Chapter 98
The moment they passed through the canyon, it was like a stream flowing into the sea. They were quickly surrounded and swallowed up by the enemy forces lying in ambush behind them. But the giant shields stood like pillars in the middle of the stream, stubbornly holding up a piece of sky!
Spears and shields cleared a path, tearing open a trail for the Mo Dao (陌刀) battalion. Mo Dao soldiers extended their blades from between the shields, their gleaming blades pouncing forward, momentarily halting the Xili's swift and relentless attack.
The mounted archers followed closely behind, and arrows rained down on both sides, as dense as locusts passing by.
Taking advantage of the momentum, three hundred Mo Dao swords, with overwhelming force, swung towards the enemy in unison. The Mo Dao swords and wolf-ring swords clashed fiercely, like lightning intertwining and thunder roaring.
In the midst of the chaotic battle, Xie Chengnan wielded his goose-feather saber with incredible speed. Wherever the blade passed, flesh was torn apart, and blood gushed out like a fountain, splattering onto half of his sharp profile, making him look like a demon stained with blood.
The offensive was fierce, but his anxiety remained, and he could only suppress it with heavy blows.
The tide of battle had clearly turned in favor of the An army, and the defeat of the Li army was only a matter of time. But suddenly, sharp, terrified screams rang out without warning, accompanied by the clanging of weapons hitting the ground, one after another.
Several wounded An soldiers abandoned their weapons, clutched their wounds, and wailed incessantly; their piercing and painful cries were heart-wrenching.
The change came suddenly, and Xie Chengnan was stunned for a moment as the enemy's gleaming blades came straight for his neck!
That instant was stretched out infinitely. He heard the ring blade whistling through the air, but it was too late to raise his own blade to block. In an instant, the cracking sound of wood splitting rang in his ears! The distance was infinitely close, and the fine wood chips scraped past, bringing a small spray of blood to his earlobe and cheek.
Zhan Xian threw the broken bow to the ground, grabbed the man by the back of his collar with her other hand and pulled him behind her. Then, she drew her longsword from her waist and slashed with all her might, the dark blade instantly flashing with an ominous bloody light. Zhan Xian roared, "Don't be distracted! There's something wrong with their swords!"
Xie Chengnan snapped out of his daze, his heart filled with horror. He was so close; if Zhan Xian hadn't arrived in time, he would have been dead…
That instant of realization plunged him into an icy abyss. In a flash, countless chaotic thoughts surged to the surface, but only a fraction of a second transformed into that one unwavering conviction—he could not die.
It was unclear what tricks the Xili army had used on their weapons, but the wounded soldiers were all in excruciating pain; even a small cut would render them unable to fight. The ominous, purplish-black, radiating patterns spread from the wounds like a spider web.
Seeing this situation, Anguo's soldiers, who were originally invincible, began to hesitate and become timid.
Nobody wants to die, nobody wants to get hurt, or rather, nobody dares to get hurt.
On the battlefield, the more you fear and retreat, the more merciless the enemy's swords will be!
With more than half of their troops already lost, the An army, driven to the brink of defeat, has yet to launch a counterattack.
Xie Chengnan slit the throat of a Li soldier with his knife, then kicked the person who attacked from the side and behind him far away, and asked the person fighting alongside him, "Retreat?!"
"We cannot retreat—" Zhan Xian shouted.
The An army that entered the valley suffered more than half its losses, but the Xili people also suffered heavy losses. They did have some strange and unusual assistance, but after this battle, we have figured out their strength. The ambushing force here is less than 10,000, and there are no reinforcements. They were only able to inflict such damage on the An army by relying on the terrain advantage and their weapons coated with some unknown substance.
If we retreat now, and the Xili army regroups or reinforcements arrive, the difficult battles and pointless casualties will have to happen countless more times!
Xie Chengnan understood her considerations and gritted his teeth to continue.
This was more like a high-stakes gamble, a one-for-a-hundred exchange. The Western Li hadn't deployed enough troops at all; their focus wasn't on this. They knew they couldn't win this war against overwhelming odds, yet they used some unknown means, aiming only to injure people—as long as enough people were wounded, their goal would be achieved.
Gu Shuan's reinforcements have arrived, and they have a significant manpower advantage.
The owl swooped down from a distance, circled several times in the air, and flew away while calling out.
That might have been a signal for the retreat of the Xili army. The few remaining Li soldiers wanted to retreat, but they were already surrounded by the An army, like trapped beasts.
Because they were wary of the weapons the enemy had, the An army did not rush forward, but instead aimed their spears and short blades at the center of the encirclement.
Xie Chengnan wiped the blood from his face and gasped for breath, "Take them alive."
Victory was assured, but their losses in this battle far exceeded expectations. He needed to find out how such a deployment and those strange weapons had ended up in the hands of the Xili people.
The archers avoided vital points when aiming, but at the same time the arrows were released, the surviving Li soldiers all had their necks twisted and died!
“Not a single one survived,” Zhan Xian said after examining the last person.
"What is this?" Zhan Xian asked, puzzled. As she examined the body, she noticed a blood mole the size of a broad bean on the side of the person's neck. The size and shape of this mole didn't seem natural. She turned over another soldier and found the same mole in the same spot!
Xie Chengnan crouched down and examined each of the Li soldiers with her. As expected, every body had a circular bloodstain below the ear and on the side of the neck, which couldn't be rubbed off and wasn't painted on. Xie Chengnan had a guess in his mind, and he then looked through the Li soldiers who had been killed before the encirclement, and found that both sides of their necks were empty.
