Chapter 90: Wang Chuying’s Complete Defeat (Part Two)

After Huang Xianlin’s troops surrounded him, Wang Chuying’s soldiers, in order to protect their commander, fought desperately against the advancing enemy while drawing tight around Wang Chuying and pressing inward to shield him.

Wang Chuying looked around and saw that the enemy troops encircling his men numbered nearly twenty thousand. Only then did he realize that Huang Xianlin had not merely brought more than ten thousand soldiers to pursue and meet him in battle, but had also hidden another ten thousand or so in ambush along the two mountainsides. He had fallen, carelessly, into Huang Xianlin’s trap.

Seeing that Wang Chuying and his men had been enclosed like iron within a bucket, as good as a beast trapped in a cage, Huang Xianlin knew they could be seized at any moment.

To avoid the trouble of capturing them by force, Huang Xianlin ordered Wang Chuying and his soldiers to surrender, promising to spare their lives if they did.

But Wang Chuying, too, was a hard and unbending man. He thought to himself: Because I was eager for glory and merit, I brought the troops out without Prince Huicheng’s consent. I have already done him wrong. If I were then taken captive by the enemy, would that not disgrace us all and bring shame upon Prince Huicheng?

So how could he possibly surrender? Instead, he cried out to his soldiers, “Brothers, because I was hungry for great achievement and merit, I brought you out to fight the enemy without Prince Huicheng’s approval, and I never imagined I would fall into an enemy ambush. I have failed you all. But as men under Prince Huicheng, we know that in ordinary times our prince treats everyone as kindly as his own brothers and sisters, and our Prince Huicheng has always been a steadfast and proud warrior. As his men, we have always taken him as our example. Even though we have been ambushed today, we must still be as we always have been. Even if we die in battle, we will not become prisoners, and we must not bring shame upon Prince Huicheng. Now, let the soldiers ahead make way. I will carve a path of blood for you and break through the encirclement!”

With that, Wang Chuying snapped the reins of his mount and charged along the path the soldiers had opened before him.

Huang Xianlin was himself a man of pride, and he admired those who possessed backbone. Seeing Wang Chuying trapped in such dire straits yet still so unyielding, he thought, Since that is so, I too honor you as a hero. I will at least leave you an intact body.

So he ordered the archers on the mountains to loose their arrows down upon the surrounded enemy, while the soldiers on the ground closed in and slaughtered them.

After several hours of fierce killing, Wang Chuying’s thirty thousand troops were reduced to barely one or two thousand men.

As for Wang Chuying himself, after fighting Huang Xianlin for half an hour, he was struck down beneath the teeth-edged spear and killed.

Huang Xianlin respected Wang Chuying as a man of blood and fire, and in order to leave him an intact corpse, he had used only the blunt side of the spear’s shaft throughout their struggle, striking at Wang Chuying’s chest and back without ever stabbing him. He feared that a careless thrust might injure him, so he had beaten at his chest and front with the spear in a way that would crush the body from within and cause death without breaking the skin.

From the moment Wang Chuying first crossed blades with Huang Xianlin, he knew from the other man’s style and force that he was absolutely no match for him.

And as the fight went on, he could also see that Huang Xianlin had been sparing him. Yet his own lord, King Yang Shengtian of Huicheng, had always treated him like a blood brother and shown him great kindness. This time he had led troops to war without the king’s permission, hoping to win a great victory and return with a surprise, so that the king might promote him to a general’s rank.

He had not only failed to defeat the enemy, but had been beaten so grievously. If he surrendered now, he would bring even greater shame upon King Yang Shengtian of Huicheng.

Better to die on the battlefield than to surrender.

So no matter how many chances Huang Xianlin gave him to yield, he would not accept them.

Seeing how stubborn and ungrateful Wang Chuying remained, Huang Xianlin had no choice but to strike him to death by internal injury, using the blunt end of the spear to lash at his chest and back without damaging the outer body.

When Wang Chuying was knocked down and lay upon the ground, close to death, Huang Xianlin came beside him and said, “General Wang, I admire your steadfastness and loyalty. But when two armies meet, each serves its own master. If not for my duty to my country and my lord, I would not wish to fight you to the death. I would gladly befriend a man like you.”

Wang Chuying labored to raise his hand toward Huang Xianlin. Seeing this, Huang Xianlin quickly laid down the spear in his hand and took Wang Chuying’s hand in his own.

