Chapter 101, Beneath the Iron Hooves of the Mountain and Sea Army, the Sands Shift at My Command!

Translator: StarReader

 

“White Lotus thug?”

 

Li Shuo raised an eyebrow, a flash of cold light in his eyes.

 

Few knew the inner workings of the White Lotus Society.

 

But he knew.

 

This White Lotus thug wasn’t an ordinary White Lotus Society Daoist; he was among the most devoted and loyal death squad protecting the White Lotus Society, willing to sacrifice their lives for the sect, safeguarding its teachings.

 

Most had entered the sect at the age of ten, neglecting inner strength and focusing solely on cultivating external skills. Twenty years of cultivating had yielded astonishing power, transforming them all into first-rate hardened external experts, pushing the Lower Dantian cultivation to its peak. Their strength wasn’t inferior to that of a first-rate internal expert.

 

Because they didn’t need to consume expensive, high-grade, energy-restoring herbs, cultivating these external hardened experts was cost-effective.

 

But the peak state of these external hardened experts couldn’t last long, only maintaining it for twenty or thirty years. At forty or so years old, as energy and vitality declined, their strength would wane, and they would fall to a second- or third-rate realm.

 

The White Lotus thugs employed a particularly brutal blade formation, known by Wu Region martial artists as the Rolling Blade Formation!

 

Typically composed of ten to thirty White Lotus thugs, all wielding large, curved blades, they would charge directly at the enemy in waves. With flashes of blade light, everything they passed became shredded into minced meat.

 

If they were wearing the White Lotus Society’s protective talismans, they were even more terrifying, possessing strength equivalent to a thousand pounds, invulnerable to knives and spears, and thoroughly surpassing the peak of first-rate expertise.

 

Thirty White Lotus thugs wearing White Lotus protective talismans formed a Meat Rolling Blade Formation, charging through the five-mile reed marsh.

 

The peak first-rate expert of various small groups couldn’t even withstand a single round of attacks and would either die or be injured.

 

Daoist Han Shan stared at the bloodied leader who had fallen, his expression indifferent and silent.

 

Not a single leader among them dared to step forward to fight.

 

“A mere demonic cultivator of the White Lotus dares to display their power before our great army! Caravan Guards, Protectors, thirteen riders, raise my battle flag and follow me to crush this force of White Lotus thugs!”

 

Li Shuo’s face was cold and severe; he scoffed, holding a ten-foot-long piercing silver spear, and with a sudden slap of his mount’s flank, he leaped from the Caravan Guards formation.

 

“Yes!”

 

The thirteen first-rate protectors of the Caravan Guards roared in unison, raising a battle flag emblazoned with the character Li, and closely followed leader Li Shuo into battle, their horses galloping towards the White Lotus thugs within the Northern Swamp.

 

The rumble of fourteen iron riders echoed through the Northern Swamp as they raced onward.

 

Beneath the Devil Mist Array, three hundred meters ahead, stood thirty White Lotus thugs forming a Rolling Blade Formation.

 

Hearing the sound of rapidly approaching hooves, the White Lotus thugs immediately roared, their curved blades like snow, flipping in unison towards the source of the sound.

 

“Hi-ya! Beneath the iron hooves of the Mountain and Sea Army, the sands shift at my command!”

 

Li Shuo didn’t even need to look; he roared, channeling True Qi into his ten-foot-long piercing silver spear, the tip shimmering with a chilling silver light.

 

The silver spear flew forth, like a silver dragon emerging from a cave, instantly passing through a zone of sixty meters of devil mist.

 

“Puff!”

 

The silver spear, imbued with potent True Qi, struck the leader of the White Lotus thugs.

 

The leader wore a faint yellow light of protection, yet how could he resist the spear of a Grandmaster, the thousands of pounds of terrifying explosive force instantly shattering his faint yellow protective shield?

 

“Puff!”

 

The spear plunged through the two White Lotus thugs behind him, impaling all three of them onto the ground before its True Qi was completely depleted.

