Chapter 121: The Last Stand at Victory Pass

The blade in Little Sha’s hand was nearly as long as he was tall, yet he gripped it tightly, waiting in the passage leading to the ramparts for his turn to ascend.

Beyond the city wall, the incessant, blood-curdling war cries of the Li army echoed. The wait was agonizing. Though Little Sha was a veteran, he was still young, and this was his first experience with a full-scale siege by the Li forces. Because he was a veteran, he did not have to wait long before he followed his unit up to the battlements.

The moment he emerged, the air was filled with the whistling of incoming arrows. The Li troops below were unleashing a barrage of crossbow fire. He instinctively ducked, pressing himself against the base of the thick wall. In this moment, his small stature was an advantage, granting him a better chance of survival. He watched as a tall, burly soldier was struck by an arrow that pierced straight through his face—entering the left cheek and exiting the right. Weapons of war never bothered to choose a comfortable spot for their victims. The man collapsed with a thunderous crash; his muscular arms, once so full of power, now seemed utterly meaningless. Few had the luxury to care about his death.

The commander, clad in armor, bellowed, "Get that man out of the way!"

He turned and spotted Little Sha cowering against the wall. He reached down, hoisted the boy up, and pinned him against the stone, gesturing toward the sea of black-clad Li soldiers. "You! Hold this position! From left to right, don’t let a single one of those Li dogs climb up! If they reach out a hand, chop it off! If they stick their head up, chop it off! Do you hear me?!"

"Understood!" Little Sha drew his blade and shouted back fiercely.

"Good! The Li army’s usual tactic is to raise ladders and scale the walls. I don’t care if you use your sword, your feet, or even your teeth—just make sure that whoever gets close to you never makes it back down!"

Little Sha peered over the edge. A dense, ant-like swarm of figures was surging toward Desheng Pass, chanting slogans he couldn't make out. Mixed among them were some cultivators of the Meditation and Heart-Establishing realms; unable to fly, they were forced to join the ground assault.

Little Sha was not afraid. In fact, he was quite valiant. He had brought all his gear with him. When he saw a cultivator using the arrows embedded in the wall to leap upward, he unslung his bow. The books Wu Gang had left him said that cultivators of the Meditation and Heart-Establishing realms were merely people who could use a tiny bit more spiritual energy than the average person. They could not fly, nor could they unleash strikes of overwhelming destructive power.

"Hey soldier, what are you doing! Don't stand up!"

Little Sha, his arms bare, pulled his bowstring taut as a full moon. The city wall had been worn smooth, but the arrows stuck into the masonry provided footholds for the enemy cultivators. Little Sha aimed squarely at them.

*Twang!*

The arrow left the string, leaving behind only the sound of its flight and the receding fletching. The cultivator leaping through the air seemed oblivious to the fact that someone was targeting him. The arrow flew with lethal velocity.

Closer! Closer!

Little Sha clenched his fist, cursing at the last second, "Damn it!"

The arrow didn't kill the cultivator—such simple attacks rarely did—but it was effective nonetheless. It forced the man to falter and retreat to readjust his footing.

"Get a heavy bow for that soldier!" the commander ordered. He was a veteran of many battles and knew that when facing death, everyone reacted a beat too slow; only a roar could command them. "What’s your name?"

"Little Sha!"

"Little Sha, here is my heavy bow. Can you draw it?"

The boy’s eyes locked onto the golden bow. Without a word, he snatched it up and fired two shots in rapid succession. Though he still failed to wound the cultivator, the enemy, unnerved by the assault, retreated for the moment, and the pressure on this section of the defense eased significantly.

"Two of you, guard this lad! Don’t let a stray arrow hit him!" The commander was both astonished and pleased by Little Sha’s strength.

Desheng Pass relied on its towering, formidable walls; as long as the enemy cultivators didn't completely overwhelm the mortals, the city was not easily broken. Thus, holding them back, even for a moment, was a victory. However, the walls of Desheng Pass were long, stretching from the mountains on the left to those on the right. Just because this sector held didn't mean others wouldn't fall. Indeed, the ferocious Li cultivators were already leaping ever closer to the ramparts. Some were intercepted by Xu Kingdom’s own cultivators, but others were not.

"Little Sha, look to the right! To the right!"

