Chapter Sixty-Seven: Bet On The Duel
The night wind suddenly stopped. It was not that the mountain wind blowing from Xuegu Pa.s.s had stopped, but an enormous wave of primal energies had moved over with the female cultivator and resisted the wind.
This woman reached out, Pure lifebond presence surged out of her fingertips.
In this moment, there were cracking sounds like ice splitting apart that interrupted the night silence! In the empty air, blue-black ice formed, and gathered in front of her finger at unimaginable speed, piling up together.
This was an unimaginable scene. The ice piled up into a sword and stretched down with her perception.
The moment the cultivators among the Qin troop below reacted, a blue-black sword of ice that was tens of feet long formed, and charged at the person she targeted with terrifying killing intent.
Many shrill screams sounded.
This was the only cultivator in the Qin army who could react in time.
The cultivator who sensed he was being targeted let his vital energy surge out. His white robe was torn apart into several pieces, the soft cloth now heavy due to the energy explosion. He used his body as the sword, furiously slashing backwards, and not caring about the lives of the soldiers behind him.
Many flying swords flew up to attack the ice sword that was stretching and lengthening. While they could not match the sword, they still charged, wanting to stop the ice sword for a moment.
Multiple seemingly light but powerful flying swords met the ice sword but were not able to move it at all. The ice sword charged through these flying swords without rest, hammering the flying cultivator into the ground.
The sword essence landed on the ground, as terrifying power met the ground, time and this scene seemed to stop for a moment.
轰！
Boom!
In the next moment, sword essence exploded, as did the ground. With this flying cultivator’s landing place as the center, dozens of Qin soldiers blasted out with stones and mud. Multiple flying swords fell to the ground desolately, unable to fly, and just shone with lingering light.
The cultivator who had been crushed into the ground had disappeared without a trace.
“Fire!”
The ice sword had disappeared from the woman’s hand. The ripples from the impact on the earth spread to even Xuegu Pa.s.s. The frost fell from the walls, and the dozens of Chu soldiers only reacted at this time, a howl coming from the mouth of one of the cultivators.
Sounds of the air tearing emerged.
The arrows tore through the air, but the hundreds of arrows appeared spa.r.s.e in the air. The dozens of metal b.a.l.l.s that flew silently behind the arrows were more eye-catching.
These metal b.a.l.l.s were the size of a person’s head, and shone with bright green light in the night air. When they were a hundred meters from the ground, they cracked open. Each metal ball split into hundreds of bright green pieces and splashed down.
Screams and shouts, metal and sword met together; the metal made a dull sound as they cut through leather armor and flesh.
Right below these dozen metal b.a.l.l.s, a large patch of the Qin army fell. The neat troop suddenly had dozens of empty spots. The sudden attack from Xuegu Pa.s.s killed at least six hundred Qin soldiers. Blood flew, and chillingly to many people, no military orders were given.
The general who should be giving orders in this chaos had been killed!
“Retreat!”
When the second round of arrows flew through the air, someone in the Qin army sent the order. The entire troop retreated like the tide.
The woman on the Xuegu Pa.s.s walls had stopped, but blue-black frost still floated through the air. This lingering power gave people more pressure than the dozens of terrifying metal b.a.l.l.s.
“Defense!”
After retreating fifty pieces, as a new order came, the Qin army stopped, and moved into a new formation.
On the slopes, Song Mei saw this. When he saw the Qin troop reestablish their formation, he could not help but feel waves of coldness.
Just like back when fighting the Han, Zhao, and Wei dynasties, the Qin army showed stunning bravery and iron discipline. The Qin army now was better than before!
“Nine h.e.l.l King Sword!”
“Miss of the Gongsun Family, do not forget you are from the Qin!” The moment the Qin troop stopped, the person who gave the orders shouted.
Xuegu Pa.s.s was even more quiet.
His side was not the only side shocked by the sword. This person daring to shout at such a time represented great bravery.
The woman on the walls had the ability to kill the general of this troop, and naturally had the power to kill this cultivator who had replaced the general.
In this world, only the Nine h.e.l.l King Sword had such a cold and fierce power. There were many stories in Changling regarding this sword and Miss Gongsun. So this cultivator easily guessed that the woman on the walls was the former Eldest Miss Gongsun.
The shout filled with fearlessness and anger spread into Xuegu Pa.s.s and echoed like thousands of people angrily accusing and pointing their fingers at Zhangsun Qianxue on the walls.
If any person believed that they were on the side of the right, and could even give up their lives, that kind of presence would suppress everything. It was the case with the Qin general.
But this was ineffective against Zhangsun Qianxue. Her cold expression did not change at all, filled with a dismissive and scornful tone. She said, “Do I count as Qin?”
The speaker suddenly stopped.
“I am the only person left from the Gongsun Family.” Zhangsun Qianxue added. “Even if I am Qin, I am an enemy. If I am enough, you think that I will not kill those people in the Qin Imperial Palace?”
“You will definitely stand on the side of the Chu and help the Chu slaughter the Qin?” The general was silent for a moment, and looked at Zhangsun Qianxue’s figure on the walls. He said coldly, “This Xuegu Pa.s.s has few seal weapons. Those green-gold kill b.a.l.l.s must be all the stores. Even if you can kill all of us tonight, I fear that not many people will remain in Xuegu Pa.s.s.”
“That is your choice.” Zhangsun Qianxue frowned slightly and said in a cool voice, “If you die, and want these people to die as well, then I do not mind killing some more people.”
The general was silent, and his hands trembled slightly.
The air in Xuegu Pa.s.s grew heavy.
On the slopes, Song Wei stopped breathing. He knew this Qin general spoke the truth. If this Qin general ordered the entire army to attack, even if Zhangsun Qianxue could kill at astounding speed, as long as the Qin army used all of their seal weapons, the thin Xuegu Pa.s.s could not withstand it. Then no one would know how many of his fellows would survive. The two armies were at a standstill, waiting for the general to give an order, even if this general would die the moment he gave the order. But the life and death of thousands of people were in the hands of this general.
At this time, Song Wei found that the young person standing in front of the tent was walking down the slope.
This person came silently, but did not disguise his footsteps as this time. He stepped on the acc.u.mulated snow that was hard from the cold. The sound of the footsteps were very clear in the absolute silence.
The Qin general suddenly looked back and saw the figure of this young person.
“When marching and fighting, if it is a battle that one must defend, if you know you will lose but will order the entire army to show your bravery, this is not just meaningless, but irresponsible conduct.”
The young person walked alone to the rear of the Qin army, and looked quietly at the Qin troop, and the general. “Even if you want to get revenge, it should not be going brainlessly to your death. Back when fighting the Han, Zhao, and Wei, all the Qin generals understood if they could kill a few key people, or use a duel between cultivators to decide victory, then do not let more people die. Generals and pure cultivators are different. Going to your death does not represent bravery.”
This young person was naturally Ding Ning. He looked calmly at this general, and said, “Back when fighting the three dynasties, most fights were decided with duels between cultivators on the battlefield. If you still cannot understand, let’s have a fair duel from you and me. You win me, and I will let through Xuegu Pa.s.s. If I defeat you, you will order an retreat.”
The general of the Qin whose face could not be seen in the black night was silent for a moment and said, “The deaths of people like us are insignificant to a large war like this.”
“No one is insignificant.” Ding Ning looked at the Qin general and said, “In my view, if one extra person among the millions can return home, it is good.”
The Qin general slowly looked up then nodded. “You must also be Qin. Let’s use the duel as the bet. You win against me, and I will order a retreat.”