Chapter 439

The Fire Qilin Army followed the retreating Ying forces, swiftly advancing forward, using the fleeing troops as a front to successfully penetrate Ying's borderlands; instead of launching reckless attacks at great cost, they garrisoned the cities, transporting logistical supplies from behind to strengthen defenses.

From these garrison points as origins, they began pushing forward, steadily occupying Ying's border cities; such a total collapse of an army was beyond control, like an avalanche, causing a catastrophic collapse in morale across the entire allied force.

Xue Shen wore a suit of armor, slinging the Tiger Roar to Heaven Battle Spear over his shoulder, lounging lazily; though he could no longer fight in this state, Li Guanyi still had him accompany them.

Li Guanyi and the others knew Xue Shen had only one final battle left in him.

But Yuwen Lie and He Ruo Qinhu did not.

As long as Xue Shen held the Tiger Roar to Heaven Battle Spear, the two Ying generals had no choice but to remain vigilant—even they dared not face him head-on—and Xue Shen was perfectly content playing the role of a good-luck charm.

Xue Shen watched as the Fire Qilin Army's banners flew atop Ying's city walls.

This place had once been Ying's forward outpost for attacking Jiangnan, and once territory He Ruo Qinhu had torn from Chen during his youth; now it lay in Li Guanyi's hands, encompassing a hundred li of territory with towns and cities large and small.

Xue Shen said: "That breath has been exhaled—how far do you plan to push?"

"Plan to advance a few hundred more li?"

Li Guanyi shook his head and replied: "Advancing a few hundred li would mean our forces are isolated deep in enemy territory—we'd be the invaders then; when Ying turns to strike back, we'll suffer a crushing defeat."

His fingers brushed across the terrain map.

Ying controlled the Central Plains and northern regions, bordered multiple states, and extended into the western frontier, having built Xiyicheng; now, with Xiyicheng's power weakened and Chen and the Tujue active on the northern front, Ying's territory has contracted by a hundred li.

Like an arm hacked to lose two chunks of flesh, control over Xiyicheng has been greatly diminished, and now, this key gateway city for Ying's invasion of Jiangnan has been seized by Li Guanyi.

Jiang Wanxiang has lost all hope of dominating the realm.

Li Guanyi's gaze turned to the former Central Plains battlefield.

Several years ago, during Chen's grand sacrifice.

When Marshal Yue was rescued, he chose to take the assault-oriented heavy cavalry of the Yue Family Army, leaving behind the defensive legions to guard Chen's border civilians against Ying.

Previously, Ying planned to redeploy this contingent, meant to oppose the Yue Family Army, to attack Jiangnan; the Yue Family Army then pressed forward, pinning down this Ying force, which forced Yuwen Lie and He Ruo Qinhu to deploy.

Li Guanyi looked at the position where that contingent of the Yue Family Army was stationed and said:

"The promise made years ago must now be fulfilled."

"Join forces with the Yue Family Army, launch one more strike, firmly swallow Ying's border defenses, then halt—the war is a contest of endurance; continuing further is reckless militarism, pitting our limited resources against two three-hundred-year great powers."

"It is using my weakness to attack their strength."

"Chen and Ying may not."

"But we will die."

"The great tide of the realm: forgetting war invites peril; loving war invites ruin."

"Withdrawing courageously from the rapids is the true path."

Xue Shen looked at Li Guanyi.

Suddenly he felt a pang of melancholy—this boy had changed far beyond mere enormity since their first meeting; describing it as heaven and earth overturned was still inadequate.

Back then, Li Guanyi had spoken of military strategy using obscure classics he'd overheard, and Xue Shen had dismantled his arguments in three sentences.

Yet only four years later, every move Li Guanyi made aligned perfectly with the art of military strategy.

Li Guanyi pored over the terrain map, utterly focused; since returning to Jiangnan, the Nine Cauldrons had roared, fate had shifted, he had crushed enemy armies and defeated numerous foes—truly like a tiger descending the mountain, swallowing ten thousand li, unstoppable.

