Chapter 209: Exposed

Chapter 209: Exposed
Translator: TYZ Editor: Book_Hoarder
Ren Baqian was sitting on Qi Shui's back yet again. Travelling along the White Dragon River, everyone headed towards the upper reach of the river. The elevation of the ground increased while the distance between the two river coasts decreased.
"The Falling Moon Gorge is right ahead," Teng Ji reminded everyone.
At this moment, the path alongside the river, which had been perfectly straight all this time, suddenly made a turn, significantly increasing the distance to the Falling Moon Gorge.
After travelling towards higher ground for some distance, Ren Baqian saw fluttering banners at the opposite side. There were many of them, and they were inscribed with words of this world.
At the same time, he also saw the how the Falling Moon Gorge looked like. The two sides of the Falling Moon Gorge extended forward for some distance. Beneath the gorge, there was a bottomless abyss.
Above the gorge, two protruding ridges almost merged together. The smallest gap between the two ridges was merely three meters wide. At the same time, there was a suspension bridge connecting the two ridges.
Here, the winged cavalry could jump to the opposite side. However, they could only do so one at a time. Similarly, they could only cross the suspension bridge one at a time.
On the other side, there was a narrow road only a few meters wide. Eventually, the road widened up significantly, forming a huge piece of flat land.
At this moment, ten thousand Great Xia soldiers were standing neatly and closely there. The army extended all the way to a distant forest. The banners of the army could be seen flying in the wind.
The ten-thousand-man army was in neat formation, exuding a somber and desolate aura.
If the empress and her counterparts wanted to jump to the opposite side, they had to do so one by one. After crossing over to the opposite side, they would have to face the Great Xia army.
Even an Earth Wheel expert would be severely injured if the enemy shot a volley of arrows at them. After all, the enemy could focus thousands of arrows on one soldier at a time.
The main issue lay with the narrow road on the opposite side. It forced them to jump over one at a time and then get lit up by enemy arrows.
Initially, Ren Baqian felt this sight looked spectacular. Following which, he started to tremble in fear. The enemy was not playing fair at all.
He did not know how to pass through this place without using the sarin gas.
Even Teng Ji, Zheng Hu, and Li Tanhua had a solemn look on their faces when they looked through their binoculars.
The empress squinted her elegant, almond-shaped eyes while curling up the corner of her mouth slightly. Even though killing all the soldiers here wouldn't deal a devastating blow to Great Xia, it would still cause them heartache.
After all, one could easily tell that these were Great Xia's elite soldiers that had been through numerous battles. Their formation was neat and orderly, and they exuded a strong aura of death.
"Qi Zixiao!" an old man clad in armor rode out from the formation on a horse and yelled.
"I'm Jia Yugong, I have been waiting for you for a long time."
"Old bast*rd! How dare you call Her Majesty by her name!" Zhen Hu immediately roared with anger.
"She is the ruler of Dayao, not the ruler of Great Xia! Furthermore, the decision on whether or not will she be able to return to Dayao to be an empress still lies on us!" Jia Yugong burst out laughing.
"Great Xia! Great Xia!" The Great Xia soldiers unsheathed their swords and raised them high in the air while cheering in unison. A surging aura of death erupted from them as their voices pierced through the sky.
If an ordinary individual saw this scene, his or her legs would go soft with fear.
The empress merely snorted in contempt.
As for the winged cavalry, each and every one of them was on the level of Earth Wheel, and therefore, they weren't scared at all.
If they were to fight head-to-head, they would charge towards the enemy soldiers with their swords raised in a hearty manner.
However, right now they had to cross over to the other side one at a time, and this was not at all an easy feat.
Will I go to hell if I die here? Ren Baqian wondered after seeing the Great Xia soldiers.
In the past, he would not have even dared to kill a chicken. Soon after he arrived in this world, he ordered Xiong Pi to kill someone. Then, during the Great Hunt, he killed someone with his own hands. Subsequently, he used sarin gas to destroy the entire Nine Pavilions despite the fact that he wasn't there himself. Not too long ago, he killed four thousand men at the mountain pass using sarin gas again. Now, he was about to kill another ten thousand men.
