Chapter 11: The Plot of the Poisoner_1

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM...

The next day, as dawn was breaking, Qin Wudao led his massive army toward Anyi Pass. The drums of war echoed for dozens of miles, sounding the horn of attack.

1,300,000 Qin soldiers, lined up neatly, gazed at Qin Wudao with faces alight with fanaticism. To them, it was an honor to follow such an enlightened lord.

Everyone vowed to seize Anyi Pass and tear a breach in the defensive line of the Six Kingdoms.

"Attack!"

At a distance of just three hundred zhang from Anyi Pass, Qin Wudao halted, drew his ceremonial sword, and roared the command.

No sooner had his words faded than eighteen figures darted out, each crowned by an image of a luminous moon. In a blink, they appeared a hundred zhang away, emitting an overwhelming aura that, in the void, coalesced into Blade Qi potent enough to tear everything apart.

The elite vanguard struck; the main army began its assault on the city!

This was the strategy Qin Wudao and Jia Xu had devised. Of course, this was merely the first step of their plan, intended primarily to draw the Wei Army's attention, not the decisive, killing blow.

"Relay my orders! We are to focus on defense. No one is to leave the Pass without my explicit command!"

Astride the walls of Anyi Pass, Pang Juan, clad in chainmail, his tiger-like eyes wide and imposing, commanded. He stood atop the ramparts like an unshakeable mountain.

"Aye! Aye! Aye..."

The officers stationed on the wall responded in unison, their faces solemn, standing in grim readiness.

"Elders, I must trouble you to intercept those eighteen horsemen!"

Having made his dispositions, Pang Juan pointed to the Eighteen Riders of Yan Yun and addressed the two old men behind him with deep respect.

These two elders had rosy complexions and seemingly inexhaustible vitality. One wielded a sword, the other a large blade. Both exuded a dangerous aura, as if they could unleash a earth-shattering attack at any moment.

They were formidable experts from the Great Wei Empire's previous generation. The swordsman was Wei Youqing, and the blade master was Wei Daoyi. In their youth, they had roamed the Six Kingdoms, returning to their ancestral land for secluded cultivation only after breaking through to the Peak of the Realm.

"I shall!"

A flicker of battle ardour crossed Wei Daoyi's aged face. He strode forward, his seemingly old body pulsing with vigorous Qi and Blood that surpassed countless robust men in the world.

WHOOSH!

Hovering high in the air, Wei Daoyi unsheathed his war blade. A bloody killing intent erupted from his body as the blade pulsed with a blinding, scarlet light.

The sharp war blade slashed down.

A dark red blade light materialized, streaking across the void, dazzlingly brilliant and imbued with immense power. It fiercely cleaved towards the Blade Qi unleashed by the Eighteen Riders of Yan Yun.

CLANG!

The two terrifying torrents of Blade Qi collided. A sound that could pierce clouds and shatter stone erupted, like a deafening clap of thunder.

After a moment's stalemate, the two streams of blade light slowly dissipated into nothingness, ceasing to exist.

"Kill!"

Behind their masks, killing intent flared in the eyes of the Eighteen Riders of Yan Yun. A suffocating murderous aura enveloped them, locking onto Wei Daoyi as they launched a ferocious attack.

"Good! Let this old man have a hearty fight!"

Wei Daoyi laughed boisterously, the Qi and Blood in his body surging. He hadn't fought since breaking through to the Peak of the Realm and had long yearned for a worthy opponent.

Of course, he hadn't forgotten his duty to eliminate the enemy. Each sweep of his blade carried torrential killing intent; every move was lethal.

Thus, the two sides clashed. Each attack was as swift as lightning. Many Martial Artists with lower cultivation levels couldn't discern the details of the battle, only seeing clouds scattering wherever the blade light flashed.

"Kill! Kill! Kill..."

Amidst the roars of slaughter, the Qin soldiers on the ground launched their attack. Countless streams of killing intent converged, their combined might rivaling an expert at the Peak of the Realm. Their momentum swept for dozens of miles, a palpable pressure that howled between heaven and earth.

