Chapter 27: But the Battle Is Not Yet Over
[Page 1 of 3] [Survival Time: 18:53:12]
A night had passed, and his survival time was already approaching nineteen hours. In this world fraught with danger, surviving for so long was truly no easy feat—especially for a weak, pitiful, and helpless psychic specialist like himself.
Sigh...
Ye Mingqiu let out a long breath.
Fortunately, he only needed to survive another five hours to complete the mission and return.
That was all well and good, but...
He still could not understand why Zhou Jun had not launched an attack at all during the night. Could it be that they were looking down on him? Disdaining him? Looking down on him?
Why treat a pitiful person like him this way?
Why?
He had even spent the entire night trembling with fear on their behalf, unable to sleep soundly. Did they deserve all the worry he had suffered for them?
Outrageous! Absolutely outrageous!
A sorrowful expression settled over Ye Mingqiu’s face. He sighed and lamented like some wretched man abandoned by fate.
He strolled through the streets. Very few pedestrians remained; most ordinary people had fled to escape the disaster. After all, no one knew whether the Zhou army would massacre the city after breaching its walls, or reduce them to slaves. No one dared gamble with their lives.
Seeing this, the one-armed hundred-man commander from the previous day approached him of his own accord and asked, “General, are you sighing over the people of Chaoge?”
“Indeed.”
“Alas!”
The one-armed commander sighed before saying, “The Zhou army raised the sword of war and assembled its forces to besiege Great Shang. Though our city has managed to hold out with great difficulty, the other border cities possess no general as valiant as you. By now... I fear they have already fallen to the Zhou army, which may have marched straight into Chaoge. It is truly tragic. Truly lamentable.”
“Yes.”
Ye Mingqiu nodded slowly.
The pupils in his eyes shifted as he grasped certain things from the commander’s words.
So the reason the Zhou army had not continued its assault was not that it had no desire to fight. Rather, it had already broken through from the other border cities and might even have reached Chaoge. There was no need to waste time grinding down a border city that offered little reward, especially when it could simply be bypassed.
This world’s destined outcome was the fall of Chaoge, and the trial itself concerned the process of Chaoge’s destruction. Thus, Ye Mingqiu’s conjecture was highly likely to be the truth.
If that was the case...
“Prepare a map. Ready the horses.”
[Page 2 of 3]
Ye Mingqiu’s expression was calm, his resolve absolute, like a hero prepared to face death without turning back.
“General... surely you intend to...”
The one-armed commander’s eyes widened in disbelief, and even his breathing grew noticeably heavier.
“Though this city has been defended, the battle is not yet over. Someone must step forward to protect our homeland,” Ye Mingqiu declared with righteous conviction.
He smiled and tightened his grip on the Blood Spear. The bronze shaft, covered in dark-red patterns, gradually began to shine. Dark-red light flowed along the shaft to his arm, where several blood-red markings emerged, connecting to the spear. They flickered on and off as though alive.
...
Chaoge.
Dark clouds smothered the sky. Scorching flames and blood covered the earth. The meat grinder known as war ruthlessly harvested one living soul after another, turning them into fragments of its carnage.
From atop a hillside, King Wu of Zhou gazed from afar at his soldiers charging toward Chaoge, driving into the lifeline of Great Shang like a sharp blade.
Those who defied the gods could not survive.
King Wu of Zhou planted his great sword in the ground and watched the battle unfold with icy indifference, listening as his generals issued commands. Before long, Great Zhou would replace Great Shang and become the new master of this realm. He, too, would become the... Son of Heaven who bowed before the divine race.
Upon the battlefield, the Black Bird Banner of Yin-Shang snapped in the bloody afterglow of the setting sun, dancing in the fetid wind and swaying precariously.
At that critical moment, strange sounds suddenly arose from the rear of the battlefield.
A warhorse clad in bronze armor trampled over soil soaked with flesh, carrying a warrior in bronze armor and bearing a Blood Spear as he raced toward the final battlefield.
Ye Mingqiu possessed only a first-level Riding specialty. Moreover, during the era of Shang and Zhou, proper equipment for mounted warfare was scarce. The bronze armor was merely draped over the horse in a crude fashion, serving only to protect the animal and offering no significant benefit to the rider. Thus, even at his fastest pace, it took him a full six hours to reach the battlefield.
That was when he received a prompt from the Spirit Realm.
[Survival Time: 24:00:00]
[You have completed the trial. Would you like to settle your rewards and leave this world immediately?]
[Reminder: You may remain in this world for a maximum of twenty-four hours.]
The mission was complete. He could choose to leave the world and settle his rewards at any time.
Leaving was Ye Mingqiu’s strongest guarantee of survival. He could unleash his power recklessly in battle and flee the instant things began to look unfavorable. It was exceedingly safe.
“Finally, I’m here.”
Ye Mingqiu looked at the orderly battle formation ahead. With the Blood Spear in hand, he suddenly felt ravenously eager for blood. The effect of spiritual erosion had already taken hold, and instinctively he wished to achieve even greater success on the battlefield, bringing more rewards from his journey through the Spirit Realm.
[Page 2 of 3]
[Page 3 of 3]
If he managed to save Chaoge, who could say how much his evaluation would rise when the rewards were settled? It would certainly be an unimaginable gain.
He took out a bronze wine cup and tipped the wine into his mouth, gulping it down. A spicy heat laced with sweetness bloomed across his taste buds, while his Spirit attribute temporarily increased by three points.
“Kill!”
Carrying an unmatched killing intent, Ye Mingqiu charged alone toward the army of Great Zhou, bursting through the darkness like a meteor flying against the heavens.
At the rear of the army, several Zhou soldiers soon sensed the murderous aura. They turned their heads and saw a lone man charging toward the army. Unable to contain their shock, they cried out, “Someone’s there! Someone is charging in from the rear!”
Gradually, more and more soldiers noticed Ye Mingqiu and sensed the undisguised bloodlust radiating from him. The officers commanding the army issued order after order, preparing for battle and forming the most rigorous defensive formation to meet the man attacking from behind.
There was no room for carelessness in war!
Meanwhile, once he drew close to Great Zhou’s battle formation, Ye Mingqiu leaped from his horse and advanced on foot, Blood Spear in hand, killing his way toward the center of the formation.
“Loose the arrows!”
“Another arrow storm?”
Watching the rain of arrows descend, a smile spread across Ye Mingqiu’s face. The sight felt almost as familiar as returning home. He had encountered this kind of attack countless times in his previous battles, and his response had grown increasingly practiced.
He swung the Blood Spear, knocking aside the arrows that might strike vital areas. As for those that landed on his bronze armor, there was no need to worry. They could not penetrate his defenses, and wasting energy on them would be pointless.
Ye Mingqiu’s charge did not slow. With swift, ferocious steps, he rushed into the army’s formation. The Blood Spear spun and swept through his palm, carving crimson arcs through the air and shattering the incoming arrows.
“Form the shield wall!”
Another command rang out. Countless shield-bearing soldiers planted their shields firmly into the earth, locking them tightly together. The warriors in the second row then stepped onto the shoulders of those in the first, raising the shield wall even higher and creating, by sheer force, a wall of bronze and iron in the midst of the battlefield.
Crash!
The Blood Spear thrust forward like a dragon and pierced straight through a shield. With a violent sweep, Ye Mingqiu tore open a breach in the formation.
He reached out and wrenched the massive shield aside, looking at the shield-bearer behind it with a savage smile like that of a demon. The soldiers behind the shield wall watched with trembling pupils, despair spreading across their faces.
This was war.
[Page 3 of 3]