Chapter 11: The Decisive Battle in the State of Wei - Section 18: The Battle Pledge

Chapter 18: The Wager of Battle

"Hahaha..." After a moment of silent contemplation, Ling Luo suddenly burst into a long laugh, slapping the table as he exclaimed, "It is a rare occasion indeed for the Martial Sovereign and the Northern Monarch to possess such lofty spirits. If this Marquis were to miss it, I would surely regret it for the rest of my days! Why not join forces and breach Mount Low Pass to witness just how formidable the experts of the Wei State truly are!"

Every single general of the State of Zheng in the room turned pale with shock, and they all cupped their fists in unison to dissuade him:

"Think twice, Lord Xin!"

"Lord Xin bears heavy responsibilities; you must never risk your own person in danger!"

"Lord Xin commands the grand strategies from thousands of miles away; where is the need to rely on mere martial valor to subdue the enemy!"

"We are willing to lead the troops in a fierce assault on the Wei pass, to die trying to shatter Mount Low Pass, and shed our blood in your stead, Lord Xin!"

Ling Luo laughed heartily, looking toward the Northern Monarch and pointing at the generals who had just spoken. "Hahaha... Please look, Northern Monarch, none of these gentlemen have any faith in this Marquis's martial arts."

The generals of the Zheng army hastily chorored together, "This subordinate wouldn't dare!"

"Since that is the case, let us speak no more of it. Both the Martial Sovereign and the Northern Monarch harbor such bold and heroic ambitions, does this Marquis lack them?"

Zheng Linran felt a surge of anger in her heart. Back then, on Northern Spirit Mountain, after she had witnessed the terrifying might of Ling Luo's Divine Art, she had spent a very long time secretly recalling and yearning for him in her heart. Later, when Ling Luo returned to the capital of Zheng, she had originally harbored intentions of growing closer to him. Although she did not dare to hold any excessive or extravagant hopes because of Princess Tianlai, she still wished to become Ling Luo's intimate confidante.

She had never expected that Bu Jingxian's death would cause Ling Luo to utter those words, nor that he would constantly, whether overtly or covertly, police her private associations with others. This had filled her heart with lingering resentment—half because she felt Ling Luo was meddling in affairs that did not concern him, and half because she felt Ling Luo harbored no affection for her whatsoever, which wounded her self-esteem. During the Martial Arts Tournament, when she discovered that Ling Luo looked upon July with special favor, a twinge of jealousy could not help but arise within her.

Today, it was a rare thing for the Northern Monarch to be provoked. If the Northern Monarch were to die in battle at Mount Low Pass, it would be entirely beneficial to the State of Zheng and bring no harm, and Ling Luo ought to have been pleased to see it succeed. Yet, he did not hesitate to offer his risky assistance. In Zheng Linran's view, Ling Luo's actions were naturally not meant to aid the Northern Monarch Zuo An; it was transparently clear that he was merely worrying about July.

Thinking thus, she was momentarily so angry that she was left speechless.

Bu Jingxian knew that Ling Luo harbored two dreams: the first was to master skills that surpassed the entire world; the second was to never fail the grace of the King of Zheng, to never fail the affection of Princess Tianlai, and to never fail the expectations and mighty reputation of his father. At this moment, having made this decision, he must have been infected by the valor of July and himself, stirring up a boundless, heroic spirit.

"Good! Lord Xin is truly worthy of being Lord Xin. Being able to fight side by side with Lord Xin makes this Monarch too impatient to wait; I no longer wish to wait until tomorrow. At this very moment, the Wei army is preparing to rest. The three of us will join forces and slaughter our way in, catching the Wei army in a state of exhaustion where they cannot sleep in peace. What do the Lord Marquis and the Martial Sovereign think?" Bu Jingxian placed his sword back down upon the table, his gaze burning bright.

"Why ever not!" Ling Luo laughed aloud, slamming the table in approval.

"Now means now." July wore a look of utter disdain, stepping forward to leave at once.

The generals of the Zheng army all fell silent. They could not dissuade them, so they could only follow them through the military camp with hearts full of worry. Donning their armor, they arrayed themselves outside Mount Low Pass and watched the three of them ascend.

As it happened, the Wei soldiers on the watchtowers of Mount Low Pass saw the Zheng army arrayed in formation and, mistaking it for an impending siege, hurriedly transmitted warnings. In an instant, the Wei generals donned their armor and rushed to the ramparts, while numerous martial practitioners nervously gathered along the city walls and within the gates. To their surprise, the Wei generals and martial practitioners on the watchtower saw three figures—two men and one woman—striding directly toward the pass city.

Mistaking them for enemy envoys, someone channeled their internal energy to shout warnings from afar. Yet, despite repeated shouts and inquiries for quite a while, there was no response whatsoever.

When Ling Luo reached a distance of a hundred paces from the city wall, he came to a halt. His circulating internal energy caused his clothes and hair to whip and flutter in the wind. With a casual wave of his hand, a fierce gale abruptly rose from the flat ground.

