Bones by the Wuding River

The two armies charged again and crashed into each other.

Sheng Huai'an took the lead, charging into the enemy ranks. The spear in his hand became a killing machine, constantly cutting Xiongnu Cavalry from their mounts.

By himself, he was worth hundreds, even thousands, of riders.

After several clashes, all the Xiongnu Cavalry had died. Behind Sheng Huai'an, only around five hundred riders remained, nearly every one of them wounded. Had they not seized a great number of healing pills, even more would have died.

The battle had been exceptionally brutal. Sheng Huai'an was not a god, even though he was desperately slaughtering Xiongnu Cavalry.

But the Xiongnu Cavalry outnumbered them, and deaths were unavoidable.

Broken halberds and spears lay scattered across the ground. Even the Yinma River had been dyed red with blood.

"Rumble!"

Before Sheng Huai'an's troops could catch their breath, the sound of another cavalry charge came from the distant grasslands.

Watching the incoming Xiongnu Cavalry, everyone could only tighten their grips on their sabers and spears.

Fortunately, they had desperately dealt with those previous three thousand riders. Otherwise, if this new force had joined the battle, they would have faced the danger of total annihilation.

"Brothers, today, let us kill to our hearts' content!" Sheng Huai'an shouted with overwhelming force.

"Kill!"

"Kill!"

"Kill!"

Without hesitation, Sheng Huai'an spent five hundred Slaughter Value points to raise his cultivation to the limit of a Houtian Martial Artist.

His strength rose to thirty-five thousand jin, elevating his power by another great leap.

Only by becoming stronger and killing more Xiongnu Cavalry could he ensure that more of the soldiers under his command survived.

"Kill!"

Sheng Huai'an led his troops in a charge. The remaining five hundred or so men all had fierce, baleful eyes.

They were all survivors forged from death. Those who could remain alive were the strong; the weak had already been cut down.

The opposing Xiongnu army was another force of two thousand armored cavalry.

Upon seeing Sheng Huai'an's troops, they still charged forward without the slightest retreat.

Leaving Sheng Huai'an's force on the grasslands was the mission of many Xiongnu Cavalry. Even if they died in battle, they would not hesitate.

Never before had anyone dared to massacre the tribes of the Xiongnu grasslands so wantonly, then return safely afterward.

Five hundred armored riders followed Sheng Huai'an, charging without fear of death toward a Xiongnu armored cavalry formation four times their number.

The commander of this two-thousand-man Xiongnu cavalry force was likewise a Houtian Martial Artist at great perfection.

Wielding his saber, he charged straight at Sheng Huai'an, exceptionally fierce and brave.

"Boom!!"

Sheng Huai'an swept out with his spear. More than forty thousand jin of tremendous force directly blasted the man flying, crushing a large swath of Xiongnu Cavalry to death.

Even in death, that enemy commander could not understand why Sheng Huai'an's strike contained such terrifying, overwhelming strength.

That pure force of forty or fifty thousand jin destroyed everything in its path. It could not be resisted.

With one strike, Sheng Huai'an killed the enemy commander. At that moment, he was invincible.

Then, like a fierce dragon, he plunged into the ranks of Xiongnu Cavalry. In mere moments, he had cut down dozens of them.

No one could withstand Sheng Huai'an's immense power. He alone charged into the enemy formation first and threw the Xiongnu Cavalry's charging formation into chaos.

Guo Xiaoping, Hu Bing, Wang Wu, and the others followed behind Sheng Huai'an, charging and hacking fiercely as they killed countless enemies as well.

With the enemy Houtian commander dead and no high-level fighters remaining, Guo Xiaoping and Hu Bing, both early-stage Houtian Martial Artists, also began a massacre among the enemy ranks.

With Sheng Huai'an, Guo Xiaoping, and Hu Bing killing the vast majority of the Xiongnu enemy troops, the death rate among the ordinary soldiers was greatly reduced.

When the battle ended, only around three hundred riders remained standing behind Sheng Huai'an.

Even though he alone had slain six or seven hundred Xiongnu soldiers, the enemy's greater numbers were still an advantage.

Even trading one for one could take down quite a few of them.

Those had been two thousand fully armored elite Xiongnu cavalrymen. To achieve such an outstanding record, they had every right to be proud.

"Brothers, we have won!" Sheng Huai'an roared, his voice echoing across the grasslands.

In this battle, fewer than nine hundred of them had faced five thousand Xiongnu Cavalry and annihilated them all. Such an achievement was a great victory not only at Anning Pass, but across the entire northern frontier battlefield.

"Ten thousand victories!"

"Ten thousand victories!"

The surviving soldiers shouted in succession, venting the boiling hot blood in their hearts.

After one cruel battle, only one-third of them remained. Two-thirds of the soldiers had been left on these grasslands forever.

The banks of the Yinma River were covered in corpses. Blood soaked the earth and seeped into the river, turning its waters red.

