"You rebellious child, how dare you call yourself the father here? Watch as your grandfather teaches you a lesson."

Song Niu, who had stormed into the city, noticed the commotion to the north and led his personal soldiers straight to the source of the noise.

"Who are you, villain? Your grandfather's hammer spares no unknowns." Shi Meng charged forward, and the surrounding soldiers of the Celestial Master Army dared not resist.

"Listen up, grandchild. Your grandfather is none other than Song Niu, the Marshal of the Celestial Master Sect in Jizhou. Grandchild, you better surrender quickly."

Song Niu raised his long blade, shouting loudly as he charged towards Shi Meng, and his personal soldiers followed closely behind, causing the soldiers of both armies to engage in another chaotic battle.

Though Song Niu was a Fifth-Grade Martial Artist, Shi Meng was Sixth-Grade. Song Niu's cultivation technique and martial arts were inferior to Shi Meng, who had the backing of the Liang Family. Exhausted of innate spiritual qi, Song Niu could only rely on his own power and had to be wary of possible arrows from the surroundings. Surprisingly, he couldn't overcome Shi Meng immediately, and the fight between them became entangled.

"Kill! Kill!"

Li Gan swung his long spear wildly, as if the Yu State Army before him would never be fully defeated. As one soldier of the Yu State Army fell, more came rushing in, making the several steps between them seem like an insurmountable chasm.

The rain of arrows from the Yu State Army came in unending waves, and the Celestial Master Army fell one batch after another on the path of the assault. The short alleyway, just tens of steps long, became an earthly hell.

Yet, the Celestial Master Army showed no sign of retreat. Since they had entered the city, soldiers of the Celestial Master Army, who seemed on the brink of collapse, gained a sudden surge of morale, as if invigorated, their faces alight with excitement.

Qin Lang, although also a Sixth-Grade Martial Artist, had immersed himself in the grade for years and was about to break through to Fifth Grade. With innate spiritual qi surrounding him, he seemed about to overpower Li Gan.

"Ha!" Li Gan shouted fiercely, sweeping his spear horizontally towards the horse's legs.

"Rise!" Qin Lang raised his horse to leap, his horse spear enveloped in golden innate spiritual qi, aiming at Li Gan's head.

Li Gan was not a new recruit on the battlefield; his appointment to the central army indicated his impressive martial arts and sharp movements, and his innate spiritual qi was not yet exhausted.

Detecting the sound of the wind breaking, he swiftly dodged, reaching up to accurately grip the reins of Qin Lang's horse beneath him. Veins bulged on Li Gan's forehead, muscles moved on his arm, and he roared, "Get off the horse!"

The horse let out a piercing cry and was dragged to the ground by Li Gan, causing Qin Lang to fall forward under the powerful momentum, crashing to the ground and dropping his horse spear.

"Die."

Li Gan wielded his spear like a staff, with grass-green innate spiritual qi covering the entire pole, fiercely striking towards the fallen Qin Lang.

"Whoosh!"

A piercing sound of the wind-breaking shot emanated from afar. Li Gan sensed it, thinking it was merely a stray arrow, covering his body fully with innate spiritual qi to fend off the hit.

But the next second, the sound pierced through the innate spiritual qi on Li Gan's back, penetrating the step armor he wore, and entered his rear chest with the arrowhead protruding from the front.

"Pshhh..."

A mouthful of bright red blood spewed from Li Gan's mouth, and even before the spear struck down, the mighty force of the feathered arrow blew him several meters away, making him crash to the ground harshly.

From afar, Liang Song nocked an arrow again, aiming at Huang Da in his army, who had no obstruction, at the moment when Li Gan was hit, felt something amiss, his eyes scanning, jumping in fright, hiding behind a Yu State Army soldier while quickly retreating behind a house.

Liang Song intending to shift towards Song Niu.

Tat-tat-tat...

The ground shook as groups of rebel cavalry rapidly charged in from outside the city, their imposing force formidable. Liang Song's brows furrowed, putting down his strong bow, "Retreat!"

"Woo woo woo..."

The sounding horn for retreat echoed throughout the city.

The Yu State Army, engaged in an alley battle, retreated methodically, as if previously rehearsed.

Qin Lang, lying on the ground, abandoned his toppled horse, picked up the horse spear, and followed the main force in retreat.

"Where do you think you're going?"

Seeing Shi Meng also attempting to flee, Song Niu shouted, advancing several steps, swinging his long blade towards Shi Meng. Shi Meng raised his pumpkin copper hammer to smash towards Song Niu's long blade, making their weapons clash.

Song Niu's power eventually proved to be stronger than Shi Meng's. With a twist of the long blade, he cast off Shi Meng's double pumpkin copper hammer, then smoothly slashed diagonally at Shi Meng's shoulder.

"Marshal Song, watch out!" Huang Da shouted loudly.

Behind Song Niu, Qin Lang came rushing to aid Shi Meng, swinging his horse spear towards Song Niu's back.

Warned by Huang Da, Song Niu instantly sensed the wind-breaking sound behind him, rolling his body on the ground to avoid it, sweeping his long blade towards Shi Meng's legs.

Shi Meng dodged, leaping up before he and Qin Lang mounted the personal soldiers' war horses, fleeing without looking back.

"Damn him, chase them for me." Song Niu was enraged. Had it not been for Huang Da's timely warning, after taking the horse spear attack without innate spiritual qi protection, he would likely have lost half his life.

