Divine Emperor of Heavenly Destiny

”That’s right. Just one man!”

The fighting spirit in Lu Chao’s eyes burned to its absolute peak. He faced an army of thousands, alone and unperturbed.

The young commander on the opposing side, of course, didn’t believe him.

He barked out an order, ”Impossible! There can’t be just one man! Search... search the area!”

Instantly, a large number of soldiers broke away from the main force and began to search the surroundings.

This was exactly what Lu Chao wanted. He gave a faint smile and took the offensive.

’An army of twenty thousand would be difficult to fight at my current cultivation level. But to catch the bandits, you must first catch the king. Since they dared to split their forces to search... I’ll just have to take the enemy commander’s head from right under their noses.’

His spear was like a charging dragon. Lu Chao plunged into the enemy ranks, and everywhere he passed, he cut through them like carving up melons and gourds.

His ferocious speed immediately drew the attention of the Innate Masters within the twenty-thousand-strong army... They moved in for the kill.

Dozens of Innate Masters suddenly erupted with True Qi and lunged toward Lu Chao to kill him.

In the blink of an eye, Lu Chao’s figure was submerged beneath dozens of blasts of Innate True Qi.

In the trees, Tan An and Yu Xiaoping’s hearts pounded as they watched. They couldn’t stop themselves from preparing to loose their arrows...

But Cheng Yunsu stopped them at once, hissing, ”Don’t make a move yet! Unless Lu Chao gives the signal, you absolutely cannot fire.”

Firing now would be tantamount to revealing their position to the enemy. It would get them killed.

Hearing this, the two of them froze and looked at Cheng Yunsu in confusion.

”My husband just said to fire only if he runs into an Innate Master he can’t handle. He hasn’t said he can’t handle them yet.”

Yu Xiaoping was stunned. ’Dozens of Innate Masters have surrounded him, and he can still handle it?’

She couldn’t help but ask, ”If I saw correctly just now, my savior... he hasn’t reached the Innate realm yet, has he?”

To this, Tan An nodded lightly.

He knew Lu Chao was at the Postnatal Eighth Layer, but his mind flashed back to the scene of Lu Chao slaying four Innate Masters below the walls of Yangzhou City. But that was only four. Now, there were dozens.

The ones before were local Innate Masters from Yangzhou City. These were Innate Masters serving under Lu Hanyan.

’This is completely different, isn’t it?’

Suddenly, Uncle Leng, the strongest among them, said in shock, ”Quick, look! Hero Lu is behind that young commander!”

A jolt went through everyone’s bodies. They hurriedly looked toward the commander of the twenty-thousand-strong force.

They saw Lu Chao, who was supposed to be surrounded by dozens of Innate Masters, somehow appear behind the young commander. The commander was completely oblivious, and by the time he sensed something, it was already too late.

They watched as the young commander had just started to turn his head... PFFT!

The tip of Lu Chao’s spear had already pierced through his back, running straight through his chest on the spot.

The young commander’s eyes went wide. Blood spewed from his mouth as he stammered, ”Y-y-you...”

From behind him, Lu Chao replied coolly, ”I really am alone. You were too careless.”

BOOM...

Hearing this, the young commander’s True Qi erupted from his entire body—he was a powerful master at the Innate Ninth Layer. But it was useless. The True Qi he had just unleashed immediately dissipated.

Because he was already dead.

At the same time, the dozens of Innate Masters who were about to besiege Lu Chao suddenly couldn’t find him. ”Where did he go?” one muttered.

The words had barely left his mouth when they heard a noise from behind them.

They sensed their commander’s eruption of power, and when they turned back, their eyes bulged in their sockets.

The dozens of Innate Masters stared in disbelief at their leader, and then in even greater disbelief at Lu Chao standing behind him.

The next instant, Lu Chao violently hoisted his long spear...

He stood upon the young commander’s warhorse, the commander’s corpse impaled on his spear and held high for all to see.

