Jun Beiyue’s ambush hadn’t just dealt Minhan Mudeer a crushing blow — its impact on Xuanyuan Lige, while less direct, was significant as well.

Xuanyuan Lige, of course, knew full well that Jun Beiyue’s elite forces, the three Tiger Armies, had always guarded the Three Realms.

But he had calculated carefully — once Jun Beiyue’s return path east was cut off, he would surely dispatch the Tiger Armies to relieve the situation there, leaving him no time to spare for Xichu!

He never expected that Jun Beiyue wouldn’t need the Tiger Armies for reinforcement at all!

As a result, all three Tiger Armies remained fully concentrated on the Xichu battlefield!

This meant it was now absolutely impossible for Xuanyuan Lige to redeploy the Xiongnu forces to reinforce Minhan Mudeer.

At this moment, within Xichu, just as in the Three Realms, war raged on every front!

Xuanyuan Lige not only had to hold off the three Tiger Generals but also continue his assault on Xichu’s cities — every step of the way proved extraordinarily difficult!

It could be said he was fighting a war on two fronts — evading the three Tiger Armies while racing against time to strike toward Xichu’s capital!

Given the current situation, if he could just avoid the three Tiger Armies, there was still hope of taking Xichu’s capital — but if this dragged on until Jun Beiyue turned his forces east, all hope would be lost entirely!

Regardless of the cost, he had to break into Xichu’s capital in this battle.

That city stood on the old site of the Great Qin capital — for the House of Xuanyuan, it represented so, so much; for him, after most of a lifetime, it meant so, so much as well.

As for avoiding the three Tiger Generals?

Without hesitation, Xuanyuan Lige deployed the Xiongnu forces to hold off the Tiger Armies, while he himself commanded the sound-killing troops on a relentless dash straight toward Xichu’s capital, evading confrontation along the way!

“Your Highness, there’s an ambush ahead!”

Suddenly, mid-advance, the vanguard hurried back to report!

“Cut through!” Xuanyuan Lige said without a moment’s hesitation. In this kind of situation, even half a day’s delay could produce a completely different outcome!

He couldn’t afford the delay. The sound-killing army was renowned for its incredible speed — nothing was to slow their advance, and even an ambush was to be trampled straight through!

Indeed, this had been the pattern the entire way — Xichu’s ambushes had never given them any real trouble.

But this time, the guard hesitated, stammering, “Your Highness, there are only three people on the other side, and they…”

At this, Xuanyuan Lige seemed to already understand, his brow furrowing sharply, saying through gritted teeth, coldly, “Him again?!”

The guard nodded immediately. “Your Highness, this time it’s just three of them — two children, and one… one scholar.”

At these words, Xuanyuan Lige’s face darkened as dark as it could possibly go. Without answering further, he immediately shot forward off his horse, heading straight ahead.

Baili Weisheng!

That relentless, haunting nuisance Baili Weisheng, yet again!

Everyone assumed that the refined, scholarly-looking man personally leading Jun Beiyue’s three elite Tiger Armies actually commanded troops — but in truth, this wretched scoundrel didn’t lead anyone at all!

He didn’t even travel with the three Tiger Generals; forget leading them, all he did was feed the three armies devious schemes while personally coming to block Xuanyuan Lige’s path.

In previous encounters, his various traps had forced Xuanyuan Lige to leave two units of sound-killing troops behind, delaying them, falling behind the main force — and to this day, they still hadn’t caught up.

This time, the fellow had finally shown himself in person!

Given how every second counted, Xuanyuan Lige genuinely wanted to strip the skin from his body, pull the tendons from his bones!

A flash of purple shadow descended, and Xuanyuan Lige stood at the very front of his entire army. Not far off, Baili Weisheng stood in white robes and a square cap, a folding fan in hand, the very picture of a delicate, weak-mannered scholar. On either side of him stood, on one side, Baili Xiaosheng dressed as a young pharmacist’s apprentice, and on the other, Xiong Xiaobao dressed as a servant boy.

