"Damn…"
Chen Sanshi's iron helmet split clean in half. His forehead throbbed sharply, a thin line of blood sliding down his face.
Copper skin and iron bones—no matter how tough, they could still be broken. Against a tempering bone opponent, his skin would have held, but this was tempering organs—a full realm higher.
Still, he'd stopped the blow.
Chen Sanshi wasn't reckless. When he'd killed Luo Dongquan earlier, he had deliberately exchanged a single strike, just to gauge the strength difference between realms. He knew how terrifying a tempering organs expert's full force could be. His Vajra Body could endure it, and with surprise on his side, he struck back and killed.
The Body of Vajra and the perfection of his sword art—without both, it wouldn't have been possible.
…
Sun Li, through sheer grit, had killed two opponents of equal rank—both tempering bone warriors. But she'd also taken several cuts from sneak attacks. She could barely spare any focus to look toward the battle a few dozen steps away. Another tempering bone general, along with dozens of cavalry, was already pressing in.
If this kept up, her qi and blood would soon falter, and she'd be hacked apart.
Of the fifty cavalry she had brought, only half remained alive.
Just then, a sharp signal arrow screamed across the night sky.
Moments later, a booming voice rang out through the chaos: "U Muer is dead! The Hengkang Prefecture army has arrived! Barbarians—surrender now or die where you stand!"
Chen Sanshi raised his spear high, the severed head of U Muer skewered on its tip, displayed for all to see.
"The Thousand-Household officer is dead?!"
The barbarian cavalry froze in shock.
"Kill! Kill! Kill—!"
"Kill—!"
At that same instant, Sun Buqi and the others—who had been hiding on the mountainside—lit their torches again. They shouted at the top of their lungs, and war drums thundered across the hills. From the shifting shadows in the forest, it was impossible to tell how many there really were.
"Reinforcements! Hengkang Prefecture really sent troops!"
"It's an ambush—retreat!"
"Retreat! Retreat!"
"…"
All five hundred barbarian riders quivered in fear.
"Where do you think you're running?!"
Chen Sanshi charged forward, one hand gripping his spear that still bore the severed head, the other holding the Mountain-Suppressing Sword. He plunged into the fleeing enemy ranks like a blazing meteor.
The barbarian cavalry, seeing his ferocity, believed even more firmly that they'd fallen into a massive trap. Panic consumed them. None dared fight back—all they wanted was to flee.
"It's over."
Chen Sanshi knew it.
Once this cavalry force returned to camp, the whole army would crumble.
…
On the city wall.
"Lazy bastards, move your asses! Wang Zhi and the others are almost dead out there!"
Zhu Tong paced frantically back and forth.
"My lord… why isn't the lord back yet?"
Xu Bin's voice trembled with worry.
"The lord will be fine!"
Amid the deafening confusion, Xu Wencai was the calmest of them all. His face was steady, his grip firm on the feather fan in his hand. "Wait for one more cup of tea. In that time, the six thousand barbarian soldiers will be crushed to dust."
Finally—
A second blaze flared on the eastern mountain.
"Good! Good! Excellent! The barbarian army is finished!"
Xu Wencai waved his fan sharply. "Liu Jinkui, Zhu Tong, Wu Da, Xu Bin—pass my command! Open the west gate and launch a full assault! Form Chariot Suspension Formations with the cavalry in front, push forward, and let everyone behind kill anything that moves! Remember—make it loud, and carry as many torches as possible!"
"Xu Wencai…"
Liu Jinkui hesitated. "We're putting our lives in your hands—and in Hundred-Household Chen's!"
The night before, under Xu Wencai's direction, Sun Li, her brother, and Wang Zhi had suddenly taken control of all military matters in the city. They said it was to prepare for a night assault.
No one really understood what was happening, and normally they wouldn't have listened to just anyone.
But now, half the garrison were men under Chen Sanshi's command, and the Sun siblings' prestige made them impossible to refuse.
And with Xiang Tingchun, Luo Dongquan, and several others having vanished overnight—no bodies found, no word heard—it was clear something huge was unfolding, something that would decide life or death for everyone. They had no choice but to obey.
Still, as everything played out…
It all felt like they were walking straight into disaster.
