Dragon Canon

The centurion let out an imperious grunt and covered his whole body in mystic energy, preparing himself to withstand the Dao spell head on. Human cultivators were feeble, whereas centurions possessed a great reservoir of mystic energy and wore heavy armor. The spell of an ordinary Dao Foundation stage cultivator would at most inflict a small wound on him.

A pair of cyclones appeared on from his left and right, spinning fist-sized rocks at high speed and pelting them against his body. At the same time, a lump of watery blue exploded in front of his mount and unleashed a shower of water blades at its head. The startled warhorse hurriedly lifted its forelegs into the air and blocked the rest of the water blades with its chest armor. Finally, a jar-sized meteor appeared in the sky and fell straight toward the centurion’s head.

Although the centurion’s vision was still blurry, it took him little effort to shoot the meteor falling toward his head into pieces. Out of the four Dao spells, only the meteor in the sky posed some threat. The rest were nuisances at most. He let out an uproarious laugh and roared, “Doesn’t hurt, doesn’t tickle!”

Meanwhile, Wei Yuan was leaping off his horse and locking his gaze on the two hundred merit points less than fifty zhang away from him. He ran a couple steps before throwing his long spear forward with all his might!

The reason he leaped off his mount before throwing his spear was simple: the reactive force was completely beyond his warhorse’s ability to endure.

The spear flew like a dragon and punched through the centurion’s flank in an instant. It had only lost a little speed when it emerged from the other side, causing the centurion’s body to abruptly explode in a shower of blood and gore. It was a blow that had nearly emptied half of his body!

Straining, the centurion slowly looked down until he saw the horrifying wound on his body clearly. Then, he collapsed to the ground just like that.

Wei Yuan had not employed any Dao energy to throw the spear. It was a blow fueled by physical strength only. Besides that, the centurion was still recovering his vision and was distracted by the Dao spells. Thus, he failed to dodge before it was too late.

This was the first time Wei Yuan and Lee Zhi had cooperated with each other. When Lee Zhi noticed that his comrade was sneakily approaching the centurion, he decided to withstand the next few arrows head on and blind his opponent with a Sunburst spell. Right on cue, Wei Yuan fired off several Dao spells while mimicking the strength of an ordinary Dao Foundation stage cultivator. Although the attack was too weak to do any real damage, it tricked the centurion into lowering his guard thinking that the surprise attack was over. More importantly, it made him ignore Wei Yuan, who wasn’t at the Dao Foundation stage yet.

This allowed Wei Yuan to unleash his true attack—throwing his one zhang, two chi long spear—with all his might!

“Qi Mu’er!!” The other centurion, who had been circling around at a distance, screamed in rage when he saw this. He immediately abandoned his original plan to cut off the humans’ retreat and charged toward the battlefield instead. His riders turned around and followed suit as well.

Wei Yuan tried to return to his horse, but an arrow appeared out of nowhere and pierced its neck. At the same time, countless heavy arrows were whistling his way in an attempt to take out the rider who had lost his mount.

Wei Yuan made a snap decision then and there. He leaped onto the centurion’s warhorse.

A Liao horse was notoriously fierce-tempered, and this one was no different. It let out a furious roar and swung its head backward in an attempt to knock Wei Yuan over. The Liao horse was the centurion’s mount, so it was two chi longer than your average Liao horse. Not only that, its head swing contained enough force to injure an ordinary Dao Foundation cultivator and cause them to throw up blood. However, Wei Yuan was extremely strong. When he punched the horse on the back of its head, its knees buckled, and it nearly collapsed to the ground. Right after that, a wisp of black qi, almost indistinguishable to the naked eye, flew out of Wei Yuan’s body and entered the Liao horse.

The creature abruptly fell silent and remained perfectly still.

Through his perception, Wei Yuan saw that the Liao horse’s soul was struggling with all its might. It refused to submit to his control no matter what. With a thought, he summoned another wisp of black qi from his sea of consciousness and injected it into its body, causing its soul to be dyed in a sheen of grayish black and become one with his consciousness. The Liao horse was massive to begin with, but it grew another chi and started huffing steam from its nostrils.

Wei Yuan urged the Liao horse forward and charged toward Lee Zhi, yelling, “Get on!”

Lee Zhi was shocked, but he knew better than to ask questions at this time. He leaped onto the horse’s back and sat behind Wei Yuan.

The centurion’s mount was terribly formidable to begin with, but its strength seemed bottomless after it was empowered by Outlawed by Heaven and Earth. It easily carried two adults in heavy armor like they weighed nothing at all.