At this very moment, his own Body's Realm subtly began to churn.

Though still at the Eighth Heaven, every gesture, every motion, carried an inexplicable, overwhelming aura that stirred dread—vast, dominant, ferocious; Xue Shen 'smelled' this terrifyingly potent, dominant energy, and grinned faintly, murmuring inwardly:

"... Is this the Qi of Kingship? Or the Qi of Emperorship?"

"The Son of Heaven's aura."

"How did such a freak emerge in the eight-hundred-year Bai Hu Da Zong?"

"Will the achievement left unfinished by the ancient hegemon be completed by this successor?"

As Li Guanyi personally donned armor and went out to inspect the frontlines, Xue Shen stared at the terrain map.

The world had endured three centuries of chaos.

The Central Plains now stood as two rival dynasties—Chen in the south, Ying in the north—but in these past few years, storms had risen, and the Fire Qilin Army had torn open a new territory.

If they united with the Yue Family Army, Jiangnan's territory would expand further, seizing parts of Ying's domain.

Xue Shen mused: "Jiangnan's territory could expand considerably."

"Then we'd need several years to recuperate."

"Then comes..."

His finger moved to the southwest region, where, starting from Zhenxi Xiongcheng in Chen's western frontier, along the river system flowing from northwest to southeast—the Dajiang—Li Guanyi's forces had already captured several riverside cities.

The great tide surged, and everywhere, momentum was rising.

If the western armies allied with the southwestern flying troops, and if the strategems of Nu Lin Long Wang and others succeeded in seizing all Chen cities along the waterways, and if Li Guanyi could firmly hold this portion of Ying's territory—

Without being immediately driven back after taking it—

Xue Shen's expression hardened; in his crystal-clear memory of the world's terrain map, the lower third of the western region would turn entirely crimson with the Fire Qilin's pattern.

At that time, Ying would hold the Central Plains.

Once-vast Chen would become a narrow strip squeezed between two fronts.

Its north-south length might still be viable.

But its width would be pitifully thin.

It would become nothing but a long worm.

According to history, once a state reached this state, unless its enemy collapsed internally or descended into civil war, it would likely perish within ten years.

Of course, it might hold out five or six years at least.

After all, vast territory was no illusion; even elite armies, deep in enemy lands, faced immense pressure on logistics and civilian conscription—Yuwen Lie and He Ruo Qinhu suffered severe disadvantages deep in Jiangnan, and Li Guanyi would face the same if he pushed further.

Xue Shen murmured: "Three-way division of the realm?"

"No—then it would surge upward, its territory even larger than Chen's, pressing against Ying; when that time comes, have Yue Pengwu's forces withdraw from the Saibei front during a critical moment in Ying's state affairs."

Xue Shen let out a breath, and after a long while, murmured:

"After this, I will not intervene."

Inside the mystic stone, the array flowed; within the array, the Xue Shen who controlled the mechanical armor murmured, and in the Mystical Realm array carved inside the mystic stone, the black-haired woman watched him quietly and said: "Why?"

Xue Shen clapped his hands and sighed:

"The possibility of unifying the world has emerged."

"It can be seen that within no more than five years, the final battle will come—and now it seems this last clash will rival the great war between the former Overlord and the Red Emperor, likely a million-man confrontation."

"Will it be the alliance of Ying and Chen states, with Li Guanyi facing both at once?"

"Or will we first crush Chen, then slowly eliminate Ying?"

The black-haired woman said: "It will be the first."

Xue Shen said: "Ha! If it's the first, doesn't that make it even more like the Overlord's war against the Red Emperor? All the heroes of the remaining powers unite to face Bai Hu Da Zong."

"But I know more than you do."

"If the Ying Emperor still lives, the first scenario might unfold—but if he is dead…"

Xue Shen fell silent for a moment, then said: "Regardless, once Li Guanyi takes this final step, the entire world's trajectory will shift—he will be the Overlord of this age."

