You, a tyrannical ruler, roam the heavens; you cannot understand my joy.

"Retreat! Retreat now!!"

Wanyan Gouying was terrified and roared hoarsely.

The deafening shouts and cries of battle filled the air, while before my eyes loomed Song soldiers like ghostly shadows, arrows raining down like locusts and blades flashing like snow.

His earlier arrogance and fantasies of achieving victory in the night raid have now been crushed by chilling fear.

We've fallen for their trap!

He was filled with regret, but even more so with horror at the unpredictable military tactics employed by the Song Emperor Zhao Gou, whom he had never met.

Just as he turned his horse around, intending to break through the encirclement—

laugh!

A sharp, piercing sound cut through the chaotic battlefield noise, heading straight for his face!

Before Wanyan Gouying could even see what was coming, he felt a sudden chill on his left shoulder blade, followed by an explosive pain!

A wolf-tooth arrow, as thick as a child's arm, pierced through his armor from a hundred paces away, causing him to fall backward off his horse and nearly tumble off.

"General!"

"Protect the Commander-in-Chief!"

The surrounding guards were terrified and rushed forward, roaring as they formed a shield wall with their own flesh and blood.

Immediately afterwards, there were more than a dozen sharp sounds tearing through the air!

Sizzle! Sizzle! Sizzle! Sizzle—!

The arrows flew incessantly, each one powerful and heavy, accurately striking Wanyan Gouying's vital points.

The guards held up leather shields and brandished swords to desperately parry.

"Ugh!"

"puff!"

The sounds of shields shattering, blades snapping, arrows piercing flesh, and dying screams mingled together.

Almost every whistling arrow was accompanied by the fall of a loyal bodyguard.

After the whistling of eighteen arrows, eighteen corpses lay scattered within three zhang around Wanyan Gouying, their blood gushing out and soaking the frozen ground beneath his feet.

The remaining seven or eight guards, all wounded and pale-faced, fiercely protected him.

Wanyan Gouying was in so much pain that she almost fainted, and cold sweat instantly soaked through her inner shirt.

He gritted his teeth, gripped the reins tightly with his uninjured right hand, lowered his body, and roared with all his might, "Go! Back to the city! Quickly!"

The remaining guards grabbed him and rushed desperately toward the direction they had come from... toward the city wall of Dading Prefecture.

At this moment, no matter what formation or military might, they couldn't care less.

With their commander severely wounded and fleeing, the Jin soldiers, already trapped in an ambush, completely lost their will to fight. Like headless flies, they scattered and cried out in despair under the Song army's methodical slaughter.

"kill!!!"

"Where are you going, Golden Dog!"

All around, there were the roars of the Song army and the muffled thuds of weapons piercing flesh and bone.

The flickering firelight illuminated the distorted, terrified faces of countless Jin soldiers and the cold, piercing eyes of the Song generals.

Under the desperate protection of his personal guards, Wanyan Gouying, like a small boat in a stormy sea, struggled to fight his way outwards.

Arrows kept whizzing past his ears, and every now and then a guard would groan and fall down.

The arrow shaft in his shoulder aggravated the wound with each jolt of his warhorse, each tremor bringing excruciating pain. His vision blurred, and he was held together by sheer willpower.

After an unknown period of fighting, the shouts of battle seemed to have faded slightly, and the outline of the city wall of Dading Prefecture, crouching like a giant beast in the night, could be vaguely seen ahead.

A surge of elation, a feeling of relief at surviving a calamity, had just risen in Wanyan Gouying's heart.

"Wanyan Gouying! I, Guo, have been waiting here for quite some time!"

A thunderous shout rang out from ahead!

Suddenly, flames blazed, and a troop of men formed a wall, blocking the way. Leading them was a Song general, a towering figure atop his horse, wielding a steel spear, his leopard-like head and piercing eyes radiating murderous intent—none other than Guo Xiaotian, the new army's general!

Beside him, Yang Tiexin stood with a somber expression, his spear pointing diagonally, also blocking their path. Further behind, Song army banners could be faintly seen fluttering.

Blocked in front and pursued from behind! Wanyan Gouying's heart sank to the bottom in an instant, despair engulfing him like icy water. Heaven has forsaken me!

However, just as Guo Xiaotian and Yang Tiexin were preparing to launch a surprise attack and completely annihilate the remaining Jin troops—

"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"

Dozens of dark figures, like ghosts, suddenly rose from the shadows behind the Song army!

These men, dressed in black and masked, were exceptionally agile and ruthless in their attacks, targeting the necks and joints of Song soldiers. Their oddly shaped weapons gleamed with a ghostly blue light, clearly coated with deadly poison.

"There's an ambush!"

Watch out behind you!

A commotion broke out behind the Song army's formation.

These dozens of men in black were highly skilled in martial arts and worked together seamlessly, instantly tearing a bloody gap in the tight encirclement!

Their objective was clear: to rush straight to Wanyan Gouying's location, obviously to help him break through the encirclement.

Guo Xiaotian and Yang Tiexin were both shocked and furious. They were about to capture and kill the enemy leader, so how could they allow others to interfere?

Guo Xiaotian's eyes widened in fury as he roared, "You scoundrel! Die!"

"Protect the general!"

"The leader of the men in black shouted in broken Chinese, and immediately more than ten people turned around and fearlessly faced Guo Xiaotian and Yang Tiexin, trying to delay them.

The others quickly lifted the nearly unconscious Wanyan Gouying and rushed toward the gap that had just been torn open and was rapidly closing.

