The True Lord has arrived

Chapter 45 The Wind Rises! (Please continue reading!)

clang! ! !
The arrow, still carrying a burst of energy, was deflected by the horizontal sword. The heavy bow in Li Zhenyue's hand hummed and whistled. The man in front of him had his back to him, yet he was able to accurately deflect the arrow with the horizontal sword.

Shen Cangming led Li Zhenyue and the others at high speed in another direction of the mountain.

Shen Cangming deliberately slowed down. His goal was not to escape himself, but to completely lead these people astray. Then he would find a way to conceal his whereabouts by taking advantage of Xuan Guan's abilities and go around in circles to meet up with Zhou Yan.

The goal was not to withdraw from the battlefield.

Instead, they directly tactically interfered with the tracking forces.

Li Zhenyue's warhorse was also of excellent quality, keeping up with Dahei's speed. Li Zhenyue had abandoned his sword and was now holding a lance in both hands. He used the lance to pierce through the horse and attack Shen Cangming.

The military lineage of Xuan Guan in the Tang Dynasty was mainly divided into three categories.

The border troops are promoted step by step from the position of "Beacon Tower" to the ninth-rank official.

Skilled in defense and counterattack.

The Shuofang Army, with its nine-rank Xuan officials (including those at the Zhanglei level), gradually cultivates their skills.

Skilled at forming defensive formations.

There is also another lineage of the Ninth-Rank Mysterious Official, 【凿锋】.

These three types of Xuan officials possess extremely strong offensive capabilities. Tracing back to their origins, they are the Wei Wu Zu, Zhao Bian Qi, and Qi Ji Ji. They are all valiant individuals in the Tang army, skilled in martial arts, and only those with such proficiency can obtain the Dharma.

As military officers, their basic characteristic is that the more similar officers they have, the more powerful their magical abilities will be. It's like musical instruments; when played alone, they produce a single tone, but when similar instruments are played together, they create a more magnificent and powerful sound.

Li Zhenyue was inherently brave and fierce. Born into a commoner family, he received instruction in horse spear from the Duke of Wei due to his military achievements. Logically, he was armed with both arms, armor, and long spears, so he should have the advantage against a man with one arm, blindness, and plain clothes.

However, his lance was hardly a fatal threat to Shen Cangming's horizontal sword.

The next moment, his adjutant spurred his horse forward and swept across with his lance.

Shen Cangming's right shoulder swayed noticeably.

Then there was a moment of hesitation in the movement, and finally, he dodged the move. He then slammed his left hand down with the horizontal sword, forcefully knocking the adjutant's lance out of his hand. He was about to make a horizontal slash, which would cut off the adjutant's hand at the wrist.

Li Zhenyue acted instinctively, which saved his adjutant.

Thinking of this horizontal sword fighting technique, and Shen Cangming's instinctive movement of his right arm just now.

A terrifying thought popped into his head.

Shen Cangming, is he planning to seize the spear in a mounted battle?!
If his right arm hadn't been severed, his adjutant's lance would have been taken away immediately. If this man were riding a spirit horse and wielding a heavy long weapon, his threat level would likely have increased even further.

The brief exchange had already given Li Zhenyue a clear picture of Shen Cangming's fighting style—

They are adept at using various means to create tactical advantages and habitually employ surprise attacks and decapitation strikes.

Proficient in fighting against overwhelming odds.

Judging from his reaction, he has probably carried out more than one surprise attack on and killed a small cavalry commander, seized his weapon, and then turned the tables on him.

These are the strongest soldiers in the border army; they're practically monsters.

Without hesitation, Li Zhenyue finally managed to suppress the one-armed man with the help of three elite imperial soldiers working together. Li Zhenyue felt no joy, only an indescribable humiliation at the fact that three people had taken down a one-armed man.

And a kind of anger that comes from having to carry out military orders.

All of this was suppressed by the cold indifference of the soldiers.

His pride and his obedience to military orders were not contradictory.

During the battle, Li Zhenyue keenly noticed a huge problem with Shen Cangming: he was missing an eye, which inevitably created a blind spot in his vision; moreover, his left arm was not his dominant hand…

Li Zhenyue gave the order: "Bows and crossbows!"

The four behind him immediately mounted and shot. Shen Cangming deflected the lances beside him with his left hand, spun around and slashed horizontally. He used the sound to pinpoint the location of the arrows and blocked them by leaning against his opponents. His terrifying individual combat ability and twenty-six years of experience serving on dangerous battlefields allowed him to hold off this group of people.

Li Zhenyue and his subordinates switched positions.

He appeared to Shen Cangming's left, his lance still engaged in battle.

Shen Cangming's fierce courage and bravery suppressed these equally elite warriors.

Li Zhenyue fought with his right hand gripping a lance, while his left hand slowly moved to his lower back, grasped the Mo family's crossbow, and slowly withdrew it. Shen Cangming, who had lost his left eye, had at least 30% of his field of vision in a static blind spot.

He failed to notice that Li Zhenyue had aimed his crossbow at his side.

