The night wind whipped sand and gravel from the dry gully, stinging his face like tiny blades.
Xu Zhan’s left wrist was wrapped in rough reins, his long legs clamping tight against the horse’s flanks.
The warhorse let out a pained whinny as its four hooves exploded with raw power, charging down from the low, earthen mound.
With a savage, untamed fury, man and beast plunged straight into the pitch-black wasteland.
Ma Jin'an, who had been arguing with the Helian scouts, turned at the sound. His narrow, triangular eyes bulged, pupils contracting sharply.
The moment he recognized the approaching figure, his entire body trembled.
Without a second thought, he grabbed He Minghu by the back of the collar and dragged him, stumbling and crawling, behind the rumps of the Helian cavalry.
“Xu Zhan!” He Minghu gritted out the name, the centipede-like scar on his face twisting grotesquely.
A flood of old grudges and fresh hatred surged through him. He took half a step forward, itching to fight, but his feet felt rooted to the ground.
He had witnessed Xu Zhan cripple twenty elite guards in Zhenbei City with thunderous brutality. Now, watching Xu Zhan’s empty right sleeve flail wildly in the night wind, He Minghu’s legs turned to jelly.
“You’re out of your damn mind! That’s a Living Yama—get the hell back!”
Ma Jin'an stamped his feet in panic, pulling He Minghu backward with all his strength, terrified that Xu Zhan would crush them both into meat paste with a single swing of his mace.
Aletan reined in his restless warhorse, squinting as he saw only one man charging down—and a one-armed cripple at that.
He threw his head back and roared with laughter, a sound dripping with contempt.
“Chen the Scribe sent word that Zhenbei City was loaded with traps. I thought the Great Qian had sent some three-headed, six-armed monster. But it turns out the Great Qian is so desperate they’re sending a one-armed cripple to die?”
Aletan leveled his steel lance, bellowing to his men, “Cut him down! Take that cripple’s head and bring it back to the vanguard camp to use as a chamber pot!”
The Helian heavy cavalry roared in response.
The nearest rider clamped his thighs against his horse’s flanks, leveled his steel lance, and drove it straight at Xu Zhan’s chest, using the momentum of the downhill charge.
Xu Zhan didn’t even furrow his brow. As the razor-sharp tip closed to within two feet of his chest, he yanked the reins sharply. The warhorse reared, its front hooves high in the air, narrowly dodging the strike.
At the same time, his broad hips and waist exploded with power. His left arm swung the sixty-pound black iron meteorite mace in a full arc.
The black iron weapon tore through the air with a grating, teeth-clenching shriek before slamming into the armored front knee of the charging warhorse.
A crisp, sickening crack of snapping bone.
The thick horse leg, armor and all, shattered. The horse let out a tragic scream and collapsed headfirst into the mud.
The Helian rider aboard lost all balance, flung forward by the sheer inertia. He slammed face-first onto the hard, dry ground, stunned and disoriented.
Before he could even groan or scramble to his feet, Xu Zhan had leapt from his saddle and planted a heavy military boot on his back.
Xu Zhan brought the iron mace down from above, smashing it into the back of the rider’s steel-helmeted neck.
Blood and white bone fragments burst from the gaps in the armor. The neck guard caved in completely. The Helian elite went still in an instant.
“Third Brother!” Nearby Helian riders turned bloodshot with rage. Three of them wheeled their horses, forming a semi-circle around Xu Zhan.
Three lances sealed all exits in front, behind, and to either side.
Xu Zhan had no intention of lingering. He kicked the dead rider’s body aside, pulled back, and vaulted into a narrow, dry gully nearby.
The gully was absurdly tight. Its walls were hard-packed yellow earth, barely wide enough for a single horse to pass. The heavy cavalry’s prized charge formation was useless here.
The lead Helian rider, hot-tempered, forced his horse into the gully anyway, thrusting his lance straight at Xu Zhan’s face.
Xu Zhan sidestepped slightly. His left arm swung upward and hooked the iron mace under the lance shaft, clamping it with precision. With a twist of his wrist, he locked the steel lance in place.
Then he pulled hard, using the enormous force to yank the rider forward off balance.
Lifting his left leg, Xu Zhan landed a heavy kick square in the rider’s chest.
The rider coughed up a fountain of blood, flew backward, and crashed into the comrade behind him.
Xu Zhan strode forward, swinging his iron mace without mercy.
The sixty-pound meteorite struck the rider’s shoulder armor like a hammer crushing a ripe watermelon.
