Chapter 764: Capture Him!

Talk about perfect timing.

They had caught up.

At first, Marquis Zheng had led an advance force north into the farthest reaches of the snowfields with only a rough search area. Whether they could actually find anything had depended almost entirely on luck.

Then... their luck turned out to be good.

They discovered the trail left by that Savage cavalry force.

In the far north of the snowfields, in winter, a cavalry force numbering over a thousand suddenly appeared.

Even if Marquis Zheng had been some useless idiot rather than a veteran commander, he would have understood immediately that something was wrong.

So from that point onward, he led his men along their trail.

The Savage force, meanwhile, traveled as quickly as it could, never realizing anyone was following them.

And just like that... the mantis stalked the cicada while the oriole waited behind.

One link caught onto the next.

Marquis Zheng finally arrived.

At this very moment...

Xue San was so moved he could almost cry.

Earlier, he had been wondering whether the overwhelming sense that he was playing the villain might actually be real.

Now he could finally confirm it.

He was the protagonist.

Only a protagonist could enjoy the kind of treatment where everything lined up so perfectly and they "caught up" at exactly the right moment.

The appearance of two cavalry forces instantly silenced the convoy's cheers.

The convoy and the forces of the Guides of Stars had hunted and slaughtered each other for days.

Reality now informed both sides, coldly and without ceremony, that neither of them had ever possessed the authority to decide where this fate would finally land.

Marquis Zheng drew Wuya.

There was no need to negotiate with the enemy.

No need to proclaim titles.

The simplest and cleanest method was... break them.

The Savage tribe that had sent this cavalry force had already entered Marquis Zheng's blacklist.

To Marquis Pingxi, any person or thing that dared establish a connection with that prophecy... became a target.

"Old Yu, keep an eye on that side."

"All right."

Wuya rose.

Marquis Zheng gave a low roar:

"Men!"

"HU!"

"HU!"

"HU!"

The riders were already exhausted.

But at that moment, training took over by instinct.

The charge formation began assembling immediately.

Leaving aside the Savage auxiliaries, Marquis Pingxi Residence had brought only three thousand of its own cavalry on this campaign.

But every one of those three thousand had been personally selected by Liang Cheng.

They were also among the earliest troops to complete the Residence's re-equipment program.

Blade forward.

The Pixiu beneath Marquis Zheng gave a low growl.

"Charge!"

"KILL!"

The Yan cavalry surged forward.

When cavalry fought infantry, there were many different ways to play the game.

At root, cavalrymen considered themselves expensive.

They always wanted the most economical method of solving the problem.

But when cavalry met cavalry... the side with better equipment, better training, and better soldiers usually preferred to settle things in one hammer blow.

They did not like circling.

That was confidence.

Forget the Eastern Jin Army.

Across the entire Yan army, regardless of faction, if the enemy was willing, or dared, to line up cavalry against them... there was no Yan force that would refuse the challenge.

The Savage cavalry opposite them clearly had not expected the Yan to charge without even bothering with an opening exchange.

They immediately issued orders and accelerated to meet them.

In terms of timing, they did not hesitate.

But in momentum... they had already been suppressed.

More importantly...

Savage cavalry had long since been beaten afraid of Great Yan's iron horse.

This was not some isolated wild tribe from the edge of the world that knew nothing of current events.

So when they charged... there was a distinct sense that they were gritting their teeth and forcing themselves forward.

The two cavalry formations slammed together.

Men and horses overturned everywhere.

Marquis Zheng did not possess Old Tian's terrifying confidence.

He did not place himself at the absolute point of the charge.

But neither did he hide at the very rear.

After cutting down two Savage riders in succession... the battlefield suddenly opened up.

Because the Savage cavalry collapsed.

Their organization dissolved completely.

They came.

They charged.

Then... they routed.

Very Savage.

Back in the day, even the Situ Clan, one of the Three Jin powers, could hold Chu at bay in the south while confidently bullying the Savages to the north almost at will.

This was why.

Take an individual Savage rider out by himself and his horsemanship, archery, and mounted combat might all be quite respectable.

But their tribal structure reduced them to loose sand whenever battles reached true scale.

Again and again, they underperformed.

Over time... that vicious cycle became ingrained.

Only during the Savage King's era had the Savages briefly risen to prominence.

Afterward... they rapidly returned to the quail-like state that suited them best.

While cavalry clashed on this side...

Xue San led his own men into an assault against the convoy.

Every operative under Xue San was skilled with bow and crossbow.

The compact hand crossbows they carried had even been personally designed by him.

Their range was limited.