A violent wind instantly stirred, kicking up dirt and dust all over the ground to surge toward Mount Low Pass with a momentum that blotted out the sun and sky. In the blink of an eye, the space both inside and outside the pass city was plunged into a dust storm, blinding the entire upper and lower ranks of the Wei army, leaving them with only the sound of whistling gales in their ears.

Ling Luo swept his sleeves in a half-circle around his body, and a whirlwind abruptly manifested beneath the feet of Bu Jingxian and July, lifting them both into mid-air. Riding the momentum of the dust-filled sky, they flew straight across the air and landed upon the ramparts of the pass tower.

The moment Ling Luo landed on the city wall, he unleashed his ultimate technique, "Wind Sweeping Autumn Leaves." In an instant, all the Wei soldiers within a hundred zhang of the inner city wall were blown off their feet by the swirling, violent wind and lifted straight up into the high sky. Bu Jingxian and July moved with tacit understanding, launching a pincer attack left and right along the city wall. The Wei soldiers on the watchtower—which was merely ten zhang long and five zhang wide—were instantly blasted away by July's full-powered "Overwhelming Sea" strike.

Bu Jingxian transformed the umbrella seized from Wu Fei into a long spear, holding the Seven-Star Dragon Abyss sword in one hand as he slashed and swept wildly through the sandstorm. Charging all the way to the left along the city wall, the Wei soldiers in his path were either blown away by the force of the spear or cleaved in two by the divine sword. However, lacking any flashy techniques, his charging battle consumed a fair amount of time, allowing the high-level martial practitioners on the watchtower who detected the disturbance to leap out from the city wall, with nine out of ten successfully evading his surprise attack.

Ling Luo flew up to the very top of the watchtower. Yellow sand still filled the air, yet through his divine vision, he was able to discern the positions of the Wei experts within the pass city. Raising both hands high above his head, he gathered his internal energy into his palms, using the techniques of the Divine Art to elevate his perceptual abilities and draw upon the flowing energies of heaven and earth. Accompanied by a loud shout—

Rolling thunder suddenly exploded within the pass city.

All those whose internal energy cultivation realm fell short of three-tenths of Ling Luo's were instantly killed by the thunder, bleeding from their seven orifices. Even the experts who suffered this sonic shock sustained injuries to their internal energy, leaving them momentarily dizzy, disoriented, and with clouded consciousness.

Internal energy experts from the Sword Mountain Sect rushed in from afar, among them Xiao Gai the Wild Sword, one of the top ten masters of the first Martial Arts Tournament, along with Wu Fei and Wei Wuquan.

Xiao Gai, known as the Wild Sword, belonged to the Huashan branch of the Sword Mountain Sect. His relationship with Wei Wuquan, who specialized strictly in external martial arts, had always been distant, and he was known as a solitary wanderer. After the first Martial Arts Tournament, he traveled across the land in pursuit of further elevating his cultivation realm. When the war between Zheng and Wei first broke out, he had not returned either, only hurrying back to the Wei State after Border Distant City was breached.

While Ling Luo was employing the ultimate techniques of the Divine Art to manufacture chaos with fierce winds and blowing sand, the Wei experts stationed in the military encampment at the rear of the pass city hurried toward the ramparts. Xiao Gai ran at the very forefront, gripping his sword. As he reached the base of the pass city, he heard precisely that explosion of thunder. He hurriedly unleashed his world-renowned ultimate technique—Wild Sword.

Xiao Gai originally belonged to the internal energy school within the Huashan branch, standing in stark contrast to Wei Wuquan, who exclusively practiced external martial arts. When his Wild Sword technique was unfurled, his sword qi was as unbridled as a raging gale and as fierce as towering waves. He forcefully pushed back the howling headwind in its entirety, and thousands of shooting sword qi beams violently crashed into the wind-source energy sphere created by Ling Luo, shattering that very sphere in an instant.

The howling gale abruptly ceased, and the swirling dust, losing the propulsive force of the wind, began to settle slowly in large numbers while others drifted away in all directions.

Simultaneously, July blasted away and sent flying the Wei soldiers and dozens of martial practitioners on the right city wall with a single palm strike. Reaching the end of the city wall, she broke into a fast run, leaped straight out into the air, and landed thirty zhang deep within the pass city. Upon impact, the Wei soldiers within a five-zhang radius from the pass city straight to where she stood were all shaken to death by Ling Luo's thunderous explosion, and seven or eight out of ten martial practitioners perished as well.

As the fierce wind died down, she channeled her secondary innate talent and the "Ten Directions Nine-Five Sovereign," causing golden winds to suddenly erupt within a thirty-zhang radius. Charging fiercely toward the Wei soldiers rushing from the military camp, she unleashed her "Overwhelming Sea" palm strike for a second time, pushing back the six front ranks of Wei infantrymen. Those Wei soldiers crashed into one another, tumbling backward as she shouted and shoved them. Within moments, they were piled more than six hundred layers deep, forced straight back by a full hundred zhang.