Chapter 487: A Sword Comes from Jiangnan!

Pojun's words froze the thoughts of Ashina, who had prided himself on having matured; the Seventh Wang, who had suffered several defeats and now had a wife and children, felt the blood within him boiling once more.

Living in this age of chaos.

The heroes and champions of the realm rose like the wind and clouds.

With a spear in his hand and iron cavalry under his command sweeping across the land, how could he be content to be merely a spectator of this era?

Even if he failed in the end, even if he only held that position for a single day.

He would still be recorded in the annals of history as the Khan of the Turks.

Not as one of the Eighteen Khans.

The Seventh Wang Ashina struggled, but the bond between father and son still lingered; after wrestling with himself for a long while, he still said: "My father is the second greatest divine general under heaven, the first hero of the grasslands in five hundred years—how could I dare betray him?"

Pojun looked at him and said: "It's not that you don't dare, it's that you're unwilling."

Ashina's expression turned solemn.

After gazing at Pojun for a long while, he still declined politely; just as Pojun finally turned to leave, Ashina suddenly spoke up, his voice tinged with unwillingness and dejection: "Mr. and I have known each other for six years now."

"I prided myself that, back then, I was bold and spirited, and that I treated Mr. with proper courtesy and respect. Yet why did Mr. abandon me and choose the Qin Wang, who at that time had yet to make his name known throughout the realm?"

"The Qin Wang was only a fugitive back then, and later merely the leader of a wandering mercenary band."

"It was only with Mr.'s assistance that he built such a great foundation."

"Had Mr. aided me, perhaps I too could have achieved hegemony over the realm."

Ashina, now nearly forty, gazed at this peerless strategist he desired but could not obtain, his heart filled with unwillingness, with dejection, and with the feeling that, had this strategist been by his side, he would not have fallen to such a state.

Pojun halted, glanced sideways at Ashina—a man who was, after all, a hero of his generation—and said with regret: "The moment you feel that you need my assistance to achieve hegemony over the realm—"

"You no longer deserve to receive my assistance."

Ashina's expression stirred.

Pojun smiled faintly and said: "Besides, you are not wild enough."

Ashina was stunned: "What?"

Pojun offered no further explanation; he merely laughed heartily, turned around with composure, and said: "Set your mind at ease, Seventh Wang. I will remain here for some time yet, and you still have time to make your choice."

"I am only telling you that, at present, the Great Khan is leading only a small contingent toward Xiyicheng. If you are so inclined, you might go and sever the connection between the Great Khan's forces and his rear."

"Even if the Great Khan is a famed general of the realm, what would become of him once cut off from his rear support?"

Ashina's pupils contracted, a glint of sharpness flashing in his eyes.

"How could I possibly betray my father!"

Pojun said: "The Seventh Wang's mother was favored at first, but in the end she incurred the Great Khan's wrath over a trivial matter. She was lashed a hundred times with a whip, made to kneel outside, drenched in the rain through the night, and from that time onward the root of her illness took hold. She died when you were thirteen."

"That is why you were never favored."

"Even this stretch of grassland was seized only five or six years ago, won by your own hands through raids. Beyond the violence inflicted upon your mother, what other care has your father shown you?"

The Seventh Wang's face tightened inch by inch, his palm pressing against the hilt at his waist.

"The opportunity is laid before you, Seventh Wang—the chance to avenge your mother has come."

"And tell me, after the Great Khan is gone, how do you think these new Khans will treat you?"

"Hahahaha, I shall take my leave."

Pojun gazed at the sky, his eyes slightly lowered.

You are not wild enough.

You lack the courage to cast yourself into the game as bait, to lure others onto the hook.

In the spring of the fifteenth year of Tianqi, upon arriving at Anxi City, Pojun had argued with the Qin Wang over the strategy to come. Though he had known since leaving Jiangnan that Li Guanyi intended to go in search of the Gu worms, he still frowned slightly at Li Guanyi's choice to go alone:

"My lord, do you intend to go alone?"