With the arrival of the Black Cavalry, he directly pulled down a soldier of the Black Cavalry, mounted their horse, and pursued.

Huang Da followed suit, pressing on in pursuit.

War horses trampled over countless corpses, making the streets of retreating conquered a hill of bodies and sea of blood.

With the Yu State Army no longer resisting, the Celestial Master Army who had charged into the city began breaking into the houses, starting their plunder.

But little did they know that the people of Zhuima City, when Yang Minggui's troops invaded, had already retreated to the rear.

The civilians, grain, and supplies in the city were ordered by Liang Song to start evacuation during the Celestial Master Army's third wave of attacks.

Thus, when the Celestial Master Army broke into the houses, they were quickly dumbfounded.

There's nothing.

This drives them insane. All their desperate efforts to break into the city were for the pleasure of looting after its fall.

But now, they've gained nothing—how is this any different from an empty city?

As the sound of pursuit drums rose from the rear, they too charged forward in pursuit.

As long as they can eliminate this Yu State Army, they fear nothing in seizing the entire Yu State.

At the back gate.

Blood spread across the ground, pooling in the low-lying areas, with wails and screams mixing together in waves, indistinguishable between the screams of the Yu State Army or the wails of the Celestial Master Army.

Soldiers missing limbs cried out on the ground, armored warriors with pierced guts groaned in despair, while many ordinary soldiers fought desperately in the blood pool.

The rear-guard Yu State Army soldiers barely raised their large shields when a Celestial Master Army warrior hacked through the shield with an axe, sending the soldier who held it flying and crashing to the ground.

Before he could rise, several long spears were thrust towards him, piercing his belly.

Soon, a gap was opened in the rear-guard of the Yu State Army, allowing a large number of Celestial Master Army soldiers to flood through the breach in pursuit of the retreating Yu State Army main force.

To all in the Celestial Master Army, it appeared that the Yu State Army had been routed.

They even lost Zhuima City.

During the retreat, they abandoned their weapons, carelessly throwing them to the ground. The Yu State Army's rear forces, caught by the Black Cavalry's assault, were shattered and unorganized; in their haste to escape, they even shed their armor, fleeing in all directions.

The situation turned into a one-sided massacre.

Various command flags flapped incessantly, while signal soldiers with feathered back banners rode back and forth on fine horses under Lu Yonggang's command, directing tens of thousands of Celestial Master Army as if they were his own limbs.

Chen Mo's Three Guards were the last of the Celestial Master Army to leisurely exit the back gate of Zhuima City.

Though the two armies fought fiercely, Chen Mo's group seemed as if they hadn't participated at all.

"Zhuima City was entirely taken by stacking up human lives," Chen Mo remarked, then turned his head to look at Xia Zhining, Sun Meng, and Shao Jinneng, asking their thoughts.

Xia Zhining, however, furrowed her brow and said, "County Magistrate, something's not quite right?"

In front of everyone, Xia Zhining still addressed Chen Mo as County Magistrate.

"What's wrong?" Chen Mo asked, puzzled.

"The enemy seems to have executed a planned withdrawal. Look, we haven't found a single sack of grain or a cart of supplies in the city. Logically, after breaking the city, it would be impossible for them to evacuate all their grain and supplies in such haste," Xia Zhining replied.

Upon hearing this, Chen Mo also sensed something amiss. Indeed, if a city fell, everyone should be concerned about their survival first, who would have the time to care about anything else?

Admittedly, there was a hint of oddity, but since Zhuima City had been captured, it couldn't be overthought.

Saying this, Chen Mo glanced back at Zhuima City.

The last glance was revealing.

Originally, the back gate was wide open, but now it was slowly closing.

Chen Mo was taken aback and then shouted, "There's still an enemy in the city."

Having said this, he turned his horse around, spurred forward, and charged towards the back gate.

Yet he was a bit late, and the gate was almost shut.

But Chen Mo did not halt, he unsheathed his sword and swung it.

An invisible Sword Qi burst forth from the Tang Blade.

With a loud "bang," the gate exploded into pieces, wood chips flying everywhere.

At this moment, the back gate had only shut its first gate; the Mystic Sect had not yet been closed, nor had the Thousand-Pound Gate dropped, allowing Chen Mo to break through single-handedly.

Then, Chen Mo charged inside alone.

Slaying over a dozen Yu State Army soldiers in the city tunnel, he entered the city to find hundreds of Yu State soldiers appearing from nowhere. Some were setting up obstacles, while others were shocked at the direction of the gate.

Once they realized, they all charged at Chen Mo.

...

On another front, Lu Yonggang, accompanying the vanguard's rear, pursued the fleeing Yu State Army, having advanced less than ten miles when sudden and deep war drums thundered from the woods on both sides. Instantly, countless shouts of battle rang out, feathered arrows flew from both sides, frantically reaping the lives of Celestial Master Army soldiers.

Lu Yonggang scanned the area, noticing golden Dragon Banners raised within the forested hills on both sides, appearing out of nowhere.

"Wuu...wuu..."

The mournful sound of horns resounded everywhere.

Ahead, the pursued Yu State Army vanguard heard the horns, and Liang Song issued an order: "Warriors, the rebel army has entered our ambush circle. Now is the time to achieve glory and honor, charge back!"

The vanguard and central forces, along with the scattered rear forces, charged back.

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