Chapter 27: Slaying a King Before the Formation, Nanyue Shivers in the Cold

The Hanzhou City Gate was sealed shut again behind Jiang Che.

Chen Shanhe gritted his teeth and gave the order himself.

"Seal the gate!"

Logs, rubble, iron chains—layer upon layer piled on.

He wanted to charge out more than anyone, but he understood even more clearly that when Jiang Che handed him the city gate, he was handing him Hanzhou itself.

Xie Tingxue stood atop the wall, long sword in hand, her gaze fixed on the outside of the city.

She did not go down.

Not because she didn't want to.

But because she couldn't.

Jiang Che was going to slay a king, and Hanzhou needed someone to hold the sword formation.

If Nanyue seized the chance to attack the city again, she had to stop them.

Outside the city, before the Nanyue army formation.

Jiang Che stood alone against Han Jin and thirty thousand Black Armored Iron Pagoda cavalry.

The night was ink-black, the torches a dragon of fire.

Countless Nanyue soldiers stared at the young man who had walked out from the city gate, their eyes complex.

They had heard of Jiang Che's name.

Shattered Heaven Gate, slaying the envoy, killing Lu Heng, destroying Meng Qing.

But rumors were, after all, only rumors.

Only now, seeing Jiang Che walk out of the city alone with their own eyes, did they finally understand why such a young man could make the court and the Three Kings so wary of him.

Han Jin gripped his long spear and said coldly, "This king will grant you a fair death."

Jiang Che smiled and said, "The thirty thousand cavalry behind you—you call that fair?"

Han Jin said flatly, "On the battlefield, living is what's fair."

"Well said."

Jiang Che raised his head and glanced at the sky.

"Then I'll grant you a fair death as well."

Han Jin narrowed his eyes.

Jiang Che's Green Bamboo Sword angled toward the ground.

"If you can take three strikes from me, I'll let you walk away."

A ripple of unrest ran through the Nanyue army formation.

Han Jin laughed, fury turning to mirth.

"Jiang Che, you really think that just because you slew Meng Qing, you're invincible under Heaven?"

Jiang Che shook his head.

"I've never thought myself invincible under Heaven."

"But killing you—three strikes are enough."

Han Jin said no more.

He suddenly spurred his horse and charged.

The Black Dragon Spear once again tore through wind and snow, trailing a black qi wave dozens of zhang long.

Jiang Che stood in place, waiting until Han Jin closed to within ten zhang before lightly delivering the first strike.

That strike was very slow.

So slow that everyone could see it clearly.

Yet Han Jin's expression changed.

Because he realized that no matter how he shifted his moves, that strike always pointed at his flaw.

Not a flaw in technique.

A flaw in his state of mind.

He was afraid of losing.

He shouldn't have been afraid.

But Dongling had been defeated, Xichuan had fallen, and of the Three Kings only he remained.

If he lost again, the court's momentum to suppress Jiang Che would collapse entirely.

So he had to win.

The need to win became an obsession.

With obsession came a flaw.

The flaw Jiang Che's first strike aimed to cut was precisely this.

Clang!

The Green Bamboo Sword tapped the side of the Black Spear.

Han Jin felt a sudden tightness in his chest, and the Black Dragon phantom dispersed by a third in an instant.

He and his horse slid back several zhang at an angle.

The Nanyue army formation erupted in uproar.

Han Jin roared, dismounting with a flip.

He knew that mounted combat still had its advantages in the narrow ground before the city gate, but in a one-on-one fight against Jiang Che, the warhorse became a hindrance instead.

"Second spear!"

Han Jin gripped the spear with both hands, and the ground beneath his feet cracked apart.

This thrust no longer borrowed the momentum of the cavalry; instead, it relied on his own vital energy to clash head-on.

Where the spearhead passed, wind and snow rolled backward, and the ground was plowed into a deep trench.

Jiang Che's Second Sword followed immediately.

This strike was simpler than the first.

It was merely a slash delivered straight on.

Sword and spear collided.

Boom!

A massive crater exploded in the snow beneath their feet.

Jiang Che stepped back one pace.

Han Jin stepped back five paces.

The skin at the base of his thumbs split open, and fear surfaced in his eyes for the first time.

Jiang Che's strength should not be this great.

Clearly, his injuries had not yet healed.

Clearly, he had just used the City-Protecting Sword Intent to hold back the Black Armored Iron Pagoda.

How could he still deliver such a heavy strike?

Jiang Che saw his confusion.

"You think I borrowed from Hanzhou."

"In truth, Hanzhou is borrowing from me."

He raised the Green Bamboo Sword.

On the city wall, the Hanzhou defenders roared in unison.

"Young Master!"

The sound wave surged like a tide.

Jiang Che began the momentum for his Third Sword.

Han Jin's expression changed abruptly.

He knew that if he could not block this strike, he would surely die.

He retreated violently and shouted harshly, "Iron Floating Tower, charge!"

The Nanyue army hesitated.

No one expected Han Jin to order the battle formation to charge during a duel.

But military orders are like mountains.

The Black Armored Iron Pagoda activated once more, pressing down toward Jiang Che.

On the city wall, Chen Shanhe cursed, "Shameless!"

Xie Tingxue's gaze turned cold, and she leaped to descend the wall, only to see Jiang Che glance back at her.

It was just a look.

Xie Tingxue stopped.

She understood.

Jiang Che had long anticipated that Han Jin would not keep his word.

Jiang Che's Third Sword did not strike at Han Jin.

Instead, it struck the ground.

The Green Bamboo Sword plunged into the snow.

In the next instant, the ground outside Hanzhou City split open with a thunderous roar.

A long river of green Sword Qi erupted from beneath the earth, cutting straight across the battlefield.

It was a tributary of the Northern Border Sword Vein.

Even during the defense at the city gates, Jiang Che had used the City-Protecting Sword Intent to awaken it.

Now, the Sword Vein emerged.

The thousands of riders at the forefront of the Black Armored Iron Pagoda could not stop in time and crashed directly into the Sword Qi Long River.

Iron armor shattered, and warhorses cried out in anguish.

The steel torrent was forcibly severed.

Watching this scene, Han Jin lost his composure.

At that very moment, Jiang Che stepped out from the Sword Qi Long River.

The Third Sword finally reached before Han Jin's eyes.

Han Jin raised his spear in a panic.

Crack.

The Black Dragon Spear snapped.

The Green Bamboo Sword pierced straight through his chest.

Han Jin's eyes widened, staring fixedly at Jiang Che.

"You... long ago..."

Jiang Che withdrew his sword.

"I said, three strikes are enough to kill you."

Han Jin fell to the ground.

The Prince of Nanyue is dead.

The thirty thousand Black Armored Iron Pagodas come to a complete halt.

In the wind and snow, Jiang Che lifts Han Jin's severed head and holds it high.

"Han Jin is dead!"

"Those who surrender shall not be killed!"

From the ramparts of Hanzhou City, a roar shakes Heaven.

"Long live the Young Master!"

"Long live Han Zhou!"

Within the Nanyue army formation, someone drops their weapon.

The first one.

The second.

Then whole ranks after ranks.

The Black Armored Iron Pagodas have never been defeated so catastrophically.

Not defeated by numbers.

But defeated by one man who refused to retreat.