Chapter 53: A Thousand Cavalry Break the Formation

 

As the barbarian general saw the slave army falling in large numbers before even engaging in close combat, his eyes burned with barely concealed rage: “Trash will always be trash!”

 

“Loo-“

 

Before he could finish shouting “Loose!”, a streak of light pierced through the thousand-strong army.

 

“Squelch!”

 

The deputy commander instinctively closed his eyes as warm, foul-smelling paste splattered his face. A fine head rolled under the horse.

 

Wherever the light passed, people and horses fell to the ground and war horses neighed.

 

Sword qi vibrated in the air, cutting down all the flagpoles. As the large banners fell, the barbarian soldiers became restless and uneasy.

 

“Archers! Loose!” Seeing his clan’s banner cut down, a noble commander, both shocked and enraged, drew his sword and directed his formation.

 

A sparse rain of arrows was released. Seeing this, other noble commanders also ordered their archers to fire.

 

“Roar!”

 

As arrows darkened the sky, the streak of light suddenly transformed with a dragon’s cry. The world dimmed as a hundred-zhang dragon body maneuvered to cast a shadow over the allied army.

 

Black Dragon Eclipsing the Sun!

 

“Clink! Clank!”

 

Countless arrows sparked as they struck the black dragon scales, with several volleys completely blocked by the massive dragon body.

 

On the battlefield, everyone instinctively looked up, staring dumbfounded at the black dragon in the sky, exuding an intense aura of slaughter.

 

“Dragon…”

 

Xuanwu glanced sideways. The gentle morning breeze ruffled his ash-gray robe. With his bronze mask covering his face, it was impossible to discern the emotions of this King of Chu.

 

“Don’t be afraid! This is all an illusion created by the Qing people’s evil magic!” 

 

In the allied army, with the general dead, the deputy wiped away a handful of blood as he took command, hurriedly speaking to stabilize morale.

 

“Form ranks!”

 

The deputy quickly dismounted and hid among the barbarian soldiers, barking orders, fearing that the streak of light might come to take his head next.

 

“Boom! Boom! Boom!!!”

 

Eight war drums thundered. The twenty thousand barbarian soldiers began to contract their formation. Several mages hidden within deployed magic arrays and started chanting group enhancement spells. The barbarians’ aura instantly skyrocketed, their bodies beginning to glow with multicolored effects.

 

At the front, the two thousand slave soldiers had completely routed. Each step taken was another step into hell. Amidst flying limbs, many slave soldiers’ will had completely crumbled, and they fled towards the allied army.

 

What bullshit about being made earls and rewarded with cities – they now only wanted to survive, even if it meant retaining their slave status.

 

“Advance!” The deputy waved his hand.

 

They couldn’t delay any longer. He dared not gamble on whether the Qing army garrisoned in Sebei City would come out to aid them.

 

If they failed to intercept, even if he survived, he feared he wouldn’t get past the crown prince.

 

The drum rhythm quickened. Marching in unison, the formation of twenty thousand barbarian soldiers advanced like a huge war chariot, constantly pushing forward.

 

Shen Yian frowned slightly. They actually hid a Grand Archmage skilled in concealment magic. No wonder several mages suddenly appeared.

 

With a Qi replenishing pill in his mouth, Shen Jun shot an arrow with all his might, only to have it blocked by a hexagonal barrier. The collision of the two forces merely caused the barrier to tremble slightly.

 

Shen Yian raised his hand to recall Long Yuan.

 

The effect of a battle formation is to concentrate everyone’s power into a single entity. With the mages advancing within the formation, to kill them, one would need to break the formation. To break a formation, aside from clashing head-on with a larger and stronger formation, relying on individual power would require him to use the Sky Falling technique again.

 

However, they weren’t engaging in a direct confrontation between two armies. Who would be foolish enough to clash head-on with them?

 

“Wait for the barbarian army to get closer,” Shen Yian transmitted to the five.

 

These twenty thousand barbarian soldiers had formed a battle formation, but over ten thousand noble allied forces were still exposed at the rear.

 

The barbarian allied forces’ command system had always been flawed, especially when mercenary groups and noble armies joined.

 

Except for a small portion of noble commanders who would listen to the general command, most noble commanders would choose to act as they saw fit.

 

The most laughable were the vassal troops, who only obeyed orders from those they were vassals to, even the barbarian marshal couldn’t command them.

 

The battle formation was less than three hundred meters from the six, with an overwhelming sense of pressure bearing down on them.

 

Two hundred meters.

 

One hundred meters.

 

The six silently split into two groups of three, swiftly flanking the battle formation.

 

Seeing the six split up and run, the deputy commander shouted in alarm: “Cavalry!”

 

The battle formation opened two gaps, and two cavalry units thrust out like spears, chasing the six.

 

At the rear, seeing the six circle around the formation and charge towards them, the group of noble commanders suddenly panicked. They had been waiting to pick up the spoils and hadn’t anticipated becoming the targets themselves.

 

“Shoot arrows! Shoot arrows!”

 

“Infantry forward! Stop them!”

 

“Cavalry!”

 

A noble commander at the very back was startled to see the pebbles on the ground constantly trembling.

 

“Rumble!”

 

The deafening sound of hoofbeats approached from behind, growing closer.

 

Looking back, dust filled the sky as a series of large banners appeared over the hillside, fluttering in the wind.

 

The golden characters on the banners were unmistakable.

 

Qing!

 

Great Qing!

 

“Form ranks!”

 

Ye Feng noticed the barbarian soldiers’ battle formation and raised his halberds and shouted.

 

Five thousand iron cavalry continuously released a thick, blood-red killing intent, quickly converging to form a wedge formation.

