Chapter 45: Assault on the City Part 3

“Are you doing magic tricks?” Wu Yingzong watched a while before asking.

Chaosheng glanced at Wu Yingzong, his gaze softening.

“I want to practice spells I haven’t used before,” Chaosheng said. “To help out, so you won’t keep getting hurt.”

“No injury is too grave for you to heal,” Wu Yingzong said. “Practice if you want—I won’t bother you.”

Wu Yingzong’s eyes never left Chaosheng. Under the dim light, Chaosheng glowed with a white halo, like a divine child in the room, stirring an urge in Wu Yingzong to draw close.

Chaosheng conjured the white flower again and offered it to Wu Yingzong. Understanding, Wu Yingzong extended his palm. Chaosheng placed it gently there, but before he could close his fingers, the petals scattered and vanished in the air.

“What if I can’t heal you? That day against Mr. Qin, you nearly died,” Chaosheng said sadly.

Wu Yingzong wanted to deflect with words, but an impulse surged from his heart.

“I’m yours… your…” Wu Yingzong said. “Dying for you—isn’t that only right?”

Chaosheng finally realized: his petulant “send you back” words that day had driven Wu Yingzong to risk everything with a suicidal strike.

“Don’t… don’t cry,” Wu Yingzong panicked. “My fault—I shouldn’t have… I shouldn’t… Chaosheng!”

Wu Yingzong cursed his lifelong clumsiness with words, unable to express his heart. He hadn’t expected to mean so much to Chaosheng.

His heart pounded. He reached to embrace Chaosheng, then remembered: since arriving in Gumo, they hadn’t hugged. Once he sensed that indescribable feeling, their initial closeness had faded.

Chaosheng said, “That day you gave me the cold shoulder, so I said that. I won’t send you back—don’t worry.”

Chaosheng looked at Wu Yingzong, loving and hating him—wanting to beat him, yet finding him handsomer by the second, even his embarrassed blush so striking.

As Chaosheng hesitated, horns blared in the city. Wu Yingzong stood and looked outside.

“The enemy is here,” Wu Yingzong said.

Chaosheng dispersed his spell and followed Wu Yingzong out of the royal palace at a run.

At the Gobi outside the city:

Thunder grew louder. Near dusk, a sparrow suddenly burst into their Gobi Cluster hideout atop the heights. Xiang Xian’s sharp eyes and hands snatched it. The sparrow flapped frantically, chirping wildly.

Without A Huang, neither understood. Xiang Xian set it in a leeward spot. Xiao Kun hurried out.

“The enemy is here!”

On the vast southern plain, amid the sandstorm, a black line like a tidal wave emerged faintly. The earth shook endlessly. The Ba Army approached, dark clouds and sandstorm swirling like a demonic maw poised to devour.

“Too bad,” Xiao Kun said. In planning, he’d overlooked the sandstorm. Fighting in such weather massively raised defeat odds.

Xiang Xian caught up from behind, muffling Xiao Kun’s mouth and nose with cloth.

“Stick to the plan.” Xiao Kun pulled down the cloth, gripped Xiang Xian’s hand, and they leaped to the Gobi Cluster’s flanks.

In Gaochang City, homes retracted awnings, doors bolted shut, streets emptied—save for Gaochang Cavalry darting about. The sandstorm raced in. The sky yellowed, then blackened like night.

Wu Yingzong and Chaosheng arrived at the walls of Gaochang City, where they heard the guards conversing and shouting. Hulü Guang said, “They’re saying that the weather made battle impossible.”

Chaosheng replied, “But Big Brother and the others have already sortied from the city!”

Amid the chaos, the horns for battle sounded. All the cavalry looked toward the distant royal palace and began to form ranks on their own. The cavalry captain checked their numbers. Bila Ge and Li Er Man each mounted a horse and galloped toward the city gates.

“Don’t worry!” Bila Ge’s voice boomed. “What the people of Gaochang promise, even if the entire city is annihilated today, we will fulfill!”

Li Er Man led numerous cavalry into formation before the gates of Gaochang City. The Grand Vizier’s physique was burly, like a towering mountain. He brandished the weapon in his hand and roared loudly, drawing the cavalry to assemble around them. The four gates of Gaochang opened, and twenty-four thousand Gaochang Cavalry surged out, converging on the south gate from different directions.

Bila Ge extended his left hand, where pearls gleamed and rings adorned with rubies and sapphires covered his fingers. He took a Night-Glow Cup filled with blood-red wine like crimson gore and calmly ascended the city walls.

The gates slowly creaked open with a massive rumble. Li Er Man led the vanguard out of the city. Bila Ge held his wine cup high on the walls and called out to his troops. All the soldiers knelt on one knee behind Li Er Man in perfect unison.

Bila Ge poured the wine toward the world beyond the walls. The twenty thousand Gaochang Cavalry roared in unison. The front lines shifted to the rear, and Li Er Man raised his curved blade high, charging into the open expanse outside the city, where he vanished into the raging sandstorm.

All the cavalry moved as one. The flanks spread out, the central army followed, and they plunged into the billowing yellow sands.

This was the first time Chaosheng had witnessed mortals waging war. He was so shocked that he could not speak.

“Is this what a battlefield is like?” Chaosheng said in disbelief.

Wu Yingzong was about to say “yes” when Bila Ge approached him calmly. The king of a nation intended to oversee the entire battle.

“Don’t worry, Li Chaosheng,” Bila Ge said. “Most wars are not like this. It’s just that today’s weather is foul, making it hard to see.”

“How many will die?” Chaosheng asked.

“To die on the battlefield is the lifelong glory of warriors,” Bila Ge said gravely. “What they protect with their lives are their wives and children, their parents back in Gaochang City. It is precisely because of death that new life exists.”

The sandstorm roared in, so fierce that they could not even see the clashes amid the yellow sands. Torrential Demonic Aura surged toward Gaochang City, and a massive rumble echoed from afar!

“The Ba Army didn’t regroup!” Xiang Xian had shouted with all his might as he parted from Xiao Kun. “They’ve already clashed!”

He did not know if Xiao Kun could hear him. Once separated in the sandstorm, they might not see each other again for the entire battle. He could only spur his warhorse toward the source of the enormous sounds.