Insufficient balance

  A strong gust of wind blows, and the earth is a vast expanse of green.

  A snowflake floated down from the sky and landed on Ma Chao's face, turning into a cold patch of ice. Ma Chao gripped his steel knife tightly, the icy sensation spreading from his fingertips, clearing his mind.

  The horse galloped with its eyes fixed on the vast expanse of open country, where a faint black line was wriggling in the distance.

  Is it finally here? Ma Yue's mouth curled up with a faint smile, and he tightened his belt, taking off the wooden round shield that was missing a corner from his back and slinging it over his right forearm.

  The sound of weapons being drawn, the sound of panting, and the sound of metal clashing filled the air. Countless people, like galloping horses, began their final preparations for battle. The fierce cold wind blew up their headscarves, forming a swirling yellow whirlpool.

  That's right, they are Yellow Turbans! Ma Chao is one of them and he is just an ordinary halberdier.

  Ma Yue didn't know how he ended up here either.

  A month ago, in November 2007, while traveling to Tibet by train, he fell asleep on the bunk and woke up in this damned completely strange world. Later, Ma Yue learned that he had crossed over and returned to the most chaotic and turbulent era of ancient Chinese history - the late Eastern Han Dynasty during the Yellow Turban Rebellion!

  This year is Zhongping 1st Year, AD 184.

  This is the prelude to the rise of heroes, and also the beginning of a great disaster.

  After several days of fugitive life, Ma Yue sadly discovered that relying solely on individual strength was fundamentally impossible to survive in this chaotic world. A gang of roaming thieves could be enough to take your life! This is an era where individuals devour each other, and the only chance for you to stay alive is to pick up a weapon and kill others. Only by doing so can you survive.

  Ma Jue originally wanted to join the government army. After all, the Yellow Turban Rebellion would soon fail, and he didn't want to die for Zhang Jiao that old Taoist.

  When he joined the army, he was almost killed by a greedy and cruel government general as a Yellow Turban bandit to collect rewards. Fortunately, there was a guy named Liu Bi who led a group of Yellow Turbans, coincidentally saved him, so Ma Chao naturally became Liu Bi's subordinate, served as a miscellaneous soldier, and later became a knife shield due to his military achievements.

  For more than a month, Ma Yue has lost count of how many battles he has participated in. In the successive fierce battles, he quickly grew into a ruthless butcher. In just over a month, at least a dozen officers and soldiers have died under Ma Yue's knife.

  The faint black line on the horizon grew thicker, and a long, mournful bugle call sounded from ahead, seeming to come from another world.

  The Yellow Turban bandits' formation was eerily silent, and in the howling cold wind, Ma Chao heard a faint chattering of teeth.

  Ma Yue turned his head, gazing softly at the youth beside him. The youth was only sixteen years old, with a face still tender and immature. He tightly grasped a wooden stick sharpened at both ends in his hand, his hands slightly trembling as he held it.

  Ma Yue patted the young man's shoulder and said calmly, "Don't be afraid, it will pass soon."

  Young Chen Dang, because he was not yet 20 years old, did not have a style name. He was one of the reasons why Ma Yue remained in Liu Bei's army until now. If it weren't for Chen Dang, if Liu Bei hadn't saved his life before, Ma Yue would have left long ago. The Yellow Turban Rebellion was bound to fail eventually, and Liu Bei was just a mediocre leader; following him could only lead to a dead end.

  But for Chen Gan's sake and to repay Liu Bi, Ma Yue stayed behind. Chen Gan's father, Chen Xu, had also saved his life on the battlefield just like Liu Bi!

  That was Ma Yue's first time on the battlefield, facing the tiger-wolf-like charging imperial army. Ma Yue's mind went blank, not knowing what to do. A ferocious imperial soldier locked onto him, and like a ghost, charged in front of him. The steel knife in his hand rose into the air, and the last rays of sunlight shone on the snow-bright blade, dazzling Ma Yue's eyes with its glare.

  Ma Yue stared blankly at the dazzling snowflakes falling from the sky, his whole body seemingly petrified, unable to dodge or block.

  In a critical moment, a heavy blade was placed on Ma Chong's shoulder. The intense sound of metal clashing shattered Ma Chong's eardrums and awakened his primitive wildness. He opened his mouth wide and let out a mournful howl, stabbing the bamboo sword viciously into the belly of the government soldier.

  Ma Yiao would never forget the feeling of that one sword thrust, just like when he was a kid and used a bamboo skewer to pierce through a radish.

  The one who saved Ma Yue's life was Chen Xu. To save Ma Yue, Chen Xu paid a heavy price - his own life! When he fought hard to cut off the rope and rescue Ma Yue, a wicked long spear pierced through his chest cavity. As the blood-stained spear tip came out from Chen Xu's chest, he had already completed the final sublimation of a warrior.

  "Take care of my son, Chen Gan and... Chen Le."

  Before he died of asphyxiation, Chen Xu left behind only one sentence.

  Ma Chao is a man of his word, he took up Chen Gui's steel knife and also shouldered the mission entrusted to him. For Chen Gan and Chen Le, he decided to stay behind and continue to stay in the Yellow Turban Army.

  A man without credibility cannot stand; for the sake of friendship, even if it means sacrificing one's life, what's the harm? At that moment, Ma Yue felt he had truly become an ancient knight-errant, because he had already reached the point where he regarded his life as worthless.

  Ma Yue's gaze was fixed on the front, under the tattered great banner, a lone horse stood still.

