Stranger Danger

Chapter 459: One Man Versus An Army

“Are you wondering why I’m here?” Duan Zipao asked as if he wanted to listen to Ye Qing’s theories, but answered his own question before the young man could react. “It’s simple, really. Rather than running about like headless chickens, I thought that lying in wait at a location you must pass through is much more effective. And I was right.”

Ye Qing was still silent, so Duan Zipao continued, “So, how does it feel? To fall to hell, ascend to the Kingdom of Buddha, then fall to hell again? It’s quite flavorful, isn’t it?”

“Don’t you have anything to say? Or are you the type who has nothing to say when your end is near?”

“I would advise you to say something though. Anything is fine. It’ll be your last will in this world after all.”

Ye Qing raised an eyebrow and scoffed, “You’re a talkative one, aren’t you?”

Ye Qing disappeared before he finished speaking and charged toward a group of Black Water Cavalry.

A cavalry’s greatest weapon was their charge, and they were especially deadly when they sped up to the point where they were the human equivalent of an avalanche.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, the Black Water Cavalry in front of him were the cream of the crop. Not only were they stronger than the cavalrymen he fought earlier, there were twice as many as them, if not more.

Therefore, the best way to deal with cavalry was to attack them first. One should disrupt their momentum, suppress their strength, and confuse their minds before they could launch a charge. A cavalry troop that couldn’t charge was sometimes easier to handle than even a group of infantry.

Ye Qing had been searching for a weak point in the Black Water Cavalry’s formation while Duan Zipao was busy talking to himself. Unfortunately, everyone here was a battle-hardened veteran. The encirclement was as tight as it was flawless.

That was fine though. If there were no flaws in his enemy’s formation, then he just needed to make one himself.

Ye Qing’s energies washed out of him like a fountain as he rushed toward a group of cavalrymen.

“Raise spears!”

The cavalrymen facing toward him didn’t panic. They simply obeyed their captain’s orders and raised their spears.

Whoosh!

The cavalrymen moved perfectly in sync. They looked like a patch of black cloud when their shoulder plates clattered against their comrades’.

If the black cloud decided to bear down on a city, it might even succeed and crush it.

“Throw!”

The next moment, a rain of short spears whistled through the sky as swift as the wind, falling toward Ye Qing like a downpour of steel. Whoever said that only the heavens could command the weather?

The short spears were forged from heavy metal. They were incredibly sharp, impossibly heavy, and capable of cutting through astral qi. It was why most jianghu warriors wouldn’t choose to take such an attack head on.

Ye Qing didn’t have a choice, however. If he withdrew here, he would never break out of this encirclement. While still charging at high speed, he surrounded himself in energies of yin and yang, black and white, hard and soft. Whenever a short spear hit the two energies, they would deflect away from Ye Qing’s body as harmlessly as a falling leaf. But of course, the short spears were anything but harmless. The spears plowed into the ground beside his feet almost all the way to the end, and they were still pouring down on him from every direction.

But still Ye Qing ran like the wind, the black spearfall failing to slow him down even a little, much less wound him. It was like a scholar stepping through a blooming garden with no path, but not a single leaf or petal was able to ruffle up his appearance. If a painter were to draw a painting of this scene, it would probably become famous and be remembered for a long, long time to come.

Every time Ye Qing’s feet hit the ground, the ground would shake a little, and the spears would wobble a little. When he was three meters away from his target, he sucked in a deep breath and brought down his foot with all his might.

At that moment, the world shook. It was like an invisible force had gripped all nine provinces by the throat and shaking them left and right. Every short spear planted in the ground was ejected into the sky, and when Ye Qing raised an arm and clenched his fist, there was a deafening bang that sounded like heaven and earth colliding with each other. The next moment, the sky of spears flipped around and took aim at the Black Water Cavalry.

Ye Qing threw a punch, and the floating spears shot back toward their throwers.

“Mountain Range Formation, now!”

“Raise shield!”

Blanching, the leader of the group hurriedly barked out a series of commands. The cavalrymen facing toward Ye Qing immediately turned their mounts sideways and stacked their shields on top of each other. It was as if a multilayered mountain range had sprung into existence in an instant.

If Ye Qing did nothing, then the Black Water Cavalry would come out of his attack with minimal damage. So, he threw another punch.

“Break Through”

Like a lone cavalry aiming to cut through the sea of troops in front of him, Break Through shattered the shields, the Scale Horses, and the cavalrymen closest to him. It was like a giant beast had slammed into their formation at full force. As if on cue, the short spears finally descended from the sky—

Pssh pssh pssh!

