Chapter Ninety-Five: The Rite of Death

In the next instant, Ye Xin had already flung himself upward with all his strength, as though trying to escape the trap, yet the Godslayer Blade in his hand had already swept toward the retreating female commander.

Her face had gone ashen. Ever since she had blocked the first streak of black radiance, her breath had been caught in her chest. The successive impacts had left her no room to breathe, and now the deadly gleam of the blade appeared before her eyes once more.

With the last of her strength, the woman commander swung her halberd across her body to shield herself.

Boom. The Godslayer Blade came crashing down upon the halberd, and she was forced back again by the blow. Then she felt one foot slip into empty air, and her body plunge from the war platform.

A streak of black light shot forth, aimed at her throat.

How could anyone possibly unleash two innate techniques in such a short span, less than half a breath? How could the meridian channels endure it? The woman commander was utterly baffled, but now was not the time to ponder such a thing. Though she had no footing to draw upon, she could still twist her body, perhaps by turning her shoulder so that her arm would shield her throat.

Thud. The black light pierced her shoulder armor. The battle dress she wore was of exquisite workmanship; though the black light had gone through the armor, its force was already spent, and it merely split a little skin on her shoulder. Even so, she felt a bone-deep chill seeping into her very marrow.

Poison?

At once the woman commander drew a dagger from behind her back. Once she hit the ground, she intended to cut away the flesh that had been grazed. She possessed that kind of resolve.

By now, Ye Xin had leaped more than a meter high. His Godslayer Blade struck for a second time, the blade light slashing with full force at the woman commander’s throat.

She was already at the end of her strength. At minimum, she would need three or four breaths to let her violently shaken meridians settle, then channel power anew before she could recover. But Ye Xin clearly had no intention of giving her that time.

The blade light flashed past. The arm she had raised in front of her, along with her throat, were severed by the Godslayer Blade. Blood sprayed into the air, yet Ye Xin’s body continued to rise, giving the onlookers outside an illusion: Ye Xin was flying upon a spray of blood.

The two sides had clashed many times, but every movement had been completed within the brief moments of Ye Xin’s descent and leap, so fast it dazzled the eye.

Qiu Jiecha could no longer endure the repeated pleas of the veteran generals, and had already brought the wolf riders across the Roaring River. They had just happened to witness this scene.

The old generals were speechless, Qiu Jiecha included. Ye Xin’s method of releasing combat power was smooth, swift, flawless, without the slightest drag or hesitation. Like a rabbit darting, a falcon striking, like lightning and flint, it was no longer mere killing but a kind of beauty.

Still, Ye Xin could at most rise four or five meters before reaching the summit, after which his body began to fall.

But Ye Xin showed no panic at all. He drew in a long breath. Before the woman commander’s corpse had even struck the ground, the wisps of smoke drifting from within her body seemed to hear some command, and in the air they arced into a rainbow, sweeping toward Ye Xin.

Ye Xin inhaled all of the smoke in one gulp. He seemed quite satisfied, eyes narrowing slightly as he let his body continue to fall.

“Young Marshal!” one of the old generals cried out, then was about to rush forward. Beneath Ye Xin lay a sea of blank eyes and gleaming spear points. Though the demonic soldiers still had not fully recovered, if Ye Xin truly fell into their battle formation, he would pay a terrible price. He might even be speared to death in the chaos.

Ye Xin’s attack had been so brilliant that everyone had unconsciously overlooked his mount. Only now did that Boundless Skywolf finally land upon the war platform. The officers and guards who had tried to surround Ye Xin had only barely reached their assigned positions; the absurd thing was that their bodies were moving according to the original plan, while their eyes had turned to stare at Ye Xin falling from the sky.

Then the Boundless Skywolf leaped with all its strength, meeting Ye Xin in midair and carrying him upward, while the war platform below burst into a chain of cracking sounds.

In the next moment, Ye Xin had already leaped beyond the demonic battle formation, then merged into the speeding ring of riders.

Awooo!

Seeing Ye Xin succeed in one strike, the elite troops of the Army of Heavenly Punishment let out excited tiger roars. That was exactly how it should be! Two years ago, Ye Xin had led them out of danger time and again in just this fashion. If one were to count merit carefully, Ye Xin alone could equal the entire Army of Heavenly Punishment.

“Kill! Kill, kill, kill...” An officer on the war platform brandished the banner of the demon army like a madman, eyes bloodshot.

He knew this demonic force was finished. Rather than wait to die, better to attack first; if one could exchange one life for another, so be it.

This was both the trumpet of assault and the rite by which one walked toward death.

One huge shield after another was cast aside. All the demonic soldiers came forward with their spears leveled, shouting as they charged. Though most of them remained, their commander had been slain. For a warrior, it was an immense humiliation.

Once again, the difference between the Skywolf Legion and the Army of Heavenly Punishment was laid bare. If it had been Ye Guanhai, he would have launched a head-on charge, a gesture of respect to warriors. But the elite troops of the Army of Heavenly Punishment scattered in all directions, laughing and joking, utterly treating those demonic soldiers as nothing.

The slaughter began once more, though it no longer possessed the irresistible momentum of the earlier assault. The elite troops of the Army of Heavenly Punishment had become a wolf pack, toying with their prey, teasing it. The demonic soldiers, clad in armor weighing over a hundred jin, were running across the plains at a cost of stamina beyond imagination. Even if they were all innate warriors, they still could not withstand it.