"I hate that I was born too late, unable to clash with the Overlord Red Emperor eight hundred years ago."

"Now that such an opportunity still remains, how could I not cherish it? To fight on such a battlefield—even if I must fight one more battle, then sleep for a thousand years—I would never regret it."

"My final battle must come before the world is unified—the very last battle."

"But after this, Li Guanyi will need years to recuperate—he won't need me to appear."

"The great tide has formed. Whether he can walk through it now depends on himself."

Xue Shen murmured to himself: "Yet the path he walks—the Master's path—seems subtly tied to the unification of the world. If so, then the day the world is torn apart will be the moment he breaks through his realm."

Two steps remain.

……………………

Chen's frontier—

Han Zaizhong rose from his bed, shoved aside the woman sleeping in the outer chamber, his muscular frame wrapped only in a loincloth. He ambled out lazily, basking in the autumn sun, yawning.

Squinting, he gazed at the banner bearing the character "Yue" in the camp. After washing up, he donned his armor and went to the barracks, greeting his brothers. One man was practicing with a long spear on the training ground—he was also a battle commander of the Yue Family Army.

Han Zaizhong studied him for a moment, then raised his thumb and praised:

"Brother, today you wield that spear with real power—full of martial fury!"

The spear-wielding commander halted his stance, glanced at him, and said: "You've been chasing women again. Don't think the Commander's away and you can run wild here. When we reunite with the Commander, he'll hold you accountable—and no one will plead for you."

Han Zaizhong laughed heartily: "Brother, you're just talking nonsense. I haven't broken military law. Outside the camp, I've got my own life—but I'm not as vigilant as you."

The commander, Yang Xingshi, said coldly: "Since splitting from the Commander years ago, we've waited here three years. While Yuwen Lie and He Ruo Qinhu marched south, we've only been holding back Ying's frontier troops."

"All my strength is stifled—I feel suffocated. If not here, where else should I practice my spear?"

Han Zaizhong heard the discontent in his voice: "Don't try to goad me with words. Our army holds this position per the Commander's orders—to guard the frontier and protect the people, not to obey Chen's imperial edicts."

"Didn't we fight hard against Ying's frontier troops when they were ordered south? We held them back to the limit. Are you asking us to abandon this place entirely and plunge deep into Jiangnan?"

Yang Xingshi said nothing more.

Only recently had they advanced to pressure Ying's frontier troops.

The civilians in this border town grew anxious, flooding out onto the road with water jugs and tea, fearing these Yue Family Army troops would leave—and how could they face the sight of Yue Pengwu leading them away?

Each sighed, wringing their hands.

Han Zaizhong sighed, training his troops and closely watching the world's tide, regretting that the Commander's orders had bound them here.

The Yue Family Army stationed here could not move lightly.

Yet on this day, as Han Zaizhong rested, he suddenly received military news—a soldier galloped up, face flushed, crying: "General! General!"

Han Zaizhong was washing his feet, a tattered military text covering his face. With no battles to fight, his body ached from idleness. Hearing the commotion, he kicked the washbasin flying, barefooted, and stormed out cursing: "What's the rush?!"

"Don't you follow military discipline?!"

The soldier, though startled, showed no fear: "Great news! Great news!"

"What great news? If it's not real, you'll drink this washbasin of water," Han Zaizhong glared at him, shoving dried meat onto his palm. The soldier didn't eat, only said: "Qin Wu Hou personally led his army into Ying!"

Han Zaizhong's voice shot up: "What did you say?!"

His newly put-on boots flew off. He grabbed the scout: "Is this true?!"

The scout replied: "Absolutely true. The Chen frontier once taken by He Ruo Qinhu has now been seized by Qin Wu Hou himself. His army is vast—and already advancing toward us."

Han Zaizhong's eyes blazed with joy: "Good! Good! Good!"

The scout grinned: "So you won't make me drink your washbasin water now?"

Han Zaizhong laughed: "Kid, you still hold a grudge over a joke? You want me to drink your washbasin water to make you happy?"

