Chapter 888: Unrivaled!

December 26th.

The sky was filled with goose-feather snowflakes; the entire Northern Frontier was already locked in ice for a thousand miles, with snow drifting for ten thousand.

Polu City.

One of the five great cities of the Northern Frontier.

On the tall city walls, rows of heavy machine guns and city-defense cannons were positioned, while soldiers stood guard against the wind and snow, with braziers for warmth not far behind them.

Several thousand meters away from the city walls lay a vast expanse of continuous encampments.

Fifty thousand Northern Barbarian troops were stationed here!

Since the war began, the million-strong Northern Barbarian army had split into dozens of detachments, separately attacking the five great cities and over twenty military towns of the Northern Frontier.

By now, half of the military towns had already fallen!

As for the five great cities, which were easy to defend and hard to attack, the Northern Barbarian army, lacking gunpowder weapons and siege equipment, had adopted a strategy of surrounding them without attacking.

They stationed tens of thousands of troops outside each of the five cities to pin down the Northern Frontier border troops inside, preventing them from easily splitting their forces to support other locations.

Therefore, in the days since the war started, while other places were fighting with extreme intensity—and even the rear Beichuan Province was engulfed in the flames of war—the five great cities on the front line were, conversely, very calm.

But this did not mean these five great cities were unimportant.

These five great cities not only pinned down nearly three hundred thousand Northern Barbarian troops but also held firmly onto critical locations, preventing the Northern Barbarian army from flooding into the rear Beichuan Province in large numbers.

They could only climb over mountains and ridges, traverse various dangerous paths and trails, and endure significant non-combat attrition to slowly "smuggle" a portion of their forces into the rear Beichuan Province.

Inside the military camp of Polu City, Prince Cheng, Qin Shixian, was browsing military intelligence in his room.

The Great Lan Dynasty had a total of four Provincial Military Commanders, plus the commanders of the three Imperial Guard armies, the Deputy Commander of the Sky Blue Iron Cavalry, Huang Qiyuan, and the Grand Commander of the Forbidden Army, Han Mu.

The military had a total of nine Grandmasters!

Besides these, among the offerings of the Military Affairs Bureau were four top-tier True Persons, each guarding one of the four frontiers.

These four top-tier True Persons and nine Grandmasters were the thirteen strongest individuals in the Great Lan military, aside from the "God of War," Wenren Zheng.

There had never been a definitive ranking of the combat strength among these thirteen top experts.

But among the thirteen, there had always been discussions in the military about who was truly the strongest.

Prince Cheng, who possessed a cultivation base at the peak of the Dao Establishment realm, had always been a hot topic of discussion.

Many in the military felt that Prince Cheng and the Grand Commander of the Forbidden Army, Han Mu, should be the strongest in the Great Lan military after Wenren Zheng!

Of course, now there was one more: the Great General of the Northern Expedition, Li Fei.

With Li Fei present.

Qin Shixian and Han Mu could only compete for third place.

In the room, a flash of killing intent suddenly crossed the eyes of Qin Shixian, who was reading intelligence.

He remained calm and composed, but his Martial Dao Domain had already begun to circulate within his body.

The fact that this Northern Frontier Provincial Military Commander was in Polu City was top-secret military intelligence.

Just as the Regional Commander of the Northern Barbarian allied forces, Bo'erhu, was also hiding his location to avoid being decapitated.

Qin Shixian had likewise hidden his location after the war began.

He could be in any one of the five great cities, but as long as the Northern Barbarians could not confirm it, they dared not rashly send top experts to attack the city, for fear of stepping into a trap.

In the room, the space fluctuated, and a figure suddenly appeared.

After sensing the aura of the person who had arrived, the killing intent in Qin Shixian's eyes dissipated, but he still did not lower his guard.

"Greetings, Provincial Military Commander."

Li Fei took the initiative to salute Qin Shixian, addressing him by his military rank.

The moment he appeared, he felt himself locked on by an aura.

This indicated that Qin Shixian had discovered him in advance.

This made Li Fei recall his conversation with the Son of Heaven before his departure.