"Move out!"
The city gates opened wide.
Every remaining fighter in Poyang poured out—less than a thousand men—charging headlong at six thousand barbarians.
…
At the west gate—
Pan Quan had already died in the chaos.
Zhao Shanming's arm had been hacked off; he hung between life and death.
The martial hall disciples and local gentry—nearly all of them were dead or dying.
Wang Zhi and his men had fought until the end. Their casualties were severe.
"Xu Wencai better not have tricked me… did Shitou really plan all this?"
Wang Zhi looked at the endless swarm of barbarians before him and spat blood. "To hell with it! If I die, I die!"
Fifteen years ago, he'd climbed the city walls and survived.
If he died on the battlefield today, that was a worthy end.
"Fine then! In my next life, I'll still be your comrade!"
Xiong Qiu'an, his bones visible through torn flesh, laughed hoarsely, ready to die as well.
"Kill!"
Behind them, the city gates burst open once more.
Fire roared skyward. The shouts of battle rolled like thunder.
The barbarians hesitated. The ferocity and madness before them shook their hearts—but with their numbers, they didn't panic. They were just confused. Why were the Poyang defenders acting like lunatics tonight? Where had they gotten such confidence? Were they truly throwing their lives away?
Then, riders who had fled earlier returned with news that answered their question.
"U Muer is dead!"
"Hengkang Prefecture sent three thousand cavalry!"
"No—five thousand cavalry!"
"…"
"What?!"
The deputy general froze, barely clinging to reason. "Don't panic! There's no way they have that many reinforcements!"
"U Muer's head is right here—!"
Through the chaos, a white horse burst into view. A head—familiar, unmistakable—was held aloft under the frosty moonlight. "Surrender now!"
"My lord…"
Whssshh—!
An armor-piercing arrow streaked across the air, piercing the deputy general through the chest and knocking him clean off his horse. That single shot shattered the last thread of the army's courage.
The deaths of both the commander and deputy spread through the ranks like wildfire, distorted and exaggerated with every retelling.
By the time it reached the rear lines, the story had turned into: "The Eight Great Garrisons crushed the main barbarian army in Liangzhou! Sun Xiangzong himself has come to wipe us out!"
At that moment—
All six thousand barbarians broke.
Their army collapsed like a mountain sliding into the sea.
The soldiers of Poyang County chased and hacked wildly from behind, cutting down anyone they could reach.
The barbarians didn't even fight back—they threw away their helmets, dropped their weapons, and scattered in total panic.
And only then—did the people of Poyang finally realize—
Liu Jinkui, Xiong Qiu'an, Zhao Kang, and the others watched Chen Sanshi move through the sea of routed enemies as if walking through an empty field. His spear, with the severed head of the tempering organs general impaled on its tip, gleamed under the dawn light. To them, he no longer looked like a man—but a god.
In one night, Poyang City had gone from being trapped under siege… to achieving a miraculous victory.
Years later, when dynasties rose and fell, this battle would be remembered in the annals of history:
On the sixth day of the twelfth lunar month, in the seventy-second year of the Longqing Era of the former dynasty, the founding emperor of the current dynasty, Emperor Gao, Chen Lei, beheaded several enemy generals in a desperate situation and, leading just over a thousand surviving soldiers, utterly defeated six thousand barbarians. This battle became known in history as the Battle of Poyang — also called 'The Hidden Dragon Emerges from the Abyss.
…
By dawn, all six thousand barbarian soldiers had fled beyond the Great Wall, abandoning countless carts, supplies, and rations. Not one dared to look back.
War depended on the alignment of three factors—heaven's timing, earth's advantage, and human unity.
Numbers alone never decided victory with certainty.
When the momentum—the great tide—was on your side, even the few could defeat the many.
The barbarians had been besieging the city for too long. Their repeated failures and the deaths of three tempering organs generals had already crushed their morale. When their final commander fell, the army naturally dissolved into chaos.
Poyang, in contrast, had been defending for over a month. Excluding the rich and the corrupt, the soldiers and citizens had reached unmatched unity. Their will burned fiercer than ever.
Hundreds among them had even awakened the [Blood Oath of the Battlefield].
