The arrow whistled through the air. In just the blink of an eye, the Liang army general who had just been shouting that he had beheaded Princess Zhenguo fell silent instantly, blood mist spraying.

The feathered arrow that pierced through the Liang junior general shot straight into the wooden post supporting the army tent, its blood-stained tail quivering incessantly.

Bai Qingyan grabbed the reins and forcibly reined in her horse.

The angry horse reared and neighed, its cry splitting the sky.

Cao Renyi, still fighting, turned his head…

The commander’s main tent had already been set ablaze, with raging flames dancing wildly in the wind, illuminating the surrounding Jin camp in bright red.

On horseback, Bai Qingyan gripped the Sun-Shooting Bow, her armor reflecting the orange-yellow firelight as if she carried flames upon her body.

One person, one horse—like a war god descended from heaven, radiating killing intent with a proud and lofty bearing.

She exposed herself before this towering firelight to stabilize the army’s morale, shouting: “Bai Qingyan is here! Those seeking death may come to battle!”

The Jin army soldiers, amid fighting, saw their commander gripping the Sun-Shooting Bow while mounted high on her horse, appearing before the blazing fire with her red cloak fluttering like hunting banners in the cold wind, like an eagle spreading its wings, shouting for battle. They were immediately filled with passionate fervor, fighting desperately and beheading enemy troops.

Cao Renyi seized a bow and arrow from the soldiers beside him, drew a feathered arrow, steadied his breathing to aim at Bai Qingyan, mounted high on her horse, who was continuously drawing arrows to shoot at the Liang army rushing toward her, and released!

The arrow, gleaming with cold light, whistled through the wind toward Bai Qingyan. Cao Renyi held his breath… staring fixedly at the arrow he had just shot, praying to heaven that he must not miss his target, otherwise… as a fellow archer, Princess Zhenguo would surely discover his position!

Just when Cao Renyi thought the arrow would certainly pierce through Bai Qingyan’s armor and chest, a cold gleam descended from above, cutting the feathered arrow in half.

A man without a helmet, riding a black warhorse and wielding a blood-dripping long sword, protected Bai Qingyan in front of her. His deep, profound cold eyes looked toward Cao Renyi’s direction, his gaze sharp as a blade, with fierce yet restrained killing intent.

When their eyes met, Cao Renyi felt his spine grow cold from the overwhelming, deadly aura in the man’s eyes.

Having found Cao Renyi’s position, Xiao Rongyan’s lips curved slightly upward. He raised his sword, pointing toward Cao Renyi. Yue Shi, mounted on his steed, received his master’s command and was no longer entangled with Liang soldiers. His form shot out rapidly like a flying swallow, his gaze locked on Cao Renyi. However, he didn’t expect that Shen Qingzhu had already discovered the position Xiao Rongyan was pointing to, one step ahead of Yue Shi, charging out half a step faster than Yue Shi, drawing twin blades from behind with cold light flashing.

Cao Renyi saw two extremely fast black shadows approaching from the flying dust, seemingly with thunderous momentum. Wherever the cold gleam of metal reached, the shield bearers protecting him screamed and fell one after another, about to attack right in front of Cao Renyi.

At this time, the troops led by Yang Wuce had already charged into the military camp. The tide had turned decisively.

Before Cao Renyi could react, Shen Qingzhu’s long sword’s cold gleam came slashing down toward Cao Renyi from above.

At the moment of flickering cold light, Cao Renyi almost instinctively raised his sword to block. When the blade edges clashed, sparks flew momentarily with an ear-piercing sound.

Yue Shi coordinated with Shen Qingzhu, raising his sword to attack Cao Renyi’s chest. The long sword pierced through armor and entered half an inch into Cao Renyi’s chest, preventing the Liang generals beside Cao Renyi from defending against Shen Qingzhu.

The group protecting Cao Renyi continuously retreated.

However, Cao Renyi hadn’t expected that the cold-faced woman would attack his neck with a short blade in her left hand, clearly intending to take his head. If his comrade beside him hadn’t pulled him away, at this moment… Cao Renyi’s head would certainly have fallen to the ground.

