After the Immortal Disappeared

Chapter 436: Chapter 435: Kill on Sight

’I’ll just deal with holding them accountable tomorrow morning,’ he had thought before embracing the beautiful woman.

But with a moment’s inattention, the enemy was already at the gates.

’How could they fail to stop them?’

How could the city gates, repaired and reinforced for over a decade, be so easily shattered by the Panlong Army?

”Close the palace gates! Where are my generals!”

The Xiji Kingdom tried to rally its forces but failed to mount an effective resistance. By dawn, two of their generals had been killed in action and two had been captured. The rest, seeing the situation was hopeless, led their troops back to the Palace City—the inner city—and sealed the gates.

With the outer city breached, defending the inner city and waiting for reinforcements was still a viable strategy. The Palace City gates were even sturdier than the outer gates and were protected by more Defensive Arrays. The smaller area also allowed for a more concentrated defense, making it easier to hold.

Not to mention, the palace had ample food supplies.

But even as the sun rose in the east, no reinforcements arrived.

’Where is the Garrison Army stationed in the western suburbs and the southern River Valley? Why aren’t they coming to break the siege!’

’Otherwise, they could launch a pincer attack with the Royal Army and repel this Panlong City Army that came from so far away!’

No matter how furiously Huyan Zhao raged, no one around him had an answer.

He cautiously climbed to the top of the Palace City gatehouse. Looking down, he saw that the fighting in the outer city had dwindled to scattered skirmishes. The main force of the Panlong City Army had finished assembling and was now pressing against the palace gates.

Most of these soldiers’ armor was stained with blood, but their gazes were as hungry as a wolf pack’s, sending a chill through the hearts of the Xiji People on the gatehouse.

A rare silence fell over the area above and below the palace gates.

A high-ranking Xiji general stepped forward and bellowed, ”Who’s in charge? Show yourself!”

The army below silently parted to form a path for a single rider. The rhythmic CLOP, CLOP, CLOP of the horse’s hooves sounded like it was stomping on everyone’s heart.

The rider wore red armor and a Red Ghost mask. She looked up at the city wall. Huyan Zhao, standing in the back, felt the masked figure’s gaze pass straight through the general and land directly on him.

The general couldn’t afford to lose his imposing air. ”State your name, officer!”

A cold voice echoed in the mind of every person from Xiji: ”Red General of Panlong City.”

’That’s not how a human speaks,’ the general choked out. ”Are you a demon?”

The Red General didn’t bother engaging with him, speaking directly to the new king instead. ”Huyan Zhao, I have already dispatched forces to annihilate the Garrison Camps at the South Gate and in the western suburbs. The reinforcements you’re so desperately waiting for are not coming.”

General Nanke and his troops had split off on the plains to do just that.

For the past few years, the small surrounding kingdoms had all heard of a new general in the Panlong Wasteland who had risen to prominence. She was said to be invincible but ruthless. Hearing that this was the one who had come, the hearts of the Xiji People sank.

Hearing her claim that their reinforcements had been wiped out, leaving the Palace City isolated and helpless, everyone exchanged looks of fear and dismay.

Enraged, Huyan Zhao took two steps forward, ignoring the general’s attempt to stop him, and laughed loudly. ”You think a few mere lies can sow discord among my troops? The Red General is nothing special after all!”

The Red General continued, ignoring him, ”Surrender now, and I will not harm you. Put up a desperate resistance, and the inner city will be piled with corpses.”

”Red General, Xiji has no quarrel with Panlong City! How dare you launch a sneak attack!”

”You’re in the way.”

Huyan Zhao was stunned. ”What?”

The Red General patiently explained, ”We are returning to the Xiluo Kingdom, and you are blocking our path.”

Listening from the rear guard, Hee Lingchuan didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

’Panlong City and Xiji have a deep-seated grudge, yet the Red General insists on picking the most trivial reason. Is she trying to anger Huyan Zhao to death?’

”You... you people...” Huyan Zhao was so overcome with rage he was speechless. ’Panlong City would destroy Xiji for such an absurd reason?’ It took him a long moment to force out a sentence: ”Have you never heard of asking for passage?!”

But the Red General was done talking. ”Surrender, or wait for death?” She then added, ”If you surrender the city, you may yet live out your days in peace on Xiji’s lands. On behalf of our Monarch, Commander Zhong permits you to be titled a marquis south of the Ji River.”

The Ji River ran through the south-central part of the Xiji Kingdom. The lands south of it constituted a large territory, about one-third of the kingdom’s total area. Zhong Shengguang’s meaning was clear: if Huyan Zhao surrendered immediately, he would lose his title as Monarch but could still rule over a third of his original kingdom as a marquis.

Huyan Zhao laughed in fury at her words. ”Ha! Making me a marquis in my own kingdom. How generous of you, Panlong City!”

The Red General didn’t argue. ”I will ask again in three days. By then, the promised territory will only be the lands south of Shao Mountain.”

The area south of Shao Mountain was a third smaller than the lands south of the Ji River.

Huyan Zhao’s face turned ashen. He roared to the men beside him, ”Shoot her! Quickly, loose your arrows!”

At the general’s command, a volley of arrows rained down from the city gate.

The troops below were prepared, raising their shields to meet the attack.

Aiming for a kill, more than half of the Xiji arrows were directed at her. Seeing the sudden downpour of arrows from the rear, Hee Lingchuan broke out in a cold sweat for the Red General.

’In a large-scale battle like this, there’s a limit to what one person can do.’

But to his surprise, the Red General didn’t dodge or even raise her Long Spear.