Only those Li soldiers who suddenly died during the final encirclement had this mark on their bodies!
"What's wrong?" Gu Shuan asked personally.
Zhan Xian didn't say anything, but directly flipped open the collar of the lying Li Bing, revealing a blood-red stain.
"This is...poisoning?"
Zhan Xian shook her head; she didn't know either.
"It's not poison."
The two turned around at the same time upon hearing the sound.
Xie Chengnan was hanging his head, his eyes hidden by his bangs, and upon closer inspection, his body was trembling slightly. However, he quickly calmed down, released the collar of the soldier in his hand, and said in a strained voice, "It's Gu. Southern Frontier Gu poison."
In this battle, not a single soldier of the Xili army survived, yet none of the generals rejoiced. Those who had witnessed the battle, and those who hadn't, all knew the details of the fighting in the valley and the horrific wounds inflicted. If the Xili army continued to tamper with their weapons in every future battle, how could they possibly win? Not to mention, they possessed a poison capable of instantly killing an entire Xili army soldier in full view of everyone. The Xili people showed no mercy to their own soldiers; how could they possibly be lenient towards their enemies?
The wounded Anguo soldiers on the battlefield were still crying out in pain, saying that although they were not going to die, they were living a life worse than death.
The piercing cries echoed from the battlefield all the way to the camp.
Inside the medical tent, several supply soldiers worked together to subdue a struggling wounded man. There were too many wounded, and soldiers who had not directly participated in the battle had been mobilized to carry out various post-battle support and care.
"How about it?"
"I'm sorry, I... can't heal them." Lin Yi said. Looking at those hideous wounds, her eyes didn't redden, but she felt deeply powerless. This was their first real battle against Xili. While staying behind, she prayed that no one would get hurt, which was wishful thinking. So at least the injuries should be minor, not too difficult, and within her ability to heal them.
But the reality is more than just tricky; it's downright insurmountable.
She could not heal them, nor could she alleviate the slightest bit of the injured people's pain—a pain that even anesthetic could not suppress.
"You don't need to apologize," Xie Chengnan said, supporting her shoulders.
Lin Yi simply shook her head: "It's because I know too little." Neither her practical experience nor the medical books she had read were nearly enough.
“Ah Ye, it’s not your fault. That’s not an ordinary wound; it’s from a Gu poison.”
"Gu poison... Do you have any books that record Gu poison? If you have any relevant records, I can cure it!"
"Who would carry something like that in a war?" Xie Chengnan was unaware of the system's existence and didn't take it seriously, but Lin Yi was persistent.
"Do you remember those people we saw yesterday when we were marching? They travel around here all year round, maybe they can help."
Xie Chengnan also recalled those few simply dressed vagrants, which were heading in the same direction. However, their wandering seemed to be irregular; they had only encountered them once during the march.
“I will tell Gu Shuan to send someone to look for him.”
Lin Yi replied "Okay," then suddenly remembered something and asked him, "What about you? Are you feeling unwell anywhere?"
Seeing how nervous she was, Xie Chengnan laughed and said, "Didn't you check me when I came back? If I had caught it, how could I still be standing here perfectly fine?"
He appeared perfectly normal while sitting and talking. But Lin Yi was still worried and pressed him down onto the sickbed without saying a word: "Better safe than sorry—the Gu poison must be very insidious. You're so close... let me take another look."
"Okay, okay, I'll show you, I'll show you."
Lin Yi carefully examined the exposed skin and flesh of the man, and only breathed a sigh of relief after confirming that there were only the most common scratches on his side. Just as she was considering how to get Xie Chengnan to take off his clothes, she heard the man ask her with a smile, "This divine doctor, would you like me to take off my clothes for you to examine?"
Xie Chengnan was joking; he knew the girl was shy, so he wouldn't look after asking.
Unexpectedly, Lin didn't hesitate at all: "If you want to investigate, take it off yourself."
"..." Xie Chengnan blinked innocently: "I was just kidding."
"I'm serious, take it off."
Xie Chengnan looked into her incredibly serious eyes and read the 'I'll do it myself if you don't take it off' attitude in them. So he obediently untied his waist belt, revealing his fair and healthy body. Along with the waist belt, the flesh on his right shoulder and the large bruises were also exposed to Lin Yi.
Lin had heard from Jiang about the General of the Flying Cavalry's unparalleled bravery on the battlefield, and thus knew that it was with this early-wounded shoulder that he fought desperately amidst the chaos of battle, beheading enemy leaders one by one. The wound wasn't initially serious; it was caused by the repeated tearing of flesh with each swing of the sword…
"It doesn't hurt anymore, really." Xie Chengnan said when he saw her staring at the injury for a long time without saying anything.
"You're lying," Lin Yi said softly. How could it not hurt? She could tell it looked like it was going to kill her.
Xie Chengnan rolled his eyes, clearly plotting something mischievous again. "Actually, it still hurts a little bit—"
"How does the miracle doctor plan to treat me?"
He tilted his head, wearing a well-behaved and curious expression.
Every time Lin Yi heard the word "sister" from his mouth, she felt her teeth itch inexplicably—he was usually so decisive and clearly a head taller than her, yet at times like this he would look up at her with an innocent and harmless expression, like a wolf cub hiding its sharp claws and pretending to be well-behaved!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com