The northernmost edge, the Frozen Land.
This place, where eternally unmelted permafrost stretched endlessly, was Gongsun Zan's territory and a sanctuary of fastidiousness he had dedicated his life to protecting.
The pure white earth was his pride itself, tolerating no filth.
But now, that noble white land was being defiled by terrible filth and gore.
Thump, squelch. Rip.
What blocked the front of the castle wall was not an enemy army.
It was a massive tumor crawling on the earth.
The 'Wall of Flesh,' created by the Chimera Legion sent by Yuan Shao forcibly fusing their flesh together.
That disgusting wall, a tangle of thousands of beast corpses and prisoners sewn together alive, was wriggling like a giant amoeba, swallowing Gongsun Zan's army.
Every time they moved, sticky mucus dripped onto the snowfield.
"Piercre it! Plant the spears!"
"It won't go in! The spears... the spears are being sucked in!"
The elite soldiers of the White Horse Servant Cavalry desperately thrust their silver spear blades.
But the wall was not solid.
Instead, it squelched like a swamp and swallowed the spears.
The flesh wrapped around the spear shafts like octopus suckers, and soon violently pulled in even the soldiers holding the spears.
"Aaaaaack! Help me! My arm...!"
Crack, crunch.
Sounds of bodies being crushed came from the soldiers dragged into the wall screaming.
They were not dying to become nutrients for the wall.
Their bones and flesh were melting and fusing to become part of another wall.
The face of a man who was a comrade just moments ago protruded from the wall's surface, gasping in pain.
"My Lord...!"
The adjutant crawled to Gongsun Zan's horse, vomiting blood.
His silver-white armor was already in tatters, with red flesh stuck here and there.
"There is... no retreat. The wall is tightening. At this rate, we will be annihilated...!"
Gongsun Zan looked down at that hellscape from his horse.
His eyes had settled colder than a blizzard.
But the reins he was holding were pulled so tight that the leather was tearing.
"Blocked?"
Gongsun Zan's gaze fixed on the wriggling red wall of flesh.
It was filthy.
The fact that his White Horse Servant Cavalry, perfected without a speck of dust, was floundering blocked by such disgusting lumps of meat came as an unbearable insult.
"To think my White Horse must stop its hooves for such rotten meat."
He took something out from his bosom.
A fragment of 'Godspeed/Phasing'.
The crystal shining white emitted a chill cool enough to freeze even the surrounding air.
If Yuan Shao's red fragment symbolized hot and dynamic vitality, this was the power of cold and static 'immateriality'.
Gongsun Zan looked down at his body, holding the fragment in his hand.
Armor stained with blood, sweat, and dust.
Fingertips trembling slightly from cold and fear.
It was heavy.
This shell called the body felt too heavy and cumbersome.
"This is the limit."
He muttered.
As long as he possessed a physical body, he could not pierce that wall of flesh with its overwhelming mass.
A weak body that breaks upon collision and bleeds when pierced.
That was the reality of the 'imperfection' Gongsun Zan had loathed all his life.
The more he pursued perfection, the human body was always a stumbling block.
"This cursed body... I would rather discard it."
Gongsun Zan put the fragment in his mouth and swallowed it without hesitation.
The moment the cold lump passed his esophagus and touched his heart, a chill that seemed to freeze the blood vessels of his entire body spread.
His heart stopped.
No, instead of a heartbeat, a cold vibration of the soul began.
Shing-
He drew his longsword from his waist.
The blue blade flashed, reflecting the blizzard.
But the tip of that sword was not aimed at the enemy.
His sword tip was aiming precisely at his own chest, his heart.
The adjutant screamed in shock.
"My Lord! What are you doing...!"
Thwack-!
There was no hesitation.
Gongsun Zan's sword pierced his own heart.
There was a dull sound of steel crushing ribs and digging into the heart.
But there was no red blood on the blade that pierced through his back.
Whoosh-!
Instead of red blood, a cold blue soul fire flared up like a torch from the pierced heart.
It was the death of the body and the liberation of the soul.
Gongsun Zan's body began to turn transparent.
His silver-white armor turned into a translucent spiritual body holding blue light, and the white horse he was riding also transformed into a ghost horse with only bones and chill remaining.
There was no pain.
Rather, as all sensations like the weight of the body that had weighed him down all his life, the constraint of gravity, cold, and hunger disappeared, a liberation light as a feather wrapped around his entire body.
[The body is but a shackle.]
Gongsun Zan's mouth did not move, but his voice rang directly in the heads of everyone on the battlefield.
It was hollow and cool like the sound of the wind.
[We... become the wind that cannot be cut.]
Resonating with his change, the bodies of the following White Horse Servant Cavalry were also engulfed in blue flames one by one.
