“Boom!”
Amidst the violent explosive roar, as the billowing smoke was just beginning to rise, there seemed to be a glimpse of snow-white fingers making a sweeping, brushing gesture, then pushing forcefully with all their might.
The earth cracked and sky collapsed, smoke billowed upward.
The explosion wasn’t particularly vast in range, but extremely fierce and concentrated. Thick black smoke mixed with scattered snow and yellow earth shot upward, forming a low cloud of yellow and black in mid-air, then crashed down with thuds, covering everyone with debris from head to toe.
The ground trembled and shook continuously from this ferocious explosion, as if someone were wielding a giant hammer, desperately pounding away, trying to break through ten thousand layers of thick earth and struggle free.
Before the smoke had cleared, Qin Chang Ge and the other two had already darted out in retreat. Qin Chang Ge quickly spoke a few words in a low voice, and Xiao Jue immediately swept his sword horizontally, its brilliance blazing forth. Walking the Seven Stars Step in reverse, he weaved through the Shui family’s formation that had become scattered and distracted due to the explosion, slashing down two men with swift sword strikes.
Once the breach appeared, the Phoenix Alliance’s Sun and Moon Crossing Heaven Formation immediately counterattacked. What had been an evenly matched situation now showed a shift in power balance, and before long, the formation was destroyed.
Shui Jingchen suddenly leaped back and up, hurling his sword energy like a flying dragon soaring gracefully, directly aimed at Xiao Jue’s crown.
Immediately, Phoenix Alliance members who had broken free intercepted, drawing swords to meet it. Over a dozen sword lights flashed brilliantly, converging on that silver light.
However, that was a feint. The silver light suddenly changed direction mid-strike. Shui Jingchen floated upward, landing on the “silver sword,” riding the wind. In the flying snow, he turned back with a gentle smile, his features graceful as pear blossoms pale and moonlight deep.
Standing on the “silver sword” and riding the wind, he left behind a transcendent silhouette like a jade tree in bloom, instantly disappearing into the distance.
Xiao Jue waved his hand, sending some Phoenix Alliance subordinates to pursue while others went to break the formations at the town entrance.
Xiao Jue had no mind to chase him. First, he searched through the various bottles and vials taken from those Yin Li followers to find an antidote, which he gave Qin Chang Ge to smell.
He still didn’t dare look at Chu Feihuan, keeping his head lowered as he handed over the palace’s finest wound medicine.
Chu Feihuan smiled and accepted it. Qin Chang Ge went over to personally bandage his wounds, but Chu Feihuan only gazed at the explosion site, his face pale and eyes slightly cold.
Ahead, the smoke hadn’t fully cleared, and a deep pit had already appeared in the ground. In the pit, blood was dark red, with vague pieces of flesh and severed limbs scattered about.
For a moment, it was impossible to tell whose they were.
Qin Chang Ge suddenly let out a sigh and said softly, “Actually, it wasn’t you I wanted to kill…”
Chu Feihuan, covering his shoulder, gazed at that patch of ground and said leisurely, “To substitute oneself for another, dying without regret – is it gratitude? Or is it love?”
In the deep pit, a beautifully shaped hand strangely remained unpolluted by blood and yellow earth, still maintaining its owner’s pristine whiteness and delicate slenderness, frozen in a sweeping, brushing gesture, pointing lightly toward the side front.
To the side front, in the gray earth, Yin Li was writhing and struggling to cough up blood as he rose.
The thunderbolt pellets from Zhongchuan, improved by master craftsmen and superior to ordinary thunderbolt bombs, had finally demonstrated their unparalleled power in their first use, nearly obliterating one of the world’s top martial artists.
Ban Yan was dead, Yin Li injured.
It should have been the reverse – Ban Yan could have completely retreated in time. But at that moment, she chose to continue catching them. Even if she had caught them, she could have completely let go in time, as long as she didn’t care whether Yin Li lived or died.
But she could never bring herself not to care.
She suddenly realized that Qin Chang Ge had stuffed those things all over Yin Li’s body.
Ban Yan’s choice was without hesitation.
In the final moment, she swiftly brushed all the thunderbolt pellets from Yin Li’s body, then pushed him away.
In an instant, life and death were exchanged.
Who had plucked the strings of fate years ago, ending this story of life and death companionship with a desolate final note?