The other party had specifically mentioned this Prince Cheng:

"The Imperial Preceptor once commented on the few people in our Great Lan Dynasty most likely to reach the pinnacle; the one with the greatest chance is Bai Yan, followed by this imperial uncle of mine."

Bai Yan was already dead, so Qin Shixian was the person in the Great Lan Dynasty, other than Li Fei, most likely to become a Martial Saint!

Qin Shixian slowly stood up: "Why has Marquis Jing'an come here all alone?"

The few high-ranking officials of the Northern Expedition army knew that he was in Polu City, so it was not strange that Li Fei could find him.

What was strange was why Li Fei had come alone.

"I am not the only one who has come; True Person Xuanchen and two imperial offerings will also arrive shortly."

Li Fei said.

He possessed the 【Mixed Heaven Golden Palace】 to absorb spiritual energy from heaven and earth for recovery, and the 【Refining Matter】 divine ability to convert blood souls into implants and the energy he needed, so he could fly for long periods.

But Xuanchen and the others did not have such strong "endurance," so Li Fei had arrived at Polu City a step ahead.

Qin Shixian relaxed his guard.

The news that two imperial offerings would come to the Northern Frontier was also top-secret; that Li Fei could find him precisely, state this information, and possess that unique aura meant it was basically impossible for him to be a fake.

"Sit."

Qin Shixian gestured for Li Fei to sit and talk.

"Leaving the main army to head north alone, do you have some plan in mind?"

Li Fei did not answer this question first, but instead asked: "Can the Provincial Military Commander confirm the location of the Northern Barbarian King, Bo'erhu?"

A trace of anger appeared in Qin Shixian's eyes: "You want to perform a decapitation strike?"

"If Bo'erhu could be found so easily, why would he dare to launch this war?"

He felt Li Fei was being too presumptuous.

Leaving the main army to act rashly without first consulting him, the Northern Frontier Provincial Military Commander, made him feel very disrespected.

Although the Son of Heaven had appointed Li Fei as the Great General of the Northern Expedition, the primary military officer of the Northern Frontier was still Qin Shixian.

Li Fei sensed Qin Shixian's anger and said sincerely:

"Of course I would not have rushed here merely for that."

"Then I would like to hear the military strategy of the Great General of the Northern Expedition."

Qin Shixian looked at Li Fei coldly.

Li Fei met his gaze calmly and repeated what he had previously said to Xuanchen and the others.

After hearing his plan, Qin Shixian was silent for a moment.

He looked at Li Fei with a complex expression:

"Does His Majesty know of this plan of yours?"

"If the Provincial Military Commander agrees, I will naturally report it to His Majesty."

"Even if I agree, will His Majesty agree?"

"I believe His Majesty will agree."

Hutuke was a Tudu warrior of the Yanxin tribe.

He was only thirty-four years old this year; a Dao Establishment realm cultivator of this age was a top-tier genius even in the Central Plains!

Snow was falling heavily, and every snowflake melted the moment it came within a zhang of Hutuke.

Hutuke himself was like a furnace in the icy world.

He was bare-chested, revealing his tribe's totem, and holding a long spear, he strode meteorically to within two hundred meters of Polu City.

Looking at the towering city walls and the rows of pitch-black cannon muzzles ahead, Hutuke took a deep breath and shouted loudly in the broken Central Plains language he had just learned:

"Does anyone dare to fight me, Hutuke?!"

He used his internal strength to propel his voice, making it as loud as possible so more people in the city could hear.

A mere Tudu warrior dared to come alone to the foot of the city to challenge them.

It was not that Hutuke was not afraid of death, but the defensive strategy Polu City had consistently adopted made the Northern Barbarians increasingly bold.

Since the war began, the Northern Barbarian army had sent people to challenge them at the foot of the city every day, but Polu City had never responded.

Let alone sending people out of the city for a "duel of generals," they had not even fired a single bullet outside the walls.

Therefore, coming to challenge Polu City every day had become a "welfare session" for the Northern Barbarian army.

After Hutuke shouted a few times and saw no response, he burst into loud laughter:

"You, people of the Central Plains, are all a bunch of cowards! Hahahahaha—"

He extended his left hand, gave a thumbs-up to the city ahead, and then slowly turned it downward.

