Chapter 510: Luo An’s Atonement Battle, the Red-Silver Blade Puppet |
"Kill!"
The biting cold wind kept slashing across his face, the cold light from the sky making the Black Scale Silver Armor on his body even chillier, yet Ro An, who roared and charged at the front of the battle line, felt not a shred of cold.
The shameful scene outside Tiger Nursing Forest the night before last was still vivid in his mind. If they had merely embarrassed themselves, it would have been one thing, but the crucial point was they caused the death of the Commander-in-Chief's wife, Han Yue, and nearly got the Second Young Lord abducted.
He was not stupid. After the incident at Tiger Nursing Forest, after only a brief reflection, everything clicked into place. That night, Madam had already taken thorough protective measures for the Second Young Lord. If they had not acted so foolishly, all crowding toward the top of the carriage at the same time, the enemy would have had no chance to approach the Second Young Lord.
In other words, the Dragon Garrison Captains had actually made the situation worse that night.
If they had not interfered, the head maid of the Star Gathering Hall — Han Yue, the wife of Commander-in-Chief Tie Xinchuang — would never have died.
What made him feel even worse was Tie Xinchuang's reaction afterwards. He had caused such a huge disaster and killed Han Yue. Even if Tie Xinchuang had cut his body a few times, he could have felt some relief. Yet Tie Xinchuang did nothing, said nothing.
Not even a single word of reproach.
The more like that it was, the deeper Ro An's guilt sank.
Ro An knew clearly that apologies would not help one bit!
Han Yue had been Tie Xinchuang's wife for only three years; she was the mother of his just-turned-two-year-old son Tie Shi Yu. Though it had been an accident, in the end it was their fault that she died. Even if Tie Xinchuang accepted an apology out of courtesy, would Ro An ever regain inner peace?
This debt, he would pay for the rest of his life.
Even a lifetime of remorse might not win Tie Xinchuang's forgiveness.
Because he understood this so clearly, Ro An had been heavy and suppressed for two days, and all that pent-up guilt and self-blame in the moment of battle had completely transformed into pure rage against Beishuo.
Killing a few more Beishuo soldiers might be the only way he could think to atone for Tie Xinchuang!
The Ice Abyss ultimately answers by strength. When two armies collide, the first wave to clash are naturally those at the strongest tier, the Sun Manifestation Level, then come the Cloud Python Army and Dragon Garrison Captains' commanders and battalion leaders.
Ro An was the commander of the Dragon Garrison Captains' Third Battalion.
Huu......
Rushing to the front, Ro An hesitated almost not at all. Three vertical cloud-pattern lines suddenly appeared between his brows. He raised his long saber and swung down at a plated commander charging straight at him.
The Xia troops had reached the center under their officers first, and so had the Beishuo army.
The Beishuo soldier confronting him was also clad in silver armor and wielding a longsword. Anyone who could charge at the front of an army must have some real strength. Seeing Ro An's saber glaringly chop down, he showed no fear, cutting his sword across to parry and simultaneously angling the blade toward Ro An's neck.
Shing......
Blade met blade, sparks flying.
With the blades of similar quality, it came down to raw force.
The Beishuo commander's longsword only slid forward a dozen centimeters before Ro An's pressure stopped it. His face shifted; anger flared at the corner of his eye. He twisted his body to pull the sword away and rammed his shoulder hard into Ro An's chest in a close-quarters shoulder bash.
"Thousand-Forged Silver Armor, and you're wearing iron-mixed plating? Want to trade blows with me?"
Beishuo's troops were elite soldiers of Beishuo Town, each outfitted with Hundred-Forged Silver Armor, while their officers had the higher-tier Thousand-Forged Silver Armor, whose defense was only slightly below the Thunder Kui Gold Armor worn by the Cloud Python and Dragon Slayer armies. This Xia junior officer had Thousand-Forged silver on helmet, pauldrons, breast and back plates, knees, upper and lower arms—everything—except his chest plate was black, so he naturally assumed Ro An's breastplate was iron.
It was clear his shoulder bash was premeditated from the start.
Clang... crack...
However, the moment his shoulder struck Ro An's breastplate, his expression froze. Not only did he look stunned, but a brutal force transmitted from Ro An's chestplate, raw pain flared through the bones of his shoulder.
"This......"
"With only thirty-four Zong of strength, you want to fight me? Hm? You think my chestplate is iron?"
After taking the shoulder bash, Ro An read that man's thoughts in an instant and spat a cold laugh. Seeing the opponent try to step back, his expression turned icy. He flipped the saber, spun his body in a circle, and then rose up to slash viciously at the man's right shoulder.
Clang!
"You..."
