Chapter 148: Covert Struggle Between Song and Liao (Part II)

"What is going on here? Who on earth did this!" a Khitan officer glared at the Han officials kneeling below him. These were Han Chinese who had lived under Khitan rule from the very beginning. One might say that aside from retaining a little over thirty percent of Han bloodline, they had entirely become Khitans.

They held deep respect and adoration for pure-blooded Khitans, while harboring discrimination and disgust toward the Song people. Whenever an opportunity arose to kick a Song person while they were down, they would exert twelve-tenths of their skill. Every time the Khitans returned from a raid, these officials would host celebratory banquets, feeling not the slightest bit of sympathy for the captured Song captives.

"My lord, we truly do not know!" The lead Han official had banged his head against the ground until the skin broke, tears streaming down his face. They genuinely had no idea why, overnight, every single small town with a Khitan garrison along the border had been thoroughly and utterly massacred, with not even the ashes of the stationed troops left behind. Heaven only knew how those people, after committing the murders, had managed to pack up and spirit away all the encampment tents, horses, and supplies without attracting the slightest notice.

As for these Han officials, in their memories, they had simply slept soundly, only to wake up and find things in this state. To them, it was no different than the sky collapsing.

Regardless of their status as officials—and even though certain merchants along the Song-Khitan border treated them with great deference—in the eyes of the real Khitans, they were mere livestock. Whenever the Khitans felt displeased, they could execute them at will. The Khitans cared not a whit for how much these Han people had done for them; in their view, as long as the Khitan iron cavalry rode, the Song people would forever remain mere two-legged sheep!

Overnight, a full twelve encampments totaling six thousand Khitan soldiers had perished. Although they could only be considered second-line troops, in the eyes of the Khitans, these were still strapping lads capable of taking on ten men each! While their battle formations might not have been honed enough to manifest martial aura clouds, every single garrison stationed opposite the Song border forces could at least defeat triple their number of enemies!

"My lord, we previously noticed that there had been an influx of scattered trading merchants from the Song side. We suspect it might have been their border army..."

Before the Han official could finish, he was kicked aside by the Khitan officer. "Nonsense! Let alone a surprise attack, even with an ambush, for every single camp to be wiped out so silently would require at least ten thousand elite Song troops! Twelve encampments in total—are you saying twelve thousand Song soldiers accomplished this in a single night? Do they have the guts? Do they have the capability? Ha!" The Khitan officer growled, reaching out to grab a Han official by the neck before slicing off his right arm with a blade. The spurting blood seemed to invigorate the Khitan officer somewhat, making his expression even more ferocious.

At that moment, three Khitan officers strode in quickly. Seeing the scene, they did not intervene, merely kicking aside the Han officials blocking their path and walking straight up to the first officer.

"Now, only the troops in our city remain. If we fail to make some sort of response to this, even if the Song people offer apologies and compensation later on, we will not escape punishment!" said the tallest of the three.

"Hmph! Whoever did this, placing the blame on the Song people is never wrong! We will dispatch our troops. Are there not still plenty of towns and villages on the Song side untouched? We will slaughter our way through them one by one to avenge this first!" said another Khitan officer fiercely.

"Hmph! The lives of the Song people are not half as precious as the lives of our Khitan warriors. This is merely the prelude. I want to let them know that we Khitans are not people the Song can afford to provoke! Move out!"

The crowd of Han officials waited until all four Khitan officers had departed before slowly scrambling to their feet and hurriedly scurrying out.

High above the grassland, Sun Meng glanced at Li Qingmeng beside her. "This is your first time facing a genuine military formation alone, isn't it?"

Li Qingmeng replied, "This is the first time I've faced a military formation of over a thousand men. I still remember my father telling me that back when he was a top-tier martial artist at the Xiantian realm, his sworn eldest brother had once charged into formation alone to capture a Khitan rebel king. But my father told me that aside from his sworn brother's martial arts being at the absolute pinnacle of that era, the enemy had also held back out of hesitation. Otherwise, no matter how formidable an individual's strength is, they are no match for a prepared army."

"Military formations turn ordinary soldiers—who might otherwise be slaughtered by martial artists—into weapons capable of slaughtering martial artists. Ever since then, we knew the era of martial artists dominating the jianghu had passed. But I never imagined it was simply because our strength wasn't formidable enough!" Li Qingmeng looked toward the steadily approaching cavalry force, a vibrant, excited smile tugging at the corner of her lips.

