knife

Chapter 820 Showdown
Fang Xiaomao felt half of her body go numb, and the Tiger Wing Blade slipped from her hand. Fortunately, the Tiger Wing Blade was always tied to her wrist with snow spider silk, otherwise, Fang Xiaomao would have lost her weapon with just this one blow.

Compared to Chang Lei, who was at the peak of the eighth rank and at the ninth rank of the Xuan Yuan realm, Fang Xiaomao's internal strength cultivation was far inferior. The moment the knife left his hand, Fang Xiaomao fell straight to the other side, barely managing to hold onto the reins with his right hand, hanging on the other side of the horse. He heard the sound of the other's steel knife whistling past his ears, and the hairs on his body stood on end at that moment.

Standing up, Fang Xiaomao found his helmet gone and a chill running down his spine. Chang Lei had shaved off all the hair on the top of his head with a single stroke. Turning around, he saw several of his men being cut down from their horses by Chang Lei.

Enraged, he flicked his wrist, and the Tiger Wing Blade flew back with a shriek, slicing off the head of a guy who was trying to take advantage of the situation from the back of his neck.

Fang Xiaomao's two large teams, Qinglong and Baihu, had better riding skills and stronger combat power, so they ran faster and ran head-on into Chang Lei, a tough character, and immediately suffered a considerable loss.

Meanwhile, the cavalry led by Zhan Zhao, who were rushing in from the other side, were of much lower quality than Fang Xiaomao's side, so they were slower.

But being slow had its advantages; they missed Chang Lei's initial attack but instead struck right at the enemy's flanks. The enemy immediately dispatched a detachment of cavalry to meet them, led by Chang Lei's lieutenant, Chang Wei.

When Chang Wei faced Zhan Zhao, it was a clash between an eighth-rank Xuan Yuan cultivator and a ninth-rank cultivator. Naturally, he suffered a great loss. Like Fang Xiaomao, he was in a sorry state after just one exchange. Even worse than Fang Xiaomao, Chang Wei had his left hand cut off cleanly from below the elbow. In that instant, faced with the choice between losing his hand and losing his life, Chang Wei made his own decision.

Guan Shan held the knife in both hands, the back of the blade pressed against his elbows, his arms thrust forward, and his upper body slightly leaning forward. Almost everyone in the Qinglong Brigade followed the same posture. When facing charging enemies, he would only slightly turn his head at the last moment to avoid vital points. Years of being a bandit had instilled in him a fearless character. Once a battle began, it was a fight to the death, a contest of who would falter first. Even the slightest hesitation could instantly determine life or death between the two sides.

After a bloody battle at the Northern Yuan Imperial Palace years ago, the Azure Dragon Brigade was replenished with a large number of former Eagle Blade members, making their fighting style even more ruthless than before.

The White Tiger, who closely followed the Azure Dragon Brigade, could be described as treacherous.

They are strong, but their opponents are not weak either.

In a head-on confrontation, both sides suffered heavy losses.

The two cavalry units passed each other through the billowing dust, but neither reined in their horses to turn back and fight again. Instead, they both continued galloping forward at breakneck speed.

Fang Xiaomao raised his tiger-winged sword high, and the scattered cavalry began to converge on him again. He looked around, took a deep breath, and realized that of his more than two thousand cavalry, at least a third had been lost.

At this moment, Zhan Zhao was doing the same thing as Fang Xiaomao. While regrouping his cavalry, he was also heartbroken to find that he had lost several hundred of his more than two thousand cavalrymen. Looking back at Chang Lei's troops, who were charging forward like a vicious dragon, Zhan Zhao was also shocked. This was the first time he had truly clashed with the most powerful cavalry in the north, and they were indeed extremely powerful.

Zhan Zhao didn't know that the force he encountered wasn't even top-tier. The force Fang Xiaomao faced, Chang Lei's thousand-odd cavalry, was one of the two most powerful cavalry units in the world.

Those were fierce cavalry that even the Northern Yuan iron cavalry had to give way to.

If Zhan Zhao's team were to encounter Chang Lei, I'm afraid that at most half of their two thousand-odd cavalry would be left.

Both cavalry units had the same idea and the same plan: to weaken the enemy as much as possible before charging into their infantry phalanx.

It can only be said that experts often have the same ideas and think in the same direction.

However, the similar setup also reflects both sides' clear understanding of their own teams.

Chang Lei knew the enemy's infantry was strong, so he first sent Kou Wenhai's troops to charge. Once Kou Wenhai disrupted the enemy's formation, Chang Lei unleashed his killing move, a decisive strike. Jiang Qian didn't have as many cavalry, but she looked down on the enemy's infantry, considering them a rabble. She had strong confidence in her Tiger Warriors, so she dared to send all her cavalry to charge Chang Lei, then, without further engagement, directly crush the enemy's infantry. She, on the other hand, would rely on her tens of thousands of Tiger Warriors to fight Chang Lei head-on.

This was yet another clash between northern heavy cavalry and southern heavy infantry.

Fang Xiaomao only glanced back once, then looked away. He trusted Kang Zhen and Jiang Qian.

"Kill the enemy!" Fang Xiaomao roared, brandishing his tiger-winged blade and sweeping towards the enemy's infantry formation like a whirlwind.

Behind him, the remaining three thousand cavalrymen split into countless arrows, fiercely stabbing at the enemy in front.

Xue Li followed closely behind He Zheng. That charge was the closest he had ever come to death in his life. In just a few breaths, he almost went to report to the King of Hell several times.

This is real war.

Seeing familiar companions fall off their horses one after another, in that situation, falling off one's horse meant certain death.

Compared to this battle, the battles he had experienced before were truly insignificant.

The most difficult time has passed. Looking at the winding infantry ranks ahead and seeing their somewhat flustered faces, Xue Li couldn't help but feel a sense of relief.

He had seen the Tiger Legion's military bearing before, and compared to his own infantry, these men before him could only be described as a rabble.

Three thousand cavalrymen, like a red-hot pair of tongs, plunged straight into the enemy's infantry formation, then split into countless fragments like veins on a leaf, instantly throwing the enemy's formation into chaos.

Chang Lei charged into the heavy infantry formation that Kou Wenhai had broken through. Without the heavy infantry to obstruct him, his advance was exceptionally easy. Only light infantry stood in his way, and on the high platform behind the light infantry, a white figure was beating a drum to cheer them on – this was his target.

Kang Zhen looked at Chang Lei, coldly sneered, and loudly issued a series of orders. Accompanied by a barrage of arrows that blotted out the sky, the nearby square military formations began to converge, forming a huge, ever-changing new military formation with an inner circle and an outer square.

Seeing the enemy able to change their formation amidst such fierce fighting, Chang Lei felt a chill run down his spine. As a seasoned veteran, he knew how difficult this was.

I'm afraid the light infantrymen nearby aren't easy to bully.

But he knew his own infantry better than anyone else what kind of men they were. The cavalry that had just clashed with him would be like a tiger among sheep if they faced his infantry.

He has no way out.

All hope is placed on oneself.

"Kill!" Chang Lei pointed his long sword forward, uttered a single word, and then spurred his horse forward.

(End of this chapter)