Volume 1, Chapter 52: Arrival in Ten Breaths

Three hundred Northern Barbarian scout cavalry, like a torrent of black, arrived in the blink of an eye.

A fierce wind mixed with the stench of horse urine, body odor, and blood rushed head-on, almost knocking one off balance.

At that moment, Su Qingxue’s breathing completely stagnated.

She gripped the reins so tightly that her knuckles turned white, and her delicate body trembled uncontrollably.

It’s over.

This was the only thought in her mind.

However, Ye Xuan beside her still stood in the center of that mountain of corpses and sea of blood, as if the ground beneath his feet was not soaked in fresh blood, but his own courtyard.

He didn't even glance back at her.

"Don't be afraid."

Ye Xuan’s voice came, calm without the slightest ripple, yet like an anchor, miraculously smoothing away the deepest layer of fear in Su Qingxue’s heart.

Subconsciously, she moved a few steps closer to Ye Xuan, as if only the square inch of space around him was a safe haven.

"What... what should we do?"

Her voice carried a tremor and a sense of dependency she hadn't even noticed.

Ye Xuan did not answer, but in his mind, he issued a command to the newly acquired military tally.

"Summon, the Great Snow Dragon Cavalry."

[Ding! Military tally activated!]

[Ten thousand Great Snow Dragon Cavalry are crossing space and arriving at extreme speed!]

[Estimated arrival time: within ten breaths!]

Ten breaths.

The corner of Ye Xuan’s mouth curled into a cold arc.

That is enough.

"Whoa—"

A harsh pulling of reins rang out, and more than three hundred Northern Barbarian scouts had already surrounded the two of them and their horse, forming an airtight encirclement.

The grassland horses they rode kept snorting, their hooves restlessly pawing the ground, while pairs of greedy and cruel gazes scanned the two of them unceremoniously.

A Northern Barbarian man with a full face of flesh and a centipede-like scar on his left cheek spurred his horse forward.

He was clearly the leader of these scout cavalry.

His gaze first landed on Ye Xuan, revealing a trace of contempt, and then turned to Su Qingxue, his eyes instantly bursting with undisguised lust and greed.

"Tsk tsk tsk, I didn't expect to run into such a tender Central Plains woman in a ghost place like this!"

The scarred leader stuck out his tongue, licked his chapped lips, and let out a sickening, weird laugh.

"Hahahaha, boss, this little woman is much more high-class than the ones we snatched from the village!"

"Look at that figure, that skin, she's exciting!"

The surrounding Northern Barbarian scouts also burst into a burst of uproarious laughter, their foul language endless. The way they looked at Su Qingxue was like a pack of starving wolves eyeing a lamb that had fallen into a trap.

Su Qingxue’s face turned pale, and she instinctively gripped the short sword at her waist, her eyes filled with humiliation and anger.

The scarred leader’s gaze returned to Ye Xuan, pointing at him with his riding crop, his tone full of banter.

"Kid, are you going to get lost yourself, or should I help you get lost?"

"Leave this woman and the horse, and I might consider leaving your corpse intact."

Facing more than three hundred flashing curved sabers, facing this group of ruthless wolves in human skin.

Ye Xuan finally made a move.

He slowly raised his head. In those deep eyes, there was no fear, no anger, only a spine-chilling indifference.

As if he were looking at a group of... dead people.

"I’ll give you a chance."

His voice was not loud, yet it clearly reached everyone's ears.

"Get lost now, and you live."

"Otherwise, you won't have the chance."

For a moment, the air fell into a dead silence.

Immediately followed by even more rampant, explosive laughter.

"Hahahahaha! What did I just hear?"

The scarred leader laughed so hard he leaned back and forth, tears almost welling up in his eyes.

"He told us to get lost? Told us to get lost, or we won't have the chance?"

"Kid, are you out of your damn mind from fright? Look at how many of us there are, and look at yourself!"

"Go ahead, show me what skills you have that can make us miss our chance!"

More than three hundred Northern Barbarian scouts rocked with laughter, as if they had heard the funniest joke in the world.

In their eyes, this thin Central Plains boy was nothing more than a pathetic wretch putting on a tough front at death's door.