With their spirits surging while the enemy's collapsed, the difference was vast.
And beyond that, some within Poyang truly knew that reinforcements from Hengkang Prefecture might arrive soon.
Heaven's timing, earth's advantage, and human harmony—all three were theirs.
How could the barbarians not be defeated?
Yet just as everyone was celebrating this miracle, Chen Sanshi gave another order.
"Abandon the city."
"Abandon the city?"
"Why?!"
Zhao Kang and the others were stunned. "The barbarians lost half their force in one night. Hundreds trampled each other to death! They've retreated beyond the Great Wall—maybe even back to the grasslands! Poyang still has plenty of food and supplies. Shouldn't we take this chance to reinforce the walls and hold strong?"
"The barbarians surrounded us for so long without attacking—do you think that was for nothing? They were waiting for reinforcements. And next time, there will likely be commanders of even higher realms!"
Under countless watchful eyes, Chen Sanshi spoke the harsh truth. "Our own high-ranking officers—every one of their corpses has been found in the barbarian camp. We have no tempering organs experts left. How are we supposed to keep defending?"
"The lord speaks true."
Xu Wencai stepped forward and added, "Last night, we captured a barbarian Hundred-Household officer—one of their trusted inner circle. He personally admitted that at least 30,000 troops are marching toward Poyang! The defeated barbarians will soon regroup and return with them. If we stay, we die. Our only chance is to abandon the city and flee!"
"M-my lord… what about us?"
The commoners working on the walls dropped their tools, their faces drained of color.
To abandon the city—didn't that mean abandoning them?
They had all heard such stories before.
When the army retreated, the soldiers escaped first, and the civilians left behind were massacred.
Had they guarded the city with their lives for a month just to die anyway?
But surprisingly, none of them protested.
They dispersed quietly, picked up their tools again, and went back to patching the walls—faces blank, movements mechanical, like soulless corpses still going through the motions.
Most of the soldiers, recruits, and laborers were the same.
To abandon the city meant to run fast—to survive.
But they couldn't ride horses. They knew what that meant.
They'd be left behind.
And most had family here—wives, children, parents. How could they bear to leave them?
Leave their families to die?
…
"Wait," Chen Sanshi said, his voice booming across the square as he stirred his qi and blood. "I haven't finished speaking!"
His voice roared like a bronze bell, echoing across the city. "We will abandon the city—but I never said we would abandon the people!
"Pass my command!
"All civilians in Poyang City who wish to leave—may march with the army!
"We soldiers will cover the rear!"
The words struck like thunder.
Not only the people—even Xu Wencai and every officer present were stunned.
Take the people with them? And cover their retreat?
In the history of war spanning thousands of years, when had such a thing ever been done?
Did he not fear being slowed down?
"Of course, I won't force anyone."
Chen Sanshi's tone softened, but his eyes were firm. "Before midday, we set off through the west gate. We head west toward Hengkang Prefecture for now. Go or stay—it's your choice. But think carefully. Once we leave, there may be no return. Dying on the road is very possible."
"My lord!"
"We'll go!"
"We'll follow you, through life and death!"
After a brief silence, hundreds of civilians fell to their knees all at once.
"Staying means being slaughtered anyway!"
The barbarians never spared survivors—they plundered, burned, and killed without mercy.
Compared to that, leaving was their only hope of survival.
"We thank you, my lord!"
"My lord!"
"Xu Wencai, handle the arrangements," Chen Sanshi said simply.
Then he turned and walked toward the eastern stables, where Han Cheng lay badly wounded. "Hundred-Household Han, any word from the Grand Commander's Office?"
"A few more days," Han Cheng answered weakly. "The message should reach us soon."
"Good."
Chen Sanshi nodded, his mind recalling Prefect Xue's warning. Even heading to Hengkang Prefecture might not be safe.
Prefect Xue had said—if necessary, even Hengkang could be abandoned.
Still, heading west was the only path. Beyond Yunzhou lay Youzhou—one of the three northwestern prefectures.
If all of Yunzhou truly fell, their only hope would be to flee to Youzhou, where the Eight Garrisons and the Grand Commander's forces were stationed. There, perhaps, they could find support—perhaps, a final chance to live.