Everyone’s attention fell on Yelu Qianqian. Those who didn’t know were curious, while those who did know the truth found themselves breaking into a cold sweat on the girl’s behalf.
Even those few generals atop Xijing’s wall, watching Yelu Qianqian remain unchanged, her small face still stubborn and unyielding, couldn’t help but feel a pang of pity.
A woman, especially one so seemingly fragile, shouldn’t have to bear so much.
No matter how grand the justification, she shouldn’t have been treated this way — she was the most innocent party in all of this.
Yet at this moment, Yelu Qianqian showed no fear at all. She kept her head held high, staring coldly at the disheveled, desperate Wanyan Lie.
Wanyan Lie had expected her to be afraid, had expected her to compromise, had even expected she might be driven mad — yet, to his astonishment, this girl showed no reaction at all!
Wasn’t she afraid?
After all, the moment he spoke it aloud, before every soldier present, Yelu Qianqian would never be able to recover her standing for the rest of her life, and Situ Haonan would never again be able to hold his head high either!
Wanyan Lie had already seen Situ Haonan’s fury and fear — so why could this fragile woman remain so resolute?
As though it were he himself, not her, who was being threatened?
“Yelu Qianqian, this crown prince gives you one last chance — will you withdraw your troops or not!” Wanyan Lie roared like a madman!
“No — I — won’t!” Yelu Qianqian’s words rang out clear and firm, stubborn, even cold. “Wanyan Lie, this princess will not give you any chance at all!”
With that, she raised her hand high and shouted, “One!”
Having counted down from three, this chance had been offered to everyone but Wanyan Lie.
Let Wanyan Lie speak the truth, then!
She wasn’t afraid!
She had already lived through it once and hadn’t died from it — she wouldn’t die from it a second time.
Let him say it — she, Yelu Qianqian, could bear it. What of it!?
The order given, no one dared disobey — especially the surrendered troops leading the vanguard, who charged forward at once, a full ten squads of soldiers hauling great battering rams, slamming straight into the gates.
Such betrayal, such a turning of coats, was enough to break Wanyan Lie’s heart beyond repair.
“Yelu Qianqian, this crown prince will make sure you never recover, not in this life or any other! Yelu Qianqian, you shameless—”
Before Wanyan Lie could finish, before Situ Haonan and Jun Beiyue, who had been waiting for their moment, could even move, something completely unexpected happened!
Right beside Wanyan Lie, a blade flashed and fell, blood spraying — a single clean strike slit Wanyan Lie’s throat, silencing him instantly, not even a sound escaping.
Just one strike — so close, so sudden, that it caught everyone off guard, a single blow enough to kill.
Blood gushed forth from the severed throat, welling up from Wanyan Lie’s mouth, his face frozen in utter shock, stunned beyond words!
Never in his wildest imagination had he thought that even the person standing right beside him, at this final, final moment, would betray him too!
Clinging to his last breath, he cast a sidelong glance at the man beside him, and saw it was his most loyal general, the Guardian General of the realm.
Wanyan Lie hated, Wanyan Lie raged, filled with a chest full of curses and reproach, desperate to demand — why! Why?
But he couldn’t produce a single sound, only able to stare wide-eyed at the Guardian General.
“Your Highness, my own son remains a hostage, his life still in Jun Beiyue’s hands. Besides, to humiliate a girl at the cost of an entire city’s lives — this old servant simply cannot agree with that. And most importantly, Your Highness, you saw it yourself — that girl felt no fear at all,” the Guardian General said earnestly.
There was no telling how Wanyan Lie felt, hearing this final act of betrayal — his eyes slowly shifted, turning toward Yelu Qianqian below the wall. And in that very instant, the Guardian General gritted his teeth and shoved him hard, sending Wanyan Lie tumbling off the city gate.
“Boom…”
A deafening crash, and amid the blood and mangled flesh, Wanyan Lie’s eyes remained wide open, forever unable to close.
