Chapter 18

The sounds of battle echoed through Yanliang Pass.

The clattering of hooves, the roars, and the wails mixed together, almost piercing the heavens, with soldiers and corpses everywhere.

The soldiers of the Zhou Dynasty, hungry for days, used their last strength to draw their swords and resist the iron hooves and butcher knives of the Xijue invaders.

This was not a war but a siege and massacre from both inside and outside.

Shen Yu led a group of riders into the fray, snatching a long knife from the hands of a Xijue warrior, cutting down opponents left and right. She heard Kong Qing shout behind her, “Miss, be careful! Let’s find the General.”

Shen Yu’s eyes were bloodshot, covered in a haze of blood. When her long knife became notched, she discarded it and grabbed another one. Her arms instinctively swung, beheading countless Xijue warriors.

With the enemy stronger and our side weaker, the soldiers of the Zhou Dynasty began to falter, retreating towards Yanliang Pass while fighting.

Shen Yu kicked a Xijue warrior in the chest, leveraged the force to mount a horse, and, in mid-air, spun her blade, cleanly slicing off the neck of a Xijue warrior on horseback.

All these actions happened in the blink of an eye.

With a slap on the horse’s rump, the horse lifted its front hooves high and charged into the crowd. Shen Yu crouched on the horse’s back, occasionally harvesting a head.

She fought desperately, but the Zhou Dynasty continued to retreat, and less than a mile away was the towering wall of Yanliang Pass. However, the city gates were tightly closed, not their way of retreat.

As death approached, human fear began to take hold.

Some soldiers rushed towards Yanliang Pass, pounding and slamming the thick city gates in desperation, begging to be let in, but the gates remained unmoved.

The Xijue invaders launched a final assault, with waves of brown-armored soldiers pressing towards the city gates, seeming to flatten the land in an instant.

Everyone saw despair in the other’s eyes, but also saw the determination of a last stand.

“Kill a few more Xijue warriors.”

“We’ll die as we should, swiftly!”

“Kill!”

Shen Yu felt herself unable to lift her sword anymore. With each strike, she couldn’t directly decapitate the opponent anymore. The person’s neck sprayed blood, and their head fell sideways.

She was exhausted. After slicing off an enemy’s arm, she stood there, her sword stuck in the ground.

She had lost count of how many swords she had broken and how many people she had killed. Her palm was torn, and she used a strip of cloth to tie the sword to her hand.

All she could think of now was, where was her father? Where was her brother?

This shouldn’t have been the case. Her rebirth was not meant to relive past pain, absolutely not.

But who could help me? Just give me a hand. I just want to keep them alive.

She couldn’t muster any more strength and fell to one knee.

As her knee touched the ground, the earth seemed to tremble in an instant.

“Reinforcements!”

“It’s reinforcements!”

She looked up, and a vast army in black armor rushed from the south, surging like a tide under the sky, with layers of snow waves billowing under their feet.

The earth trembled as the army approached, spreading its wings and enclosing the Xijue invaders.

Someone suddenly shouted, “It’s the Qingyun Guards from Beilin!”

Boom—

The long-closed city gates finally let out a dull sound.

Countless soldiers in black armor rushed out from the wide-open gates, forming a three-sided encirclement.

The situation suddenly reversed.

Yes, it wasn’t time to give up yet.

Shen Yu, fueled by an unknown strength, stood up with her sword.

Slowly unraveling the cloth wrapped around her hand, she drew her blade when a Xijue warrior ambushed her. A streak of blood appeared on the Xijue’s face, and his towering body thundered to the ground.

Shen Yu dropped her sword, kicked back with her toes, and the long blade flew out and instantly pierced the chest of another Xijue warrior.

She picked up another sword and charged back into the fray.

The city gates towered into the sky, with a black war flag flying at the top, fluttering in the wind. Above it hung a light blue cloud.

Xie Tingzhou looked down at the city, his eyes squinting against the wind, making his features appear even colder.

The deputy commander stood silently beside him, but his face was already dark enough to wring out water.

How ruthless. A hundred thousand troops were trapped outside the pass, starving and waiting to be slaughtered by the Xijue. The Xijue treated the soldiers of the Zhou Dynasty like livestock for slaughter. These were soldiers who had faced death with Shen Zhong’an.

“Hmm,” the deputy commander Chang Heng propped himself up against the battlement and stretched his neck, squinting for a moment before exclaiming, “Wow, impressive. Shen Zhong’an actually has such a talent in his army. He wields the blade so skillfully.”

Following his gaze, Xie Tingzhou looked over. From their vantage point, they could easily see the battlefield dynamics. Without much effort, they spotted the figure.

Indeed, that person stood out among the thousands of troops, drawing blood with every stroke. Three steps, one kill. Wherever he went, Xijue warriors fell like leaves in autumn, his blade cutting through the enemy ranks effortlessly.

Standing amidst the chaos, he held a blade in each hand, blocking enemy long swords with his left and slicing with his right, decapitating an opponent in an instant.

Blood sprayed out, drenching him from head to toe, as if he had bathed in a pool of blood in hell.

When his blade dulled from use, he simply replaced it without ever stopping.

Xie Tingzhou had skilled fighters in his camp too, but none were as reckless as this man.