Many children, many blessings; a stunningly beautiful wife is given to you right from the start.

"Waaah—"

The mournful sound of horns tore through the night sky, like a death knell.

The earth was trembling.

On Wu Zhong's chariot, he looked down at his masterpiece, his face filled with uncontrollable laughter.

Thirty thousand infantrymen formed a thick, long wall, slowly pressing forward.

His most prized 10,000 iron cavalry, like two giant iron pincers, rapidly maneuvered from both flanks, preparing to give this reckless infantry legion a solid "hug".

"Elder Zhao, did you see that?"

Wu Zhong's voice was loud and clear, filled with the triumph of an imminent victory.

"This is the art of war!"

He pointed with his riding crop at the motionless black army formation in the distance, spitting as he spoke.

"Look at them, don't they look like a bunch of terrified quails? Just standing there stiffly, waiting to be surrounded and riddled with dumplings by my cavalry!"

"Does Lin Mo think that having more people means he'll be more effective?"

"He knows nothing about warfare! Before my iron cavalry, no matter how many infantrymen we have, they're nothing but a piece of cake!"

"Today, I'm going to show him what I'm capable of!"

Elder Zhao remained silent, simply watching.

Although he felt confident of victory, the silence of the opposing army always made him feel a little uneasy.

"Hahaha! Once we surround them, they'll be trampled into mincemeat by the iron hooves of my men!"

As Wu Zhong imagined the scene after the victory, the smile on his face became even more ferocious.

Opposite them, Qin Ruxue's mount pawed restlessly, seemingly sensing the pressure emanating from the surroundings.

She didn't look at the cavalry on the left and right flanks that were almost completely encircling her, nor did she look at the infantry formation pressing down on her directly in front of her like an avalanche.

She slowly raised her hand.

There were no words, only a cold and precise tactical gesture.

Boom-!

A drumbeat, completely different from the previous one, suddenly rang out.

The infantry formation before him did not shrink into a hedgehog-like circle to defend against the cavalry, as Wu Zhong had expected.

Its changes were beyond Wu Zhong's comprehension.

"What are they doing?"

"Suicide?"

When Wu Zhong saw the Xuanjia Army's movements, he was first taken aback, then burst into even louder laughter.

The once impregnable formation of ten thousand men suddenly cracked open from the middle.

It's like a giant black Rubik's Cube, twisting and rearranging itself from the inside out.

The soldiers in the front row parted to the sides, revealing a huge gap, as if they were actively inviting the enemy infantry to enter.

The arrays on the left and right flanks resembled two enormous gates, slowly opening backward.

Two deep, straight passages were formed, directly facing the two groups of cavalry charging at high speed.

The entire Xuanjia Army was transformed from a solid cube into a huge, hollow, "回"-shaped maze.

"Fool! This is utter chaos on the battlefield! They've collapsed on their own!"

Wu Zhong slapped the guardrail of the chariot, his face flushed with excitement.

"All troops, charge! Crush them!"

"Ugh—!"

With a long whistle, the cavalrymen of Tiebiguan heard the military order and saw the enemy voluntarily clear the way.

They thought this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so they spurred their warhorses and plunged headlong into the two death tunnels like two black torrents.

They dreamed of breaking through the enemy lines and launching an attack from the rear.

Now, it seems the enemy has handed this opportunity to them.

On Wu Zhong's face, the smile had frozen into its most radiant form.

He won.

We've already won!

However, just as the cavalry of Tiebiguan were deep into the passage, a sudden change occurred!

Qin Ruxue's hand suddenly clenched into a fist!

"close the door!"

The two cold words were like a death sentence.

Boom-!

With another muffled thud, the ten thousand-strong Xuanjia army formation stirred once more.

At the entrances of the two "passages," the Xuanjia soldiers, who had been separated, suddenly closed in.

The heavy tower shield slammed into the ground with a loud "boom," and countless spears, each over ten feet long, burst out from the gaps in the shield, forming an impenetrable wall of steel!

"put!"

Before the cavalrymen, whose retreat had been cut off, could react, countless windows suddenly appeared in the "walls" on both sides of the passage.

Rows of cold crossbow bolts protruded from the window.

Without aiming, without hesitation.

A barrage of arrows!

"Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh—!"

The dense whooshing sound instantly drowned out the roar of the horses' hooves.

The narrow passageway had become a slaughterhouse of flesh and blood.

Cavalry charging at high speed cannot turn around or dodge.

They could only watch helplessly as they and their companions were pinned to the spot by the dense rain of arrows shot from both sides.

The screams of men and horses falling, the mournful cries of warhorses, and the cracking of bones all blended into a symphony of death in the two narrow passageways.

"What's going on?!"

"Where are my cavalry?!"

Wu Zhong's smile froze on his face.

He watched helplessly as his tens of thousands of iron cavalry charged into that strange formation, and then... nothing more.

Apart from the constant screams, not even a ripple was made.

Meanwhile, on the main battlefield...

The 30,000 infantrymen at Tiebi Pass finally clashed with the Xuanjia Army's front line.

But they did not experience the hard collision they had imagined.

The Xuanjia Army's lines, upon contact, resembled a row of rotating gears, actively "biting" forward.

Small square formations, each consisting of a hundred men, spun rapidly, cutting into the massive and cumbersome infantry array of Iron Wall Pass.

Blades flashed, shields slammed.

The soldiers at Tiebiguan discovered that they were not facing a single battle line, but rather countless high-speed moving meat grinders.

They had just raised their swords to slash at the enemy on their left when a row of spears pierced their ribs from their right.

Just as they were about to form a shield wall, the small rotating square had already swept past them, leaving a trail of corpses behind their comrades.

The entire battlefield had become a massive slaughterhouse composed of countless small whirlwinds.

The infantry lines at Tiebi Pass were cut into pieces, with the soldiers fighting individually and completely disorganized. They could only be picked off piece by piece by the silent and efficient Xuanjia soldiers.

"No...it's impossible..."

On the chariot, Wu Zhong looked at the hellish scene before him, and his body began to tremble uncontrollably.

A lieutenant scrambled to the foot of the chariot, his voice trembling with a distorted tone.

"General! The right-wing cavalry... are all wiped out! Not a single one has come out!"

"General! The infantry...the infantry can't hold on! The line has collapsed! They...they're slaughtering us!"

Men and horses were thrown about, limbs were severed, and blood stained the entire wilderness.

Wu Zhong's elite army, in his most confident field battle, was devoured in swathes by the enemy in a completely incomprehensible way, like slaughtering pigs and sheep.

Wu Zhong's eyes were bloodshot. He felt as if his heart was being squeezed tightly, and even breathing became difficult.

Fear, an unprecedented fear, like an icy tide, engulfed his entire being.

He finally understood.

He was wrong from the very beginning.

That's completely wrong.

"Retreat...retreat..."

A hoarse, leaky sound came from his throat.

As the black killing machine in the distance began to slowly approach him, Wu Zhong's mental defenses completely collapsed.

He used all his strength to let out the loudest, most desperate scream of his life.

"Retreat! Withdraw! All troops retreat!!!!!"