But their accuracy was excellent.

At the close distance between the two sides now... their lethality and killing efficiency were astonishing.

Then came the melee.

Three men formed each team.

Their coordination was seamless.

The convoy's guards, already at the very end of their strength, quickly collapsed beneath the pressure.

Pfft!

Xue San's dagger opened one man's throat.

Then his body sprang forward.

He shot directly toward the woman who had repeatedly cast spells.

She was a key figure.

They had to take her.

Again and again... she had been the one awakening the black-armored man.

At that moment, the woman was sprawled across the man's body.

Xue San rushed forward at high speed.

Then... the woman suddenly drove a dagger into her own chest.

Both hands clamped tightly around the black-armored man.

By instinct, Xue San tried to stop.

But his momentum could no longer be canceled.

At that moment... the saber beside the black-armored man suddenly stood upright.

Xue San could only cross his twin daggers to block.

CLANG!

The black-armored man rose.

His left arm held the woman.

His right hand closed around the saber.

Then he drew it upward.

Xue San rolled sideways without the slightest hesitation.

Where he had been standing a moment earlier... the saber force smashed a deep crater into the ground.

The black-armored man prepared to continue.

But behind him...

Longyuan left its sheath.

Like a streak of crimson sunset... it slashed directly across his back.

BANG!

The black-armored man was hurled forward.

Several horrific grooves appeared across the armor on his back.

The woman he had been holding was cut into two pieces by the same strike from Longyuan.

The black-armored man lowered his head.

He looked at the woman's corpse beneath him.

Then opened his mouth and roared.

The aura erupting from his body surged once more.

It carried a chilling cold that made the heart tremble.

Faced with that fury... the Sword Saint did not retreat.

A swordsman feared nothing less than an opponent willing to meet him head-on.

Longyuan trembled.

Then shot upward.

In that instant... the Sword Saint opened Second Grade again.

He had no interest in standing here and slowly exchanging techniques with some mysterious existence.

He understood Zheng Fan's meaning perfectly.

No matter the price... this hidden danger had to be strangled here.

Best if even the corpse could be ground into powder afterward.

So from the very beginning... the Sword Saint held nothing back.

Longyuan descended carrying Second Grade power.

The black-armored man raised his saber to resist.

BOOM!

After the first sword... his body slid rapidly backward.

Then came the second.

Under the second sword... the aura surrounding the black-armored man began collapsing at high speed.

Back on the Wang River, Wei You with the Lilong Spear had only managed to withstand two swords from the Sword Saint.

Of course... one also had to consider that Wei You had already spent too long fighting the Sword Saint at Third Grade before then.

Even so... the black-armored man's physical body had clearly reached a terrifying degree of toughness.

But toughness was what he relied upon.

His own blood and qi, his actual power, had already been smashed apart beneath those two swords.

Longyuan returned to the Sword Saint's hand.

He personally gripped the sword and thrust a third time.

The black-armored man lifted his saber.

Then... in the next instant... he dispersed every trace of defense.

Pfft!

Longyuan entered his chest with almost no resistance.

Sword qi immediately began ravaging the inside of his body.

With that strike... the Sword Saint was certain the man's spleen had been shattered.

Then Xue San shouted from the edge of the battlefield:

"He doesn't have a heart!"

The Sword Saint's gaze sharpened.

Alarm rose instantly.

The black-armored man's face turned cyan.

The scarlet in his eyes transformed into a deep green.

Two fangs extended from the corners of his mouth.

In a single instant... his entire being seemed to become something ghostly.

Then... the bones inside his body began twisting.

Skin.

Flesh.

Bone.

All of it transformed into a cage that locked Longyuan firmly inside him.

The Sword Saint knew this aura.

There was an existence lying inside the underground chamber of Marquis Pingxi Residence with something very similar.

The black-armored man's saber came down.

The Sword Saint immediately released Longyuan.

His body retreated at high speed.

At the same time, he used his qi to summon the sword back.

But then... he suddenly discovered the connection between himself and Longyuan had been cut off.

The sword was right in front of him.

Yet he could no longer make it answer.

"His blood contaminated it!"

Xue San shouted again.

Only then did the Sword Saint notice the blood seeping from the black-armored man's wound.

It was thick.

Black.

And it had already coated Longyuan's blade.

But even without Longyuan... the Sword Saint remained the Sword Saint.

He had walked the jianghu for all these years.

He had never depended solely on some divine weapon to survive.

His fingers closed.

Sword qi condensed.

After creating some distance, the Sword Saint formed one blade of sword qi after another and sent them crashing into the black-armored man.