His gaze swept across the twenty thousand soldiers. Lu Chao declared, ”I am right here. And your commander... is dead!”

That one sentence shook the entire battlefield.

In an instant, the surrounding twenty thousand soldiers froze. Everyone forgot the commander’s order to search, staring dumbly at Lu Chao.

PFFT...

Lu Chao suddenly whipped his spear back, then swung it in a heavy arc.

He lopped off the young commander’s head, then looked out at the surrounding army and shouted, ”Your commander is dead! Do you not surrender?”

His voice pierced the clouds, shaking the surrounding troops into disarray. The twenty thousand soldiers subconsciously took a step back in unison.

Even though Lu Chao was just one man, their commander was dead.

In a single exchange, their commander had been slain. How could that not inspire terror? How could that not strike fear into their hearts? In everyone’s eyes, Lu Chao no longer seemed like one man, but a terrifying general whose aura could swallow the very heavens.

The scene seemed to suffocate in that moment!

「Elsewhere...」

Fan Jinhua, who was leading his men on a stealth mission, was shaken to his core. He had heard Lu Chao’s voice from afar and turned his head back in disbelief.

’The commander of twenty thousand soldiers... Lu Chao already killed him?’

By this time, he was already near Canyang Valley. At the valley’s mouth, Lu Hanyan’s forty-thousand-strong army was frantically attacking, while the defenders inside used the narrow entrance to desperately hold them off.

And Lu Chao’s recent shout had also slammed into the ears of Lu Hanyan’s deputy general, who was with the forty thousand troops.

The deputy general’s previously indifferent expression turned cold.

He whipped his head toward Lu Chao’s direction and spoke in a chilling tone, ”Who is that over there? Daring to tell us to surrender?”

After saying this, the deputy general immediately ordered his subordinates, ”Come with me to check on the situation. The rest of you, continue the assault on Canyang Valley.”

With that, the deputy general led several hundred men and charged toward Lu Chao’s position.

This sight sent another tremor through Fan Jinhua. He murmured, ”Little Brother Lu is doing this on purpose. He’s luring away the experts for me, luring away the deputy general Lu Hanyan left behind...”

One of Tan An’s men quickly asked, ”Lord Fan, should we set up an ambush for that deputy general?”

Fan Jinhua’s expression shifted wildly. In his current situation, he had a chance to kill the deputy general—the odds of success were fifty-fifty.

If the deputy general were to die, Lu Hanyan’s army of sixty thousand would surely fall into chaos.

But he immediately shook his head. ”No. We do as Little Brother Lu said.”

At this moment, Fan Jinhua didn’t dare to act on his own. He chose to trust Lu Chao and stick to the plan: sneak to Canyang Valley, then burst out with the people they were rescuing and fight their way to Zhengyang Mountain.

”Continue moving stealthily. We’ll wait for the calculated time to strike,” Fan Jinhua said, gritting his teeth.

The ”calculated time” was meant to avoid Lu Hanyan returning too quickly. Their timing was absolutely critical.

「Back with Lu Chao...」

The suffocatingly silent scene finally began to change. Dozens of Innate Masters suddenly roared, ”Kill him!”

Surrender?

Of course not. It was just a young commander, after all.

Even if the deputy general died, it wouldn’t have a major impact. Lu Hanyan was their true Supreme Commander.

And so, the dozens of Innate Masters charged toward Lu Chao once more...

Seeing this, Lu Chao landed on the young commander’s warhorse. He spurred the horse into another mad dash, charging straight toward the dozens of Innate Masters. Just a moment before they clashed, Lu Chao bellowed, ”Fire the arrows!”

The moment his voice fell... TWANG!

Without a moment’s hesitation, Cheng Yunsu loosed an arrow. She decisively shot toward the dozens of Innate Masters. Behind her, Wu Caicai, Tan An, and the others reacted instantly, also firing arrow after arrow.