  Liu Bi stood upright on horseback at the forefront of the army, with a burning passion in his chest. In just one month, his troops had grown from over 100 people to over 5,000! Five thousand is a concept? According to the organization of the Great Han army, this is an entire regiment of soldiers.

  At this speed, it won't take a year for him to pull out an army of millions that will sweep the world!

  The black line on the horizon grew thicker and thicker, and its forward crawling speed also became faster and faster.

  In the suffocating wait, Ma Yue felt that time and space had become eternal at this moment, with a faint rumble of thunder coming from the horizon, and the ground beneath his feet was also trembling slightly.

  Ma Chao's face changed, Liu Pei's face changed, and the faces of all the Yellow Turban bandits' old soldiers changed.

  That was cavalry, a vast cavalry!

  Finally, it's near. When Ma Chao saw that one banner waving in the wind with a large "Dong" character embroidered on it, his heart, which had become numb from the repeated brutal battles, couldn't help but beat faster. That banner was the symbol of Western Liang's Dong Zhuo, a devil and a wolf.

  ……

  Dong Zhuo held his precious sword aloft, riding his horse at a frantic gallop, with one thousand Western Liang Iron Cavalrymen following closely behind him like shadows. The massive cavalry formation seemed to emerge from the depths of hell, carrying an aura that trampled everything in its path, as if the heavens were collapsing and the earth was shattering, like a tidal wave crashing against the shore, surging forward towards the Yellow Turban bandits in front.

  The earth beneath his feet was like a receding tide, and the only sound in the universe was the thunderous pounding of thousands of warhorses striking the ground. The entire world trembled with fear, and the heavens shook. In this vast expanse, I am the only one! A fierce passion burned fiercely in Dong Zhuo's chest, scorching his eyes.

  "Kill!"

  Dong Zhuo let out a loud roar, his treasured sword chopping down fiercely as he turned his horse's head and charged diagonally towards the flank of the cavalry formation.

  "Kill!"

  One thousand Western Liang warriors responded with a thunderous roar, their voices like exploding thunder. Several thousand iron hooves stirred up the snow-filled sky, like rolling iron waves instantly surging past Dong Zhuo and continuing to charge forward. The front row of cavalry pressed down their long spears pointing at the empty air, several hundred sharp long spears piercing through the cold and fierce wind, forming a suffocating forest of death.

  The back rows of cavalry raised their sabers high above their heads, and the sharp cold light made the dullness in the sky disappear.

  ……

  The Yellow Turban army began to fall apart, the soldiers in the front row started to look around in terror, and those who were timid had already begun to retreat. Liu Bei rode back and forth on horseback in front of the formation, shouting loudly and trying to control the situation, but his efforts were in vain. More and more people began to retreat backwards, and the number of soldiers who could hold their ground was dwindling.

  Ma Chao let out a despairing sigh. The Yellow Turbans were the Yellow Turbans, no matter how many battles they fought, they would always be the Yellow Turbans and never become official government troops! On the open plains, when infantry encountered cavalry, their only chance of survival was to form a dense phalanx formation and fight to the death. Turning to flee would only lead to annihilation, as two legs could never outrun four legs.

  Under the strong pressure of the government cavalry, the morale of the Yellow Turbans, which had been boosted by the successive elimination of several small groups of government troops, quickly dissipated. Liu Bei, who had killed several retreating soldiers in succession without success, finally gave up and joined the fleeing army. After all, Liu Bei was not a very brave man.

  The soldiers fell like a collapsing mountain.

  Ma Yue deeply knew that one man's resistance was fundamentally insufficient to reverse the entire battlefield situation, and he had no choice but to follow the retreat. Although he clearly knew that defeat would also lead to a fate of being slaughtered, if he stayed in place, he could only die faster. The only thing worth celebrating was that this time, the knife shield hand and miscellaneous soldiers were lined up last, so now, he escaped the fastest.

  The Western Liang Iron Cavalry charged into the remnants of the Yellow Turbans' defeated army like a tiger entering a flock of sheep, their sharp long spears piercing through the bodies of the Yellow Turban bandits like they were piercing straw, and the bloody slaughter began!

  Ma Yue tightly grasped Chen Gan's hand and ran forward desperately, not daring to stop or look back. The continuous wails of despair came from behind him, and without looking back, he knew that his former comrades were being brutally slaughtered. Ma Yue felt deeply sympathetic towards them and was willing to save them, but he was powerless because he was just a knife shield bearer.

  "Hmm..."

  A long, mournful cry suddenly rang out behind him, and it was right next to him. Obviously, the government army had caught up! Ma Ju let out a sigh, knowing that the possibility of escaping with his life was no longer great, stretched out his hand and gave Chen Gan a forceful push from behind, then turned around with his sword in hand, and a cold light flashed towards his neck.

  "Ahhh~~"

  Ma Yue let out a wolf howl, swinging his sword with all his might to block the attack. The two swords clashed together without any finesse, and in the midst of the intense clanging of metal, Ma Yue spat out a mouthful of blood arrows. His cumbersome body had already floated up like a kite, tumbling backwards through the air. Ma Yue felt that his entire chest cavity had been compressed into a thin layer, making it hard for him to breathe.

  What a powerful force! Even if I use all my strength, can't I still block one sword?

  The Western Xia cavalryman slashed his horse, sending Ma Chao flying with his knife. The fine horse immediately stood up and let out a long whinny, kicking its two front hooves in the air twice before trampling down on Ma Chao's face with a fierce stomp. Ma Chao's soul was about to escape if this one kick landed solidly, he feared his head would shatter like a watermelon.