The five senses suddenly amplified countless times, and David Reed's exquisite spear technique suddenly appeared to slow down in Grace Walker's eyes.

Although he still couldn't grasp the changes in the bandit leader's spear technique, he was now able to spot some flaws in David Reed's moves that he hadn't noticed before.

On David Reed's side, he suddenly sensed that Grace Walker's attacks had become much faster than before, and when he randomly struck at the spear shaft, it often targeted directions where he couldn't exert his strength. He often had to change his spear moves several times to fend off the attacks, and was gradually finding it somewhat difficult to keep up.

Chapter Fourteen: Riding the Wind to Lingzhou in One Night

Roar!

A scarlet bronze saber over eight feet long, like a wrathful spirit, slashed down from above behind him. Grace Walker cursed loudly, swung the Flame Beast Spear upward to block, and had no choice but to let go of David Reed, who was just two moves away from being knocked off the chariot.

He used the Water-Fire Exquisite Pagoda to amplify his true energy, breaking through the first meridian in his body and opening the three major acupoints: Jade Pillow, Baihui, and the ancestral orifice at the brow. In terms of cultivation level, he had already surpassed David Reed and that fierce bandit. Being able to absorb the primordial energy of heaven and earth and heighten the five senses is the essential path from an ordinary martial artist to a master. Those with mediocre talent or poor cultivation might toil for decades and never reach this marvelous level.

Besides the good foundation of the body he possessed, and the help of the Water-Fire Exquisite Pagoda, Grace Walker's soul had also been subtly transformed by his journey through time and space, making his perception of the world's energy even more acute. Only then did he achieve this breakthrough.

After a chaotic battle with David Reed, Grace Walker gradually adapted to the heightened senses and the strange feeling that everything around him was slowing down. At first, every move he made felt a bit slower than he expected, and his thoughts and actions never quite matched. But when he countered the scarlet bronze saber with his spear, he did it with perfect ease—the posture, the direction, all just right, striking at the weakest point in the fierce bandit's technique.

The bandit wielding the scarlet bronze saber was immensely strong, but his technique was a notch below David Reed's. He had vied for the leader's position several times but was always defeated by David Reed's spear. Against Grace Walker's move, he couldn't match David Reed's skillful changes and could only grit his teeth and meet the attack head-on.

The Flame Beast Spear struck the saber's hilt at its weakest point. Though the big man was far stronger than his opponent, he was still knocked off the Fire Dragon Chariot by Grace Walker's spear.

A sudden flash of insight surged in Grace Walker's mind. He turned and swept his spear horizontally—precisely a move David Reed had used before. Seizing the hard-won opportunity, he flipped onto the roof of the chariot. But when faced with Grace Walker's sudden use of this exquisite move, David Reed was shocked and pale, hurriedly leaping aside to dodge the Flame Beast Spear, and was also forced off the Fire Dragon Chariot by Grace Walker.

"Isn't this one of the three killer moves of my Linked Spear Technique? How does this kid know it too?"

David Reed had just landed on the ground and was about to muster his courage to charge again when a battlefield-honed instinct suddenly sent a chill down his spine. A bandit shouted, "Commander Reed, look! It's the corpse soldiers who died in battle, and ghost soldiers too!"

A squad of lifeless soldiers, a mix of all kinds—Western Di demons and Great Qian soldiers alike—dragged themselves across the wilderness. When they saw Grace Walker's Fire Dragon Chariot and the bandits riding wind-horse beasts, they immediately let out piercing, eerie howls. About a dozen ghost soldiers, their bodies almost completely transparent, floated over at once.

"Retreat! Everyone, retreat!"

David Reed hurriedly mounted a wind-horse beast, frantically turning its head and galloping away. His bandits also quickly reined in their wind-horse beasts and turned to flee in panic. Grace Walker had no idea what was happening. His Fire Dragon Chariot was huge and hard to turn, and besides, he couldn't possibly flee in the same direction as David Reed and the other bandits. Gritting his teeth, he simply drove the Fire Dragon Chariot straight ahead.

"These corpse soldiers don't seem to be controlled by anyone, but what are ghost soldiers?"

He saw two ghost soldiers floating half a foot above the ground. Though they ran, it was more like half-floating, half-flying, moving extremely fast. Two bandits who turned a bit too slowly were stabbed by the ghost soldiers' sabers and spears, and immediately screamed in agony.

They slashed wildly with their weapons, but their blades passed through the ghost soldiers as if cutting through water.

Seeing this, Grace Walker was instantly terrified and shouted, "Oh my god! Ghosts!"

By now, the Fire Dragon Chariot had already charged into the ranks of the corpse soldiers. Seeing several ghost soldiers floating toward him, his hair stood on end.

But to his great relief, these corpse soldiers and ghost soldiers dared not approach the Fire Dragon Chariot, instead scattering in all directions.

What he didn't know was that, throughout the ages, three or four out of every ten soldiers who died in battle between the Central Plains and Western Di would become restless spirits—either turning into corpse soldiers out of bitter resentment, or becoming ghosts whose souls refused to disperse.

After every great battle, the Great Qian Dynasty would send Daoist experts to use mystical arts to eliminate or drive away these unnatural beings. Western Di even had ghoul units dedicated to clearing out these inhuman, instinct-driven monsters.