In the present world, how many dare to directly ask a grandmaster of martial rankings whether they could take their own head from a distance so close it’s almost within reach?!
Thus, the audacious Northern Wilderness Crown Prince’s surrounding troops—whether infantry or cavalry—upon hearing these words, were instantly inflamed with fervor, itching to charge at the arrogant Northern Liang King.
Unfortunately, the new Liang King remained unmoved, as if hesitating or even retreating from the fight.
Seated high on his horse, Yelü Hongcai curled his lips with a playful glint in his eyes.
This one-mile-radius open space, conspicuously empty amidst the orderly Northern Wilderness army, was especially striking given its position right before the Northern Wilderness’ grand banner. Even a blind man could sense the hidden scheme. With Xu Fengnian’s cunning nature and grandmaster-level prowess, unless he had lost his mind or was excessively overconfident, he would never recklessly step into such a trap. Yelü Hongcai didn’t believe mere taunts could lure Xu Fengnian—the backbone of Northern Liang’s 300,000 iron cavalry—into willingly walking into the snare. Yet, some things and some people had to act. It was simple: Yelü Hongcai knew full well why he had suddenly been appointed regent, why he had overnight gained command of 400,000 troops to march south toward Jubei City. Had the cold-blooded emperor, after a lifetime of ruthlessness, suddenly grown merciful, deciding to hand the grasslands to him and pave the way for her only remaining flesh and blood with the merits of conquering Jubei City? Of course not! She never cared for notions like “even a vicious tiger wouldn’t eat its cubs.” On the contrary, she had placed him as the southern expedition’s commander solely to use him as the world’s biggest bait—to pressure the young man surnamed Xu into leaving the city while making Xu Xiao’s eldest son believe he had a chance to “capture the ringleader first.” Thus, as both Crown Prince and expedition commander, Yelü Hongcai was left with only Deng Mao by his side for protection. Tuoba Pusa, Murong Baoding, Zhong Shentong, Zhong Liang, Li Mibi—these few remaining martial grandmasters of the grasslands—he could only deploy to siege the city, never to form an impenetrable defense around him.
Otherwise, how could he be a proper bait?
To take a step back, Yelü Hongcai didn’t believe his death would cause the 400,000-strong Northern Wilderness army to collapse like a landslide.
With the emperor’s tactics and Taiping Ling’s strategies, even if ten Yelü Hongcais died outside Jubei City, the siege would proceed as planned.
That said, while the bond between him and the emperor was thin, some remnants of mother-son affection remained—enough for him to learn of this earth-shattering plan the night before, enough for him to feel assured of victory.
At this moment, Yelü Hongcai couldn’t be bothered to glance at the cautious young prince. Instead, he looked up at Jubei City in the distance, clicking his tongue in amazement. He hadn’t anticipated so many Central Plains grandmasters rushing to the battlefield outside Liangzhou’s borders. Otherwise, the grasslands’ army would have already begun scaling the walls like ants.
But this was a good thing—a tremendous one. Nearly twenty of the Central Plains’ top martial grandmasters would fall one after another outside Jubei City, crushed beneath his iron cavalry. Such an unprecedented feat would be credited to Yelü Hongcai alone. The Western Shu Sword Emperor had died under the hooves of the Xu family’s cavalry, yet his death was glorified! Even twenty years after the Spring and Autumn wars, the Central Plains still spoke of it—both the Sword Emperor’s heroism and the Xu family’s cruelty. Consider this: Xu Xiao had led his troops across the Central Plains for over twenty years, fought countless stirring battles—why was the pacification of Western Shu, so smooth in comparison, mentioned as often as the battles of Xilebi and Jinghe? Clearly, it was the Sword Emperor’s lone act of “sending charcoal in snowy weather” that made the difference.
Now, including the Northern Liang King Xu Fengnian, there were seventeen grandmasters on the battlefield outside Jubei City!
Eighteen renowned martial grandmasters of the Central Plains!
Yelü Hongcai withdrew his gaze and slowly drew his dagger. Under the sunlight, the unsheathed blade gleamed brilliantly. The Northern Wilderness Crown Prince lowered his head, squinting at the mirror-like surface of the blade, and suddenly thought of an idea—after this battle, he should engrave four words on it:
“Destined by Heaven!”
Xu Fengnian looked at the open space, inexplicably feeling a sense of relief.
He wasn’t afraid of this trap being here. What he feared was it being placed near Huaiyang Pass, feared the bait being not the sky-high ambitious Northern Wilderness Crown Prince, but the Northern Liang Protector Chu Lushan, who faced Dong Zhuo’s army!
Xu Fengnian tightened his grip on the Liang blade, vanishing in an instant.
Deng Mao had already drawn a broken spear no longer than three feet from his pouch. The moment the young prince disappeared, he stepped forward several yards—not straight ahead, but diagonally to the left.
The next instant, Deng Mao was forced back seven or eight steps, his entire sleeve drenched in crimson blood from the force.
The clash between the Liang blade and the broken spear sent visible ripples of energy through the air, like a vertical mirror. Under the tremendous impact, the grand banner behind Deng Mao not only flapped violently but even the sturdy pole bent backward at an alarming angle.
Had Deng Mao not blocked most of the energy, and had the two-word codename champion Han Gu not dismounted to stand guard with her sword, the ordinarily built Crown Prince would have died on the spot.
With unwavering determination, Deng Mao stared ahead. The young prince, forced back, now stood precisely at the edge of the open space’s arc. Compared to Deng Mao’s bloodied arm, Xu Fengnian merely flicked his wrist, effortlessly dispersing the residual force—clearly at greater ease.
From afar, the white-robed figure loudly reminded, “Be wary of when Deng Mao discards his spear.”
