A detached army, two Outer-Building realm generals, driving deep into the heartland of a Great Country under Heaven. They pierced through the eastern reaches of the Xia Kingdom, their soldiers reaching the Xia Capital.

Was this not a feat of immense renown?

This was a tale worthy of inscription in historical annals!

It was the archetype of a protagonist in the sagas of storytellers!

For it was too fantastical, too divorced from reality.

Yet, if Chong Xuan Sheng’s judgment held true, if the Xia army truly had abandoned the eastern front, with only the powerful skeletons of a few reinforcing armies remaining, and all their high-level martial force drawn to the northern line, then from Hui Ming Prefecture to Gui Yi City, this single army would be virtually unopposed!

In the art of warfare, Chong Xuan Sheng was second to none. In terms of superhuman martial force, Yi Sheng Feng was decisively slain, Chu Min fell with a single blow – who in the Xia Kingdom remained?

The Xia Kingdom intended to abandon the entire east to reclaim the initiative on the battlefield.

While Chong Xuan Sheng merely sought to exploit this void, to seize the immense merit of planting a banner before the enemy’s imperial city!

This was a near-lunatic ambition, yet amidst the swirling changes of this complex situation, it had found the possibility of realization!

“Qing Zhuan!”

Chong Xuan Sheng immediately commanded, “Ride swiftly to Lin Wu, transmit a message to Commander Xie, informing him that the Xia people have abandoned the eastern line, with most of their high-level martial force gone north!”

Qing Zhuan, who had just flown over, was somewhat astonished, but without a word of nonsense, he turned, sought a Wind Stepping Demon Horse, and sped towards Lin Wu Prefecture.

“Xue Ru Shi!” Chong Xuan Sheng called out again.

Xue Ru Shi, who was busy taking stock of captives and lecturing on the various benefits of returning to Qi, quickly flew over.

“You will now lead the main force of the Xin Rong Camp and immediately seize Afternoon Sun City. The sooner, the better!”

“Your subordinate obeys.” Xue Ru Shi hesitated slightly.

Chong Xuan Sheng frowned and asked, “What troubles you?”

Xue Ru Shi bowed his head in absolute obedience, “General Chong Xuan points where to strike, and this humble one has no reservations… I merely worry my own ability is insufficient…

Unable to adequately complete the General’s task.”

“If there are no accidents, Afternoon Sun City now has no garrison troops. You could take it down by yourself. This is a merit within reach.” Chong Xuan Sheng looked deeply at him, “General Xue, you will come to understand my style with prolonged interaction. When you work with me, you always gain.”

Xue Ru Shi’s heart tensed. He looked up and said, “Yes!”

Turning, he immediately went to assemble his soldiers, a slight mobilization, and then, without delay, headed towards Afternoon Sun City.

Jiang Wang clicked his tongue.

This fatty’s intentions were too obvious. He clearly wanted to snatch merit from Xie Xiao Bao!

He had made thorough preparations to go to Gui Yi City and establish eternal merit, yet he wasn’t willing to let go of the Afternoon Sun City situation either.

His appetite was truly remarkable!

But then again, Xie Xiao Bao’s side only needed to contend with the ten thousand-strong army led by Tai Yin. Perhaps compared to Yan Po, who was now crossing the mountains after the battle in Min West, he was destined not to seize much merit. Xue Ru Shi rushing directly to Afternoon Sun City was merely a shot in the dark.

“General Gu Yong!” Chong Xuan Sheng paid no mind to Jiang Some’s disdain and issued his next command.

Gu Yong, who had just sat down to rest for a moment, quickly flew over again. In this short while, he seemed to have completely convinced himself, “What are your instructions, my lord?”

Chong Xuan Sheng looked at him, “General Gu, go and tell the brothers that those willing to follow me now will encamp here tonight, under your command. There are some supplies over there, which you can arrange yourself… Those unwilling can simply disperse and return to their homes.”

“Ah?” Gu Yong was somewhat stunned, suspecting he had misheard.

Especially the latter half of the sentence.

Not one turn, and you just let people shoot arrows?

“Which sentence do you not understand?” Chong Xuan Sheng asked patiently and gently.

“No, no.” Gu Yong quickly said, “This subordinate understands, I will go and arrange it!”

