Yuwen Tong had come and left in great haste. The two of them had only had a few romantic moments before parting.

In the wake of this visit was more frequent pre-war deployment of troops. More than half of the garrison in the headquarters inside the city were drafted out, leaving the rest guarding the border city in the rear.

On the day of the battle, although the infirmary in the city was very far away from the battlefield beyond the city walls, Ling Zhang could still faintly hear the thunderous beat of war drums, the quaking of the ground caused by numerous galloping horses and the battle cries of countless troops. Residents and soldiers in the city had all become used to it, their faces grave but not panic-stricken, appearing much more composed than Ling Zhang.

Ling Zhang's mind had been wandering frequently since morning. What with his sense of hearing which was much sharper than that of a common person, every time he heard something that sounded out of the ordinary, his back tensed and he looked in the direction of the battlefield.

His reaction didn't escape the notice of people around him, though he maintained a poker face.

"Don't worry, Childe Ling. The Marshal will surely win. We will surely win," a wounded soldier before him told him. This soldier's leg was hurt. There was a very deep slash in his thigh, and he was unable to walk right now, but the look on his face was one of deep faith, and he, surprisingly, offered some words of comfort to Ling Zhang who was changing his dressing and bandaging him.

Ling Zhang pulled himself out of his half-trance. At the sight of the assertive expression in the wounded soldier's eyes, he briefly paused. Touched by the unfaltering look in the soldier's eyes, he thought of something, twisted his head aside to look at the others and found that all those around him were gazing at him with the same expression in their eyes. It was only then that he came to realize the distant look on his face concerned them.

A warm glow slowly rose inside him. These people had an unswerving belief that the army of the Great Yue under the command of Yuwen Tong would win this war. He should've had as much faith in Yuwen Tong as they had.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have acted like this."

"Ur..." The wounded soldier embarrassedly scratched his head. "You don't have to say that, Childe Ling. We're a bunch of boors, but we know you're worried about the Marshal. What is it they say..."

"That although Childe Ling is here, his mind is with the Marshal!" said someone on the side immediately.

"Yeah, yeah. That's right. All of us could understand," said the first wounded soldier.

Ling Zhang's face, which was somewhat ashen with stress, slowly returned to normal. He gave a little cough. "What are you guys talking about?"

"Alas, don't be shy, Childe Ling. You and the Marshal get along well. We get it." The speaker dissolved into chuckle, and so did the others.

Amid the laughter, a pink flush slowly spread over Ling Zhang's cheeks and to his ear lobes. Faced with these men who talked in a frank and direct way, he was unable to extricate himself out of this situation and could only keep a poker face. Seeing this, the others continued chuckling friendly. When they had enjoyed it enough, they stopped and someone brought up another topic, trying to strike up a conversation with Ling Zhang, who, naturally, wouldn't ignore him. As the chat went on, his tense back gradually relaxed considerably.

Ling Zhaowu who was not far away saw this and gave a smile. Although on the surface, these soldiers seemed to be uncouth fellows who knew nothing, they actually could be quite considerate sometimes. With some quips, they successfully diverted Ling Zhang's attention away.

...

Outside the city.

The two armies had engaged. All of a sudden, a contingent of the Great Yue retreated towards somewhere else, leaving Yuwen Tong and his men in front alone. This change happened in a rather peculiar fashion.

Distantly, Dong Gao saw Shao Feng lead his men elsewhere and smacked his hand down onto his lap. "Good! Shao Feng has retreated as promised. Hurry. Send word that all units are to take action as planned!"

"Yes, General!"

The allied forces of the Wan Kingdom and the Luohai Kingdom also made their move. Cooperating with Shao Feng, they outflanked Yuwen Tong's men.

"Trap them to death!" yelled Dong Gao smugly. "Not so cocky now, huh, Yuwen Tong?!"

Yuwen Tong's unit was pinned down by the army of the Wan Kingdom and at the same time outflanked by the Luohai Kingdom's troops. He was trapped completely and there seemed to be no way out.

Staring at Dong Gao in the distance, Yuwen Tong gave a sneer and ordered, "Jiang Xi, take some men and hold them back. All the others are to come with me. Together we'll drag Shan Congwen off his horse!"

"Yes, Marshal!"