"Today, I, Li Qingmeng, shall recreate the legendary feat of Xiao Feng, and I shall do it even better than he did!" With those words, Li Qingmeng leaped forward, charging directly toward the Khitan cavalry army.

"General, there's something flying over from the sky!" An expert archer spotted Li Qingmeng closing in from above, feeling a momentary jolt of surprise before instinct compelled him to draw his bow and notch an arrow for an attack.

"Who goes there!" Though the leading Khitan general remained furious, he had not lost his sanity. Anyone capable of soaring through the air was unquestionably a martial artist of the Xiantian realm. For someone to dare charge a cavalry army of their size like this, they either possessed extraordinary strength or had something wrong with their brain!

"Form up! Prepare to attack!"

In the eyes of this Khitan general, when faced with a legion's martial aura cloud, an individual martial artist—even a powerhouse at the Xiantian realm—was nothing more than someone who could be effortlessly cut down.

The advancing Khitan army shifted, their martial aura swirling and roiling before rapidly transforming into an arrowhead wedge formation.

"Life and Deathed Talismans!"

Li Qingmeng showed not a shred of fear as she watched the Khitan army draw closer; this was the manifestation of absolute confidence in her own strength.

A flurry of Life and Death Talismans rained down like a glittering, starry shower—breathtakingly beautiful, yet utterly lethal.

"Attack!" the Khitan officer ordered. In his mind, regardless of what kind of attack the enemy unleashed, it would be heavily blunted by the legion's aura, ultimately landing on the soldiers with little more than a mild sting.

"What a beauty. If she doesn't die, perhaps I can capture her and take her back as a slave!" The Khitan officer had already discerned Li Qingmeng's appearance, and a secondary thought could not help but sprout in his mind.

The next moment, a rain of arrows erupted from the legion. Following Li Qingmeng's flight trajectory, she would be completely blanketed by the volley in mere moments.

"Tianshan Plum Blossom Hands!"

Li Qingmeng's expression remained unchanged. Blossoms of plum flowers materialized around her body; when the arrows collided with the petals, they were shattered to pieces instantly.

Simultaneously, the moment the Life and Death Talismans made contact with the martial aura, they slipped through like fish entering water, gliding fluidly along the aura and embedding themselves into the bodies of the soldiers. However, Li Qingmeng clearly miscalculated slightly, as only a single talisman entered each soldier's body.

"White Rainbow Palm!"

The White Rainbow Palm force twisted and turned with utter fluidity.

A stream of internal energy resembling a ribbon of white silk instantly blasted several leading Khitan soldiers off their horses, detonating immediately afterward to blow over a dozen soldiers—along with their mounts—into fragments.

Following closely behind, Li Qingmeng successfully sliced her way into the military formation. The flowing sleeves on her arms transformed like two python whips, lashing out and sending the frontline soldiers flying. Yet those soldiers struck head-on had their hearts and half their bones shattered the very instant they were hit.

Just like that, when Li Qingmeng broke clean through the Khitan army's formation, she merely felt that a fraction of her internal energy had been consumed, which was already rapidly recovering. As for the Khitans' military formation, its structure had been completely obliterated; out of the five thousand cavalry, only half remained in their saddles with any fighting capacity left.

"Tianshan Six-Sun Palms!"

The scorching palm force, manipulated by Li Qingmeng, transformed into what felt like descending bombs, unleashing a carpet-bombing assault. This final blow completely shattered the morale of the remaining Khitan soldiers. They felt as though facing Li Qingmeng was like facing a terrifying monster—their attacks had zero effect, while the enemy could wipe them out with effortless ease.

Once fear takes root within an army, its collapse is merely a matter of time. Every single Khitan soldier in this state lived in terror that Li Qingmeng's next target would be them. Most importantly, all four Khitan officers had been killed outright in Li Qingmeng's previous assault!

"The aura has dispersed. Let's try an area-of-effect attack!" Li Qingmeng muttered, directly unleashing the North Ocean Divine Art.

The surrounding spiritual energy rapidly converged into her palms, forming a massive, transparent sphere.

"Go!"

Though invisible to the naked eye, the crushing pressure bearing down upon them caused the psychological defense line of the Khitan army to shatter entirely.

"Run—!"

Boom—!