Chapter 159: The Overlord Does Not Speak of Valor, the Youth Claims the Crown (Part 2)

Mu Changfeng, Wu Xian, and Wu Xie, with solemn expressions, also spurred their horses into the parade ground. They reined in their mounts in a corner to the left below the commanding platform, gazing intently as Kong Sheng slowly rode toward the more than one hundred elite guards under Li Chuan's command.

On the wall at the northwest corner of the parade ground, a cloud of red drifted up. Unnoticed by anyone, a young woman dressed in fiery red with double-coiled buns, lightly brushed moth-eyebrows, and a graceful bearing, outfitted in martial attire and carrying an engraved long bow on her back, stood there with a complex expression, gazing inward from afar.

Kong Sheng pressed his heels against the flanks of the Wind-Chaser horse, and the steed let out a long, clear neigh that echoed for a long time across the empty parade ground. Kong Sheng rode forward at a gallop. At this moment, Li Chuan raised his command banner high again and waved it. His hundred-odd guards, through long-term training and coordination, advanced and retreated with precision. Following the command, they immediately shifted formations, transforming from a single-file dragon-snake formation into a soaring dragon encircling formation.

The more than one hundred murderous guards raised their Mo-swords high. Their movements were uniform, the blades standing like rain and reflecting a cold, sharp gleam in the sunlight. Suddenly, they burst forth with a deep breath and shouted in unison, "Kill!"

Kong Sheng sat upright in the saddle, holding his halberd horizontally across the horse, his expression stern. At this moment, his feelings were actually extremely complex. From the bottom of his heart, he was someone who lived by his brainpower, intelligence, and political maneuvering. Yet now, he was repeatedly forced into the arena of real steel and bloodshed. This sharp contrast made him feel somewhat bizarre and absurd.

However, reality is far more absurd than imagination, just as reality is often more wildly indulgent than novels.

Kong Sheng knew that he found himself in an era of frequent turbulence, blazing fires of war, and a worship of martial might. To remain aloof, holding a feather fan and silken turban, watching the enemy masts turn to ash with a wave of one's hand, was neither realistic nor possible. Since fate had repeatedly pushed him to the forefront of the storm, he had nowhere left to retreat.

Since there was no way out, then let there be battle!

The wild, fierce, and indomitable grit deeply hidden in the bones of Kong Sheng's "predecessor" surged through his entire body at critical moments, directly driving his blood to boil.

Kong Sheng's calm expression gradually turned cold. He pointed his halberd forward, fiercely dug his heels into the horse's flanks, and roared, "Listen up, those who block me die!"

"Kill!" Li Chuan's hundred-odd guards instantly shifted formations, splitting into four paths, shouting as they advanced step by step. The tips of their Mo-swords pointed outward, gradually closing in with a neat and powerful formation.

On the commanding platform, Li Chuan sneered. His guard troop had been specially taught battle formations by an expert and had drilled through thousands of encirclements and coordinations. A single individual fighting alone might not possess formidable combat power, but when acting as one with shared resolve, their strength could snap metal. Deploying in formation to meet Kong Sheng's solitary rider and single horse, they could advance or retreat, attack or defend.

"Courting death!" A trace of disdainful a smile brushed across the corners of Li Chuan's mouth. Although his troop of a hundred guards was making its official debut, he had tested the power of the encircling formation many times before. Not to mention Kong Sheng with just one man and one horse, even a troop of the same size relying purely on a frontal charge would find it extremely difficult to break through his formation.

Using the strength of a single man to boldly challenge a Mo-sword formation composed of over a hundred men was simply a mayfly shaking a tree—utterly overestimating one's own capabilities!

Not only did Li Chuan think this, but Prince Guo Li Ju and the officials and generals belonging to the Jiangbei region also sighed inwardly. No matter how they looked at it, Kong Sheng charging single-handedly into the iron-flood-like Mo-sword formation would instantly be swallowed up! Had Li Chuan not sworn beforehand to spare Kong Sheng's life, Li Ju would have been tempted to order the termination of this utterly suspense-free duel.

Li Xuan's hair was like dark clouds, her long brows gracefully curved, and her gaze deep and solemn. Her slender hands, hidden within her long sleeves, were tightly clasped together. Despite her calm exterior and steadfast posture like the wind, her back was actually soaked with cold sweat from tension.

