After the Immortal Disappeared

Hee Lingchuan had his eye on a slope halfway up the side of the high ground. It was shaped like terraced fields, with abandoned carriages and miscellaneous junk piled up. Most importantly, this was where the Yuan Kingdom’s military equipment was stored!

The military equipment was undoubtedly one of the first targets the enemy would want to destroy.

Hee Lingchuan had just finished setting up his men when the enemy army descended upon them.

Zhao Pan’s main tent was pitched on the high ground. There were several paths from the riverbank leading up to it. The main force of the Xunzhou Army would naturally charge up the shortest, main path, while the rest of their troops would spread out to attack from all sides, aiming to encircle the high ground.

The slope Hee Lingchuan had chosen was off to the side, so they wouldn’t face a large number of invaders. This allowed them to fight a steady, defensive battle.

As for the main force of the Xunzhou Army?

Oh, the Yuan Army’s Elites would be guarding Zhao Pan’s tent to the death. They were a formidable force in their own right. It was best to let those two titans clash.

You only take on as much as you can handle. Hee Lingchuan would never overreach for glory at a time like this.

Despite the chaos and complexity of a full-scale battle, it ultimately broke down into individual skirmishes between small squads.

As long as Hee Lingchuan led his squad in combat, he was contributing to their side’s efforts. And that wasn’t even mentioning that he was tasked with intercepting the enemy forces making a beeline for their military equipment.

As for his father—

He glanced back at the main camp. Hee Chunhua was right beside Zhao Pan, at the very core of the army’s protective detail. It was fair to say he was quite safe.

A Messenger burst out of the main camp and sprinted to Hee Lingchuan’s side, yelling, "An order from the Chief Steward! Hee Lingchuan is to hold the military equipment zone!"

Though he was a fraction of a second behind, Hee Chunhua had quickly realized the importance of this position.

Hee Lingchuan turned, pointed to the forest, and said to the Medicinal Ape, "Get up in the trees." ’Blades and spears have no eyes during battle; a non-combatant like him is better off far from the action.’

Lingguang didn’t waste any time. With two leaps, he was up a tree and vanished from sight in an instant.

The men had just finished their preparations when the enemy descended on them, howling for blood.

Two large horses charged at the front, crashing toward them like the wind. The rider on one horse grinned menacingly, brandishing a Long Spear and aiming for the space between Hee Lingchuan’s eyes.

’This kid looks like the leader. Weak and easy to kill. A perfect chance to claim first blood.’

For an enemy with such poor judgment, Hee Lingchuan’s response was to raise his middle finger in a universal gesture.

Seeing the signal, his men yanked hard on the tripwire.

THWANG! The front legs of the two warhorses were caught, sending both horses and riders tumbling several yards through the air.

The two riders were thrown into a dizzying stupor. Before they could even scramble to their feet, they were cut down by Shan Youjun and the others.

The remaining infantrymen, shocked, roared in anger and charged forward.

The archers hidden in the large trees behind them began to pick off targets. Even in the dim light, it only took two or three arrows to down a man. They were fast.

The other infantrymen charged a few steps through the arrow fire before suddenly crying out in pain and doubling over.

It turned out the ground was scattered with poisoned caltrops. These small, three-pronged spikes were known as the bane of foot-soles. Forget humans—even a Bear Demon would be howling in tears if it stepped on one, its paw swelling up like a bucket in short order.

When Hee Lingchuan led his men to hunt down troublesome Demons, these wonderful caltrops had proven their worth time and again. Today, they were just as effective against men.

Hee Lingchuan showed them no courtesy; he moved to finish them off while they were incapacitated.

The remaining lucky few who hadn’t stepped on the poisoned caltrops could finally engage them in a proper fight.

The Xunzhou people had used the cover of the night rain to sneak onto the south bank, but their boats were limited. To ferry as many troops as possible in a short time, they had to bring fewer horses and more men. This meant their cavalry numbers were severely lacking, and the invading force consisted mainly of infantry.

Fortunately, in this kind of mountainous terrain, the infantry’s role was not diminished.

