The sky was dark and the solid grassland turned into swamp.
No matter how strong the Desolate Man warriors were, as long as they were unable to run at high speed like they did at the border of the Hot Sea, they had lost their most essential capability. In the eyes of the grassland cavalry, who were busily pulling their bows, they had instantly became immobilized targets for their arrows. No matter how amazing their defense were, after numerous arrows pierced through their bodies, they would still eventually died from bleeding.
Of course, using only arrows to kill these Desolate Man warriors whose skins were as thick as metal and bones as tough as rocks, even if these warriors did not dodge them, they would also need a horrendous amount of arrows to do that. Under normal battle circumstance, no cavalry would bring along that large amount of arrows. However, ever since the Desolate Man warriors moved south, more than ten tribes from the Left-Tent palace had lost the battles. The men from the grassland had learnt their lessons via numerous defeated battles and finally, they decided that they would invite one of the seven Necromancers from the palace to support them. They had even sent their best cavalries. Thus, how could it be possible that they did not foresee they would require large amount of arrows today?
The horses galloped swiftly like gust of wind and the arrows poured down from the sky. A grassland cavalry blew a sharp whistle as he used his legs to kick the horse’s abdomen. With his perfect archery skills, he accurately aimed his target and pulled his bow. A Desolate Man warrior, who was stuck in the middle of the group, was struggling to pull his legs away from the soft ground as he used all his might to waddle towards the outskirt of the grassland.
But when he took his second step, his leg was stuck in the swamp-like grassland again. Furthermore, with the accurate and terrifying shooting of arrows, the Desolate Man warriors were slow in their assault. The strongest warrior among them ignored the arrows that were pierced all over his body as he bravely stepped through the thick muddy ground. When he was less than 20 steps away from the grassland cavalry, an arrow stabbed through his knee and he hopelessly collapsed onto the ground with a dull thud.
Facing with such a strange trap, the oldest man among the Desolate Man warriors had already noticed the weird horse carriage located behind the grassland cavalry and the bunch of weird people on the carriage. Upon guessing that the sudden change of the grassland must be related to the carriage, the old man shouted a few words loudly. A Desolate Man warrior with thick strong arms walked over with difficulty and stopped in front of him.
The old man pressed his palm onto the back of this Desolate Man warrior and after a low exclaimation, his face turned pale. An unexplainable huge force was passed into the warrior’s body through the palm.
The warrior’s arms instantly grew even thicker, as though something had entered his body. He forcefully endured the pain on his over-stretched skin and ignored the blood that was gushing out from the corner of his eyes. He gazed at the horse carriage which was parked at a distant. Suddenly, he roared like a beast as he pulled out a large axe from his waist and violently threw it towards the carriage!
Swoosh! The large axe flew across the air rapidly like a lightning as it passed through hundreds of metres before it hacked towards the palace’s old Necromancer!
In view that the sharp axe was approaching them with such a loud swooshing noise, the two strong men who were silently standing by the side of the Old Necromancer all these while immediately lifted the huge shield beside their feet at the critical moment and blocked it in front of the Necromancer.
The collision of the axe and the large metal shield produced a loud crisp thud!
The grassland soldiers beside the carriage could not help but covered their ears and went down to their knees.
However, the magnificent horse carriage only trembled lightly and went back to normal.
Within the carriage, the Old Necromancer remained expressionless while sitting on the metal disk. He rapidly chanted the incantation as the wrinkles on his face became deeper. The Qi of Heaven and Earth surrounding him entered the disk with his incantation, as it flowed along the complicated Talisman inscription and beneath the grassland. It was then projected out from another metal disc which was buried under the ground before the battle by the palace, which caused the grassland to become more moist and soft.
The last hope for the Desolate Man warriors was then gone. They lifted their heavy long knives and struggled in the swamp as they tried to waddle their way towards the outskirt of the grassland. Their men were continuously being shot by multiple arrows and were bled to death. The whistle from the grassland cavalries grew shrill as their scary faces filled with the joy of revenge.
Damp grass, bloody mud and galloping horses, forming a brutal and despair scene.
…
…
The grassland suddenly became extremely quiet, clear and spacious.
The cruel arrow shooting and killing continued on. Other than the buzzing sound at the ears, the swooshing sound of the flying arrows and the shrill whistle from the grassland cavalry, there were no other sound. Those Desolate Man warriors stopped struggling and instead, they tried to lower themselves in the grass swamp as they quietly defend themselves. They had stopped their attempts to get out of the swamp.
Then the buzzing, swooshing and shrill whistle were gone. The noisy and messy battle ground had become extremely silent, or should it be said that silent was just an opposite way of describing the situation. In fact, those noises were gone due to one sound, which was heard by everyone in the battle ground.
It was a dull buzzing sound of a heavy object falling through the air at high speed. It was neither the sound of arrows, nor the flying sword used in Central Plains. It sounded more like a giant rock that was being thrown down from the cloud by Haotian and it was falling at a rapid speed.
The Desolate Man warriors, who had lowered their bodies to hide themselves in the swamp, raised their heads with difficulty and gazed up into the sky. They were prepared to face death and their eyes were already looking very peaceful, yet at this moment, they were filled with burning passion and respect.
