Chapter 336: Eyes Wide Open

Liang Cheng’s timing as he led two hundred cavalrymen into the savage formation was perfect.

In truth, there was also an element of luck involved.

Because at the beginning, Liang Cheng had never intended to charge in and rescue the Sword Saint.

Most of the time, the Demon Kings acted according to only two things: benefit, and interest.

Rescuing the Master and ensuring his safety went beyond ordinary benefit.

If something truly happened to the Master, there was a very real possibility that all seven of them would simply drop dead together.

As for the Sword Saint—

Liang Cheng had never expected the man to be so damned hardheaded that he would chase Gelimu directly into the middle of two thousand savage cavalrymen.

And it was not only Liang Cheng.

Even General Zheng, who had finally reached the city gate and could at last afford to turn around and look back, was stunned.

He had wanted the Sword Saint to help him kill Gelimu.

From the perspective of defending Snow Sea Pass, if they could eliminate the one savage commander who actually understood siege warfare, then the defense that followed would become far easier.

And although Gelimu was a collaborator, he was also, in practice, the commander actually directing these several savage armies.

Killing the enemy’s commander-in-chief before the battle even properly began would unquestionably be an enormous blow to enemy morale.

Those were the reasons Zheng Fan had planned to use the Sword Saint for a decapitation strike.

But reality often refused to follow the script you wrote beforehand.

Gelimu had not even reached the meeting point before apparently recognizing the Sword Saint and turning his horse around to flee.

Zheng Fan had never anticipated that.

He had not even gotten the chance to offer his khata.

As for what followed the Sword Saint drawing his blade, Zheng Fan turning his horse around and racing back to the fortress that was only natural.

But Zheng Fan had originally assumed the Sword Saint would merely make an attempt.

If he could kill Gelimu, kill him.

If he could not, then retreat.

Zheng Fan had assumed the Sword Saint thought the same way.

But General Zheng truly had not expected the Sword Saint to be this insanely stubborn!

Fuck.

You’re the Sword Saint!

Do you know how damned hard it was for me to get you?

And now you’re going to throw yourself away over one collaborator?

To General Zheng, this was an absolutely ruinous bargain.

A loss so enormous it reached all the way back to his grandmother’s house.

Even taking ten thousand steps back suppose they lost everything in the future and truly had no choice but to open a *New Dragon Gate Inn*.

Would life not be completely different if the inn had a Sword Saint sitting inside it?

Zheng Fan could only rub at his aching head and sigh.

Fine.

The Sword Saint had lost himself in the moment.

Once a person truly became consumed by something, eight horses could not drag him back.

And this was the Sword Saint.

Once he decided to do something, who in the world could truly stop him?

The old Situ Clan patriarch had never formally ascended the throne, but in practice he had been no different from an emperor.

The Sword Saint had still killed him the moment he decided to.

Liang Cheng had not intended to rescue the Sword Saint.

As a commander, there was no possibility he had failed to study how the “high martial” power of this world affected warfare.

Two thousand charging cavalrymen.

And the Sword Saint was, in the end, a swordsman not a Martial Artist like Sha Tuo Queshi or Tian Wujing, men possessing terrifying physiques.

By Liang Cheng’s estimate, the Sword Saint was genuinely finished.

For the moment, it did not even matter whether he managed to kill Gelimu.

In Liang Cheng’s judgment, the Sword Saint was almost certainly not coming back.

Under that assumption, Liang Cheng could not possibly take two hundred cavalrymen and smash them directly into the savage formation just to retrieve him.

There was a very real chance he would only deliver himself and those two hundred riders to their deaths as well.

And after the two thousand savage cavalrymen had moved out, the main savage camp had begun sending more troops forward.

Still, Liang Cheng was not cold enough to immediately turn around and ride back into Snow Sea Pass after receiving the Master.

Instead, he ordered his men to slow their horses.

Whatever else might be said, the man out there was still the Sword Saint.

He was risking his own life to assassinate the enemy commander for the sake of Snow Sea Pass.

You could not simply use a man up and throw him away.

At the very least, you needed to make a show of attempting a rescue.

On a battlefield, watching a comrade die without trying to save him could inflict serious damage upon morale.

That was not hypocrisy.

Nor was it heartlessness.

It was simply the calm a true commander had to maintain.

But what Liang Cheng had not expected was for the Sword Saint to break through his realm on the spot.

And then unleash Longyuan in a slaughter!

Exactly how powerful was strength beyond Third Grade?

Liang Cheng did not know.

There was no reference point.

No standard by which to calculate it.

But that overwhelming presence and horrifying destructive force instantly shattered Liang Cheng’s composure.

The Sword Saint could still be saved!

And at the same time, the enemy commander had most likely already been killed.

Liang Cheng made the decision immediately.

He raised one hand and signaled a full-speed charge!

Liang Cheng had no interest in retrieving a corpse merely so it could receive a proper burial.

But if he could bring back a Sword Saint who still had breath in his body then it was absolutely worth it.

The Sword Saint’s slaughter had already killed more than half of the two thousand savage cavalrymen who first surrounded him.

Ordinarily, in the age of cold weapons, once an army suffered more than twenty percent casualties, it was already on the edge of collapse.

There were exceptions, of course.

Special circumstances.

Or truly elite troops.

The savage cavalrymen had endured far longer because of their faith in the stars, because a senior Guide was present, and because there had been so many of them facing only one man.

But after one man with one sword killed half their number, their minds had already reached the brink of collapse.

At that moment, the later savage reinforcements were still some distance away.

