Shock and Awe

Hundreds of Earth Rank experts quickly reacted and dismounted one after another.

Zhang San sighed inwardly, it seemed they were all veterans.

The terrain here was clearly not suitable for charging on horseback if there were experts blocking the way. Moreover, the horses were not martial arts masters and would become easy targets first, dragging down their riders.

The Earth Rank expert killed by Zhang San in two moves earlier had suffered because of this.

At the entrance of the Gourd Tail trail, over a hundred Earth Rank experts gathered.

Zhang San drew out a dagger, choosing to attack first.

His main purpose in instantly killing someone earlier was precisely to deter others.

By now, his own internal injuries were getting more and more serious, and after expending huge amounts of inner force these past days without any chance to properly rest, his spirit, energy and mind were not in optimal condition. Although there were only a hundred people in front of him, there was no telling how many more were still rushing out from behind. A prolonged battle would definitely not be advantageous for him.

Therefore, he absolutely could not show any retreat, he couldn't let the opponent know about his true situation.

He had to retaliate with the most vicious counterattack against any opponent who dared to step forward.

Even if they were professional soldiers, the elite Zhennan troops, when facing an opponent whose strength was obviously far above theirs and extremely aggressive, they might still feel intimidated and shrink back.

...

...

At the same time, at the port on the inner side.

"Hey kid, what are you doing? Come down!"

With the grain transport still far from finished, the high-strung Li Xing inadvertently let Wang Xiaoer sneak up the steep cliffside. From this he also discovered that this little kid following Zhang San seemed to be rather outstanding in lightness skill.

Looking at Wang Xiaoer, he actually wanted to rely on his meager lightness skill to climb up the steep precipitous cliff of the 'Gourd Tail'.

Wang Xiaoer's legs trembled a little, after all it was his first time climbing so high, but he still lowered his head and shouted:

"What are you shouting for! You shouting won't make me come down anyway. I happen to know you've almost lost all your power now, I..."

As he spoke, a sea breeze blew over, icy and stinging, almost making his hand clutching the cliff face shake.

He was naturally afraid in his heart, even his mouth couldn't help but tremble, but Wang Xiaoer went on saying:

"I... In my life, other than my mother and master, I don't listen to anyone, so you shut your trap and just stand there!"

So arrogant? And you don't even know what's going on in the valley over there?

Li Xing was so angry he almost wanted to curse out loud. He wondered, what capabilities did this kid have?

...

...

Outside the valley, over seventy people slowly retreated.

In less than half a stick of incense, thirty-one corpses already lay at the entrance of the Gourd Tail trail.

They retreated because by now, they understood that the person before them was definitely at least a Small Heaven Rank expert, or perhaps even...

They must wait for the general to arrive!

After a short while, over two hundred swift horses charged out again from the center of the valley, the person leading them had no mask on, his looks were ordinary, but his eyes were sinister and his manner ferocious. He carried a bloodstained carved silver spear on his back, clearly no ordinary man.

Evidently, even with the advantageous terrain and White Deer Army's Linked Crossbow, the Wolf Slayer and Blood Wolf had already done their best to mainly obstruct this spear-wielding leader-like master.

Yet ultimately, he still managed to fight his way out.

And the over two hundred people that followed him out were also elites amongst the five hundred Earth Rank experts, because the weakest of them were at least in the middle stage of Earth Rank!

The over two hundred added to the remaining seventy people, close to three hundred Earth Rank experts, gathered here.

Zhang San looked at the over two hundred people not far away, and thought to himself: In the end, Wolf Slayer's prowess was only one out of ten, Blood Wolf and the five hundred exhausted troops had done quite well to obstruct over two hundred fully vigilant Earth Rank experts at their peak.

"Halt!"

Holding up his spear with the Bai Lu Army soldiers' fresh blood dripping to the ground, the man ordered the troops behind him to slowly stop as he had already caught sight of the Gourd Tail trail at a glance, along with over thirty corpses at its entrance.

Although he and his hundred advance troops had only been separated by a short stretch of time, in just a short while, over thirty lower stage Earth Rank experts had died!

What level master was this?

At least a Small Heaven Rank right!