But why does news spread so slowly in Great Xia?
Didn't these people receive the news of four thousand Great Xia soldiers dying at the mountain pass of Mount Lianyin?
Previously, he still wondered whether or not the Great Xia soldiers would run away without putting up a fight after hearing the news.
In the end, so many of them gathered here...
"Sigh, karma!" Ren Baqian sighed and said after thinking about it for a long while.
A few winged cavalry warriors rolled their eyes at him.
The empress almost chuckled out loud when she heard his sigh.
...
While Ren Baqian was sighing, a yiniao flew across the air above the Great Xia army on the opposite side. In fact, this yiniao had reached here a few minutes ago. However, the aura of death exuding from the Great Xia army was too strong. As such, the yiniao did not dare to come down, so it hovered in the air.
After everyone quieted down, the yiniao flew downwards to a cage that contained its significant other. Following which, a soldier took down a slip of paper from its leg. After scanning through it, that soldier's facial expression changed drastically. He hurriedly ran to Jia Yugong. "Sir, Sir!"
Jia Yugong was standing perfectly straight while looking straight at the winged cavalry opposite him, appearing extremely imposing. When he heard someone yelling for him, he turned around and asked, "What's the matter?"
"Sir, take a look," that soldier replied with his face deathly pale.
Jia Yugong cast a doubtful glance at the soldier and took the paper slip. After reading it, his facial expression immediately changed drastically as well.
"Be careful of Qi Zixiao's poison, Yucheng's 4000 men stationed at the mountain pass of Mount Lianyin were poisoned to death."
Previously, Jia Yugong was still wondering why these people did not look like they had just been through a fierce battle. He didn't expect that the 4000 soldiers stationed at the mountain pass of Mount Lianyin were poisoned to death.
Instantly, he was unable to keep on his composed and imposing front.
If they were fighting a head-to-head battle, even if he died, he would have no regrets.
However, if he was poisoned to death like those four thousand soldiers, he would not be able to accept it.
Now, he was racking his brain. How did they do it? How do I prepare for them? Do they still possess that poison?
What should I do now? Should I fight them or retreat? What if they try to poison us?
Right now, Jia Yugong completely uncertain of how exactly the enemy poisoned so many people to death.
Will my ten thousand soldiers follow in their footsteps? Will my soldiers die before they even touch the enemy?
If I retreat now, how will I explain it to my superiors? If they don't have any more poison, wouldn't I become a laughing stock?
Furthermore, right now we are in an extremely favorable position, if news of us retreating without putting up a fight is spread, I might have to commit suicide.
Someone might even break my backbone.
Jia Yugong could only take a gamble that the enemy did not have that poison anymore. However, he felt this scenario was highly unlikely.
At this moment, an arrow whizzed through the air and landed in the middle of the army formation.
"Why aren't they shooting at me? Why are they shooting at our formation?" A feeling of doubt arose in Jia Yugong's mind. Following which, the light bulb in his brain lit up, and he yelled, "The first five rows proceed to the back of the formation by your left and right sides and form up!"
Upon hearing Jia Yugong's words, the first five rows of the army became slightly chaotic. At this moment, another arrow landed within their formation. Jia Yugong confirmed his conjecture that the enemy's arrows were poisonous. At the same time, he also noticed there was something fastened to the arrow.
"Row 5, row 6, and row 7, disperse!"
"Anyone who disrupts the army formation will be executed!" Jia Yugong roared. The rows of soldiers that he called out moved to the back of the army smoothly like water and formed up.
After releasing the second arrow, the empress placed the third arrow on the bow and stopped. If the enemy continued to do this, the remaining twelve cans of sarin gas wouldn't be effective at all.
Jia Yugong was indeed troublesome.
Sitting upright on a horse, Jia Yugong raised his sword and burst out laughing at the sky. "Qi Zixiao, I want to see what you can do!"