Half a year later, in the capital of Beimu Kingdom.

Today was the day the Ninth Prince returned in triumph. Crowds of common people lined the streets, craning their necks in anticipation.

He had been gone a full half year. In that time, the capital had undergone earth-shaking changes. The Nanmen clan, for reasons unknown to most, had been suppressed—rumor had it that solid evidence had surfaced showing they had once framed the Ninth Prince.

Half of Nanmen Ye’s military authority had now been returned to the imperial family, but no one had expected that it wouldn’t fall into Emperor Qiwen’s hands—instead, it had gone to the crown prince, Zhan Yuheng.

As for Emperor Qiwen, word had it that he had come to deeply realize his own wrongdoing. More than a month earlier, he had already posted imperial proclamations across the land, expressing remorse to the Ninth Prince and inviting him to return.

It was said that Emperor Qiwen had even personally traveled to Fenghuang City three times to try to bring the Ninth Prince back, but the Ninth Prince had refused even to see him once.

For a ruler of a nation to lower himself so much for the sake of a single prince was truly unheard of, never seen before.

What had happened half a year ago that had driven the Ninth Prince away to Fenghuang City, never willing to return?

The common people, of course, had no way of knowing—but they understood very clearly that in the half year since the Ninth Prince’s departure, everyone within and beyond the capital had lived in constant anxiety, never at ease.

It was said that the five great cities in the south had all become the Ninth Prince’s domain, all stemming from that great battle with Ruhe half a year earlier.

Half a year ago, the Longwu Army led by the Ninth Prince had suddenly clashed with the Ruhe army, and the fighting had raged for three full days and nights.

What was originally meant to be a defensive stand, the Ninth Prince had turned directly into a war of conquest. After three days, Ruhe suffered a crushing defeat. King Ruhe hanged himself, and the Ruhe capital fell.

Ruhe now belonged to the Ninth Prince, renamed Ruhe City.

This should have been good news—the Ninth Prince returning in triumph, and His Majesty should have rewarded him generously.

But what baffled the common people across the land was that, while the Ninth Prince was leading his troops against Ruhe, His Majesty had not only failed to send reinforcements, but had even tried to send troops against Fenghuang City on trumped-up charges.

Unexpectedly, within Fenghuang City there had been a General Mu, whose strategic skill turned out to be no less than the Ninth Prince’s own.

With a mere fifty thousand troops, he had decisively defeated the combined fifteen hundred thousand-strong forces of Emperor Qiwen and the Nanmen clan.

[Note: figure corrected below]

After that, General Mu pressed his advantage, striking straight at the surrounding major cities.

Beyond the three great cities the Ninth Prince had originally held, two more cities were also fully absorbed into their territory. Any soldiers willing to surrender were forgiven their past allegiance and folded entirely into the ranks of the Longwu Army.

Once the Ninth Prince returned to Fenghuang City, he immediately sent troops to join General Mu, one moving east and the other west, with Fenghuang City as the center, thoroughly seizing control of the entire southern region.

Now, the military power in the Ninth Prince’s hands, even if not quite half the nation’s total, was at least two-fifths of it.

The territory he held came close to half the entire kingdom!

The south was relatively desolate, its population far less dense than the cities clustered around the northern capital, so while the Ninth Prince’s military strength fell short of half the nation’s total, the land he occupied amounted to nearly half the kingdom.

Everyone assumed the Ninth Prince intended to declare himself king, and the common people of the capital felt no end of bitterness in their hearts—how had their own War God Prince, the one they once adored, suddenly become their enemy?

But the Ninth Prince did not declare himself king. He remained, as ever, Beimu’s War God, the Ninth Prince.

It was simply that he refused to return, no matter how Emperor Qiwen pleaded or invited him.

Of course, Emperor Qiwen’s own situation was not exactly favorable either. A great portion of the troops in the cities the Ninth Prince now held had originally belonged to Emperor Qiwen.

Exactly how much military strength Emperor Qiwen still commanded now, only he himself knew.

As for why he was now so anxious to bring the Ninth Prince back, even willing to lower himself so drastically, the common people naturally had no way of knowing.

However, it was said that over the past half month, the Ninth Prince had been searching for someone—rumor had it, a young woman?

The exact details of the matter were unknown to outsiders, but a tale had begun circulating among the people: that the Ninth Prince, searching for the woman he loved, had already traveled through every small kingdom in the surrounding region.

Countless young women, upon hearing this tale, found themselves heartbroken day after day. Their ideal of the perfect lover, the Ninth Prince, had already given his heart to someone else—how could that not sadden them?

But all of this was nothing more than rumor. Whether it was true or false, who could really say?

In any case, the fact remained: the Ninth Prince was now willing to return to the capital!

That day, as soon as dawn broke, the capital’s main street was already packed with the people of Beimu, everyone craning their necks as they waited.

Even the crown prince, Zhan Yuheng, personally led a procession of guards out of the city early to welcome him.

No one knew quite how much time had passed before a rider on a swift horse finally arrived from the old road outside the city, bringing the news everyone had been waiting for: the Ninth Prince had returned!

This time, the Ninth Prince’s return was on a grand scale—he had brought back an army of a hundred thousand, now stationed just outside the city.

But neither Emperor Qiwen nor the crown prince held the slightest grievance against this move. The army simply remaining stationed outside the city, without entering, was already the best outcome they could hope for.

In truth, they had genuinely worried that the Ninth Prince might willfully bring his entire army into the city.

But the Ninth Prince was, after all, still Beimu’s Ninth Prince. A hundred thousand troops entering the city would inevitably disrupt the lives of the capital’s people and stir up unease among them.

The prince was their most revered War God, beloved by the people, and he had no wish to trouble them either.

That city, after half a year apart, looking at it now from a distance, felt both achingly familiar and somehow a touch unfamiliar.

Zhan Qingcheng narrowed his eyes. After half a year, he had grown even colder and more severe than before, even harder to approach.

Even Yu Jingfeng beside him had barely dared to speak to the prince these past months—or rather, it was that the prince had simply lost any willingness to engage with others at all.

These past six months, the prince had shown a coldness, a loneliness, a silence unlike anything before, never the faintest trace of a smile on his face.

All of it traced back to that battle half a year ago—the battle after which Feng Jiu’er had vanished.

As if she had simply ceased to exist, with not the slightest trace of information about her anywhere in this world.

They had even gone to Ruhe’s capital and brought Xiao Yingtao, Qiaomu, and even Xing Zizhou back with them, but there had been no news of Feng Jiu’er at all.

Later, once Xiao Yingtao had recovered, the three of them, utterly disheartened, had left Fenghuang City, and no one knew where they had gone since.

The Ninth Prince paid this no mind. Aside from Feng Jiu’er, there were few others who mattered enough to occupy his thoughts.

After the battle with Ruhe, the prince had trampled nearly every city in the surrounding region, and once he claimed the territory as his own, he repeatedly ordered exhaustive searches—even the most remote wilderness and barren mountains were not spared.

But there was nothing. Not a single trace!

After that battle, Feng Jiu’er had vanished completely. No one knew whether she was still alive; no one knew whether she had… perhaps even her body had been lost amid the chaos of war, never to be recovered.

She had simply vanished from all their lives, just like that!