Firmament Sword

Mo Yun knew she had been poisoned. She had already braced herself for death, but then she felt that something was wrong with her body.

She felt a little weak, but more alarmingly, her thoughts had begun to slow.

’Damn it!’ Mo Yun’s eyes blazed with fury. Though not an expert in poisons, she wasn’t completely ignorant. From her symptoms, she instantly knew what they had given her and nearly went mad on the spot. ’To think they would sink to such shameless depths... to use something like this on the battlefield...!’

”Damn you!” Mo Yun bit her tongue hard and let out an angry roar, pointing her spear at Wei Ziting. ”You despicable, shameless bastard! I’d rather die than let you have your way!”

The drug Cao Yi had used couldn’t kill an enemy directly. Instead, it caused a person’s thoughts to become slow and rigid. Once it was inhaled, no matter how strong-willed or powerful you were, there was no escape.

Unfortunately, Cao Yi himself had failed to escape from Mo Yun’s grasp. Otherwise, with this skill alone, he surely would have thrived by Wei Ziting’s side.

Mo Yun didn’t know the full extent of the drug’s power, but her current state made one thing terrifyingly clear. ’It won’t be long... I’ll be completely lost to its effects, and I’ll lose myself!’

Mo Yun shot a look of utter grief and fury at the distant Wei Ziting, then cried out to the sky, ”How unfair the heavens have been to me! I, Mo Yun, may fall here today, but even in death, my ghost will never forgive you treacherous, shameless villains!”

As she spoke, Mo Yun pulled a sharp dagger from her leg and viciously swiped it across her own neck.

”General... don’t!”

”General, you can’t do this!”

”General, don’t leave us!”

In that instant, Mo Yun’s personal retinue of soldiers all cried out in a mixture of shock and anger.

Although they were already at a dead end, how could they bear to watch their General die before their very eyes?

Mo Yun’s face was filled with despair. She looked at the loyal officers and soldiers who followed her and gave a bitter smile, but said nothing more. Once she was dead, none of them would leave this place alive today.

’So be it,’ Mo Yun thought. ’If we can’t live together... then we’ll just die together!’ The razor-sharp dagger was practically touching her neck.

The battle cries across the entire battlefield paused at Mo Yun’s action. From a distance, Wei Ziting watched in horror, never imagining this woman would be so fiery as to choose death over humiliation.

SWOOSH!

A faint shadow shot through the air, moving at an extreme speed that almost no one noticed.

In the blink of an eye, the faint shadow had already reached Mo Yun’s side.

At this moment, Mo Yun’s head was starting to spin, and she could barely control the dagger in her hand.

Two streams of tears trickled down her cheeks behind her mask. She gritted her teeth, about to bid farewell to this world. Suddenly, an immense force gripped her wrist, and a low voice sounded in her ear, ”Second Sister-in-law, hold on! I’ll get you out of here!”

’Second Sister-in-law? Is he talking to me? When did I get married?’ Mo Yun’s mind was already growing hazy, her ability to think nearly gone.

If this were any other time, her first reaction would have been to stab him with the dagger.

’Second Sister-in-law? Who the hell is your Second Sister-in-law?’

Xu Luo’s speed was too great. His mastery of the Shaking Light Step completely surpassed the mortal world’s understanding of movement techniques. Thus, it wasn’t until he had stopped Mo Yun’s suicide and carried her away that anyone reacted.

Mo Yun’s officers and soldiers were stunned for a moment, then furious. They had mistaken Xu Luo for one of Wei Ziting’s men.

”Let our General go!”

”Let her go!”

”Don’t you run, boy!”

Meanwhile, Wei Ziting’s men were also stunned. Many of them stared dumbly as the figure carried Mo Yun, leaping into the air and scaling the near-vertical cliff face, about to escape to safety.

And... they couldn’t be sure if this was an escape... or a backup plan from their own young master.

Wei Ziting, however, flew into a rage. He let out a deafening roar, ”Are you all fucking stupid? Nock your bows and shoot him!”

Only then did the men around Wei Ziting realize that this wasn’t their young master’s backup plan. Someone was trying to rescue Mo Yun!

Mo Yun’s officers and soldiers also snapped out of it, their faces instantly filled with joy as they watched the scene.

An officer laughed heartily, ”HAHAHA, the heavens will not let our General perish! Someone is rescuing her! We can die without regrets!”

”We die without regrets!”

”We die without regrets!”

”We die without regrets!”

At that moment, the few hundred surviving warriors of the Great Yan Empire erupted with a soaring, hot-blooded passion. The aura they exuded was both startling and terrifying.

”Damn it! These Cangqiong bastards have humiliated us to this extent! Even if we die, we can’t let them have it easy! Brothers, follow me... let’s send them and their horses flying!” The same officer, wielding two giant battle-axes, took the lead and charged straight at the Wei Family’s private army.

These several hundred men, all with bloodshot eyes, roared and bellowed as they fearlessly charged toward the Wei Family’s private troops.