Xu Fengnian frowned.
Exposed, Deng Mao showed no anger, merely grinning nonchalantly.
For this first encounter with the broken-spear-wielding Deng Mao, Xu Fengnian paid little attention—not out of arrogance, but confidence. Deng Mao’s martial prowess was close to Hong Jingyan’s, perhaps even slightly inferior to the Hong Jingyan of Longyan’er Plains. After all, the Qijian Yuefu’s Geng Louzi had been on the verge of breaking through to the Heavenly Realm, had Xu Fengnian not denied him the chance to stabilize his realm. Otherwise, the Northern Wilderness would have gained another Land Immortal.
The term “Land Immortal” weighed heavily on Xu Fengnian’s mind. As he casually surveyed his surroundings, his thoughts raced.
The martial world was experiencing a golden age unseen in a millennium—a fact universally acknowledged. The Central Plains’ martial scene far surpassed the Northern Wilderness’, a disparity even the Northern Wilderness Empress had openly admitted in court. Whether in numbers of first-rank experts—Diamond, Finger Mystery, or Heavenly Phenomena—after Huang Longshi funneled the remnants of the Spring and Autumn Eight Kingdoms into the martial world, the Central Plains’ martial arts flourished unnaturally, outstripping the Northern Wilderness. Even in Land Immortals, the Central Plains outnumbered the Northern Wilderness. Even including the ascended Qilin Sect’s Grandmaster Yuan Qingshan and the ever-mysterious Qijian Yuefu’s Taiping Ling, the Northern Wilderness’ Land Immortals in the past twenty years could be counted on one hand. Now, only Tuoba Pusa and Huyan Daguang remained. In contrast, the Central Plains’ martial world was lush with towering trees. Among those no longer alive were Wang Xianzhi, Hong Xixiang, Li Chungang, Cao Changqing, Huang Sanjia, the father-son Daoist duo from Dragon-Tiger Mountain who ascended together, the hermit Zhao Huangchao, Longshu monk from Two Zen Temples, Huishan’s Xuanyuan Jingcheng, and the fleeting appearances of Gao Shulu and Liu Songtao. Not to mention the Confucian sage secluded in Shangyin Academy. Among the living were Xu Fengnian, Peach Blossom Sword God Deng Tai’a, Chen Zhibao, the eunuch as old as the empire in Tai’an City, the white-robed monk Li Dangxin, and Guanyin Sect’s Tantai Pingjing. Others like Xu Yanbing, Gu Jianzhang, Xuanyuan Qingfeng, and Wu Jian Cheng Baishuang were but a step away from Land Immortal status.
While this disparity could be attributed to the Northern Wilderness’ lack of Spring and Autumn fortunes, the gap in top-tier first-rank experts was still unreasonably vast.
Especially in Land Immortals—the difference was almost ten, an absurdly unnatural gap.
According to Xu Fengnian and Wudang’s young leader Li Yufu’s deductions, the Northern Wilderness’ martial world shouldn’t have been so lifeless. In twenty years, it should have produced four to six more Land Immortals—one each from Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism, with one or two pure martial artists, and the highest likelihood being a Land Sword Immortal. Yet even as Xu Fengnian and Tuoba Pusa battled across a thousand miles in the Western Regions, or when he slew the black dragon symbolizing the Northern Wilderness’ fate outside Liuzhou, no Land Immortal emerged to intervene. It was as if someone in the Northern Wilderness was deliberately suppressing the martial world’s fortunes. Regardless, where had the three or four Land Immortals who should have shone in these twenty years gone? Where were their destined fortunes?
Xu Fengnian knew full well that the Northern Wilderness was using Crown Prince Yelü Hongcai as bait to lure him into attempting to “capture the ringleader first.”
In truth, Xu Fengnian had little interest in killing Yelü Hongcai. Should the old empress die—whether of illness or otherwise—Yelü Hongcai’s existence wouldn’t stabilize the Northern Wilderness’ leaderless chaos but would instead exacerbate internal strife. At the very least, his presence would become a stumbling block for Yelü Hongcai and Yelü Dongchuang’s grandfather-grandson duo. For the Yelü clan to reclaim their ancestors’ glory, they would first need to settle their internal disputes before unifying the imperial faction to battle the warlord Dong Zhuo, the maternal clan leader Murong Baoding, and other grassland powers. Moreover, Yelü Hongcai had previously, through the famed grassland princess, secretly probed Qingliang Mountain’s stance. Thus, facing Yelü Hongcai’s provocations again, Xu Fengnian remained unfazed.
Xu Fengnian was certain the trap lay right beneath his feet. Earlier, when he advanced, he hadn’t moved straight ahead but along an arc toward where Deng Mao blocked him. The trap’s danger directly correlated with the Northern Wilderness Crown Prince’s importance—a factor Xu Fengnian had to weigh.
Ultimately, Xu Fengnian truly wanted to kill Tuoba Pusa.
The current Tuoba Pusa possessed a near-“invincible in the mortal realm” level akin to Wang Xianzhi’s peak. What did this mean? It meant unless two grandmasters teamed up, they could barely stop Tuoba Pusa from killing his target.
Why hadn’t Xu Fengnian gone to Dunhuang City? Why had Huyan Daguang stopped him from heading to the Northern Wilderness? Simple—because of Tuoba Pusa.
Now, Xu Fengnian faced two imperatives:
Jubei City must not fall!
Tuoba Pusa must either be killed or stripped of his current realm!
As for Yelü Hongcai and his ilk? They were hardly worth mentioning.
Tai Sui Yellow Amulet Paper FuLu Taoist Love Talisman Traditional Chinese Spiritual Charm Attracting Love Protecting Marriage