“General Huang,” Wang Chuying said with difficulty, “from the moment we first crossed hands, I knew I was no match for you. I had long since seen that you were sparing me. It was I who could not accept your goodwill. If I had been cowardly and greedy for life, and let myself become your prisoner, I would have wronged my Prince Huicheng even more, and shamed him all the more! I truly admire your righteousness and honor, General Huang. If, if it were not for our serving different masters, I—would very much want to make a friend of you!”

Seeing Wang Chuying’s breath growing weaker and weaker, Huang Xianlin knew he had not long to live and hurriedly said, “General Wang, if you have any last words to leave behind, speak them quickly. Anything I can do, I will do.”

Wang Chuying said with effort, “General Huang, my soldiers are all men of blood and spirit too. They are loyal soldiers who would rather die in battle than surrender. After I am gone, if you are still fighting, and if they refuse to yield, then kill as many as you can. I have only one request: after we die, you must find some place and bury me together with them. Do not leave our bodies exposed in the wilderness.”

Huang Xianlin said, “General Wang, rest assured. Though you came to invade us first and were slain in battle by our hands, we still ought to bury you out of humanity, whatever the circumstances. I promise you not only that your fallen soldiers will be properly buried, but also that I will bury you separately beside your men, so that you and your soldiers may keep watch over one another day and night.”

Hearing this, Wang Chuying died with a faint smile.

And indeed, after Wang Chuying died, his soldiers were exactly as he had said: they would rather die in battle than surrender.

In the end, after the two sides had fought on until only a little over a thousand of Wang Chuying’s men remained, Huang Xianlin immediately ordered a withdrawal. He then had the surviving enemy soldiers carry Wang Chuying’s body, together with the bodies of several of the fallen they deemed important, back with them. He also had them convey a message to their master, telling him never to dream of invading Azure Peak Kingdom. Azure Peak was an independent and self-reliant realm, and it would never permit any other kingdom to violate it.

When he saw the remaining enemy soldiers carrying away Wang Chuying’s body and leaving Twin Peak, Huang Xianlin ordered his troops to gather the fallen and the wounded among his own men, then sounded the retreat and marched toward Stone Gate.

In this battle, because Huang Xianlin had made such excellent preparations, his own casualties were very light, with roughly a little over a thousand soldiers dead.

Although this had been a great victory for his side, Huang Xianlin still felt sorrow for the soldiers who had perished.

Just as Huang Xianlin was leading his men into Stone Gate, several strange beastlike roars suddenly sounded from behind.

He turned back and looked, and saw a gigantic creature, neither bird nor beast, flying down from one side of Twin Peak, with a person mounted upon its back.

Huang Xianlin immediately halted, wanting to see what kind of creature it was, and who the person on its back might be.

The Kirin divine beast beneath Huang Xianlin, hearing the beast in the air cry out, raised its head and roared in reply, tossing and shaking in agitation.

As the creature and the person upon its back drew nearer and nearer, Huang Xianlin increasingly felt that the figure on the beast’s back looked strangely familiar.

Soon the flying creature came to a stop before Huang Xianlin. The person on its back stood up, yet without leaping; his whole body rose of its own accord and drifted down to the ground.

As soon as it landed, the creature bellowed at Huang Xianlin’s Kirin divine beast and opened its mouth, from which faint yellow flames began to issue in wisps.

The Kirin divine beast also roared at it, stamping restlessly in place.

The creature’s master patted its head with his hand, and the beast at once fell still.

Huang Xianlin likewise stroked the Kirin divine beast, and it too calmed.

He studied the creature carefully. It was dark brown-black all over, with a black dragon’s head, though its body was like that of a great bird; only its wings, spread at its sides, were formed of thin layers of flesh and scale. It had no feathers at all, only dragon-like scales covering its entire body.

Huang Xianlin then examined the creature’s master more closely. The man looked very much like someone he knew. Like whom? Ah, yes, he resembled his own general, Wei Xiaoping. Yes, he looked like General Wei Xiaoping! Truly, he looked so much alike that it was as if they had been cast from the very same mold. If not for the fact that the beast he rode was different from General Wei Xiaoping’s mount, and if not for the fact that the armor he wore was different from the general’s armor, he would almost have thought this man was General Wei Xiaoping himself.

“Are you the general of Azure Peak Kingdom who led the troops in battle against Wang Chuying today?” the man asked sternly, looking at Huang Xianlin.

Hearing the question, Huang Xianlin thought to himself that this man must surely be Wang Chuying’s superior, at least two or three ranks above him. And from the way he had drifted down from the beast’s back just now, he seemed to be like me and General Wei Xiaoping, a man who had cultivated to a very high level along the immortal path.