A struggle flashed in Li Zhenyue's eyes, but he still pulled the trigger.

With a sound of blood being pierced, Shen Cangming's body trembled violently, and his clothes on his side were quickly stained red with blood. With a backhand slash, he struck Li Zhenyue hard, leaving a hideous mark on the mountain-patterned armor.

The aftershocks of the shock turned Li Zhenyue's face deathly pale, and his internal organs seemed to shift.

Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.

Shen Cangming's breathing was somewhat heavy. His combat instincts allowed him to avoid vital points in the moment of crisis, but the penetrating wound still caused blood loss, which led to a significant loss of physical strength and a decrease in power.

Two elite Shuofang soldiers thrust out with their lances. Shen Cangming gripped his horizontal saber with one hand and forcefully blocked both lances at an angle.

The sound of horses' hooves was like thunder.

Four horses galloped forward almost side by side on the road.

Shen Cangming had a metallic taste in his throat.

If it weren't for Zhou Yan, he would have chosen to fight to the death at this point.

Or perhaps he would accept his fate, but in this life-or-death situation, a fire burned in Shen Cangming's heart: he had to live at least to tell Zhou Yan the method of advancing to the Xuan Guan realm.

Despite being struck by the counterattack from the beacon tower, Li Zhenyue remained fiercely valiant, gripping his lance with both hands and pressing it against Shen Cangming's blade. The cold-blooded general finally spoke, saying, "What are you still struggling for?!"

Li Zhenyue said, "You've wanted to die for a long time."

"To die at the hands of the Shuofang Army is more worthy of someone like you than to be humiliated by aristocratic families or to live like a walking corpse!"

Shen Cangming's eyes were completely black.

The general died, followed by the sudden death of the Grand General. His comrades were caught up in the Battle of Stone Fortress. He was in a state of confusion, caught up with the rebels, and displaced like a drifting leaf. But in Shen Cangming's dark and desperate world, there was finally a new possibility of survival.

It was as if a spider's thread had pulled him back from the brink of his own suffering and the chaos of the world.

He swallowed the blood, and flames and the will to survive exploded in his dark eyes.

The blazing fire on the horizontal blade had not yet been extinguished.

He thought that if he lived a little longer, at least Zhou Yan could run a little further; or if he died here, at least the pursuit would end here completely. That way, the world would be vast and Zhou Yan would no longer be implicated by him.

Even in this state, even though he was still tormented by the flames left behind by the Azure Netherworld Master, Li Zhenyue still managed to keep fighting. He exhaled and gritted his teeth:

"Bow and arrow!"

Four elite archers behind them, skilled in archery on such mountain roads, drew their bows.

The armor-piercing wolf-tooth arrow locked onto Shen Cangming.

………………

The black wind swirled across the entire mountain, searching high and low, its heart filled with anxiety. However, its instinctive powers as a wolf demon allowed it to discover a trace.

That kid does seem to know a little bit about the skills of the mountain lord.

However, due to his weak magical power and meager cultivation, even if he possessed some abilities, he was unable to fully utilize them.

Black Wind found that guy.

Zhou Yan closed his eyes, sensing the power of the mountain lord. The scholar muttered that this matter could not be mastered immediately, and that they should take it slowly. Zhou Yan clenched his hands, communicating with the mountain.

Zhou Yan made a connection with the mountains and forests.

Yin Zichuan felt a little more at ease, but suddenly sensed something was wrong. He turned his head and saw a black cloud emerging from the entrance of the cave.

A huge wolf was lying there.

With its bloodshot eyes fixed on Zhou Yan inside the cave, the giant wolf opened its mouth, its voice filled with killing intent and hatred.

"Found you...!"

"I must kill you and then wash this mountain in blood before I can repay the master!"

When Black Wind appeared in its true form, it exhaled a foul stench. The little girl Hui Niang picked up a stone and threw it at it. Yin Zichuan's scalp tingled. At this moment, Black Wind was furious and, without caring about anything else, directly used its huge claws to dig into the cave!
On the mountain road, behind Shen Cangming, elite arrows were locked on.

Everything was in a state of desolation and chaos, filled with murderous intent and despair.

Zhou Yan opened his eyes.

A faint golden ripple spread across the young man's dark eyes.

The bowstrings trembled, arrows spun and shot forth, wolves breathed, their claws stained with blood. These two battles took place in the mountains, and the mountains remained silent, but the mountain mist that flowed throughout the entire Misty Peak, from which it got its name, suddenly stopped flowing.

The birdsong, insect chirping, animal sounds, and wind in the mountains all ceased.

Then, the birdsong, insect chirps, animal sounds, the wind's whisper, and the rustling of every falling leaf in the mountains all merged into a long, clear sound—

"wind."

The voice paused slightly, as if calling out, as if murmuring.

"rise."

The sound settled calmly on every part of the mountains.

The next moment, the fog that had solidified on the entire mountain peak rose up in a violent storm.

In just a moment, it enveloped the entire Misty Peak!

(End of this chapter)