One man and two children, all wearing expressions of amiable innocence, gazing at the grim, forbidding Xuanyuan Lige from a distance, as though they weren’t here to block his path at all, merely passersby, utterly harmless.

Xuanyuan Lige’s gaze swept over Xiong Xiaobao, and Xiong Xiaobao suddenly felt something was off, whispering, “Uncle Scholar, why’s he staring at me for so long?”

“He thinks you’re cuter than Baili Xiaosheng,” Baili Weisheng said with a smile.

Xiong Xiaobao, of course, had no idea about the “relationship” between Xuanyuan Lige and his mommy, only sensing that something was off, though he couldn’t quite say what, and not bothering to press the matter further, asked instead, “Uncle Scholar, what do we do next?”

“Your daddy only gave me one instruction — stall him. What do you think I should do?” Baili Weisheng asked in return.

But no sooner had he finished speaking than Xuanyuan Lige suddenly shot up into the air, moving like a startled swan, exuding a chilling, murderous aura, charging straight at Baili Weisheng!

“Master, he’s a lot like my daddy and mommy, isn’t he — none of them like wasting words!” Xiong Xiaobao said, immediately retreating along with Baili Xiaosheng.

“Right! Guess I shouldn’t waste words with him either, then.”

Baili Weisheng sighed lightly, remaining entirely unmoved in the face of Xuanyuan Lige’s fierce assault, calm as a mountain.

Only when Xuanyuan Lige’s wind blade shot out did he shift to the side to dodge — yet even in dodging, his movements were remarkably slow, or rather, not slow exactly, but leisurely!

A casual sidestep, an indifferent tilt of the head, a lazy bend at the waist — each move precisely, unfailingly avoided Xuanyuan Lige’s attacks.

One fast and fierce, the other slow and unhurried, creating a stark contrast between them.

And yet, even so, Baili Weisheng gained no clear advantage either — the two of them simply had different styles, their strength evenly matched.

Xuanyuan Lige, clearly attacking while steadily closing the distance, while Baili Weisheng made no move at all, still standing in place.

At last, amid this dance of fast and slow, Xuanyuan Lige suddenly halted, stopping abruptly right in front of Baili Weisheng.

Baili Weisheng, ever the gentleman, made no move to strike while he had the chance, standing perfectly still with a bright, harmless smile on his face.

But the very first thing he said carried enough force to make someone cough up blood from internal injury!

He said, “Little Lili, long time no see! You’ve gotten even prettier!”

Instantly, countless veins bulged across Xuanyuan Lige’s forehead. Without another word of nonsense, he swept his hand out abruptly, several wind blades concealed between his fingers, like several blades all at once.

Baili Weisheng’s lips curved into a mischievous, teasing smile as he retreated, already prepared, drawing a zither from behind his back!

Though the zither remained half-covered in wrapping cloth, Xuanyuan Lige recognized it at a glance — that was Xuezheng, the Blood Zither!

The very blood zither he had raised on his own blood!

“Baili Weisheng!” Xuanyuan Lige was truly enraged now — the very thing he’d been desperately searching for all this time had somehow ended up in this wretched scholar’s hands!

Yet Baili Weisheng only kept smiling cheerfully. “You’re finally willing to speak, then!”

Xuanyuan Lige’s eyes narrowed sharply, and he immediately drew his own zither from behind his back, striking a single note with a resounding “twang!”

That first note alone was enough to nearly deafen Baili Weisheng, standing closest to him.

But, unexpectedly, the moment Xuanyuan Lige began playing, the thousands of sound-killing soldiers behind him all made the exact same movement in perfect unison — drawing zithers from their backs, some sitting cross-legged, playing with both hands, others standing in place, holding the zither in one arm while plucking the strings with the other!

Whether standing or sitting, whether Xuanyuan Lige himself or the sound-killing soldiers, everyone’s movements were astonishingly identical!

Seeing this, Baili Weisheng drew a sharp breath of cold air, while behind him, Baili Xiaosheng cried out urgently, “Master, weren’t we supposed to just stall him? How did you manage to enrage him instead?”