Chapter 275: Battle Death

He turned around and was therefore the first target.

Fortunately, He Lingchuan's prior warning startled Maotao, who managed to parry the arrow with his raised saber, deflecting it.

Immediately, the air was filled with the sound of arrows as more than ten were fired simultaneously.

He Lingchuan parried the arrows aimed at him and instantly smashed a medicine bottle on the ground. The bottle shattered on impact, releasing a thick cloud of white smoke that instantly spread in all directions.

This was a smoke bomb formula he had learned from Willow, the female patrol officer in the Coiled Dragon Dreamland. He had asked Lingguang, the medicine ape, to prepare several types, and the one he just threw had the effect of a smoke grenade.

Both sides in the battle were imbued with spirit energy, making magical smoke less effective for obscuring vision than these smoke bottles.

The forest was already dim, and with the white smoke swirling, the enemies' visibility became even worse.

Shan Youjun also drew his saber to defend, but He Lingchuan thought he heard Shan Youjun grunt, indicating he might have been hit.

Even the Azure Steed He Lingchuan was riding glowed faintly, and two arrows that struck its hindquarters bounced off.

Target the horse first.

Fortunately, the horse bell worn on its chest was also a magical artifact. It didn't make a sound when shaken, but its defensive properties were excellent.

However, against spirit energy, its effectiveness was significantly reduced.

Yet, more than half the arrows were aimed at Maotao. He managed to deflect two arrows in the nick of time, and two more were blocked by his protective artifact, though not without effort. But the rest...

Out of the corner of his eye, He Lingchuan saw a blue light flash and then vanish on Maotao's body. The thumb-sized jade talisman at his waist shattered with a "snap."

There were too many enemy arrows, and they were imbued with spirit energy, instantly depleting the artifact's protective power.

The remaining three arrows whizzed and embedded themselves in his body.

He Lingchuan clearly saw Maotao's body jerk as a piece of an arrowhead pierced through his back, a horrifying sight.

"Maotao!"

He Lingchuan was shocked and furious, but only dared to utter a low cry. He could already make out shadowy figures behind the surrounding rocks and trees—several archers were drawing their bows again.

He spurred his horse, and the Azure Steed shot forward like an arrow.

In the mist, he needed to move quickly to avoid being a sitting target.

He Lingchuan drew a powerful crossbow from his storage ring. These were pre-loaded and could be operated with one hand. He was no longer a novice; he still had excellent accuracy while moving, and his two crossbow bolts struck two archers directly.

One was shot through the right wrist, and the other took an arrow to the throat.

The steed was too fast; the enemies only saw disturbed smoke before a large horse burst out. They didn't have time to raise their bows and had to draw their weapons to fight.

He Lingchuan slashed down, and two enemy soldiers froze.

By the time he caught up to the third person, the upper halves of the first two had just slid down, splattering blood on the ground.

That furious strike was as swift as lightning, cleaving both men and their weapons in half. For the second man, the saber's blade didn't even touch his body, yet the cold gleam it emitted, over a foot long, cut through leather armor and bone as if slicing through butter.

He Lingchuan had just killed four men when the enemy cavalry arrived, their long spears aimed directly at his throat.

As the two horses crossed paths, He Lingchuan's first strike broke the spear tip. His second strike, circling back like a swallow, sliced off half the rider's head.

Others only saw two flashes of cold light, and the cavalryman became a headless corpse.

Who wouldn't be afraid of such a fighting style? The Xunzhou soldiers directly in front of him couldn't help but scatter, and the occasional stray arrows were either dodged or deflected without causing any harm.

These soldiers were agile, but against the charge of the Azure Steed and the sharpness of the Fleeting Life Saber, they were almost powerless.

This was the significant difference between a general and ordinary soldiers.

He Lingchuan himself wasn't aware, but at this point, his potential as a commander was slowly emerging.

Suddenly, someone shouted, "He's the one who wounded General Baili!"

Finally, someone recognized him.

Among Hong Cheng'e's ambush force, several had accompanied Baili Qing in the attack on Xinhuang Town and had a vivid memory of how their general was defeated. However, with the unclear visibility here, He Lingchuan was only identified after he had killed several men.

He Lingchuan suddenly heard Shan Youjun's warning: "Watch your back!"

There was indeed a subtle disturbance of wind behind him.

He Lingchuan abruptly ducked low, pressing his upper body against the Azure Steed's belly, just as a red figure swept over the horse's back. If he hadn't dodged in time, he might have been knocked off.

In mid-air, the creature dipped its head and opened its mouth to bite his neck. He Lingchuan turned his head, and it bit empty air, but its upper and lower teeth clattered with a crisp "clack."

Only when the creature landed did He Lingchuan realize it was a massive red cat with long, thick limbs, clearly indicating exceptional jumping ability.

Shan Youjun urgently called out, "It's immune to saber and sword attacks!"

He was fiercely battling another giant cat, already sporting several bloody gashes. This monster emitted a faint green glow and neither dodged nor avoided Shan Youjun's attacks, as his saber and spear passed right through its body as if striking nothing!

"Does this thing have no physical form?"

No, that's not right. It lacked physical form when dodging, entering a void state. Because it was also imbued with its master's spirit energy, Shan Youjun's spirit-infused weapons had no effect on it.

In essence, they canceled each other out.

This blood-cat was incredibly fast, appearing as only a blur when it ran. Shan Youjun was in danger several times, his eyes and throat narrowly escaping injury.

He finally saw clearly that the blood-cat's wrinkled surface wasn't fur, but rather countless human faces!