Atop the walls, the Guardian General raised a white flag high, and the entire army dropped to one knee, signaling their surrender.
Xiliang had fallen…
Amid the sounds of submission, Yelu Qianqian turned back to look at Ziqing, her eyes already brimming with tears — yet in the sunlight, they shimmered brilliantly, clearly a smile.
Ziqing gave her a thumbs up. She had never truly admired another woman from the bottom of her heart before — Yelu Qianqian was the first.
She knew: a person like this could never truly be defeated, could always find it in themselves to smile.
Well done, Princess Qianqian!
With the Guardian General leading the entire army in surrender, Yelu Qianqian and Situ Haonan moved into Xijing’s capital. After only a brief pause, Ziqing and Jun Beiyue immediately turned and headed east.
Destroying Xiliang didn’t mean everything was over.
The true source of all this trouble lay in the east; the true battlefield lay there as well.
Xuanyuan Lige — no one would ever forgive you! No one…
At this moment, the central regions of the continent of Longyuan were engulfed in chaos.
The fiercest fighting of all raged near the Three Realms.
Faced with an endless stream of news of defeat, Minhan Mudeer couldn’t sit still, pacing back and forth within his tent.
A guard, unable to wait for proper announcement, rushed straight in. “My lord, news from Xichu!”
“Speak, quickly!”
Only now did Minhan Mudeer stop pacing. Neither he nor Xuanyuan Lige had ever imagined that Jun Beiyue wouldn’t commit every single garrison force in the northern desert — and even less had they imagined that Jun Beiyue would have troops secretly stationed within Xijing itself!
Minhan Mudeer, realizing this only after the fact, recalled that during the peace summit, the Emperor of Xijing had spent the better part of a day in private conversation with Jun Beiyue.
Unfortunately, he hadn’t been sharp enough to catch the significance of it at the time, hadn’t given it a second thought!
He had assumed that from the Three Realms all the way through Xijing, there was no force capable of resisting his army of slave soldiers, never expecting that when he drove his troops straight into Xijing, he would be caught in a pincer attack from both the ambush forces within Xijing and the secret army from the northern desert, leaving him stranded, unable to advance or retreat within Xijing’s territory!
“What news, speak, speak quickly!” Minhan Mudeer nearly strangled the guard in his impatience.
He was desperate!
All of the Xiongnu’s slave forces were under his command here, while another portion of the army remained in Xuanyuan Lige’s hands.
Their plan had been meticulously laid out — he would lead the slave army into Xijing, block Jun Beiyue’s path back, and buy time for Xuanyuan Lige, while Xuanyuan Lige, borrowing his other army, would combine it with the sound-killing forces to strike Xichu from north and south in a pincer movement!
The entire scheme had been so perfectly conceived!
Yet who could have foreseen that he, Minhan Mudeer, would find himself trapped before Jun Beiyue had even turned east?
Now, everything had changed!
Once Jun Beiyue moved east, the forces Minhan Mudeer would face would be double what he’d originally anticipated!
How could he possibly withstand that? Forget resisting — he couldn’t even manage to stall them!
Now, his only remaining hope was Xuanyuan Lige — hoping Xuanyuan Lige would return his other army to him, redeploying it to reinforce his position.
The guard, gripped tightly by the collar in Minhan Mudeer’s grasp, gasped for breath, nearly choking, unable to get a word out. Minhan Mudeer quickly released him, and the guard, panting heavily, finally managed, “My lord! Something terrible has happened!”
Minhan Mudeer, already at his limit, slapped him hard across the face. “What exactly is going on?”
“My lord… in the east… in the east… Da Zhou’s Prince Yao has deployed all three of his elite Tiger Armies… it’s said the commanding general is a mere scholar, cunning and ruthless, never fighting by conventional rules… Xuanyuan Lige… Xuanyuan Lige can’t hold him off!”
At these words, Minhan Mudeer staggered back a step, utterly stunned into blankness…