The grassland cavalries who were riding the horses in the center of the grassland, for whatever reason, felt fear and subconsciously slowed down their speed in pulling their bows as they turned around and looked.
Both parties raised their heads and looked into the sky.
A horrifying buzz sounded from the sky.
The clouds covered the sunlight, casting a shadow on the ground.
And right in the shadow,
A man fell down from the sky.
He brushed through the sky with his body covered with burning blood. As he fell from the sky that was over ten meters high, his horrifying speed expanded the air surrounding his body, creating a semi-circle mist. At the back of his legs were sparks spurting out like blood, though it was unclear whether those were produced due to the severe friction when he fell.
This man was like a huge meteorite falling towards earth.
And the place where the meteorite landed, was exactly on top of the gorgeous horse carriage which belonged to the grassland Left-Tent palace.
The two strong warriors in the carriage immediately lifted the heavy large shield and block it on top of the Old Necromancer.
The hands of the Old Necromancer trembled violently as he used his Psyche Power to gather his surrounding Qi of Heaven and Earth. He then lifted his head and his eyes were filled with extreme horror as he saw a leg falling towards him from the tiny cracks of the shield.
That leg was wearing a very common boot. The boot was a little tattered and the sole was slightly dirty. It was unknown how many grasslands, gobi deserts, dirt water and mountain rivers it had stepped on.
But that instant when the old Necromancer saw the leg, he understood a logic.
Death was near.
…
…
The meteorite man stepped onto the hard and strong shield.
However, the old boot sole could not withstand such powerful strength as it started to tear apart.
Then followed by the large strong metal shield, which also started to crack apart!
The two strong warriors who were lifting the shield could not even take a breath as their strong arms started to give way. That downward horrendous strength had instantly forced the muscles nerves to bulge out from their arms and their bones were crashed into powder. Blood were spurting out from the two warriors’ eyes, noses and mouths like flying arrows.
The boot no longer had any sole, the large shield was broken into flying metal pieces, and the Old Necromancer’s primordial Qi shield was quickly dispersed as well. The leg was now stepped on top of the Old Necromancer’s head.
The Old Necromancer hopelessly stared as his skull was stepped on and into his neck. The leg continued to exert pressure downwards as it crashed and flattened the Old Necromancer’s body, till it became a pile of meat puree.
Yet the leg with the boot continued downwards.
It smashed the pile of Old Necromancer’s meat puree.
It smashed the hard and strong metal disk.
It smashed the carriage board.
Bam!
Meat puree and blood were spurted everywhere and dust were flying all over. The gorgeous horse carriage had instantly became a pile of trash. The broken but sharp metal pieces from the carriage flew out and pierced through the surrounding grassland soldiers, bringing them to the ground.
This leg that stepped through clouds and finally stepped onto the grassland, which had been occupied by the barbarians for nearly a thousand years!
The middle-aged man dressed in furred robe, with a blood-stained large knife carried at his back, stood in the middle of the ruins. He stared at the stunned grassland barbarians without any expression.
The Desolate Man warriors that were trapped and surrounded within the grassland swamp gazed at the powerful man from far. They finally broke the silence with crazy cheers, and some of the young Desolate Man were so agitated that they even cried.
…
…
Deep within the mountain ranges and woods at the southern part, there was a simple-looking Taoist temple. As there were no path leading to it, it never had any tourist or visitor, so naturally, it did not have any burning incense. The Taoists in the temple did not like incense as well, as they felt that the smell was bad and unbearable. Unlike the normal Haotian Taoists, the Taoists in this simple-looking and old temple never mind about incense donations at all.
Deep within the Taoist temple was a serene lake with seven thatched cottages, which was totally different from the simple and poor looking Taoist temple. Though the seven cottages were covered with thatches, they did give off an extremely dignified and solemn feel. The thatches were shiny white like jades and they were still looking fresh as before even after undergoing years of extreme weathers.
In the first thatched cottage, a very big and thick classics book was placed on a table made of agarwood by the window. Its cover was dark like dried blood, yet it also looked like a black bloodstone that was created after hundreds of millions of years. The word “Ri (Sun)” was carved onto it.
The classics book had been flipped open. After the brush was soaked with adequate black ink, a stroke towards the right was gently brushed against a page of the book.
The middle-aged Taoist lifted the brush and stared at the words for a few seconds, before he nodded his head with satisfaction.
On the plain paper, there were two words. It was the name of a person.
“Ning Que”
Though the wind could not recognize the words, it could help to dry out the ink and made the words remain permanent on the paper. A few seconds later, another breeze blew and flipped the pages to the first page of the “Ri” book.
The first page was completely blank and as white as snow.
Followed by the second page, which had a few names written on it. At the top most was “Liu Bai”, and not far from it, one could faintly see a “Jun”. On this page, there was a name which was unique from the others and was written far from other names. It looked lonely yet strong and independent, as though this person was unwilling to stand together with the other strong people of Central Plains.
That was because he was a World Wayfarer of the Devil’s Doctrine.
He was the No.1 strong warrior of the Northern plain.
His name was Tang.