"The grasslands are vast, and you are now a person of ten thousand gold."

"You should bring men with you."

The Qin Wang laughed: "Ten thousand gold? If someone could give me ten thousand gold, I'd gladly sell this body of mine without hesitation."

Pojun was at a loss for words, sighed, and said with a smile: "That would be far too cheap."

"Lady Xue alone could afford that price; the Duke of Xiyi even more easily. Even that wandering woman of the jianghu—if she roamed about outside for a year, she might accidentally stumble into enough to scrape that sum together."

"My lord, perhaps we should make it a million gold instead."

"A million gold would be harder to produce."

The Qin Wang was at a loss for words.

He laughed and cursed lightly, then said: "In this campaign, the best strategy is for me to carry everything off with ease; the worst is a full-scale army engagement; as for the middle strategy, it would mean being discovered. At that point, with my Wu Gong, slipping away would not be a problem."

"However, Mr. —"

The Qin Wang looked at the young strategist and said with a smile: "You once said that every one of your stratagems is a supreme stratagem. Tell me, is there any way to turn my middle and worst strategies into the best one as well?"

Pojun said: "For my lord to personally venture into another country's territory is already the worst strategy."

The Qin Wang said: "Can Mr. not do it?"

Pojun's eyes rested on the Qin Wang as he said:

"Is my lord trying to goad me?"

The Qin Wang laughed heartily, and as he paced out, he reached out and placed his hand on Pojun's shoulder, saying with composure: "I am not goading you, I am trusting you. Under this vast heaven, the person Li Guanyi trusts most is Mr."

"Now, I entrust my very life to Mr."

"With the Qin Wang as the bait, to lure out the second greatest divine general under heaven."

"Only, I dare to stake my life, to cast myself into this game of the world."

"Mr., do you dare to take it?"

A violet light swirled in Pojun's eyes, the corner of his mouth curling upward, and he answered:

"My lord's life shall of course be safe; this minister's stratagems are, naturally, all supreme stratagems!"

Pojun stood with both hands tucked into the wide sleeves of Central Plains fashion, standing outside this royal tent, letting the vast wind of the grasslands blow across him, gazing at the heavens and earth, his brow calm and composed, murmuring softly to himself: "The Great Khan has set out his troops; this must be the most critical moment…"

The Great Khan's falcon-messenger had summoned the Seventh Prince, whose grassland domain lay closest to Xiyicheng, to lead his contingent of Iron Futu to come and reinforce, sealing off the Qin Wang's rear. The Seventh Prince Ashina sat inside his tent, looking at that letter.

At this moment upon the grasslands, Mu Zhahe led the army, while the Great Khan was still in pursuit of Li Guanyi. His eyes reddened; on papyrus, addressing him in an affectionate tone the Seventh Prince had never before seen, he called him his good son.

In the end, he placed this order, written on campaign papyrus, into the brazier.

The flames blazed up fiercely.

Just like the Seventh Prince's ambition.

Ambition and lofty aspirations, the unfair treatment of all these years, and the lullabies his mother had hummed when he was young—all rose up together in his heart. In his youth, he had always longed for his father's recognition, but only now did he finally understand.

How that personality of his—of constantly craving his father's approval and praise—had come to be formed.

He exhaled a breath, gripping the grassland curved blade.

"What should I do?"

"Mother."

………………

When the clash with the Qin Wang broke out, the majestic Turkic Great Khan, fighting a war within Turkic territory, had in a short time gathered forces that, astonishingly, did not greatly exceed the Qin Wang's cavalry in number, unable to establish a numerical advantage.

The Great Khan stared in silence at the troop dispositions ahead. He sensed that, of the reinforcements he had summoned, only half had appeared, and the most critical one—the Seventh Prince Ashina, who should have struck from behind this Central Plains army—had not appeared at all.

"Weakling of a son—have you grown craven again at a moment like this?"

"Just like your mother. Strip away the beauty and the gentleness, and there is nothing left of any meaning."

