Chapter 392

Xiao Yuanhang flipped onto his horse, took the Dragon‑Crying Spear handed to him by his personal guard, pointed it toward Da Xia's camp, and shouted loudly:

"Soldiers!"

"Ahead of you are the Da Xia invaders who repeatedly breach our borders and harm our people."

"Behind you lie the great rivers and mountains of the Fiery Nation, your parents, wives and children, your hometown!"

"Tonight, in this battle, you must forge decades of peace ahead!"

"Make Da Xia remember that the Fiery Nation's lands are not a place they can come to at will and leave at will!"

"With the swords in your hands, ensure that the countless people of the Fiery Nation will never again worry about beacon fires!"

Countless eyes suddenly lit up in the darkness.

Like ten thousand Star Sparks ignited simultaneously on a cold night, silent yet scorching.

Xiao Ningxun stood to his father's side and behind him, and the image of Tuan Tuan looking up with a small face, asking himself "Can we not fight?" flashed in his mind; his hand gripping the sword hilt was as steady as a rock.

Xiao Ran licked his suddenly dry lips, feeling all the blood in his body surge toward his head, while his ears buzzed.

Xiao Er stood at the forefront of the infantry formation, like a statue forged of iron.

He stared fixedly at the distant enemy camp's lights, like a beast locking onto its prey.

In the darkness, the soldiers could not see each other's faces, yet they could feel the sudden rise in temperature of the brothers beside them and the tension like a drawn bowstring.

The few torches, in this air scorching enough to ignite, went out one after another.

Xiao Yuanhang inhaled deeply: "Advance!"

The thunderous footfalls on the ground, the clashing of armor, the muffled thuds of arrow quivers striking thighs... merged into a deep, massive, heart‑pounding torrent that surged toward the enemy camp.

The sentries at Da Xia's forward camp were startled by the tremor transmitted through the ground.

"What's that sound?"

"I don't know! Did the earth dragon turn over?"

They looked up blankly toward the dark wasteland.

The thin moonlight traced the vague outlines of distant mountains.

A rapidly moving black surge, rushing at a suffocating speed, surged toward the Main Camp!

Their eyes widened gradually:

"En…"— they hadn't finished shouting.

"Bzz—!"

A swarm of arrow tips, like a black cloud, whistled upward, instantly obscuring the already feeble moonlight, and rained down head‑first!

"Thud thud thud thud—!"

Fences, tents, bodies... the muffled thuds of penetration and short, sharp cries exploded almost simultaneously!

Flames burst on the oil‑cloth bundles wrapped around the arrows, instantly lighting the Main Camp brilliantly and also illuminating the silent black figures that had already surged to the fence.

"The Fiery Nation's troops are coming—"

The mournful warning gong finally tore through the night sky, but it was already too late.

Grappling hooks coated in wet mud and grass silently latched on; after a low hum, the ropes snapped straight.

"Crack! Boom!" The fence, over ten zhang long, was pulled down entirely!

The black tide of people surged in like a breached dam, pouring through the gap!

Where the blades flashed, blood splattered.

The soldiers screamed in panic, fleeing backward like headless flies, overrunning the hastily arriving crowd; the defensive line had collapsed!

The retreat spread rapidly like a plague.

"Report—! His Majesty! The enemy launched a night raid! The forward camp is breached, the left wing of the central army has been overrun!" The blood‑soaked commander rolled into the imperial tent, his voice already altered.

The scar on Gongsun Chi's face twitched grotesquely in the flickering candlelight.

"Summon the National Preceptor! Quickly!"

"Yes!"

A moment later, Wu Luo, disheveled, ran into the main tent: "His Majesty!"

Gongsun Chi shouted: "National Preceptor! Where is your Formation? Use it quickly! If not now, when!"

"Yes! His Majesty!" Wu Luo's face turned pale, fine cold sweat beading at his temples, his hands forming seals as he muttered incantations.

"Wrong!"

The murderous aura and blood energy spreading across the battlefield were being continuously drawn in, yet why could they not be used?

The scene before them was like a massive cannon packed with gunpowder, but its fuse had been secretly replaced with a wet one!

"How could this happen? Why?"

Gongsun Chi, eyes on the flames outside the tent, leapt like a thunderbolt: "What are you doing? Where is the Formation?"

Wu Luo forced down his terror: "The Formation, its foundation is intact!"

"It must be, it must be Xiao Yuanhang using elite death soldiers as the vanguard, charging at any cost!"

"Then hurry!" Gongsun Chi barked, snapping his finger bones, "If the Fiery Nation's troops reach the front of my tent, I will first use your head as a sacrificial flag!"

Outside the tent, shouts, explosions, and dying wails grew ever nearer.

Wu Luo dared not argue further, sitting cross‑legged on the ground, forming seals swiftly, his complexion growing increasingly ashen.

He tried to forcefully activate the Formation, but the power that was usually as easy as moving a finger now stalled horribly.

"Pff—!"

His body convulsed violently, spitting out a gush of dark‑red clotted blood that splattered onto the front of his robe, a sight that shocked the eyes.

"The formation eye has been triggered? Qi flow reversed! This technique… Senior brother, is that you? You've come too?"

"The formation eye has been triggered?" Gongsun Chi was first startled, then erupted in furious rage, stepping forward, gripping the front of Wu Luo's robe hard enough to lift him almost entirely, "Useless!"

"You said the formation's eye was in my imperial tent, completely safe—who could move it? When was it moved?"

He suddenly recalled Xiao Yuanhang's chess game that night.

Ah, I see! Xiao Yuanhang!

A sense of shame at being fooled seized him: "You worthless thing! Why didn't you notice earlier?"

"Your Majesty, please calm your anger! Though the formation's eye has been altered, the foundation of the formation is not destroyed!"

Wu Luo felt the tightening suffocation around his neck and the genuine killing intent in the emperor's eyes; at this life-or-death moment, quick wit and ruthlessness surged in his mind.

He shouted hoarsely: "I still have one method! Perhaps it can forcibly activate, triggering the formation's residual power!"

"'Speak!' Gongsun Chi's fingers loosened slightly, staring at him intently."

"'We need the heart's blood of a hundred strong soldiers as a guide to unleash one-tenth, no, at least thirty percent of the formation's power!'"

"Die, however many die, it doesn't matter! I cannot die!"

"Even if this evil art will ruin several years of my yang lifespan, I can't worry about that now!"

"Wu Luo's eyes flashed with the madness of a desperate gamble: 'As long as the formation can be opened, even if only at thirty percent, it is enough to heavily wound the enemy army and win Your Majesty a chance for a counterattack!'"

Gongsun Chi slowly loosened his grip.

Gongsun Chi didn't even think: "Someone come!"

The guard commander at the door rushed in: "Your Majesty?"

"'The National Preceptor needs the heart's blood of a hundred strong soldiers—get it done! Quick!'"

The commander stared: "Heart's blood? From a living person? Your Majesty, we have never been at war with the Fierce State, and there are no prisoners in our camp!"

Gongsun Chi snapped impatiently: "If there are no prisoners, use the soldiers!"

The commander's face filled with astonishment: "Use our own soldiers?"

Gongsun Chi's face darkened: "Silence! Go now! Do you want to defy the edict?"