These two had extraordinary martial skills, with every move being a killing blow. If not for the many people protecting him, his life would have ended right here!

Cao Renyi pressed his chest tightly, his heart still surging with shock. He looked at the Liang soldiers continuously stepping forward to risk their lives protecting him, and at Shen Qingzhu and Yue Shi approaching with steady gazes to kill him.

“Raise the surrender flag! Surrender!” Cao Renyi gritted his teeth and shouted. “Great Liang’s Daming Prefecture defending general Cao Renyi surrenders!”

“General!” The Liang soldier supporting Cao Renyi looked at him incredulously.

“There must be a traitor in our Liang camp! The Jin army was prepared early and attacked from both sides. We cannot let our soldiers make meaningless sacrifices anymore! Raise the surrender flag!” Knowing the defeat was already decided, Cao Renyi would not struggle pointlessly. He pressed his chest wound tightly and commanded loudly again: “Raise the surrender flag!”

Originally, Cao Renyi might have worried that Bai Qingyan would kill them as surrendered prisoners, but now Bai Qingyan seemed intent on clearing her name of massacring surrendered prisoners, taking all the original Liang army under her command, and even treating the epidemic among Liang troops and civilians. So Cao Renyi no longer worried about this.

The general protecting Cao Renyi in the center gritted his teeth and then used his long spear to raise a white flag.

With the enemy’s white flag raised, Shen Qingzhu and Yue Shi could no longer pursue and kill Cao Renyi. The roaring sounds of the two armies clashing like boiling water meeting hot oil gradually subsided around Cao Renyi as the center.

Shen Qingzhu took a deep look at Cao Renyi, sheathed his sword, turned around, and walked toward Bai Qingyan’s direction.

On New Year’s Eve, the thirtieth day of the twelfth month in the seventeenth year of Xuanjia, Daming Prefecture’s defending general Cao Renyi led sixty thousand troops in a night assault on the Jin camp, but instead fell into a trap and surrendered in defeat.

Yang Wuce led troops to surround the Liang army. Before he even had time to engage in battle, Cao Renyi had already surrendered.

Cao Renyi, protected in the middle by Liang troops, looked through the chaos of war toward the direction of the Jin army’s main camp, where the tent was ablaze with roaring fire. He could vaguely see a silver-armored woman who had already dismounted, standing outside the commander’s tent, calmly and steadily giving orders to Yang Wuce.

After Yang Wuce received the orders, he leaped onto his horse and loudly commanded the Jin army to disarm the Liang army and imprison all Liang troops.

At this moment, Cao Renyi felt an indescribable taste in his heart. Today, he had led troops here to behead Princess Zhenguo or capture her alive.

But the battle had just begun, and he had already been defeated!

He hadn’t even touched a hair on Princess Zhenguo and was already defeated…

Cao Renyi gritted his teeth as he looked at Yang Wuce, who was looking in his direction, waiting for Yang Wuce to order him, this surrendered general, to be brought before the Jin Kingdom’s Princess Zhenguo. Once he found out who had betrayed him, he would certainly make that person pay! After Princess Zhenguo truly believed he had surrendered, he could also find an opportunity to turn traitor again.

But Yang Wuce’s gaze merely swept over Cao Renyi, only commanding loudly: “Imprison all Daming Prefecture garrison generals separately.”

Seeing that Yang Wuce had no intention of bringing him to see Princess Zhenguo, Cao Renyi shouted: “Yang Wuce! Does Princess Zhenguo not wish to see me?”

Yang Wuce clasped his hands toward Cao Renyi’s direction: “General Cao, please forgive us. Princess Zhenguo is not free at the moment! Let the military doctors bandage General Cao’s wounds first!”

Cao Renyi was quite surprised. Could it be that Princess Zhenguo didn’t want to see him quickly to ask about Daming Prefecture’s situation, to ask whether he could help her capture Daming Prefecture?

Cao Renyi disregarded his chest wound, straightened up, and said to Yang Wuce: “Yang Wuce, you ask Princess Zhenguo whether she wants to attack by force with casualties to capture Daming Prefecture, or listen to my words to enter Daming Prefecture smoothly!”