Mu Changfeng sighed softly, turning his head away with a trace of reluctance. Of course he knew Kong Sheng possessed divine strength and had witnessed his formidable bravery in fighting river pirates and mountain bandits. But after all, mountain bandits and river pirates were a mob of ragtag outlaws; how could they compare to a well-trained regular army armed with sharp Mo-swords?

Wu Xian and Wu Xie gritted their teeth, tightly gripping their reins as they prepared themselves in every possible way to charge forward and rescue Kong Sheng. The two of them could not understand why Kong Sheng had agreed to such an overwhelmingly lopsided duel of wagers. Was he crazy or stupid?!

"Hah! Hah!" The Mo-sword formation of guards, bristling with blades, advanced like a thunderclap. Kong Sheng charged forward on horseback. Just a few seconds before direct confrontation with the Mo-sword formation, Kong Sheng suddenly yanked the reins. The white horse Wind-Chaser let out a long neigh, planted its hooves, and kicked up a cloud of dust, then violently whipped its head around, the horse's entire body carrying Kong Sheng as it lunged obliquely toward the front flank.

Li Chuan's guard Mo-sword formation was semi-circular, composed of four paths of swordsmen—two paths on the left and two paths on the right. The spot where Kong Sheng abruptly altered his direction and charged was precisely the vulnerable joint where the two left paths of swordsmen dispersed, and this exact joint was the weakest point of the Mo-sword formation. Kong Sheng, upon his white horse in white armor, resembled a flash of white lightning as he galloped past. At the exact instant of contacting the swordsmen, Kong Sheng let out a wild laugh, swinging his heavy halberd to strike the shoulder of a Mo-sword wielder, then suddenly pulling it back to sweep horizontally. In the flash of a spark, he knocked down another swordsman. Blood splattered everywhere, and shrill cries erupted abruptly.

The halberd in his hand was inherently heavy, and driven by his unimaginable strength, he slashed left and right. Anyone touched was bound to either die or be injured. Fortunately, Kong Sheng knew this was not a life-or-death battlefield against foreign invaders, so he exercised a degree of restraint and showed mercy, avoiding lethal strikes. Otherwise, it would have been catastrophic; had he swung with wild abandon regardless of consequences, a single sweep would have cleared a wide swath.

In the blink of an eye, Kong Sheng injured two Mo-sword wielders, and Wind-Chaser's momentum did not abate, surging right through the gap between the two paths of swordsmen!

Li Chuan's expression changed abruptly. He roared angrily, waving his command banner once more to direct a formation change. The four encircling paths of swordsmen instantly converged into two paths, running side by side in hot pursuit.

Kong Sheng galloped away while the two Mo-sword units chased closely behind. The battle cries and the clashing of Mo-swords sounded like thunder, but no matter how fast infantrymen ran, how could they possibly catch up to a divine steed like Wind-Chaser?

Li Chuan spat on the commanding platform, shouting, "Fleeing from battle, a coward indeed!"

Seeing Kong Sheng skillfully charge through the middle of the two paths of swordsmen and turn danger into safety, Li Xuan breathed a quiet sigh of relief, offering a light, sneering mockery: "A battle of over a hundred men against one, and yet they expect him to stand in place on horseback and let them hack him to pieces? People can be shameless, but not to this extent!"

Li Chuan snorted, "If he hadn't boasted wildly that he could fight a hundred men alone and claimed to be the reincarnation of the Overlord Xiang Yu, how could I have arranged a duel against him?"

Li Xuan curled her lip in disdain, too proud to continue any verbal sparring with him, and turned her gaze back to the dust-filled parade ground.

On the distant wall, the woman in red was smiling cheerfully as she actually sat down. Perched atop the wall with her legs crossed, she watched the commotion with complete poise.

She thought to herself, I worried about this fellow for nothing. As this lady said, he is as cunning as a fox; how could he be so foolish as to confront a hundred-man Mo-sword formation head-on with just his bare strength? A so-called duel doesn't necessarily require a frontal collision. As long as these hundred-odd men couldn't trap him, he was already in an unbeatable position.