Still, it was obvious their charging power was weaker.

Hee Lingchuan cut one down with his saber, then sent another flying with a simple shoulder check. He paused, a little stunned himself.

’Are the Xunzhou Soldiers this weak?’

’They aren’t small by any means and look quite sturdy.’

On the other side, Shan Youjun and his men were also fighting with spectacular success. If it weren’t for the occasional stray arrow from the rear, each of them could have easily taken on three or four opponents.

And that wasn’t even mentioning the Rock Wolf, which was displaying its divine might by killing a man with four or five bites. In its jaws, these Xun People seemed to be nothing but thin skin and juicy filling.

In contrast, their own attacks seemed feeble. The Rock Wolf took two axe strikes, which only left white marks on its hide without drawing a drop of blood.

’Its defense has always been high, but past battles weren’t like this.’

At this rate, not only could they hold the slope, but they might even have a chance to organize a counterattack.

’What is going on?’

Jiao Tai had been silently hacking away at the enemy. After felling three of them, he suddenly turned to Hee Lingchuan. "Master, the Xun People are weak! Look at them!"

Hee Lingchuan was already wondering about it himself. At Jiao Tai’s prompting, he focused his gaze.

When the Xunzhou Soldiers fought, there was no shimmer of light on their bodies at all.

It was true for the ones right in front of him, and for those in the distance as well.

Earlier, when the Xun People were sneaking up from the riverbank, the absence of light seemed normal. But for it to still be this way in close-quarters combat... there could only be one explanation.

Hee Lingchuan turned, gathered his True Power, and bellowed up the slope, "The Xunzhou Army has no Primordial Power!"

His voice boomed like thunder, drowning out the clamor of the wind and rain as it carried far across the battlefield.

He even roared it three times, ensuring almost the entire battlefield heard him.

For any army, the difference in combat effectiveness with and without Primordial Power is night and day.

It wasn’t just a matter of enhanced strength and agility; Primordial Power also affected damage reduction, resistances, and accuracy. This was why regular soldiers had always found it easy to crush bandits, and why the Yuan Army, facing the Xun People—

—shouldn’t have been afraid at all!

The battlefield was in chaos. The Yuan Army had been caught completely off guard. Facing a swarming horde of enemies brandishing their weapons, some men hadn’t even fully donned their armor. Some were even knocked to the ground by their own panicked comrades or stampeding warhorses. How could they possibly muster any fighting spirit?

The Yuan Army’s morale was at rock bottom. If the Xun People had been at full strength, they could have shattered the entire encampment in just a few clashes.

In the end, a battle is a contest of both strength and confidence. A successful surprise attack often lays a solid foundation for ultimate victory.

At this critical moment, Hee Lingchuan’s shout was a godsend, a single cry that jolted them from their stupor!

Zhao Pan could no longer hold himself back. He charged out personally and cut down two or three enemy soldiers, also sensing how weak they were. Upon hearing Hee Lingchuan’s shout, he was struck by a sudden realization.

’The Xunzhou Army can’t just sprout wings and fly across the river, and the Hanhe River had suddenly become so calm... that old fox Nian Zanli must have pulled some trick.’

’He couldn’t possibly contend with the might of the Hanhe River on his own. He must have drawn on the Primordial Power of his entire army!’

’No wonder. No wonder they were able to cross the river.’

’No wonder the Xun People are so weak. They have no Primordial Power right now!’

"The Xun People have no Primordial Power! Cutting them down is like slicing vegetables!" Zhao Pan roared. "Charge! Slaughter them and drive them back into the river!"

Fearing the strong and preying on the weak is an instinct carved into the very bones of man. The Yuan Soldiers, who had been cowering in fear, heard that their opponents had no Primordial Power. They were skeptical at first, but after parrying a few blows, they realized...

’Hey, it’s true!’

Their courage surged, and they began to fight back.

