The Glory After Rebirth

Ling Zhang was standing on the gate tower, looking in the direction of the battlefield in the distance, his hand clasping the edge of the city wall. Just now his heart had suddenly raced for a few moments. He was not sure whether it was some kind of portent or not, but it made him feel a little perturbed.

“Brother Wang, I want to go to the battlefield,” said Ling Zhang.

Wang Dashan was taken aback. “Young Master, the battlefield is not only dangerous but also chaotic. There’s no telling what might happen there. If you get hurt, both the Marshal and your father will be very sad.”

Ling Zhang’s lips clamped tightly together. After a few instants’ silence, he said, “I suddenly feel somewhat disturbed. It concerns me. I have to go there and take a look. I’m okay with waiting at the front gates of the encampment outside the city first and not going onto the battlefield, but I can’t stay here any longer.”

“But Young Master!” Wang Dashan went anxious. “The Marshal said that you’re not to leave here. Also, your father is still in the city and he will definitely be very worried when he comes to know about your exiting the city.”

Ling Zhang said in a deep voice, “I know. I’ll keep myself safe. There’s no doubt that right now something is happening where Yuwen Tong is. I have to be there.”

He trusted his instincts. Considering the divine power contained in the Blood of the Phoenix Clan in him, maybe sometimes his hunches were prophetic. If he didn’t go there and something happened to Yuwen Tong, he would rue it to the end of his days.

“I’ve got to go right away. Please explain it to my father for me.”

After saying this, Ling Zhang spun around and made towards the staircase. When he had reached the city gates, he whistled and with that Snowflake the horse ran over from not far away. Ling Zhang mounted up and galloped towards the encampment outside the city.

All soldiers on guard duty at the city gates knew who he was and, naturally, none of them tried to stop him.

Seeing this, Wang Dashan and the others, without further ado, hastily got on their horses to follow Ling Zhang.

Ji Donglin, who was standing not far away, furrowed his brows at the sight of this scene, instructed a man to go back and inform Ling Zhaowu, then followed Ling Zhang out of the city with the other four men.

…

On the battleground.

Jiang Xi had failed to stop the group of soldiers and shot a signal flare. After seeing it, Yuwen Tong had had some of his men form up into a formation and on full alert.

But he wouldn’t have all his troops cluster around him just to help him defend against potential assassination. These invaders from the Wan Kingdom must die! Shan Congwen must die as well!

Gradually, the army of the Wan Kingdom were reduced to unorganized, dwindling groups of panic-stricken troops. Shan Congwen, guarded by some soldiers, kept backing away.

“Your Highness, we can’t continue fighting. Dong Gao still hasn’t broken out of the encirclement. Even if he breaks through, he wouldn’t have enough time to stop Yuwen Tong. For the sake of your safety, we have to retreat!” All officers around Shan Congwen were trying to convince him to give the order to retreat.

Shan Congwen was bitterly unreconciled to the situation, a murderous look on his face. Originally they could launch a surprise attack on this border city before the enemy knew it, and the Great Yue happened to be undergoing civil strife, which had seemed to be a godsend for them. As long as they managed to break into this border city of Youzhou, they might be able to advance straight south to the capital city! But unexpectedly, the border city of Youzhou had immediately reacted, shut the city gates, strengthened the defense and, against all odds, managed to stall them until Yuwen Tong’s arrival. Worse still, Yuwen Tong had got all his military powers back!

Why? The capital city of the Great Yue was clearly in turmoil. How come Yuwen Tong could spare the time?!

They had already advanced to the border city of Youzhou, but Yuwen Tong had inflicted several defeats on them consecutively, forcing them into backing away fifty miles, pushing this war between them and the Great Yue into a stalemate.

When that scout of the Luohai Kingdom had suddenly sent back a message, he had disbelieved it at first, but after they put out feelers several times, the scout’s responses had been beyond their expectations. In order to lure them into this trap, Yuwen Tong had actually gone to such great lengths as to play along with their plan! And then there was also that Shao Feng guy!

