Not long ago, when the Heavenly God of Longevity retracted his divided soul, San Niang and Huangfu Yongxian were already facing the toughest battle.

In the past few days on the march, they initially suffered from Chi Li's elusive attacks using the sandstorms as cover. Cui Yuanyong, Situ Xiao, and others led patrols to maintain the stability of the march, and Chi Li's several assaults ended in failure.

Chi Li had never seen Situ Xiao before. This man ranked slightly lower than Cui Yuanyong and was reputed to be a drunkard, which was seen as a major taboo for marching vigilance. Originally thinking he would be easier to deal with, Chi Li tried to attack from that direction a few times but decided he'd rather face Cui Yuanyong than see Situ Xiao's stubbly face again.

What does it mean to be like an iron lock across the river or an impenetrable wall?

Zhao Changhe's ability to engage with the Heavenly God of Longevity for so long had a lot to do with Situ Xiao's teacher Li Shentong's defensive skills, which perfectly aligned with Zhao Changhe's strategy. The same tactic applied to mortal battles was like a mouse pulling a tortoise—it got nowhere. Just Situ Xiao alone dared to block an entire army; blades, spears, swords, and halberds left no marks on him.

Totally cheating.

Luckily, whether the harassment succeeded or not wasn't really important.

As observed in the past few days, as Huangfu Yongxian predicted, the area protected by the Xuanwu Dharma Image turned muddy like a marsh due to the prolonged wet conditions, making it difficult for Chi Li to gallop his horse through the mire. So, even the harassment ceased in the following days, which was of no consequence.

Because the harassment was merely to create an illusion, misleading the newly appointed commander Huangfu Qing and the war novice Zhao Changhe into thinking that these tactics were meant to delay the advance of their forces, implying no main force on this side; coupled with the previous clash of Divine Souls between Tie Muer and Zhao Changhe, it made them truly believe that Tie Muer led the main Hu force there.

In reality, the Heavenly God of Longevity stirred up vast sandstorms in the Great Desert not to cover Chi Li's harassment forces but to conceal the movements and deployment of Tie Muer's army.

Under the cover of the invisible sandstorm, Tie Muer had long set up a Heavenly Net, waiting for the main forces of Huangfu Yongxian to arrive.

This was the true decisive battle in the world's history that would most determine the rise and fall of Hu and Han fortunes. The forces engaged and the involvement of various tribes in the grasslands were far beyond comparison to Zhao Changhe's forces.

It was quite like the division of labor of Wei and Huo... But earlier, it seemed the Han army misjudged the location of the main forces, with almost all Imperial Realm forces on the eastern front, leaving only a Xuanwu here.

"Whoosh!" The enchanting Xuanwu Snake Whip behind heavily entwined, firmly trapping the fragmented soul of the Heavenly God of Longevity, while another poised Xuanwu stood in front, delivering a mountain-like punch into the abdomen of the divine soul.

All these days, one couldn't tell if this divine soul was entangling her or if San Niang deliberately used this Imperial Realm Second Layer soul to hone herself. Otherwise, there was no need for this prolonged fight. Feeling she had gained enough from using one soul in two ways, San Niang saw no further novelty in entangling and at last decided to act decisively.

As the iron fist struck, that divided soul vanished, not even bothering to cause her any trouble at the end. San Niang withdrew her fist, and the two souls took a few steps toward each other, merging into one with a ripple of water-like resonance.

San Niang turned her head to look at the place where the Heavenly God of Longevity's divine soul disappeared, pondering slightly. It seemed the soul wasn't driven away by her but left after feeling pressure from the east, unwilling to continue the pretense.

But since it would leave, it probably indicated that Tie Muer's layout was complete.

During the time spent entangled with this divine soul, she had no leisure to release her Divine Sense to probe the surrounding thousand miles. In this endless sandstorm outside, who knew what scenes lay far away? Even though Huangfu Yongxian was always on the lookout, his mere Second Layer Secret Treasure power likely couldn't see too far.

San Niang gave Huangfu Yongxian a quick report and saw the endless sandstorm, now unattended with the departure of the divine soul, and suddenly launched another punch.

The kind of punch wind that could block a tsunami naturally could also blow away the sandstorm.

As the sandstorm began to recede, before it fully retreated, Huangfu Yongxian suddenly raised his spear to the sky and shouted, "All troops halt! The vanguard positions shields, spears form ranks behind, and the three armies return to their formations!"

The orderlies quickly delivered orders to the three armies, and the well-trained soldiers swiftly began to arrange their formations. During this process, some sharp soldiers had already sensed the distant, subtle tremors of the earth, as if an earthquake were spreading this way.

"This is... a cavalry attack! Many... coming from all directions!"

With the scouts' voices rising from listening to the ground, the sandstorm finally dispersed.

Looking into the distance, a faint black line emerged on the horizon, then from all around, covering the sky and earth like an endless wave, rushing toward their position.

Countless grassland cavalry!

The dust stirred by the hoofbeats rivaled the previous sandstorm, making the sky seem obscure and day indistinguishable.

This was the true main force of Han King Tie Muer, leading all tribe elements personally, just away in this Northern Desert battle. Except for the rear having no troops, on the other three sides was an endless torrent, closing in within a blink.

The so-called vacant rear was merely a surround three sides and leave one open tactic to sap the Han army's will, wanting them to flee of their own accord. This Han force was primarily infantry with only a small number of cavalry for strategic purposes; once they started to rout, they couldn't possibly escape the pursuit of hundreds of thousands of Iron Cavalry, certain doom!

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