Frontier Hero: From Receiving a Convicted Woman to Becoming an Emperor for All Time

The wolf-skin boy suddenly looked up, and in the firelight, he saw a figure in armor standing with his hands behind his back, a faint smile on his lips.

It's him.

It's him again.

"Shen Chuxiao!"

The wolf-skin boy gritted his teeth, his curved sword clenching so tightly in his hand that it creaked. "You colluded with Han Shi'an to lure me into the pass—"

"Collusion?"

Shen Chuxiao interrupted him, laughing, "Han Shi'an doesn't even deserve it!"

He pointed towards the valley entrance, at the rolling stones and logs blocking their retreat: "Your ally Han Shi'an is dead now. The signal you received was sent by my men."

The wolf-skin boy's pupils suddenly contracted.

died?

The imperial envoy who had been operating in Lingshuang Pass for many years died just like that?

He didn't have time to think it through, because the rain of arrows from the mountain walls on both sides came again.

"Release the arrows!"

At Shen Chuxiao's command, hundreds of bows on the mountainside were simultaneously released. Arrows rained down like locusts, tracing countless deadly arcs across the night sky.

The barbarian cavalry were crammed into the narrow valley, with nowhere to hide and nowhere to escape.

Screams, neighing horses, and the muffled thuds of arrows piercing flesh mingled together, echoing through the valley.

"Hold on! Hold on!" The wolf-skinned boy swung his knife to deflect three arrows aimed at him, roaring hoarsely, "Charge up the cliff! Climb up!"

Several valiant barbarian soldiers dismounted and, with their knives in their teeth, began to climb the steep mountainside. But the mountainside was too steep, and the snow too slippery; they tumbled down before they were even halfway up, trampled to a pulp by the horses below.

"No! Young clan leader! We can't climb up!" The lieutenant, his face covered in blood and one eye blinded by an arrow, cried out hoarsely.

The wolf-skin boy looked around.

More than half of his men were dead or wounded. The valley was littered with corpses, and the blood had stained the snow a dark red, a horrifying sight in the torchlight.

The retreat was blocked, with cliffs on both sides and... ahead.

He suddenly looked up and gazed into the depths of the valley.

In front.

There is still a road.

Qingfeng Pass is a valley that runs through the area; the southern entrance is blocked, while the northern entrance—

He remembered that it was marked on the map that there was a fork in the road north of Qingfeng Pass, which was narrow but might be passable.

"North! Charge north!" He turned his horse around, pointed his scimitar forward, and shouted, "Charge out of the valley!"

The remaining barbarian cavalry, as if grasping at their last straw, surged frantically toward the north.

On the cliff, Shen Chuxiao watched this scene with a slight smile on his lips.

"Trying to run away?"

He raised his hand, and the flag bearer beside him waved the command flag.

On the northern cliff, another group of ambushers appeared. They carried not bows and arrows, but bundles of burning dry grass and dead branches doused with kerosene.

"Throw."

Burning bundles of straw rained down from the sky, landing in front of the valley and instantly igniting a wall of fire. The oil exploded upon contact with the flames, sending flames leaping higher than a person, completely blocking the path to the north.

The leading warhorses were startled by the flames, their front hooves leaving the ground and throwing their riders off. The riders landed in the fire, their bodies ablaze, rolling on the ground screaming in agony—a sound so piercing it sent chills down one's spine.

The wolf-skin boy reined in his horse, his face deathly pale.

There was a wall of fire in front, rolling stones behind, cliffs on both sides, and a rain of arrows overhead.

Another dead end.

"Young clan leader..." the lieutenant's voice was already choked with sobs, "We...we can't get out..."

The wolf-skin boy remained silent.

He looked up at the figure on the cliff that was always looking down at him.

Shen Chuxiao was also looking at him.

Their eyes met in the firelight, one looking down at the other gazing up at the sky.

"You've lost." Shen Chuxiao's voice wasn't loud, but it clearly reached everyone's ears. "Put down the knife, and I can give you a quick death."

The wolf-skin boy stared intently at him, his chest heaving violently.

