Chapter 322: Breaking the Siege

This sword strike was full of divine energy and vigor, as unstoppable as the midday sun, and the swordsman unexpectedly thrust out the most perfect strike of his life so far. Bai Lang lowered his head, and the sword's light converged on his forehead; with a clear sound, the sword snapped. That headbutt from Bai Lang left that guy feeling a chill in his heart—such a divine sword failed to kill him? His impenetrable sword-and-spear technique is just too overbearing!

Originally, the sword qi clinging to it should have been able to break through the gang qi and scramble Bai Lang's mind, but now it's completely useless—the sword qi was shattered by Bai Lang before the sword itself. Such external training is truly chilling; although the sword broke, its force didn't transmit through the air to the swordsman, so he was still able to retreat in shock. Meanwhile, the one who had wrapped Bai Lang with a whip was jerked by Bai Lang's momentum, and a sudden great force traveled along the whip to him, about to drag him along in a charge.

This force swept over him, leaving him completely unable to resist; even using his qi to weigh himself down like a thousand‑pound weight was useless, and he was forcibly dragged away. Of course, he was quick‑witted and instantly dropped his weapon. The next moment, the whip that had entangled Bai Lang snapped into pieces; since it couldn't drag him along, Bai Lang naturally shattered it. With both men's weapons gone, Bai Lang went straight for the unlucky swordsman whose blade had broken, extending his tiger claws to tear at him.

The others had also caught up behind Bai Lang, each launching their own attacks to rescue him. In an instant, the air waves surged, turning the area within several zhang into a bizarre, ever‑shifting spectacle. Everyone's martial spirit differed, manifesting as various qi forces and shifting qi mechanisms. Drawing on the heaven‑and‑earth qi here caused turbulence, yet none of it could stop Bai Lang's assault; to those masters it felt like seven ferocious beasts and birds leaping and dancing, their yin‑yang, fire‑and‑ice qi scrambling their attacks into utter chaos.

Thus strikes against Bai Lang had no effect, instead rebounding—each opponent at least had to contend with the aura of a ferocious beast or bird. This wasn't Bai Lang's own strength; it was his true qi circulating through the tattoo on his body, drawing on the power of the White Tiger Seven Mansions sealed within the tattoo, activated by the fragments of the Imperial Jade Seal that stirred the heaven‑and‑earth qi, forming this force. Bai Lang still can't use it at will, but the day he can freely command it, the gift from the Crazy Monk will have been fully realized.

It seems the Crazy Monk actually treats Bai Lang quite well, probably out of respect for Zhou Shubi's face, and moreover this modest endowment is nothing to a heavenly demon like him, so he certainly won't be stingy. Instead, one must consider whether Bai Lang's slight frame can sustain this power; if he were to burst from it... the Crazy Monk, out of consideration for his own face gained by using Bai Lang to demonize the world, would not let such a thing happen.

Bai Lang's power may not yet be at its peak, but his killing intent and ferocious aura are stronger than before. He lunged at the swordsman, and the onrushing aura was like a White Tiger descending into the world; sensing the qi disturbance, the opponent found himself unable to move. His true qi went awry as he watched Bai Lang seize him with a claw. With a ripping sound, the swordsman's front half was torn apart, and Bai Lang's five claws came down like five axes, cleaving him completely.

After killing the man before him, Bai Lang spun and lunged at anyone else—he didn't care who he grabbed, as long as someone unlucky collided with him. As he lunged, he unleashed a punch, his whole body surging forward with the force. The punch came out like a dragon, its power coiling into a mass. Sure enough, seeing the previous man die horribly, the others scattered from Bai Lang's front. Laughing, he leapt back onto his horse, but the horse neighed once, its legs gave out, and it collapsed.

"Is it really like this?" Bai Lang reflected, realizing he'd been overconfident; his over‑forceful urging of the war horse caused a loss of control, and the White Tiger Seven Mansions' power fully drew out the horse's vitality—now it's gone, the horse has died. What a pity; if the horse could have endured, perhaps one day we'd see a horse cultivated with internal force.

Bai Lang dismounted; his pace on foot was still swift, so he immediately headed outward to link up with his troops, and in the process he drew his Pu Dao—it happened to lie along his route, making it handy for cutting people. Gripping the hilt with both hands, he chopped left and right with vigorous, unchanging motions; each stroke produced a blade‑qi several zhang long, splitting everything in its path in two.

Even those masters could hardly entangle Bai Lang; now he wields his long‑handled Pu Dao with a technique that has no poetic allusions like 'the moon in a well' or 'mind reflecting the sword, sword reflecting heaven'—it's pure speed and power, with blade‑qi flowing in all directions. The technique is stripped to the essentials: horizontal cuts, vertical chops, left and right collar‑slash, reverse collar‑slash, and thrust. The nine basic sword‑handling methods are at his disposal, used with maximum efficiency to cut down foes and open a path.

Bai Lang's sword technique hardly changes to meet the opponent; he simply does as he pleases, each strike falling as swiftly as thunder. If you can block or dodge, you live; otherwise you're dead. This Bai Lang leaves even martial‑arts masters as helpless as a dog trying to bite a hedgehog. They find it hard to close within the one‑zhang absolute domain created by his six‑chi Pu Dao—outside that zone they can still cope with the blade‑qi, but once inside, his moves clash head‑on, which is simply too dangerous.

Bai Lang's steps never ceased; ahead, none of his troops could stand in his way. At first someone blocked him, but after Bai Lang cut them down he slew dozens more, leaving the front empty. Soon he broke through the encirclement and reached his own besieged troops, shouting, "You, follow whichever leader, charge with me!" He signaled the eighteen horsemen to stay in the middle while the infantry followed him, and Bai Lang himself, as the spear tip, charged again into the Wagang army's formation.

This time Bai Lang fought on foot as well, with no noticeable loss of cohesion, and the destructive power he generated by leading the charge was terrifying. "Good thing we learned the lesson—I never had the craftsmen make this Pu Dao's blade too thin or too sharp; now it feels just right in my hand." For Bai Lang, the weight of his weapon is actually irrelevant—he can wield heavy as light and light as heavy, and if he could transmute qi into weapons it would be even better—but this world probably can't allow that.

This Pu Dao weighs over forty catties, its back thick and its edge not extraordinarily sharp, so it's not prone to rolling the edge or turning into a serrated blade; in fact it's handier than those razor‑sharp swords—Bai Lang just relies on sheer strength to wield it. The Wagang army's formation was thrown into turmoil once more; Bai Lang has only about two thousand men, with perhaps over a hundred dead so far, but the Wagang troops slain by his hand likely exceed three hundred, and those routed are ten times that number. Now Bai Lang leads the infantry into the breach again, and the remaining Wagang troops watching his assault begin to waver.

Having long known that the Great Sui's fierce generals are impervious to blades and spears and brutally unstoppable, seeing this man still unbeatable is truly disheartening......"Lord Mi! We must launch it!" Shen Luoyan said thus.