Drumming to Battle at Golden Mountain

"General, why have you mobilized the troops?"

Running up beside Feng Shuhu, a pale-faced Ma Chen called out, an implicit challenge in his voice.

Feng Shuhu shot him a sideways look and barked, "To avenge my son! What, are you going to stop me?!"

Ma Chen froze. Feng Shuhu's past displays of authority remained vivid in his mind, and the words of dissuasion he had prepared caught in his throat. His gaze began to wander.

Just then, Xia Yi, at whom he had been stealing glances, revealed that familiar, nightmarish smile. "Young man, are you going to follow your general and make an enemy of me? Aren't you going to try to talk some sense into him?"

Young man! Ma Chen turned deathly pale. In a daze, he was back in the Tea Garden, where Xia Yi, his feet planted on the earth and the blue sky above his head, had become a terrifying giant, endlessly repeating "young man" in his ears! That was a giant he could never defeat!

Every advantage we thought we had was within his control! We thought we could win, but he could crush us effortlessly! We absolutely cannot win!

We mustn't march to our deaths!

"General! Stop now! It's not too late. We... cannot defeat this senior!"

Feng Shuhu's grip on his halberd abruptly tightened with an audible creak as he glared at Ma Chen.

"Xu Zhou! Deputy Commander Xu! I am the commander of Lieyang City! How could you mobilize troops without my permission?! Not even the general's orders permit that!" Ma Chen continued to call out, "Soldiers of the Zhi Prefecture Cultivator Battalion! You are the elite of Zhi Prefecture, the safeguard of our Great Zheng against the Qi State and the Liao State! How can you become one family's private army?!"

A small commotion broke out, and the force of the containment formation inevitably weakened. Xu Zhou stared at him in shock, as though this were his first day meeting the commander who normally knew only leisure and tea drinking.

"You bastard!" Feng Shuhu roared, swinging his halberd at Ma Chen, only for Xia Yi to catch it with one hand midway!

Ma Chen jumped in fright, his mind reeling, then abruptly paled in horror. What did I just do? I... I've offended the general beyond all reconciliation!

Yet Xia Yi smiled at him. "Well done, young man. Keep going. I don't want these fine young men to die needlessly at my hands either!"

Well done... Those two words echoed in Ma Chen's heart, and he suddenly felt immensely proud.

That's right. I'm saving them!

If they make an enemy of this senior, they'll all die!

I'm saving them!

"Zhi Prefecture Cultivator Battalion! Return to camp! Without the King’s Order, the Cultivator Battalion must not move without authorization! Great General! I am the commander of Lieyang City! Unless I have disobeyed orders, you cannot bypass me to mobilize troops either!"

"It's not too late for you to turn back!"

Sensing the turmoil and disorder in the formation behind him, and how negligible the containment formation's empowerment on him had become, Feng Shuhu trembled with rage.

Suddenly, a gleam flashed in his eyes. His fierce gaze swept over Ma Chen's face and settled on Xia Yi!

"You old man... you planned this?! You've been preparing for this day all along?!"

"Naturally. Although I don't know why you wanted to kill me over a mere misunderstanding, once you attacked in the Tea Garden, I naturally had to prepare for a third attack."

Xia Yi offered the excuse casually, curling the fingers of the hand not holding the halberd shaft beside his waist. An invisible track connected to Feng Shuhu.

"My temper is nothing special, but I'm not someone who suffers three attacks without ever striking back. Be careful, Great General Feng. I'm... going to get serious!"

Bang! His finger flicked, and an invisible pellet of Saint Soul power shot out with a whoosh!

At first, Feng Shuhu thought nothing of it. A pellet of Saint Soul power? It was a petty trick high-star cultivators used to discipline one- or two-star cultivators, with about as much impact as a teacher throwing chalk at someone who wasn't paying attention in class.

That was not how Saint Soul power was meant to be used.

Yet the pellet reached him in an instant, blasting unstoppably through his armor and striking his body. Only then did he realize something was wrong, but it was already too late to react. He spat out a great mouthful of blood and flew backward into the air!

In midair, disbelief covered his face!

Why?! Last time, he clearly had to trick me with the Shooting the Halberd at the Camp Gate Saint Soul before he could wound me with a surprise attack!

Why could a mere flick of Saint Soul power blast me apart this time? Was Ma Chen right? Has this old man been hiding his strength all along? Was everything part of his calculations? Was the scene Ding Hai witnessed all deliberately staged by him?!