 

The White Lotus thugs’ Rolling Blade Formation instantly lost three members, becoming fractured and incomplete. Yet, they did not relent, a whirlwind of blade light rolling toward Li Shuo.

 

Li Shuo’s expression remained cold, and he did not linger in battle. He reined in his horse and retreated backward.

 

The White Lotus thugs’ formation moved at an incredible pace. However, no matter how fast they were, they could not outrun the spirited steed beneath Li Shuo, swiftly being left thirty meters behind.

 

As Li Shuo galloped back, suddenly he tightened his legs against his warhorse, and with a sudden pull of both arms, he drew back a Rift Wind Bow, five obsidian iron feather armor-piercing arrows aimed at the vast, misty fog behind him.

 

The Rift Wind Bow required ungodly strength to draw.

 

Within the dense fog, a blurry flash of white blade light could be vaguely seen, without any trace of the White Lotus thugs, a feat even for an arrow expert to target.

 

But for a Grandmaster, he did not require eyesight to hunt.

 

“Arrow on the string, lamenting wind, let my name be inscribed on the banners!”

 

Li Shuo let out a sharp shout, and the five armor-piercing arrows on the Rift Wind Bow’s string were instantly released, like shooting stars traversing the moon!

 

“Pfft!”

 

Five trails of light, wailing like a ghostly howl, pierced through the fog and entered the White Lotus thugs’ formation, penetrating their pale yellow protective barrier and entering the chests of the White Lotus thugs.

 

In an instant, five screams erupted, and five white figures tumbled to the ground, moaning in agony.

 

Li Shuo spurred his horse onward, circling the White Lotus thugs’ Rolling Blade Formation, unleashing five volleys of dark arrows into the dense fog. Within a few breaths, more than a dozen White Lotus thugs perished beneath his piercing arrows.

 

The ranks of White Lotus thugs had suffered near-half their losses, their terror manifesting as a complete rout.

 

Under the cover of the Devil Mist Array and the protection of the yellow talisman, this formation—which had previously swept through the Northern Swamp with seemingly unstoppable dominance, scattering smaller groups who abandoned their armor and fled—was now facing a formidable foe.

 

Yet, this Grandmaster, Li Shuo, engaged in single combat, slaying nearly half their number. Their prized golden protective talismans proved unable to withstand the explosive force of the piercing arrows, and they hadn’t even managed to graze Li Shuo’s garments.

 

The remaining dozen White Lotus thugs, chilled by terror, abandoned their formation, fleeing into the depths of the Northern Swamp to escape this merciless killing god.

 

“Thirteen Protectors, follow me and slay the enemy!”

 

Li Shuo roared his command.

 

He wouldn’t allow them to escape so easily. His horse surged forward, galloping like a wisp of smoke.

 

His bow was drawn taut. Arrows rained forth, blasting into the fog.

 

Not even the most elite martial lightness skill expert could escape the pursuit of his steed, let alone these White Lotus thugs—specializing in brute force training and whose lightness skill was rather unimpressive.

 

The White Lotus thugs overtaken by Li Shuo fell, each pierced by an arrow, collapsing with cries of anguish.

 

“Kill!”

 

The thirteen late first-rate experts who followed Li Shuo cheered, waving the Caravan Guards banners, finishing off the wounded White Lotus thugs with swift cuts.

 

The thirty White Lotus thugs, relying on their protective golden talismans to sweep through the Northern Swamp unchallenged—brute force training experts—were slaughtered in mere moments by Li Shuo, single-handedly, and not one escaped.

 

…

 

“Is this the power of Grandmaster Li Shuo?”

 

Hidden within a thicket of reeds not far away, Su Chen watched the White Lotus thugs in the swamp, listening to their screams.

 

In just a few breaths, they were all slaughtered by Li Shuo, a Grandmaster, and he couldn’t help but feel a tremor in his heart.

 

Had he not witnessed Li Shuo’s actions with his own eyes, he couldn’t have imagined just how formidable and valiant this battlefield god truly was. Li Shuo had entered the Grandmaster Stage ten years ago, and his cultivation was beyond comprehension. And he had a swift wind horse, a treasure, capable of swift charge or retreat with incredible speed.

