Fortunately, this army is primarily composed of the original Yanmen defenders, the most elite corps of the Great Han that has fought alongside Huangfu Yongxian for many years, and now, despite the countless floods from three sides that make people tremble, it hasn't fallen into disarray and has quickly formed a formation.

Luckily, San Niang warned them early on; otherwise, if they had been charged at the last moment before realizing, it would've been disastrous.

"Huangfu Yongxian... You've been a cowardly tortoise inside Yanmen Pass for decades. Today, you can finally decide the victor openly on the battlefield. Isn't it exhilarating!"

Tie Muer's voice, exuding great confidence, easily spread over a hundred miles, revealing his current extraordinary cultivation at the pinnacle of the Imperial Realm's First Layer, clearly deserving the rank of first on the Heavenly List.

San Niang squinted her eyes, even feeling that this guy seemed to be on the verge of reaching the Second Layer... Strange, how could it happen so quickly? It shouldn't be possible; San Niang had personally experienced an earlier battle at Yanmen, where Tie Muer obviously hadn't broken through his defenses. If he had, it would've been after the dragon-slaying breakout everyone commonly experienced, yet this short time seemed to hint at a reach close to the Second Layer. Is there something suspicious here?

Huangfu Yongxian clearly wouldn't engage in this verbal spar with Tie Muer, silently commanding his troops. Without receiving a satisfying response, Tie Muer surprisingly targeted San Niang, still floating mid-air: "Xuanwu Venerable... The previous Divine aspects were just playing with you... Your true opponent is none other than me, Khan."

He paused as if mocking: "Actually, Xuanwu and Vermilion Bird Venerables are not entirely warriors, more akin to our Bo'e, half-warrior, half-priest. I most desire combat with your new Emperor Ye, Zhao Changhe. He is the true warrior, cleaving with swords and shooting arrows, unrivaled in bravery. Unfortunately, fate hasn't aligned, allowing only a brief encounter of Divine Sense, truly unfortunate... Forgive my bluntness, based on the previous combat between you and the Divine aspect, your strength likely falls short against me."

San Niang is indeed half a spellcaster, and throughout these words, she hasn't stopped the cavalry charge to gain time for her formation, because she's silently casting spells... but having heard it all, she paused, amused by his words: "Do you mean you respect my man, yet belittle me?"

Tie Muer laughed heartily: "The Venerable once sold wine at Yellow Sand Market, why not continue, the grassland heroes would gladly visit."

A murderous intent floated in San Niang's eyes, yet a charming smile lingered at her lips: "It seems Khan still doesn't understand one thing... We are at war, not mere dueling of warriors. In war, the value of spellcasters isn't something Khan can estimate; from our view, Bo'e is far more troublesome than you..."

Tie Muer chuckled: "I do not cast spells, but that doesn't mean I cannot break them, and moreover, you won't get the chance to manipulate your magic..."

As his tone shifted sharply, filled with killing intent: "The charging distance is near, closing in on our favored range, Venerable best not attempt to protect them. Die for me!"

"Boom!" A spear shadow thundered and arrived at San Niang's face in the blink of an eye.

San Niang's expression grew serious, withdrawing the Xuanwu Dharma Form that had been supporting and protecting the army below for several days, not daring to be distracted further. With a wave of her delicate hand, an arched ice mirror appeared before her; Tie Muer's battle spear jabbed at it, sliding off with the ice surface, failing to breach the Xuanwu Defense.

Yet even so, San Niang wobbled slightly; she defended it, but the power was truly no match for Tie Muer... What the hell has he been practicing during this time?

Tie Muer, spear in hand, brushed past San Niang, spinning back with another thrust, laughing: "Can the Venerable still cast spells?"

San Niang swung back with a whip, answering gracefully: "Yes."

Tie Muer's laughter was cut short in his throat.

Below, the cavalry charge accelerated swiftly; within a few exchanges of their words, they had sprinted from the distant horizon to a few miles from Huangfu Yongxian's frontline. Any closer and they could unleash arrows. Once in their favored rhythm, the battle would practically be over before it began.

However, within the cavalry formation of the Hu people's army, countless plump water creatures inexplicably emerged from underground, mostly pushing against the horses' bellies, instantly causing chaos.

The cavalry, in a rapid charge, couldn't withstand such disruption; rear warhorses tangled up with fallen ones ahead, causing a domino effect of toppling chaos.

The water creatures did not relent, even attempting to launch water arrow attacks.

