Chapter 737: Fell Into the Trap

As the pursuit deepened, the surrounding terrain grew increasingly treacherous.

The once flat, open Gobi began to close in toward the towering cliffs on both sides.

Gale winds darted between the cliffs, emitting whimpering cries like wolf howls.

Su Nongtun's light cavalry hesitated not a moment and plunged straight into a perilous gorge, flanked by sheer cliffs that rose into the clouds, called Evil Wolf Valley.

"Great Khan, stop! Do not enter the forest, do not pursue the desperate enemies—this terrain is treacherous!"

Qiu Sheng Tou's long‑honed instinct, honed by years of licking blood from a blade's edge, made his scalp tingle.

He shouted hoarsely, disregarding everything as he tried to snatch Yunhe Ti's Horse Rein.

"With cliffs on both sides, if there are Rear Guards hidden we won't even have room to turn—this is a natural coffin!"

Yunhe Ti cracked his Horse Whip against Qiu Sheng Tou's mount, forcing him back.

The horse, in pain, leapt forward a few strides, nearly throwing Qiu Sheng Tou to the ground.

"Qiu Sheng Tou, if you're cowardly, get out of the rear army for me!"

Yunhe Ti's eyes bulged like copper bells, filled with frantic red veins.

"Even the Turko‑mixed warhorses can't move; he's cornered and fled into a dead end. Today, even if it means a mountain of knives and a sea of fire, Great Khan will flatten this gorge!"

Ba Dou arrived panting from behind, his iron armor coated in yellow sand.

"Great Khan, Old General Qiu is right; our current formation can't even provide basic defense—charging in is a death sentence!"

Yunhe Ti, like a gambler with bloodshot eyes, could not heed these loyal but unwelcome words.

"Su Nongtun commands only a few hundred light cavalry; could they possibly swallow our tens of thousands?"

Yunhe Ti, disregarding everything, drove his exhausted warhorses forward and led the charge into the grim, death‑silent Evil Wolf Valley.

The vanguard's thousands of Suicide Warriors followed their commander into the gorge.

The trailing main force, driven by momentum, moved like a massive, lumbering beast, slowly squeezing into the narrow death‑bound passage.

Inside the gorge, light was dim and a cold, damp chill hung in the air.

Between the terrifyingly silent cliffs, only the booming hoofbeats rang back and forth, rattling eardrums.

Yunhe Ti surged ahead, his gaze fixed rigidly on the winding stone wall ahead.

After rounding the extremely narrow bend, the scene before him made him feel as if he had plunged into an ice cavern.

Ahead lay emptiness—a dead, stagnant straight passage.

There was no trace of Su Nongtun or his White Horse.

They seemed to have vanished into thin air, utterly bizarre.

The warhorse instinctively sensed danger; its front hooves slammed the brakes in a frantic, mournful whinny.

Yunhe Ti tugged hard on the rein; the sheer momentum nearly threw him from the saddle.

The Rouran cavalry behind failed to recover in time, colliding in a chain like dumplings dropped into a pot.

The horrendous cries of men and horses shattered the gorge's deathly silence instantly.

"Where are the men? How did they vanish into thin air!"

Yunhe Ti panicked, looking around while swinging his long blade wildly in the air.

"Ambush! Protect the Great Khan!"

Ba Dou looked up amid the chaos and, terrified, saw countless cold, blade‑glints flickering densely across the cliffs on both sides.

They were tens of thousands of fully drawn Turko strong bows.

Standing atop the cliff, Crown Prince Moheduo gazed down at the Rouran Army packed together below.

Moheduo's young Dark Hawk face showed no mercy, only the cold indifference of one who wields life and death.

Zhishi Sili stood beside Moheduo, licking his lips with excitement.

"Crown Prince, these stupid pigs turned out exactly as you expected—every one squeezed into this Pocket Formation."

Moheduo let out a cold sneer and slowly raised his right arm.

"Send the order down: spare no living soul."

Moheduo's arm paused mid‑air for a heartbeat, then swung down heavily.

"Release the arrows!"

A cold, utterly emotionless voice cracked suddenly across the gorge.

It sounded like the Grim Reaper's final ultimatum.

In an instant, ten thousand arrows were loosed.

A dense black rain of arrows, bearing a mournful, slicing whine, fell mercilessly like a death‑shrouding net that blotted out the sky.

The Rouran Iron Cavalry crowded at the gorge's bottom had nowhere to dodge.

Warhorses, deprived of room to run, trampled each other, turning the riders into living meat targets.

The thudding of arrows piercing Leather Armor and Gutou echoed through the gorge.

"Ah, my eyes!"

A Rouran soldier, clutching his arrow‑pierced face, rolled on the ground, his harrowing scream making spines tingle.

Another commander had several blades of arrows pierce his chest.

He spat blood as he fell, and a panicked warhorse nearby crushed his skull underfoot.

The harrowing screams mingled with the warhorses' desperate whinnies, instantly turning the cold gorge into a human hell.

"Raise shields for defense, press against the cliffs, don't run wildly!"

Qiu Sheng Tou brandished a heavy iron round shield torn from a fallen comrade, desperately gathering the remnants amid the arrow rain.

But at the gorge's exposed bottom, the thin round shield could not stop the torrent of powerful bow bolts raining down.

Soldiers kept falling around him, their warm blood splashing onto Qiu Sheng Tou's weathered cheek.

Ba Dou blocked the arrows with his weapon while shouting toward Yunhe Ti.

"Great Khan, dismount quickly, the warhorse's target is too large!"

Yunhe Ti roared, brandishing his curved blade above his head to create an impenetrable swirl of knives, trying to deflect those deadly arrows.

"I am the Grassland Khan; how could I bow to these forged slaves!"

Yunhe Ti's stubbornness made him stand out especially in the rain of arrows.

A Turk sharpshooter perched above the cliff sharply spotted the target dressed in a purple sable fur coat.

The sharpshooter drew the strong bow to its full draw, locking the cold arrowhead onto Yunhe Ti's torso.

The bowstring hummed with a vibration.

A heavy, barbed arrow pierced the wind‑blown sand, precisely slipping into the armor gap of Yunhe Ti's left shoulder blade.

"Poof!"

The sound of the arrow entering flesh was short and muffled.

Yunhe Ti let out a painful cry as his body shook violently on the horse's back.

Immediately after, another heavy arrow bearing destructive force drove deep into his right thigh muscle.

Blood instantly stained the sable coat and the saddle crimson.

The searing, bone‑gnawing pain made Yunhe Ti convulse violently on the horse.

The pain was like a bucket of icy water with shards, finally dousing the raging madness in his mind.

Reason, at the most painful cost, reclaimed the high ground of this Grassland overlord.

He watched the Rouran warriors fall around him like cut wheat, and the warhorses turned into spiky hedgehogs from the arrows.

All this was the bitter fruit of his hatred‑clouded eyes.

"Got caught."

Yunhe Ti gritted his teeth, snapped the arrow shaft lodged in his flesh, to avoid hitting the wound while fleeing.

"Front troops become rear troops, raise shields for cover, everyone withdraw from the canyon immediately!"

Yunhe Ti clutched his blood‑flooded wound, shouting a hoarse, desperate retreat cry.

Qiu Sheng Tou and Ba Dou immediately commanded the remaining Personal Guard, using shields to form a turtle shell above Yunhe Ti.

"Protect the Great Khan's breakout, retreat quickly!"

The Rouran Army, after paying an extremely painful price, finally began to crawl laboriously toward the canyon entrance.

The arrow rain from the cliff top continued to pour down without pause.

Every inch of the retreating path was strewn with Rouran corpses.