Looking at the corpses strewn across the ground, Sheng Huai'an thought of that line of poetry.

Pitiful bones by the Wuding River, yet still the men in spring-chamber dreams!

Nearly six hundred of his subordinates would be buried here forever.

They had all been hot-blooded youths, with long roads still ahead of them. Perhaps wives were waiting at home for their return.

The women deep within their chambers would never again see the men who had gone forth to return in triumph.

"Huai'an, we need to leave quickly. If the Xiongnu Cavalry surrounds us again, none of the remaining brothers will be able to get away."

Seeing Sheng Huai'an silently staring at the corpses of their fallen comrades, Wang Wu spoke as he carried a bloodstained saber and dragged one injured arm.

Their tracks had already been exposed. The Xiongnu Cavalry had discovered their intention to return. Every additional minute they remained on the grasslands meant another minute of danger.

They did not even have time to gather the bodies of their fallen comrades.

Sheng Huai'an could only give the order to continue onward.

Taking three thousand warhorses with them, they left the Yinma River.

There were too few of them. Another four or five thousand ownerless warhorses remained on the grasslands. Had they possessed more manpower, they certainly would not have abandoned them.

But now, with only a little over three hundred men, bringing too many warhorses would instead become a burden.

Less than half an hour after they left, another force of Xiongnu Cavalry arrived.

Upon seeing the corpses covering the ground and the ownerless warhorses wandering everywhere, Helan Ziyang's face darkened. They had arrived too late.

"Captain!"

"Captain Tuoba, Captain Hu, and Captain Yi have all died in battle. None of the five thousand warriors survived; they fell gloriously."

"How many enemy corpses are there?" Helan Ziyang's face was so cold it seemed water could drip from it.

"About five hundred and seventy corpses. Fewer than six hundred."

"With such losses, just how strong were they? And how many men did they have?" Helan Ziyang was somewhat lost at this moment.

These had been five thousand elite Xiongnu armored cavalrymen. They had dared to charge directly even against thirty thousand Great Wei infantry, yet now they had all died by the Yinma River.

A casualty ratio of ten to one was an exceptionally terrifying number. He was beginning to lose his grasp on the enemy's strength.

Perhaps the intelligence gathered by the scouts had been false. This was not an ordinary Great Wei army at all.

"Could there have been a Xiantian Martial Artist in that force? Otherwise, how could all three captains, each at Houtian great perfection, have died?" a commander of a thousand spoke up.

Helan Ziyang fell silent. Only a Xiantian Martial Artist could kill three Houtian Martial Artists at great perfection.

This undoubtedly meant that the enemy had a Xiantian powerhouse among them.

"Are we still pursuing them?" another commander of a thousand asked.

If they pursued, and the enemy truly had a Xiantian powerhouse, catching up would only mean delivering themselves to death.

If they did not pursue, they would have to face the Left Virtuous King's reprimand.

"Pursue!"

Helan Ziyang ultimately decided to give chase, but their pursuit slowed considerably.

They raced onward without resting. Whenever a horse could no longer endure, they changed mounts. Only by leaving the grasslands could they survive.

When they entered Great Wei territory and no pursuers followed behind them, everyone finally let out a breath of relief.

Sheng Huai'an glanced at the soldiers under his command. Before leaving the pass, they had numbered one thousand and fifty or sixty. Now, only a little over three hundred remained.

Seven-tenths had died. More than seven hundred living lives had been left on the grasslands forever, weighing heavily on Sheng Huai'an's heart.

Of the remaining three hundred or so, the vast majority were martial artists.

Only those with great strength could survive such a cruel battlefield.

Although they were now a remnant force, their bearing could no longer be mentioned in the same breath as before.

Having fought their way out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood, they had undergone tremendous transformation.

Those who remained were the true elite!

Leading the survivors, they continued toward Anning Pass.

That night, they rested at the foot of a mountain.

Near the frontier pass, human habitation was sparse. With the Xiongnu army attacking the pass, there were even fewer people to be seen.

"Do not blame yourself too much. We soldiers are destined to die on the battlefield; it is our fate, our final home."

"Besides, once our achievement is reported back, it will astonish all of Great Wei. They will not be denied the honors they deserve." Seeing Sheng Huai'an so silent, Wang Wu spoke to comfort him.

"I could have brought them all back," Sheng Huai'an said slowly.

"A man's strength has its limits. You are not a Grandmaster, nor are you a Great Grandmaster." Wang Wu patted Sheng Huai'an on the shoulder.

Sheng Huai'an remained silent. Their original orders had been to attack the Xiongnu grain transport force. After being unable to attack it, he should have led the troops back to Anning Pass. Then, so many would not have died.

"War is this cruel. From the day we enlisted, we had already prepared ourselves to die. You need not blame yourself. Remember this debt of blood; one day, we will make the Xiongnu repay blood with blood."

Sheng Huai'an nodded silently.