Chapter Twenty-Five: A Warrior Worth a Thousand

If Ashina Yanyun, having experienced the chaos of war and witnessed all manner of tragic carnage, thought he was already well-acquainted with the battlefield, the scene before him now—so bloody and utterly shocking—left him momentarily speechless.

As the Sixth Prince of the North Wu Kingdom, commanding a force of nearly two hundred thousand, it was impossible for him not to be shaken. He was a novice, leading such a vast army for the first time to sweep through weak tribes and quell those who refused to submit. Along the way, he had encountered almost no decent resistance. Even the assault on Chunping City had been effortless; because the White Pole Troops practiced a military colony system, half the soldiers were engaged in farming, and the other half defended the city alongside the civilians. With an army of over a hundred thousand, crushing a garrison of ten thousand had been a trivial task.

Military strategy dictates: surround with three times the force, attack with five, and annihilate with ten. Relying solely on superior equipment and numbers, he had felt no need for tactical brilliance—brute force was enough. But now, facing Lin Qian, Ashina Yanyun realized that war was not as simple as it seemed.

With a thunderous roar, Li Yuanying swung his horse-slaying saber, cleaving through men, horses, and heavy armor alike. The sharpness of the blade, combined with the momentum of his charging steed, created a force of absolute destruction. In a single stroke, he cut down four or five heavy cavalrymen; the armor-piercing effect was peerless.

"Switch blades!"

At Li Yuanying’s shout, the cavalry following in the breach he had carved immediately handed him a fresh blade. With the new weapon, Li Yuanying fought as if possessed by a god, reaping through the ranks like a scythe through wheat. The cavalry behind him were not merely there to provide logistics; they carried a diverse array of weapons—iron maces for blunt force trauma, horse-tripping ropes, and double-ringed daggers—all designed to exploit the gaps Li Yuanying created and eliminate threats in his immediate vicinity. Their coordination was masterful.

Only then did Ashina Yanyun snap out of his stupor. He shouted frantically, "Quick! Cluster together! Form a human wall! Don't let him through!"

As the words left his lips, Li Yuanying grinned. He pulled a thunder-bomb from his saddlebag, lit it with a fire-starter, and tossed it into the heart of the crowd. He then snatched a shield from his saddle, firmly shielding himself and his horse’s flank.

A moment later, a deafening blast shattered the air, followed by wails of agony. The power of a single thunder-bomb was enough to mangle a dozen heavy cavalrymen and disembowel their horses, turning the ground into a river of blood. The explosive radius and lethality of these bombs had been verified repeatedly by Lin Qian and his generals.

Clang. Debris from armor and shattered weapons showered against Li Yuanying’s shield. Where the explosion had occurred, a void now opened in the enemy ranks. Li Yuanying spurred his horse and roared again, "Onward!"

He descended like a god of war, and in the blink of an eye, he was closing in on the royal carriage. The shield-bearers nearby slammed their shields into the ground, but they were no match for Li Yuanying. His saber, over twelve feet long, swung with his full weight behind it, smashing into the shields before sweeping upward. Suddenly, the shields were sent flying into the air. The soldiers, now defenseless, stared in slack-jawed terror at the tower of a man before them. Was this even human?

Ashina Yanyun swallowed hard.

"It’s not too late to regret this," Lin Qian said, licking his dry lips.

Those who have never witnessed the true calamity of war, never seen its cruelty and carnage firsthand, will always remain blindly arrogant. Just like Ashina Yanyun, who held a mighty army and possessed the ambition to look down upon the world. But once cast into the true fires of battle, facing the most formidable army on earth, he would inevitably be consumed by fear.

Now, Ashina Yanyun watched helplessly as Li Yuanying led a mere three hundred men through the heavy cavalry formation as if strolling through an empty courtyard, and every soul he encountered met their end.

"You... you are demons sent by Eternal Heaven!"

Ashina Yanyun could hardly believe his eyes. When he saw Li Yuanying split a heavy cavalryman in two with a single strike, blood spraying in the opposite direction, the last shred of his courage plummeted to the depths. The soldiers following Li Yuanying were equally exceptional, swiftly clearing the surrounding stragglers.

Li Yuanying, mounted on his steed, shouted with a voice like a bronze bell, "Your Highness! General Li Yuanying is late to the rescue!"

Princess Ye Huang had heard the slaughter outside and had been observing through the gaps in the carriage window. As Li Yuanying drew closer, her heart raced with irrepressible excitement. Yet, as a princess of the realm, she had to remain composed, projecting an air of nonchalance.

"General Li is valiant indeed. Only today does this princess truly understand the prowess of the Western Expedition Army. You are truly worthy of being one of the four great military houses of the Great Qian!"

By calling the Western Expedition House merely "one of" the four, rather than the undisputed best, her words carried a weight that terrified Ashina Yanyun. If a fierce general like Li Yuanying wore only standard-issue mountain-pattern armor, implying his rank was not exceptionally high, what kind of monsters must the other three houses hide?

The old eunuch beside Ashina Yanyun looked pale. "Sixth Prince, your wager..."

Ashina Yanyun feigned composure and sneered, "You think just because he reached the carriage, he can take her away?"

The eunuch was stunned. "But... didn't you say..."

"I’m tired of this game! If a fierce warrior like this tower of a man cannot serve me, then he must die! I don't care about the wager, and I don't care if every one of these ten thousand men is buried here—he must die!"

Driven by malice, Ashina Yanyun’s gaze was sharp as a blade, fixed on Lin Qian, hoping to see a flicker of panic. To his dismay, Lin Qian’s expression remained utterly indifferent.

Then, Lin Qian spoke the words that shattered Ashina Yanyun’s resolve: "Qin Yong, if Li Yuanying cannot get out of that formation, the Sixth Prince of North Wu is yours to kill!"