Chapter 76: Breakout
When the surrounding wall of shields was only five meters away from Su Xiao, over a dozen long weapons thrust out from the gaps between the tower shields. As the encirclement grew tighter, the soldiers around Su Xiao naturally clustered more densely—he was waiting for this opportunity.
Su Xiao gripped the hilt of Dragon-Slaying Flash and drew his long blade.
*Clang.*
A pale blue ring-shaped blade aura spread outward, Ring Break: Maximum Output.
*Whoosh!*
The ring-shaped slash swept through, severing tower shields one after another. The undead soldiers behind those shields naturally could not escape.
The pale blue ring-shaped blade aura expanded, and wherever it passed, undead soldiers were bisected at the chest. Blood sprayed violently, and the pungent stench of blood spread.
Armor clashed, tower shields collided, and all undead soldiers within sixty meters of Su Xiao fell. Screams of agony instantly echoed across the battlefield, creating a scene like a hellish abyss.
The undead soldiers at the rear could not see what was happening ahead, but they could hear those blood-curdling screams.
Amid the blood stood Su Xiao, long blade in hand. A faint green light gathered on his sword-wielding hand—this was a surge of life force absorbed by Dragon-Slashing Flash, capable of rapidly healing his injuries. Since he had no wounds, this pure life force dissipated into the air.
Drops of blood splattered onto Su Xiao’s cheek. He scanned his surroundings, stepped onto the corpse in front of him, and charged into the surging tide of enemies.
The sounds of slashing and screaming merged into one. Su Xiao swung his blade, sending a head flying, while simultaneously kicking an undead soldier beside him.
*Crack!*
A crisp sound rang out as Su Xiao’s kick shattered several ribs of that undead soldier. The soldier let out a low groan of pain and tried to charge at Su Xiao again, but his body gradually lost strength—two broken ribs had pierced his heart.
*Ptoo! Ptoo! Ptoo!*
Su Xiao slashed three times in quick succession, leaving three silver threads suspended in the air. An undead soldier froze in place, then his body shattered.
Having just killed one enemy, Su Xiao immediately crouched low. A gleaming halberd blade swept over his head. With his Instinct ability, his back was not a blind spot.
He casually grabbed a broadsword from the ground and tossed it behind him without looking.
The broadsword directly pierced the throat of an undead soldier. The soldier staggered back, released his weapon, and clutched at the broadsword. The moment he grabbed it, his vision went black. The last thing he saw was a man wielding a long blade, charging through the undead ranks—wherever he went, large numbers of undead soldiers fell.
A sharp pain came from beneath his ribs. Su Xiao had been hit by a metal arrow from an unknown source. In the chaos of battle, escaping unscathed was a fantasy.
Pulling the metal arrow from his ribs, Su Xiao slashed through the chest of one undead soldier and then drove the arrow into the throat of another.
At this moment, Su Xiao was ferocious. Any soldier daring to enter within three meters of him was immediately cut down—throat slashed or heart pierced. But even so, the number of undead soldiers around him was overwhelming.
While killing enemies, Su Xiao was breaking out in one direction: toward the Dark Moon Swamp. Based on his observations, beheading the enemy commander was temporarily impossible.
This situation differed from a battle between two armies. The undead commander only needed to set up the formation and let his soldiers surround and kill Su Xiao—no further orders were necessary.
Thus, this undead commander had changed into ordinary soldier armor. Trying to find him among over ten thousand soldiers was less practical than attempting a direct breakout.
The beheading plan was dead before birth. Su Xiao could only rely on his long blade and his will to fight his way out—to carve a bloody path.
Blood splattered, severed limbs flew. Su Xiao had lost count of how many undead soldiers he had killed, and he had no mood to tally. Using the Apostle’s Eye to determine direction, he broke out toward that path.
*Bang!*
Su Xiao kicked an undead soldier’s head apart, grabbed the corpse, and hurled it forward.
The corpse crashed into a cluster of undead soldiers, knocking them down in a heap. Just as they tried to get up, a shockwave struck them head-on.
*Boom!*
An explosion resounded across the battlefield. The unique flames of an Alchemy Bomb surged wildly. Soldiers caught in the fire screamed in agony, instinctively clawing at their armor—but it was not the armor burning.
