grasslands and the Xiongnu army temporarily suspended their siege, the enemy had resumed attacking the walls over the past few days.
This signified that the plan to sever the Xiongnu army's grain supplies had already failed.
"Life and death are determined by fate; we can only leave it to their own fortune," Yang Ye uttered words that were both cruel and helpless.
Sheng Huai'an and his men had penetrated deep into the grasslands, where they could provide not a shred of assistance.
Little did they know that Sheng Huai'an and his men were eating their fill of beef and mutton on the grasslands every single day.
Out on the grasslands, as long as one could run and hide without running into large main forces of Xiongnu cavalry, there was very little danger.
On this day, Sheng Huai'an led his subordinates to sweep through over twenty small tribes before fleeing once more, vanishing into the grasslands.
By the time the Xiongnu cavalry rushed to the scene, they found only a chaotic mess populated solely by the elderly, the weak, women, and children.
As a soul from another world, his application of the Grand Progenitor's guerrilla warfare tactics had reached the realm of absolute mastery.
Whenever he encountered large bodies of Xiongnu cavalry, he fled; whenever he met small detachments of Xiongnu cavalry, he moved in and ruthlessly exterminated them.
One could say he displayed the art of bullying the weak and fearing the strong to the absolute extreme.
This drove the pursuing Xiongnu cavalry so mad they nearly ground their back teeth to dust.
In the span of just a few short days, Sheng Huai'an led his subordinates to fight across over a thousand miles.
"Battalion Commander, I feel like we need to head back, otherwise I'm afraid we won't make it out of the grasslands alive," Guo Xiaoping said, filled with deep apprehension.
Continuously raiding small Xiongnu tribes would only further enrage the Xiongnu people and prompt them to dispatch even more cavalry to encircle and annihilate them.
Once they were trapped by a massive force of Xiongnu cavalry, truly there would be nowhere left for them to flee.
"Alas!"
Sheng Huai'an sighed. His strength was still not formidable enough; if he possessed the cultivation of a Great Grandmaster and led a hundred thousand iron cavalry, he would dare to fight all the way to the Xiongnu Royal Court.
Following these days of slaughter and shifting combat, the soldiers under his command numbered fewer than nine hundred.
He looked back at his men; although each of them still appeared spirited, the exhaustion they struggled to conceal was written plainly in their eyes.
"We lean toward the frontier border; we are heading back," Sheng Huai'an said softly.
Do not be fooled by how rampantly they roamed the grasslands; this was merely taking advantage of clever maneuvering, and they did not dare engage in frontal combat against Xiongnu cavalry forces exceeding two thousand men.
Neither did he wish to bury all these youthful soldiers out here on the grasslands.
The winds of the grasslands were far too cold; having grown up within the passes, they would never grow accustomed to it.
He was going to lead them back alive.
With the decision to return made, the army advanced in the direction of the frontier passes.
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