Shan Congwen was full of hate. He hated himself, because he had clearly been suspicious of it and fully aware of what kind of person Yuwen Tong was, but when Dong Gao had dared him to make his move, he had still failed to retain his senses and succumbed to the prospect of defeating Yuwen Tong immediately, which was why he carelessly fell victim to Yuwen Tong’s scheme and was reduced to retreating helter-skelter!

“Shan Congwen, why are you hiding among your solders like a coward? Are you scared of me? I always knew you were nothing but a wimp. Even if your big brother put you in command of all his troops, you wouldn’t be able to achieve anything big. Right now, faced with me, you must’ve wet your pants and are considering fleeing with your tail between your legs!”

Yuwen Tong’s loud, sarcastic comments were heard by the whole army of the Wan Kingdom. Shan Congwen, who was retreating under the protection of his troops, suddenly paused. Gripping the reins with all his might, he jerked his head around, his eyes flashing in the direction of Yuwen Tong galloping towards him, clenching his teeth so hard that his gums were bleeding. “YUWEN TONG!” he bellowed.

“Your Highness!” The one beside him went anxious. “Don’t fall for Yuwen Tong’s trick. We need to leave before it’s too late!”

If Shan Congwen still had his senses, he would know that what he should do at this point was flee as quick as possible, but he had lost his marbles. Those words of Yuwen Tong’s were like a knife through his heart. He was overwhelmed by rage and almost vomited blood.

“The Wan Kingdom is my defeated opponent. You should have stayed at home instead of coming here to bark like a dog. However, you not only barked but also fled with your tail between your legs. Are you not afraid you’ll become the laughing stock of the whole world if word gets out?!”

Yuwen Tong’s voice was heard again and with that Shan Congwen heavily turned his horse around, staring squarely at Yuwen Tong. The one beside him tried to stop him but wasn’t quick enough. He helplessly watched Shan Congwen turn around to face Yuwen Tong, as though intending to charge at him and fight to the death.

“YOUR HIGHNESS! NO!”

“GO, GO, GO! PROTECT HIS HIGHNESS!”

Shan Congwen stared at Yuwen Tong, the deepest hatred in his eyes. “Cut the shit, Yuwen Tong! Today I’ll fight you to the last breath! Listen to me, soldiers and officers of the Wan Kingdom! Yuwen Tong is the biggest foe of our country. Countless brothers of ours died at his hands. Today none of us is to retreat. Together, we’ll avenge the deaths of our brothers or die trying!”

The army of the Wan Kingdom were losing ground steadily and there weren’t many surviving solders left. All of them knew in their hearts that they had lost the fight, and the only thing they could think of right now was to save their skins. After hearing Shan Congwen’s words, they hesitated, neither continuing to retreat nor advancing.

Shan Congwen’s eyes coldly swept across the faces of those around him. “What are you waiting for? Are you not men of the Wan Kingdom but a bunch of cowards who don’t have the backbone to die for your country?!”

Maybe because these words produced the desired effect, the rest of the soldiers gathered behind their commander one after another.

“Advance! Kill all people of the Great Yue! Kill Yuwen Tong!” bellowed Shan Congwen.

“Your Highness!” said his henchman anxiously. “Your Highness, stop being stubborn and retreat immediately. I’ll take some men and hold them back. You and the others should re–”

The man abruptly broke off in the middle of a sentence, because Shan Congwen suddenly whipped out his saber and slit the man’s throat with a lateral slash. “Anyone who utters a single word about retreating dies where he stands!”

Everybody else’s insides went cold at the sight of this and nobody dared say anything. With a murderous look on his face, Shan Congwen raised his saber and bawled, “Everybody advance!”

In the distance, Yuwen Tong sneered, “Only cowards lag behind!”

All the surviving soldiers of the Wan Kingdom charged at the army of the Great Yue. Eyeing Shan Congwen frostily, Yuwen Tong said, “Shan Congwen is mine.”

“Marshal?!” The general beside Yuwen Tong was startled, but Yuwen Tong had already smacked his hands down onto his saddle and took a flying leap, swooshing towards Shan Congwen like a roc.

Shan Congwen was taken aback. “Shoot him! Hurry!”