The dense volley of arrows had all been aimed at her, but for some reason, they all went astray. SWISH, SWISH, SWISH! They riddled the ground around her like a hornet’s nest. It was a spectacular sight, but in reality, the closest arrow landed three feet away from her.

The general’s eyes narrowed. He grabbed a greatbow himself. ”Fire again!”

Another volley of arrows rained down, with the general’s own shots mixed in—a rapid two-arrow burst.

One after the other.

He suspected the Red General was using some kind of Blinding Technique or a Secret Art that bent light, causing arrows aimed at her to miss.

By firing those two arrows one after the other, the general was calculating the margin of error.

Of course, the Panlong Army below wouldn’t just sit there and be shot at; they began to return fire.

However, shooting upwards gave them a natural disadvantage, especially since the enemy was hiding behind the crenellations.

The Red General remained unhurried. She turned her horse and trotted back.

Her orders were to surround them and attack slowly. Kill anyone who comes out!

On the wall, the general fired two more arrows. They also missed, but he had now estimated the angle and drew his bow again.

But in that brief moment, the Red General casually plucked an arrow from a nearby soldier’s shield, spun around in her saddle, and threw it with a lightning-fast backhand motion!

The arrow was too fast for the naked eye to see. It made no sound as it plunged into the general’s right eye.

It went in the front and out the back, erupting in a spray of blood.

Only then did the people beside him hear a faint WHOOSH cut through the air.

Terrified, Huyan Zhao stumbled back three large steps, no longer daring to approach the wall.

’The general had the strength to tear apart tigers and leopards with his bare hands. How could this ghost-faced person have burst his eyeball with a casual throw?’

’She didn’t even use a bow!’

The Red General clapped her hands and ordered, ”Don’t let a single one of them out.”

Leaving the King of Xiji fuming on the gate, she went off to deploy her troops and continue hunting down the scattered soldiers within the city.

The Panlong Army’s attack had been hasty. Although they had struck with the force of a thunderbolt, the victory was crude. Now, she had to reorganize her grid and eliminate the fish that slipped through the net and any hostile forces lurking in the shadows, one by one.

She also dispatched men to seize important strongholds like the granaries, armories, and stables to secure their resources.

At the same time, the Red General ordered public notices to be posted to reassure the populace, making a strict distinction in treatment between civilians, officials, and soldiers. She then implemented military rationing throughout the city.

Huyan Zhao and his men had been forced to seal the Palace City gates in the morning, but the battle in the Xiji Capital City actually continued until the evening of the next day. Many scattered Xiji soldiers had been cut off from the main force during the chaos and hadn’t managed to retreat into the Royal Palace. They regrouped within the greater city and put up stubborn resistance in the form of small, scattered alley fights.

They all wanted to rendezvous with each other and rush to the king’s aid.

The elites of the Great Wind Army under the Red General’s command, including Hee Lingchuan, latched onto them like a wolf pack.

It was here that the Red General’s tactical flexibility truly shone, as she constantly anticipated the enemy’s moves. The traps she laid were ones the enemy would eagerly rush into.

Alley fighting was a new experience for Hee Lingchuan. This kind of close-quarters combat, a clash in narrow paths, tested not only fighting strength but also luck. After all, you never knew where an enemy might pop out from or what kind of dirty tricks they might use to ambush you.

Hee Lingchuan saw one of the Great Wind Soldiers make a careless mistake and get blown high into the air by an enemy. Before the body even hit the ground, he could see that the torso had been completely severed from the legs.

The man was a member of Meng Shan’s squad.

Seeing this, Meng Shan let out a furious roar and, with a Barbaric Bull charge, smashed straight through a two-foot-thick earthen wall. The enemies behind it had no time to flee. He snapped one’s neck and swung the other by the leg, smashing him against a pillar three times until his brains burst out.

The red and white fluid splattered across his face, but Meng Shan didn’t even bother to wipe it away. He turned his head and happened to see Hee Lingchuan standing a few dozen feet away. He immediately yelled, ”Thirty-three and thirty-five!”

”What about thirty-four? Did you eat it?” ’Does this guy really not know how to count?’ Hee Lingchuan grinned at him. ”Also, I’ve already taken down thirty-nine!”

His methods weren’t as brutal as Meng Shan’s, but they were efficient; he simply incapacitated his enemies, stripping them of their ability to fight.

With that, Hee Lingchuan turned and walked away, leaving Meng Shan to furiously bellow at his teammates, ”What are you standing around for? Drag these gutless rats out and finish them!”

Just then, several figures emerged from behind a doorway with their hands up. ”Don’t kill us, don’t kill us! We surrender!”

”One, two, three, four!” Meng Shan was overjoyed. He asked his teammate, ”Four surrendered. So how many have we gotten now?”

”Thirty-eight,” his teammate answered cautiously. ”Still one behind the Broken Blade Squad.”

”Huh?”

Meng Shan’s smile vanished.

Hee Lingchuan leaped over some rubble and saw the heavily wounded member of Meng Shan’s squad lying on the ground.

Everything below his waist was gone, his blood and organs spilling onto the ground.

An injury like this was beyond saving.

But he was still alive. He looked at Hee Lingchuan and struggled to extend a hand.

Hee Lingchuan strode forward, grasped the man’s hand, and said in a low voice:

”I’m here. We’re all here.”

Willow and the others walked over as well.

They all recognized the man. Not long ago, he had toasted Hee Lingchuan at the tavern. They heard his family had upgraded their house this year, and that he had an adorable little sister.

Meng Shan’s squad also rushed over. Seeing their teammate’s ghastly state, their faces darkened as well.

The wounded man said something, his voice faint. Hee Lingchuan leaned close to his ear and barely heard a single word:

”...home...”