Chapter 736: I'll chase him down and skin him alive for a sky lantern!

Above the scorched earth of the Rouran Royal Court, choking black smoke still rose.

Yunhe Ti's curved‑blade long sword was dripping foul, stinking blood droplets.

His face, split by bloodstains into a ghoul‑like visage, looked especially ferocious in the firelight.

Around him, tens of thousands of Rouran soldiers who had just slashed their own cheeks with blades raised their weapons in unison.

The vengeful roars from their chests tore the last pale, waning sun on the horizon to pieces.

Amid this suffocating atmosphere of hatred.

On a partially collapsed, ruined high ground north of the wreckage, a tall figure cloaked in an intact gray wolf hide leisurely rode out on horseback.

In the intertwining firelight and dying sun, the figure appeared arrogant and glaring.

He was the Turkic great general ordered to stay behind the palace, known as the Grassland Butcher—Su Nongtun.

Su Nongtun's eyes, streaked with blood, shone with bloodthirsty excitement.

His massive right arm, reaching beside the saddle, casually lifted a round object tied with a thick hemp rope.

"Rouran's old dogs, open your eyes and see clearly, Grandpa!"

Su Nongtun let out a earth‑shaking, thunderous cackle in his coarse voice.

He snapped his wrist and hurled the blood‑dripping skull hard toward the lower ground.

The skull rolled and bounced down the slope.

It left a glaring dark‑red blood streak on the gravel, finally striking a charred piece of coal and rebounding to stop directly in front of the warhorse's hooves of Yunhe Ti's foaming mount.

Yunhe Ti's eyes widened to the brink of splitting as he looked down.

There, glaringly, was the tragic head of Ba Ye Gu, the Rouran rear‑guard great general, dead‑eyes unclosed and eyeballs protruding from their sockets.

"Su Nongtun, you despicable forge slave!"

Yunhe Ti let out a roar from his throat like a beast whose blood vessels had been cut.

The veins on the back of his right hand, which gripped the long sword, bulged, and his nails dug into the flesh of his palm.

Su Nongtun paid no heed to the useless fury below.

He slung the curved blade, dripping with shredded meat, over his shoulder and continued hurling the most practiced, most vicious Rouran insults aloud.

"Your Rouran ancestors down below are probably so angry they've become sham corpses!"

Su Nongtun pointed at the excavated royal tomb and laughed loudly.

"We, the slaves you call, have killed our way into your old nest; you can't even protect your own women—what dignity do you have left to survive on this Grassland!"

Those words pierced each Rouran soldier's heart like a knife.

Even crazier curses erupted from the crowd.

"I'll kill you and skin you for a mat!"

"Turkic dog, if you've got any guts, come down and duel with Grandpa!"

Su Nongtun ignored the heckling, turned his horse's head, and pounded the warhorse's hindquarters with the curved blade's edge, assuming a posture ready to flee.

"Grandpa's right here waiting; if you two‑legged, egg‑less sheep have any blood left, ride your broken‑legged lame horses and try to chase me!"

That humiliating taunt, dancing on the Rouran ancestors' graves, snapped the last rational string in Yunhe Ti's mind.

"I'll chase him down and skin him alive for a sky lantern!"

Yunhe Ti, in a frenzy, whipped the warhorse's sweat‑soaked neck with the horse whip.

He surged ahead like a mad tiger, charging toward the high ground.

Qiu Sheng Tou, seeing this, immediately spurred his horse to cut across.

He reached out with both hands, trying to pull Yunhe Ti's horse rein, his forehead slick with anxious cold sweat.

"Great Khan, you must not act rashly; the enemy's provocation is blatant, and deadly traps surely await us ahead!"

Yunhe Ti swung his blade's back to smash Qiu Sheng Tou's wrist, brutally knocking the reaching hand away.

"I, this Great Khan, can't worry about traps now; if I don't wrench this Turkic mongrel's head off today, the Rouran royal banner will never rise again!"

Ba Dou also galloped from behind.

He pointed at the huffing, gasping warhorse herd behind him and spoke loudly.

"Great Khan, look at the brothers' mounts; after days of sprinting hundreds of li back to the Royal Court, they're at the end of their strength—forcing them onward will only exhaust them to death on the road!"

Yunhe Ti could not heed any counsel.

He turned the tip of his blade toward Ba Dou's nose, his crimson eyes filled with murderous intent.

"Ba Dou, you also intend to defy orders!"

Yunhe Ti gritted his teeth, pressing the royal general.

"Who dares to retreat another step? I'll use his blood now to sacrifice to the Royal Court's departed souls; everyone draw swords and chase with me!"