Yin Li collapsed in the dust. That brief moment was still insufficient – Ban Yan hadn’t had time to remove the last thunderbolt pellet stuck to his leg. His left leg was blown off, blood soaking into the ground’s layer of snow-mixed yellow earth.
Yet he felt no pain, only staring transfixedly at that hand that even in death still pointed in his direction. In his daze, he remembered many years ago, in that nameless village, meeting that little girl who had violated a taboo and whose entire family was executed. She herself had been thrown into the Poison Insect Valley, crying day and night, about to die.
He was in the valley then, using the flying poisonous insects everywhere to practice the cult’s Hundred Poisons Great Method. The technique that he could never break through left him irritable. When the girl was thrown in, she landed in the grass not far from him. Various poisonous insects immediately buzzed toward her, seeking the fragrant scent of human flesh. The child’s pitiful cries echoed through heaven and earth, yet he didn’t even open his eyelids.
He didn’t notice when the crying stopped. He only focused on his own technique. After a day and night, when he still couldn’t break through, he stood up in melancholy, about to leave, when he saw the grass move slightly – that child was actually still alive.
He coldly bent down to look at the child. Her face had been completely ruined by the poisonous insects’ bites, covered entirely with scabs and black tumors, hideously twisted as if burned by fire, turned to charcoal. Yet her body was completely unharmed. When she fell, she had no clothing. While crying, she desperately moved stones and dug a hole, burying the greater part of her body in the earth, then pulled grass to cover the remaining parts.
His eyes flashed with appreciation – this was a clever child. If properly cultivated, she would surely achieve great things.
Moreover, if his Hundred Poisons Great Method couldn’t advance, then practicing it in reverse to draw out poisons and using her for experiments wouldn’t be bad.
He took her away, cultivating her into a loyal subordinate. Over more than ten years, she founded the Colorful Gu Cult, step by step becoming the Xuanchi Heavenly Emissary, managing the entire palace’s response to enemies for him, devising strategies and expanding his influence. She offered him everything, never betraying him for a single moment.
Over more than ten years, he slowly treated her facial injuries. When half her countenance appeared, he was struck by her heavenly beauty.
Suddenly he developed selfish thoughts – why restore her appearance completely? Such a woman who could topple kingdoms and was naturally gifted in martial arts, who had started practicing the Yin family’s martial arts many years later than him yet excelled beyond all expectations with innovations, even surpassing the highest ancestors of the Yin family martial arts – she only remained by his cold side because of her tragic background and appearance. If she were radiant as usual, she would drive the world mad, and then where would he stand?
Using insufficient power as an excuse, he abandoned further treatment. She had no words of complaint, only smiled and said she had finally seen what she was originally supposed to look like, and this life was not in vain.
She gracefully thanked him for his great kindness. Watching her, he felt no shame.
During the Xuanchi incident, he was practicing the Nine Heavens Dark Ultimate Technique and failed again due to unfortunate circumstances. If not for her guarding the Nether Fire Marsh for three days and nights without retreating a step, the palace disciples would likely have perished.
At the Border Bridge meeting with Xiliang, he was deceived by Xiliang and fled in embarrassment through the chaotic army. If not for her boldly riding out hundreds of miles to provide support, he might not have returned intact.
He had never truly saved her, yet she repaid him with a lifetime of loyalty, even her very life.
Yin Li coughed continuously, coughing up bloody foam. All these years he had only known to immerse himself in martial arts, grown accustomed to her presence, accustomed to the point of not thinking deeply about anything. But at this moment he suddenly felt that his heart was gone, probably shattered in that explosion.
Only a huge void remained, through which the midnight forest-cold wind, carrying blood and snow, passed through.
He looked at that hand, that hand resting at the pit’s edge in an upward gesture, as if someone were clinging to the pit’s rim, trying desperately to climb out.
Yin Li suddenly struggled, inch by inch crawling over.
Behind him stretched a long line of blood.
Xiao Jue leaned forward and moved, but Qin Chang Ge extended her hand to stop him. The three watched silently as Yin Li moved step by step toward the deep pit.
Yin Li’s hand finally reached the hand at the pit’s edge. Overjoyed, he murmured, “Ban Yan, I’ll save you…”
He reached out and pulled hard.
The empty force caused Yin Li to fall forward with a crash, his internally injured organs spurting blood wildly once more.
That snow-colored delicate hand fell into Yin Li’s embrace.