Staring at Zhang San from afar, the man first gave the surrounding subordinates a look, and they understood his intention before starting to get into formation.

Only then did the man cautiously lead his horse forward until he stopped about two hundred paces away from Zhang San.

The man spoke, "One man blocking the pass, ten thousand men cannot get through, impressive morale sir."

With his inner force consumed time and again, Zhang San was not actually as nonchalant as he looked on the surface right now.

But if blabbing could buy time, that would naturally be good.

Raising his dagger, Zhang San pointed at the spear-wielding man and said, "The 'one man' you speak of must be me right. May I ask, where are the 'ten thousand men'? From my view, you've got at most three hundred men here. Of course, if you really have ten thousand troops, please be kind enough to inform me now so I can start running."

While taunting, Zhang San cracked cold jokes.

The man grinned,

Ten thousand men?

If I really had an army of ten thousand at my disposal now, even if Bai ShiXuan came back to life, I could still bury him under ten thousand corpses. Why would I still be wasting time talking rubbish with you?

Pointing his spear at Zhang San, the man said, "Liu Hu said Xu Guo was killed by a Small Heaven Rank expert, yet just two days ago, Liu Hu himself also died. I suppose little old Tian Ruo Prefecture wouldn't have a fourth Small Heaven Rank popping out right? Which means... they were all killed by you?"

Zhang San sneered, "Oh? So you are also Small Heaven Rank? Speaking of which, Small Heaven Ranks really aren't worth much recently..."

The word 'money' dissipated into the wind.

It's true that blabbing can buy time, which I'm certainly happy to do as well.

But please don't treat me like an idiot.

Your three hundred men seem perfectly motionless behind you, but I've already noticed over a hundred drawing their bows inside.

Thinking you could ambush me? I'll ambush all of you first!

If I can take out your leader with a preemptive strike, that will undoubtedly be the best outcome!

Zhang San ruthlessly struck out, rapidly approaching the man and leaping high into the air,

It all happened in one breath instantaneously.

"Not good, this distance, this speed..." The man was shocked.

Bang!

After all, it was a frontal confrontation. Although Zhang San's dagger had the advantage of striking first, flashing as swift as lightning to the man's front. As the dagger stabbed down, while the silver spear came a step slower, the man still managed by a hair's breadth to block this strike with the horizontally-held spear above his head.

Yet.

"Such might..."

Despite the spear shaft already blocking the dagger, as Zhang San's inner force erupted, that dagger actually mightily bore down upon the silver spear, smashing down upon his left shoulder!

The shoulder bone was smashed instantly.

And the war stallion below simply could not withstand such explosive, instantaneous force, kneeling down on the ground with a whinny.

Although this also caused Zhang San's assault to stagnate, enabling the man to regain a breath as he fell from the horseback to the ground. He already understood one matter.

Liu Hu's intelligence was wrong!

This was definitely not Small Heaven Rank's level of prowess!

Even in the elites of elite Zhennan Army, who besides the commander could suppress him to such dire straits with one move?

Which meant, if the opponent's prowess neared the commander's, then wasn't this person...

"Master Rank!?" The man exclaimed with the taste of blood welling in his throat.

On Zhang San's side as he landed back on the ground, he was also rather astonished.

Not dead yet?

But I used my full strength!

Although coughing blood with one move, his level is definitely below Small Heaven Rank.

Seems to be peak Earth Rank, on a similar level to Wolf Slayer. The Zhennan Army elites indeed have some outstanding qualities.

"Protect the General!"

A group of experts charged forth on horseback.

"Loose arrows!"

Although there were over a hundred black Tang Dynasty heavy crossbows, because the leader and the other party were too close, only twenty dark iron arrows were shot in the first volley of arrows, but each one was aimed precisely at the vital points all over Zhang San's body.

Among them were some aimed at the joints.

Zhang San thought to himself: I've got to dodge, but before that...

Feeling Zhang San's icy cold gaze and raised left hand, the man instinctively wanted to lift his gun to block again.

But.

"Not good, I was lured." The man immediately realized he had fallen into a trap.

What Zhang San raised first was his left hand, and in his heightened nervousness, his attention had been drawn away.

Caught off guard.

Zhang San viciously kicked the man in the chest, kicking him far away into the distance.