"Grand Marshal, are you alright?"
Several personal guard generals crowded around, asking with concern.
Min Zhan spoke with an air of calm indifference. "I am fine."
The sub-general surveyed the surroundings before looking at the giant snake shrouded in the night. "Grand Marshal, what should we do next?"
After a moment of deliberation, Min Zhan said, "Retreat to the original defensive line and hold our positions."
"Understood!"
"Grand Marshal, these children are still alive. What about them?" someone asked, his voice trailing off as he hesitated.
Min Zhan glanced at the bamboo rafts packed with infants, his brow furrowed as if he were undergoing a fierce internal struggle.
He dismissed the others and spoke slowly:
"This is their fate. They have no one to blame but themselves."
The sub-general lowered his eyes and asked in trepidation, "This subordinate is foolish... I beg the Grand Marshal for clear instructions."
Min Zhan looked at him from the corner of his eye, and the sub-general hurried to bow even lower.
There was no trace of kindness on Min Zhan's aged face; instead, it was filled with a fierce, overbearing aura. He asked, "What of the light cavalry battalion that delivered the people inside?"
The sub-general swallowed hard and replied quickly, "Following your orders, Grand Marshal, after they returned, I stationed them at the very front of the defensive line to be the first to encounter the demonic cultivators. Of the two thousand riders, fewer than three hundred remain alive."
Min Zhan narrowed his eyes.
"Then let them take these children and leave. Remember, I do not wish for a third person to know of this matter besides you and me. I trust I do not need to teach you how to handle it?"
The sub-general shuddered, understanding the underlying meaning. He hurriedly replied, "This subordinate understands."
"See to the arrangements. I am going to meet this snake beast."
"Understood!"
With that, Min Zhan gripped the blood-stained mountain-splitting blade with his left hand, shouldered it, and strode into the darkness.
With his armor soaked in blood and his red cloak fluttering, he was an old general, yet his presence was as formidable as a man in his prime.
Watching him leave, the sub-general looked at the baby girls remaining on the bamboo rafts. He shook his head and sighed helplessly.
He issued the military command.
The army was to withdraw to their original defensive line and await further orders.
"Order from the Grand Marshal! The whole army is to retreat!"
"Order from the Grand Marshal! The whole army is to retreat!!"
"Withdraw!"
The messenger's relay shouts rose and fell. The Black Armor Cavalry within the battlefield began a systematic and orderly retreat.
"Take the wounded with you! Move quickly!"
In ancient warfare, an army would typically retreat if they lost ten percent of their strength, crumble at twenty percent, and suffer a total defeat at thirty percent.
Of course, there were exceptions.
The Black Armor Cavalry before them was one such exception.
Even though the total number of enemies they faced was barely a hundred, those enemies were all cultivators. The group from the Wendao Sword Sect alone had slaughtered thousands of armored soldiers during nearly an hour of combat.
The demonic cultivators had also killed thousands.
All told, out of thirty thousand elite troops, no fewer than ten thousand were dead or wounded. For an army that had lost over thirty percent of its strength to still maintain its morale and retreat in such an orderly fashion without descending into chaos was a rare sight.
It would have been rare even in the ancient world Xu Xian came from.
Even in a world like Fanzhou, where myriad races coexisted, dynasties vied for supremacy, and cultivators fought their battles, such a feat was one of the few.
This spoke volumes of the army's combat power. Even though most of the soldiers were mortals who had not cultivated immortality, their strict discipline and fearless courage allowed them to stand their ground against cultivators.
It was no wonder Min Zhan had gone to such great lengths to secretly deploy this thirty-thousand-strong army here.
Tianzhu County was located in the heart of Yecheng. To secretly move such an elite force from the border to this location without being detected proved that Min Zhan had planned this from the very beginning.
This army must have been stationed nearby long ago; otherwise, they could not have assembled so quickly.
After the army retreated, the sub-general followed the Grand Marshal's instructions and summoned the young commander of that light cavalry battalion.