Dozens of cavalrymen were turned into pincushions just like that.

Unfortunately, that was the end of Ye Qing’s attack. The Mountain Range Formation was a defensive formation the Black Water Cavalry specifically trained to guard against cavalry charges. If the Scale Horses were the base of the mountain range, then the shields were the mountains. No matter how powerful the tsunami was, it couldn’t overcome a multilayered mountain range and flood it all.

What this meant was that Ye Qing’s Break Through had petered out after punching through just a couple layers of “mountains”, and the spearfall was also spent after the one attack.

As soon the fist force was gone, and the rain had ceased, the gap Ye Qing had tried so hard to pry open was immediately filled up by new cavalrymen.

“Blade Mountain Formation, now!”

When the order was given, the ring of cavalrymen closest to Ye Qing immediately drew their long sabers and attacked him from every direction.

Ye Qing deflected the attacks with a punch, but before he could do anything else, his attackers retreated deeper into their ranks, and the second layer of cavalrymen rushed forward to swing their sabers at him.

The yin and yang energies surrounding Ye Qing shuddered a little, but they still managed to redirect the sabers away from his body. But once again, his attackers retreated after the one attack so that the next layer of cavalrymen could unleash their attacks.

Ye Qing frowned. At this rate, they would wring him dry long before he managed to break out of the encirclement.

This time, Ye Qing swung his sleeves and caught the falling sabers in a bundle of force instead of bouncing them away from him. Then, he pulled the weapons toward him.

Caught off guard, the cavalrymen reacted decisively and abandoned their weapons. However, that slight delay was all Ye Qing needed. Before they could retreat into their ranks, Ye Qing swung his sleeves again and spun the sabers around him like a hurricane, skewering their torsos with their own sabers. Before anyone could react, he pulled several Scale Horses and sent them flying toward his enemies.

The Scale Horses weighed at least hundreds of kilograms. If they hit, they were going to do a ton of damage. So, the captain barked another order,

“Saber out! Black Water Slash!”

Every cavalryman unsheathed their sabers and swung at the Scale Horses. Their saber forces merged together to form several black scars in the air that cut the Scale Horses into bits.

The Scale Horses weren’t the only gifts Ye Qing prepared for them, however. The second the Scale Horses split into many tiny chunks, the force hidden within their flesh immediately exploded outward like a hail of arrows. Caught completely off guard, the foremost cavalrymen were skewered and killed just like that.

While the Black Water Cavalry struggled to regain control, Ye Qing leaped into the air and tried to escape. However, his senses suddenly warned him of danger, and he hurriedly gathered his energy and punched directly above his head.

It was at this moment an arrow fell from the sky like the judgment of the heavens. There was no sound, but the arrow was imbued with so much power that it easily tore through his fist force like paper. Then, it continued its course and slammed into Ye Qing’s fist.

Boom!

There was a loud boom, and Ye Qing felt a tremendous amount of foreign energy spreading throughout his body and scattering his energies. Then, he was sent crashing back to the ground. The impact was such that a shallow pit spanning about ten meters had taken form around him. It was like a mini meteor had struck the ground.

Ye Qing’s expression looked ugly as he gathered himself. When his energies had cycled once throughout his body, and a mouthful of murky breath escaped his lips, the foreign energies wreaking havoc inside his body were fully dispelled.

Obviously, Duan Zipao was the one who shot the arrow. Duan Zipao was a late-stage Spirit Master, so the shot was incredibly powerful as a matter of course.

The good news was that the shot failed to harm him despite its power. The bad news was that the Black Water Cavalry had regained control and surrounded him once more.

Duan Zipao didn’t make another move after shooting that arrow. He was back to roleplaying a curious spectator once more.

“Flood Dragon Formation, now!”

The cavalrymen surrounding Ye Qing suddenly split away from each other just enough to reveal two narrow gaps. At the same time, two squads formed up at the end of the gap and charged toward Ye Qing. It was like a flood dragon attempting to skewer him alive with its horns.

Both squads were only ten-man squads, but the threat they represented were unmistakable.

Ye Qing knew he wouldn’t be able to break out of the encirclement then, not while Duan Zipao was still watching from the sidelines. Not only that, it was clear that Duan Zipao treated this battle like a clown show. He wanted to wear him down with his Black Water Cavalry before killing him like a clown.

If I can’t escape... then I will fight.

Let’s see if you can still clown about after I’ve annihilated your whole army!