Little Sha turned just in time to see a man with a jagged scar on his face, standing head and shoulders above the rest, some dozen meters away. He was a cultivator. Once he landed, it would be a bloodbath.

*Twang!*

Little Sha fired an arrow instantly, but the man deflected it with a casual wave of his sword.

"Damn it! Everyone, support that side! Kill that bastard!" Little Sha tossed his bow aside, gripped his broadsword, and charged to the front. He had never feared death. The reason he had brushed past it so many times was precisely because he didn't fear it.

War was far more brutal than mere combat.

Little Sha ignored everything else. He thought of the book Wu Gang had given him, which stated that all power in this world came from spiritual energy. He wanted to be like that cursed bastard in front of him—to shroud his blade in spirit!

"Kill! Ah!"

Little Sha swung his blade, hacking fiercely at the scarred man’s back. But the man seemed to have eyes in the back of his head. He stepped forward, not only dodging the blade but also running his sword through a soldier on the other side before turning and swinging his blade with a casual flick. It looked light, but when Little Sha raised his sword to parry, he couldn't withstand the force. He scrambled to lean back, the enemy’s blade grazing his face. The attacker then spun in mid-air, a heavy kick aimed straight at the boy’s head. At the very last split second, Little Sha rolled away, narrowly avoiding a blow that would have surely been fatal.

A simple exchange, a casual skirmish, and Little Sha was already on the brink of death. The gap between a mortal and a cultivator was immense. But this was no time to dwell on that. He had to kill him, for the man was reaping soldiers' lives with every stroke.

"All of you, together! Take him down!"

No one really listened to a child, and he wasn't anyone's superior, but he took command by instinct—even if it was the simplest command imaginable.

*Hum!*

Spiritual energy flared briefly around the scarred man’s body. The next instant, he was right in front of Little Sha, his sword aiming to slice the boy’s head off. The cold steel brushed past his scalp; Little Sha scrambled to block, but the force of the strike sent him flying, crashing hard against the stone wall.

"Damn it!"

The searing pain couldn't stop him. He performed a kip-up, knowing the danger but grabbing his blade to counter-attack. As he lunged, a faster blur of motion streaked past him.

"Little Sha, leave this one to me. Go kill the others."

He focused his gaze and saw it was Shao Dong, one of the three from the East Lake Academy who were acquainted with Wu Gang. Shao Yang and Xin Chi were already engaged with other cultivators.

"Kill the others? Kill him first!!"

Shao Dong frowned at Little Sha, who was charging the scarred man again. Nobody fought like this, throwing their life away.

"Not a chance!" He saw the Li cultivator lunging toward Little Sha, clearly intending to finish off the boy who held his life so cheaply.

Little Sha showed no fear. He gripped his sword with both hands and roared, hacking from left to right. This was suicide against a cultivator; they had a thousand ways to kill him. Shao Dong was shocked, but his movements were swift. He slid across the ground, reaching the scarred man’s flank, and struck out with his right palm, forcing the man’s sword arm upward.

And Little Sha?

He swung his blade in a horizontal arc, offering no defense!

"Ah!"

*Squelch!* The steel sank into flesh!

"Die!"

The strike nearly cut the scarred man in half, blood spraying so violently that it blinded them. It was bloody and cruel. Shao Dong looked at Little Sha in disbelief. The child had no cultivation base whatsoever, yet his ruthlessness and resolve in using a blade far exceeded his own.

"Little Sha, don't provoke cultivators! Have you never thought that you would die doing this?!" he warned sternly.

He didn't expect the boy to ignore his advice entirely, roaring back, "Stop your damn chatter! Just follow me and kill them!!!"

With that, he plunged back into the sea of blood.

There was fighting on the ground, and there was fighting in the air. The higher-tier cultivators would indeed help the mortals on their side when they had the spare energy, but it was only when they had energy to spare. This was a battlefield. Every cultivator’s spiritual energy was precious—it was their only guarantee of survival. If they wasted too much of it blasting the rank and file, they were essentially handing their own lives to the enemy’s cultivators.

Of course, not all cultivators were so cautious; some, in their arrogance, would unleash massive, destructive attacks upon the ramparts. Thus, He Jiang, Ji Lan, and Shu Le stood proudly before the walls of Desheng Pass. They were no longer standing together as they had initially; they kept a significant distance between them. Each guarded a section of the wall.

