The soldiers of the Great Xuan were brave and fearless in battle.

But in condition and in numbers alike, they fell far short of Gaoli's.

In heat like this, after three days without a drop of water, their strength had run out long before.

Yet on sheer ferocity alone, they fought until the Gaoli soldiers' courage failed them.

In the end, though, they lost!

The battle lasted from morning until dusk.

Zhong Xiuwen was dead. He fell on his way to take the banner.

He was soaked in blood, his body covered in wounds cut to the bone. He'd bled nearly dry.

Gao Junfeng was dead too.

His body bristled with spears. He stood on a heap of corpses, dead on his feet, still upright.

The sounds of battle grew fainter and fainter.

Only a handful of Great Xuan soldiers were left.

Finally, the sounds of battle stopped altogether.

Every Gaoli soldier had gone pale. The Great Xuan soldiers' ferocity had terrified them.

Piao Yingwu waited with a dark face for the count of the dead and wounded.

Four hours later, the count was finally in.

Of the Great Xuan soldiers, not one was left alive. Every last one had died fighting.

Gaoli's dead and wounded came to more than forty thousand.

Piao Yingwu said nothing. His fingertips wouldn't stop trembling.

He was afraid!

His archer battalion had already wiped out part of the Great Xuan force during the charge.

That meant about fifteen thousand men had cost them more than forty thousand dead and wounded... and that was after three days without a drop of water!

Night lay heavy.

The army under Ning Chen had made camp to rest.

The tent flap lifted, and Xiao Yanxi came in.

She saw how irritable Ning Chen looked. "Still worried about General Zhong and the others?"

Ning Chen grunted. "I don't know why. I'm on edge. I keep feeling something bad has happened."

Then he called out, "Go find Yuan Long. Ask him whether the men he sent to get information are back yet."

The words were barely out when Yuan Long's…