Chapter 63: Xiao Yan’s Arrow, the Perilous Yunshan

“Marshal, something’s wrong! The Jia Ma Empire suddenly has a surge of powerful warriors. They seem to have found our soldiers’ weaknesses. If things continue like this, we won’t last much longer.”
At that moment, someone else hurried to Sun Ming and Yan Xiao, reporting the current state of the battle.

Sun Ming’s face changed instantly upon hearing the news. Yan Xiao, on the other hand, seemed as composed as ever, as though everything was unfolding exactly as he had foreseen.

“What should we do now?” Sun Ming looked to Yan Xiao. In this situation, only Yan Xiao could provide a solution.

“Why panic? It’s not as if this is the end.”
“Besides, didn’t I warn you from the very start? Once a Dou Sovereign-level expert makes a move, our soldiers can’t hold out for long!”
“Relax. Everything is firmly within my grasp,” Yan Xiao said with confidence.

The reason he intervened so decisively when Jia Xingtian first made his move was precisely because once a Dou Sovereign joined the fray, the truth would be exposed. Now, with the experts of the Cloud Mist Sect lending their strength, they had quickly found a way to counter the tide. Moreover, they had the enigmatic Lin An with them. If he couldn’t even resolve a situation like this, how could he be qualified to stand as Xiao Yan’s rival?

“The real show is just beginning. Tell me—if Yun Shan were to die by my arrow, what kind of expression do you think the people of the Jia Ma Empire and the Cloud Mist Sect would wear?”

Yan Xiao stood up. The time was ripe; at last, it was his turn to act.

“So that’s how it is. I lost my composure for a moment. Since you still have something up your sleeve, Brother Yan Xiao, I have nothing to worry about,” Sun Ming said with a laugh.

Yan Xiao nodded, then gestured for Sun Ming to proceed. He followed closely behind. This had all been planned from the very start. To outsiders, Yan Xiao was Sun Ming’s trusted aide; only Sun Ming himself knew that he was merely a pawn—everything was at Yan Xiao’s command.

Very soon, Sun Ming and Yan Xiao arrived at the front lines where the two armies clashed.

At this moment, the Dou Sovereign-level experts of the Chu Yun Empire had also entered the battlefield, locking in fierce combat with the Dou Sovereigns of the Jia Ma Empire. Their strengths were nearly equal, making it impossible to determine a victor in the short term. Meanwhile, Yao Chen and the Purple-Gold Winged Lion King had yet to make a move, remaining in reserve to protect Nalan Yanran and the others. The true turning point, the force that could crush all opposition and resolve this conflict, would be determined by Yun Shan.

Thus far, the Chu Yun Empire had not deployed the Dou Ancestor-level expert that Jia Xingtian had warned them about. Yun Shan looked down at the dense ranks of Chu Yun soldiers below, feeling a tinge of boredom. Each strike of his palm reduced countless Chu Yun soldiers to dust—their lives extinguished in a breath. With him present, the outcome of this battle was all but decided.

On the Jia Ma side, the sudden appearance of so many powerful allies instantly boosted morale, sweeping away the gloom of recent defeats. Especially upon witnessing Yun Shan himself take action, the crowd was stirred with excitement. Indeed, a Dou Ancestor alone could stand against thousands; the warriors they had thought indestructible now fell like paper under his hand—each blow claimed untold lives.

“For the sake of our fallen comrades, avenge them! Kill all those of Chu Yun!”
With a general’s furious roar, the soldiers of the Jia Ma Empire responded with thunderous shouts, charging fearlessly toward their enemies.

Jia Xingtian watched the situation with satisfaction. Ever since Yun Shan and the others had joined, everything had turned around. He hoped that this surge of morale would allow them to rout the Chu Yun Empire in one push, driving the invaders from Jia Ma’s borders. Yet, despite this, a sense of unease gnawed at him. The mysterious expert who had confronted him earlier had yet to appear, which was not what he had expected.

Logically, this shouldn’t be happening. When he first acted, that expert intervened immediately. Now, with so many soldiers dying at Yun Shan’s hand, he was nowhere to be seen.

...

“The greater the hope, the deeper the disappointment. I look forward to seeing the expressions on your faces when, just as victory seems within reach, your beacon of hope—Yun Shan—is felled by a single arrow from me,” Yan Xiao mused, his heart unmoved by the surging morale of the Jia Ma troops. In fact, he found it rather amusing.

“If you don’t act soon, our men will be all but wiped out!” Sun Ming said grimly.

“Don’t worry. The time has come. Now is the moment of Yun Shan’s death.”

Yan Xiao looked toward the distant sky where Yun Shan hovered, as though some great reward were beckoning him. Then, a longbow of dark gold and an arrow appeared in his hands as if from thin air. This was the weapon the system had granted him, meant for slaying Yun Shan.

According to the system, as long as this arrow was fired, even if Yun Shan was a Nine-Star Dou Ancestor, he would fall without resistance. Yan Xiao had thought it a waste to use such a precious weapon on Yun Shan, hoping to save it for a more fearsome foe in the future. But the system told him the arrow worked only on Yun Shan—he had no other choice.

From the moment Yun Shan stepped onto the battlefield, an inexplicable sense of dread had haunted him—a feeling he knew well, as though some unfathomably stronger being had fixed its gaze upon him. What puzzled him was that, as a Two-Star Dou Ancestor, he had never heard of any such expert in the Chu Yun Empire. Besides, if he ever truly faced danger he couldn’t withstand, he could always retreat into the Halls of Yama. It should have been impossible for anyone to kill him.

Yet, even as the thought faded, Yun Shan was suddenly gripped by a sense of mortal peril. Every hair on his body stood on end—a sensation he hadn’t felt in a very long time.

“Look—what’s that?” Nalan Yanran cried out in alarm.

High above, a dark golden arrow split the sky, radiating a terrifying energy. It seemed as though it could pierce the very heavens, the space around it warping under the force of its passage. Its target was clear—it was aimed directly at Yun Shan.

Lin An’s expression turned grave as he fixed his gaze on the arrow. He could not see through its power. Most unsettling of all, Yun Shan appeared utterly powerless to resist, hovering motionless in midair as if awaiting death.