Yin Li stared blankly at that severed hand, his gaze full of sorrow and disbelief.
…It seemed like many, many years ago, one evening, sunlight gilding the gauze-covered long windows, he had hurriedly entered her boudoir, wanting to discuss palace affairs with her.
She was dressing her hair then, half her long hair falling to cover her ghost mask. In the bronze mirror, only cloud-like hair and fragrant cheeks with fresh beauty could be seen. Seeing him enter, she turned and smiled, the delicate hand pausing in her black hair white as snow.
Such heart-stopping whiteness and beauty, like a lotus blooming by a jade pool.
It seemed only a blink of an eye before that lotus flower gently drooped its head, withering in his embrace.
Yin Li gently caressed that hand, caressing that hand which he had never touched with such tenderness in his memory.
Many years ago in the Poison Insect Valley, he had coldly listened to her crying. Many years later, at the moment of explosion, he heard her whisper to him, “Li…”
She only had time to say one character.
Was she calling his name, or telling him that from now on, “you and I part” (li meaning separation)?
Yin Li coughed softly, turning his head to cough the bloody foam into the dust. He didn’t want a single trace of blood to stain the jade-colored soft fingers in his embrace.
He clutched that severed hand tightly to his chest, struggling to jump into the pit to collect Ban Yan’s remaining remains.
Qin Chang Ge watched him and silently waved her hand. Phoenix Alliance subordinates immediately intended to help collect the remains, but were forcefully pushed away by Yin Li. He looked at no one, painfully rolling into the pit, removing his outer robe and spreading it flat on the ground. His withered fingers searched bit by bit in the pit, and every time he touched a piece of bone, he carefully scraped away the mud and placed it on the robe.
At some point, the rain had stopped. In the dark sky, only snowflakes spiraled and fell, dropping into that mixture of yellow earth, black smoke, fresh blood, and white bones, instantly disappearing without a trace.
The hail had lessened, falling in fine pieces that sounded like a woman with jingling jewelry walking away with lotus steps.
Under the vast sky, in the flying snow, watched by hundreds of people, the former illustrious Southern Min High Priest who had once controlled a nation’s great power, oblivious to all around him, prostrated himself in the cold, filthy mud pit, carefully and reverently collecting the flesh and blood of the woman who had accompanied him for half his lifetime.
When she was there, he had never given her a backward glance. After she was gone, he finally understood the extent of his feelings, but it was too late.
But no matter – afterward, she and he would still have a very, very long time together, nearly eternal.
Yin Li silently pressed his lips together, gathering that flesh and blood into a pile and placing it in his embrace. He looked up at the snow drifting in the sky like a woman’s light dance, gradually moving farther away. In the distance, night birds cried mournfully, sweeping across empty mountains.
Then he let go, sat in the pit, closed his eyes, and said quietly, “Bury us.”
※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※
On the fifteenth day of the first month in the sixth year of Qianyuan, the nameless small town again became a place of turmoil. In a carefully orchestrated assassination attempt against Xiliang’s highest decision-makers, Southern Min’s two major forces abandoned their previous grudges and joined forces, setting up great formations, digging tunnels, deploying phantom poisons, and laying multiple nets, intending to assassinate the Xiliang emperor in this eerie town. But they ultimately met their defeat. The Colorful Gu Cult was completely annihilated, the Shui family suffered over half casualties, Shui Jingchen escaped during the great army’s pursuit, Xuanchi Palace Heavenly Emissary Ban Yan was killed by explosion, and High Priest Yin Li died embracing bones after severing his own heart meridian.
That night, flying snow fell as ice, countless died and were wounded. After the great army finally broke through the formations and stormed into the town, they massacred the Southern Min people who couldn’t escape in time. A long street running through the town was piled with enemy corpses, blood melting into thin ice, forming red crystals that stained the soldiers’ black boots, leaving bloody footprints with every step.
That night mountain winds howled, snow swirled, and people killing or fleeing were howling. Yet in the town center, there was the quietest place of all, where a pair of man and woman who had once commanded wind and clouds were permanently buried.
The Xuanchi Palace, revered as divine by the Southern Min people, ceased to exist forever like that nation itself. The spiritual leader once revered by Southern Min survivors was buried unknown in this abandoned town that didn’t even have a name.
Ancient battlements vast and boundless, great wilderness endless and wide – the wind rushing from distant mountains swept away all those flashing blades and swords, all that flourishing and withering of life and death, shattering all the dreamscapes written with riddles.