He was already fantasizing about how, after he returned, he would brag in front of his companions, and Hutuke's name would ring out through the army!

On the city wall, a group of soldiers looked indignant.

"Damn it!"

A young soldier suddenly cursed, "This is too stifling; even if we aren't allowed to go out and fight, at least let us fire a few shots, right?"

He was a machine gunner responsible for operating the heavy machine gun on the city wall.

In recent days, he had lost count of how many times he had requested permission to fire.

But the reply was always a refusal.

"I'd rather go down there and fight these barbarians to the death than stay here and be pointed at and cursed every single day!"

The young soldier was filled with resentment.

There were many others who had the same thought.

Unfortunately, military orders were as heavy as mountains.

"Huh?"

"Look quickly, everyone, there's an extra person down there!"

"Who is he?"

On the city walls, the soldiers were in a stir.

Below, a golden figure suddenly appeared beside the shouting Hutuke.

Hutuke was shocked; he wanted to move, but found he could not move at all.

No matter how desperately he tried to channel his strength, an invisible force like a giant mountain pressed down on him!

"Who... who are you?"

Hutuke's face was filled with horror, and he was already prepared to unleash his beast transformation at any cost.

The person who had suddenly appeared was, of course, Li Fei.

He could actually understand the orders of Qin Shixian.

The Northern Border Army was already outnumbered, so they certainly could not abandon the advantage of the city walls to fight in the open field.

As for dueling the Northern Barbarians, or opening fire with guns and cannons,

it was all a waste and held no real meaning.

Therefore, it was better to hold the defense and wait for reinforcements.

Although the one hundred thousand Imperial Guards had not yet arrived, Li Fei had already arrived.

He was stronger than all one hundred thousand Imperial Guards combined!

Li Fei ignored Hutuke and instead looked toward the distant Northern Barbarian camp.

Just as Hutuke was about to initiate his beast transformation, his body was suddenly split in two by a streak of sword Qi!

This young Northern Barbarian genius died without ever knowing who had killed him.

If he had any awareness in the afterlife, he could at least find some comfort:

From now on, his name would spread through the Northern Barbarian army in a different way.

Because the man who killed him was named Li Fei!

Amidst the wind and snow, Li Fei stepped forward, his speed increasing.

The violent gusts tore the heavy snow apart, the drifting snowflakes were driven forward, the frozen earth cracked, and the fissures spread forward along with the wind and snow.

Rumble!!

Amidst a massive, muffled thunderous sound, a long dragon of wind and snow charged straight into the Northern Barbarian camp.

The earth was trembling!

The astonishing killing intent woke the Northern Barbarian army; many warriors wearing rattan armor and holding long sabers or battle axes were cut in half at the waist by a streak of crimson saber aura before they even saw what was happening.

The curtain of snow was torn open, exploding into a patch of scarlet rime.

Li Fei's first strike killed seventy-nine barbarian soldiers!

Hot blood instantly atomized in the cold air, and broken bone spears were still spinning in the air as Li Fei stepped forward to slaughter in the next direction.

Tent after tent was blown away by the gale, and the entire Northern Barbarian camp, like a giant awakened by pain, quickly reacted—

The sound of war drums echoed through the camp, the massive sound waves causing ripples to form on the snowy ground.

Hundreds of spearmen attacked simultaneously, their poison-tipped beast-bone spears forming a cloud of death that covered the area where Li Fei was.

Pop, pop, pop, pop!

A patch of short spears was embedded in the frozen ground, but Li Fei had already vanished from his original spot.

"Look quickly, everyone!"

"Heavens, which expert from the army is this?"

"Should we go out of the city to support him?"

"..."

On the walls of Polu City, all the soldiers were alarmed, and they all ran out to look at the distant Northern Barbarian camp.

"It is Marquis of Jing'an Li Fei who has gone out to fight!"

"It is the Grand General of the Northern Expedition who has gone out to fight!"

A voice from an unknown source let the soldiers on the wall know who had gone out to fight.

"It is Li Fei?"

Hearing this answer, the soldiers were stunned.

Immediately, they all became excited.

To charge alone into the camp of fifty thousand Northern Barbarians—just thinking about it made their blood boil!