"This area is still on the edge of the Northern Desert, how do you summon so much water for water creatures?" Tie Muer angrily swung his hand, countless Qi punches penetrating through like arrows, precisely landing on every water creature within miles, shattering them to pieces.

With just this distraction, his battle spear was entangled, and from behind, a surge of fist power engulfed him; unexpectedly, San Niang had somehow split and appeared behind, a sea-crushing Xuanwu Fist had already slammed onto Tie Muer's back: "Though Khan is brave, he doesn't know deep underground, there's water... a lot of it, more than you can imagine."

Tie Muer quickly erupted with Gang Qi, deflecting the heavy punch; both San Niangs fiercely attacked, the tide instantly turning.

Tie Muer could hardly worry about his own situation, his mind still scouting the battle below.

The scale of tens of thousands of troops is immense, even though San Niang had conjured a swarm of water creatures to disrupt the formation, it clearly couldn't cover the entire situation, with a considerable number of warhorses continuing their charge. Summoning such a large-scale water creature clearly required some preparation time, roughly during those few exchanged words, and now she certainly couldn't repeat it soon.

After all, as she said, the water was deep beneath, and she couldn't easily summon it.

Feeling reassured for a moment, her expression changed again.

Whether it was the flow of water caused by the water man's death, or San Niang's previous guidance already making the groundwater surge up, suddenly the ground's yellow sand was submerged by water, quickly turning the sandy ground into a swamp.

"Whoa!" Countless warhorses stepped on it and instantaneously sank into the mire. The charging momentum made them tumble over, with the Han army arranged in their formation, each soldier watched the boundless pressuring cavalry around them as they all staged a grand act of falling off their horses, feeling as if in a dream.

Everyone had seen San Niang use the method of soaking the sandy ground to interfere with Chi Li's sneak attack before, and Chi Li and his group had also experienced it. It merely made the road a bit soggy, making swift, elusive attacks less easy, but not impossible for horse riding. It turns out even this was deliberate misdirection, making the enemy believe that was its limit, without stronger measures, otherwise Chi Li's group wouldn't have made it back.

But unexpectedly, there was indeed something more vicious, capable of turning dozens of miles of sand into a swamp!

Is this even human?

Isn't this basically the power of a Heavenly God!

Great Han's National Religion, Four Symbols Sect High Priest Xuanwu... She said she was lazy, just a woman who wanted to sleep.

But in reality, she was the shared deity of tens of millions of people at sea, considering the position of Sea Emperor for half a year, more like a true deity than her family's new Emperor Ye.

"I'm very lazy, I focus on one effective move until it's perfected. I hope the Great Khan doesn't think I'm lying." San Niang smiled broadly: "Great Khan, you claim strength can break all magic, now your strength is great, why don't you break it?"

Tie Muer: "..."

Break what? Even if one could use intricately precise Gang Qi to completely vaporize the moisture here and restore the ground to its original state, this battlefield scenario of fallen soldiers and horses was already formed, how could it be reversed?

Huangfu Yongxian isn't just standing there idle!

"Whoosh whoosh whoosh!" Arrows like locusts fell like rain from within the Han army's formation, pouring into the chaotic ranks of the nomadic troops in front.

They had already entered the range of fire.

Listening to the cries of anguish from below, Tie Muer became both furious and anxious: "Dismount and fight on foot! We have the numbers, we can overwhelm them! Vulture Hunting Teeth, you go first!"

Pitifully, in the Imperial Realm facing the enemy in the air, he still had to personally command the battlefield. Bo'e didn't need this, and neither did Huangfu Qing, who had his brother.

Because here was an assembly of countless tribes' Alliance Army, besides Tie Muer himself, there was no one who could command uniformly.

Vulture Hunting Teeth braced himself and rallied his tribe, charging at the army formation amidst the rain of arrows.

On the ground which San Niang couldn't attend to, hoofbeats rose again. Chi Li, leading his harassment troops, came from the rear, assisting Vulture Hunting Teeth.

In the Han army formation, countless gleaming tips of long spears shone with a stern cold light under the blazing sun, making Chi Li unable to open his eyes.

In terms of numbers, Chi Li still had some confidence in this battle.

But a strongman's instinct told him this battle would be difficult... Their advantage had been dispersed by just that Yuan San Niang, and now even if they were to win, it was unknown how many lives it would cost.

Including himself.

In a narrow path meeting, the brave wins. Without the heart to disregard life and death, this battle cannot be won.

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