Chapter 133: Courage of a Hero (Part Two)

Having spent a long time together, Luan Yi and his battle steed had developed an extraordinary bond of tacit understanding and affection. The warhorse was utterly loyal, and Luan Yi cherished it dearly. At times, he even felt that the horse before him was not merely an animal, but a true friend. Now, watching helplessly as Peng Tuo severed the horse's front hooves—knowing full well that a horse robbed of its front hooves was doomed to die—how could Luan Yi not be enraged? "Vile wretch, how dare you!" he bellowed in fury, brandishing his hammer and charging at Peng Tuo.

Peng Tuo raised his saber to meet the attack.

It was at this moment that Luan Yi demonstrated the distinct advantage of fighting on foot. As their blades and hammers clashed, taking advantage of Peng Tuo's lapse in attention, he twisted the handle of his hammer. The massive weapon split in two; the hammerhead locked against Peng Tuo's saber, while the iron rod at the tail slipped free from his grip and struck Peng Tuo squarely in the lower abdomen.

Peng Tuo took the blow instantly, letting out a wretched cry as he spewed a torrent of blood. A searing pain, akin to being sliced by a thousand knives, gripped his belly, twisting his features into a mask of agony. Seeing Luan Yi's hammerhead closing in once more, a primal survival instinct drove him to leap backward with all his might, retreating several paces as he jammed the shaft of his saber into the ground and gasped heavily for breath.

He raised a hand to ward off the charging Luan Yi, sputtering angrily, "Fighting on foot while you possess a weapon of such reach is utterly unfair. If you have the guts, get another horse and let us fight on horseback!"

Luan Yi didn't even need to guess to know that Peng Tuo was stalling for time to let the pain in his stomach subside. Yet, he cared not a whit. If he had feared Peng Tuo on horseback moments ago, why should he fear a wounded Peng Tuo now? With a cold nod, he rode past Peng Tuo, and each returned to his respective camp.

A personal guard waited at the front lines, leading forward a fresh warhorse for each of them. Luan Yi vaulted into the saddle, casually pulled a Molotov cocktail tucked into the guard's belt, uncapped it, and tilted his head back, gulping down the entire bottle of high-proof celestial brew in a single, unhesitating draught. The feat left everyone present utterly dumbfounded.

"What is Ziqi drinking?" Huangfu Song summoned Xu Chu to ask.

With a deeply flushed face, Xu Chu replied, "Wine!"

"Ah..." Huangfu Song was momentarily stunned, then smiled in admiration. "Though so young, Ziqi is truly a heroic spirit!"

While Huangfu Song beamed with smiles, Xu Chu was chilled to the bone. Brother Yi was bold indeed, but this was sheer recklessness! That enormous bottle must have held at least a pound of liquor! To drink so much wine—how was he supposed to fight while intoxicated? Before he could utter a word of persuasion, Luan Yi had already spurred his horse forward, raising his hammer to charge out of the formation without the slightest hesitation.

While Luan Yi charged without a second thought, Peng Tuo hesitated. He massaged his agonizing stomach. Seeing him wince and grimace in genuine torment, Bo Cai grew terrified that Peng Tuo would charge out again only to die in vain. Peng Tuo's life was a minor matter, but dealing a blow to the army's morale was a major crisis. Bo Cai urged him to return to the camp to rest and instead dispatched another fierce general to take the field.

Seeing a new opponent, Luan Yi was deeply displeased. "Where has that coward Peng Tuo gone? Why have they sent the likes of you? You are no match for me—get out of my sight at once!"

"Luan Ziqi, do not be so arrogant! Taste my blade!" Infuriated by Luan Yi's blatant contempt, the fierce general surged with wrath and brought his saber down in a vicious, lethal arc.

Canvassing not a single shred of interest, Luan Yi casually swept a single arm. Fueled by the surging potency of the alcohol, a tremendous wave of force erupted from his hand. With a resounding crash, saber and hammer collided, yet the rebel general felt as though he had struck a city wall; the hammer did not budge an inch.

