Mythical Three Kingdoms

”Hold the line at all costs!” Wei Yan yelled, covered in blood.

He pushed himself to his limits, activating his Legion Talent so the entire army briefly glimmered with radiance. Unfortunately, the main formation, on the verge of collapse, was barely held together by the will of the elite soldiers. The Miscellaneous Hun, with their wave-like assault, finally breached the formation’s defenses.

”Break through with me!” Zang Ba shouted with blood-red eyes, charging alone towards the charging Miscellaneous Hun cavalry.

”Guan Ping, abandon the main formation and cut down the Hun’s flank. Zang Ba, get back here!” Xu Shu yelled, his eyes as deep as the starry sky, imprinting all soldiers, friend and foe, deeply into his mind with a single glance.

Numerous anticipated outcomes of formations transforming after piercing vision appeared in Xu Shu’s mind. Despite the pounding headache threatening to explode his skull, he roared out the most concise order, and the war drums resounded wildly—a precursor to Xu Shu’s absolute command.

”Wei Yan, lead all soldiers to retreat towards the southwest!” Xu Shu shouted, ”Guo Huai, Wenn Hong, abandon frontal resistance and attack the right flank of the Hun cavalry.”

”Zhu Ling, turn to face the left side of the Hun cavalry head-on; Juu Fu, fall back!” Xu Shu commanded, pressing one hand against his head, the other supporting him with a sword on the ground, painfully giving orders.

The chaotic situation transformed; with Xu Shu’s roars, everyone reflexively followed his orders.

Guan Ping first severed the advancing Hun from the left side. As Wei Yan’s soldiers retreated southwest, the Hun suddenly surged forward. Guo Huai turned back and directly pierced into the heart of this Hun force, while Zhu Ling turned to face the left flank and Juu Fu’s retreat filled the defensive gaps.

As Zang Ba withdrew, the main formation’s defenses contracted, surprisingly freeing portions of the troops. Naturally, Zang Ba led these few troops to meet the Hun, whose reinforcements Guan Ping had cut off, while Juu Fu and others charged towards another route simultaneously, instantly resolving the crisis.

”Well done, Yuanzhi!” Wei Yan shouted. Although the formation had been compressed by a third, they successfully forced out all the Hun, and the originally crumbling defensive line stabilized by shrinking to squeeze out the Hun.

”Enough with the nonsense, attack your left side. Guan Ping, prepare to open the right side defense. Zhu Ling, Juu Fu, ready yourselves to turn back and hold firm. General Zang, prepare to activate your Legion Talent; we need another contraction to free up reserve troops,” Xu Shu reprimanded.

”If we contract more, our formation’s density will be too high. Although the attack surface shrinks, freeing up our hands, the damage from arrows will increase significantly,” Zang Ba transmitted.

”Stop overthinking it. We need to gamble. The Hun have already latched onto us, and now that they’re engaged in melee, it’ll be hard for them to quickly change their mindset,” Xu Shu transmitted back to Zang Ba, enduring his headache. At that moment, a blue-green firework suddenly appeared in the northeastern sky.

”Contract the formation, our reinforcements have arrived!” Zang Ba shouted. This voice carried hundreds of steps across the chaotic, noisy battlefield.

Guan Ping snatched a long spear, then took out a ten-stone strong bow from the horse’s back. Without thinking, he poured his remaining Inner Qi into it and shot the spear into the sky, where it shattered hundreds of meters up.

Then, in the southwest direction, a purple arrow light shot into the sky, exploding into a massive firework. Unlike the previous blue-green signal, which was not obvious due to insufficient Inner Qi and Cloud Qi suppression, requiring Guan Ping to use physical arrows, the purple streak was very large and conspicuous.

Almost everyone witnessed this scene, instantly boosting their morale. They exerted every ounce of hidden strength stored in their bodies, with the will to survive unleashing unimaginable power from the soldiers.

Turning back time a little, Xiahou Yuan’s Legion Talent was arguably the best for sustained pursuit efforts of the era. The journey from Chang’an to Dai Commandery barely involved any rest before rapidly pushing onward to Shanggu Commandery.

The most terrifying part was that even after such an efficient pursuit, Xiahou Yuan’s soldiers still maintained their combat power. Indeed, there was no such thing as a useless Legion Talent.

Upon reaching Shanggu Commandery, Xiahou Yuan directly took over Ning County as per Xun Youi’s instructions, then ordered Zhang Xiu and Pang De to rush north.

Even though Xiahou Yuan’s Legion Talent was extremely suited for long-distance pursuits, using his abilities non-stop and racing alongside Zhang Xiu and Pang De still exhausted him. If not for his steel-like will, he probably wouldn’t have lasted as long.

This also explains why Liu Ye, despite departing sooner, arrived at Ye City over an hour later than Xiahou Yuan, even though the road from Ye City to Youzhou Shanggu Commandery was closer and better. Sometimes, willpower can indeed alter reality.

This relentless activation of the Legion Talent, while not overly depleting the soldiers’ energy due to its own effects, posed a significant challenge to Xiahou Yuan himself. Since leaving Bingzhou, he’d been relying on willpower to sustain himself. Fortunately, it was as strong as iron, or he wouldn’t have made it this far.

However, upon arrival, Xiahou Yuan was visibly worn out. Even iron-bodied individuals can’t withstand such energy depletion. Persuaded by Pang De and Zhang Xiu, Xiahou Yuan rested in Ning County while Zhang Xiu and Pang De led troops northward.

The two knew that rescuing was as urgent as fighting a fire. With Xun Youi’s analysis of probable judgments by Jia Xu and Fa Zheng, they had nothing to add—heading north to a battlefield near the Yan Great Wall, no more than a hundred li away.

Yet, both understood how large Yan Great Wall’s range was. Xun Youi had pointed out the general area, but a fingernail-covered map section’s actual size depended on the scale. So, they split up to search, agreeing on a signal of inner Qi explosions in the sky.

Unluckily, neither Zhang Xiu nor Pang De had the fortune to stumble upon it, and the same went for Zhang Liao, who also came from the north. However, Zhang Liao’s information was more accurate than theirs.

Near Jia Xu’s estimated location, Zhang Liao decisively released an Inner Qi arrow, nearly the universal communication method among Inner Qi manifestations. As he predicted, when his Inner Qi arrow exploded, a physical arrow shattered across the sky.

This had an unspoken meaning—either they were besieged, or their Inner Qi fully depleted, or they wouldn’t be desperate enough to resort to this method. Yet, being alive was enough!