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

A rapid chain of sword qi hammered into the man's armor.

The front of the armor was beaten into a field of dents and craters.

The black-armored man's body shuddered.

He seemed to want to keep moving forward.

But his remaining strength could no longer support him.

His body began falling backward.

"He's out of juice!"

The instant Third Master shouted it... he sprang forward.

Dagger in hand.

He was going to cut the man's head off.

He knew it would probably be damned hard to sever.

But when a man was sick... you took his life!

Only one pity.

He had not brought any black donkey hooves.

Third Master landed astride the black-armored man.

His dagger was just about to fall.

Then... chanting suddenly spread from the man's body.

It was not the black-armored man himself chanting.

Rather... some unseen sound seemed to envelop the entire area.

On the slope of a distant snowy mountain, a group of Guides of Stars had gathered together.

Half of them carried injuries.

"Why are Yan people here?"

"How did the Yan know he had awakened?"

"What do we do?"

"If the Yan take him or destroy him, will the Stars of our Sacred Race ever have another chance to shine?"

"If we'd known this would happen, we might as well have let the Dishan Tribe take him. At least he would have remained on the snowfields."

"Have we simply done all this work only to prepare another man's bridal clothes?"

At that moment... a white-haired elder swept his gaze across the others.

"We absolutely cannot allow him to fall into Yan hands. If that happens, our Sacred Race will lose every last hope of revival. Make the sacrifice. Give him strength. Right now... he is still far too weak. He will remember what our Sacred Race has given him!"

No one present truly believed that last sentence.

But there was no other choice.

As Marquis Pingxi Residence steadily advanced its religious influence into the snowfields, the Guides of Stars had already begun to feel the threat of extinction.

Whether the snowfields remained loose sand or not... they honestly did not care very much.

Even when the Savage King failed years ago... they had not cared.

Their branch had never chosen to follow the Savage King in the first place.

A unified snowfield would not have helped them preserve their old status anyway.

But when Marquis Pingxi Residence began directly overturning the foundations of their faith... they panicked.

"For the Sacred Race! For... the Stars!"

"For the Sacred Race! For the Stars!"

"For the Stars!"

In an instant... half the Guides of Stars began burning.

Blue flames appeared over their bodies.

The fire did not last long.

Within only a few breaths... it vanished.

Their bodies vanished with it.

Where each person had stood... only a small pile of ash remained.

...

Xue San raised his dagger above the black-armored man's neck.

Then shouted:

"EAT OLD SUN'S STAFF!"

The dagger fell.

At exactly the same moment... the black-armored man opened his eyes again.

"..." Xue San.

BOOM!

Terrifying baleful qi erupted from the black-armored man's mouth.

This was not something you could block by simply holding your breath.

The baleful qi burrowed inward on its own.

Through eyes.

Ears.

Nose.

Mouth.

Even through the pores of the skin.

At that instant...

Xue San felt his entire body lift away.

The sensation was almost enough to send him straight to Heaven.

Soul and shell seemed ready to separate from flesh and bone.

The black-armored man's hands slammed toward Xue San.

But Xue San's figure abruptly vanished.

He reappeared some distance away.

"Pfft..."

A mouthful of blood sprayed out.

Xue San's entire face had turned cyan.

One dagger stabbed into his own chest.

The other pierced into his own neck.

The poisons carried on the blades entered his body rapidly.

Xue San swallowed another pill.

Then shouted:

"Have Liang Cheng purge the corpse poison from me!"

After that... his eyes closed.

His body tilted sideways.

And he collapsed.

The black-armored man was just beginning to climb to his feet again when the Sword Saint attacked once more.

Sword qi shot from his fingertips.

The black-armored man roared.

Both hands clawed into the ground.

His body slid rapidly backward, evading the Sword Saint's barrage.

Meanwhile...

Marquis Zheng had already broken the Savage cavalry force.

He immediately ordered part of his troops to wheel around and encircle this battlefield.

ROAR!

The black-armored man erupted again.

Longyuan, still lodged in his chest, was blasted free.

The Sword Saint instinctively reached to catch it.

Then he immediately remembered Xue San collapsing after being poisoned.

Instead, he guided the sword with qi.

Longyuan did not touch his hand.

It spun once through the air and stabbed into the frozen earth.

Black blood still clung to the blade.

At the same time... a group of Yan cavalry had already charged in.

Without hesitation, the black-armored man crashed directly into them.

The first two riders, armor, men, and horses together, were sent flying.

But the riders behind them drove their lances beneath the man's armpits.