That day, there was also a conversation and a scene that remained forever in the blood-stained ruins.
When the snow ended and sun rose, the first ray of sunlight fell upon two men standing side by side.
“…I’m sorry.”
“What are you sorry to me for?”
“I suddenly realized I’m a very despicable person… very despicable.”
Silence.
After a long time, the man sighed and turned, about to walk away.
“That was just your way of loving her.” Under the morning sun, the blue-robed man turned back, his eyes clear and transparent as jade. “What could make me happier than knowing someone will love her wholeheartedly, wholeheartedly protect her with his entire life?”
He smiled, his face somewhat pale but not diminishing his radiant divine light.
“I am very comforted.”
※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※
On the nineteenth day of the first month in the sixth year of Qianyuan, clear skies stretched ten thousand miles.
Behind mountains were more mountains, with only an ancient desolate road extending toward the horizon. The morning wind blew over, carrying the cold of snow’s first clearing.
Ahead, beyond that plain beginning to show slight green, Yunzhou was in sight.
Qin Chang Ge tilted her head back on horseback and let out a long breath.
At this moment, the combined Wei-Yan army and Xiliang forces were both racing against time. Whoever reached Yunzhou first and occupied favorable terrain to await the other’s weary troops would win.
On the great map, two powerful forces – one from the foot of Qingma Sacred Mountain, crossing Mengdu Grassland, racing a thousand miles over Queshang Mountain; the other from the heart of the world’s greatest imperial capital Yingdu, marching long distances through Ping, Qi, De, Ding, and Cheng prefectures to meet them – would collide fiercely at Yunzhou. The final collision’s thunderous sound between the world’s great powers was destined to shake Empress Ruiyi’s hometown city and spread far, causing the four seas to surge in anger.
Whose weapon would first be stained with enemy blood, sparking the cannon fire of siege warfare?
Forward scouts had already reported finding no enemy traces. The generals’ expressions, weary and anxious for many days, finally showed slight relief.
Qin Chang Ge smiled comfortingly and turned to look at Chu Feihuan, saying, “Feihuan, your injuries haven’t healed, and you’ve been traveling day and night without rest for so many days. You’ve grown thin by a whole layer. Tonight when we reach Yunzhou, no matter what, you must rest well first.”
Chu Feihuan smiled faintly and said, “No matter.” He gazed absently toward Yunzhou’s direction, his brow slightly furrowed. Qin Chang Ge carefully observed his expression and asked cautiously, “Feihuan, do you feel something is wrong?”
“…Oh,” Chu Feihuan paused before coming back to himself, smoothing his brow with a smile. “Chang Ge, my precognitive ability is actually quite limited. It’s only more accurate for people I’m close and familiar with. As for great matters of battlefield fortune and misfortune, those are difficult to predict.”
“It’s fine,” Qin Chang Ge looked ahead at the city whose outline was gradually appearing. “I’m just worried you’re too tired. As for fighting, the winds of war are unpredictable. If you could calculate everything, what would we be needed for?”
Chu Feihuan smiled faintly and suddenly tilted his head slightly toward Xiao Jue’s direction, saying, “You should go talk with His Majesty. His mood is not very good.”
Qin Chang Ge remained silent, then after a while said, “Didn’t you already talk with him?”
“Chang Ge, you must understand, His Majesty simply cares too much about you,” Chu Feihuan turned to look at her. “He has lived his life honorably and sincerely without deception. That momentary hesitation is thus a lifelong shame for him. If you don’t forgive him, he will be unwilling to forgive himself for eternity.”
“I haven’t not forgiven him. If even you can forgive, why should I insist? Besides, he truly only had a momentary inner demon. In anyone’s life, everyone has moments when they’re troubled by inner demons.” Qin Chang Ge slowly toyed with the reins on her fingers. “It’s just that, Feihuan, lately my heart seems very confused. I don’t even know why my heart is confused.”
Chu Feihuan turned his head, quietly watching Qin Chang Ge. In the transparent wind, her eyes bright as stars were like diamonds, flashing with light that could illuminate all the stories of the vast world, yet as one involved, she was confused and couldn’t see her own path forward or backward.
Looking at her with infinite tenderness, Chu Feihuan’s eyes gradually developed a layer of misty confusion, which then slowly dispersed. He smiled, clear as wind, but only patted her hand without answering.