The soldiers shuddered seeing their bodies turn transparent.
Internal organs were visible, and the scenery beyond their palms could be seen.
Cold and fear were no longer felt.
Only the lord's will filled their empty bodies.
Thousands of cavalry were instantly reborn as a 'Ghost Legion'.
Gongsun Zan raised his transparent sword and pointed at Yuan Shao's flesh wall.
[Charge. Purify those disgusting lumps of meat.]
Shoooo-!
It was a bizarre charge.
Thousands of horses were running, but there was no sound of hooves.
There was no vibration shaking the earth either.
They slid over the ground like the wind, no, faster than the wind.
Even the blizzard passed through their bodies.
Yuan Shao's flesh wall extended tentacles to stop them.
But the Ghost Cavalry did not stop.
There was no need to dodge or block.
Swoosh.
The moment Gongsun Zan's white horse collided with the massive wall of flesh, his body scattered like mist and passed through the wall just like that 'Phasing'.
Absolute phasing ability ignoring physical interference.
Thick muscles and hard bones were no different from empty air before them.
Gongsun Zan, who passed through the wall, materialized again and looked back.
His eyes flashed with a blue glint.
[Let the hunt begin.]
Slash, slice.
Horrifying cutting sounds filled the battlefield.
Gongsun Zan's Ghost Cavalry was unstoppable.
They passed through the massive fists or tentacles wielded by Yuan Shao's chimeras like smoke.
Physical blows caused no harm to them, who had become spiritual bodies.
On the other hand, the translucent soul blades they wielded materialized and accurately cut the enemy's flesh.
"Fall, you disgusting filth!"
As Gongsun Zan swung his transparent sword, the neck of the massive flesh monster blocking the front was cut clean off.
Rotten blood spurted like a fountain, but not a drop stained Gongsun Zan's spiritual body.
The following White Horse Servant Cavalry also stabbed the hearts of chimeras and split their brains.
It seemed like a perfect victory.
Because the enemy couldn't touch us, and we could cut the enemy as we pleased.
However.
Gurgle, thud.
The smile hanging on Gongsun Zan's lips slowly stiffened.
The monster with its neck cut off did not fall.
Instead, red bubbles boiled from the cut section, and thick tentacles popped out instead of bones, striking Gongsun Zan's spiritual body.
Although passed through, Gongsun Zan felt an instinctive displeasure at that terrible vitality.
"What is this... hideous vitality!"
The adjutant's urgent shout came.
"M-My Lord! They don't die! We stabbed hearts and cut heads... but they reattach!"
The cut flesh wriggled like worms and tangled together.
The severed arm itself became another small monster, crawling on the floor with fingers, aiming for the allies' ankles.
Just then, from beyond the squelching wall of flesh, a bizarre voice sounding like thousands of mouths moving simultaneously rang out.
It was Yuan Shao.
[Kukuku... Vital points? Such things are weaknesses only for weak 'individuals'.]
Yuan Shao's sneer vibrated the atmosphere of the battlefield.
[My children are one and the whole. There is no death in this vast sea of life!]
It was true.
Yuan Shao's legion was not a collection of individual lifeforms.
It was the massive, squelching 'Biomass' itself, moving by Yuan Shao's mad will.
If a heart burst, it just had to pull and attach nearby flesh, and if a head was cut, it just had to open eyes on the stomach.
The battlefield turned into a swamp of terrible attrition warfare.
The Ghost Cavalry was 'untouchable and invincible', but the Chimera Legion was 'undying and immortal'.
No matter how much the soul blades cut and cut, the red lumps of meat persistently regenerated and blocked the way.
The more they cut, the more they multiplied, more disgustingly.
"Tch...!"
Gongsun Zan ground his teeth.
He had even discarded his body, yet he was held back by mere meat dough like this.
At this rate, there will be no winner.
He would only wander in this disgusting flesh forever.
His cold gaze swept over the map.
Instead of the blocked front, a detour was needed.
Gongsun Zan's eyes turned south.
There stood a dilapidated old castle wall precariously.
The 'Frontier Fortress' guarded by Cao Cao.
Passing through there, he could directly strike the flank of Yuan Shao's main base, Ye Castle.
Although it was the den of a lowly wolf, there was no choice now.
"I cannot waste time on this meat wall. Then we detour!"
Gongsun Zan turned his horse's head south.
His blue eyes shone coolly.
"Clear the path! We pierce the southern Frontier Fortress and strike his main base directly!"
[All troops, change course!]
The Ghost Cavalry turned simultaneously.
Their target was no longer Yuan Shao's flesh wall.
Beyond that, the territory of the starving wolf chewing bread in muddy water.
The northern front began to fluctuate.