The scout said: "How could I ever ask that?"

Han Zaizhong glared at him, kicked him to the ground, cursed playfully, then hurried to find Yang Xingshi—who had come looking for him. Together, they summoned all senior Yue Family Army commanders for discussion.

The Commander had previously ordered them to aid Li Guanyi, but no one expected the Fire Qilin Army to strike out on its own—and to bite off a huge chunk of Ying's frontier.

Ying was like a towering giant trying to bully a child.

But the child had already grown—and kicked back so hard, Ying's bones shattered.

The Yue Family Army's generals and strategists debated endlessly, yet could not agree on a clear course. Some saw it as a perfect chance: strike immediately, encircle Ying with the Fire Qilin Army, and deliver a crushing blow.

Annihilate or drive out Ying's active forces in this region.

Ensure that after Tiance Prefecture secures three hundred li of Ying's frontier, they won't be pushed back within days.

The situation would descend into prolonged conflict.

Yet in Yang Xingshi's eyes, even this was a great victory—it meant the battleground between Chen and Jiangnan had shifted into Ying's territory. Let them fight inside Ying.

At least Jiangnan now held the initiative—and gained the advantage.

Another portion of the war generals acknowledged this conclusion but opposed the Yue Army's full-scale offensive—

"If we leave, joining the Fire Qilin Army to strike Ying State won't be hard, but once we depart, we'll have utterly betrayed Chen State—what then becomes of the civilians in these cities we've guarded?"

"But opportunity won't knock twice! If we don't reinforce them, once the Fire Qilin Army's momentum breaks and Ying State recovers, what then?! The next chance for the Fire Qilin Army to penetrate deep may not come for years!"

"So we abandon the civilians for this victory?!"

"Is this how Marshal Yue taught you?!"

"Fuck your mother's dogshit—who said we'd abandon the civilians?!"

"Marshal Yue never taught you to be timid and hesitant!"

These fierce generals began to argue among themselves.

Without Marshal Yue to suppress them, they didn't harbor grudges, but glaring and cursing each other was perfectly normal—Han Zaizhong scratched his ass, held his fingers to his nose, and wondered whether he'd wiped clean enough when he'd defecated today.

He pinched his fingers, finding the brothers' bickering boring.

Over there, Yang Xingshi sat with his spine rigid—he had once been at odds with Marshal Yue, yet ended up joining the Yue Army and becoming its commander; he was the most steadfast supporter of Marshal Yue's ideals, believing civilians must never be abandoned.

Military merit can be gained again; battlefield opportunities can be sought again.

Qin Wu Hou is young and valiant—he'll have chances in the future—but these civilians? Once the Yue Army departs, the entire city behind us, loyal to the Yue Army, will suffer Chen State's wrath—what then?

Should we gamble on Chen Dingye's conscience?

Han Zaizhong's head throbbed; the generals slammed their tables with loud bangs—on the tables lay imperial edicts. Han Zaizhong, while no one noticed, claimed he'd eaten something bad and needed to relieve himself.

Yang Xingshi asked: "What did you eat to make you sick?"

"You're just looking for a chance to run away, aren't you?"

Han Zaizhong replied with perfect confidence: "I just swallowed a whole basin of foot-washing water."

Yang Xingshi nearly laughed in exasperation at his nonsense, helplessly let the rough soldier leave—yet didn't notice Han Zaizhong had taken all the imperial edicts with him. The tall officer, of high rank in the army, squatted there, unrolling them, frowning:

"What's this? What the hell is all this?"

"Promotions, higher ranks, increased benefits…"

"Tch, granting Marshal Yue the title of Duke? Even a non-imperial prince?"

"Why didn't you do this sooner?"

"Tch tch tch—Chen Dingye's Duke. Chen Dingye's non-imperial prince."

"Isn't this just like the King of Hell's Book of Life and Death? Once your name's on it, you're as good as dead."