The large unit quickly split into two groups. The main force, led by Yuwen Tong, charged at the army of the Wan Kingdom. The smaller group stayed with Jiang Xi to defend against troops of the Luohai Kingdom who outflanked them.

At the sight of Yuwen Tong charging at the army of the Wan Kingdom, heedless of the odds which seemed heavily against him, both Dong Gao and Shan Congwen were stunned for a moment. When Dong Gao came to himself, he felt humiliated and cursed loudly. "Yuwen Tong! You snot-nosed brat don't even have the balls to face me?!"

"What's the hurry, Dong Gao? I'm still here. Your death wish will be granted," jibed Jiang Xi on his horse, eyeing Dong Gao coldly.

"Who do you think you are? You want to stop me? Dream on!" spat Dong Gao.

"What if we give him a hand?" A sonorous voice was heard amid deafening noises coming from behind.

Dong Gao gave a start, jerked his head around and saw that Shao Feng and his men, who should've retreated along another route, had returned and were now charging at him. Meanwhile, another two forces were advancing towards him from his flanks, besieging him.

"H–How could you..." Dong Gao was both astounded and furious. "Shao Feng, you're going back on your word?!"

"This is ridiculous. I'm a general of the Great Yue's army. Why should I follow the orders of you, a general of the opposing army? You're soft in the head and daydreaming too much," replied Shao Feng.

It was at this moment that Dong Gao came to realize what was going on. "You fooled me!" he bellowed.

"It seems you're not that stupid after all," Shao Feng snorted flintily, then twisted his head aside and shouted at his comrade-in-arms, "Jiang Xi! Waste no more time and get this over with!"

"Can you not see that's exactly what I'm doing?!" bawled Jiang Xi.

On the other side, Shan Congwen had a sense of foreboding at the sight of Yuwen Tong suicidally charging at the Wan Kingdom's army. It was only when he noticed the increasing distance between Yuwen Tong's army and the Luohai Kingdom's army commanded by Dong Gao that he came to realize that Dong Gao was trapped, that they had fallen victim to the enemy's ruse!

Shan Congwen clenched his teeth. "Despicable!"

"Your Highness, Yuwen Tong's men outnumber us. What should we do?" a general beside him asked anxiously.

"What else do you think we should do?! Fleeing like cowards?! Advance, all of you! The war is not lost yet!" railed Shan Congwen.

"Yes, Marshal!"

...

On the gate tower.

Ling Zhang was watching the vast sheets of dust and the sea of troops in the distance, his twenty-four bodyguards standing beside him. They could faintly hear the beat of war drums and the battle cries, and could feel the slight quaking of the ground, but what with the long distance, they were unable to see how things were going on the battlefield.

He had promised Yuwen Tong that he would stay in the city waiting for him to come back, but he was unable to get anything done when staying in the infirmary, so eventually his father, rather resigned, had chucked him off and had him come to this gate tower.

Looking in the direction of the distant battleground, Ling Zhang clenched his fists, staring unblinkingly. Although he couldn't tell which one of those countless figures was Yuwen Tong, he still didn't want to blink his eyes for fear of missing anything.

After Yuwen Tong specially sent him into the city on that pretext, he had had Wang Dashan and the others keep watch on the other sides during the past few days. So far there hadn't been any particular news from the encampment, and the day before Yuwen Tong had acted normally when he was in the city, so Ling Zhang couldn't fathom out why Yuwen Tong had had him leave the encampment. Right now, apart from the situation on the battlefield, this matter also concerned him.

...

On the battleground.

The Wan Kingdom's army, under attack from Yuwen Tong's troops, suffered heavy casualties, losing ground steadily. Shan Congwen's eyes were red with resentment, but there was nothing he could do.

"Your Highness, we've landed in Shao Feng's trap. This is Yuwen Tong's pre-planned subterfuge. As things stand, we won't be able to last long. Are those killers Dong Gao planted in Yuwen Tong's army still an option for us? If they manage to kill Yuwen Tong, maybe we could still save the day!" said the general who was by Shan Congwen's side protecting him.