Human faces with different features, expressions, and genders—some laughing, some angry, some crying, some screaming—but all utterly silent.

He didn't know that these creatures were called *changlings*. The sun had already set, which was precisely when they came out to wreak havoc.

Just as Shan Youjun was fighting the blood-cat with all his might, a shadow quietly emerged behind him and thrust a halberd towards his back.

It was Tao Ze, the Xunzhou general leading the ambush.

The hairs on Shan Youjun's neck stood on end; he knew he was in trouble, but it was too late to turn around.

Just then, a long spear shot from ahead, barely grazing his ear as it flew past, striking Tao Ze's halberd tip with a precise "clang" and knocking it aside.

It was He Lingchuan who acted, directly taking out the Soaring Dragon Spear and throwing it like a javelin, narrowly saving Shan Youjun's life.

This move was a standard skill for every soldier in the Great Wind Army, and as a patrol officer in the Great Wind Army reserves, he naturally had to practice it diligently. The javelin—no, the spear—He Lingchuan threw wasn't as powerful as Xiao Maoliang's, but its accuracy and force were already approaching acceptable levels.

After deflecting the halberd, the Soaring Dragon Spear also flew off at an angle, embedding itself into a tree trunk with a "thud."

The blood-cat entangled with him also didn't dodge his attacks, being overly confident, which was why He Lingchuan had just split it in half with a single swing of his Fleeting Life Saber.

The large cat didn't bleed or scream; it simply fell to the ground and turned to ash. However, the human faces covering its body floated out, transforming into a swarm of wailing vengeful spirits filling the area!

The halberd in Tao Ze's hand was named "Crimson Tiger." The souls of those slain by the halberd were likely absorbed into its blade, filling the two *changling*-transformed blood-cats and continuously empowering them.

Now that one of the *changlings* had been slain by He Lingchuan, the trapped vengeful spirits immediately broke free. Filled with vicious hatred, they began indiscriminately retaliating against all living beings around them!

Having been in the *changling*'s body for so long, they had also acquired *changling* characteristics: normally formless and intangible, they only solidified when attacking. The nearby Xunzhou soldiers were unprepared for such a change; in an instant, four of them were knocked down. Some had vengeful spirits burrow into their mouths and noses, causing chaos in their brains, while others had their flesh devoured alive, screaming in agony.

Witnessing this, Tao Ze, the master of the Crimson Tiger halberd, was also deeply surprised and had no choice but to withdraw the *changlings*' spirit energy.

Once the faint glow around these vengeful spirits disappeared, they would be repelled by the spirit energy of the Xunzhou soldiers—lightly bouncing off or violently shattering—and no longer pose a threat.

But Tao Ze couldn't understand how He Lingchuan had so easily killed the blood-cat. These *changlings* maintained their ethereal, non-physical forms when they weren't biting their opponents.

He, of course, didn't know that the Fleeting Life Saber in He Lingchuan's hand possessed a characteristic called "Void Breaker," which allowed it to deal with intangible and formless entities. Clearly, *changlings* fit this criterion, and would Fleeting Life show them any courtesy?

As he withdrew the spirit energy from the *changlings*, the remaining blood-cat's suppression of Shan Youjun immediately lessened significantly. As an aggregate of vengeful spirits, it didn't pose much harm to the Xiazhou soldiers imbued with spirit energy.

Shan Youjun caught his breath and turned to face Tao Ze in a one-on-one combat.

At this moment, white smoke permeated the entire area, and the Xunzhou people, wary of the saber in He Lingchuan's hand, dared not charge in rashly. Seizing the opportunity, He Lingchuan dismounted, rushed to the barely breathing Maotao, opened his mouth, and put a life-sustaining pill inside.

He himself had taken this kind of medicine before—after being knocked off a cliff by a leopard demon, it had indeed sustained his life for two hours, and he had only taken half a pill then—so he knew it was effective, though so precious that it was almost impossible to acquire with vast sums of money.

The pill melted instantly in his mouth, but Maotao was too far gone to benefit. He stared at He Lingchuan, and with all his strength, could only gasp out a few words:

"Go... quick, go!"

As soon as he spoke, his gaze unfocused.

Medicine is useless against fatal wounds. His heart had been pierced clean through; it was a miracle he had held on this long. Medicine was useless.

Shan Youjun cried out, "We should go!"

With enemies present, he didn't call him "master."

At this moment, two Xunzhou soldiers blew their whistles, and sharp, urgent sounds echoed through the entire forest.

Hong Cheng'e's forces were not far off; they would surely come to reinforce upon hearing the whistles.

Two against hundreds—unless they were General Hong, they would surely die.

He Lingchuan gritted his teeth, closed Maotao's eyes, then leaped onto the Azure Steed and charged towards Tao Ze.

The steed was similar in size to a normal horse, but its acceleration was much faster, reaching full speed within about nine meters.

Tao Ze was currently locked in combat with Shan Youjun, and the white smoke was about to dissipate, at which point his soldiers could swarm them. Unexpectedly, a gust of wind announced He Lingchuan, who charged forward, man and horse together!

Tao Ze had just heard his subordinates' shouts and knew that the youth before him was the culprit who had wounded Baili Qing, and with only one move. He hadn't personally been at that ambush and didn't know that He Lingchuan had coincidentally activated the "Army Breaker" characteristic of the Fleeting Life Saber, which gave him that overwhelming power. He only knew that his own strength was far inferior to Baili Qing's, and now being entangled with Shan Youjun, his resolve faltered. How could he dare to face He Lingchuan head-on?