 

The White Lotus thugs, encountering a Grandmaster with Li Shuo’s experience in hunting, were simply unfortunate; they didn’t even have a sliver of a chance to escape; their deaths were inevitable.

 

Su Chen mused to himself; if it hadn’t been for his breakthrough to the immortal realm last night, at the bottom of Vastest Lake, with his recently attained Grandmaster Stage strength, he likely wouldn’t have been a match for Li Shuo.

 

Among the seven Grandmasters of the Wu Region, Li Shuo was only ranked in the middle, tied with Han Pingshan’s strength.

 

He didn’t know just how much strength the other Grandmaster possessed.

 

Now that this group of White Lotus thugs had been wiped out, there was no need to linger.

 

Su Chen glanced at Li Shuo in the distance, considered the situation for a moment, and without wasting any time, turned and vanished quietly, like a wisp of smoke, deep into the Northern Swamp and the Devil Mist Array.

 

This large-scale Devil Mist Array must surely have White Lotus practitioners performing rites, which was why such strange fog has appeared.

 

…

 

Li Shuo annihilated the White Lotus warriors.

 

Hearing that there was no longer any sound of fighting or screaming within the Northern Swamp and seeing that there were no living creatures within a radius of three hundred meters, he then ordered someone to retrieve his silver spear.

 

He tore a fragmented, shimmering golden talisman from the body of a White Lotus thug, looking at this wondrous and mysterious talisman with a deep gaze.

 

It was this talisman that made this group of White Lotus warriors so terrifying, requiring a Grandmaster to be able to contend with them.

 

“White Lotus Society devil talisman? Within the Wu Region, there are likely very few people capable of crafting such a miraculous talisman, no more than one or two.”

 

Li Shuo’s eyes were deep and profound as he put away the fragmented talisman, leading his thirteen Caravan Guards Protectors and reining in his horse, returning to the main battle formation of the allied forces.

 

He offered a cold, respectful bow to Daoist Han Shan: “Daoist, the White Lotus Society’s Devil Mist Array has been destroyed! Our allied forces can proceed.”

 

“Destroyed? A complete wipeout… everyone killed?”

 

Those present—the leaders and disciples of the various groups—gasped in shock at the news, their hearts filled with awe.

 

It had only been a moment; less than a cup of tea’s worth of time had passed.

 

This was the power of the Caravan Guards’ leader, the legendary Grandmaster Li Shuo!

 

The Grandmaster’s single-handed combat was unparalleled, capable of holding off a thousand men!

 

With just his own strength, he annihilated thirty first-rate peak practitioners of the White Lotus Society, the mighty Devil Mist Array comprised of White Lotus thugs protected by mysterious devil talismans.

 

It seemed that without the appearance of the enemy Grandmaster Liu Hong or Mao Ziyuan, no one could possibly stand against this Li Shuo.

 

“Truly worthy of being the legendary battlefield commander who once dominated the Western Area. Such overwhelming bravery and unmatched valor—only General Li Shuo could embody it.”

 

Daoist Han Shan’s eyes narrowed with restraint, knowing that Li Shuo was always aloof, and he showed no sign of being particularly impressed. He spoke calmly, “However, we must still be cautious. Just thirty White Lotus thugs caused our allied forces to suffer losses of several groups, with hundreds of second-rate skilled fighters killed. The Devil Mist Array hasn’t dissipated yet, and who knows how many White Lotus demonic cultivators are lurking within this Northern Swamp, waiting for an opportunity. We shouldn’t act rashly. Wait a little longer; the sun will soon rise, and the fog will naturally clear. Our army can advance then.”

 

“That’s right, Daoist, you’re correct, it’s better to be steady! Another surprise attack like that from the White Lotus thugs, and the morale of our allied forces might falter.”

 

The various small leaders nodded in agreement, remembering the devastating ambush by the White Lotus thugs and the heavy losses of several small groups.