Qin Tiexin's sudden appearance, and the terrifying sight of him cutting down two Night Scouts with thunderous force, shattered the nerve of the three remaining Di People cavalrymen. Their warhorses pawed uneasily, neighing as they backed away. Sweat seeped from the riders' palms as they gripped their weapons, staring fixedly at the figure standing like an iron tower at the edge of the smoke, his blade tip dragging on the ground.
Watching the battle turn in an instant after Qin Tiexin appeared, his men too intimidated to advance, Helian Zhen's eyes nearly spat fire. He roared in the Di tongue, "What are you afraid of? He's only one man! Surround him!"
His shout pierced the smoke, allowing the three riders to barely steady themselves and try to maneuver their horses into an encirclement again.
But how could Shi Meng give them that chance?
"Team A! Arrowhead formation!" Shi Meng's voice was hoarse but carried unquestionable resolve. Blood still seeped from the wound on his left arm, but his right hand already gripped his saber, his gaze sharp as an eagle's. Qin Tiexin's arrival had not only brought fresh strength, but also delivered the strongest possible shot of confidence.
"Yes, sir!"
Almost the instant Shi Meng spoke, the remaining nine moved. The understanding forged through long days eating and living together, tempered by life and death, showed itself to the fullest. Taking advantage of the Di People's brief confusion and the lingering smoke, they swiftly closed ranks and joined Qin Tiexin, as though they had rehearsed it a thousand times.
Qin Tiexin naturally took the foremost position, becoming the sharpest, heaviest "arrowhead." Behind him on either side stood Tu Dazhu, covered in blood, and another sturdy soldier, Zhang Shan, both carrying round shields. They formed the two wings of the "arrow blade," responsible for guarding the flanks and ready to ram at any moment. Farther back, Shi Meng formed the core of the "shaft" and "fletching," together with Lin Feng, Zhao Ling, and the other members skilled at mobile fighting and ranged attacks.
"Zhao Ling!" Shi Meng called under his breath.
"Understood!" Zhao Ling had already nocked an arrow and drawn his bow while moving. Now he dropped to one knee behind and beside a shield bearer, his bow bent like a full moon, his gaze instantly locking onto a Di rider about to draw his own bow. "Whoosh!" The arrow tore through the air, driving precisely into a gap in the leather armor beneath the rider's raised arm! The rider screamed, dropped his bow, and toppled sideways from his horse.
"Cripple the horses first!" Lin Feng said sharply. He swept out from the flank like a phantom. Rather than charge straight ahead, he darted low over the ground. Cold light flashed from his short blade, and he had already sliced through a warhorse's rear-leg tendon. The horse collapsed to its knees with a pained whinny, throwing its rider hard to the ground.
"Kill!" Tu Dazhu roared, driving his shield hard into the side of another warhorse attempting to charge them. His immense strength sent the horse staggering, unbalancing its rider. In that lightning instant, Qin Tiexin moved.
There was no showy charge. He simply stepped forward, bringing the heavy Edgeless upward in an utterly simple rising cut. The blade swept past the horse's belly, but the tremendous impact made the animal rear with a shrill neigh, throwing its rider clean off.
"Surround them!" Shi Meng pointed his blade. Team A moved as readily as fingers obeying an arm, instantly spreading into a small arc to enclose the three fallen or wounded Di riders and the four riders who had arrived afterward. Now numbers, formation, and momentum all favored Team A!
The fighting was swift and brutal. Facing Team A's tightly coordinated, blood-maddened soldiers, the isolated Night Scouts, deprived of their horses' speed, found that two fists could not beat four hands, however brave they were individually. Tu Dazhu knocked one man down with his shield, and a nearby soldier immediately followed with a finishing stroke. Lin Feng's short blade kept appearing at treacherous angles, severing his opponents' ankle tendons or wrists. Though wounded, Shi Meng's swordsmanship only grew fiercer and more precise, targeting vital points.
Qin Tiexin was like a moving iron wall, sweeping Edgeless wherever the pressure was greatest. He did not seek to kill with every stroke, but his terrifying strength wounded with a graze and felled with a touch, creating countless openings for his teammates. One fierce Di rider parried two blades and was about to counterattack when Qin Tiexin turned sideways and slammed a shoulder into him. The man flew backward as though struck by a battering ram, blood spraying from his mouth, his ribs cracking audibly.
In fewer than ten breaths, every Di People soldier inside the ring had fallen, with no life remaining. Team A panted, a few fresh wounds added to their bodies, but all were superficial and did not hinder their movements. They quickly covered one another as they checked the battlefield, finished off the fallen, and gathered arrows and usable weapons.
"Report!" Shi Meng swiftly scanned the men.
