Ten thousand gold!
A marquisate of ten thousand households!
Xiang Liang’s roar ignited the last wave of madness.
“Kill him!!”
“Kill! Kill! Kill!”
Within the coalition army, the elite five thousand cavalrymen had bloodshot eyes.
They were the last pride of the Six Kingdoms—wolf cubs trained on the steppe.
In their eyes, no matter how strong that black-clad man was, he was still just one person.
Once the cavalry charge began, the trampling of men and horses would turn him into minced meat!
“Ride!”
A Chu cavalry commander took the lead, swinging his saber and charging out.
“Surround and kill him!!”
Five thousand cavalry spread out like a dark cloud, encircling from all directions.
The sound of hooves once again became deafening.
The earth began to tremble again.
However—
The godlike black-clad man didn’t even look back at them.
He simply found these “flies” noisy.
He lifted his foot and casually ground down the head that had been stomped into the earth.
Then he turned around.
Step by step, he strolled back toward Hangu Pass.
As if the five thousand cavalry behind him did not exist at all.
The gate slowly closed behind him.
BOOM—
A heavy sound sealed him away from the outside world.
The leading cavalry commander pulled on his reins.
He was less than fifty steps from the gate.
He froze.
What happened?
He ran away?
“Hahaha! He’s scared!”
“The Qin sorcerer is afraid! He won’t fight!”
“A coward!!”
Laughter erupted from the cavalry ranks, their earlier fear completely gone.
Xiang Liang’s face also regained a hint of color.
Yes! He must be scared! No matter how strong he is, he is still alone!
Just then—
“Thud.”
A dull sound came from behind the closed gate.
Very light.
Yet it felt like it struck directly on everyone’s heart.
“Thud… thud… thud…”
The sound grew denser and heavier.
The ground began to tremble at an unprecedented frequency.
Ten times more violent than the cavalry charge just now.
On the city wall.
The wine cup on Ying Ziye’s table began to tremble and buzz.
Ripples formed in the wine.
Clang.
A cup fell and shattered on the ground.
The smiles on all coalition soldiers’ faces froze.
They looked at each other, seeing shock in each other’s eyes.
What was that sound?
An earthquake?
Creeeeak—
The just-closed massive gate slowly opened again with a grating, bone-chilling sound.
But this time—
It was no longer one person behind it.
Nor thousands of troops.
It was a pitch-black abyss.
As if it led straight to hell.
A black iron helmet slowly emerged from the darkness.
It was not a human.
It was a steel-forged monster.
It stepped forward.
BOOM.
Each heavy iron step struck the stone ground, making everyone’s teeth tremble.
Then a second one.
A third.
Three thousand identical steel monsters formed an impenetrable black wall.
They slowly walked out of the gate.
Both man and horse were fully covered in thick, brutal black armor.
The sunlight reflected no shine at all—as if even light itself was swallowed.
Each cavalryman held an enormous black lance.
The spearheads gleamed with a cold, eerie light.
What the coalition cavalry could not understand most—was the Qin cavalry’s feet.
They stood firmly on iron stirrups on both sides of the saddle.
Man and horse seemed fused together, forming an unbreakable whole.
“What… what the hell are these things?”
A Zhao cavalryman’s voice trembled.
His horse stomped anxiously, letting out fearful whinnies.
Not just his horse.
All five thousand warhorses of the coalition were agitated.
They sensed an absolute suppression from the top of the food chain.
“Hold steady!”
“Everyone hold steady!!”
The cavalry officers shouted hoarsely, trying to calm men and horses.
It was useless.
Fear spread like a plague.
Before Hangu Pass—
The steel wall formed by three thousand heavy cavalry came to a halt.
They raised their lances.
Three thousand four-meter-long lances formed a forest of death pointing toward the sky.
Then—
They slowly leveled them forward.
All spear tips pointed straight at the chaotic coalition cavalry ahead.
“Thud.”
The leading Qin general gently tapped his horse’s belly with an iron boot.
The heavy cavalry formation began to advance slowly.
Walking pace.
Trot.
Then faster and faster!
“BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!”
The earth roared!
The earth screamed!
This was not three thousand cavalry charging.
It was a moving steel mountain range collapsing forward like a landslide!
The coalition cavalry commander finally snapped out of his shock.
He knew they couldn’t wait any longer.
If they waited, their morale would completely collapse!
“Engage them!”
He roared, swinging his saber.
“Charge with me!!”
“Tear their formation apart!”
Five thousand light cavalry versus three thousand heavy cavalry!
A clash in a narrow pass!
“Kill!!”
A Chu cavalryman charged at the front, roaring.
He saw a Qin heavy cavalryman ahead.
He raised his curved blade with all his strength and slashed hard at the enemy’s neck.
CLANG!!
A sharp metallic ring.
Sparks flew.
His blade left only a faint white mark on the heavy armor.
His arm went numb from the impact.
His expression shifted instantly—from ferocious to blank confusion.
Then—
He saw a black lance rapidly enlarging in his vision.
“Puchi.”
A soft sound.
Like piercing paper.
His leather armor—and his proud, strong body—were no different in front of the lance.
The immense force lifted him straight off his horse.
His body hung in the air.
The Qin heavy cavalryman didn’t even look at him.
He simply continued forward.
“Puchi!”
After piercing the first man, the lance did not slow.
It went straight through a second coalition cavalryman’s chest.
One spear, two lives.
Like candied hawthorns skewered on a stick.
And that was only one part of the battlefield.
The next second—
The two tidal waves collided.
There was no earth-shaking explosion as imagined.
Only a chilling series of “puchi” sounds.
And the crack of breaking bones.
Coalition cavalry blades and swords struck the Qin heavy armor, producing nothing but sparks.
No effect at all.
But the Qin lances—
Backed by the stability of stirrups and the terrifying momentum of warhorses—
Every strike was fatal.
Pierce!
Pure, simple, absolute piercing!
Man and horse shattered together!
This was not battle.
It was a moving wall of steel crushing a pile of eggs blocking its path.
The coalition cavalry formation collapsed the moment they made contact.
The front ranks were instantly wiped out.
The rear ranks were thrown into chaos by corpses and panicked horses.
Zhao Xie stood at a high vantage point, staring blankly.
He saw it.
His proud Zhao border cavalry—renowned for their speed and ferocity—were being wiped out like paper in front of those steel monsters.
Half of them were gone in an instant.
His lips trembled.
His body shook.
“No… impossible…”
He muttered, his voice full of fear and disbelief.
“How… how can horses be armored in so much iron?”
“How can they still run so fast?!”
“What kind of monsters… what kind of monsters are these!!”
On the city wall.
Ying Ziye munched on an apple, watching the slaughter below.
He shook his head.
And said to Wang Jian beside him:
“General Wang, look.”
“This is what happens when horses are fed with potatoes—and paired with Father Emperor’s Heavenly Workshop.”
He pointed at the rampaging heavy cavalry, his expression matter-of-fact.
“This is called equipment suppression. Got it?”
On the battlefield—
The three thousand heavy cavalry had already pierced through the five thousand cavalry formation.
Their speed had barely slowed.
That black steel wall was like a red-hot iron blade.
Straight toward the coalition’s rear—the densest, largest infantry formation.
Xiang Liang stood at the center of the army.
He watched that unstoppable steel torrent approach closer and closer.
His pupils shrank to pinpoints.
His face drained of color.
Only despair remained.
It was over.
He had no means left.
Nothing could stop this army that seemed to have crawled out of hell.
Discussion
Comments
0 comments so far.
Sign in to join the conversation and keep your activity tied to this account.
No comments yet. Start the conversation.