The Beishuo commander turned and saw his shoulder plate cleaved, his pupils instantly widening, horror painting his face.
Thousand-Forged Silver can withstand up to fifty Zong of impact. From the first exchange with Ro An he estimated Ro An's strength at no more than forty Zong—how could a single strike split his shoulder plate?
Ro An, however, pressed his hands on the other's blade-still-gripped hands, sneering, and spat, "If I hadn't held back on that first strike, you idiot, would you even have been able to take a second hit?"
His base strength was already thirty-one Zong. With the Sacred Mark's thirty percent amplification he surpassed forty Zong. Add a four-layer martial arts amplification and his strength could peak around fifty-three Zong.
Thousand-Forged armor was strong, but not enough before him.
Crack......
On a battlefield, a successful strike is not to be squandered. Ro An pushed down with both hands, grinding the blade into the enemy's bones, then he drove his right leg up and stomped on the man's chest.
Boom......
The enemy commander toppled backward and fell, Ro An rushed atop him and pinned his neck underfoot, immobilizing him completely.
"Dog traitor, die!"
Ro An roared, pupils wide. He summoned strength to yank out his horizontal saber and drove it straight down at the commander's face.
Seeing the horizontal blade descend, the enemy's jaw and throat moved in unison, clearly he had swallowed something.
"Hoh......"
A sudden clear energy flickered across his face. In the next instant, with lightning speed, he braced his sword against his face and, when the horizontal blade was only inches from his face, forcibly shoved the saber aside.
Clang......
A fifty-Zong-force saber, even as a side strike, sheared away a large piece of flesh from his cheek.
Yet at least Ro An's blow was not instantly fatal.
On the battlefield, so long as life remained, everything was still possible!
Shing......
The fallen enemy lay on the ground. While diverting the blade, he had drawn a silver dagger from his greave. He aimed the blade at the gap between Ro An's waist plate and leg armor and plunged it forward.
Armor can stop arrows and typical blades, but in hand-to-hand combat there are always gaps between plates. Armor's protection is not perfect.
That dagger might not kill outright, but it could wound Ro An, even severely injure him and reduce his combat effectiveness.
On the battlefield, injury is often the beginning of death.
Severe injury equals likely death!
Detecting his dagger penetrate Ro An's skin membrane, the enemy's pupils flashed with delight.
Clang......
However, after piercing the membrane the dagger did not sink into flesh, nor did it reach bone.
A metallic-brittle ring sounded. The enemy's expression stalled.
"Unafraid of pain? So the Black Ming Master's Pure Cold Pills have been replicated by you Beishuo? You think only you can copy them?"
Pfft........
Ro An's last words reached his ear, and this time the horizontal saber found no resistance as it plunged from neck to throat. The larynx was severed, blood sprayed. The enemy looked up and caught sight of the faint golden glow on Ro An's body, his pupils full of unwillingness and struggle.
But despite the unwillingness, his life slowly slipped away!
Watching the enemy's final gasp, Ro An's face curled into a cold sneer.
Four years ago, Lord Xia Hong had slain three Grand Masters and, by using three organs, Great Xia had successfully replicated the Sunlight Pill and Golden Body Pill. If Great Xia could do that, then Beishuo—who had killed the Black Ming Master—could naturally imitate the Pure Cold Pill. And the Jinshan Town that had taken the Great Abyss Master most likely had also reproduced the Shock Void Pill.
Great Xia had long been prepared before this battle!
The enemy's throat still moved once before his death. Ro An immediately swallowed a Golden Body Pill he had kept in his mouth earlier, which explained how he had withstood the enemy's dagger.
Boom......
There was no rest for those in combat.
In less than three breaths after the Beishuo commander expired, three blades slashed in from left and right. His brows twitched, he kicked the corpse away, raised his horizontal saber to parry the two on his right, and used his back plate to brace the blade from the left.
Clang clang... clang......
The two right-side blows were parried almost simultaneously. The left blow struck his back plate; it didn't breach the armor, but the sheer force pushed him three to four meters to the right, sending him careening toward the two on his right.
Whoosh......
"Above forty Zong, another one's here!"
As Ro An was forced down, he discerned the strength of the left-side attacker. Just as surprise flared in his eyes, two cold flashes from the right momentarily blinded him.
The left-side man was the strongest, the one responsible for knocking him down. The two on the right abandoned large blades and instead pulled out small daggers, one from each side, aiming straight for his face and eyes.
Gold body protection can guard the skin membrane, but it cannot protect delicate orifices like the eyes.
"They're coming at me!"
Apparently the whole fight he had just been in was observed by these three; this was a premeditated, highly targeted assassination.