"Zhao Ling took an arrow in the left shoulder. Can still draw a bow!" "Li Shun took a hit to the leg. Can walk!" "Tu Dazhu's shield is broken. He's fine!" ...
"Qin Tiexin, how did you find us?" Only now did Shi Meng have time to look at Qin Tiexin. His gaze fell on the blood and dust spattering his clothing and armor, and especially on the dull, lightless heavy saber Edgeless, which radiated a menacing killing aura.
Qin Tiexin wiped the blood from his face. His honest features showed little expression, and his voice was steady. "It's a long story. I heard hoofbeats and battle cries over here, so I came."
He made it sound simple, but Shi Meng could imagine how much courage, care, and a little luck it took for one man with one blade to cross ground that might hold ambushes and locate the battlefield precisely. The lad looked taciturn, but he knew exactly what was what.
Just then, Zhao Ling suddenly called out quietly, "Instructor Shi! Their leader's trying to escape!"
Everyone looked up. After witnessing his men being swiftly surrounded and annihilated, Helian Zhen had hauled on his reins without the slightest hesitation, forcibly checking his charge! His face was a frightening shade of ashen blue. He cast one last, long look toward Team A, especially the burly man holding the heavy saber, then wheeled his horse and lashed its rump viciously, galloping north without looking back!
"This is bad!" Shi Meng's heart sank. They had traveled light and on foot for this mission, bringing no horses at all to conceal their movements. If this Di People soldier, clearly a leader, escaped and reported their squad of "stragglers," it would certainly alert the Di People high command. Their subsequent plans and battlefield arrangements might all be affected, and they might even draw a targeted encirclement.
"We can't catch him..." a soldier said anxiously, watching Helian Zhen's already distant back. How could two legs outrun four, especially when they had just fought a bloody battle?
Just as Shi Meng clenched his teeth, rapidly weighing whether to risk a long-range bow shot, Qin Tiexin moved.
He drew a deep breath, his chest swelling like a bellows, then abruptly gave a short, deep shout toward the woods to the side. "Black Cloud-!"
The sound was not deafening, but it carried a peculiar penetrating power.
A rustle came from the edge of the woods. Then a powerful warhorse, black all over save for four snow-white hooves, burst out like black lightning! It was Qin Tiexin's mount, Black Cloud. Half a head taller than an ordinary northern warhorse, he had sleek muscles brimming with explosive power. White breath puffed from his nostrils, his eyes alert, as he ran straight to Qin Tiexin and affectionately nuzzled him, showing no fear of the bloody battlefield.
Qin Tiexin quickly surveyed the battlefield. The remaining Night Scouts were dead or severely wounded and posed no further threat. He nodded firmly to Shi Meng. "Instructor, I'll leave this to you. I'm going after him." His tone was decisive, without any hint of discussion or hesitation, as though it were only natural.
"Be careful! Come back if you can't catch him. Safety first!" Knowing this was no time for lengthy talk, Shi Meng immediately cautioned him.
Qin Tiexin said nothing more. Pressing his left hand against the saddle, he swung his heavy body lightly onto the horse. He held Edgeless reversed in his right hand, its tip angled toward the ground. Patting Black Cloud's neck, he said quietly, "After him!"
Black Cloud gave a long, ringing neigh. As though he understood, he drove off with all four hooves, shooting like a black arrow in the direction Helian Zhen had vanished!
Watching horse and rider rapidly shrink into the distance, Shi Meng thought with feeling, This lad... Then he immediately turned and barked, "Don't stand there! Clear the battlefield and erase the traces! Quickly!"
North along the main road, the terrain gradually leveled out, with wild grass stretching on and on.
Helian Zhen crouched low, whipping his horse desperately, his heart filled with anger and alarm. Over the past two years, the Northern Di had poured painstaking effort into the Night Scouts, selecting one man in a hundred from their elite cavalry and training them ruthlessly into a cutting edge. He had thought that, apart from the Iron Pagoda, which had yet to fully form, they could run rampant through Great Xuan's border troops. Yet today, in this remote wilderness, a seemingly irregular, outnumbered Xuan squad had defeated them head-on and nearly wiped them out! He had to bring this intelligence back!
As he thought, rapid, heavy hoofbeats suddenly sounded behind him, drawing ever closer! Helian Zhen looked back in horror. That burly man with the giant saber really had pursued him alone! The black horse was extraordinarily fine. Carrying that burly man and his apparently immense, heavy saber, it was actually a little faster than Helian Zhen's own excellent mount! The distance between them was visibly closing!