At that instant, he too could not help feeling a little self-doubt. But he was not Ma Chen, after all. He twisted in midair, smashed a huge crater into the ground upon landing, and charged at Xia Yi with a furious roar!

Xia Yi flicked his fingers again, sending invisible pellets whistling through the air. Feng Shuhu faltered. This time, he dared not relax, twisting aside and swinging his halberd to dodge or shatter every pellet!

"Petty tricks!" Finally closing in on Xia Yi, he drove his halberd forward in a powerful thrust. Yet Xia Yi took half a step back and stamped hard as he dodged, sending countless pieces of rubble bouncing into the air. Then Xia Yi smiled and reached out!

"When I said I was going to get serious, did you not take me seriously? Hah! Ignorant brat!"

Feng Shuhu's fierce eyes narrowed slightly.

Thud, thud, thud, thud, thud-

A stream of pebbles shot out like countless bullets, knocking Feng Shuhu into the air. His body shook as though he were performing a breakdance, before he finally crashed into a distant restaurant!

For a long while, there was neither sound nor movement!

An icy blue light shone in Song Qu's eyes, his expression grave. To toy with Feng Shuhu with such effortless ease... this senior is even stronger than I estimated!

Ma Chen found it even more natural than he did, and felt fortunate that he had spoken up earlier. Seeing signs of disorder in the Cultivator Battalion, he hurriedly shouted for them to stop.

Xia Yi, however, knew it was not over yet.

Apart from his two-star Saint Soul, Halberd Scripture, Feng Shuhu had not used any other Saint Soul. And Xu Zhou, the deputy commander at five-star Jade Balance rank, had slipped into the Cultivator Battalion's ranks earlier and disappeared!

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Just then, a series of unusual sounds suddenly reached them. Xia Yi glanced over and saw Xu Zhou several hundred meters away, standing guard with a long saber. Behind him, a row of three-star and four-star cultivators, equipped slightly differently from the Cultivator Battalion, were beating drums in formation!

"The general's Personal Guard!"

"His Personal Guard? Drums?"

Xia Yi looked back toward where Feng Shuhu had crashed and flicked his fingers, sending several invisible pellets inside. A few bangs rang out as the halberd shattered them.

Then vast fluctuations of Saint Soul power rippled out from within! An enormous illusory scene rose from inside!

Within that scene, countless armored soldiers were charging a great mountain. Behind them stood a woman in military attire, beating a drum with both arms!

[You have discovered a five-star Saint Soul: Drumming to Battle at Golden Mountain. Current exploration progress: 1%]

Whoosh- In an instant, a spinning halberd tip appeared before Xia Yi. A faint layer of blood-red light showed around Feng Shuhu as he thrust his halberd forward!

Xia Yi took another step back, again shaking countless pebbles into the air and shooting them out. This time, however, Feng Shuhu did not dance through the air. He merely staggered back two steps, glaring and roaring. His swinging halberd tip brushed past Xia Yi's nose, missing by the slightest margin!

A five-star Saint Soul! Drumming to Battle at Golden Mountain!

As long as the drums beat, the general's charge would never cease!

In truth, Drumming to Battle at Golden Mountain was not a top-tier five-star Saint Soul. It should not have provided such enormous empowerment that Feng Shuhu could withstand Xia Yi's stone bullets accelerated by Railroad Speed.

But that row of drumming guards in the distance enhanced the Saint Soul's effects with their drumming, much like the scene in the film Kung Fu Hustle where the Landlady severely injured the Beast with her Lion's Roar amplified through a giant bell!

"You had this trick too?"

"I underestimated you."

Unfortunately, Xia Yi was not the Beast. He did not need to kneel and beg for mercy, then launch a sneak attack to turn defeat into victory.

A gleam merely flashed in his eyes, Saint Soul power surged out, and he swept both hands across each other before him!

Densely packed illusory tracks covered the surrounding paths, every one connected to Feng Shuhu! Sixth Tier Sowing: every pebble he had fired, every shattered pebble, had become a coordinate!

As Xia Yi waved his arms like a conductor, countless boulders, bricks, and tiles shot out, with Feng Shuhu as their target and center! Amid Feng Shuhu's unwilling roars, they sealed him inside the rubble, forming a sphere over ten meters in diameter in midair!

The drumming faltered!