After the spiritual energy was restored: Goddess girlfriends came knocking.

Three days later.

Jiang Yan led an army of 20,000 to press on to the border outside Pojun Pass.

"According to the scouts, most of the main force of the Sirius reinforcements has been transferred to the direction of Lonely Smoke City to provide support." Pei Xiao pointed to the mark on the map. "The garrison at Po Jun Pass has a maximum of 10,000 men. There are probably only two or three Nascent Soul cultivators who can pose a threat to us. Most of the others are Golden Core and Foundation Establishment cultivators. General Jing is under even greater pressure, so we need to finish this battle quickly."

Jiang Yan looked toward the distant Po Jun Pass.

You can vaguely see crowds of people on the opposite city wall, with the defending troops hurriedly setting up defenses.

The huge crossbow bolts were cocked, and rolling stones and logs were being moved towards the top of the barricade; everything seemed normal.

But Jiang Yan stood in front of the formation for a long time, and felt that something was not right.

It was too quiet. The defenders were busy, but they were so organized that it was as if they were carrying out orders step by step, rather than in a panicked and hasty battle.

If you are the defending general, and you know that the reinforcements have been transferred away, you should either bluff and put on a grand defensive posture to try to buy time, or simply consolidate your forces and hold the core stronghold while waiting for reinforcements.

"General Pei," Jiang Yan suddenly spoke.

"What's wrong?"

"If you were the opposing general, and your forces far exceeded the enemy's expectations, how would you plan to fight?"

Pei Xiao stroked the tiger's whiskers.

"That goes without saying, they'll find a place to hide outside the city and stab you in the back when you attack... You mean someone on the other side is hiding?"

"That's possible," Jiang Yan continued. "If it were me, I would show you that the garrison is small, lure you into attacking the city, and once you've all pressed under the walls, the ambush troops would come out from both sides, and then the city gates would open again for another wave of attacks, a pincer movement to wipe them out in one fell swoop."

Pei Xiao's tiger-like eyes narrowed.

"You mean—"

"Feign an attack once," Jiang Yan interrupted him. "Withdraw when you see the defenders on the city wall in disarray. Don't linger in the battle."

Soon, the vanguard began a feint attack.

Jiang Yan ordered the vanguard of 3,000 men, led by Lu Fa, to advance towards the city walls with siege equipment, assuming a posture of full-scale attack.

"Remember, it's a feint attack. Once you hear the retreat signal, turn around immediately."

Three thousand armored soldiers advanced towards Pojun Pass.

The shouts of battle were deafening; looking down from the city wall, it was impossible to tell that this was just a feint attack.

The Tianlang defenders on the city wall immediately retaliated, unleashing a hail of crossbow bolts, pushing logs and stones down from the crenellations, and sending plumes of black smoke billowing from the walls.

Just then, a deafening horn suddenly sounded from the valleys on both sides of Pojun Pass, near the city wall.

A dense array of wolf banners appeared on the mountain ridges on both sides, and two ambushers poured out from the valley behind the attacking forces, a dark mass of cavalry sweeping in, kicking up dust.

Pei Xiao's expression changed drastically: "There really are ambushes."

Two ambushes emerged from the valleys on the left and right like iron pincers, trapping Jiang Yan's attacking forces in the center under the cover of the defenders on the city walls.

A large flag was raised on the city wall, embroidered with a silver wolf howling at the sky.

"Withdraw," Jiang Yan ordered.

But the Sirius Army had no intention of letting them go.

The defenders on the city wall quickly assembled, preparing to launch a coordinated attack from within and without to annihilate the Tushan army beneath the city walls.

The gong sounded.

Lu Fa's vanguard decisively retreated, and Tu Shanye's archers fired three volleys in succession from the high ground. The specially made arrows formed an impenetrable curtain of arrows, which slowed down the momentum of the pursuing Tianlang cavalry.

Taking advantage of the brief respite, the attacking forces quickly broke away from the city walls and rejoined Pei Xiao.

The Sirius Army relentlessly pursued them.

"They have a lot of people," Pei Xiao said gravely, "at least thirty thousand."

"Let's hold them off for now." Jiang Yan drew his sword.

The two armies clashed violently, their battle cries shaking the heavens.

The wolf riders were all riding exotic beasts with demon blood, and their charging power was immense, quickly shattering the front shield formation.

Jiang Yan directed the attack while retreating.

The formation retreated in alternating layers, and arrows flashing with various spiritual powers flew out from the archer formation at the rear, constantly disrupting the wolf cavalry's pursuit rhythm.

Although the casualties were not high, the front line was being compressed.