Pointing at the infants on the rafts, he ordered the commander to take all his remaining men, including the wounded, and escort the infants to Gloomy Mist Valley, two hundred miles away.
Someone would be there to meet them.
He repeatedly emphasized that they must set out immediately and maintain absolute secrecy.
"But General, I have fewer than three hundred soldiers left. Half are wounded, and dozens are in critical condition. Gloomy Mist Valley is too far, the terrain is rugged, and our horses were spooked and scattered—we have very few left. If we take these babies, they will likely all be dead before we arrive."
The young commander voiced his concerns.
The path to Gloomy Mist Valley led through dense forests and mountains, with no signs of human habitation along the way.
The sub-general had anticipated this response and did not yield. He stated that he only cared about the result and that how it was achieved was the commander's problem. He added that this was a direct order from the Grand Marshal, and there was no room for negotiation in the military; he must either carry out the mission or answer for it with his head.
The young commander immediately lost his nerve. Since the military law and the Grand Marshal had been invoked, there was no room for him to say another word of protest.
Of course, alongside the threats, the sub-general did not forget to offer a reward. He told the commander that if they completed the mission and returned, he would request honors for them, ensuring that everyone would be promoted by at least one rank, among other rewards.
Upon hearing this, the young commander accepted the mission with joy and thanked the sub-general repeatedly.
After the sub-general left, the commander gathered all his men who could still move.
He relayed the sub-general's promise to them. Hearing that they would each be promoted and share ten thousand taels of silver, the soldiers—who had been exhausted, complaining, and demoralized—instantly shed their gloom. They threw their dissatisfaction to the back of their minds as if they had been injected with adrenaline.
Their fighting spirit was reignited.
They immediately sprang into action.
Meanwhile, beneath a pile of corpses on the battlefield, a hand clenched tightly.
'An old scoundrel never dies; they truly are thieves. These idiots are being sold and are still helping the buyer count the money.'
This person was Xu Xian.
When Ruan Zhong's physical body had exploded earlier, the little book spirit had just happened to wake up.
The heavily injured Xu Xian had immediately thought of a countermeasure.
He first used the Pupil of Insight to mask his aura and took the opportunity to crawl into a pile of corpses.
Then, he instructed Wait to fly far away into the night, simulating the illusion of the immortal sword returning to the peak.
He used this to pull a bait-and-switch.
Survival came first.
As it turned out, his plan was a success, and he had escaped death once again.
Hidden under the corpses, he had naturally heard the conversation between Min Zhan and the sub-general clearly.
He could guess what the fate of those soldiers and babies would be even without thinking hard about it.
This trip was likely a journey of no return.
The other party's intentions were all too obvious.
Min Zhan wanted everyone dead.
Not just the demonic cultivators, and not just the Wendao Sword Sect. He wouldn't even let the babies live, and he was even willing to slaughter the very soldiers who had fought and bled for him on the battlefield.
Was this something a human would do?
Was this something an old general would do?
It was unheard of.
They said the world of officialdom was cold-blooded, and it was certainly true.
Min Zhan was merely a minor Vice City Lord and Grand Marshal of Yecheng, yet he was already so ruthless.
If it were an emperor of a secular dynasty, wouldn't they be even more merciless?
And for someone like him to be willing to serve the current City Lord of Yecheng, aside from fearing the protection of the Wendao Sword Sect and the oversight of the Supervision Hall, it was possible the City Lord was also in on it. Perhaps the City Lord had ordered all of this.
Soon.
The soldiers hurriedly set off with the surviving infants, leaving behind a ground littered with dead children.
Xu Xian took the opportunity to push aside the corpses.
He ducked into the nearest dense forest and swallowed a handful of pills without even checking their grade.
He began to heal himself and restore his long-exhausted true essence.
During this time, his attention frequently drifted to the giant snake that was still charging through the lines in the distance. He whispered tensely, "Faster, just a bit faster!"
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