“…” Looking at this person hurrying back, Chong Xuan Sheng sighed, “My uncle’s reputation is too fearsome, making it difficult for me to approach people.”

“Why didn’t you confirm the Xia army’s strategic issue with him? After all, he came with Tai Yin,” Jiang Wang asked curiously.

Regarding letting the surrendered Xia soldiers disperse, he could understand that. If the Xia Kingdom’s high-level truly chose to abandon the eastern line, then this force was indeed no longer important. Instead, the wider scattering of these defeated Xia troops would further shake the will of the Xia people.

They fought to the death on this side, fought at Afternoon Sun City, then came to Min West to fight. Generals died, warriors died, they fought to a desperate situation and surrendered, yet what were the Xia Kingdom’s high-level doing?

With a simple command, they were all abandoned.

If Chong Xuan Sheng were to let this point pass, that would be strange.

“Everything he knows, he has already told me. Things he couldn’t possibly know, what’s the point of asking him?”

“Eh? When did he tell you something? Why do I have no impression?”

“Sometimes, the transmission of intelligence doesn’t necessarily require words.”

Chong Xuan Sheng ended this segment of dialogue with this profound and immeasurable statement, then left behind the Zhen Wu Camp under the Shadow Guard’s control, responsible for caring for the wounded and transporting captured weapons, ordering them to return to the previously occupied Qi Yue City to rest.

Finally, only the replenished De Sheng Camp remained. Everyone mounted their horses and rode through the dust towards the northwest.

“Why didn’t you make other arrangements for Gu Yong?” Jiang Wang asked from within the sweeping cavalry.

“The current arrangements are sufficient. The rest depends on his own intelligence,” Chong Xuan Sheng said casually.

Jiang Wang laughed from horseback, “To handle such important matters, you instead scatter people in groups, driving them all apart!”

“Even if we brought all those people to Gui Yi, could we truly take down Gui Yi City?” Chong Xuan Sheng said without concern, “To insert the Purple Micro Midheaven Supreme Emperor Flag outside Gui Yi City is already a great merit, superior to Chong Xuan Zun’s bullying of others, only stronger, not weaker!”

The tails of the horses whipped over his voice, falling in the cold spring wind, still carrying a hint of chill.

“As long as we have elite soldiers, as long as we have speed.”

“What is a vanguard? Those who first reach Gui Yi City are merely the first wave of a million-strong army!”

The coolness of the spring wind quietly descended.

Ren Qiu Li, seated in a quiet room, lightly sighed.

This was a room capable of isolating all qi, maximizing the avoidance of information exposure regarding the South Dipper Hall’s participation in the war.

Of course, there was no need for such tension now. Yi Sheng Feng had secretly infiltrated the eastern front battlefield a few days earlier.

Her sigh was both light and faint, like the thin smoke of the Flying Cloud Incense beside the furnace—this was something Yi Sheng Feng had obtained after several life-and-death encounters in the Yu Abyss and specially offered to her.

Although amidst the clash of national fortunes, all divinations were hazy and unclear.

But there was still a kind of vague intuition that gave her an answer.

Lu Shuang He’s true disciple, Yi Sheng Feng, died in battle…

That child who had passed on her Heavenly Mechanism Step, that stubborn, unyielding little swordsman.

His cultivation path, which should have been long-lasting, ended in the spring of Dao Calendar 3921.

To wither at a time when all things revived, when vitality was abundant, was truly lonely.

She had long known that the Heavenly Way was emotionless, the human world tumultuous. She still found it difficult to articulate exactly why she had sighed.

She knew perfectly well that the child held no genuine emotion for anyone.

But when he held this furnace of Flying Cloud Incense with a blood-stained hand, did his heart truly not contain a single shred of closeness?

He had lived in the South Dipper Hall for sixteen years, after all, and those were real, undeniable years.

Sixteen years of several life-and-death struggles had transformed him from a silent child into a sharp South Dipper true transmission—everything, all in her eyes.

She had watched this child grow up.

Cold indifference was a good character. Cold indifference was closer to emotionless, closer to the original appearance of the Dao.

But a nature as cold and indifferent as Yi Sheng Feng’s, yet still unable to break the “I attachment,” unable to forget the very beginning of his journey on the Dao path…

This was ultimately not true indifference.

