Wielding the iron saber, Ye Jingyu still sat astride Ni Bo, his eyes blazing with fierce intensity...

"General, we have delayed them for half an hour now. General Chen Qi and the others must have fled far away by now. Shouldn't we retreat?" At this moment, Bie Li arrived beside Ye Jingyu, riding a Mastiff Lion. However, the lion stubbornly refused to approach Ni Bo. Although the oppressive aura emanating from Ni Bo was not as intense as Xiao Tao Tao's, its flowing Qilin bloodline was still something these N-rank Desolate Beasts could not withstand...

"Hmm?" Ye Jingyu turned his head and saw over a thousand Iron Army soldiers whose eyes burned with fervor. Fear had vanished from their gazes, replaced only by the most resolute loyalty. No matter what command he issued now, they would obey instantly...

The mission to delay the enemy was complete. Could he lead them to safety?

"Qi, have you located their leader?" Ye Jingyu did not immediately answer Bie Li's question but instead addressed Hu Yan Qi, who remained close by his side. Because the Shadow Army had no unit numbers, no banners, and wore identical black armor, finding their commander was exceedingly difficult...

"Mhm..." Hu Yan Qi nodded. As a master archer, he required not only exquisite archery skills but also exceptionally keen eyesight, since to fell a prey, one must first spot it...

"Can you kill him from this distance?" Ye Jingyu pressed on. To capture the leader is to capture the king. Facing the enemy's tens of thousands of troops, his small contingent stood no chance of wiping them out entirely; even escaping the battlefield would prove difficult unless chaos could be sown among the enemy. Assassinating their general was undoubtedly the best option...

"Difficult..." Hu Yan Qi shook his head. He had loosed many arrows today, and his arms were already aching severely. They were now fully a thousand meters from Ouyang Leng Can; shooting down a master of the Innate Realm from such a distance was extremely challenging...

"How close do you need to be?" Ye Jingyu cut to the chase...

"At least five hundred paces," Hu Yan Qi stated plainly...

"Five hundred paces..." Ye Jingyu watched the black tide surging toward (Full text novel reading, available at.1.(1..W.en.X.ue.W.ang) him. These five hundred paces were precisely the distance needed to cut through the charging Shadow Guards...

"Everyone gather around me! Charge with me!" In an instant, Ye Jingyu made his decision. The only way to lead the remaining men off the battlefield was to slay the enemy leader, disrupt their formation, and seize a chance. Therefore, the only action left was to provide Hu Yan Qi with the necessary conditions...

As Ye Jingyu commanded, the more than one thousand men immediately converged on him, while he tightened his grip on the iron saber...

"Qi, stop fighting for now. Rest and steady yourself. Stay close to me for that final strike," Ye Jingyu instructed Hu Yan Qi. Mounting Ni Bo, he turned his head back and charged straight into the oncoming black tide...

Chi Yi Xiu and the eighty Chi Yi warriors followed closely behind him. Bie Li, Yue You Qun, and others kept pace. The company of over a thousand men compressed inward, quickly forming a razor-sharp blade that stabbed fiercely into the Shadow Army...

Upon initial contact, Ye Jingyu immediately sensed the difference in this black army. They were three to five times stronger than the soldiers they had previously faced. While they still offered no resistance before him, they could easily hold off soldiers already exhausted to the breaking point...

Even the mighty Chi Yi warriors were now utterly fatigued, their armor tattered and torn. Although none had suffered casualties yet, facing these mere Martial Apprentice-level Shadow Guards, they could no longer muster the terrifying combat prowess they had shown before...

Furthermore, the remaining three thousand-plus enemy forces were swarming in from all directions, granting Ye Jingyu and his men no opportunity to catch their breath...

They lacked overwhelming combat power, but their coordinated efforts with the Shadow Guards created immense trouble for Ye Jingyu's group. When a contingent wielding long spears appeared, Ye Jingyu and his men were pushed to the brink of collapse...

No matter how skilled your martial arts, how profound your strength, what could you do against seven or eight sharp spearheads aimed at you?

Especially the Mastiff Lions, which had virtually no armor protection. When facing ordinary soldiers with swords and blades, their agility allowed them to dispatch foes before they could even land a blow. But these spears were over four meters long; seven or eight thrusting simultaneously meant there was no evasion possible...

In the very first clash, seventy to eighty Mastiff Lions were pierced through like sieves, and the Iron Army soldiers on their backs were skewered in a volley of spikes—a fate more terrifying than being pierced by ten thousand arrows...

Even the Chi Yi warriors began to take casualties. Their armor, though sturdy, was incredibly heavy. After fighting for so long, they were already drained, their movements sluggish. One careless slip, and an enemy blade found its way into a throat...

Watching the Iron Army soldiers fall, watching the Chi Yi warriors collapse—these were his personal guards. They had followed him out of the Southern Desolate Forest merely to protect him. They held no obligation to die for the Shu Yun Kingdom, yet they were dying because of him, due to his presence...

A wave of guilt washed over him. Alongside the guilt, a nameless fury ignited. But he knew this was not the time for anger; a thousand brothers still stood behind him, and he had to fight for their single thread of survival...

Nine deaths, one life—that sliver of hope had to be seized...

Silver light flickered incessantly in his eyes as the Overbearing War Pattern continuously blasted outward. Any Shadow Army soldier daring to approach was sent flying. However, unleashing the Overbearing War Pattern so recklessly, even Ye Jingyu’s immense Soul Power began to falter after killing several hundred; his head felt ready to explode, and spots danced before his eyes...

"Awooo!" Seemingly sensing Ye Jingyu's distress, the Taotie roared, and a stream of pure energy shot from within its body, sinking directly into Ye Jingyu...

"Little Ye Zi, are you trying to die?" Xiao Tao Tao’s voice echoed directly in Ye Jingyu’s mind...

Receiving the pure soul essence from Xiao Tao Tao provided Ye Jingyu some relief, yet he understood that exhausting his soul power this rapidly meant he might perish before the enemy could even kill him...

"Xiao Tao Tao, if we cannot kill their leader, you and Ni Bo must leave immediately. They won't be able to stop you." With his head clearing slightly, Ye Jingyu communicated with Xiao Tao Tao via mental waves. In the next moment, his iron saber sliced across an enemy soldier's neck at an extremely bizarre angle, followed by a long gash across another soldier's arm before he paused his attack...

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