Cross the Battle! . . .
The soldiers of the Kingdom of Lan-Feng, despite their fierce appearance, were quietly losing faith. Witnessing Cha Eun Xiao single-handedly dismantle all the mangonels within the enemy army, moving with unprecedented freedom and decimating enemy forces as he pleased, their spirits were broken.
The enemy commander had penetrated their ranks, an army numbering over a million strong, yet they couldn't lay a finger on him. He proceeded to eliminate soldiers with apparent ease and obliterate all the mangonels single-handedly. The once-thought invincible Iron Peak, shielded by Cha Eun Xiao, now seemed impregnable.
Their hopes of conquering Iron Peak appeared as nothing more than a fleeting dream. Morale was shattered.
On the other front, the relentless combat raged on. Song Jue remained a dominating force, leading his men headlong into the heart of the Kingdom of Lan-Feng's camp. Zhu Chenggong watched in awe, feeling a surge of exhilaration unlike anything he had ever experienced.
"This is incredible!" he thought. "Running free within the enemy's camp, an experience every true warrior craves. I wouldn't regret dying at this very moment."
As the battle unfolded, the enemy's ranks suddenly parted, allowing a stream of sword light to break through. This wasn't the work of the Kingdom of Lan-Feng, as only Wenren Chuchu possessed the skills to execute such a maneuver on their side. It was Ning Biluo and his squad.
They cleaved through the camp, leaving chaos and destruction in their wake. Song Jue, his heart pounding with excitement, spurred his horse onward, bypassing Ning Biluo's squad. Without exchanging words, they each led their troops to collide head-on with the other's original path.
This was Cha Eun Xiao's master plan, an intricate web of synchronized movements that had been laid out earlier. The twenty squads acted as pairs, entering the camp from different directions and engaging the enemy forces. With fewer than two hundred thousand soldiers, they aimed to break the enemy's formation within the massive camp. Cha Eun Xiao knew that controlling over a million troops would pose challenges, making rapid reactions difficult.
The goal was clear: the twenty squads would traverse the camp and converge in the center, dismantling the enemy formation.
Two squads would join in the center, indicating the moment to retreat for victory. Engaging in prolonged combat within the camp, refusing to retreat, would result in encirclement and peril. Cha Eun Xiao had provided them with a structured exit strategy: charge through, meet in the middle, and break free.
Ning Biluo and Song Jue met in the center of the camp, an unspoken understanding passing between them. They turned and dashed in opposite directions. Meanwhile, the rest of the squads executed their roles as planned, meeting in the camp's center before carving a path to freedom.
Song Jue and his men, bursting forth from the camp like a furious dragon, raced toward Iron Peak, contributing to the overall execution of Cha Eun Xiao's brilliant strategy.
Cha Eun Xiao felt a tinge of annoyance when he realized that Ning Biluo had reached the center before him. After all, his cultivation far surpassed Ning Biluo's. To compensate, Cha Eun Xiao decided to take the lead in returning to Iron Peak.
On the flip side, Ning Biluo also yearned to be the first one back at Iron Peak. But there was one crucial area where he fell short compared to Song Jue. Song Jue's squad had lost just over four thousand men, meaning that fewer than a thousand of their initial five thousand were casualties in the Kingdom of Chen's camp. It was an astonishing testament to their resilience.
Song Jue's men had experienced countless trials by fire. Their eyes now held a fierce and unwavering determination. The battle they had endured was worth a hundred others on the battlefield. They fought with the spirit of the god of war as they cut a path through the enemy ranks, feeling invigorated and tireless. They harbored an almost insatiable desire to return to the fight despite their bodies being on the brink of exhaustion.
As they charged, they should have been fatigued to the point of falling off their horses at any moment, but in their minds, they felt rejuvenated. They yearned to dive back into the fray, unable to believe the reservoir of energy and determination that surged within them.
Meanwhile, the conflict on Iron Peak's tower raged on, although it appeared fierce, victory was already within grasp for the Kingdom of Chen. Song Jue and his men galloped back to the tower. The Lan-Feng soldiers were left in a state of disarray and dared not pursue them. Why chase after a group of warriors who seemed insane in their bravery?
Twenty squads had ventured out, and eighteen returned, with two falling in the enemy camp. Wenren Jianyin's strategy had not been foolproof, but it had taken down two squads. Unfortunately, it cost them six of their own in the process.
The surviving superior cultivators among the Lan-Feng forces had undergone a baptism by fire and emerged as true warriors, ready to face any kind of battle and formidable adversary. Cha Eun Xiao, standing on the wall, could feel the energy coursing towards him, entering the Boundless Space. The atmosphere seemed to grow less oppressive.
Soul power floated in the air over the battlefield as Cha Eun Xiao stood vigilant. His Space absorbed the soul power released by those who had recently perished. It was an astonishing phenomenon that spanned both the souls lost in this war and those throughout history.
Song Jue and the others returned to the tower like a tempest. They swiftly entered the wall, confronting the throngs of enemies crowding the area. They pushed through, leaving the enemy encircled on two sides. Although the soldiers on the wall couldn't launch attacks, their mere presence added to the enemy's discomfort.
The Lan-Feng soldiers had invested considerable time and effort attempting to breach the wall, to no avail. They had lost their morale and were now under attack from both inside and out. In response, they began a hasty retreat.
As if on cue, the eighteen squads converged at the gate of Iron Peak like a tidal wave, with Song Jue and his elite team stationed on horseback outside the army. Their bloodlust permeated the air, and tens of thousands of Kingdom of Chen soldiers stormed the gate.
The Lan-Feng forces had contemplated entering the gate in pursuit but wisely abandoned the notion upon seeing Song Jue and his squad.
In the span of just half an hour, all eighteen squads had safely re-entered Iron Peak. Song Jue and his comrades smirked before wheeling their horses and crossing the threshold of the fortress.
By midnight, the jubilation inside the wall was a stark contrast to the devastation outside. Fires raged for miles across the Kingdom of Lan-Feng's camp, and they were impossible to contain.
Wenren Jianyin's face turned pallid. "I'd heard that Cha Nantian's sworn brother, Song Jue, was a formidable and valiant warrior. Now I see that the rumors are true," he muttered, acknowledging the exceptional display of bravery and battle prowess.