Just as Wanyan Gouying was about to break through the final encirclement under the desperate cover of the men in black—

"Trying to leave?"

A calm yet clear sound, overpowering all the sounds of fighting and piercing the night, seemed to ring directly in everyone's ears.

Before everyone's eyes had even fully registered, a pale golden figure streaked across the sky like a shooting star, flying from the direction of the Song army camp at such speed that it left a trail of afterimages in the air! Even before the figure arrived, an overwhelming and suffocating pressure had already enveloped the entire area.

Lu Zuo has arrived.

His figure was as imposing as a mountain and as still as a deep pool. He landed lightly between Guo Xiaotian and the group of masked men in black. He didn't even glance at Wanyan Gouying, who was being helped and staggering towards the gap. He simply raised his right hand casually, his five fingers spread wide, and pressed down in mid-air towards the group of men in black who were rushing towards him.

"boom--!!!"

The invisible energy poured out like a mountain collapsing and a tsunami!

The dozen or so highly skilled black-clad secret sect masters, who were capable of running rampant in the army, didn't even have time to utter a scream before they were struck as if by a massive hammer. In an instant, their tendons and bones broke, they spat out blood, and flew backward, landing several feet away, where they fell silent.

The remaining men in black, who were supporting Wanyan Gouying, stopped in shock. The leader's pupils constricted, and he exclaimed in disbelief, "Protective Divine Power?! You are—!"

Before he finished speaking, Lu Zuo moved again. Everyone felt a gentle breeze, and the pale golden figure had already passed through the remaining black-clad men's formation like a ghost, appearing in front of the delirious Wanyan Gouying.

The two men in black who were holding him didn't even see the movement clearly before they felt a numbness in their wrists and were thrown away.

Lu Zuo reached out and easily grabbed Wanyan Gouying by the throat, lifting him up like a chick.

The arrow wound in her shoulder was aggravated, and the intense pain caused Wanyan Gouying to let out a suppressed groan. She barely opened her eyes and met a pair of deep, calm eyes that showed no emotion.

"Take it down."

Lu Zuo casually tossed Wanyan Gouying to the ground, as if he were throwing away something insignificant.

The fierce Song soldiers pounced on him and bound him tightly with ox sinew ropes.

The remaining black-clad Tantric masters, seeing their leader captured and their support lost, let out a shout and tried to scatter and flee.

"Leave no one alive."

Lu Zuo's voice remained calm. But as soon as he finished speaking, Guo Xiaotian, Yang Tiexin, Yue Fei, Han Shizhong, and others who had just arrived with their troops rushed forward like tigers released from their cages, leading their elite personal guards to attack.

Having lost their will to fight and leaderless, the men in black had no power to resist these formidable generals and their men, and were slaughtered in an instant.

The battlefield gradually quieted down, leaving only the crackling of burning torches and the faint groans of the wounded.

Guo Xiaotian sheathed his blood-dripping spear and exchanged a glance with Yang Tiexin. Both of them saw undisguised shock in each other's eyes.

His Majesty's martial arts skills... have reached such an unbelievable level!

Guo Xiaotian's heart was churning with turmoil. Every single one of those men in black was no less skilled than him, and some might even be more skilled. Yet, in front of His Majesty, they were like clay chickens and earthen dogs, utterly vulnerable!

Yue Fei and Han Shizhong had also arrived nearby. Yue Fei looked at Wanyan Gouying, who had been captured alive, and then at Lu Zuo, who stood with his hands behind his back, his clothes spotless. A complex expression crossed his usually stern face.

He considered himself a master archer, and had exhausted all his strength with eighteen consecutive arrows, yet he still failed to capture Wanyan Gouying. He never expected that the Jurchens had also laid an ambush with so many skilled archers to provide backup.

And Your Majesty... was able to break through the encirclement and capture the king so effortlessly amidst the chaos and carnage of thousands of troops.

This martial skill, this grasp of timing, is beyond the comprehension of ordinary people. Your Majesty's military prowess is divine, and your martial bravery is unparalleled throughout history…

His reverence for this "official" had reached its peak.

Han Shizhong was so excited that his beard and hair stood on end. He clasped his hands and exclaimed loudly, "Your Majesty is awe-inspiring!"

"To take the head of a general amidst ten thousand troops is as easy as taking something out of a bag. This great victory is entirely due to Your Majesty!"

The Song soldiers around them, whether generals or soldiers, were now looking at the pale golden figure in the center of the field with an almost fanatical worship and awe.

Someone knelt down first, shouting, "Long live Your Majesty! Long live the Great Song Dynasty!"

Immediately, a deafening roar of cheers filled the night sky: "Long live His Majesty! Long live the Great Song Dynasty!"

Lu Zuo slightly raised his hand, and the sound gradually subsided. His gaze swept over Wanyan Gouying, who was bound like a dumpling and whose face was ashen, then looked at the majestic city wall of Dading Prefecture in the distance, his tone calm and unwavering:

"Clean up the battlefield and treat the wounded. Take this man away and keep him under close guard."

"Tomorrow," he paused, his voice soft yet clear to every general, "I will meet the entire army of the Jin Kingdom beneath the walls of Dading Prefecture."

The night wind howled, carrying with it a strong stench of blood.

In the firelight, the eyes of the Song soldiers burned with an unwavering determination to win.

The city walls of Dading Prefecture stood silent in the darkness, as if sensing that a storm that would determine the fate of both nations was about to descend.