※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※
Time rewinds to the night of the eighteenth day of the first month.
No stars, no moon, only layer upon layer of extremely heavy clouds stacked in the distant dark horizon. A few days ago there had been a snowfall, pressing heavily on tree branches. From time to time came the sound of “crack” – some thin, weak branches being broken under the weight.
Yunzhou City, surrounded by mountains on three sides, slept quietly in the clear, cold air after the snow.
“Crack,” “crack,” “crack” – continuous sounds arose one after another in Queshang Mountain not far from the city’s west.
But they no longer sounded like tree branches breaking and falling.
A rabbit out for a night journey startled and darted from the grass, looking back in panic at what was behind it.
“Hey, rabbit!”
Heavy footsteps approached, and large hands grabbed this inexplicably panicked rabbit. The hunter-dressed man raised his eyebrows, proudly patting the snow from the rabbit’s fur.
He lived near the mountain foot and had come out at night to relieve himself, unexpectedly spotting this wildly running foolish rabbit. Hey, sleeping peacefully at home at midnight and a rabbit delivers itself to the door – what good fortune! Could this year be his lucky break?
“Crack,” “crack,” “crack.”
The hunter heard nothing, only happily carrying the rabbit as he turned back.
“Crack.”
A bright light flashed in the darkness.
The hunter froze, his eyes widening in surprise. He slowly looked down at a bloody spear point that had suddenly protruded from his chest.
“Thud.” The rabbit fell to the ground. He struggled to turn around on the spear that had pierced through him, wanting to see who had killed him.
But the spear point suddenly withdrew, swishing back out of his chest. Then a great force surged forward – crack – he was kicked flying to the roadside like a broken sack abandoned by the road.
He leaned crookedly against a pile of firewood, seeing a soldier in yellow armor and black clothes behind him on a concealed mountain path, coldly wiping the bloody spear point.
Then more soldiers in the same attire appeared, more and more, like a tide endlessly pouring from that mountain path. The dark mass occupied the entire large flat area at the mountain foot. On the slopes above, among the dense trees, human shadows could also be seen moving, like streams converging in that ever-growing army. Heaven knows how many people had miraculously appeared in this Queshang Mountain that usually saw few human traces.
These people passed before him silently yet with rapid steps, eyes fixed straight ahead. Someone kicked that rabbit and cursed quietly, “This godforsaken Xiliang place, even the rabbits are much thinner!”
Immediately someone barked, “Silence!”
The hunter stared wide-eyed as the strange army surged past him like a mad tide. In his dying consciousness, he suddenly vaguely understood these were foreign troops. His bloodshot eyes struggled toward a thatched hut to the west – there lived his wife and children.
The last words he heard were a cold, grim command:
“Kill them all!”
※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※
The wind from Queshang Mountain foot, when it reached Yunzhou city walls, carried no trace of bloody scent.
Just as that dark mass of troops, when they reached Yunzhou city walls, left no time for the unprepared soldiers and civilians in the city to panic or catch their breath.
There should have been preparations, but unfortunately all the messengers carrying military reports and documents from the court had been intercepted and killed by Southern Min forces lurking within Xiliang territory.
Almost the moment the allied forces arrived, the siege began immediately.
These people brought no provisions, no supplies, no war chariots, great cannons, or any weapons that could be used for siege warfare – completely light cavalry traveling through the night with precisely calculated rations that were finished exactly upon reaching the city.
Orders from above: no food, nothing at all. To eat, go plunder the city; to replace clothes torn by thorns, go plunder the city; for gold, silver, pearls and jade, go plunder the city; to play with Xiliang beauties – go plunder the city.
According to normal military strategy, good generals don’t deploy exhausted troops. They should rest and reorganize before beginning. However, the soldiers had traveled long distances and were utterly exhausted. If allowed to lie down now, they would surely sleep for three days and nights.
But there wasn’t three days and nights to wait. The Xiliang great army was also rushing urgently – they were competing for at most a few hours!
So they would continue with one great effort, using coercion and inducement to force continued action.
At the deepest hour of night, the siege battle erupted. The Wei-Yan allied forces lit torches, and all of Yunzhou was surrounded by a sea of torches. Standing on the city tower and looking out, it was like countless stars descended to the plains.
When Ma Sirui was hurriedly escorted from his “Imperial Brick Mansion” by soldiers to the city head, one look at the vast expanse of black and yellow allied army below made him faint directly.