This aura was enough to make anyone’s blood run cold!

”Draw your bows... quick, draw your bows! Damn it, they’re charging! Shoot... them!”

”Hurry!”

”Draw!”

”Archers, are you all fucking dead?”

The shield-bearers and spearmen at the front of the Wei Family’s private army were completely stunned by their enemy’s fearless charge, scared out of their wits.

Just then, the thunderous sound of horse hooves suddenly came from the distance. Someone shouted, ”Brothers of the Great Yan Kingdom, don’t panic! Your brothers from the Da Han Empire are here!”

”Your brothers from the Da Han Empire have come to save you!”

Wei Ziting was so scared he nearly fainted. ’The Da Han Empire? How could they possibly be in a place like this?’

Looking closely, he saw two contingents of elite cavalry appear on both flanks. All were clad in the standard armor of the Da Han Empire, and they carried a terrifying, murderous aura as they charged in from the rear, catching the Wei Family’s private army completely off guard.

The Wei Family’s private soldiers were stunned senseless. They had already been fighting a grueling battle for a whole day and were nearly exhausted. After making huge sacrifices, they had finally seen a glimmer of hope in wiping out the remnants of Mo Yun’s forces, but they never expected to suddenly be attacked from both front and rear.

The entire formation of the Wei Family’s private army collapsed in an instant. Some began to leap into the turbulent river, while many more were cut down without putting up much of a fight.

Looking further into the distance, dust filled the sky and the sound of battle cries shook the heavens. There was no telling how many more soldiers from the Da Han Empire were rushing over!

Wei Ziting watched this scene, his eyes blazing with such fury that he felt he could shatter his own teeth from gritting them so hard.

Sheng Lin and several other Guards beside him shouted a reminder, ”Young Master, we have to go!”

”Yes, Young Master! There’s no turning this around today! We must go!”

”Young Master, as long as we live to fight another day, we can rebuild! Let’s go!”

Their pleas brought Wei Ziting back to his senses a little. He nodded blankly. ”Alright. Cover me. Let’s go, quickly!”

A large group of Guards loyal to the Wei Family desperately covered Wei Ziting, fighting to the death to carve out a bloody path. They fled along the riverbank into the distance like terrified, beaten dogs.

When the private soldiers of the Wei Family saw their commander had fled, what were they waiting for? They too followed behind Wei Ziting, fighting for their lives as they escaped.

The Da Han Empire cavalry, however, didn’t go out of their way to stop them. Instead, they opened up a path, allowing them to flee.

After Wei Ziting’s group had fled for seventy or eighty li, they took a headcount and discovered that after that single charge from the enemy, of the more than six thousand men they had left, only a little over three thousand seven hundred had escaped.

Veins bulged on Wei Ziting’s forehead. He had set out this morning with fifteen thousand private soldiers of the Wei Family, and now only 3,700-odd remained. Worse, many of them were seriously wounded. In the end, he feared fewer than two thousand would still be fit for combat.

’This was the Wei Family’s entire foundation in the north!’

’And I’ve buried it with my own hands…’

’I... what have I done?’

’It should have been an easy victory... How did it suddenly turn into this?’

Wei Ziting couldn’t make sense of it. Just then, a Guard from the rear guard, his eyes bloodshot, rushed up to Wei Ziting and cried out in grief, ”Young Master, we’ve been tricked! We’ve been terribly tricked!”

”Wha-what do you mean, tricked? Speak clearly!” Right now, the word Wei Ziting couldn’t bear to hear was ”tricked.” Ever since he had crossed paths with Xu Luo, he had been deceived many times, and each time, the deception was disastrous.

For some reason, Xu Luo’s name suddenly popped into Wei Ziting’s mind. He looked at the Guard with suspicion and uncertainty. ”Could this... have something to do with Xu Luo again? Would he dare collude with the people of Da Han?”

”No, Young Master! This subordinate doesn’t know if this has anything to do with Xu Luo, but we were tricked by that group just now! They didn’t have that many men! That scene of dust filling the sky was just a few dozen horses dragging large tree branches while they kept shouting battle cries to make noise! In reality, that group had fewer than a thousand men...”

”How... could this be?” Wei Ziting’s face turned deathly pale. He had just fled in terror like a beaten dog, fearing for his life, only to find out the enemy... numbered only a sixth of his own force.

A mouthful of blood sprayed from Wei Ziting’s mouth. His body swayed twice before he tumbled directly off his horse.

...

On the battlefield, the Wei Family’s private soldiers who failed to escape were almost all killed. Some jumped directly into the river and were swept away. In such a turbulent current, even a strong swimmer would struggle to survive, let alone these private soldiers who were already exhausted from a full day of fighting.

This group of ”Da Han Empire” soldiers had come as quickly as they had gone. After rescuing the last four hundred-odd officers and soldiers of the Great Yan Empire, they departed without a trace, their whereabouts unknown.