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Heir of the White Lotus (Web Novel) - Chapter 1356: Men to Spare
Chapter 1356: Men to Spare
This chapter is updated by JustRead.pl
The effects of the poison spread quickly across the battlefield.The soldiers of the Tiesha Tang began to stagger in their formations, their breathing gradually growing shallow as the dark green haze clung to their skin and seeped into their lungs.
Their movements turned sluggish. Weapons that were once swung with force now dragged through the air as if they were weighed down by an invisible weight.
Some clutched their throats, while others dropped to a knee. They weren’t dying, but clearly they were weakening with each passing moment. The poison chipped away at their stamina, dulled their reflexes, and slowly sapped their strength.
It was during such times that the fierce soldiers of the Tsuitsui clan stepped forward without hesitation and began their wanton slaughter.
The miasma barely affected them, for they had trained for this, built up resistance, and prepared for the moment their clan arts would tip the scales of battle. Additionally, they had also consumed the antidote.
Just because they were from the Tsuitsuin Clan did not mean that all of them would have great resistance to poison. No, that was far from the case.
That was why these men had trained in poison arts from an early age and built up tolerance for warfare under such conditions. That was why consuming the antidote was also critical for them, or they’d be no different from the Tiesha Tang’s soldiers.
Taking advantage of the enemy’s weakness, the Magi of the Tsuitsui Clan struck decisively. Instantly, the casualties on the enemy side rose steeply.
Standing atop the battlements, the General of the Tiesha Tang’s army, Han Xun, watched his men get slaughtered in droves. Yet he had an impassive look on his face, as if his men dying had nothing to do with him.
Going up against the Tsuitsui army, he had naturally known that such a scenario would play out. After all, this clan was infamous in the realm for their insidious poison arts.
A battle against the Tsuitsui Clan was not just a clash between Magi, but also a war of Herbalists. Their poisons, their antidotes, and counteragents turned the battlefield into a contest of whose preparations would outlast the other.
Han Xun had a large group of Herbalists working under him. Although they weren’t as good as the Herbalists from the Tsuitsui Clan, they weren’t mediocre either. Once the day was over, he would have them study the poison inside the bodies of the fallen, then have them come up with countermeasures.
As for the problem of having his army dwindle rapidly due to the Tsuitsui Clan’s poison arts...
Han Xun’s lips curled into a cold, cruel smile.
That is why misinforming you about my army’s numbers was so critical to my plan, he thought to himself with dark glee.
Goro and his army had arrived at Kurogane Pass, thinking that there were around a thousand Magi they had to go up against.
But the truth was far from it.
Han Xun commanded several times more men than Goro. No matter how many fell to poison today, he had enough soldiers to fill the gap by the following day!
To him, replacing the dead was no different from replacing broken tools.
Han Xun’s battle tactics were cold and unfeeling. He viewed his troops not as comrades or assets to be preserved, but as expendable bodies meant to buy him advantages on the battlefield.
If a thousand needed to die so the next thousand could advance a step, so be it!
His strategy relied on overwhelming force, sheer numbers, and the ruthless belief that victory justified any sacrifice, so long as it wasn’t his own.
Then there was also the matter of his personal vendetta...
Han Xun’s hand caressed the cross-shaped scar on his face, his cold gaze settling on Goro Tsuitsui, who was standing at the back of his army, by the command tent.
Just you wait,
he thought to himself, his heart filled with malice.
I’ve waited a long time for this. When this is all over... I shall be the one looking down on your bloody corpse!
Minutes bled into hours as the brutal fighting dragged on. The battlefield became a graveyard of fresh, unburied bodies. Tiesha Tang soldiers collapsed one after another, the slow poison eating away at their strength until they could barely lift their weapons.
Yet every loss meant nothing to Han Xun. He stood atop the Wall, giving orders with a cold, emotionless face, treating each fallen man as just another piece removed from the board.
Sensing their chances of survival shrinking, the Tiesha Tang warriors fought with even greater desperation, hoping that when the day’s battle was over, they could return to the Wall and get treated.
Their swings grew wilder, their charges grew reckless, and their willingness to trade blow for blow increased dramatically. They could not turn their backs on their enemies and retreat. So they could only fight with even more ferocity, hoping to find that slim chance of survival.
As a result, the Tsuitsui army suffered heavy injuries and deaths as the frenzied counterattacks carved through their lines. The battle spiraled into a barbaric exchange with neither side relenting.
The ground beneath them grew darker as blood soaked into the soil, and the piles of corpses rose with every passing second.
The sun finally dipped below the horizon, its last light fading from the blood-soaked battlefield.
With night settling in, both sides pulled back once again, and the second day of battle came to a close.
Only a few hundred Tiesha Tang soldiers remained standing.
More than two thousand had fallen...
Yet through it all, Han Xun showed no reaction. No grief. No rage. No flicker of emotion. He simply watched the battlefield grow quiet, as if the mountain of corpses before him were nothing more than the natural cost of war.
His gaze once again settled on Goro, who had a dark look on his face. After all, even though his army had unleashed their poison arts, they still had significant casualties—although not as nearly as much as his own army.
Han Xun’s lips curled into a wicked smile as he murmured, "I have enough men to spare, but you don’t."
His gaze then drifted past the Tsuitsui army, settling on the eastern horizon.
A crafty glint flickered in his eyes.
"I also have another surprise for you..."