Ro An's pupils leapt. He would not wait to be killed. He ducked, avoiding the two daggers and using his shoulder plates to crash into the attackers.
Clang......
He'd guessed correctly; the two left-side men were not very strong. His strike sent them flying, but his body also tumbled three to four meters forward, slamming into the ground.
"This kid's young, must have backing. Brothers, help me cut him down!"
An angry bellow rose from behind. Ro An didn't need to glance back to know it was the same expert who had felled him earlier. He sprang up and saw dozens of Beishuo soldiers charging at him from all sides. His expression turned ugly.
He had charged the hardest early, and aside from the Sun Manifestation fighters, he was one of the first to clash with the Beishuo army. In killing that commander he had pressed far in, and being ambushed by those three had pushed him even deeper into enemy lines.
In just those few moves he had already reached the central front of the Beishuo formation. Although he was tall, he was trapped within the formation, surrounded on all sides by dozens of Beishuo soldiers, with not a single Xia soldier in sight.
How far in had he actually charged?
Boom......
As those dozens of Beishuo soldiers lunged at him like starved wolves, a massive scarlet-silver great saber suddenly hacked down from behind.
The saber itself was three zhang long. In motion its cutting arc extended for hundreds of meters. The terrifying force instantly sucked out the air around it. One stroke carved a trench dozens of meters long into the ground, kicking up a cloud of snow meters high. The spectacle was utterly fearsome.
More than ten unlucky Beishuo soldiers standing beneath its arc were instantly turned to minced flesh, their bodies merging into the newly cut trench.
The remaining soldiers pressing toward Ro An saw the scarlet-silver blade rise again and their faces went pale. They quickly dispersed, abandoning the encirclement.
"Ahhhhh...... scoundrel, Xia Chuan scoundrel......"
At the sight of the scarlet-silver great saber, joy flooded Ro An's face. Then a furious roar reached his ears. He turned toward the saber's origin, his pupils flickering with hope.
When the snow mist cleared, the enormous hulking figure behind the scarlet-silver blade revealed itself.
It was a giant scarlet-silver puppet, about five zhang in length. Its arms were twin three-zhang giant blades, and its lower limbs were conical blades with edges on four sides.
Its neck, chest, back, waist, abdomen, and even the main trunks of its limbs were studded from top to bottom with scarlet-silver spikes. Under the glinting snowlight it looked bone-chilling, like a vast field of razor-thorn blades—terrifying to behold.
"This is the Department Chancellor's newly reforged Scarlet-Silver Blade Puppet this year. It even managed to suppress Yang Jian......"
Ro An was familiar with Xia Chuan's Scarlet-Silver Blade Puppet. As someone with access to the inner court, he'd often visited the Refining Pavilion. He had seen this puppet in the furnace earlier this year.
His astonishment now was not for the puppet itself, but for Yang Jian's predicament.
Yang Jian's clothing was tattered and slashed, looking like a beggar. Some places where the skin membrane had been torn were bleeding. He hovered only some ten plus meters above ground, holding a long spear and staring resolutely at the scarlet-silver puppet below—indeed, at Xia Chuan behind the puppet. Fury filled his pupils.
"Xia Chuan, if you have the guts, face me directly. Hiding and attacking a group of Warmth Realm soldiers—this is your Great Xia......"
"Idiot!"
......
Hearing the brief exchange between Yang Jian and Department Chancellor Xia Chuan, Ro An instantly understood. Yang Jian's strength was probably above Xia Chuan's, but Xia Chuan was not engaging him one-on-one. He controlled the puppet to stall Yang Jian.
With the puppet's huge mass and Xia Chuan's strength, even casual residual waves would heavily influence nearby Beishuo soldiers. No wonder Yang Jian was frustrated and losing his temper.
"Let him be frustrated..."
Ro An didn't spend much more thought on the fight between Xia Chuan and Yang Jian. Freed from encirclement by the puppet, he cleared his head a bit, found members of his Dragon Garrison Captains' Third Battalion, regrouped with his people, and quickly shifted into command mode. Leading a battalion, he began steadily advancing on the Beishuo army.
During this push he found clues.
The Dragon Garrison Captains remained in their upfront central position, but in the middle, the Cloud Python Army had already broken into Beishuo's core. From both flanks, the First and Second Battalions had likewise driven straight into the center, and the flag officers of the three armies had even begun to converge within the formation.
In the first round of combat, Beishuo was utterly defeated!
"How much time has passed? At most two hundred breaths and a little. This used to be the strongest Beishuo army of the Mo'ao southern foothills' top town, and yet..."
Undefiable collapse!
Ro An did not vocalize those final four words—because he had already led his men and plunged back into the heart of the Beishuo army.