"Damn it!" Helian Zhen's soul nearly fled his body. He had never imagined his pursuer's horse could be so fast! Seeing the gap shrink from over a hundred paces to seventy or eighty, a ruthless gleam flashed through his eyes. He abruptly drew a dagger from his boot and stabbed backward into his own mount's rump without hesitation!
Blood spurted from the horse's rump. It let out a shrill, agonized neigh, and the pain sent its speed surging, opening the distance slightly once again.
Qin Tiexin frowned faintly. Black Cloud seemed to sense his master's urgency. Without prompting, he exerted himself again, muscles bulging, and somehow gained another fraction of speed, doggedly clinging to the horse ahead. Hooves trampled wild grass and dust, trailing two long plumes behind them.
Wind howled past his ears. Qin Tiexin crouched over the saddle, eyes fixed on the bobbing figure ahead, calculating calmly. He had already pursued a long way, far beyond Xinyang Pass's reach and deep into the buffer zone where the two armies' roaming cavalry often clashed. He could not let this drag on. Otherwise, if he encountered a Di People patrol or approached one of their strongpoints, he would be the one fleeing.
Fifty paces... forty paces... thirty paces...
Helian Zhen kept looking back, his face growing paler. He could see the burly man's expressionless face and those eyes, so calm they chilled the heart. The distance continued to shrink, slowly but surely. On the distant horizon, he could already see the outline of a small watchtower on the Northern Di side! Hope lay right before him!
Faster! Faster! Helian Zhen roared inwardly, hammering the horse's rump again with his dagger hilt. White foam already spilled from its mouth, but it could scarcely go any faster.
Twenty paces... fifteen paces...
The watchtower grew clearer. He even imagined he could see figures moving behind its arrow slits.
The desire to live and his last reserves of cunning drove Helian Zhen to one final effort. Desperately controlling his horse, he summoned all his strength and shouted himself hoarse toward the watchtower in the Di tongue. "I am Helian Zhen! My uncle is Helian Zheng, commander of the Iron Pagoda! You in the watchtower ahead, listen! Come out and help me! Kill this Xuan dog behind me! A reward of a hundred sheep, ten cattle, and ten taels of gold!"
His cries spread across the wilderness, both a plea for help and a threat, hoping to give his pursuer pause. Even an instant's hesitation would let him draw one step closer to the watchtower.
But he was disappointed.
Qin Tiexin did not understand the Di tongue, but he understood the panic and final frenzy in that voice. He remained utterly unmoved, without even a flicker in his eyes. Just as the gap narrowed to about ten paces, when Helian Zhen was almost delirious with joy at the thought that he could hold out until he reached the watchtower's bow range, Qin Tiexin made a move Helian Zhen would never forget for the rest of his life.
Qin Tiexin abruptly straightened in the saddle, planting both feet in the stirrups and gripping the end of Edgeless's thick, long hilt with both hands. Every muscle in his body tightened instantly like twisted steel cables. Driving through his waist and abdomen, pivoting around his body, he swung the heavy Edgeless through half a circle overhead, then hurled it at Helian Zhen's back with all his strength!
This was no light javelin or short halberd. He had thrown a heavy, blunt-edged weapon weighing nearly a hundred jin as though tossing a stone!
Whooo-!!!
A terrifying howl tore through the air, like ghosts weeping and gods wailing. Edgeless's enormous blade spun rapidly through the air, becoming a blurred, dark wheel carrying the breath of death, moving far faster than a galloping horse! It traced a low, deadly arc, crossing the final ten paces in an instant!
Helian Zhen heard only a vicious rush of wind behind him that made his scalp crawl. He had no time even to turn, much less dodge. He merely felt a sudden chill at his waist, followed by a strange sensation of weightlessness as the world spun around him.
Heaven and earth whirled wildly through his vision. He saw the blue sky, the withered yellow ground, the familiar back of the horse still charging forward under its momentum, and upon that back, a familiar pair of legs still twitching faintly...
Those are... my legs?
Before his consciousness sank into complete darkness, his last thought was: That saber... how could it fly...
Thud!
His upper body spun several times through the air before crashing into the wild grass, scattering blood and organs over the ground. His lower half remained on the horse, which carried it another dozen or so paces before staggering and collapsing in exhaustion.
Qin Tiexin rode up, and Black Cloud deftly avoided the filth on the ground. Dismounting without expression, he first walked over to Edgeless, which had spun away and embedded itself deep in the earth, churning up the soil around it. He grasped the hilt, exhaled with a shout, and pulled it free, his movements steady, as though merely picking up a stick.
Then he walked over to the upper half of Helian Zhen's corpse. His gaze swept over the young Di man's face, frozen in horror and unwillingness. Taking the half-corpse's belt in one hand, he carried it back to Black Cloud like a bundle of firewood and laid it across the horse's rear.
