Moass raised his large shield and bravely lunged toward the war horse. The Turkic warrior’s flail struck his massive shield, producing a thunderous boom. The horse’s front hooves also trampled on the shield, and Moass’s body was immediately kicked away. Watching as the remaining war slaves desperately raised their shields, dodging left and right among the horses, struggling to block the Turkic cavalry, Moass ignored his already drooping left arm and lifted his shield with his right hand to charge forward once again.
The basket in Xiao Miao’s hands fell to the ground. She blinked her eyes desperately, hoping everything before her was an illusion, unable to believe what was happening. The children who had just been asking her for food now lay convulsing in pools of blood. Some children still had pieces of flatbread clenched in their mouths, which they hadn’t spit out even in death.
That child’s leg had been trampled and broken by a war horse. He had barely crawled two steps when a horse’s hoof stepped on his head. The sound of his skull bursting made Xiao Miao shudder violently. That little girl wearing the red dress—the dress was one she herself had given her. The girl had loved this dress that was much too large for her, wearing it even after it had turned black with grime, unwilling to take it off.
Now she lay in the corner, vomiting blood from her mouth in great mouthfuls, staining the red dress even more crimson. The world seemed very far away from Xiao Miao. Her temples throbbed, and her eyes seemed to be stained red by the little girl’s red dress.
The handmaiden pulled forcefully at Xiao Miao’s waist, hoping to drag the frightened Xiao Miao back. The battlefield had never been a place where women should be. Another handmaiden held Xiao Miao’s spear, making false thrusts to frighten the Turkic cavalry away.
With a lift of her hand, Xiao Miao sent the handmaiden holding her up onto the high wall. She snatched the spear from the other handmaiden’s hands with a swift motion, and with a flick of the spear shaft, sent her up onto the high wall as well.
Then she dragged the spear behind her and advanced toward the Turkic cavalry. She hadn’t been frightened stupid earlier—she just couldn’t understand how people could be cruel to this extent. Back when she had robbed Marquis Yun, he hadn’t killed anyone and had found a way out for everyone. When she went to Yuezhou, she had seen that Aunt Hua, Uncle Zhao, and the others were doing wonderfully. Aunt Liu from the Liu family, who was nearly fifty, was even pregnant with a big belly, and she still blushed whenever anyone mentioned it.
How could things be like this here? They could see that children filled the alley, yet they led their cavalry to trample over them? This reasoning was wrong—it shouldn’t be this way. They should have dismounted, driven the children away, and then talked about seizing her. That way, at most, she would have just broken his other leg.
Moass retreated to protect Xiao Miao. He no longer had the strength to fight back. On his shoulder and back was a wound so deep the bone was visible. Vahishti was hiding completely under his large shield, with those cavalrymen continuously controlling their war horses to trample him. Xiao Miao’s spear shaft swayed, and Moass retreated behind her. With a scraping motion of her foot, the large shield that had fallen to the ground flew up spinning, severing the Turkic warrior’s horse’s head along with his own head. The shield, horse’s head, and human head all flew far before crashing into the wall, immediately adding two crimson smears to the earthen wall.
Moass dragged back Vahishti, who had been wounded in the leg. Thirty completely unprepared infantrymen wanting to resist the Turkic elite cavalry and not being slaughtered in the first instant was already quite remarkable.
Xiao Miao’s eyes turned very red, and the world she saw was also red. Xiao Miao knew how to deal with cavalry. The ground was littered with fallen short swords. As she walked forward, she continuously kicked the short swords or shields on the ground, sending them flying. The short swords would lodge in horse legs, while the shields would spin and sever horse hooves. Watching the cavalry crash thunderously to the ground, Xiao Miao carefully controlled her feet. Master had said that every part of the body had its use, and everything in the world could be used to kill, as long as one controlled it well, one could achieve a killing blow.
To conserve strength, her spear always stopped at just the right point. If she could kill an enemy with thirty percent of her strength, she would absolutely not use fifty percent. Thus, her spear tip constantly appeared at the Turkic warriors’ throats, behind their ears, or directly thrust into their mouths…
She had just counted—she had already killed eight Turkic warriors. This made her very pleased, but the small bodies of children under her feet made her want to vomit, so she quickened her pace, preparing to cross this field of blood and flesh. The sticky blood made her uncomfortable all over her body.
She saw the war slave called Xerxes. The war hammer in his hand had just beaten a Turkic warrior to death when a long blade came slashing from behind. Xiao Miao kicked up a long blade from under her feet and continued walking forward. She was already getting somewhat irritated at this point. Xerxes knew a blade was slashing toward him from behind but had no way to block it. After waiting a long time without feeling any pain, he looked back to see a Turkic warrior pinned to the earthen wall by a long blade, coughing up blood in great mouthfuls.
The war hammer striking the spear shaft sounded like forging iron. Xiao Miao didn’t care—her spear could always borrow the force of the war hammer’s strike to become even faster, to the point where the war slaves behind her didn’t dare approach her side.