The Wei-Yan allied forces very tacitly attacked the western wall directly. They cut down giant trees from Queshang Mountain foot, dozens of men carrying the giant trees, not to ram the city gate but directly charging at that section of wall with different coloring – blue-gray.
Xiliang soldiers desperately shot arrows, hurling down fire stones, torches, and rocks. But there were too many allied troops – when one died, another replaced him. Those yellow-armored Eastern Yan soldiers were especially fierce, stepping over the corpses of fellow soldiers and countrymen beneath their feet, heedlessly braving the arrow rain, holding giant trees and ramming again and again.
After more than ten strikes, the city wall predictably cracked, the breach filled with broken bricks and mud.
The allied forces erupted in joyful shouts, competing to leap through the breach. The first to enter were killed by soldiers guarding behind the wall, but more people surged in, trampling those wall guards to death.
Though not a large breach in the city wall, it became a fatal wound on Yunzhou City’s great body. The bloody wound was deliberately gnawed at repeatedly, countless heads like ants surging in endlessly, like black poison seeping into Yunzhou’s peacefully beating heart, into Yunzhou’s blood vessels.
Xiliang soldiers still refused to abandon resistance, but crying and shouting from civilians could be heard faintly in the city. Clusters of firelight burned in street corners and small alleys, like fierce, malevolent eyes.
The night was not yet over, and the slaughter had just begun.
The allied forces cheered and surged onto the city head, killing those soldiers who held the city and wouldn’t retreat, throwing their heads down from the high walls to shatter completely, then laughing loudly at the crashing sounds.
The parent official of Yunzhou City, who had lived in an imperial residence, slept on an imperial bed, and waited to become the next emperor – Ma Sirui, who had torn down his own walls, finally had his turn for others to tear down his walls.
He was found in a corner of the city tower. The attacking soldiers didn’t recognize his official robes that marked his status, dragged out the trembling man, and threw him alive from the city tower. He was then trampled repeatedly by surging soldiers in the city, scattered in the mud and dust, so that afterward, no one could find Magistrate Ma’s remains.
The Yunzhou garrison commander abandoned resistance as soon as the city was breached, leading some officers in surrender. Only Liu Runan, a dismissed gate official, put on battle robes again in the crisis, leading a group of soldiers who would rather die than abandon the city to defend that breach to the death. Outside the city wall, he killed thirty-two men in succession, shattering his long blade completely. Finally weaponless, seeing enemy troops surrounding him, he laughed loudly: “Enemy corpses pile into mountains, and this man dies atop them – what joy! What joy!”
He climbed onto those thirty-two corpses and died against the wall.
The allied soldiers stood silently, no one stepping forward to desecrate the corpse. Men’s hearts value heroes – even though enemies, even though cruel, they were still moved by this. A squad leader stood solemnly and bowed three times, placing Liu Runan’s corpse respectfully on the ground. Hundreds of thousands of allied soldiers who subsequently passed this place, not one insulted Liu Runan’s body.
At midnight, in just one hour, Yunzhou City had been occupied.
The heavy city gate slowly opened under the moonlight.
Several riders arrived like dust and lightning, horse hooves rising like threads like electricity.
Soldiers formed lines like wild geese beside the city gate, arranging in a queue whose end could not be seen. Seeing the foremost rider galloping up, they all knelt in unison.
The mounted warrior pulled his reins, his pale gold robes billowing in the wind. He slowly raised his head to look at the city gate where the two elegant characters “Yunzhou” gleamed brilliantly.
Under the clear cold moon, the man’s upturned chin had flowing charm and grace.
He raised his eyebrows slightly – ten thousand miles of rivers and mountains stretched lush and green.
Smiling casually with lazy and carefree expression, the man raised his whip and, surrounded by mounted escorts, drove straight in like a sharp sword boldly piercing through Yunzhou.
Amidst the wave-like, tide-like cheering of the allied forces, the man ascended the city tower and looked down indifferently. With just one sweeping glance, the cheering immediately stopped.
Hundreds of thousands of soldiers looked with worshipful, admiring, expectant gazes at their commander who seemed like a divine being in their hearts, at this man of extraordinary bearing who had shattered Xiliang’s myth of world domination with a snap of his fingers.
Seeing him smile lightly and speak calmly, his voice not loud yet echoing throughout the entire city:
“Massacre the city.”