And the cavalrymen remaining around the Sword Saint had completely lost anything resembling formation.

After all, what kind of military formation did one design for thousands of men fighting a single person?

No military classic from any dynasty had ever needed to answer that question.

And so at precisely the right moment, the two hundred cavalrymen led by Liang Cheng stabbed into the formation like a knife.

The savage riders broke apart immediately.

Yes.

They scattered.

In truth, it almost resembled relief.

They had already been exhausted beyond endurance, nearly to the point of giving up.

Now someone had finally offered them an excuse.

They could no longer bear facing one man.

But now several hundred enemy cavalrymen had arrived.

Surely if they broke and fled now, that was only natural?

Liang Cheng rode at the very front.

He cut down one savage rider blocking his path, then reached the Sword Saint without slowing his horse.

He leaned sideways, extended an arm, and hauled the Sword Saint up.

The moment he took hold of him, Liang Cheng felt that the Sword Saint had become noticeably lighter.

Liang Cheng had once fed on blood himself.

He understood perfectly well what this meant.

Far too much blood inside the Sword Saint’s body had already been lost.

Liang Cheng placed the Sword Saint in front of himself and shielded him with his own body.

Then he wheeled his horse around.

“Sw...”

A weak sound escaped the Sword Saint.

Liang Cheng drew in a deep breath.

Then he wheeled the horse around again.

Using the cavalry saber in his hand, he hooked Longyuan from where it stood planted in the earth.

His left hand seized the sword.

Then he roared:

“REAR RANKS—COVER THE RETREAT!”

“YES!”

“UNDERSTOOD!”

Savage reinforcements pouring out of the main camp were already almost upon them.

Under circumstances like these, Liang Cheng gave the order directly.

Half the force one hundred cavalrymen would become a death-sworn rear guard and charge directly into the pursuing savages.

This was not abandoning comrades.

Because Liang Cheng had issued the order clearly.

That was how military morale worked.

*I willingly remain behind to cover your retreat*

and

*you abandoned me*

were two entirely different things.

Most commanders understood that truth.

But not every army possessed soldiers willing to knowingly sacrifice themselves so their comrades might live.

The remaining cavalry followed Liang Cheng and raced toward Snow Sea Pass.

The one hundred riders launching their death charge did indeed delay the savage pursuit.

But there were simply too many reinforcements.

Some still broke through and continued chasing.

Earlier, the Sword Saint had plunged directly into the middle of the savage cavalry.

That had made it impossible for the savages to use bows.

And after he forcibly broke through his realm, he had slaughtered them until their minds nearly stopped functioning altogether.

Even after Hasi revealed that the Sword Saint could no longer move from his position, the surviving savages had been reduced to numb, mechanical charging and hacking.

The savage riders pursuing now, however, had not suffered the same psychological devastation as those earlier warriors.

They drew their bows without hesitation and began shooting.

Liang Cheng bent low over the Sword Saint, protecting him beneath his body.

Around them, Shengle riders were struck by arrows and toppled from their horses.

Three arrows hit Liang Cheng’s back as well.

One lacked force and bounced directly off his armor.

The other two struck hard enough to pierce through.

But Liang Cheng was a zombie.

His body itself was exceptionally tough.

Injuries of this degree remained entirely tolerable.

At that moment, Shengle troops atop the walls began drawing their bows.

And Xue San shouted without the slightest hesitation:

“TREBUCHETS—LOOSE!”

A trebuchet was fundamentally a siege engine used to hurl stones.

Its stones could be thrown into a city to kill men or smash structures.

Both attackers and defenders relied upon such equipment.

Xue San had made several improvements to the trebuchets of this age.

Their accuracy and range had both increased considerably.

The principle itself was not especially difficult.

At least, not for Xue San.

What he had created was essentially the same type of counterweight trebuchet once known in another world as the “Huihui trebuchet.”

In that world’s history, the Mongols had relied upon such machines when taking Xiangyang.

Unfortunately, time had been too short.

Xue San and his men had managed to build only five.

But five enormous stones crashing down from the sky combined with the rain of arrows pouring from the walls were still enough to throw the pursuing savage cavalry into immediate chaos.

Men and horses were smashed apart.

Casualties rose rapidly.

The force of the pursuit was broken.

Liang Cheng finally managed to lead the remaining dozens of riders back inside the fortress.

The gate closed immediately.

Armored soldiers below began shoving the prepared obstacles back into place.

General Zheng hurried down from the gate tower and ran straight toward Liang Cheng.

There were still two arrows sticking out of Liang Cheng’s back.

But Zheng Fan believed Liang Cheng would be fine.

Even if the arrows had been poisoned, to Liang Cheng that would probably amount to little more than an itch.

The person Zheng Fan was worried about was the Sword Saint.

He personally reached out.

Together with two nearby armored soldiers, he lifted the Sword Saint down from the horse.

The Sword Saint’s eyes opened by the faintest sliver.

He looked at Zheng Fan.

Then they closed again.

He seemed to be dying.

Truthfully, the aura around him also felt completely exhausted.

Not even like the final flare of a dying lamp.

More like a lamp whose oil had already been burned dry.

Forcing open a higher realm.

Then slaughtering a thousand cavalrymen.

A feat like that had demanded a terrifying price.

Zheng Fan immediately said:

“Don’t worry.

“I’ll take care of that little widow for you.

“When I get back, I’ll marry her as my concubine.”

The Sword Saint’s eyes snapped wide open again!

[End of Chapter 336]