The black-armored man clamped both arms down around the shafts.

His feet rooted into the ground.

Then he lifted.

Two riders and their horses were raised into the air.

He smashed them together.

BANG!

Under that impact... human flesh and horseflesh almost separated from bone.

Watching the scene, Marquis Zheng immediately remembered Sha Tuo Queshi outside Prince Zhenbei Residence years ago, fighting Zhenbei cavalry alone.

"Kill him for this Marquis! Whoever takes his head will be appointed Garrison Commander!"

"Yes!"

"Yes!"

More and more riders charged the black-armored man without fear of death.

Alone against the charge of more than a hundred cavalry... the black-armored man still chose the most fearless and brutal method possible.

One man.

Like a God of War.

Marquis Zheng rode his Pixiu to Xue San's side.

He looked down once.

Confirmed Third Master was still alive.

Then stopped paying attention to him.

The Sword Saint, meanwhile, stared at Longyuan where it stood embedded in the frozen ground.

Zheng Fan lowered his head and asked:

"Can you make do with Wuya?"

The Sword Saint looked at him.

Then held out one hand.

Zheng Fan passed Wuya over.

The Sword Saint accepted the saber.

Inside the killing ground... the black-armored man continued slaughtering.

From time to time, Yan riders were cut from their horses.

Their deaths were all horrifying.

Few bodies remained whole.

But the cavalry did not break.

The riders farther out had already formed a fresh ring of encirclement.

Against an expert like this... you had to fill the gap with human lives.

Wear him down.

Years ago, when the Sword Saint cut through a thousand cavalry before Snow Sea Pass, the legend had contained some water.

The formation Marquis Zheng had deployed now... was the real thing.

Fearless of death.

Disciplined.

Formations tight.

Charging until death.

No matter how great the expert... enough men like this would eventually bury him!

The Sword Saint prepared to advance.

Zheng Fan stopped him.

"Don't."

The Sword Saint frowned slightly.

"Let them wear him down a little longer. His qi is empty. Whatever burst he has left is already inside him. Once it's used, it's gone. So many brothers have already died. We can't let those deaths become meaningless."

Marquis Zheng straightened his back.

His voice lowered.

"We spent this much effort getting here. If he escapes at the very end, I'll be sick with rage."

That was not Marquis Zheng being cold-blooded.

It was reality.

"This body..." the Sword Saint said. "Among everyone I've seen in this life, perhaps only Tian Wujing could compare with him."

"His body is what he lives on."

"The aura around him resembles the thing lying in the coffin beneath your Residence," the Sword Saint said.

Zheng Fan shook his head.

"The one who truly resembles him is farther back leading the army."

"What exactly is he?" the Sword Saint asked.

"Are you asking what he is... or what we are?"

"We?"

"Yes. We."

Zheng Fan saw that the killing had reached about the right point.

He took the Demon Child's red stone from his robes and clenched it in his hand, ready.

Then... he shouted:

"ZHENG FAN, MARQUIS PINGXI OF GREAT YAN, IS HERE!"

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

In an instant... the black-armored man seemed to lock onto him by instinct.

Even beasts without much intelligence understood the principle of capturing the leader first.

The black-armored man ignored every blade and lance striking his body.

He smashed through the encirclement and charged straight toward Zheng Fan.

The riders around Zheng Fan reacted instantly.

They tried to plug the breach.

The Marquis was here.

They were willing to use their own lives to block every gap.

But at that moment... the Sword Saint moved too.

His figure flashed.

The black-armored man smashed one rider's chest apart with a punch.

Then kicked a warhorse's head into pieces.

The Sword Saint appeared beside him.

Wuya in hand... he brought the saber down across the man's shoulder.

Pfft!

Wuya bit into the shoulder.

The black-armored man's body shuddered.

His knees bent.

He dropped to the ground.

By instinct, he tried to rise again.

At the same moment, the Sword Saint drove a finger-sword of qi into the back of his head.

The black-armored man's body froze.

He struggled for a few moments.

Then... as though the final trace of strength inside him had finally been exhausted... his head sagged.

Marquis Zheng lowered the Demon Child's stone.

He reached into his robes and took out his iron case.

Pulled out a cigarette.

He could not be bothered using a fire striker in this bitter wind anymore.

Instead, he simply put the cigarette into his mouth and slowly chewed it.

The harsh, spicy taste stimulated him.

Cleared his head.

"Peh!"

He spat out the shreds.

Then Marquis Zheng gave the order:

"Find every usable chain and rope we have. Bind that bastard until he can't move!"

[End of Chapter 764]