 

In a trance, these five thousand men transformed into a blood-red halberd, charging forward relentlessly from the grasslands.

 

“Qing army…”

 

“It’s the Qing army!!!”

 

That noble commander cried out involuntarily.

 

The already chaotic formation became even more disordered at this cry.

 

Wolves in front, tigers behind!

 

The deputy commander’s battle formation was still struggling to turn around and had no time to manage them.

 

“Hahaha!”

 

E Lai, who had already charged forward, laughed as he concentrated his body’s vigorous true qi into a strength barrier in his palm, then thrust it out.

 

Boom!

 

The strength barrier surged forth. In a flash of white light, a bloody path hundreds of meters long appeared on the grassland.

 

Not far away, thunder crackled as a lightning whip swept across, cutting more than ten barbarian soldiers and their shields in half at the waist.

 

Further away, several water snake-thick tendrils shot out from light blue sleeves, frantically strangling in all directions.

 

“God! Save us! Please save us!”

 

A noble commander broke down. These six must be evil spirits from the underworld!

 

Many barbarian soldiers wanted to flee but couldn’t escape the eight gilt-black knives that moved as swiftly as wind and thunder.

 

With the six exerting full force, they forcibly carved out pockets of vacuum within the encirclement of over ten thousand barbarian soldiers.

 

In less than half a cup of tea’s time, nearly half of the more than ten thousand noble allied forces had fallen. The pursuing cavalry not only failed to harm the six but completely disrupted the formation of the noble allied forces.

 

Shen Yian raised his sword, unleashing an overwhelming sword qi in a fan shape spanning several dozen zhang, crashing down like a mountain. The earth cracked, directly wiping out a barbarian squad formation.

 

Yin Hai guarded nearby, preventing any barbarian soldiers from getting within ten paces of Shen Yian.

 

“Kill!!!”

 

Ye Feng’s roar was deafening.

 

Shen Yian looked to the side to see five thousand iron cavalry quickly passing through the noble allied forces, charging directly at the battle formation.

 

By now, the battle formation had successfully turned to face the incoming five thousand iron cavalry.

 

Ye Feng led the charge, his long halberd slamming heavily into the barrier.

 

From afar, it looked like a golden war chariot colliding fiercely with a blood-red halberd, neither giving way as they began a frenzied contest of strength.

 

Twenty-Eighth Heaven – Immeasurable.

 

Shen Yian held two fingers vertically before his chest like a sword. When his eyes opened, they had turned the same pale blue as Ye Liyan’s.

 

Tens of thousands of swords on the battlefield suddenly rang out in unison, and countless long swords glowed white and rose into the air, obeying his sword intent.

 

“Go!”

 

The ten thousand swords, having received the command, formed a raging current striking the battle formation from all directions.

 

In an instant, the golden war chariot that had been gaining the upper hand suddenly found itself at a disadvantage. The supposedly impenetrable barrier began to show countless cracks under the combined assault of two transcendent forces.

 

Inside the formation, the sole Grand Archmage was nearly drained of magic trying to maintain the barrier, his hand holding the staff trembling constantly.

 

The other barbarian soldiers were in an even more miserable state, their chests feeling as if struck by heavy hammers, coughing up blood.

 

“Hold on! Hold on!”

 

“Victory belongs to the empire!” The deputy commander, fighting back surging blood, attempted to use the power of positive thinking.

 

“Break!”

 

Shen Yian shouted lightly. Long Yuan became the last straw that broke the camel’s back, instantly shattering the barrier.

 

With the barrier broken, Ye Feng gathered the power of the battle formation into one sweep of his halberd, cutting down a thousand soldiers and charging into the enemy ranks as if entering unoccupied territory.

 

The twenty thousand barbarian soldiers were overwhelmed by the flood of five thousand iron cavalry.

 

The sole Grand Archmage was also impaled by Ye Feng’s halberd and pinned to the ground.

 

The sun hung high, and the great battle finally came to an end. Barbarian corpses carpeted the vast grassland. Apart from a small portion of routed barbarian soldiers, more than half of the thirty thousand allied forces were annihilated. On their side, just over a hundred were wounded, with no deaths!

 

Such an overwhelming achievement would be enough to allow even a common soldier to ascend directly to the golden hall and meet Emperor Wu!

 

Ye Feng, holding his blood-dripping halberd, rode his horse to the six, his gaze immediately noticing Xuanwu.

 

“Lord Xuanwu!”

 

Xuanwu remarked with emotion: “General Ye! Your timing is impeccable!”

 

If Ye Feng hadn’t come to support, the six would have faced a bitter struggle today.

 

Ye Feng grinned: “Lord Xuanwu, can I leave the aftermath here to you?”

 

“You…”

 

“I’m rather eager to return home,” Ye Feng’s words left Xuanwu speechless.

 

Return home?

 

Right, he had indeed instructed Zhuque to relay a few words to Ye Feng.

 

If they returned on time, Ye Feng could depart immediately.

 

Xuanwu glanced at Shen Yian beside him and sighed inwardly.

 

After all, this was His Highness’s future father-in-law, and with His Highness present, there was no way to refuse.

 

“General Ye, feel free to return. I’ll take care of things here.”

 

“Thank you, Lord Xuanwu!”

 

Ye Feng’s smile grew brighter. After exchanging a few more pleasantries, he rode alone towards Sebei City.

 

“Xuanwu, this king is leaving too,” Shen Yian suddenly said with a smile, watching Ye Feng’s retreating figure.

 

“Your Highness, where are you going?” Xuanwu asked, startled.

 

“Home.”