This was a solid, impregnable defense. Whether the cultivators attacked from the air or the soldiers from the ground, the army commanded by He Jiang had a response. Originally, he and Ji Lan were each responsible for half the wall, but with Shu Le’s arrival, she naturally took some of the burden.

So far, the three Return-to-Origin cultivators had not moved. They remained still because Gu Feng, Sun Liang, and Chang Meng had not moved either. But the God-Guard realm fighters had joined the fray. The Seventh Princess was already killing enemies. The three of them had spotted Jin Ling and Mao Tai, the wielder of the great iron hammer they had encountered in the jungle battle—the battle where Wu Gang had lost his arm.

*Shing.* The Seventh Princess drew her sword. "Three against two. Kill them."

"My thoughts exactly."

Now was the best time to attack, before the Return-to-Origin experts engaged, lest the intensity of their battle affect the others. As she spoke, Wu Gang surged forward, his sword in hand, angrier than he had ever been.

The melee surged toward its climax.

...

...

Meanwhile, on the vast plains between Luyang City and Desheng Pass, a green-clad figure was galloping on horseback. It was the Fourth Princess, dispatched from the capital to Desheng Pass. The pass didn't necessarily need more reinforcements, but she went because the Seventh Princess was there.

Since she had set out, the Fourth Princess had lost her source of intelligence. She knew nothing of the shifting winds in Luyang City, nor whether Desheng Pass had fallen into a desperate struggle. She only hoped to arrive faster, and prayed the war would slow down.

Usually, she didn't linger on the road. If she passed a teahouse, she would either ride straight through or stop for only the briefest rest.

"Tea." The sign hung outside the shop, eye-catching. But even more eye-catching was the woman who stepped into the humble teahouse—a woman of extraordinary presence and breathtaking beauty. Her shimmering pupils were as deep and mesmerizing as crystal, yet an unfathomable quality made people feel that her hidden cultivation was dangerously profound.

The shopkeeper was dazed by her profile. The woman ignored the gazes of everyone present, whether man or woman. She wore brilliant, luxurious robes and possessed an aura that clearly marked her as no ordinary person.

The Fourth Princess wondered when such a person had begun wandering through the Xu Kingdom. Was it because the war was imminent, causing all sorts of people to stir? The Fourth Princess waited a while longer in this place. She was wary of this woman—not because of her beauty, but because her unknown identity and hidden power felt dangerous. Had she not been under imperial orders to reach Desheng Pass, she would have trailed the woman.

Alas, she could not.

The woman finished her tea, tossed a piece of silver on the table, and rose to leave. The Fourth Princess pondered for a long time, then her figure vanished from the spot.

In the desolate wilderness not far away, the woman walked slowly, unhurried and as elegant as a fairy from the celestial realms. She stopped only when the Fourth Princess appeared before her.

"Who are you?" The Fourth Princess rarely initiated conversation, and her nature was far from gentle; her question was laden with hostility.

The other woman didn't seem to care. The summer breeze ruffled her hair as she stood still as a lotus bud.

"Traveling to Luyang in such an eye-catching way? Are you merely out for a stroll?"

"Why do you ask who I am? And how do you know I am going to Luyang?"

The Fourth Princess was headstrong. She didn't answer but pursued her own line of questioning. "I advise you to answer my question."

The woman closed her eyes. After a moment of silence, she resumed walking—slowly, not as if she were in any rush. As she walked, she murmured:

"The spring breeze from the East brings the scent of a hundred flowers, a sweep across the Nine Provinces makes all things grow..."

The Fourth Princess’s eyes flickered. Upon hearing this verse, she instantly recalled another, remarkably similar poem widely circulated in Luyang:

*The scrolls of the Western Treasury open in the garden, a sprinkling of light dispels the long night upon the world.*

There seemed to be some hidden connection. While she was deep in thought, the woman passed by her. In that instant, the Fourth Princess caught a close-up glimpse of the woman’s violet pupils. The woman didn't even look at her, walking past with a calm expression.

When the Fourth Princess tried to move, she realized she was completely frozen.

"The spring breeze from the East brings the scent of a hundred flowers, the East..."

Could "the East" refer to the Daden Islands? If that were the case, what did the "West" in the poem about the Western Treasury represent?