In the camp, the saber aura flashed again and again; wherever it passed, the ground was covered in mangled corpses.

The high-ranking officers of the Northern Barbarian army had already realized that a top-tier expert had broken into the camp; instead of having experts come out to intercept Li Fei immediately, all the experts hid themselves well within the crowd.

More ordinary soldiers were mobilized and gathered toward the direction of Li Fei.

Even for a Grandmaster who possessed the supernatural ability to absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, such unbridled slaughter would surely consume more than it replenished.

Using the lives of ordinary soldiers to slowly consume the 'essence, Qi, and spirit' of a top-tier expert and the implants within their body, and then having their own experts find an opportunity to surround and kill them.

Using the lives of thousands or even tens of thousands of ordinary soldiers to trade for a chance to kill a top-tier expert was worth it!

Although this tactic was cruel, this was war!

Looking down from the sky, in the frozen world, the tens of thousands of warriors in the Northern Barbarian camp were like tens of thousands of ants on the snow.

At this moment, a large number of ants were gathering toward a certain spot, forming a large black dot on the snow.

Whenever a crimson light swept across, a portion of this large black dot would be wiped away and turn blood-red.

Li Fei did not use the 【No Distance】 supernatural ability to break out of the encirclement.

For one, continuously using 【No Distance】 would increase consumption.

For another, with these barbarian soldiers gathered together, it was more efficient for him to kill them!

In just this short while, hundreds of corpses had already fallen around him.

But more Northern Barbarian warriors still fearlessly shouted and charged at him.

These people were not entirely unafraid of death; they had simply had their strongest will stimulated by sorcery and had forgotten about life and death.

Li Fei stood motionless, performing another simple horizontal sweep; the Ghost-Slaying Saber, carrying a saber aura one zhang wide and ten zhang long, drew a circle in the snow.

The surrounding barbarian soldiers were cut down one after another, and six barbarian soldiers suddenly had their bodies swell, with nine tentacles emitting a foul stench growing from within their bodies!

These were six Tuodu warriors, all of whom had chosen to undergo beast transformation.

Li Fei stood his ground, still performing the "Night Battle in All Directions" technique.

The saber aura severed all the tentacles, and the steaming poison gas erupted from the broken tentacles, filling the air with a fishy stench.

Li Fei stepped forward, instantly rushing out of the range covered by the poison mist.

The goose-feather snowflakes falling from above suddenly became as sharp as blades, with thousands of sharp edges descending from the sky!

This was a sorcerer hiding in the shadows casting a spell on Li Fei.

To reduce consumption, Li Fei did not use the 【Primordial Sword Realm】 to condense armor, but only activated the Sword State: Golden Body and Jade Marrow, stimulating a layer of golden light to protect his body.

He let the blade-like snowflakes fall upon him, only for them to shatter one after another.

Some transparent ice silkworms hidden within the snowflakes appeared, attaching themselves to Li Fei's body, attempting to break through his protective golden light.

These transparent ice silkworms were exotic beasts raised by a Northern Barbarian tribe, specifically designed to break a martial artist's protective strength!

Li Fei's mind stirred, and sword Qi erupted, causing the transparent ice silkworms attached to his body to explode into ice crystal powder.

Suddenly, strange howls came from the wind and snow, and more than thirty black giant spiders the size of small mountain peaks charged at Li Fei at high speed.

These giant spiders were also exotic beasts raised by the Northern Barbarian tribe.

After approaching within a hundred meters of Li Fei, these giant spiders spat out large amounts of frost silk, weaving them into webs that blocked the sky in the blink of an eye!

Li Fei did not fight them head-on, choosing to use 【No Distance】 to break out of the encirclement.

These giant spiders immediately turned nimbly and continued to surround Li Fei.

Such exotic beasts, with high defense, thick blood, and strong crowd control, were undoubtedly the best choice for consuming a martial arts expert!

Li Fei turned around and glanced at these giant spiders.

The thirty-plus giant spiders all stopped moving, completely losing their life force!

The slaughter continued.

Various sorceries followed one after another, coordinating with ordinary soldiers to continuously attack Li Fei.

But no matter what kind of sorcery it was, it was ineffective against Li Fei.

