“Mei Shisan Niang’s sacrifice was truly too bizarre. We still haven’t been able to figure out what exactly the so-called ‘Mountain-Shaking Thunder’ really is.”
The scariest thing was the unknown.
Right now, Jiang Xingyan and Yun Chunfeng were clinging to each other like a pair of star-crossed lovers. Though Yun Chunfeng was equally uncertain inside, he had long since prepared himself to lay down his life to protect his lady. He gently stroked Jiang Xingyan’s silken hair, his heart soft and tender.
His lady truly had learned to rely on him now.
“It’s probably just something that outsider brought with him. Your Yun Ge can handle it.”
Jiang Xingyan clutched Yun Chunfeng’s hand tightly and leaned her whole body into his chest.
“I’m not afraid you can’t handle it—I’m afraid you’ll throw yourself away for my sake.”
Her other hand wound through Yun Chunfeng’s white hair. It felt even smoother and silkier than an ordinary person’s dark tresses.
Yun Chunfeng watched Jiang Xingyan toy with his white locks, and his heart couldn’t help but stir.
But Jiang Xingyan’s mind was elsewhere.
She lightly ran her fingers along the ends of his hair, as smooth as white satin, racking her brain for anything she might have overlooked.
She’d have to study the terrain map carefully tomorrow.
Since they couldn’t count on the element of time, they’d have to make use of the terrain first and launch a surprise attack. Before the enemy could transport their supplies, she’d make them pay a price first!
Boom!
Jiang Xingyan had just been thinking about this and hadn’t yet spoken to Yun Chunfeng about it when a deafening roar suddenly sounded in her ears. She bolted upright from the bed in one swift motion.
The alert soldiers had already blown the assembly horn.
“Enemy night raid!”
Those four short words instantly lit up all the campfires that had just been extinguished.
“All troops, stay calm! Divine Machine Battalion, prepare!”
“Yes, sir!”
Though the footsteps were hurried, they were all perfectly orderly.
Soon, the city wall was packed with soldiers from the Divine Machine Battalion, each holding a repeating crossbow, carefully aiming into the pitch-black night below the wall.
In the deep darkness, it was impossible to see how many had come—only a rustling sound could be heard.
The commandant of the Divine Machine Battalion, relying on years of battlefield experience in identifying positions by sound and hitting with unerring accuracy, barely twitched his ears. He raised his finger and discreetly pointed left and right at the expert archers beside him, signaling.
The men had long worked together in perfect sync and knew the commandant was indicating the enemy’s positions.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
The repeating crossbows of the two men fired simultaneously.
Before the soldiers could even marvel at their skill, two screams were already heard.
Jiang Xingyan widened her eyes but still couldn’t locate where the deafening roar from earlier had come from.
In the darkness, someone in the enemy ranks shouted.
“Full advance! We must take Jingyu Pass!”
In an instant, countless rough, loud voices echoed in response: “Charge!”
Jiang Xingyan’s heart tightened.
She could hear many voices that were already not far from the city wall of Jingyu Pass.
But the deadliest problem right now was that the soldiers couldn’t see the enemy. Relying solely on the Divine Machine Battalion commandant to identify positions by ear was simply too slow.
In desperation, Jiang Xingyan suddenly remembered the box of luminous pearls Xiao Chonghua had given her. To make night travel easier with Sun Yaxiang, she’d wrapped them in silk and used them for light.
And she had to admit—Xiao Chonghua had found some truly fine treasures. Those pearls were nearly as bright as two large lanterns.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
“Take cover! Shield-bearers, protect the crossbowmen!”
Countless arrows came flying out of the darkness, impossible to dodge.
Many crossbowmen had already been hit—who knew if the arrows were poisoned? The reserve troops quickly moved in to relieve them.
Sun Yaxiang led a team of medics and began bustling about.
“Third Highness, this is an emergency—don’t you dare be stingy!”
“What?”
Xiao Chonghua, his heart clenched as he focused intently on the battle, was startled when “Ho Ci” suddenly called him out by name.
Before he could fully collect himself, Jiang Xingyan had already used Ho Ci’s internal energy to shatter the entire pouch of luminous pearls into thumb-sized fragments.
The next moment, countless pieces of light, like fireflies, were scattered evenly through the air.
Instantly, the enemies near the city wall were exposed in large numbers.
The crossbowmen, the very first instant they spotted human figures, had already pulled their triggers.
One bolt, three shots—devastating power. Those hit screamed miserably, revealing even more positions.
Xiao Chonghua stared dumbfounded at the scene.
Not because he begrudged his luminous pearls, but because he was shocked by the sheer cruelty of the battlefield. In a single instant, in a fleeting moment, countless lives were extinguished, sinking into the darkness and vanishing from this world.
A great terror suddenly welled up inside him.
But right now, no one cared what he was thinking.
The battle grew increasingly fierce.
Arrows from both sides rained down in a sky-covering barrage.
More soldiers took hits—one was struck square in the chest and died on the spot.
Jiang Xingyan’s heart ached. She rushed over, propped the fallen soldier’s body in a corner, picked up his repeating crossbow, poured a great deal of internal energy into it, and pulled the trigger repeatedly toward the distance.
“Ahhh!”
Screams echoed without end.
The incoming arrows noticeably thinned, and their force weakened too. It seemed the archers hidden in the dark had also withdrawn.
“Phew.”
Jiang Xingyan had just let out a breath of relief when she caught a flash of firelight to her right from the corner of her eye.
Boom!
The earth shook and the mountains trembled.
Before Jiang Xingyan could react, her face was already covered with something sticky, like a fine drizzle of rain.
She reached up and wiped—a stench of blood filled her nostrils.
It was blood!
That tremendous sound from before—perhaps that was the Mountain-Shaking Thunder!
Just what kind of weapon could turn a living person into a pile of shredded flesh and bloody mist?
Jiang Xingyan’s stomach churned, but she forced it down.
Recovering her senses, she saw that the sudden explosion had temporarily deafened many of her soldiers.
The enemy seized the opportunity to counterattack.
“Fire attack!”
At Jiang Xingyan’s command, the regular crossbowmen stepped back, and the fire-arrow units promptly moved into position.
Whoosh!
A volley of flaming arrows streaked through the air with biting ferocity.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Every Northern Luo soldier hit by the fire arrows instantly exploded into blood and flesh.
Flames burst everywhere, casting the surrounding area in a crimson glow.
Beneath the city wall of Jingyu Pass lay nothing but severed fingers and scattered remains.
To keep the soldiers from witnessing such horrors, Jiang Xingyan quickly issued an order.
“Hit the deck!”
After a series of deafening explosions, a raging inferno blazed outside Jingyu Pass.
“Fall back! Fall back!”
The Qiang flute of the Northern Luo retreat sounded.
But Jiang Xingyan’s tense heart did not relax in the slightest.
Just what were those explosive roars all about?!
