Li Yan's initial words brought a slight sense of relief to Dong Min's heart, but his next words left her utterly astonished. She was not as injured and helpless as she appeared.
While talking to Li Yan, she had been secretly circulating her internal power to recover her strength, thinking she had done so without a trace.
She didn't fully trust that Li Yan would let them go, so she intended to keep her fate in her own hands, secretly regulating her breath all along.
Dong Min was already prepared to strike at any moment, but Li Yan was terrifyingly perceptive. He had not only seen through her energy fluctuations but had also guessed her thoughts.
Just as Dong Min was about to launch a sudden attack, Li Yan's final sentence made her stop in her tracks. He still intended to let her go. It was truly strange. Dong Min didn't know his true intentions, but since there was a way out, she didn't have time to think too much.
"Then many thanks, Marshal Li!" Dong Min said calmly, her eyes lowered. She then slowly stood up.
"You're welcome!" Li Yan looked at Dong Min with a faint smile. A moment ago, provoked by his words, Dong Min's aura had been on the verge of erupting, but she had quickly suppressed it again. He had, of course, seen all of this but pretended not to know.
However, his expression made it clear to anyone that he had seen through her but chosen not to expose it. This made Dong Min grit her teeth in anger. She finally understood that he had been deliberately toying with her, twisting his words back and forth several times. But even knowing this, what could she do?
"Pass the order, let them leave! But they can only go west. Otherwise, kill them without mercy!" Li Yan said to his side without turning his head.
The surrounding soldiers, including the distant Cui Feng, though filled with doubt and reluctance, had always regarded their Marshal as a celestial being and would never question his orders. They immediately acknowledged the command and cleared a path leading straight down the mountain to the west.
Amidst the glares of the Imperial Dynasty soldiers, which seemed to want to eat her alive, Dong Min calmly picked up her long spear and walked towards her own side. She too had killed many Imperial Dynasty soldiers, so she accepted their bone-deep hatred with composure.
Under the excited gazes of the fifty-odd remaining men from the State of Meng, Dong Min returned to their gathering point. They didn't know what kind of agreement their general had reached with the enemy, but the worst outcome couldn't be worse than dying in battle.
Dong Min whispered a few sentences to her men. With unwilling looks, the fifty men had no choice but to follow Dong Min westward without looking back. They, too, understood that even if they all died here, they wouldn't be able to cross Fallen Immortal Slope by even half a step.
Dong Min hadn't told them the whole truth, only that they would retreat for now and decide on their next course of action later.
"Marshal, are we really just letting them go like this?" Cui Feng came up behind Li Yan and asked respectfully. Although he had followed the order, he was naturally unwilling to let go of the culprit who had killed his brothers. In his heart, he believed that his Marshal must have something else up his sleeve, because Li Yan had never been known to leave an enemy alive.
His thoughts were like everyone else's; he just assumed his Marshal had another plan.
Li Yan sighed inwardly. Why wouldn't he want to kill her? He was clearly not a man who lusted after beauty, yet her every word and glance made it impossible for him to harbor any killing intent. He knew what Cui Feng meant, but this matter was impossible to explain clearly. To do so would make him seem like a man of foolish benevolence and a lecher.
Just as Li Yan was about to turn back and deal with the enemy from the east, the silver-armored woman, who was already a hundred zhang away, suddenly turned back. As her long hair flew, she revealed a devastatingly beautiful smile.
She suddenly took a giant bow from her waist, and her long, slender jade fingers plucked a long, eagle-feathered arrow from her back. At the same time, her crimson lips parted slightly, and her voice, infused with internal power, carried clearly.
"The General's martial arts are peerless, but Dongling Min still has a small trick. I invite you to critique it!" As she spoke, the bowstring vibrated, and a cold glint shot towards Li Yan like a racing thunderbolt. Drawing the bow, turning, and shooting the arrow were all done in one smooth motion, completed in less than two breaths.
At a distance of a hundred zhang, an arrow shot by even the most elite archer in the army would have lost its force halfway through.
But this arrow, infused with the internal power of a Transformation Realm master, let out a sharp, piercing whistle as it tore through the air. In the blink of an eye, it had crossed dozens of zhang, its momentum not diminishing in the slightest.
"Villain, you dare..." Several voices, a mixture of shock and anger, erupted instantly. More than a dozen figures rushed towards Li Yan. Cui Feng, his killing intent overflowing, also leaped into the air without a second thought, wanting to intercept the arrow.
But just as they launched themselves, the arrow, as swift as a thunderbolt, was already less than three zhang from Li Yan. A low chuckle was heard. "All of you, stand down!"
Li Yan had already slightly turned his body, rushing out like a shooting star. At the same time, he slapped his palm out diagonally. In fact, he had noticed Dong Min turning and drawing her bow.
He had merely snorted coldly in his heart, waiting until the arrow was a few zhang away before he advanced instead of retreating.
A full-powered strike from a Transformation Realm master was not something the soldiers here could block. Even Cui Feng would be injured if he forcibly intercepted this arrow.
Li Yan strode forward, his body already to the side of the arrow. He let the arrowhead pass and slapped his palm onto the shaft. Then, Li Yan let out a sound of surprise.
The moment his palm made solid contact, he felt a strange force transmit from the shaft. This force, coming back from the arrowhead, not only resisted half of his palm's power but also rapidly changed the arrow's direction.