Soon, over a dozen charred corpses lay on the ground. Su Xiao had already vanished, moving along a blood-covered path. He had advanced twenty meters, but the path was quickly filled by the surging soldiers from all sides.
Logically, with Su Xiao slaughtering like this within the soldier tide, the surrounding undead soldiers should have been terrified into a rout, or at least a small-scale retreat.
But that did not happen. The eyes of the surrounding undead soldiers were bloodshot, showing no intention of stopping until Su Xiao was dead. As for their fallen comrades, they died for the empire, for the Enlightened One.
The death of the Enlightened One had clearly provoked the undead soldiers. The Enlightened One did not refer to a specific person; it was more like the ‘totem’ of the undead race. Sometimes this ‘totem’ was an ethereal existence, other times it would manifest physically. All Enlightened Ones lived simply, never leaving the Shelter Tree in their lifetimes, guiding their people.
Now their ‘totem’ was dead. Through the undead high command’s embellishments, the Enlightened One’s death was linked to Su Xiao. By the time this reached the lower soldiers, it became that Su Xiao had killed the Enlightened One.
Su Xiao had killed their ‘living totem.’ These soldiers wanted to tear him apart alive; there was no chance of them fleeing.
Su Xiao pressed forward in his breakout. It seemed he was cutting down undead soldiers with a single blade aura, but these soldiers were not the elite forces of the undead race. If surrounded by elite troops, whether Su Xiao could break out was uncertain.
Blood splattered, the long blade rang. Su Xiao carved a bloody path through the undead army, like a god of slaughter incarnate.
At the edge of the battlefield, an ‘undead soldier’ stood on a high slope, witnessing the scene below. He was the commander of this undead force.
The undead commander exchanged a few words with his adjutant. He realized that letting Su Xiao continue like this was unsustainable. Reinforcements would take time to arrive. If this went on, Su Xiao might actually break out—he was too fierce. Undead soldiers were not falling one by one, but in waves.
Thus, the undead commander decided to send cavalry to block Su Xiao’s escape route and launch a countercharge. Once entangled by cavalry, Su Xiao would not escape so easily.
Just as the undead commander gave the order, a pair of eyes from several hundred meters away locked onto him.
At the center of the battlefield, Su Xiao snapped an undead soldier’s throat. He had made an unexpected gain—he had found the commander of this undead force.
Within the undead tide, Su Xiao slashed several times, sending sprays of blood around him. As he killed a few more undead soldiers, he leaped into the air.
*Boom!*
The ground beneath Su Xiao’s feet shattered. He jumped over ten meters high—a simple feat given his physical condition. Why not jump higher? That would make him an easy target for enemy ranged soldiers.
The Duke of Annihilation appeared in Su Xiao’s hands. He had only a moment. Duke Domain activated, and a scope extended from the gun’s barrel.
As he pulled the bolt, Su Xiao brought his eye to the scope. The crosshairs aligned with the distant undead commander.
He had only a thirty percent chance of hitting this shot, and only one opportunity. If he jumped again, the anti-air attacks from the undead forces would not be kind.
Su Xiao’s index finger pulled the trigger. The recoil from the Duke of Annihilation sent him flying backward. In the split second before being thrown back, he saw through the scope a burst of blood mist—the upper body of the undead commander had been blown apart.
Flesh and blood splattered. The adjutants beside the undead commander stood frozen in place.
When Su Xiao landed, he had already put away the Duke of Annihilation. His only goal now was to break out—either fight his way out or die here.
An hour later, Su Xiao sat on a horse carcass. Blood dripped from the tips of his hair.
Five minutes ago, he had successfully broken out. The pursuing cavalry had also been dealt with. But he could not be happy.
Although he had broken out, this was the first time the undead army had discovered his whereabouts. If he could not even escape the first encirclement, he might as well find a scenic spot to bury himself.
The current situation was that the undead race had constructed an even larger encirclement. The time Su Xiao had spent breaking out was too long. If he was not mistaken, the entire surrounding area was now surrounded by undead forces.
If Su Xiao was surrounded again, it would not be ten thousand undead soldiers, but tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, closing in to kill him.