The Great Khan gripped his weapon and sighed softly: "The blood of the Central Plains people is just like this—loses its courage at the critical moment."

Mu Zhahe assessed the situation and said: "The enemy has forty thousand; we have sixty thousand."

"The advantage is on our side."

"Do not underestimate them. Even against forty thousand, we must give our all."

The Great Khan raised the weapon in his hand; his own aura linked and merged with the entire army. The Turkic warhorses were tall and massive, banners whipping wildly in the wind, and the iron armor radiated a rough, sturdy presence.

In an instant, the Great Khan took command of the fighting spirit of more than sixty thousand men.

Li Guanyi gripped the Tiger Roars Against the Sky battle-halberd.

The Jiuli divine weapon's gold-and-iron flowed and shifted across his body, transforming into the armor of a Central Plains general. Li Guanyi looked at the battlefield ahead and said: "Big Brother Yue, Li Zhaowen—be my vice-generals."

General Yue Qianfeng answered solemnly: "Yes!"

Li Zhao Wen smiled faintly and said: "Good."

The two took their places as vice-generals, and after them came the brave commanders of the various units who had accompanied them, stepping out in formation, each already gripping their weapons, locking into battle array. The qi of the forty-thousand-strong army surged, layer upon layer accumulating, until at last it settled upon Li Guanyi.

Boom!!!

Li Guanyi's aura surged violently upward.

Once the situation had reached this level, there was no room or leeway left for stratagems to unfold—only head-on, hard-against-hard slaughter remained.

This was the domain of fierce generals, not the forte of strategists.

Both armies drew up their formations; their army souls and baleful qi swirled and shifted, rising into the sky, transforming into a Fire Qilin and a ferocious giant wolf, each letting out roar after roar of fury. When the two auras collided at their utmost, it was like a thunderclap splitting the air.

They moved.

Both sides moved at the same instant.

The Nine-Colored Divine Deer was not an auspicious beast versed in combat. She trod upon the air, looking down from above; the grasslands were like a painted scroll, and the two great armies were like splashes of thick ink on either side, crashing into each other across this battlefield with surging force.

On one side, the army soul had become a colossal Fire Qilin, howling; on the other, a ferocious wolf.

The killing moves of the army souls slammed into each other at the same moment; the tremendous shockwave that erupted swept across the entire sky. The clouds within dozens of li were flattened in an instant; primal qi churned, nearly turning into a rushing torrent, tearing at everything around.

"Kill!!!"

The shouts of battle surged up into the heavens.

Even the Nine-Colored Divine Deer felt a tremor, and by instinct pulled away from the battlefield, soaring to a higher place. She had originally been worried about Li Guanyi, but at this moment she was startled to discover that, despite facing the Second Divine General head-on with slightly inferior numbers, Li Guanyi had not shown any sign of defeat.

Instead, he was like a sharp blade, cutting straight in.

In a daze, the Nine-Colored Divine Deer even felt an inexpressible sense of familiarity with this scene, as if a very, very long time ago, the same thing had happened. In that generation, there had also been someone laughing heartily as he tore through the enemy—only the one accompanying him at his side had not been a Fire Qilin, but a Bai Hu.

Thrilling!

Thrilling!!!

Li Guanyi, commanding the battle formation, felt an inexpressible, exhilarating surge. Shifting his aura, he used the battle array's augmentation to regulate the rhythm and speed of the army's formation, and it felt as natural as moving his own arm and fingers.

This was a battle of overlords!

In that battle, under the crushing pressure of an overlord at his peak, Li Guanyi had been forced to attempt commanding forces on the scale of two hundred thousand. Though it had been a shambles, though in the end it had been pitiful—shattered by a single charge from an overlord-at-peak who existed only in theory—

He had, undeniably, tasted that realm.

After struggling to command a charge of two hundred thousand troops, when he turned back to look at this battlefield where enemy and allied forces together barely numbered around one hundred thousand, a sudden sense of effortless mastery washed over him.