Without pausing at all, he mounted, turned, and galloped toward Xinyang Pass. The entire process was crisp and efficient, devoid of unnecessary emotion, with only the focus of completing a task.
Only after horse and rider vanished into the dust rising to the south did the distant watchtower's door cautiously open. Several Di People soldiers emerged, peering about. All they saw was an unfamiliar, dying warhorse lying in a pool of blood, with mangled remains and entrails scattered beside it. One sharp-eyed soldier spotted the distinctive pattern on the armor remaining on the lower body, and... fragments of a waist token that had fallen beside the half-corpse, engraved with the words "Helian."
"Helian... wasn't someone shouting Helian just now?"
"This armor... those were the Night Scout officers?!"
"Quick! Send word of what happened here, and this... all this, back at once! Report to the main camp! Something terrible has happened!"
That evening, Qin Tiexin returned to Xinyang Pass with his spoils and half a corpse to report to Li Zhenwei. Li Zhenwei looked at Edgeless, untouched by a drop of blood yet carrying an even stronger killing aura, then at Qin Tiexin's tranquil face and the horrifying "trophy" on the horse. After a long silence, he clapped Qin Tiexin firmly on the shoulder. "Good! Well done! Go rest, and eat your fill!"
Qin Tiexin nodded, silently saluted, and withdrew. He first went to the stables to carefully wash and brush Black Cloud and give him good feed. Only then did he return to the cooks' camp, where, under the cooks' astonished gazes, he silently and swiftly ate five men's portions. He returned to the barracks and fell straight asleep, as though the day's long-distance dash, terrifying pursuit, and bloody throw had been nothing more than an ordinary stint of labor.
At almost the same time, in the Northern Di main camp, at the Iron Pagoda's encampment.
Inside the largest tent, tallow torches crackled, illuminating a figure as powerful as a great bear. He was about forty-five, with a thick, curling beard and eyes like lightning. Only his left sleeve hung empty at his side. This was Helian Zheng, founder and commander of the Iron Pagoda.
A piece of felt lay spread before him. On it rested Helian Zhen's mangled remains, hastily pieced together and brought back by sentries riding at full speed. The corpse had been briefly cleaned, but the smooth, horrifying severance through the waist and abdomen, along with the twisted bones and displaced organs caused by violent spinning and flinging, remained shocking to behold.
Helian Zheng crouched, the fingers of his only hand trembling slightly as they brushed over Helian Zhen's pale, cold face, finally resting on the jade pendant he had pieced back together and wiped clean. The jade was smooth and lustrous, carved with the Helian Tribe's wolf-head totem. It was the coming-of-age gift he had given this most promising nephew of his.
The tent was deathly silent, save for the crackling torches and Helian Zheng's increasingly heavy breathing. The sentry who had delivered the corpse knelt prostrate, trembling all over, not daring to raise his head.
"Did you see clearly?" Helian Zheng's voice was low and hoarse, like muffled thunder before a storm.
"C-Commander... we were far away, and there was quite a bit of dust... I... I only saw an unusually tall, burly Xuan soldier. He used... used a very big saber, all dark... he threw that saber..." The sentry described it incoherently, fear breaking the details into fragments.
"A saber?" Ferocious light burst from Helian Zheng's single eye. "What kind of saber? Describe it carefully!"
"Very... very big. Much longer than an ordinary war saber, and much thicker. The blade was as wide as... as a door plank... He was too strong. He threw that saber like... like a stone hurled by a catapult..." The sentry struggled to recall the scene that had haunted him with nightmares throughout the journey.
Helian Zheng rose. His powerful body cast an enormous shadow in the firelight, shrouding the mutilated corpse on the ground. His sole hand clenched, knuckles cracking, the muscles in his cheeks twitching incessantly.
Helian Zhen had been the most promising of the Helian Household's next generation, the one most likely to inherit his mantle. Young, brave, and intelligent, he had carried Helian Zheng's great hopes. Helian Zheng had even been willing to send him into the Night Scouts, where he could be tempered more thoroughly. He had never imagined he would fall here, dying so miserably, so... without dignity.
"Xuan dog..." Helian Zheng forced the words through his teeth, his voice steeped in bone-deep hatred and coldness. "Whoever you are, wherever you are..."
He abruptly turned, his single eye fixed fiercely toward Xinyang Pass to the south, as though it could pierce the tent and the night.
"You'd better never fall into my hands."
"I'll use your skull to honor the heroic dead of my Helian Household!"
The temperature inside the tent seemed to plunge below freezing in an instant. The sentry pressed himself even lower, almost burying himself in the earth.
The night was still long, but the flames of hatred had already begun to blaze.