At 100 years old, he joined the army in place of his granddaughter, and became a national war god.

At the village entrance, corpses lay scattered about, and blood flowed like a river.

The sunlight cast an eerie golden hue over the dark red bloodstains scattered across this battlefield of carnage.

Severed limbs, remains, and shattered armor were scattered all over the ground, and the air was filled with a strong smell of blood, attracting a large flock of crows that circled and cawed overhead.

"Lord Wu, Han Bao's body is over here!"

A Daqian soldier pulled Han Bao's mutilated body from the pile of corpses and shouted loudly forward.

Wu Tian did not respond.

He was squatting in front of another corpse, staring intently at it.

The armor on the corpse had split open in the middle, the flesh rolled back, revealing the white ribs underneath.

A knife.

From the shoulders to the waist and abdomen, the entire chest cavity was split open.

Wu Tian had fought for twenty years and seen countless knife wounds, but he had never seen one of this severity.

"Such ruthless swordsmanship..." he muttered to himself, his expression one of shock. "A single, clean, and swift strike."

Hearing his brother's mutterings, Wu Di leaned over to look: "What, did you find something?"

Wu Tian didn't answer. Instead, he pointed to the bloodied head on the ground and asked, "Second brother, do you recognize this person?"

Wu looked down and his pupils suddenly contracted.

Although the head was covered in blood, the facial features were still clearly visible.

With high cheekbones, deep-set eyes, and a full beard, even in death, a fierce aura lingered in his eyes and brows.

"This...this is Chi Na?" Wu Di's voice changed. "That Chi Na from the Northern Barbarians?"

"That's right."

Wu gasped in shock.

Chi Na was one of the hundred warriors of the Northern Di.

This man was brave and skilled in battle, with fierce swordsmanship. He had been rampant on the northern battlefield for many years, and many generals in the Daqian army had suffered at his hands.

"This man's martial arts are extraordinary. Every time we fought him, we couldn't gain the slightest advantage." Wu Di was shocked. "That kid Han Bao... he actually managed to kill him?"

Wu Tian turned to look at his younger brother, his brows furrowed and his eyes filled with complex emotions.

"Do you really think Han Bao has the ability to kill Chi Na?"

Wu was stumped by the question.

They knew perfectly well what kind of person Han Bao was.

A centurion who rose through the ranks by opportunism, with mediocre martial arts skills, couldn't even control his own men.

Send him to kill Chi Na? What's the difference between that and sending a rabbit to bite a wolf?

"Then... if it wasn't Han Bao who killed him, who could it be?" Wu Di scratched his head. "Who else in his team could have that kind of ability?"

Wu Tian did not answer.

He squatted down again, gently lifted the knife wound on Chi Na's chest with his fingers, and gestured for Wu Di to see.

"Take a close look at this knife mark."

Wu Di leaned closer, and after just one glance, his pupils suddenly contracted.

The wound cut diagonally from the right shoulder to the left rib, deep enough to expose the bone.

Chi Na was wearing the finest iron armor of the Northern Barbarians; ordinary swords and blades could not even leave a white mark when they struck him.

But this strike cleaved through the iron armor, the flesh, and the bones, nearly splitting the man in two.

"The power of this strike..." Wu Di's voice was somewhat dry, "...was at least a thousand catties."

"More than that." Wu Tian shook his head. "To be able to cleave through such thick iron armor to this extent with a single strike. The killer's strength far exceeds a thousand pounds."

He raised his head, his gaze sweeping over the scattered corpses around him.

"And have you noticed that none of the Northern Di people who died around here were killed in close combat?"

Wu Di followed his gaze and realized that every corpse of the Northern Di soldiers had been killed with a single blow.

They were either beheaded, disemboweled, or had their heads smashed by immense force.

Wu Di felt a chill run down his spine.

He imagined the scene: a man with a knife, surrounded by dozens of elite Northern Di soldiers, killing them one by one, as easily as chopping melons and vegetables.

"Are there people like that in our army?" Wu Di swallowed hard.

Wu Tian remained silent for a moment, then slowly shook his head.

"Even you and I, brothers, couldn't do that."

"Who could it be?" Wu Di was completely baffled. "Could it be a reclusive expert living in this village?"

"But that doesn't make sense either," he waved his hand dismissively. "If I really had that kind of talent, I should have been making a name for myself long ago. What's the point of staying in this poor mountain village?"

Wu Tian stood up, took one last look at the corpses scattered on the ground, and said in a deep voice, "Speculation is useless, and we can't find anyone. Now that we've found Han Bao's body, let's go back and report."

"We should not stay here any longer. The Northern Barbarians have lost a general and will surely come to retaliate. If we stay any longer, we will also be in danger."

Wu nodded, turned and waved to the soldiers: "Bring all the brothers' bodies! Quickly!"

The soldiers hurriedly collected the remains of their comrades...

Wu Tian mounted his horse and glanced back at the corpse one last time!

He wondered to himself: Who exactly is that person?

He shook his head, spurred his horse, and led the group away at the end of the road.

……

Wu Tian and the others had only been gone for less than half an hour.

