Chapter 183: Total War

The gilded hall doors were slammed open by the night wind, and the twelve crystal palace lamps went out simultaneously.

The young emperor Lei Badun's silhouette swayed in the flickering candlelight, the ink‑stained gold‑thread gloves resembling dried blood.

"Avalanche in the North, starfall in the West!" he crushed the urgent report in his hand, parchment scraps mixed with blood droplets pierced by his fingernail fluttering down, "The obstacles on my path to unification are now only two."

Boom!

The gilded astrolabe was kicked over by dragon‑patterned boots, bronze gears rolling across the obsidian floor.

When the gear symbolizing the Western Realm jammed into a crack, the old servant saw the hem of the emperor's star‑map embroidered robe moving on its own without wind.

The Hok family crest embroidered with silver thread had, at some point, been torn away by more than half.

"Your Majesty, think again!" the old servant knelt before the gear, his forehead pressed to the cold floor tile, "If the one in the Heaven‑reaching Tower awakens, the seal the late emperor forged with the blood of thirty thousand elite troops…"

The young emperor suddenly tore open his robe.

The dark silk fell like the wings of a dying night owl, revealing a golden crystal pulsing at his chest.

It was not the azure of star marrow but an older, more violent light; each beat set the noble house banners hanging in the hall ablaze without flame.

"Look closely, this is the 'Sun Core' forged from the ashes of the first gatekeeper!" the emperor's finger prodded the scar around the crystal, golden‑red light streaming down his fingertips, "Tell that old monster in the tower, if he does not wish to be ruled by Bavier's terror, he must cooperate with me."

His light‑slicked finger traced a blood edict in the void, the burning banner ash automatically coalescing into twelve snarling ancient characters:

【The key shall break, the Dragon Sleep shall awaken, the Star Gate opens】

Outside the hall, a sudden thunderstorm roared, lightning illuminating a massive black silhouette lurking at the tip of the Heaven‑reaching Tower.

When it spread its wings, the warhorses of the imperial city rose upright together, their startled whinnies drowning out the thunder.

The old servant's pupils reflected the terrifying outline of the descending shadow, and he trembled as he lifted the edict: "I will go now to summon the Nightwatcher Grandmaster."

The latter half of his sentence was torn apart by the gale.

The emperor stood alone in the ash‑filled hall, his fingertips lightly caressing the chest crystal.

The dusk was blood‑red, the setting sun coating the scorched battlefield with a layer of dark gold.

Lady Aishaer's acacia cloak brushed the half‑broken flag, the Hok family raven crest on it torn by the flames. She flicked the tip of her boot, and a ceremonial sword set with a star‑blue sapphire sprang from the ashes—standard issue for the Western Duke's guard, now scattered like scrap metal.

"Seven sealed letters." She held a stack of gilt‑lettered papers between her fingertips; the family seal in the wax shone ominously in the sunset, "Zishan Castle inquires whether Robin is to be married, Iron Rock City probes his tutelage, even the lady of Jade Palace hints she would trade three mineral veins for him to become head of the guard…"

Leo's heavy sword scraped the floor, the screech startling several carrion crows. In his single eye reflected the thick smoke of distant burning corpses, "When did the old foxes of the Round Table start caring so much about a wandering Knight?"

"When this Knight bears a blade that can cleave star marrow and steps over the Nightwatcher corpses," Lady Aishaer suddenly crushed the letters, the paper turning to drifting violet flame. She bent down to retrieve a fragment of the Star Gate console; the bronze still bore Melinda's clear fingertip marks, "Do you know? Melinda said back then that the greatest obstacle to opening the Star Gate is the royal family."

The fragment flipped in Lady Aishaer's palm, reflecting Leo's suddenly tense face, "Dragon Blood crest? That isn't used for…"

"To awaken a Dragon Blood Knight." She abruptly crushed the fragment; the sharp edge sliced her glove, and where the blood droplet fell, thin white smoke rose, "Robin and Fengling are heading there now. And our mission."

In the distance, a horn sounded as a squad of Acacia Knights escorted surrendering Western nobles past.

The once‑arrogant lords now wore thorn collars around their necks to suppress Magic Power.

"It ensures that before the real chaos arrives." Lady Aishaer flicked away the blood, the acacia‑emblem ring suddenly heated and turned red, "Turning the Western Realm into a solid iron plate."

Leo's white pupil narrowed slightly. He noted that Lady Aishaer spoke of a 'real chaos,' not the victory before them.

"The Eastern Realm is reorganizing iron cavalry, the Southern fleet has suddenly set sail en masse." He halted his heavy sword, shaking away a twitching raven at his foot, "This morning scouts reported even the royal elite troops are being secretly redeployed…"

"Because Hoke uttered a truth before dying." Lady Aishaer sneered, "This is indeed not an end, but a beginning."

She spread her palm, and the previously fallen blood droplet corroded the ground, forming a miniature star map.

In the sector representing the Northern Realm, a frost‑wolf totem was bleeding.

"Do you know why Melinda's 'gift' was buried in the burial‑bone ground?" she crushed the star map with her heel, "That is where, three hundred years ago, the last great dragon fell."

The night wind suddenly turned biting, and the distant pyres of burning corpses dimmed for an instant.

Leo's single eye reflected Lady Aishaer's elongated shadow in the firelight, the silhouette faintly taking on wing‑like outlines.

"Issue orders to the entire army." She turned toward the hastily erected command tent; where her acacia cloak brushed, the scorched earth blossomed with eerie violet buds, "Before sunrise tomorrow, I will have every Western noble receive a commission."

Inside the gilded hall, the young emperor Lei Badun stared at the golden crystal hovering in his palm, the Sun Core's radiance reflecting on his austere face.

Outside, the black silhouette of the Heaven‑reaching Tower gradually faded, yet the capital's warhorses continued to whinny uneasily.

"Your Majesty, the Nightwatcher Grandmaster has answered the edict." the old servant knelt, his voice hoarse, "But he said… if the Star Gate opens, the cost will far exceed expectations."

Lei Badun sneered, his fingertips lightly brushing the Sun Core, "Cost? My grandfather sealed the Heaven‑reaching Tower with the blood of thirty thousand elite troops, the late emperor suppressed the Northern Realm with half his lifespan. Now it is my turn to end it all."

He turned toward the empire's territorial map at the hall's side, his finger sweeping over the Western wasteland, "Order the Kingdom's First Knight Order to muster iron cavalry at the border within three days; command the North Lake fleet to blockade the Jade Strait; as for the North…" his fingertip lingered on the frost‑wolf family lands, "Tell those exiled orphans that I can give them a chance for vengeance."

The whole kingdom's war machine could no longer be restrained from turning.

Nobles across the lands, though yet to receive war orders, were already mustering troops amid the tense atmosphere.

But Robin, at the eye of this warstorm, lacked such awareness; he did not know that Duke Hok had died and was returning to Viscount Wilke's domain with the ledger, yet he spent the journey pondering how to ditch Fengling, while Fengling plotted how to lure Robin to the burial ground.

(End of Chapter)