In truth, the Xun People were in a state of unspeakable misery. The Green Bottle was continuously draining their Primordial Power to absorb the floodwaters rushing from upstream, buying more time for the fleet of boats behind them to make the crossing. As a result, every Xun Soldier who made it ashore felt mentally exhausted, physically drained, and emotionally depressed. They were filled with a fear of the enemy and a deep aversion to combat. It was as if they had run a ten-mile marathon carrying heavy loads on a rainy night; all they wanted was to collapse and never wake up.

It was safe to say their morale was already in the negative.

The ambushed Yuan People, though panicked, were at least still protected by their Primordial Power.

If this stalemate dragged on, the Balance Scale of victory would likely tip back in favor of the Yuan People sooner or later.

The price for defying the heavens was indeed a heavy one.

Fortunately, Nian Zanli had foreseen this. Before they set out, he had held two or three rounds of rallies, telling every soldier explicitly, "Hold on for one double-hour and victory will be ours!" Now, the enforcers were screaming, "Forward to live, backward to die!" forcing everyone to charge forward with their lives on the line.

Both sides were desperately trying to rally their troops and boost morale.

Whichever side’s confidence crumbled first would be the one to lose.

At Nian Zanli’s command, the twelve cannons on the riverbank finished reloading and began a new high-arcing barrage.

What they lacked in martial prowess, they would make up for with firepower.

The Yuan People’s Elites were currently gathered around Zhao Pan and Hee Chunhua, engaged in a bloody battle with the Xunzhou Army’s main force. Such a dense concentration of people made for a perfect target. At least nine of the twelve cannons aimed their fire at this spot.

With a series of rumbles, four or five cannonballs landed in succession within the highland encampment. The cluster munitions mowed down a huge swathe of men.

The Personal Guards behind Zhao Pan fell in response. He himself was nearly hit. Enraged, he roared, "Spread out! Fucking spread out!"

A cannonball also landed near Hee Lingchuan. Alarm bells screamed in his mind, and he ordered his men to take cover. Still, two Personal Guards had been standing too close and couldn’t dodge in time, killed instantly.

Even Jiao Tai was struck in the left arm by a lead ball from the shrapnel, but fortunately, the bone wasn’t broken.

Hee Lingchuan cursed under his breath. He glanced back toward Hee Chunhua and saw him issuing orders with a grim expression. He seemed to be uninjured, which put Hee Lingchuan’s mind at ease.

A thin, pale green shield of light suddenly materialized over the Yuan Army’s main camp. It was faint and barely there, almost unnoticeable in the darkness.

However, the cannonballs fired from the coast slammed into the shield before they could hit the ground, setting off a chain of explosions.

The shield of light flickered a few times, but it held.

Afterward, the lead balls from the cluster munitions rained down, but without the force of the initial explosion behind them, they posed a very limited threat.

Wave after wave of arrows was also intercepted. Only a precious few managed to find a gap and get through.

The Battle Array had finally been activated. For the moment, the pressure on the Yuan People was greatly reduced.

In truth, the Battle Array wasn’t perfect. It couldn’t be described as all-encompassing or without blind spots. Gaps would randomly appear in the light shield, which was either a coordination issue among the Array Masters—after all, the Array required more than twenty people working in concert—or an insufficient power supply from the Profound Crystals.

Both issues were nearly unavoidable. Given the hasty circumstances, Zhao Pan didn’t have high expectations for the Array. As long as it could resist the large-area attacks and buy them as much time as possible, it was good enough.

Amid the eager anticipation of the Yuan People, the artillery section behind Hee Lingchuan’s squad finally went into action. A dozen trebuchets began launching stones, the smallest of which were bigger than millstones, all aimed at the cannons on the bank and the boats near the shore.

Due to the torrential rain, several of the Yuan cannons couldn’t be operated. Unlike their opponents, the Yuan People were not equipped with Water-Repelling Talismans, which greatly reduced their long-range capabilities.

Nevertheless, the launched boulders managed to destroy three cannons and two transport boats. The rest landed among the enemy troops, smashing them into a pulp of flesh and blood.

The Yuan People cheered.

As time dragged on, the Balance Scale of victory began to tilt in their favor. Having weathered the fiercest initial waves of the assault, the Xunzhou Army was clearly showing signs of losing steam.