The Sky Sword Grand Canyon, a chasm spanning thousands of miles within the Tiangang Mountain Range, was the only major fault line outside the Storm City of the Tianyuan Empire. Legend held that this canyon was rent in two by a supreme expert from ancient times, hence the name "Sky Sword"...

The Sky Sword Sect took its name similarly, even boasting that the exalted figure who split the Tiangang Mountains was one of their ancestors. Whether there was any genuine connection, however, only the Sky Sword Sect truly knew...

Yet, the Sky Sword Sect was long destroyed, while the Sky Sword Canyon remained, now serving as the dividing line between the Hu Kingdom and the Shu Yun Kingdom...

The canyon was immense, easily a hundred miles wide. Its floor was choked with overgrown weeds and scattered boulders, making military maneuvering utterly impractical. Furthermore, the terrain was uneven, punctuated by sudden hillocks and dense thickets of scrub that completely obstructed the line of sight for Ye Jingyu and his men...

Faced with such harsh conditions, Ye Jingyu dared not quicken his pace, moving instead along the fault line nearest the southern edge of the Tiangang Mountains. Whether or not he would encounter the Hu Kingdom’s Mastiff Lion Battle Group was not his primary concern...

If they met, a battle was inevitable. If they did not, he couldn't be blamed; the canyon was too vast, and with only ten thousand men, a total sweep was out of the question, after all?

As for the five thousand elites selected by Zhuge Yishi, they had already melted into the Tiangang Mountains under the cover of night. Among them, one thousand men, each burdened with a large flask of lamp oil, marched closely along the fault line. Should they spot the Hu Kingdom’s Mastiff Lion Battle Group, they were positioned to hurl the oil-filled jars down from above...

Of course, the mountain paths of Tiangang were treacherous and fraught with peril, precluding any large-scale movement. But these thousand chosen individuals—each a master at the Martial Master realm or the peak of the Martial Warrior realm—were led by Ying Xiaoxiao, capable of traversing the jungle terrain for a full day without worry...

Only the Iron Army possessed such resources. While their discipline was somewhat lacking, and they weren't entirely proficient in combat, they boasted a high concentration of experts... Where else could an army, even the Cloud Army, find a thousand masters at the Martial Master level?

The remaining four thousand men, under the command of Ye Longyi, were ordered to occupy a section within the Tiangang Mountains, tasked with clearing a site suitable for temporary habitation. They carried provisions extorted from Xiao Geng—a reserve path Ye Jingyu secured for himself...

In the event that the ten thousand men he led were annihilated, he would still retain four thousand troops, at least?

Luo Xiaofeng’s orders were to grind down the Hu Kingdom’s Mastiff Lion Battle Group while simultaneously depleting the Iron Army. If Ye Jingyu were exceptionally lucky and managed to crush the Mastiff Lion force while suffering minimal losses to the Iron Army, Luo Xiaofeng would expect him to hide the surviving troops within the Tiangang Mountains. If Ye Jingyu returned with the Iron Army intact, even Luo Xiaofeng, despite his favor toward Ye Jingyu, would surely harbor dissatisfaction...

Ye Jingyu had no intention of committing such a folly. He intended to build his own power base. The Iron Army was the first military unit he commanded, and from the day he took charge, he considered them his personal force; he was unwilling to see them wiped out so easily...

Due to the ruggedness of the canyon, Ye Jingyu and his men proceeded on foot, leaving their horses behind. At this moment, Zhuge Yishi suddenly halted and tilted his head toward the sky...

"What is it?" Ye Jingyu asked, looking up himself to see a tiny black speck circling high above. His eyesight was now exceptionally keen, allowing him to clearly discern that it was a jet-black goshawk...

"General, that is a Mastiff Eagle, a scout for Weihaya, commander of the Hu Kingdom’s Mastiff Lion Battle Group. It seems the enemy is not far off..." It was Chen Qi, a young general who had clawed his way to the rank of Lieutenant General through sheer ability and was considered quite experienced...

"Qi, shoot it down for me. We can certainly make some eagle soup tonight..." Upon hearing it was a scout for the Mastiff Lion Battle Group, Ye Jingyu immediately declared...

This statement startled everyone present. Even Zhuge Yishi showed surprise. Typically, an arrow shot by a common archer retained lethal force only within a hundred paces; beyond that, its power waned. A truly skilled archer could strike a target two to three hundred paces away; a formidable one might wound a target five hundred meters out. Occasionally, a divine marksman could hit a target seven or eight hundred paces distant—this was considered the absolute limit, and that was for a flat trajectory...

But the Mastiff Eagle was at least a thousand meters high in the sky. Even those capable of hitting targets at seven or eight hundred paces could only manage an elevation of three or four hundred paces. How could they possibly bring it down? Unless a skilled Soul Master struck it down with a soul technique, there was simply no recourse...

They knew Hu Tengqi's archery skills were unparalleled, but even his flat trajectory maxed out around a thousand paces. How could he manage such an elevation? Furthermore, even granting him such incredible arm strength, the eagle was just a speck at that height; what level of focus and precision would be required?

Even if the eagle were stationary, hitting it would be difficult, let alone accounting for its continuous circling motion...

However, Hu Tengqi paid no mind to the astonishment around him. He swiftly grabbed the great bow from his back, expertly nocked a black arrow, and raised it...

The bow, thick as a man's arm, was drawn back until it formed a perfect crescent moon...

His eyes narrowed to slits, and a faint glimmer could be seen within them. Then, the crowd heard a sharp snap—the sound of the bowstring releasing and recoiling—as a black meteor tore through the air...

Almost instantaneously with the string’s release, the listeners heard a piercing shriek. They then watched the black speck plummet straight downward. In the blink of an eye, the Mastiff Eagle that had been soaring overhead crashed onto the ground not far from Ye Jingyu and his company...

Everyone sucked in a cold breath. This... this level of archery... it was simply too monstrous...

Soldiers quickly moved forward and retrieved the Mastiff Eagle. Only then did the onlookers realize that the black arrow had pierced directly through its eye...

Observing Hu Tengqi's utterly nonchalant demeanor, no one believed it was a mere coincidence...

Bieli and others, who had previously held some disdain for Hu Tengqi and his group, now looked upon them with unveiled respect... Such archery truly deserved the title of "unrivaled under heaven"...

A light sparked in Zhuge Yishi’s eyes as well. He glanced at Hu Tengqi, then at Hu Mengmeng, and finally settled on Chi Yixiu’s impossibly robust physique. He seemed to connect something, a faint smile touching his lips...

Could it be that the inexplicable prophecies of his ancestors were true? Otherwise, how could an eighteen-year-old youth have gathered so many extraordinary individuals around him?

Just as Hu Tengqi’s arrow stunned the company, tens of miles away from Ye Jingyu’s main force, an army of several thousand men appeared. These soldiers wore no metal armor, but rather a soft defense woven from vines—vines that appeared light but shimmered with a metallic sheen...