A mutiny on the battlefield!
In this world of swords, every entity within it was a longsword of varying rank. There was no concept of loyalty per se, but in the half year Yang Kai had led his army into battle, he had never encountered anything like this.
His own troops had turned traitor!
Every soldier shrouded under that golden sword's halo of radiance wheeled around and turned their blades upon their former comrades with ruthless fury.
What had been an utterly one-sided battle descended into utter chaos the moment that golden sword appeared.
Lang Qingshan clearly hadn't anticipated such a turn of events either. He scrambled to reorganize and managed to slowly stabilize the situation, but the defecting swords were not few in number. After all, the golden sword's halo of radiance only extended to a radius of roughly a thousand zhang—swords beyond that range were unaffected.
Even so, several thousand longswords had become traitors. What pained Lang Qingshan even more was that among those defectors were a full seven or eight Silver-rank swords!
Before he could even devise a countermeasure, the golden sword pivoted its blade and a streak of golden Sword Qi slashed horizontally across the battlefield, plunging straight into the heart of their army.
The golden Sword Qi cut through everything in its path like a hot knife through butter, unstoppable and all-conquering. Every sword it touched shattered on the spot—even Silver-rank swords were no exception, unable to withstand even a single moment.
The golden sword unleashed several more arcs of Sword Qi, inflicting devastating casualties on Yang Kai's forces.
At that point, even Lang Qingshan's coordination and command were no longer enough. The golden sword's very existence seemed to exert a primal, instinctive dread upon all other swords. The army hesitated to advance, and many began to retreat further and further back.
The situation had spiraled into total disorder!
Seeing this, Lang Qingshan knew there was no turning the tide. All he could do was consolidate what remained of his battle line and gradually pull back.
A quarter of an hour later, the battlefield fell quiet. The ground was littered with fragments and shards—the remnants of Yang Kai's army. The golden sword's own forces had originally numbered ten thousand, and surprisingly, that number had barely diminished.
Many of its soldiers had been slain, but it had also absorbed a portion of Yang Kai's troops as defectors. It now commanded a staggering seven to eight thousand swords.
Yang Kai watched the entire battle unfold from his vantage point, eyes gleaming with intensity. His burning gaze locked onto the golden sword as he mentally calculated the odds of rushing down to challenge it to a direct fight to the death.
Just as that thought was forming, the golden sword suddenly raised its blade. On the flat of its surface, a stern and imperious face materialized, meeting Yang Kai's eyes head-on.
Yang Kai's heart clenched. Something's wrong.
In the next instant, the golden sword slashed through the air, and a torrent of golden Sword Qi surged toward him like a bolt of silk, hurtling downward at his head. With a thunderous boom, the mountain peak where Yang Kai stood was cleaved clean in two. Dust and debris erupted into the sky as the mountain toppled to either side.
Whoosh—the golden sword soared through the air and came to a halt hovering in the void. Its gaze swept the surroundings, searching for Yang Kai's whereabouts. After a long moment with nothing to show for it, the sword turned and descended back to its own army.
Rumble, rumble, rumble…
As the mountain collapsed, the golden sword's army marched off into the distance.
Half a pillar of incense later, from beneath the ruins of the crumbled mountain, a streak of white light burst free. Its glow was dim and flickering, and on the flat of the blade was Yang Kai's face—his expression dark and unsettled.
No match at all. Completely outclassed. Though they hadn't clashed directly, one glimpse of that golden Sword Qi had been enough for Yang Kai to know—he stood absolutely no chance against the golden sword. In a true one-on-one duel, he wouldn't last half a cup of tea.
A numbers game wouldn't work either. An entity of that caliber could intimidate and subdue all swords below its rank. No matter how many swords he threw at it, not a single one could deal it the slightest harm.
Lang Qingshan returned with the remnants of their forces. Seeing the devastation around them, he was visibly shaken. Then he caught sight of the dim, faded glow on Yang Kai's blade and was startled all over again.
"My Lord, are you all right?" Lang Qingshan asked anxiously.
But Yang Kai's eyes were alight with fervor. He looked at Lang Qingshan and said, "Qingshan, did you see it? That sword!"
Lang Qingshan let out a bitter laugh. "That golden sword is incomparably powerful. This subordinate failed in his duties—please punish me, My Lord." The losses from this battle were severe. He had done a quick count: of their hundred-thousand-strong army, only seventy thousand remained. Over thirty thousand had been lost in a single engagement, and more than a dozen Silver-rank swords had been destroyed. The fighting strength under Yang Kai's command had been slashed by nearly a third, and guilt gnawed at him.
Yang Kai said, "This defeat is no failing of your command. The golden sword is simply too fearsome. But… it can actually fly. Interesting!"
Even at the peak of the Silver-rank, Yang Kai couldn't sustain flight for long—leaping through the air was the extent of his ability. But that golden sword not only wielded terrifying Sword Qi, it could soar freely through the sky.
As for the losses to his army, Yang Kai couldn't have cared less.
This was a world of swords, and the one thing it was never short on was soldiers. A hundred-thousand-strong army was merely the size he had deliberately maintained. Had he wished it, over the course of half a year of conquest, his forces could have swelled to five hundred thousand or even more.
What were a few lost troops? They could be replenished in no time. But the existence of that golden sword—that was what had illuminated a sliver of dawn in the darkness for Yang Kai!
If a gold rank existed, that meant he too could ascend to that level. And once he reached it, he might just be able to glimpse the secret of breaking free from this world.
The real question was… how did one ascend? What was the key?
He had already tried—slaying fellow Silver-rank swords had no effect on him whatsoever. If that wasn't the path to advancement, did he need to comprehend something?
But what on earth could a sword possibly comprehend?
Several days later, the army occupied a new stronghold. This one was quite sizable—garrisoned by a full twenty thousand troops, with more than a dozen Silver-rank swords among their ranks.