During the retreat, Jiang Yan's gaze swept over the abandoned mine tunnel to the side.

He stumbled upon this place while marching through the area. Before the battle, he had people confirm that it had been abandoned for a long time. The entrance was mostly buried under rubble, but there were many gaps inside, allowing for air circulation.

"Lure them over, but don't go too fast." After saying this to Pei Xiao, he turned his horse and rode to the side.

Pei Xiao led the main force to continue the retreat, deliberately slowing down to make it appear as if the formation was about to collapse.

The main force of the wolf cavalry surged toward the mine entrance, following Pei Xiao's direction.

Upon seeing this, Jiang Yan flew into the sky, formed hand seals, and unleashed a fire control technique from his palms.

Dozens of fire dragons drilled deep into the mine tunnel and ignited the oil canisters that had been buried in the crevices beforehand.

Moments later, the fire deep inside the mine ignited the methane gas, and a violent explosion erupted from the mountain.

The wolf rider vanguard had just reached the mine entrance when they were thrown into the air by the blast wave and crashed to the ground dozens of feet away.

The wolf soldiers who weren't killed instantly crawled out of the rubble and dust, their ears ringing and their vision blurred.

"Kill." Jiang Yan drew his twin swords and slashed in from the flank.

The elite forwards who were chasing the attack the hardest lost more than half of their force in the explosion, and their formation completely collapsed.

Jiang Yan led his personal guards into the fleeing soldiers and completely wiped out this vanguard battalion.

Seeing this scene from afar, the other wolf riders involuntarily slowed down their pursuit.

Their fighting strength was already weaker than that of the vanguard battalion, and now that they saw the vanguard battalion almost completely wiped out, their offensive rhythm was completely disrupted.

Jiang Yan raised his sword and pointed it forward.

"Now, it's our turn."

Pei Xiao grinned and led the rearguard troops in a charge.

The war drums of the Northern Expeditionary Army changed from retreat to attack. After being ambushed, retreating in an orderly manner, and being pursued in a counterattack, the morale of the 20,000 soldiers did not decrease but increased.

The counterattack surged towards Pojun Pass like a flood bursting its banks.

Seeing that the ambush had been broken, the vanguard had been wiped out, and the situation on the battlefield had completely reversed, the general on the city wall had no choice but to grit his teeth, draw his sword, and leap off the city wall. Behind him, the last batch of elite wolf guards charged towards Jiang Yan.

Late stage of Nascent Soul.

But this time, Jiang Yan doesn't need to shoulder the burden alone.

He has only just broken through to the late stage of the Golden Core realm, and there is still a whole major realm gap between him and the late stage of the Nascent Soul realm.

Pei Xiao was right next to him, and the two of them joined forces, their sword shadows and tiger claws weaving together into an impenetrable net of attack, forcing the defending general to retreat step by step.

The defending general gritted his teeth, growing increasingly apprehensive with each battle.

These two individuals, one at the early stage of the Nascent Soul realm and the other at the late stage of the Golden Core realm, exerted pressure on me no less than that of two Nascent Soul cultivators.

Before he could figure out how to break the deadlock, Jiang Yan had already moved to his side.

As the two swords were released from his hands, the final killing move of the Yin-Yang Dividing Light Sword Technique descended from nowhere, the ancestral sword cleaving down from the front, and the old sword piercing in from the blind spot on the left rear. The two sword lights poured into the gap in his defense at the same time.

The general's body froze in mid-air for a moment, then both swords pierced through his breastplate simultaneously.

Seeing that the situation was hopeless, the other two mid-stage Nascent Soul enemy generals exchanged a glance, and without further hesitation, turned and retreated.

"The garrison commander of Po Jun Pass is dead! Those who surrender will not be killed!"

Tens of thousands of troops poured into the city gate of Pojun Pass.

The Tianlang military flag on the city wall was cut off with a single sword stroke, and replaced by the Jiang character flag of the Northern Expeditionary Army.

Above the clouds, Ao Tianxin slowly withdrew her gaze.

Jian Li stood beside her, her small hands tightly gripping her sleeve, watching without blinking from beginning to end.

From Jiang Yan's feigned attack to uncover the ambush, to the orderly retreat, to using the mine tunnels to ignite methane and launch a counterattack, and finally to the counter-offensive and breach of the city, Ao Tianxin witnessed it all.

From beginning to end, everything was under the control of this fifteen-year-old boy.

She looked down at Jian Li, who was looking up at her with undisguised pride in her eyes.

"Sister Tianxin, Master has won."

"Hmm." Ao Tianxin stroked her hair. "Your master... is indeed remarkable."