Qi Shui zigzagged past all the corpses that were found throughout the area. The concentrated stench of blood filled the air and corpses were strewn everywhere. A portion of the corpses were poisoned to death whereas the majority of them were chopped to death. There was practically no corpse that was complete, and blood was seen splattered everywhere.

Whenever he watched gory movies in the past, he always felt that there was too much blood in the scenes. At present, he suddenly felt that being too realistic was not a good thing. If it were before, he would have definitely vomited the food he had the previous day just by looking at those severed corpses, broken limbs, and all the spilled guts.

Ren Baqian also saw something interesting among the pile of corpses. It was a box that had many small holes on it, and there weren't only one or two of them. Previously, this place was the center position of the Great Xia's battle formation, and all of the corpses were soldiers that were poisoned to death. There were many such boxes littering the ground. However, most of them were stepped on and already broken, revealing arrows inside. Only a few of them were still in good condition.

He jumped down and picked one up. Teng Ji said as he saw from afar, "Those are Great Xia's crossbows. There should be a crossbow battalion somewhere here."

Ren Baqian held onto the box and took aim at a piece of empty ground. He found something that was similar to a wrench, pushed it, and felt a shock in his hand. In a split second, twelve arrows were shot and nailed into the ground.

"This thing is quite powerful." Ren Baqian was somewhat speechless. Even though it wasn't as good as modern age guns; for example it would take quite a long time to load an arrow after firing a round, and the shooting range was shorter, but it was already considered relatively powerful.

Previously, this crossbow battalion should have been heavily protected in the center of the Great Xia's battle formation. The opponent's plan should have been that the front row, made up a number of archers, would reduce the number of winged cavalry.

A pity that regardless whether it was the archers or the crossbow battalion, they weren't put to good use at all. They did not even display any of their strength and were directly poisoned to death.

This could only be blamed on Great Xia's extremely bad luck.

At first, Ren Baqian wanted to pick up a few crossbows. But after thinking for a while, traces of sarin gas were present on them, so he decide to drop the idea.

After walking for a distance, there were only a few corpses scattered here and there, and only then did the stench of the blood diminish.

"Sigh, such is life!" Ren Baqian sighed as he looked at the sky with his head tilted upwards 45 degrees. He was really uncomfortable. Last time, even though there were also many dead people, there wasn't as many as this time, and secondly, he also hadn't walked through the pile of dead bodies. The feeling of watching from afar and walking close to the dead bodies was definitely different.

In particular, such a terrible sight like that.

Fortunately, he only sighed and was affected for a while. After which, he threw it all behind him.

Regardless of where he was, such issues were unavoidable, and he couldn't afford care much either.

Unless the world is unified and can guarantee a few hundred years of peace. Otherwise, which battlefield isn't the same?

They continued advancing for another few kilometers, and all of a sudden, the winged cavalry warrior right at the front dashed towards the side.

"Your Majesty!" Teng Ji remained where he was and cupped his hands in obeisance towards the empress.

"What's the matter?" The empress asked.

"There are many corpses in front. From their dressing, I'm afraid that they are troops from the Protectorate of the North."

Immediately, the empress's face turned gloomy.

After the winged cavalry warriors in the front gradually stopped and separated into two sides, Ren Baqian and the empress could finally see the scene ahead.

Ahead of them were corpses, weapons, and arrows all over the place. Right in the center was a headless burly man standing upright and holding onto a knife. His body was filled with wounds all over, and his flesh was cut open.

Just seeing this scene, one was able to feel a harsh and solemn aura.

The empress got down from Qi Shui and slowly walked one step at a time, while Ren Baqian promptly jumped down and followed behind her.

The battle back then made him feel that it was cruel whereas this place gave him a dismal feeling.

There were not only the bodies of aboriginal soldiers but also the bodies of Great Xia soldiers.

All of the bodies of the aboriginal soldiers were like sieves and fully pierced with short swords. These arrows were not shot by bows but crossbows. It was the kind of crossbow which they had picked up at the previous battlefield.

One could imagine that these soldiers were from the Protectorate of the North and had rushed over to greet the empress. They were supposed to intercept the Great Xia troops before joining forces with the winged cavalry. However, they were ambushed by Great Xia's troops and were subjugated chaotic warfare over here. Ultimately, the aboriginals were completely wiped out.

