General Cai let out a cold snort. The fist he was clenching gripped so tightly that his knuckles cracked one by one.

The soldier dared not linger. He clasped his fists at once.

“General, we will continue the search until we root the person out.”

“Go.” General Cai gave a sharp wave of his hand, his gaze drifting back toward the not-so-distant stretch of ground still shrouded in pale smoke.

“Report!” As one soldier departed, another arrived.

“Speak.” General Cai lowered his gaze to look, his thick brows drawing into a slight furrow.

“On the right side of the city wall, the guards have suffered over a hundred dead and wounded — yet we… cannot catch anyone.” The soldier’s voice dropped involuntarily.

“Where is Lingling? Has she been found?” General Cai asked in a low, pressing tone.

“N-no.” The soldier answered in a low voice.

“Report!” Yet another soldier came rushing over, leaping down from his horse and dropping to one knee before General Cai.

“Rise and speak.” Looking at the man kneeling before him, General Cai’s entire presence had gone ice cold.

The soldier stood, raised his eyes to meet General Cai’s gaze.

“General, the fire at the supply depot is growing very fierce. We need reinforcements.” The man said urgently.

General Cai raised his hand. An attendant sitting on horseback behind him rode forward to his side.

“General.” The attendant clasped his fists, waiting for orders.

“Take fifty additional men. The fire must be put out.” General Cai said in a low, firm voice.

“Yes.” The attendant dipped his head and, leading a contingent, fell in behind the soldier who had just reported.

“General.” From not far away, another soldier arrived. “General, a suspicious individual has been spotted near the Liang residence.”

“The person’s movement arts are exceptional — they vanished in an instant. The General is requested to dispatch men there for support.”

Before General Cai could respond, another soldier came riding in hard from the other direction.

“General.” The horse had not even fully stopped before the attendant swung off.

He looked pressed — clearly the situation was urgent.

“General, we have spotted a suspicious individual. Our brothers are in pursuit.” The attendant spoke before he had even time to kneel.

“General Cai.” One attendant had barely finished speaking when yet another arrived. “General Cai, roughly five li to the left, the bodies of over a dozen soldiers have been discovered.”

“General Cai, Ling—”

In an instant, several soldiers converged on him at once, speaking over one another as though they had all agreed on a time to arrive simultaneously. General Cai could not manage them all.

He raised his open palm and swept it sharply downward.

“Silence!”

The scene fell immediately quiet.

General Cai looked toward the last person to arrive, drew a slow breath, and let it out steadily.

“You — is what you were about to say that Lingling has been found?”

“Yes.” The last arrival glanced up briefly, then immediately lowered his head again. “Miss Lingling says to open the city gates and prepare… for battle.”

Knowing full well that the soldiers had just marched out to fight, waited for nothing, and returned empty-handed — even passing on an order like this, the attendant did not dare speak too loudly.

“Where is she?” General Cai asked in a low voice.

Startled by the weight of General Cai’s tone, the attendant stepped back half a pace, nearly stumbling.

“Miss Lingling left with several brothers. She says she only needs you to open the city gates and prepare for battle.”

The attendant drew a slow breath and continued: “Miss Lingling says she is acting under the orders of His Highness the Crown Prince, and that she—”

“Enough — say no more.” General Cai’s cold voice cut the attendant short.

He swept a glance over the men before him, spurred his horse, and turned back.

“First and second detachments, fall in! The rest of you — prepare for battle inside the city!”

“Yes!”

The thousand elite soldiers who had just ridden out with General Cai squared their shoulders once more, spurred their horses, and in orderly formation rode out through the city gates again.

Those left behind exchanged uncertain glances, a look of confusion in their eyes.

The thousand elite soldiers appeared outside the city gates for the second time — yet just as before, they waited and waited, and still no order to engage came.

Time passed, drop by drop. The attendants’ moods slowly began to fray.

“General.” The attendant closest to General Cai spoke in a low voice. “Have we been played for fools again?”

“Indeed — no one even knows where that woman has gone.” Another attendant grumbled.

Every man present served under General Cai. Watching their own general get led around in circles by a woman — who among them was willing to accept it?

“General Cai, should we just charge out on our own? Sitting here waiting is no solution.” The attendant closest to him said.

“Our numbers are such that we have no need whatsoever to take orders from a few hundred of her people.”

“That woman holds the Crown Prince’s command token — you are well aware.” Another attendant let out a quiet sigh.

That Lingling possessed the Crown Prince’s command token was something everyone had learned when the two armies merged.

“But she is not even showing herself — are we supposed to stand here and wait indefinitely?” The attendant who had spoken first was full of grievance.

General Cai’s gaze had been fixed on the enemy’s encampment in the far distance — barely visible from where they stood.

Whatever everyone was saying around him, he appeared not to hear a word.

The two who had been speaking looked at each other, then glanced at General Cai, and could only fall silent.

The thousand elite soldiers standing there were not without their own complaints, but since the general said nothing, they had no choice but to keep waiting.

That kind of waiting was without question agonizing.

Even a single quarter of an hour felt as though a very long time had passed.

In the end, General Cai gave a sharp wave of his hand. At a single command from his personal attendant, the warriors rode back into the city for the second time.

“Find her. Bring Lingling back to me. Her personal guards as well — root them all out!” General Cai had reached the very limit of his patience.

“Yes.” His personal attendant dipped his head.

While chaos reigned inside the city, the outside could be silent no longer.

The army led by Dugu Yezhou had at last caught up. Feng Jiu’er and Huo Baixue, along with the eight brothers who had gone out, returned to the encampment.

Without giving the forces inside the city a moment to catch their breath, Huo Baixue and Dugu Yezhou outside led their troops and prepared to storm the city.

Feng Jiu’er led the archers and took up position in advance at every key vantage point.

By the time the guards on the city wall spotted something amiss and raised a battle horn to their lips, Huo Baixue had already led her troops surging toward the city gates with tremendous force.

“Wuuu, wuuu—” A series of urgent, piercing horn blasts rang out.

Yet before the sound could carry far, the guard sounding the horn cried out and fell, struck by an arrow.

Having been roused to readiness for battle twice in a row, the soldiers had not yet recovered from their exhaustion when the enemy launched a sudden assault — a circumstance that was anything but favorable for them.

The soldiers on the city wall had barely managed to loose a handful of arrows before they were cut down by the opposing archers.

With Lingling absent, there was no capable commander to issue orders. The soldiers were like scattered sand.

In no time, the city wall was thrown into complete disorder.

Inside the city, the sound of the battle horn snapped General Cai to full alertness.

“Concentrate every available soldier. Hold the city gates at all costs.” He threw the order out, dismounted, and made for the city wall.

His attendants received the command and began arranging the battle formation at once.

Yet by that point, even the soldier sounding the horn had fallen to an arrow.

Strike while the iron is hot, and once that momentum wanes it wanes again until it is spent entirely. Feng Jiu’er had seized on that very principle in her contest of wits and nerve with the forces inside the city.

The first time the order to open the city gates was given, it truly had been Lingling herself.

The second time, the soldier who conveyed Lingling’s supposed words had been one of Huo Baixue’s people in disguise.

And the third time — the storming of the city was real. There was no faking it.