Gazing at Yuwen Tong's figure in the distance, Shan Congwen responded through gritted teeth, "Dong Gao was the one who made those arrangements. He couldn't have planted those killers in Yuwen Tong's army without Shao Feng's assistance. Given that Shao Feng double-crossed us, those killers probably have already been disposed of!"

"No matter what, we have to give it a try. Maybe General Dong did it without Shao Feng's knowledge! We still have a chance!" maintained the general.

"But Dong Gao has been surrounded. How the hell are we supposed to make contact with him?!" raged Shan Congwen.

"Let's shoot a signal flare and pray Dong Gao will see it!" suggested the general.

Shan Congwen gave it some thought and agreed, "Do it!"

Before long, a signal flare went off from the army of the Wan Kingdom, which rose into the sky and exploded into a cloud of blue smoke.

In the distance, Dong Gao who was trapped saw the flare and knew Shan Congwen was trying to send him a message. From the color of the smoke, he could faintly guess what Shan Congwen meant. However...

"What is Shan Congwen thinking? Does he not know that we've all been tricked by Shao Feng? He still thinks Shao Feng has really planted some killers in there for us?!"

Dong Gao was beside himself with rage, but considering the current circumstances, if he couldn't figure something out to make a difference, not only Shan Congwen but also he and his whole army would meet their ends in this place. As a result, Dong Gao summoned a general of his and commanded him to take a small detachment of crack soldiers, figure out a way to approach Yuwen Tong and kill him.

"I'll create an opportunity for you to make a breakthrough. Do whatever you can to kill Yuwen Tong!" bellowed Dong Gao.

At the cost of a large number of his men's lives, Dong Gao managed to breach the encirclement of Jiang Xi's troops and help a small group of crack soldiers, who had secretly changed out of their uniform, break through.

Although Jiang Xi promptly restored the encirclement, those who had made a breakthrough were pretty good at kung fu, and common soldiers couldn't stop them. With their lightness skills, they zigzagged their way through the crowds.

"Archers! If any of them emerges from the crowd, shoot him!" commanded Jiang Xi.

The archers focused their attention on the targets in sight. At first they did shoot several of them to death, but the rest of the targets had wormed their way into the sea of troops. They were not wearing their original uniform, which made it very difficult to identify them. In addition, after infiltrating into the army of the Great Yue, they didn't kill anybody and were just sneaking around. If the archers tried to shoot the targets, a lot of their comrade-in-arms would be killed by friendly fire.

Jiang Xi clenched his teeth in fury, fished out a signal flare and shot it into the sky.

This was a code they'd agreed on some time ago. Distantly, Yuwen Tong saw it, came to know what was happening and instructed an officer beside him, "Form up. Everybody stay alert."

"Yes, Marshal!"

Since he had taken precautions already, there was no way he would fall for the enemies' underhand methods. Shan Congwen and Dong Gao must die today, along with each and every single one of their troops! He had to wipe them out in one fell swoop, so that the Wan Kingdom and the Luohai Kingdom wouldn't dare invade again.

Ling Zhang was standing on the gate tower, looking in the direction of the battlefield in the distance, his hand clasping the edge of the city wall. Just now his heart had suddenly raced for a few moments. He was not sure whether it was some kind of portent or not, but it made him feel a little perturbed.

"Brother Wang, I want to go to the battlefield," said Ling Zhang.

Wang Dashan was taken aback. "Young Master, the battlefield is not only dangerous but also chaotic. There's no telling what might happen there. If you get hurt, both the Marshal and your father will be very sad."

Ling Zhang's lips clamped tightly together. After a few instants' silence, he said, "I suddenly feel somewhat disturbed. It concerns me. I have to go there and take a look. I'm okay with waiting at the front gates of the encampment outside the city first and not going onto the battlefield, but I can't stay here any longer."

"But Young Master!" Wang Dashan went anxious. "The Marshal said that you're not to leave here. Also, your father is still in the city and he will definitely be very worried when he comes to know about your exiting the city."

Ling Zhang said in a deep voice, "I know. I'll keep myself safe. There's no doubt that right now something is happening where Yuwen Tong is. I have to be there."

He trusted his instincts. Considering the divine power contained in the Blood of the Phoenix Clan in him, maybe sometimes his hunches were prophetic. If he didn't go there and something happened to Yuwen Tong, he would rue it to the end of his days.