Keeping his grip steady with one hand, Luan Yi urged his warhorse forward. Under the general's gaze of sheer terror, he closed the distance, formed a fist with his left hand, and drove it squarely into the general's chest, shattering the heart-protecting bronze mirror into a spiderweb of cracks. With a muffled shriek, the general was hurled from his saddle, vomiting a mixture of blood and gore as his chest caved inward—clearly beyond saving.

Even so, Luan Yi did not spare him. Trotting his horse leisurely over to the fallen general, he viciously dug his heels into the flanks. The warhorse reared up high, gathered power in its hind legs, and bounded forward. As it landed, its heavy front hooves came down squarely on the rebel's neck, stomping the man's head clean off. Looking up, he caught sight of Peng Tuo retreating toward the rear, supported by two personal guards.

Luan Yi knew not whence came his daring—perhaps wine truly emboldened the cowardly, let alone a natural warrior.

Regardless, a single command echoed in Luan Yi's mind: Go finish him, pound him into pulp. Without a second thought, he obeyed the order.

To the horror of every imperial soldier watching, Luan Yi broke formation and charged alone into the tens of thousands of rebels.

"Ziqi?" The battle-hardened Huangfu Song was momentarily at a loss for what to do! Should he send officers to rescue him, or order a full-scale advance by the entire army? Which course should he choose? In all past military annals, where was there ever such a precedent?

Clearly, Bo Cai had never imagined anyone in this world could be so reckless. His mind went utterly blank, causing him to forget to order troops to intercept. He could only watch helplessly as Luan Yi carved a path into the formation, his massive hammer swinging left and right to cut down a score of men in succession. Only then did the surrounding rebels snap out of their stupor and swarm forward to block him.

Yet how could a berserk Luan Yi be so easily stopped? "Get out of my way, you scumbags!" The lotus-shaped hammer swept horizontally; its razor-sharp edge cleaved into the body of one rebel, and without losing momentum, continued its arc, slamming the first body heavily into a second, then a third... Like toppling building blocks, he batted an entire row of rebels flying into the reinforcements rushing from the flank. "Argh..."

This was no longer a combat general; this was an enraged elephant.

Despite their vast numbers, the rebels could not stem his tide, and could only watch in terror as Luan Yi reached Peng Tuo's rear. "Peng Tuo, do not run! Leave your life here!"

Hearing a sudden roar and realizing mortal peril was upon him, Peng Tuo shoved aside the guards supporting him, dropped to the ground, and rolled frantically to the side, managing by a hair's breadth to evade Luan Yi's descending hammer.

"Running? Where do you think you're going?" Luan Yi caught the thrust of a rebel spear with one hand, shoved the shaft aside, grabbed the man by the neck, and hoisted him into the air. "Get over here with me!" With a flick of his wrist, he hurled the soldier straight at Peng Tuo, striking the fleeing rebel squarely in the back.

Having already suffered internal injuries, Peng Tuo was struck with devastating force once more. With a spurt of blood, he pitched forward and collapsed into the dirt.

Luan Yi closed in ferociously, raising his hammer high above his head. Pouring every ounce of his strength into a Heaven-Incinerating Strike, he bellowed, "Die!"

A resounding crash shook the earth itself. Billows of dust and dirt erupted into the heavens, filling the air and blinding the rebels who had rushed forward to surround Luan Yi, choking them with unrelenting coughs.

As the dust settled, it revealed Luan Yi atop his warhorse, his battle robes stained crimson and his face splattered with blood, making him look for all the world like a demon crawling straight out of hell.

Peng Tuo lay twisted in a miserable heap, his face still frozen in the look of terror he wore at the moment of death. His eyes were wide and staring, blood gushed from his nostrils, and his mouth was agape.

The heavy hammer had smashed directly into his lower back. The overwhelming force had violently torn through his iron armor, skin, muscle, and bone, severing him completely in two. The hammerhead, its momentum unchecked, slammed into the earth, gouging out a pit over a foot deep.