The spear was like a venomous dragon. With each bite, someone would lose their life. Even if there was only a small hole behind the ear, death would be immediate. This cavalry spear belonged to the Marquis. She had taken it from the weapons rack when leaving. It was said to contain the essence of the five metals, combining hardness and softness, and would never rust even if not cleaned for a lifetime. The spear tip was said to have five layers—soft on the inside, hard on the outside—and would not easily break even if struck with a large hammer. Xiao Miao hadn’t believed it before, but now she did, because this spear had clearly been bent, yet after the hammer left, it would become very straight again, and the spear tip could still easily pierce through iron armor.
The spear was very heavy because there was a person impaled on it. She shook off the person from the spear head—she could already see Ashina Botan’s hateful ugly face.
“Shoot arrows!” Ashina Botan shouted loudly. Xiao Miao had never seen such a stupid pig. Before shooting arrows, he had to shout loudly. When the Marquis and the others shot crossbow bolts at people, they never yelled. Once you’ve announced it clearly, how can you still kill anyone? Xiao Miao’s body was small, and the war slaves’ large shields could cover her completely.
The shields rang ding-ding-dang-dang. Xiao Miao dragged her spear and continued approaching Ashina Botan. She really wanted to ask this fellow whether trampling children to death on horseback was very pleasant. No one in this world killed people without reason.
The Turkic war horses ran very fast. They wanted to knock Xiao Miao flying, just as they had dealt with Moass. Xiao Miao indeed flew up, stepping on the horse’s head and kicking the rider in the head. Xiao Miao’s shoes had iron plates inside. From the first day she trained martial arts with Wu She, he had made her a pair of iron shoes. Now she only added an iron plate to the sole of the shoes, and the tip of the shoes still had a small section of dagger.
The rider fell from the horse. Xiao Miao’s foot hooked the reins and forcefully lifted the horse’s head. The war horse immediately stood up on its hind legs, its hooves dancing in a large circle before dropping its front hooves backward. Xiao Miao now had a horse, because those Turkic warriors had already begun to flee. She was prepared today to catch them all and ask them properly: why?
Ashina Botan was filled with regret. He had thought that with these elite cavalry, he could snatch that woman back. Who knew he would hit a wall? She could actually be formidable to this extent. Half his cavalry had suffered casualties, and he didn’t know how he would explain this to his father in a moment.
That woman wasn’t even pretty. If not for her abundant wealth, he wouldn’t have given her a second glance. He had seen the Ocean Blue Pearl—that was a treasure among treasures in the human world. He’d heard that woman had taken it out very casually. Botan didn’t believe she only had this one pearl.
The Turkic people’s mounted archery was very famous, so all war horses carried bows and arrows. Xiao Miao dodged two arrows, hung her spear on the victory hook, reached out to take the longbow, and pulled out a long arrow. These wolf-fang arrows were made very crudely, without even barbs. The family’s long arrows all had barbs. Since it wasn’t a good arrow, she shot very casually. The long arrow passed over the horse’s head and finally lodged in the back of a Turkic warrior’s skull. Xiao Miao deliberately spared Botan—she still had questions to ask him in a moment.
The main street of Suiye City was in chaos. Over forty horses galloped ahead, with people constantly falling from their horses, rolling twice before lying still. A young girl in a red dress rode on horseback in tight pursuit. Whenever the bowstring in her hand sounded, the riders ahead would cry out in agony. After experiencing brief chaos, the people of Suiye City hid on both sides of the road to watch the show, because the girl behind was Anji, and many children were even calling out “Sister Anji.”
The Turkic warriors couldn’t endure such humiliation. They wheeled their horses around, howling and waving their long blades as they charged toward Xiao Miao. They couldn’t accept such disgrace.
The two horses crossed. Xiao Miao continued forward. The warrior’s war horse slowly stopped, and the man fell from the horse’s back. Spurting blood from his throat soaked the sand and stones on the ground. Thunderous cheers rang out in the street. Xiao Miao had already charged into the Turkic warriors. Her spear once again began to demonstrate its might.
The war horse neighed as it passed through the crowd. Xiao Miao dodged the sweeping long blade and, like a civet cat, dove under the horse’s belly. The spear shot up like a venomous snake, drilling into the Turkic cavalryman’s ear. Before she could return to the horse’s back, her war horse’s head had already been smashed by a heavy hammer and crashed thunderously to the ground. Amid the crowd’s screaming, Xiao Miao stood up once again from the dust, only with her sleeves covered in dust. Gripping the spear in her hand and taking short steps, she once again faced two charging cavalry. The sweeping spear struck and broke the war horse’s front legs. The Turkic warrior had just leaped from his war horse when he was pierced completely through by a spear thrust diagonally.
The remaining few riders no longer dared to turn back and fight. They pressed their bodies tightly against their horses’ backs and frantically whipped their horses in flight.
Xiao Miao led over a horse and slowly mounted it. She patted the horse’s neck, and the war horse slowly walked forward. There was no need to be too fast—she had seen those cavalrymen rush into a high-walled compound. She still had questions to ask, so how could they go home?
A white carriage stopped by the roadside. The master inside the carriage lifted the curtain and watched this battle from beginning to end. Lowering the curtain, he said to the person beside him: “There’s no need to visit the Ashina family. They won’t escape this calamity today.”
“Elder jests. Could that woman really slaughter the entire Ashina family?”
“She will. Her killing intent has not yet dissipated.” After answering the person beside him, he lifted the curtain and asked the coachman: “What is this woman’s name?”
“Anji. The Angel Anji!”