At the same time, to an outsider, the arrow that had been flying straight forward paused under Li Yan's diagonal slap, then traced a small arc and shot rapidly towards Li Yan's back. This sudden change caused a wave of gasps from the surroundings.
Li Yan was also startled, but he was a peerless master of his time. He had experienced countless life-and-death situations, whether dueling with masters of the martial world or slaughtering enemies on the battlefield. Although this was unexpected, he was not panicked at all. He shouted, "A good move!"
In the nick of time, he lowered his head and arched his back. The sharp arrow once again shot past his head with a swoosh. But just as the arrow had flown less than a foot, a large hand snatched the fletching with a thump, bringing it to a dead stop in mid-air.
In the distance, the woman who now called herself Dongling Min, after shooting the arrow, did not immediately lead her men to flee, nor did she shoot another arrow. She just watched as Li Yan caught her arrow.
"A sneak attack! Marshal, kill them..."
"We already let you leave, yet you still ambush our Marshal! Death is too good for all of you..."
"Kill them..."
For a moment, the Imperial Dynasty soldiers were filled with uncontrollable rage, glaring furiously into the distance. But without a military order, they still maintained their formation.
Li Yan played with the arrow in his hand, deaf to the voices around him. After examining it for a while, he slowly raised an arm. In an instant, the western battlefield fell silent again. Then, he narrowed his eyes and looked at the enemy from the State of Meng a hundred zhang away.
The soldiers of the State of Meng were now facing a formidable enemy. They didn't know what their general's intention was, but perhaps it was to assassinate the opposing marshal. Now, they could only fight to the death.
But they didn't have the slightest resentment towards their general. At the same time, they were even more terrified of Li Yan's strength. Their general's archery was the best in the three armies; no one in the State of Meng's army could block one of her arrows.
Especially in a surprise attack, the most troublesome part was the strange force on the arrow. The moment you blocked it, you wouldn't know where it would strike from next.
"Dongling... Min? So you are of the State of Meng's royal family. I wonder if you are a princess or a county princess?" Li Yan looked at the silver-armored woman who had previously called herself "Dong Min."
The Meng surname of the State of Meng's founding family had been overthrown for over three hundred years. The "Dongling" surname was now exclusive to the State of Meng's royal family, but they had never changed the name of the state.
Li Yan didn't know why she had suddenly revealed her real name. He frowned and continued.
"Dark Tide Three-Layered Wave, the ultimate internal power technique of the Yuanqing Sect. It is said that no one has been able to master it for at least one hundred and fifty years. Seeing it today has truly opened my eyes. It's a pity you've only mastered one layer of the hidden force. Otherwise, under the influence of an external force, this arrow could have produced two more variations."
"General Li is truly the number one in the world. You are even intimately familiar with an internal power method like the Dark Tide Three-Layered Wave, which has been lost for many years and is known to almost no one. Min is impressed!"
Dongling Min bit her lower lip, her face pale as she spoke. The arrow just now had consumed almost all of the internal power she had just recovered, and now she only felt drained.
Although she had mastered the Dark Tide Three-Layered Wave, even at her peak, she could shoot at most three such arrows, and she needed to regulate her breath and calm her mind between each shot.
Although the regulation time was short, in the eyes of a master, it was not a continuous three-arrow shot, much less the supreme skill of hiding three layers of hidden force in a single arrow.
Dongling Min was also shocked because although a very small number of people still knew that the Dark Tide Three-Layered Wave was the ultimate internal power method of the Yuanqing Sect, Li Yan had deciphered it with a single word after blocking the arrow just once.
It should be known that the world's top archery masters, even without cultivating the Dark Tide Three-Layered Wave internal power, could achieve a kind of ricocheting arrow effect through their immersion in archery, but they could never achieve the triple attack effect of the Dark Tide Three-Layered Wave.
"Alright, you may all go!" After learning that the other party was from the State of Meng's royal family, Li Yan, although a killing intent rose in him, suddenly lost all interest as he looked at that pretty face. He waved his hand dismissively.
In fact, Li Yan also felt that the other party's intention just now was more about comparing martial arts. Otherwise, with that single layer of hidden force, the arrow wouldn't have been aimed at his back, but his head.
'Or perhaps, because I let her go once, she also held back,' Li Yan thought.
What he didn't know was that after Dongling Min shot the first arrow, she didn't continue with a second one, partly because she hadn't recovered her strength. But there was another reason: when Dongling Min shot the first arrow, she only felt that her most proud skill had not yet been displayed, and she was still unreconciled to her previous defeat. But the moment she released her fingers, a sense of regret arose in her heart, and she subconsciously adjusted her internal power.
But she was still unable to retract the shot arrow. So at that moment, she stood there, her mind somewhat blank. She didn't know why her heart was unwilling to shoot that arrow.
She thought that after Li Yan spoke, he would come charging over like a demon god. But his eyes only flashed with a sharp light, and then he waved his hand again, letting her and her group leave.
Dongling Min didn't say anything more. She cupped her hands and was about to turn and leave, but she suddenly stopped again, as if hesitating about something. Her group of soldiers from the State of Meng saw their general not leaving and thought, 'Are we really going to fight to the death and be buried here today?'