But then again, when people aged, their hearts also aged. Who could truly be completely detached from all entanglements?

If initially on the riverbank of Feng Xi Town, Lu Shuang He had not watched coldly but had casually swung a sword, helping Yi Sheng Feng thoroughly end his karma?

Would today’s Yi Sheng Feng not be truly without regret, without flaw, without mistake?

Upon this thought, a strand of hair on her forehead suddenly snapped, fluttering down before her. In the process of floating, it had already withered, losing all its luster.

Ren Qiu Li cut off this terrible thought.

Divination practitioners were most taboo of arbitrarily interfering with karma.

Once you began to underestimate fate, fate would give you a cruel response.

“Those who come can’t calculate as heaven calculates, those who arbitrarily speak of fortune and misfortune cannot enter the heavenly mechanism door.”

Ren Qiu Li murmured this sentence.

For some reason, she suddenly recalled that when Yi Sheng Feng decided to come to the Xia Kingdom, Lu Shuang He had said nothing.

Long Xiang Si or Thin Luck Lang.

The fork in the road of fate, heading left or right.

Lu Shuang He always watched.

And even she, the Heavenly Mechanism True Person, could not arbitrarily declare right or wrong.

“True Person.”

Someone called softly at the door.

Although there was a transaction between Long Sheng Jun and the Xia Kingdom’s Martial King.

But for the other people of the South Dipper Hall, this was a time purely based on their own actions.

The Xia Kingdom had offered very high conditions, but the several true persons each had their duties, and no one was willing to come.

Only she represented the South Dipper Hall on this journey.

She had sat in this quiet room for so long, and it was finally time to act.

With a flick of her Dao robe, Ren Qiu Li had already appeared outside the door.

Waiting at the door was the head of the Tai family, Tai Xu, a God-Arrival realm cultivator.

A powerful cultivator in the God and Bright realm should have had a golden body and jade marrow, like an immortal. But looking at him now, a weary air was impossible to conceal, yet his eyes still held a stubborn spirit, making him not to be underestimated.

This kind of spirit she had seen before in True Person Tai Hua, who had trekked ten thousand mountains to comprehend the array Dao of heavenly movement…

“True Person, please follow me.”

“Where to?”

“You Ping.”

A name flashed through Ren Qiu Li’s heart—Chen Fu.

That court scholar of the Qi Kingdom who said, “Where the law does not prohibit, there is freedom; where virtue does not bind, all can be pardoned.” He was also the main commander on the northern front for the Qi side in this great war between Qi and Xia.

Immediately, she realized what this action represented, and what great price the Xia Kingdom had paid for it!

“Who is in charge of this matter?” She couldn’t help but ask.

On the Xia Kingdom’s side, who, in fact, would dare to incur such widespread disapproval in this world?

Could it be Chu Gong Yi, the person responsible for the northern front of the Xia Kingdom? But this true person had not involved himself in politics for a long time, and coming out of seclusion in a time of crisis, could he truly bear such responsibility?

Tai Xu hesitated for a moment and said, “It is the National Teacher.”

Xi Meng Fu!

“Let’s go.” Ren Qiu Li only said.

Her ears could already hear the sound of the army assembling, and every army within Central City had already rotated along the city walls no less than twenty times.

She wondered if Long Sheng Jun would act at this time?

She also regretted… not being able to see it in person.

When the First Emperor had his imperial title revoked by Chu Tianzi, Long Sheng Jun had taken a few steps into the world, cultivating outside of heaven for many years. He had only recently returned to the southern domain, yet had not shown his power before people. She still didn’t know what his harvest over these years was, nor how his strength had evolved to an unfathomable realm.

In short, every time she saw him, she felt his depth was even harder to measure.

However, so be it.

She was curious about Long Sheng Jun’s current strength, but she didn’t care much about the victory or defeat between Qi and Xia.

She thought, regarding Yi Sheng Feng’s death…

Lu Shuang He probably wouldn’t care very much either.

“Xi Meng Fu! Xi Meng Fu! Xi Meng Fu!”

“The First Emperor entrusted you with affairs of state, and you repay him with this thousand-wound, hundred-hole mess?!”