A foot deep? Severed at the waist? They had seen men hacked apart, but never had they witnessed a man smashed in two! Just how immense was that man's strength?

The surrounding rebels were seized with sheer terror. Staring at Luan Yi with wide, horrified eyes, they slowly backed away while keeping their spears lowered and guards raised.

This retreat left a considerable clearing of some twelve feet around Luan Yi. Having slain Peng Tuo, the alcohol-induced fever began to recede, leaving him much clearer-headed. Taking stock of his surroundings, he was suddenly struck with dismay as he realized he had plunged deep into the enemy formation and was completely surrounded.

"This..." Luan Yi cursed himself inwardly for letting a moment of feverish impulse and alcohol cloud his judgment. He had been so fixated on killing Peng Tuo that he had charged headlong into a sea of enemies without a thought. Looking back toward his own lines, Huangfu Song and Xu Chu were still standing in stunned silence, having yet to beat the drums for a general advance. The main imperial army was still over two hundred paces away; it would take considerable time for them to fight their way across.

Then he looked at the rebel forces. "Oh?"

It turned out that when Peng Tuo had retreated to his camp earlier, he had conversed with Bo Cai. This meant Peng Tuo and the rebel commander Bo Cai were stationed very close to one another. Realizing this, Luan Yi's fierce eyes swept rapidly across the sea of rebels, quickly spotting his target beneath the commander's banner some forty paces away. Deciding to go all in since he had already gone this far, he thought, *To hell with it!*

"Rebel Bo Cai, where do you think you're running!" Luan Yi roared, spurring his horse forward.

The thunderous shout startled Bo Cai out of his wits. "Good grief! Someone stop this madman!"

A madman, however, was not so easily stopped. Luan Yi plowed forward like a bulldozer, his heavy hammer swinging left and right like a pendulum, sweeping away a swath of rebels with every blow.

"Kill the horse! Kill the horse first!" In his panic, Bo Cai had no choice but to shout the order himself.

The surrounding rebels followed instructions, and the tactic proved immediately effective.

To protect his mount, Luan Yi was forced to divide his attention, parrying the endless thrusts and strikes aimed at the horse. Multitasking slowed his charging speed drastically. "Damn it!" Luan Yi panicked. Without room to gallop, once his steed came to a halt and he found himself completely bogged down in the encirclement, he would be in grave danger. Glancing far off toward Bo Cai, he swung his hammer in a wide arc to beat back the surrounding rebels, swiftly pulled an iron disc from his waist, spun it in his palm to gauge its weight, and hurled it with blinding speed toward Bo Cai.

With a sharp whistle, the iron disc shot through the air like a shooting star, tracing a lethal curve straight for Bo Cai's face.

A veteran of many battles, Bo Cai was not only a match for Peng Tuo in martial prowess, but likely even slightly superior. Having survived countless skirmishes, the moment he heard the whistling air, the corner of his eye instantly caught the strange projectile hurtling toward him. "Bad omen—hidden weapon!" Instinctively ducking to the side, he managed to evade the disc by a hair's breadth. His reaction speed was nothing short of astonishing, yet as the disc grazed the edge of his bronze helmet, it struck a shower of sparks, leaving a white gouge across the brim before hurtling past him.

"Whew... that was close." Bo Cai let out a long breath. Had instinct not intervened, he would have lost his head. But before he could even finish exhaling, a crisp *crack* echoed through the air. Bo Cai's face turned green instantly. How familiar that snapping sound was—what was that?

Looking back, his face turned deathly pale. The iron disc he had just dodged had flown onward and struck the commander's banner directly... A man could dodge, but the battle flag was not so fortunate. It took the full, unmitigated impact of the iron disc.

Luan Yi's skill in throwing was flawless, and the force imbued within the disc was horrifying. Like a sharp battle-axe, it smashed into the thick flagpole, splintering the wood violently before embedding itself deep within the trunk, shearing the pole clean in two. With a creaking groan, the commander's banner came crashing down.