As if those maneuvers that had once been so impossibly difficult to execute—

Could now be performed with a flick of the wrist.

Li Guanyi stared fixedly at the army ahead—the Great Khan, the army led by the present-day Second Divine General. Because it had been hastily assembled, its coordination was poor; even with the Second Divine General personally commanding, there was breach after breach in its lines.

With breaches like these, what was to be done?

Smash through them!

Smash through them!!

Li Guanyi's heart pounded violently; his eyes were locked on the battlefield ahead. In that instant, the images of his clash with the overlord resurfaced in his mind, and those techniques he had never fully grasped unfolded, kneading themselves into his heart, settling deep within.

The experience and inheritance of war could only be truly mastered on a real battlefield.

So that was it.

I understand!

A sense of enlightenment rose within Li Guanyi.

The aura of the Hegemon surged, soaring skyward, then spreading toward the great army's battle momentum behind. Li Guanyi split his forty-thousand troops, assigning thirty thousand to Generals Ling Pingyang, General Yue Qianfeng, and Li Zhaowen, while he himself led ten thousand elite soldiers and charged forward with a thunderous roar.

His speed increased, cutting into the enemy army like a sharp blade.

Flaws! Flaws!

What lay before his eyes, compared to the Hegemon's final battle.

Was almost entirely flaws!

Li Zhaowen and the others had been anxious seeing Li Guanyi recklessly charge the formation, but they watched as Li Guanyi, like a fierce tiger returning to its mountain, tore directly through the enemy army's battle momentum; the ferocity of his military formation was displayed to its fullest at this moment.

He charged in several times, broke out several times.

It was almost as if the Hegemon himself were present.

He fought with exhilarating abandon, then clashed once more with the Great Khan.

This time, facing Li Guanyi who had the support of his army's battle formation behind him, the Great Khan could no longer seize sufficient advantage; the two weapons collided, emitting a thunderous roar.

This time, the Great Khan could not even force Li Guanyi back.

The two weapons clashed with a sound; after several exchanges, the Great Khan felt his qi and blood being shaken.

Even though sixty thousand faced forty thousand, the troops under Li Guanyi were far more fierce and courageous.

The Great Khan could only manage a draw.

Li Guanyi gripped the Tiger Howling Heaven Battle Halberd in one hand, raised his left hand, grasped the Chixiao Sword, and slashed downward with a sudden strike; the Great Khan gripped his weapon with both hands and braced hard against this blow.

The fortune of the grasslands surged and flowed, blessing the Great Khan.

But at this moment, a great shout was heard from the side: "I shall fight you!"

From an oblique angle, a long spear suddenly thrust out; a phoenix's cry pierced the air. The Great Khan's weapon wavered, and he used the butt of his horse lance to block this spear thrust. In ordinary circumstances, this thrust would be no match for him, but at this moment there was some pressure.

Raising his gaze, Li Guanyi saw beside him an extremely beautiful woman with soaring brows charging forward with a long spear. Li Guanyi gave a long cry, and the Chixiao Sword moved through the air; he gripped the Tiger Howling Heaven Battle Halberd with both hands, while Li Zhaowen wielded her mystic long spear, and together they engaged the Great Khan in fierce back-and-forth combat.

The Chixiao Sword was extremely sentient, launching opportunistic attacks.

Mu Zhahe grew anxious in his heart, led his troops into galloping combat, repelled Yuchi Xiong, Li Kedi, and Ling Pingyang, then said: "Khan, I come to aid you!"

He drew his bow and nocked an arrow, about to loose it.

A battle halberd from the side swung in a full arc and smashed down directly. Mu Zhahe's pupils contracted; the arrow was loosed, and a dragon's cry was heard in the air. The Taigu Chilong Dharma Aspect coiled in the void, and forcibly took this arrow head-on.

This man's Wu Gong was inferior to Mu Zhahe's.

The arrow pierced straight through the Taigu Chilong Dharma Aspect, but in the end it was still beaten down by two halberd strikes layered with battle momentum. The arrow scattered, and a rough, bold general with blood at the corner of his mouth laughed heartily: "Hahaha, this old man is Yue Qianfeng!"