Qiu Sheng Tou covered his blood‑red wrist and turned his head to look around.

Those tens of thousands of blood‑shot soldiers cared not for the warhorses' lives; they only wanted Su Nongtun's death.

Qiu Sheng Tou exchanged a helpless glance with Ba Dou; both could only bite their molars and draw their side swords.

"Order the whole army to form a spear‑arrow formation and charge with the Great Khan; discard all logistics, just keep that knife in hand!"

Qiu Sheng Tou rasped the command, then clamped his legs around the horse's belly, staying tightly beside Yunhe Ti.

Tens of thousands of Rouran Iron Cavalry, like a herd of maddened bulls, trod the swirling yellow sand and began this deadly pursuit.

The sandstorm rustled against the soldiers' iron armor.

Su Nongtun displayed a chilling tactical acumen.

He controlled the speed of the snow‑white Divine Steed, keeping it hovering just ahead of the Rouran army.

That give‑and‑take distance made the Rouran think that a little more force could chop off his head.

"You soft‑footed shrimp think you're worthy of being called Grassland overlords!"

Su Nongtun occasionally turned his head on the horse, drawing his strong Bow and Arrow to full and blindly shooting toward the rear.

Swoosh— a sharp whistling split the sky.

A Feather Arrow with barbs pierced the chest of a Rouran frontline.

A Rouran Colonel at the forefront had his throat pierced by a cold arrow.

He clutched his bleeding throat, screaming as he fell from the horse, and in an instant was trampled by the lagging comrades' iron hooves into a puddle of flesh.

"Shield man, move forward to cover, stop that mixed‑blood who fires cold arrows for Great Khan!"

Yunhe Ti galloped wildly on the horse.

He swung his long sword to cleave a flying arrow, and roared loudly at the commander behind him.

"Great Khan, the troops have scattered, the Shield man cannot keep up with the frontlines!"

Qiu Sheng Tou shouted back through the sandstorm, his mount already foaming at the mouth.

"Then fire arrows back, make me turn him into a porcupine!"

Yunhe Ti, disregarding everything, ordered a counter‑shot.

Ba Dou drew a Bow and Arrow from behind, but found the Warhorse's bucking made aiming impossible.

He managed to fire an arrow, which drifted lightly and landed in the sand ten or so steps behind Su Nongtun, not even touching a single horsehair.

"Great Khan, it won't work, our Warhorses are exhausted and can't speed up, the archers are nearly out of strength to draw their bows!"

Ba Dou gasped heavily, watching the Warhorses falling around, and a bottomless despair rose in his heart.

A Warhorse, its front hoof giving way from fatigue, collapsed directly onto the ground.

The Rouran rider on the horse was flung far away, crashing heavily onto the hard Gobi and breaking his neck.

Similar scenes kept playing out in the pursuing ranks.

The Rouran Army's formation was unknowingly torn to pieces.

Yunhe Ti pretended not to hear.

His blood‑veined eyes stared fixedly at the gray silhouette ahead, and he kept snorting to urge his Warhorse.

"Ignore the stragglers; as long as we can take Su Nongtun's Human Head, Great Khan will reward him with a thousand‑household marquis!"

Great rewards will draw brave men.

Some Rouran fierce soldiers beat their Warhorses to death, squeezing the last ounce of their mounts' potential as they surged forward.

Su Nongtun watched the increasingly scattered pursuers behind, and the corner of his mouth under the mask curved into a more cruel arc.

"It looks like the timing is right; send these stupid pigs to meet Yama."

Su Nongtun sheathed his Bow and Arrow, pressed his legs against the horse's belly, and the snow‑white Divine Steed accelerated like a released arrow.

"He's about to run, stop him!"

Yunhe Ti saw Su Nongtun accelerate and grew frantic.

He drew the dagger at his waist and mercilessly stabbed it into his own Warhorse's haunch.

The Warhorse, shocked by the pain, burst into supernormal speed, carrying Yunhe Ti ahead of the main army.

This tug‑of‑war death chase lasted dozens of miles across the desolate wasteland.

Fallen Warhorses and exhausted soldiers paved a shocking trail of blood along the way.

The Rouran formation, severely over‑exerted, became badly disjointed front to back.

Ahead were thousands of frontline Suicide Warriors led by Yunhe Ti, while the rear main force lagged for several miles.

"Great Khan, we cannot pursue further; the terrain ahead has changed!"

Qiu Sheng Tou, riding a spare Warhorse, rushed to Yunhe Ti's side and shouted a warning.

A massive fissure suddenly opened in the Gobi ahead.