This happened two days ago. Ren Baqian's return to Earth caused their journey to be delayed by two days. After resting and reorganizing, Great Xia's army calmly intercepted Dayao's troops and the conclusion was too horrible to endure.

According to Ren Baqian's imagination, this was the place where Great Xia first used crossbows and attacked from both sides. Soon after, the soldiers rushed up to attack, and once again, they used the crossbows to shoot those aboriginal soldiers together with the Great Xia soldiers to death.

But, despite this, the aboriginal soldiers at the scene were much lesser than the Great Xia soldiers. At first glance, the ratio was probably 1: 2 or 2.5 respectively. There were approximately 1000 aboriginal soldiers and 2000+ Great Xia soldiers that were buried over here.

As for that deceased burly man who was standing, in addition to knife wounds, there was also a trace of purple and black marks on his body. It was as if he was being bound by something.

In a while, Ren Baqian was able to recall what he saw from the binoculars. It should be the chain that appeared out of nowhere and tried to bind the empress.

Looking at all these sights, the empress's ice-cold aura was growing more concentrated. It made the people around her feel that the temperature was falling, and they were trembling with fear.

At this moment, a strong killing intent was exuded from the empress.

"Your Majesty, it's Lin Yaoqi." Li Tanhua still kept his poker face as he approached with an angry-looking head that was filled with blood.

Li Yaoqi was considered a brave individual in the Protectorate of the North. Never would anyone expect that he would die over here.

The only thing that was gratifying was that the Zhu Mu Elders lived a mere two days longer than him.

"Your Majesty, there are also corpses in the woods." At this moment, the winged cavalry warrior that ran into both sides of the woods came out to report.

Ren Baqian followed the empress into the woods. Sure enough, there were a few corpses lying inside. There were only corpses of a few Great Xia's soldiers and aboriginal soldiers scattered around.

But, the aboriginal warriors that were able to charge inside here were slightly more powerful than the rest.

The Protectorate of the North wasn't the winged cavalry, and the ordinary soldiers had just attained the level of a Man Wheel. An expert at the level of Earth Wheel could already serve as a low-rank commander. Those who were able to withstand the crossbows and entered the woods must at the very least be an expert who was at the advanced level of the Man Wheel.

"Bring all of them back," the empress paused for a moment as she spoke. Then, she turned around and returned to Qi Shui's back.

Ren Baqian stood to one side and watched everyone else picking up the heads of the dead soldiers and hanging them by both sides of their mounts. He then sighed, returned to Qi Shui's back and wondered if the families of these thousand dead soldiers would hate him or not.

Even if the aboriginals didn't view death as something very serious, but this battle had more or less affected the moral of the troops. Everyone became quieter during the next part of the journey.

When it was dark, everyone walked out of the mountain ridge, and in front of them was the plain.

They all rested for two hours before setting off once again. As expected, there wasn't any interceptions ahead. By the time it was late into the night, they had already crossed over the borders of Great Xia and returned to within Dayao's borders.

Not long after returning to Dayao, they ran into a group of mounted scouts that were raising torches. After making a loud inquiry and confirming that it was the winged cavalry, one of them immediately asked in exultation, "May I ask if Her Majesty is inside?"

After receiving a positive reply, he immediately sent someone to go back and make a report. On the other hand, he brought a group of people to seek an audience with the empress.

She only found out that this mounted scout was slightly injured upon approaching him. His arm was also bandaged. However, it was not only him who was injured, the few people behind were injured as well.

"What happened? Where's the General-in-Chief, Hong Wu?" the empress inquired.

"Your Majesty, a few days ago, Tiesuo Pa.s.s sent troops to attack Ping City and only retreated today. The General-in-Chief is overlooking everything in Ping City." As that soldier answered the empress, he also shot glances, from time to time, over at Ren Baqian, who was sitting on the same mount as the empress.

The empress choosing a husband was such a huge issue that besides spreading throughout Sixty Thousand Mountains, the news had spread almost everywhere.

Seeing Ren Baqian, he was able to deduce his ident.i.ty. Originally, he still wanted to see if there was anything strange about him, but in the end, he was greatly disappointed.

"Go, go to Ping City," the empress said. Upon hearing the mounted scout's words, she kind of understood why Hong Wu didn't turn up.