Shattered steel fragments burrowed deep into flesh. Half of the rider’s torso caved in. He collapsed on the ground, convulsing violently.
Far off in the wasteland, Ma Jin'an watched, his scalp crawling and a chill racing up his spine.
He was a civil official skilled in schemes, not battlefield slaughter. But this—pure, brute-force demolition of heavy armor—shattered his carefully cultivated confidence.
This is a demon clawed straight out of hell! A reincarnated Xiang Yu!
“Run! He Minghu, stop staring and move!”
Ma Jin'an shoved the stunned He Minghu hard.
Seizing the moment while the Helian were tangled up with Xu Zhan, the two turned and sprinted desperately into the depths of the wasteland.
Xu Zhan had just dispatched the last foe with his mace when his peripheral vision caught two pathetic figures trying to slip away.
A cold snort rumbled from his throat. He kicked a discarded steel lance off the ground, winding up his left leg before launching it like a cannonball.
Whoosh—
The lance carved a lethal arc through the night air, grazing He Minghu’s scalp and tearing off a strip of bloody hair.
With a deafening ring, it slammed into the dry earth before them, still trembling and humming.
He Minghu’s legs gave out. He dropped to his knees, unable even to grip his sword.
Ma Jin'an let out a shriek, falling on his backside in the mud, scrambling backward with his hands and feet. The color drained from his face.
Both men stared at the lance blocking their path, frozen in place, daring not to move another step.
“Useless trash! Can’t even take down a one-armed man from Qian! Did the court waste all its grain feeding dogs?”
Aletan howled in rage as he saw several elites lost in moments.
Realizing that fighting this monster in such tight terrain was suicide, he whipped up his horse and barked, “Fall back! Spread out! Keep your distance and shoot him full of arrows!”
The remaining dozen Helian cavalry needed no further encouragement. They wheeled their horses in retreat, stringing their powerful bows as they went.
A dozen steel-tipped arrows glinted in the moonlight, all aimed at Xu Zhan in the gully.
Twang. Twang. Twang.
The bowstrings hummed violently in succession as over a dozen arrows tore through the night sky, shrieking as they streaked toward their target.
Without a moment’s hesitation, Xu Zhan’s left arm bulged as he bent down and seized a corpse of a Helian warhorse at his feet.
The horse, draped in iron armor and weighing at least several hundred pounds, was hoisted by one hand, its body half-lifted to serve as a massive shield before him.
A series of dull thuds rang out as the arrows sank into the thick iron armor and flesh of the horse, not a single one piercing through.
Hiding behind the enormous horse carcass, Xu Zhan pressed forward, dodging a scattered volley of stray arrows, his boots digging deep imprints into the hard, dry ground as advanced step by step.
Blood from the warhorse streamed down his armor, drenching him so thoroughly he looked like a man bathed in gore.
The silent, suffocating pressure of his advance struck fear into the hearts of the surrounding Helian cavalry. Some were trembling so uncontrollably that their fingers could barely hold their bowstrings.
Aletan finally realized that the man before him was no easy prey but an unyielding brute who wouldn’t heed reason.
He cast aside the bothersome spear, drew his broad-backed curved blade with a sharp ring, and spurred his horse forward with renewed urgency. Abandoning his useless men, he charged straight at Xu Zhan.
"Hiding behind a dead horse like a cowardly turtle—what kind of skill is that, you spineless dog of Daqian? Come out and take my blade!"
Riding the terrifying momentum of his gallop, Aletan gripped his sword in both hands and swung a viciously angled arc down at Xu Zhan’s exposed left shoulder.
Just as the curved blade was about to strike, Xu Zhan kicked aside the horse carcass that had been shielding him, thrust his iron club forward instead, and slammed it against the edge of the blade.
A blinding shower of sparks erupted in the dark, accompanied by an ear-splitting clash of metal echoing across the barren bank.
Aletan felt an unbearable numbness spread through his arms as his tiger's-mouth split open, blood spurting from the sudden rupture.
His prized broad-backed blade nearly flew from his grip.
Before he could steady his charge, he met Xu Zhan’s face, ferocity blazing in his eyes.
Xu Zhan stepped forward slowly, brandishing the iron club dripping with shredded flesh.
"Hand over the city defense map, and I’ll grant you savages the mercy of a whole corpse. If a single ‘no’ leaves your mouth, I swear not one of you—or those two lapdogs—will survive the night with a single intact bone."