"Today, I shall fight you!"

Mu Zhahe looked at this general.

Tough-skinned and thick-fleshed, he had once fought the Great Khan and spat out three dou of blood.

Yet he still managed to return alive.

His current realm...

Mu Zhahe sensed the Han's aura—peak of the Seventh Heaven—but extremely unstable, like surging waves, faintly carrying a three-part grandeur, clearly already at the peak of the Seventh Heaven, on the verge of breaking through.

The most battle-hardened and highest-caliber general in the Fire Qilin Army.

Born a bandit, his natural talent was only at the Seventh Heaven level.

But through fighting alongside the top ten famous generals of the realm, he was on the verge of breaking through through combat experience.

Mu Zhahe felt irritated and sneered coldly: "A mere Yue Qianfeng, ranked barely in the teens on the Divine General List, is he worthy of being my opponent!"

Yue Qianfeng laughed out loud: "What a coincidence!"

"In this realm, only the top ten generals are worthy of a bout with old Yue!"

He went to fight, but within only a dozen or so exchanges, he was bleeding again and shouted:

"Brothers, come help me quickly!"

Several great generals of the Fire Qilin Army joined forces, barely managing to entangle this realm's Seventh Divine General. This Divine General was a divine archer, not naturally suited to such chance encounters, but as he galloped across the battlefield, he could actually suppress Yue Qianfeng, Ling Pingyang, Yan Xuanji, Li Kedi, and Yuchi Xiong—five famous generals.

He could still hold his war bow, continuously drawing and loosing arrows, killing the Central Plains' heavy armored cavalry.

It was almost like Li Guanyi's previous fighting method.

What Li Guanyi could do, what Wang Shunchen could do back then, this grassland's foremost divine archer general could naturally do as well. He was seen drawing his bow like thunder, and within a short time the Central Plains iron cavalry lost over a hundred men picked off by him, including five generals and more than ten Captains.

"Qin Wang, you previously killed three hundred and seventy-one of my Tie Futu."

"Today I shall kill ten times that number!"

Li Guanyi's brows rose; he once again abandoned the Great Khan, the Fire Qilin treading through the air, tearing apart the enemy's battle momentum, weakening the battle formation's blessing upon Mu Zhahe, while saying: "Zhaowen, leave this place to me; go contain Mu Zhahe."

Li Zhaowen looked at him deeply, without a word of nonsense, and said: "Good!"

The two sides fought fiercely, the battle raging. Between them, one side had slightly fewer numbers but was extremely elite; the other had more numbers and fought on home ground. The two sides tore into each other. At this moment, no matter which general it was, there was only one thought in their minds.

To win!

Matters having reached this point, whether for Li Guanyi or for the Great Khan, this was an extremely precious opportunity to catch the opponent alone. Once today passed, the other side would surely learn their lesson.

There would never be such an opportunity again.

The Great Khan howled: "Die!!!"

On Li Guanyi's battle halberd, three streams of legendary qi surged.

Li Zhaowen held her spear, Yue Qianfeng swung his halberd.

Mu Zhahe's Ninth Heaven qi surged skyward, the battle formation shrieked, divine beasts gathered. The aura across the entire battlefield was extremely fierce and murderous; within a radius of over a hundred li, no other living creature dared approach.

But just at this moment, a sudden dragon's cry arose.

This dragon's cry was immensely powerful, carrying joy and vastness.

A dragon's cry?!!!

Li Guanyi subconsciously sensed toward Yue Qianfeng's direction, and saw this old big brother spewing fresh blood, his skin tough and thick, yet laughing out loud. The fresh blood fell, rising against the current into the air, transforming into the Taigu Chilong Dharma Aspect, growing ever more real and solid, with flames flowing.