One by one, the demonic soldiers were knocked down or brought low, their numbers slowly and steadily dwindling.

After about half an hour, the last demonic soldier was severed by Ye Xin’s Godslayer Blade. His soul turned into wisps of smoke, once again absorbed by Ye Xin. Ye Xin then stood with blade held across him, savoring the fullness in his spirit chamber.

“I remember who that woman commander was,” Qiu Jiecha said with a soft sigh. “Sima Qinghong...”

“The extraordinary woman of the Sima clan from Zhengzhou City?” one of the old generals said in astonishment. “Young Marshal has made a great contribution this time!”

“It is indeed a great contribution, but I’m afraid there will be trouble later as well,” Qiu Jiecha said.

“When have our wolf riders ever been afraid of trouble?” another old general laughed.

“By the way, did any of you notice? Why is it that after the demonic soldiers were slain by the Young Marshal, such strange smoke appeared?” another old general asked. “If they were still alive, and were circulating their meridians to release an innate technique, then it would still make sense. But they were already dead; power ought to dissolve like melting snow, so how could smoke possibly appear?”

“That is the Young Marshal’s own secret. None of you are to ask recklessly, and you are not to spread it outside,” Qiu Jiecha said gravely.

Xue Bairi and the others gathered beside Ye Xin. Fu Shang laughed. “My lord, those riffraff have all run back. I’d guess reinforcements will be arriving soon enough too. The brothers haven’t had enough fun yet. Should we fight another round?”

“I’m afraid I might lose control,” Ye Xin said, shaking his head. “Actually, this search for the demonic soldiers was only to send a warning to Xiao Mozhi and tell him to behave more cautiously. Now that he has received the message, there’s no need for us to tangle with him further.”

“Then where do we go?” Hao Fei asked.

“First find a place to rest for two days. When Commander Iron Heart leads the army over, we can find another opening. Otherwise, they’ll all be locking onto us as their target. Once Iron Heart arrives, our pressure will naturally ease,” Ye Xin said. “Quickly clean the battlefield, then move out.”

The wolf riders turned south, leaving the war zone. By dusk, they found a village ahead, and Ye Xin decided to rest outside the village.

He had Fu Shang take gold notes to purchase food. The Boundless Skywolves had enormous appetites and ate only meat. If more than sixty Boundless Skywolves were fed in one meal, every fat pig in that village would probably be eaten clean. But Fu Shang would choose to trade at high prices; they were not short of money, and they would never let poor villagers suffer a loss.

Ye Xin sat beside the forest, eyes closed, resting his mind. Today, he had absorbed a total of eleven souls, something that had never happened before. Though no new innate technique had appeared, he had gained other insights.

Before, he had thought that if no innate technique emerged, then the absorption had failed and was meaningless. But after absorbing so much today, he discovered the true effect of souls.

If an innate warrior wished to temper his own innate technique into a killing move, he had to fight fiercely again and again, condensing killing intent. When that killing intent accumulated enough, and the innate technique became sufficiently practiced, a transformative change would occur, as though reborn into something wholly new.

Once those innate warriors were slain, the killing intent they had accumulated would instantly dissipate, but a small portion would remain, and together with the soul it would be stripped away by Zhong Kui’s divine power.

To put it another way, if all the experience, knowledge, growth, and so on that one could obtain in fierce battle amounted to a single point, then what he received would be seven points, eight points, even ten.

After this battle, the distinction between the veteran generals and the elite troops of the Army of Heavenly Punishment was no longer so rigid. In truth, the main reason lay with the veterans themselves. They believed they had seen enough of the world, had fought for nation and people over many hard years, and so they carried themselves with airs, looking down from on high. Even Ye Xin had many things they did not think much of, let alone Xue Bairi and the others. As for Xue Bairi and his men, they were the kind who would not submit to a single slight, much less two. Seeing the old fellows always holding themselves aloof, noses in the air, how could they bother with them?

But this battle completely changed the veterans’ attitude. In terms of raw strength, the veterans were still stronger; the seven commanders of the major camps were all pillar-of-the-state level experts, and Qiu Jiecha need not even be mentioned. Yet the combat strength displayed by Xue Bairi and the others made the old generals look at them in a new light. At the very least, they could all keep pace with Ye Xin. Whether the veterans themselves could do the same was another matter.

The veterans took the initiative to show goodwill, and Xue Bairi and the others naturally would not deliberately embarrass anyone. Originally, no matter where they went, they split into two groups to pitch camp and rest, but now they were mixed together.

“Oh right, that Feng Qishan is somewhat strange,” Xie En said. “When the academy held its council, his attitude was extremely firm. He insisted on going to battle, and even had a bit of a falling-out with the central academy over it. From his perspective, he should have stayed in Nine Tripod City. It’s already become very empty there, exactly the place for him to make a big show of things. Why insist on coming to the northern front?”

Ye Xin suddenly opened his eyes, then rose and walked toward the campfire that had just been set up. When Xue Bairi and the others saw him approach, they merely greeted him casually. The old generals had been about to stand and pay their respects, but seeing that Xue Bairi and the others did not rise, they sat back down as well.