"I've got to go right away. Please explain it to my father for me."

After saying this, Ling Zhang spun around and made towards the staircase. When he had reached the city gates, he whistled and with that Snowflake the horse ran over from not far away. Ling Zhang mounted up and galloped towards the encampment outside the city.

All soldiers on guard duty at the city gates knew who he was and, naturally, none of them tried to stop him.

Seeing this, Wang Dashan and the others, without further ado, hastily got on their horses to follow Ling Zhang.

Ji Donglin, who was standing not far away, furrowed his brows at the sight of this scene, instructed a man to go back and inform Ling Zhaowu, then followed Ling Zhang out of the city with the other four men.

...

On the battleground.

Jiang Xi had failed to stop the group of soldiers and shot a signal flare. After seeing it, Yuwen Tong had had some of his men form up into a formation and on full alert.

But he wouldn't have all his troops cluster around him just to help him defend against potential assassination. These invaders from the Wan Kingdom must die! Shan Congwen must die as well!

Gradually, the army of the Wan Kingdom were reduced to unorganized, dwindling groups of panic-stricken troops. Shan Congwen, guarded by some soldiers, kept backing away.

"Your Highness, we can't continue fighting. Dong Gao still hasn't broken out of the encirclement. Even if he breaks through, he wouldn't have enough time to stop Yuwen Tong. For the sake of your safety, we have to retreat!" All officers around Shan Congwen were trying to convince him to give the order to retreat.

Shan Congwen was bitterly unreconciled to the situation, a murderous look on his face. Originally they could launch a surprise attack on this border city before the enemy knew it, and the Great Yue happened to be undergoing civil strife, which had seemed to be a godsend for them. As long as they managed to break into this border city of Youzhou, they might be able to advance straight south to the capital city! But unexpectedly, the border city of Youzhou had immediately reacted, shut the city gates, strengthened the defense and, against all odds, managed to stall them until Yuwen Tong's arrival. Worse still, Yuwen Tong had got all his military powers back!

Why? The capital city of the Great Yue was clearly in turmoil. How come Yuwen Tong could spare the time?!

They had already advanced to the border city of Youzhou, but Yuwen Tong had inflicted several defeats on them consecutively, forcing them into backing away fifty miles, pushing this war between them and the Great Yue into a stalemate.

When that scout of the Luohai Kingdom had suddenly sent back a message, he had disbelieved it at first, but after they put out feelers several times, the scout's responses had been beyond their expectations. In order to lure them into this trap, Yuwen Tong had actually gone to such great lengths as to play along with their plan! And then there was also that Shao Feng guy!

Shan Congwen was full of hate. He hated himself, because he had clearly been suspicious of it and fully aware of what kind of person Yuwen Tong was, but when Dong Gao had dared him to make his move, he had still failed to retain his senses and succumbed to the prospect of defeating Yuwen Tong immediately, which was why he carelessly fell victim to Yuwen Tong's scheme and was reduced to retreating helter-skelter!

"Shan Congwen, why are you hiding among your solders like a coward? Are you scared of me? I always knew you were nothing but a wimp. Even if your big brother put you in command of all his troops, you wouldn't be able to achieve anything big. Right now, faced with me, you must've wet your pants and are considering fleeing with your tail between your legs!"

Yuwen Tong's loud, sarcastic comments were heard by the whole army of the Wan Kingdom. Shan Congwen, who was retreating under the protection of his troops, suddenly paused. Gripping the reins with all his might, he jerked his head around, his eyes flashing in the direction of Yuwen Tong galloping towards him, clenching his teeth so hard that his gums were bleeding. "YUWEN TONG!" he bellowed.

"Your Highness!" The one beside him went anxious. "Don't fall for Yuwen Tong's trick. We need to leave before it's too late!"

If Shan Congwen still had his senses, he would know that what he should do at this point was flee as quick as possible, but he had lost his marbles. Those words of Yuwen Tong's were like a knife through his heart. He was overwhelmed by rage and almost vomited blood.

"The Wan Kingdom is my defeated opponent. You should have stayed at home instead of coming here to bark like a dog. However, you not only barked but also fled with your tail between your legs. Are you not afraid you'll become the laughing stock of the whole world if word gets out?!"