From the woods came the dull sound of horses' hooves.

Immediately afterwards, a dark mass of cavalry surged out from the depths of the woods.

Hundreds of riders.

All the horses were black, and all the armor and swords were iron.

The sound of horses' hooves was uniform and rhythmic, like the beating of a giant war drum.

The man in the lead was incredibly tall and imposing.

He rode a black steed that was half a head taller than an ordinary warhorse, his towering body pressing down on the horse's back until it slumped slightly.

He had a square face, thick eyebrows, and a full beard that stretched from his cheeks to his chin. His eyes were fierce, as if he wanted to devour someone.

He wore a horse-slaying saber hanging at his waist, twice as wide as usual, with a wolf's head inlaid on the hilt. The wolf's eyes were inlaid with rubies, which gleamed blood-red in the setting sun.

This person's name is Chi Lie.

One of the ten strongest warriors under the Northern Di Khan, and the elder brother of Chi Na.

This man fought for more than twenty years and never suffered a defeat.

He was strong enough to lift a tripod and had fierce swordsmanship, earning him the nickname "Iron Butcher" among the Northern Barbarians.

It is said that he alone slaughtered more people than the entire population of a city.

"Whoa—"

Chi Lie pulled on the reins, and the warhorse reared up high, drawing an arc in the air before landing heavily, kicking up a cloud of dust.

He rode on his horse, his gaze slowly sweeping over the battlefield at the village entrance.

His brow furrowed.

The corpses lay scattered on the ground, each one more gruesome than the last.

Some had their heads chopped off, and the blood in their necks had congealed into hard, dark purple lumps.

Some were split in two, their internal organs spilling out onto the ground, where they stank and burned in the sun.

Some had their skulls smashed, their faces covered in white brain matter mixed with blood.

Chi Lie has fought for many years and has seen more dead people than living people.

But the scene before him still made his pupils shrink slightly.

It's not because many people died.

It's because of the killer's methods.

He dismounted and walked step by step toward the pile of corpses, his gaze sweeping over each body, his expression growing increasingly grim.

Every cut is aimed at a vital point.

Each strike was fatal.

There were no extra wounds, no signs of a struggle.

These Northern Di warriors didn't even have a chance to fight back when facing that person.

Chi Lie walked up to Chi Na's corpse and stopped.

He looked at his brother's deathly pale face, at his unseeing eyes, at the wound on his chest that seemed to have split him in two...

He knelt down, stretched out his rough, large hand, and gently covered his brother's eyelids, closing his eyes.

"Bring them up to me."

Chi Lie stood up, his voice low and deep, like the rumble of thunder before a storm.

Several soldiers escorted two people over from behind.

Those were the routed soldiers who had fled back from China's ranks; their faces were deathly pale, and their legs were trembling.

"Speak." Chi Lie turned around, looking down at the two men with eyes like two knives. "Who killed my brother?"

The two defeated soldiers knelt down with a thud.

"The...the general is an old man..."

"An old man with a full head of white hair!"

"He used his horse-slaying sword, one strike... one strike and he killed General Chi Na..."

Before he could finish speaking, Chi Lie kicked him out.

"Bang!"

The fleeing soldier who had spoken was kicked more than ten feet away, his back slammed into a big tree, and he spat out a mouthful of blood, collapsing to the ground unable to get up.

"Nonsense!" Chi Lie's furious roar shook the leaves in the trees. "Who is my brother? One of the hundred warriors of the Northern Barbarians! Could he be killed by an old man?"

Another routed soldier, terrified, wet himself and lay on the ground, trembling all over: "General...General, everything I said is true! That old man's hair was completely white, and he looked at least ninety years old! Not only did he kill General Chi, but he also killed his deputy!"

"That old man was incredibly strong; he overturned the lieutenant's warhorse with his bare hands! A warhorse weighing over a thousand pounds, he overturned it with just one hand!"

Chi Lie's pupils suddenly contracted.

To overturn a warhorse with bare hands?

He glanced down at the wound on Chi Na's chest, then looked around at the corpses that had been killed with a single blow.

His brows furrowed more and more deeply.

A centenarian?

He instinctively felt it was absurd.

A hundred-year-old would have difficulty walking, how could he possibly kill someone?

How could they possibly have killed dozens of elite Northern Di soldiers?

Chi Lie closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"No matter who it is..." Chi Lie's voice was heavy, each word like a poisoned knife, "I will find him, and use his head, his blood, to appease the soul of my brother."

He mounted his horse, drew his saber from his waist, and pointed the tip of the blade toward the village.

"Everyone, listen up!"

"Yes!" Hundreds of Northern Di cavalrymen responded in unison, their voices echoing across the land.

"Enter the village! Kill every single one of the Daqian people in the village! Leave no one alive!"

"Burn! Burn every single house down!"

"I will make this place disappear forever!"

"drive--!"

Chi Lie spurred his horse, the warhorse neighed, and its hooves flew as it charged toward the village.

Hundreds of cavalry followed closely behind, their hooves thundering and dust obscuring the sky.