Then he laughed.

That smile was ferocious and insane, carrying the ruthlessness of someone on the verge of death.

"Loss?" he gritted his teeth. "The men of the Black Stone Tribe never admit defeat!"

He whirled around, his curved blade pointing at his terrified clansmen behind him: "Listen up! Today, you either fight your way out, or you die here—there is no third way!"

"Charge with me!"

He spurred his horse and charged toward the wall of fire.

Instead of heading north, they turned back—rushing towards the southern valley entrance, which was already blocked by rolling stones.

His horse was fast, and in the blink of an eye, he reached the pile of boulders. He dismounted, climbed up the loose stones, his scimitar in his mouth, and gripped the edge of the boulder with both hands, struggling to climb upwards.

Several bodyguards followed closely behind.

On the cliff, Tie Niu cried out anxiously, "Captain, that kid's trying to escape!"

Shen Chuxiao did not move.

He looked down at the wolf-skinned boy climbing the pile of boulders and suddenly sighed.

"Release the arrows," he said calmly.

Tie Niu was taken aback: "Isn't he trying to run away? Shoot him with arrows!"

"Shoot his personal guards behind him, but not him."

Although Tie Niu didn't understand, he did as instructed. The arrows on the cliff changed direction and shot towards the barbarian soldiers behind the wolf-skinned boy.

Arrows rained down like locusts, and his personal guards, who were following him up the mountain, fell one after another, struck by arrows.

Screams rang out as the rocks tumbled down and crashed through the valley.

The wolf-skin boy did not turn around.

He gritted his teeth, his fingernails digging into the cracks in the rocks, and with his last bit of strength, he tumbled over the pile of boulders and crashed heavily onto the snow at the mouth of the valley.

Behind him—his clansmen, his personal guards, and the thousand elite troops he had brought—were all trapped in that dead valley.

He staggered to his feet and glanced back.

The firelight illuminated half the sky, and thick smoke shot straight into the clouds like a black pillar.

The sounds coming from the valley were not the sounds of fighting, but the wails of the dying—one after another, like a dull knife cutting flesh.

Every cut was to his heart.

He stood there, covered in blood, blood still seeping from the arrow wound in his left shoulder, and his right leg was cut open by a rolling stone, his trouser leg already soaked in blood.

But he couldn't feel any pain.

It hurts my heart.

These people were the only remaining elites in his entire Blackrock tribe.

It's all gone.

He stared intently at the sea of ​​fire, his lips moved a few times, but he ultimately said nothing. Then he turned around and limped towards the border.

A trail of bloody footprints, some deep and some shallow, was left on the snow.

Every step felt like stepping on the bones of his people.

On the cliff, Tie Niu stamped his feet in anger: "Captain! How could you let him get away!"

Shen Chuxiao withdrew his gaze and said calmly, "What's the use of killing a young clan leader? Let him go back alive—"

He paused, his gaze falling on the mountains of corpses piled up at the bottom of the valley:

"Only now do the Black Stone tribe realize what they truly lost in this battle."

Tie Niu was taken aback and followed his gaze.

In the valley, the corpses of the barbarian elites were piled up layer upon layer. That was most of the Black Stone tribe's cavalry force, their fist that plundered the border, and the source of their confidence on the grasslands.

Now, they've all perished here.

"Without these people, they wouldn't even be able to survive the winter."

Tie Niu gasped.

He finally understood—

It wasn't that the captain was kind-hearted and released the man.

This strike was even more ruthless than killing the young clan leader.

"A thousand elite troops have perished here," Shen Chuxiao withdrew his gaze, "How will the remaining elderly, women, and children survive the winter? How will they defend themselves against other tribes?"

The corners of his mouth turned up slightly:

"We don't need to lift a finger; the wolves on the grassland will eat the rest for us—not even leaving bones."

Tie Niu, carrying his broadsword, stood there stunned for a long time before suddenly grinning: "Captain, your move—is brilliant!"

Shen Chuxiao took one last look at the bottom of the valley.

"Let's go." He turned his horse around. "Black Stone Tribe, wipe them out."