Panic-stricken, the archers fired arrows at him repeatedly, but none of them hit the target. The arrows either missed him or were deflected by him.

“You do have some balls, Shan Congwen. I’ll give you that. And your reward for not being a wuss is for me to personally take your head on this day,” said Yuwen Tong, landing on the top of a Wan-Kingdom soldier’s head.

Shan Congwen’s face twisted in fury. “Yuwen Tong, I swear to God I’ll kill you today!”

After saying this, he raised his saber and galloped towards Yuwen Tong. Yuwen Tong leaped upwards, spinning, wielded his long knife and, with a gleam, ferociously gave a slash, generating a powerful blade of internal energy which instantaneously took the lives of several Wan-Kingdom soldiers, leaving a deep, wide crack in the ground. Shan Congwen failed to rein in his horse in time and the forelegs of his horse were caught in the crack, causing the horse to topple forward. Taken aback, Shan Congwen hastily jumped off his horse. He had some kung fu, but it couldn’t hold a candle to Yuwen Tong’s.

Yuwen Tong landed on the ground and slashed at Shan Congwen with his long knife. Shan Congwen hurriedly dodged it, pulling a saber out of a body beside him, and then adopted a fighting stance, holding a saber in each hand with the points facing backwards, staring fixedly at Yuwen Tong.

“Two sabers?” said Yuwen Tong flintily. “It surprises me that you have some acquaintance with saberplay, King Ming’en.”

Shan Congwen blustered through gritted teeth, “My saberplay is more than enough for me to take your life.”

No sooner had he finished speaking than he charged forward. Yuwen Tong’s face went grave and with that he also made his move, brandishing his long knife.

Troops of the two opposing sides, as though by some tacit agreement, stayed out of the fighting between their commander-in-chiefs, but fought tooth and nail against each other.

Clashes of sabers were heard constantly, each accompanied by a shower of sparks, which showed how intense the fighting between the two of them was. It turned out that Shan Congwen had been keeping his proficiency in kung fu a secret all along. His saberplay was pretty good, but what with his average internal energy, he was not at all a match for Yuwen Tong who had very powerful internal energy. There were several occasions when his sabers were almost sent flying from his hands by Yuwen Tong’s sword, and he was forced into backing away one step after another.

Yuwen Tong, who had no intention to spare Shan Congwen’s life, naturally was attacking without mercy. Shan Congwen knew that he would surely be dead if he didn’t go all out, so he was also attacking madly with gritted teeth.

But no matter how hard Shan Congwen tried, he still couldn’t get the better of Yuwen Tong. After they exchanged dozens of blows, the saber in his left hand was first broken and then sent flying. He had only one saber left and was showing signs of exhaustion that he couldn’t concealed, blood flowing from the corners of his mouth, which was a symptom of injured internal organs.

“Yuwen Tong, even if I die here today, some day my brother will avenge my death!” bellowed Shan Congwen.

Yuwen Tong looked at him flintily. “I’m not sure whether or not I’ll let him live long enough to do that!”

After saying this, he intensified his attack, forced his opponent into backing away several paces and snapped Shan Congwen’s other saber. Finally, Shan Congwen uncontrollably spat out a big mouthful of blood, his face ashen and lifeless, barely having enough strength to dodge Yuwen Tong’s blows.

“Yuwen Tong, one day troops of the Wan Kingdom will flatten every inch of the Great Yue and take everything!” yelled Shan Congwen in the knowledge that his death was certain, unreconciled to his defeat, spitting out another mouthful of blood. Then he failed to dodge Yuwen Tong’s long knife, which hit him hard on the back, a violent surge of internal energy rampaging from the flat of the long knife into his vital organs, shattering them. Shan Congwen was sent flying sideways before landing on the ground, unable to stand up again.

“Brother, brother…” Shan Congwen abruptly puked up another big mouthful of blood and placed his hands upon the ground to push himself on to his knees but to no avail. Drained of energy, he thudded to the ground. “You must avenge me…” he trailed off.

“Your Highness!” At the sight of Shan Congwen’s death, soldiers of the Wan Kingdom were devastatingly demoralized and soon clobbered.