Han Zaizhong flipped through the twelve imperial edicts—all flattery, promises. He sneered: "How can Your Majesty spout such nonsense now? Why were those edicts so swift and decisive back then?"

"Probably knows he's about to die."

Han Zaizhong's stomach really was rumbling—he squatted down to defecate, forgot to bring paper, so used the imperial edicts to wipe himself clean, tossed them into the cesspit, pulled up his pants, and said: "Damn, these guys are too bound by rules. Better listen to me."

He mounted his horse and galloped straight back to Bian City Fortress, went to the governor's office, and retrieved the memorial Lu Youxian had once submitted to Chen Dingye—warning him to watch the Yue Army.

The imperial inspector here was a royal uncle of the Chen Dynasty.

He'd also planted officials and loyalists throughout the Yue Army's garrisoned cities to monitor and balance them.

Han Zaizhong entered with a grand bow. The royal uncle sat upright, surrounded by guards. Seeing Han Zaizhong came alone, without troops or armor, they relaxed. He asked: "Why have you come today, General Han?"

Han Zaizhong said directly: "I've come to defect to Your Excellency."

Chen Xinghuai was startled: "Oh?"

Han Zaizhong said: "These soldiers are bickering endlessly—I'm sick of it. Then I remembered: didn't you promise that if we came here, we could have anything we wanted?"

"I happen to want something very much."

"I'm desperate for it."

Han Zaizhong was a top talent in the Yue Army—if he defected, it would be a great achievement. Chen Xinghuai rejoiced: "Ha! Of course! What do you want, General Han?"

Han Zaizhong said: "I'd like to borrow one thing from Your Excellency, to convince my brothers."

Chen Xinghuai declared grandly: "What do you want? Say it!"

Han Zaizhong leaned forward, reaching into his robe—Chen Xinghuai watched, suddenly saw the man's palm flip open, revealing a short sword. Chen Xinghuai's face turned pale—he had no time to react before Han Zaizhong stabbed him.

"I borrow your head and your city."

Chen Xinghuai's face turned ashen.

A fierce battle erupted, flames soaring.

One minute later.

Han Zaizhong emerged. When he entered the lavish courtyard, he was clean; when he left, his sleeves were stained with blood. He'd been badly wounded in the sudden attack, but such a bold warrior had already caught the taste of blood.

He charged straight into the government compound—a renowned general, alone, going mad inside the city—its defenses against him were nonexistent.

Within an hour, he slaughtered every official Chen Dingye had placed here to monitor and balance the Yue Army. His sleeves soaked in blood, the entire garrison trembled, terrified into submission by the sight of his bloody trophy.

Those who refused to surrender faced charges of dereliction of duty. He sent messengers summoning all Yue Army commanders to this city. When they arrived, they saw Han Zaizhong feasting, a steaming human head on the table beside him.

Yang Xingshi and the other generals turned pale.

Han Zaizhong rose and said: "You won't fight, won't retreat—you've bickered so long, it's unbearable. Why not do both?"

"We protect the civilians!"

"We crush these Ying bastards!"

"If we leave, these civilians will be humiliated—so why not take the city and the civilians with us? If we're going to rebel, why not rebel fully?"

"We take the city and the people, and join Jiangnan. If we're betting, we bet everything—put down the heaviest stake!"

"Let Jiangnan tremble with awe—this is our oath of allegiance!"

"I've killed these men—Chen Lao Gou's loyalists. When Marshal Yue comes to demand accountability, I alone bear all responsibility. Today, I have only one request of you all."

Han Zaizhong rose, bowed, his gaze blazing: "We've waited here too long. If we wait longer, our blades will dull, our horses grow weak—we won't be able to fight anymore!"

"Comrades."

"Cross the river!"

Cross the river!!!

At this moment, within the Ying royal court.

The frontline battle report finally arrived here, reaching Jiang Wanxiang's hands.

And this aged monarch, whose life force flickered like a candle in the wind.

He saw the report of the catastrophic defeat ahead.

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