Su Qingxue’s heart, too, sank completely to the bottom.

She didn't understand why Ye Xuan had to say such words to provoke them.

However, the expression on Ye Xuan’s face still did not change in the slightest.

It was an absolute, transcendent calm that towered over everything.

He didn't even bother to give the scarred leader a second glance, merely raising the corner of his mouth slightly and slowly extending a single finger.

"Ten."

He began to count down.

His voice was quiet, yet it carried a bizarre rhythm that beat against everyone's heart.

The scarred leader’s laughter hitched, his brow furrowing slightly as he looked somewhat puzzled at this pretentious kid.

"Nine."

Ye Xuan’s voice remained steady.

"Putting on a mystery!"

The scarred leader snorted coldly, the intent to kill in his eyes growing even more intense.

"I'd like to see what kind of trick you can pull when you count to one!"

"Eight."

"Seven."

Su Qingxue nervously clenched the corner of her clothes, her palms full of cold sweat. Her gaze fixed tightly on Ye Xuan’s profile, an absurd sense of expectation rising in her heart.

Could it be... that he truly has a trump card?

"Six."

"Five."

"Four."

The laughter of the Northern Barbarian scouts gradually ceased.

Although they did not believe this boy before them could stir up any waves, Ye Xuan’s overly calm posture and this bizarre countdown added an indescribable chill to this bloody battlefield.

"Three."

The instant this number slipped from Ye Xuan’s lips.

A sudden change occurred!

Hum—

The earth emitted an extremely faint, almost imperceptible tremor.

It was as if a giant boulder had rolled down a mountain ravine in the distance.

Su Qingxue did not yet feel anything.

But that scarred leader, that grassland brute who had spent his life fighting on horseback, had his expression change drastically in an instant!

He abruptly lowered his head, pressing his ear close to the saddle, as if listening to the pulse of the earth!

It was cavalry!

And heavy cavalry at that!

The unique resonance that only thousands of horses galloping together could cause!

"Two."

Ye Xuan’s voice was like the death summons of the Grim Reaper.

Hum hum hum—

The tremor of the earth became unmistakably clear at this moment!

Tiny pebbles on the ground began to bounce restlessly, and a low roar like rolling thunder swept through the air!

"What is that noise?"

"Where is that sound of hooves coming from?"

All the Northern Barbarian scouts sensed that something was wrong, looking around in suspicion and alarm. Their arrogance and mockery had long been replaced by shock and vigilance.

The scarred leader snapped his head around, looking in horror toward the direction of the sound—the very horizon from which they had come!

The next second.

His pupils shrank to the size of needle points!

There on the distant horizon, a line appeared.

A pure white line that seemed to blend with the frost and snow of the horizon!

That white line was expanding and surging frantically at an incredible speed!

Like a breached heavenly river, an avalanche of ten thousand miles!

Rumble! Rumble!

The thunderous roar had now transformed into an earth-shattering din capable of cracking eardrums!

Cavalry!

A terrifying cavalry force they had never seen before!

Horses of pure, dazzling white, magnificent beyond compare, stepping on air as if walking on flat ground!

The riders atop them wore sets of primitive yet exquisitely crafted pure white mysterious armor, their heads crowned with ferocious visor helmets that revealed only pairs of eyes so cold they lacked all human emotion!

In their hands were uniform three-zhang-long lances, the tips reflecting a chilling, bone-piercing white light under the setting sun!

Their formation was as neat as if drawn by a ruler; thousands of troops moving as one, sharing a single motion, a single rhythm!

An aura of coldness, murderous intent, tyranny, and an invincible momentum capable of freezing the very heavens and earth crossed the vast distance and heavily crushed down upon them!

Before this White-Clad Snowy Cavalry, their group of three hundred so-called grassland wolves looked nothing more than a pack of dirty, scattered, and vulnerable mongrels!

"One."

Ye Xuan softly uttered the final number.

And his gaze swept past the pale, terror-stricken Northern Barbarian scouts before him, looking out into that endlessly surging expanse of frost and white.

A smile of overlooking the world finally bloomed at the corner of his mouth.

My soldiers.

My whetstone.

Welcome to this earthly hell.