The sorcerers who cast them were tracked down by Li Fei and killed one by one!

The formation of the ordinary soldiers became increasingly scattered, trying their best to reduce the number of people Li Fei could kill with each strike while still putting pressure on him.

The spiritual energy of heaven and earth flowed like a torrent into Li Fei's body, replenishing his consumption.

"Roar—"

A deafening roar suddenly came.

Li Fei turned his head to look and saw three blood-colored giants over fifty meters tall stepping toward him!

It was not only the Great Lan Dynasty that understood the military formation methods of the Art of War.

Although other nations could not reach the level of the Imperial Guard, various military formations still existed.

The three blood-colored giants Li Fei saw at this moment were a type of Northern Barbarian military formation, each composed of over three hundred Tuodu warriors and several Tudu warriors.

This military formation could unleash the combat power of a Badu expert, which was to say, a Martial Arts Master!

Clearly, after Li Fei had been slaughtering for so long, the experts of the Northern Barbarian army could no longer sit still and wanted to test him to see what his state was at this moment.

Li Fei did not retreat but advanced, tearing through the battle formation in front of him and charging toward one of the blood-colored giants.

Arriving before this blood-colored giant, he swung his blade upward in a lunar arc, slicing the blood-colored giant clean in two from the crotch!

A rain of blood poured onto the snow, forming a blood-colored flower.

Soon, three blood-colored flowers had appeared on the snow.

Even a military formation possessing the combat power of a Martial Arts Master was no match for Li Fei's blade!

Such terrifying combat power shocked the experts within the Northern Barbarian army.

From then on, no more military formations appeared; only ordinary soldiers, incited by sorcery, rushed forward wave after wave to kill Li Fei.

On the walls of Polu City, the border soldiers went from initial astonishment to boiling blood, and then began to worry for Li Fei.

Many people volunteered to fight, wanting to leave the city to help Li Fei.

But they were still not permitted.

"Ah—"

Upon seeing Li Fei slay three blood-colored giants in a row, the young machine gunner from before finally could not hold back.

Disregarding the prohibition, he operated the heavy machine gun and opened fire in the direction of the Northern Barbarian camp.

The muzzle spat out flames, and the intense sound of gunfire finally rang out from the ramparts of Polu City.

In truth, the Northern Barbarian army's camp was not within the range of the heavy machine gun at all, but this young soldier wanted to express his support for Li Fei in this way.

Even if he were to be punished by military law, he had to let Li Fei know—

You are not fighting alone!

Bang bang bang bang—

Following this young soldier's lead, more and more soldiers chose to open fire toward the north.

"Grand General!"

"Mighty!"

"Grand General!"

"Mighty!"

The crowd shouted loudly while firing their weapons.

Boom!

The city wall shook.

Something even more exaggerated happened: someone had deployed the city defense cannons!

"Hahaha, Grand General, mighty—"

After firing a shell, an old soldier stood on the city wall and shouted until his voice was hoarse.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

On the city wall, more and more city defense cannons opened fire.

Not a single one of these shells landed in the Northern Barbarian army's camp.

But the border soldiers on the wall felt that, in this way, they were fighting side-by-side with Li Fei!

And strangely, despite having seriously violated military orders, not a single commander came to stop this behavior.

The increasingly intense sound of gunfire, artillery, and shouting behind him finally caught Li Fei's attention.

After slaying several dozen more barbarian soldiers with a single strike, he turned to look back at Polu City.

Watching the shells and bullets constantly flying over and listening to the shouts of the soldiers.

A smile appeared on Li Fei's face.

Snowflakes filled the sky; the enemy camp was littered with corpses.

Li Fei stood in the blood, raised his right hand toward Polu City behind him, and gave a thumbs up.

The 49th year of Hongguang, December 26th.

Grand General of the Northern Expedition Li Fei suddenly arrived at Polu City and charged into the Northern Barbarian army's camp all by himself.

On this day, Li Fei killed over eight thousand barbarian soldiers single-handedly!

Unrivaled in breaking formations, no one could stop him!

A fifty-thousand-strong Northern Barbarian army was forced back by him alone.

Requesting monthly tickets.

(End of chapter)