“Great Xia takes you as National Teacher, and you treat nearly half the country’s people as chess pieces, abandoning them casually! If good and evil have their recompense, Xi Meng Fu, you will not have a good end!”

Xi Meng Fu sat in a corner of the city tower, his eyes vacant as he looked into the distance. He could see the tall Chong Rong Building Vehicle within the Qi army’s formation… He had once wanted to disassemble and imitate it, but he hadn’t managed to capture one. Many spies from Tiao Lin Zi had gone to steal the drawings, and not one had returned alive.

Even the eyes of a contemporary true person, penetrating the essence of the world, could not discern the secrets of such military equipment by mere observation.

By now, all he could do was sigh.

He truly hoped that these good things… the Xia Kingdom could also possess.

“Xi Meng Fu, Great Xia will forever lose the hearts of the people in the east. You are a sinner for all eternity!”

“The ruin of a thousand-year state begins with you, Xi Meng Fu!”

Wave after wave of curses echoed in his ears, vaguely, sometimes rising, sometimes falling, never ceasing.

How could a contemporary true person possibly have auditory hallucinations?

The reason he heard them was that they were all “truths” that would undoubtedly happen in the future.

“Xi Meng Fu!”

Oh, this voice, on the other hand, was the “truth” of the present.

Xi Meng Fu lightly lifted an eye and indeed saw Liu Xi Yi approaching with large strides.

This old National Prime Minister, who always huffed and puffed, did not directly point his nose and curse this time. His eyes were very complex.

“The people of the eastern prefectures will never forgive you,” he said.

Xi Meng Fu did not speak.

This Great Xia National Prime Minister’s blustering steps, for some reason, slowed down.

He walked closer, his voice not loud, “You led this strategic plan, opening the country’s gates wide, using Gui Yi as bait, placing the Heavenly Son in danger. Now the Emperor is narrow-minded and will not forgive you either.”

Xi Meng Fu remained silent.

Abandoning the entire eastern half of the empire, abandoning soldiers and people numbering in the millions, one by one. This matter required someone to step forward and bear responsibility. He, Xi Meng Fu, formulated the plan. He “forced against public opinion,” “convinced” a crowd of Great Xia civil and military officials. He personally made the arrangements, wrote down the transfer orders, and of course, it should be borne by him.

The Emperor could not fail to forgive the Martial King, did not dare to forgive the Min King, so of course, he could only fail to forgive the National Teacher…

How could he not understand these reasons?

But his silence was too stubborn.

More enduring than the city tower of Central City.

“You have borne the resentment of the people, accumulated on your body. Do you know how you will die?” Liu Xi Yi walked even closer, even somewhat angrily asking.

Xi Meng Fu wrinkled his brow slightly in dislike. He had always found it difficult to tolerate the smell of this heavy smoker. His temper was violent, his tobacco strong, and he always relied on his seniority.

“Common man! What kind of expression is that!” Liu Xi Yi’s voice rose again.

Xi Meng Fu finally said nothing, directly stood up, patted his buttocks, and walked down the city tower. Still like that wild child who had just run off the boat many years ago, without manners, without education—indeed, no one had taught him, no one had raised him.

East rose fish belly white.

On the city tower of Central City, two Great Xia National Teacher and National Prime Minister, who looked at each other with disgust, their thin shadows passing each other, completing this rotation.

“Urgent report! Urgent report!”

A Shen Wu Army chief general, flying rapidly around the city, his voice containing unconcealable joy—

“Jing Country’s Southern Celestial Master Ying Jiang Hong array-killed Bei Gong Nan Tu, greatly breaking the Iron Floating Slaughter, Mu Country is already defeated!”

Liu Xi Yi and Xi Meng Fu suddenly turned around, both contemporary true persons moved by this! Liu Xi Yi’s expression was a mix of shock and joy, while Xi Meng Fu’s expression seemed to be on the verge of tears and laughter.

This morale-boosting news instantly spread throughout the city, and the entire city was shaken by it.

The atmosphere in Central City suddenly erupted with joy, sweeping away many days of depression.

From Xi Meng Fu’s tear-filled eyes, he saw a round red sun leaping out from the horizon, staining the sky with a thousand miles of rosy clouds, truly magnificent!