Another heavy arrow, gleaming with a yellow light, tore through the air. Wei Yuan was unarmed right now, so he had no choice but to catch it with his bare hand. It slid a little over a chi past his palm before coming to a stop. The shaft was clearly stained with blood.

The shot had been shot by the other centurion from about eight hundred zhang away. Despite this, and despite the sheer toughness of Wei Yuan’s body, it still carried enough potency to bleed his hand.

“Use this!” Lee Zhi handed the golden beast-headed shield and lightning halberd to Wei Yuan before grabbing his bow. He then loosed a watery blue mystic artifact arrow at the centurion.

The arrow was already moving as swiftly as lightning, but it kept accelerating along the way and reached the centurion in almost no time at all. In response, the centurion drew his curved saber and struck it squarely!

The arrow exploded into a shower of icicles the second it was struck. It pelted the centurion everywhere and covered him in a sheen of bluish cold.

In response, the Liao barbarian let out a terrible roar and shattered the ice. Of course, it also caused blood to shoot out of the countless tiny holes riddling his body. He looked unmoved, however. He simply spurred his horse forward with an even deeper look of rage on his face.

Seeing that the Profound Ice Arrow had failed to deal a heavy blow against his opponent, Lee Zhi made a snap decision. “Retreat! Call for reinforcements!”

Eight or nine of his elite soldiers had already perished in battle. Every single member in his guard of sixty was a battle-hardened elite, and to lose even one of them caused him much heartache. Considering that they were at a clear disadvantage, the young general was unwilling to continue fighting against the Liao barbarians as a matter of course.

Lee Zhi retrieved a red arrow and shot it into the sky. It exploded into a shower of fire and smoke when it was about a hundred zhang above ground. It flashed a couple more times before fading gradually. The arrow was a signal arrow exclusively to immortal sect disciples. It was used to call for reinforcements. When it flashed in the sky, it was transmitting the identity of the person calling for help and the strength of the enemy to everyone within a hundred li. Any immortal sect disciple wielding a specific mystic artifact would be able to detect this signal. A cultivator with a high cultivation or strong perception would be able to sense it without needing a mystic artifact as well.

In this case, Lee Zhi’s arrow transmitted the following information: Lee Zhi of Southern Qi, strong enemies, fighting while retreating, immediate help required.

Wei Yuan had a signal arrow of his own. He had given one to Fang Hetong as well. However, Lee Zhi’s signal arrow obviously could gather more reinforcements.

Meanwhile, the yellow clouds in the distance were starting to churn again. It was only growing more violent by the second. The terrain flashing in his head, Wei Yuan suggested with a stern expression, “Let’s retreat toward Quyang!”

Originally, Lee Zhi was planning to retreat toward the fort. However, Wei Yuan’s suggestion reminded him that Quyang was the shortest way out of Liao territory. In the human realm, the Northern Liao cavalry would only be two-third as strong. Besides that, he also noticed the distant anomaly and knew that heavens-know-how-many enemy cavalrymen were heading their way.

The elite guards of Southern Qi were ultimately elites. They didn’t fall in shambles even though they were mounting a retreat under attack. Forming a circular formation, they rode back and forth and shot back against the surrounding Liao cavalrymen with their mystic artifacts. At the same time, they gradually “rolled” toward the south like a massive spike ball.

In response, the Northern Liao cavalrymen rode back and forth in the periphery and loosed volley after volley of arrows at the Southern Qi guards. The centurion had also traded a few blows with both Wei Yuan and Lee Zhi. Wei Yuan took another two shots, but he managed to kill the centurion’s warhorse with one spear thrust. Lee Zhi also seized the opportunity to shoot an arrow through the centurion’s leg.

However, the centurion proved to be a formidable opponent. Despite his leg wound, he snatched a horse from his subordinate and chased them again, relentless.

They fought as they retreated. A while later, another one hundred cavalrymen burst out of the distant yellow clouds! It was at this moment Wei Yuan suddenly felt an invisible weight lifting off his shoulders. He felt unbelievably soothed like he had just washed off several years of dust and mud from his body.

This could only mean one thing: they had finally returned to the human realm!

By now, only forty Southern Qi elite cavalrymen were still standing. Now that they were back in the human realm, their formation was much steadier, and the Liao cavalrymen became much slower and weaker than before. Unfortunately, they were still outnumbered many times to one, so they were still bleeding soldiers one by one.

“Scion! What’s taking the reinforcements so long?!” A squad leader finally lost his cool and yelled in Lee Zhi’s direction.

The young general looked furious, and a vein bulged on his forehead. He didn’t respond.