He fought Xiao Wuliang, fought Gao Xiang beyond the Northern Pass, fought the Divine Martial Wang Chen Fubi in the Western Regions afterward, crossed blades with the God of War Jiang Su, and along the way circled through fights with the grassland's top divine generals, the Great Khan and Mu Zhahe.

Of the top ten generals under Heaven, aside from those on his own side, this big brother had fought nearly all of them, making up a complete set.

Of course, he'd also been beaten by all of them.

Li Guanyi sometimes thought, if a thousand or two thousand years from now there were a game born from the stories of this era, Big Brother Yue would surely be a must-pick character, present in every great battle.

And his health bar would definitely be extremely thick.

The dignified, ferociously offensive number-one close-combat general of the Southern Kingdom had been forced into becoming a defensive-type general card.

Though he had endured many battle formations, he had never felt fear, never given up; such battle intent and resolve ultimately transformed into the flame at the core of the Crimson Dragon Dharma Idol, and such battlefield experience seemed to faintly resonate with this Dharma Idol that originated from an ancient auspicious omen.

Finally at this moment, he broke through the barrier.

Yue Qianfeng, breakthrough!

Initial stage of the Eighth Heaven!

Yue Qianfeng laughed heartily and freely, the Crimson Dragon Dharma Idol wantonly asserting its presence, and Mu Zhahe's pressure instantly increased. Li Guanyi felt a measure of relief in his heart — Big Brother Yue had broken through, and in this battle he could relax a little more.

No matter what, this opportunity was hard to grasp!

It could not be let slip.

But though Yue Qianfeng had clearly already broken through, the sound of the dragon's cry still lingered on. Li Guanyi froze, then his eyes widened slightly ——

Above the vault of heaven, the layers of clouds shattered apart.

Gold-red dragon scales flowed and shimmered.

The Primeval Crimson Dragon!

The Primeval Crimson Dragon did not hold back at all, charging straight down and slamming fiercely into the Turkic Great Khan's army formation. The Great Khan swept his weapon horizontally, even shattering the dragon scales.

But this terrifying so-called auspicious omen had actually, with flesh and blood —

Clashed head-on with the army's momentum led by the Second Divine General, and was still bouncing about lively.

What kind of monster was this?

And what kind of monster was the Hegemon back in his day?

The dragon's cry carried pain, yet also a hearty, unbridled exhilaration.

Because with this single reckless forceful charge, the Turkic Great Khan's army momentum was forcibly torn open into a rift by the Primeval Crimson Dragon. Li Guanyi seized the opportunity, but in that instant, a streak of flowing light flashed past.

The sound of a sword's hum rose.

A sword fell from the rift in the clouds, following the rift the Primeval Crimson Dragon had smashed open in the great formation, in the ten-thousandth fraction of an instant before the formation recovered.

It was driven into the battlefield!

The Great Khan's pupils contracted sharply, and he roared: "Mu Zhahe!!!"

"Fall back!!!!"

Mu Zhahe raised his eyes, drew his bow, and loosed an arrow.

The arrow was like a pillar of light.

Then it was split apart from the middle.

A sword pierced through the space between his brows.

Driving straight into the battlefield.

Mu Zhahe opened his mouth, bewilderment in his eyes, then a sliver of despair surfaced.

In the midst of his great roar, his vitality already severed, he fell backward onto the ground; only a wooden sword hummed softly on the earth.

The Seventh Divine General Mu Zhahe, the grasslands' number-one divine archer, after the Primeval Crimson Dragon traded injury to ferociously tear open the army's momentum, was slain by a single sword upon the battlefield. The surroundings instantly fell deathly silent. A white-haired swordsman in blue robes stood on the sword's hilt on one foot, at the center of the battlefield.

White hair whipped wildly, sleeves billowing fierce as the wind; the old man raised his eyes.

Behind him, in the sky, the Crimson Dragon let out a long cry.

One xiao, one sword, a lifetime's ambition; bearing two hundred years of wild renown.

"Jiangnan's Divine Armament, the Murong Manor."

"Murong Longtu."

"I bid you welcome."

?? Begging for monthly tickets, friends~