Chapter Forty-Two: The Fighting Spirit That Never Yields

Faced with the nine spears lunging at him, each one brimming with a frightening thirst for battle and murder, Lazan was not afraid, but he still dared not be careless. With a Buddhist chant, he swept out the staff in his hand. A golden lotus collided head-on with the spears.

Those nine spears were standard-issue third-rank magical artifacts, already among the best equipment the garrison possessed, but how could they compare to the life-bound artifact in Lazan’s hand? With nine thunderous cracks, the spears shattered piece by piece.

Seeing their weapons ruined, the nine men immediately summoned their own treasures and pressed the attack. Lazan, however, was in no hurry. A cat catching mice always had to play with its prey slowly to enjoy himself. He casually withdrew his staff, and behind him the phantom of a Vajra Arhat appeared, wielding two steel scourges as it lashed out in all directions.

Lazan himself was even more formidable. With his palms pressed together, any treasure that reached him was seized with a single grab. The highest grade among those treasures was only seventh rank; how could they withstand such a grip from him? They were instantly crushed and destroyed.

“Hahaha! I’ll give you a chance. Kneel now and give this Buddha ten loud kowtows, and I’ll spare your lives.”

Smiling, Lazan looked every bit the enlightened monk, gentle and benevolent, especially with the Vajra Arhat phantom behind him. Had he been facing ordinary men, he might truly have inspired awe.

Unfortunately for him, his opponents were no ordinary soldiers.

They were a band of fearless Qin warriors from the land of China.

The nine exchanged glances and smiled. Suddenly, one of them opened his mouth and spat a streak of white light straight at Lazan, shouting, “Watch out, a hidden weapon!”

Still smiling, Lazan casually caught the white streak in his hand. But the moment it touched his palm, his expression darkened at once. What hidden weapon? It was nothing but a thick gob of spit.

“You’re courting death.”

With a cold bark, Lazan unleashed his full pressure without reservation. In an instant, the nine Qin soldiers could hardly breathe.

“Bow before this Buddha.”

A flash of sharp light passed through Lazan’s eyes, and the crushing force of a mountain slammed down onto the shoulders of the nine men. Yet they still stood upright and shouted, “Mighty old Qin, live and die together!”

They leaned against one another for support, and their fierce will to fight actually pushed back against Lazan’s oppressive aura.

“Who says there is no armor? I share my cloak with you. When the king raises his army, I mend my spear and halberd.”

Though Lazan’s pressure had crushed them to the point that they could not even move a finger, their eyes still burned with unyielding battle intent, and their mouths still sang a song of defiance. Seeing this, Lazan was both shocked and enraged.

He flicked a finger, and a streak of golden radiance pierced straight through the cheeks of the nine men. The searing pain should have silenced them completely, but their eyes still glared at him with fury. For an instant, Lazan could not help feeling that the song had not stopped at all. If anything, it seemed to have grown even deeper and more powerful.

“Who says there is no armor? I share my garments with you. When the king raises his army, I ready my armor and weapons, and stand with you against the same foe.”

Lazan’s face turned pale.

It was no longer nine voices singing. It sounded like thousands, like tens of thousands.

Stunned, he took a step back.

That battle intent was terrifying. It was like the rocks on a shore: no matter how great the waves, they could never force it to retreat even an inch. Even if he cut out their tongues and pierced their cheeks, he still could not make the song of battle cease in their hearts. And now, he himself had been forced back by a single step.

That one step was no small matter. It was as if a knife had been driven straight into Lazan’s heart.

At that moment, he suddenly remembered something Emperor Ashoka had once said while inspecting the frontier not long ago:

“To describe the Chinese border garrison as steel is an insult to them. They are not steel. They are mountains as lofty as Everest.”

A force that could not be moved.

At first Lazan had found those words amusing, but now he felt ashamed of his own blindness. The bones of the nine men before him were already being crushed by his pressure, yet they still refused to submit. If they would not yield, then he would destroy them.

With that thought, only a cold, ruthless gleam remained in Lazan’s eyes. He raised the staff in his hand and was about to obliterate the nine men where they stood. As a monk-rank cultivator, one full-force strike from him was enough to completely erase an expert at the late Core Formation stage.

But just then, a fierce tremor of space erupted behind him.

Lazan turned. A one-meter-long spatial裂缝 was silently tearing open in the air, and from within it stepped a figure.

An ordinary face, carrying a casual air, dressed in armor much like that of the nine old Qin soldiers—but it made Lazan’s eyes nearly pop out of their sockets.

He pointed at the newcomer in horror. “Impossible! Only cultivators at the Tribulation Crossing stage can tear space. How can you do that?”

The man was none other than Zhang Xiao, the one who had escorted Lazan in his flight.

Seeing the astonishment in Lazan’s eyes, Zhang Xiao gave a faint smile. But before he could speak, his expression turned instantly ice-cold. The nine old Qin soldiers who had come with him were standing there, yet blood kept pouring from their mouths and faces, and their eyes were still filled with unbending battle intent.