All the soldiers held large shields, engraved with arcane patterns that generated a faint suction, continuously drawing in the Spiritual Energy from the air.

"Archers, fire!"

On the walls of Anyi Pass, the Great Wei commanders issued their orders, their expressions cold.

Hundreds of thousands of Wei soldiers activated their Cultivation Techniques, drawing their bows and nocking their arrows. The three-sided arrowheads emitted a chilling gleam, wreathed in Evil Qi. In an instant, all the Evil Qi merged into a continuous expanse that obscured everything.

SWISH! SWISH! SWISH!

The arrows tore through the air, creating an ocean of Evil Qi in the void. Upon reaching their zenith, they plummeted downwards at incredible speed, emitting a piercing shriek.

"Shields up!"

Qin Wudao bellowed. The charging Qin soldiers halted, dropping to one knee and holding their massive shields before them. The shields glowed with a dark, eerie light that enveloped their bodies.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

Arrows rained down, striking the shields, sending sparks flying with crisp sounds and creating a light haze of smoke.

In the blink of an eye, the ground bristled with arrows, resembling a giant hedgehog.

"Charge!"

After the arrow storm, the shield wall parted, revealing unharmed Qin soldiers who gripped their weapons and charged towards the city walls once more.

"Prepare the boulders and flaming oil!"

Pang Juan's expression darkened slightly, a cold glint in his eyes. Evidently, the Qin Empire had long harbored ambitions to invade the Six Kingdoms; otherwise, they wouldn't have trained their soldiers in shield wall formations.

Rolling logs and barrels of flaming oil were hauled onto the city walls by Wei soldiers. Looking down at the city below, aside from a few veterans, the other soldiers were visibly nervous.

Before long, Qin soldiers reached the base of the walls. Siege ladders slammed against the ramparts. The soldiers stared intently at the top, their minds consumed by a single thought: climb.

The brutal contest began. The roars of both sides echoed for many miles around. The Wei soldiers on the walls began hurling down boulders and pouring flaming oil.

"AHHH!"

Many Qin soldiers, doused with oil while climbing, were engulfed in flames. They fell from the walls and rolled desperately on the ground, trying to extinguish the fire, but failed and were burned alive.

Others were struck by rolling boulders, spewing mouthfuls of blood that splattered on the city walls, staining them red.

"Kill!"

The brutal deaths of their comrades spurred the Qin soldiers below to enraged roars, and they charged recklessly, heedless of their own lives.

As time wore on, and after suffering tens of thousands of casualties, the Qin army finally breached the city walls. Having lost their defensive advantage, the Wei army immediately mobilized heavy reinforcements to try and regain control of the walls.

Anyi Pass had transformed into a slaughterhouse; death was constant. Blood streamed down the walls, leaving gruesome yet strangely beautiful patterns.

"Hold on!"

In the rear of the battlefield, Qin Wudao clenched his fists. His heart ached as he watched his soldiers fall, but he did not issue the order to retreat.

Only a full-scale assault could completely draw the Wei Army's attention.

Of his 1,500,000-strong army, Qin Wudao had deployed 1,300,000 troops to the main battlefield. The remaining 200,000 soldiers accompanied Jia Xu on a special mission.

This mission was the key to turning the tide.

「Several miles away」

A river surged through the high mountains. There, Jia Xu led 100,000 soldiers in building a dam to store water, while the other 100,000 worked to alter the river's course.

The key to attacking Anyi Pass lay in harnessing the power of water.

"In three days, a torrential rain will fall," Jia Xu declared, standing on the half-completed dam. He unleashed his power at the Peak of the Realm to block the water's flow. A smile spread across his face—a smile that would chill one to the bone. "Combined with the stored river water, it will surely destroy Anyi Pass!"

In the ensuing flood, the 3,000,000 Wei soldiers would suffer devastating casualties.

Furthermore, after this battle, the Great Wei Empire would be crippled. Without Anyi Pass to hinder them, the Qin army could advance like splitting bamboo, driving straight for Ye City.