He would return.
The thunder of hooves rang out amid the clash of weapons and cries of agony.
Locked in a desperate fight, Su Shang looked up and immediately spotted Chu Xuanzhen charging toward them on a black horse. He was so astonished that his hands paused for a moment.
Only when a concealed projectile shot past and killed the enemy closing in to take his life did he snap out of it and throw himself back into battle.
"Our lord is here!"
"Our lord has come!"
"Charge! Kill these filthy traitors!"
Not one of them backed down. They bore their duties on their shoulders and protected those they were meant to protect.
Perhaps they were happy in that moment, but after so many years of life and death, they had never imagined that such a small battle could set their blood boiling again.
It was this very battle that let them crawl out of the depths of the mire and onto solid ground.
They had a chance to live.
They supposed they, too, must have been afraid of death.
Chu Xuanzhen leaped from his horse, his wide sleeves billowing. His silken black hair seemed coated in a cold sheen of moonlight beneath the night sky. His toes touched lightly to the ground, and a longsword slid from his sleeve.
His icy gaze locked onto the enemies guarding the rear city gate. His sword thrust forward, his chilling presence like a pool of freezing spring water in winter, enough to leave anyone who looked at him struggling to breathe.
It was the gaze of a wild beast, inspiring instinctive fear.
"All of you, hear my command."
"Yes!"
Chu Xuanzhen cut down a soldier charging toward him with a single stroke and issued his order without mercy. "Slay every last