With a sweep of his divine sense, Zhang Xiao’s anger surged even higher. The nine men may still have been standing, but their bones and meridians were already shattered beyond measure. The only reason they remained upright was the force of that indomitable fighting spirit in their hearts.

At that, how could Zhang Xiao not understand what had happened?

He fixed Lazan with a pair of eyes so cold that his killing intent felt like a blade sliding over Lazan’s skin, ready to pierce his heart at any moment.

Lazan could not bear it. Golden light burst from behind him as the phantom of the Vajra Arhat reappeared, twin scourges in hand, shielding him. At the same time, he thrust out his staff toward Zhang Xiao.

“Hmph. Worms like you.”

As fate would have it, the tables had turned. Only moments ago Lazan had spoken those very words to the nine old Qin soldiers, but now Zhang Xiao hurled them back at him.

Zhang Xiao did not move, yet a burst of Buddhist radiance suddenly erupted between his brows. His avatar shot out from the center of his forehead, and the air around them seemed to freeze solid.

“Amitabha!”

The avatar uttered the Buddha’s name, and at once countless Arhat phantoms appeared all around, while blossoms of golden light fell from the sky. But each one landed on Lazan like a thousand-pound hammer.

A Buddhist kingdom.

Looking at the scene before him, Lazan felt a wave of helplessness rise in his heart. Zhang Xiao had clearly only just advanced to the Monk Realm. How could he already have cultivated such a domain-like phenomenon?

“No, impossible! Even my own master never managed to cultivate a protective phenomenon like this Buddhist kingdom. How could this be?”

Lazan could no longer endure the shock and began to spiral into near-madness. His mind had once been as steady as iron, but after witnessing the unyielding battle intent of the nine old Qin soldiers, it was as if a knife had been driven through his spirit. Now Zhang Xiao’s Buddhist kingdom avatar was like a heavy hammer smashing the last remnants of his resolve to pieces.

The avatar sat within the Buddhist kingdom like a living Buddha, surrounded by divine beings and Arhats. Wherever the golden radiance spread, there was only peace and serenity.

Then the avatar opened its eyes, revealing a pair of pale golden pupils that looked directly at Lazan. Instantly, a vast spiritual pressure descended upon him, just as he had once done to the nine old Qin soldiers.

But Lazan’s mind had already scattered. Under that pressure, he fell at once to his knees before Zhang Xiao, with no strength left to resist.

Looking at the vacant stare in Lazan’s eyes, Zhang Xiao let out a long sigh.

In truth, with Lazan’s strength, he might not have been able to stand against Zhang Xiao head-on, but he certainly would not have been defeated so easily. If he had risked everything and fled, Zhang Xiao might not even have been able to keep him here.

It was a pity that Lazan should never, ever have oppressed those old Qin soldiers.

“Mighty old Qin, live and die together” was not an empty slogan.

The reason the Qin Dynasty had united the six kingdoms and ushered in the age of the emperor was precisely because of that kind of spirit. Only under such a spirit could a battle song like this be forged—one so bold and fiery that it set the blood ablaze.

Zhang Xiao stepped forward and brought his palm down upon the crown of Lazan’s head. Then he withdrew his avatar and walked up to the nine old Qin soldiers.

Their cheeks had been pierced; many of the bones in their bodies had been crushed. Yet they still stood there like nine statues, unyielding.

But once they saw that their enemy had been slain by Zhang Xiao, the breath that had been holding them upright finally loosened.

Without that breath to sustain them, the nine men began to sway and nearly collapse. Just as they were about to fall, Zhang Xiao immediately sent out a stream of spiritual energy to support them.

Looking at the nine men before him, Zhang Xiao bowed deeply.

This bow was for his country. Only soldiers like them could hold fast to their posts in the bitterly cold and desolate lands of Blood Ridge. Only soldiers like them could truly keep foreign invaders from ever setting foot on their soil.

Then Zhang Xiao straightened and bowed again.

This bow was for himself. To be able to fight shoulder to shoulder with such soldiers—this was a blessing earned across several lifetimes.

Anyone could speak of dying rather than submitting. But how many could truly do it?

These nine men had answered that question with their lives.

Lifting them up with a cushion of spiritual energy, Zhang Xiao used divine stride and strode toward the exit ahead.

By then, so much time had passed—why was he still not out?

Wang Ben sat inside a hastily erected military tent, staring fixedly at the ancient cavern ahead, hoping that the next moment would reveal the figures of Zhang Xiao and the others.

The Peacock Buddhist army opposite him had already withdrawn in retreat. It seemed they must have suffered a complete defeat. But what about Zhang Xiao and the rest? Why had none of them returned? Even if they had failed, they should have resurrected by now, should they not?

As Wang Ben was lost in such thoughts, a figure emerged striding from the ancient cave.

Seeing this, Wang Ben rubbed his eyes and looked closely.

It was indeed Zhang Xiao and the others he had been thinking of day and night.

Unable to contain his joy, Wang Ben stood at once and shouted, “Follow me to meet them!”

Without waiting for the others to prepare, he seized his mount and rushed toward Zhang Xiao and the rest at full speed.