Is it over?
It’s over.

Li Xuan gasped, looking around. Blood mixed with yellow earth, and corpses lay everywhere like a hell on earth.

Breaking formation, charging first, capturing flags, beheading generals—breaking formation was the easiest, beheading generals the hardest. Once the main general died, the morale of the entire army would collapse. When Li Xuan, with a will to die, embarked on this bloody path, he hadn’t truly imagined he could reach Yuan Zhen. At this moment, he felt a sense of unreality. It was like a dream, and he wasn’t sure if he should wake up.

At this moment, Chen Ji struggled to his feet, a look of surprise and doubt on his face. Seeing Li Xuan in a daze, he immediately tore off a piece of his clothes, rushed forward, wrapped Yuan Zhen’s head, and handed it to Li Xuan. Li Xuan snapped back to reality and took the head. Subconsciously, he tried to unwrap the black cloth covering it, but Chen Ji firmly held him back. Li Xuan looked at Chen Ji in confusion, but Chen Ji offered no explanation: “Quick! Don’t let the border army suffer any more casualties!”

Li Xuan immediately raised the black cloth wrapped around Yuan Zhen’s head and roared with all his might.

A moment of silence fell over the battlefield, then a thunderous roar erupted. The border army infantry, one after another, cheered jubilantly. The sound spread from near to far, rolling outward like a tidal wave. In an instant, the morale of the Heavenly Policy Army completely vanished. Except for Yuan Zhen’s personal guard, they all slowly lowered their weapons, their fighting spirit gone.

The Tiger Armor Cavalry quickly weaved through them, herding the Heavenly Policy Army soldiers to one spot, seizing their weapons, removing their armor, leading away their warhorses, and even throwing down hemp ropes, ordering the Heavenly Policy Army to bind each other. This war had truly ended.

In the darkness, the border army infantry slumped to the ground. Chen Ji had expected them to weep openly or cheer, but they did not. The battlefield was filled only with endless bewilderment and silence.

Just then, the Tiger Armor Cavalry surprisingly raised their halberds again, charging back and forth among the Heavenly Policy Army captives! This unexpected turn of events startled the border army infantry, making them stand up again and watch with alarm and doubt as the Tiger Armor Cavalry slaughtered the Heavenly Policy Army.

Li Xuan roared, “What are you doing? Captured generals are not to be executed on the battlefield! This is not out of weakness, but to avoid setting a precedent. If you do this, no one will surrender to our dynasty in the future, and our soldiers who surrender to the Jing Dynasty will also be massacred!” But the Tiger Armor Cavalry continued wielding their halberds, as if they heard nothing.

Hoofbeats sounded in the distance. Li Xuan turned and saw Mr. Feng riding towards them. From afar, Mr. Feng said, “After Guyuan surrendered, did the Heavenly Policy Army keep its promise? Between the Jing and Ning dynasties, it has always been our dynasty’s soldiers surrendering to Jing more often, and Jing’s surrendering to us less often. We are already mortal enemies; this time, we must make sure those spineless people in our dynasty give up all hope of surrender.”

With that, the Tiger Armor Cavalry continued the slaughter, leaving no survivors. By the time the Heavenly Policy Army tried to resist, it was too late. After they had completely massacred the Heavenly Policy Army, amidst Li Xuan’s rage, he saw the Tiger Armor Cavalry and the Elephant Armor Guards simultaneously raise their blades to their own necks, their movements so uniform it was as if they were one person. The next moment, the Liu family’s elites committed suicide together, falling from their horses into pools of blood!

This scene shocked the border army infantry, making them retreat repeatedly. Even these battle-hardened veterans had never witnessed such a sight! Li Xuan’s anger turned into horror, leaving him speechless for a moment.

Only Chen Ji speculated that these Liu family elites had been suppressed by Mr. Feng using a dark magic technique. Their eagerness to open the city gates, burn the granaries, and betray the crown prince was likely because they were close to breaking free from the suppression. Therefore, the Heavenly Policy Army had to die; otherwise, if the Liu family elites lost control, the remaining border army infantry would be unable to clean up the mess. Chen Ji looked around and saw that Hu Junxian and Zhou You’s expressions were normal, as if they had known about this all along.

Mr. Feng no longer paid attention to them. Instead, he pointed at the ground full of corpses and military equipment and said smilingly to Hu Junxian, “General Hu, His Excellency the Grand Councilor previously promised you five thousand warhorses, ten thousand sets of armor, bows, halberds, and swords—they are all here. Take them. With these armaments, Guyuan City should be able to guard the Ning Dynasty’s borders for another fifty years.”

Hu Junxian’s face was devoid of expression. “His Excellency the Grand Councilor certainly has an original way of delivering military supplies.”

Mr. Feng paid no mind to his attitude and praised himself, “These are armaments the Liu family spent a fortune to build, especially the leather armor of the Elephant Armor Camp. I was a bit reluctant to give them to you… but consider it compensation for the Guyuan border army!”

Armor is not necessarily better if it’s heavier. The leather armor of the Elephant Armor Camp was all made from rhinoceros hide, softened over several months, then surface-hardened with lacquer and iron sand. Even a splitting axe could not break it. Lightweight and strong, it was most suitable for elite troops on rapid assaults and infiltration missions. Throughout the history of warfare, only the elite among elites were qualified to wear leather armor. Mr. Feng wasn’t just being polite; he truly wanted to keep the leather armor for the Jie Fan Guard.

At this moment, Li Xuan, propping himself up with his sword, asked angrily, “Is this all the doing of the Directorate of Ceremonial? Truly worthy of being called a ‘Poisonous Grand Councilor,’ to disregard the lives of half of Guyuan’s common folk and execute such a sinister plot!”

Mr. Feng was not offended. He merely said casually, “Lord Li, it’s fine for you to call me sinister, but if you speak ill of His Excellency the Grand Councilor, beware that your life may not be safe. This time, I will spare you because of your achievement in beheading a general. As the saying goes, ‘Righteousness does not manage finances; kindness does not command armies.’ Do you know how many years of peace Guyuan will have, and how many fewer border soldiers will die, now that Guyuan has annihilated the Heavenly Policy Army’s main force and killed its archenemy Yuan Zhen in this battle?”

After speaking, he looked up at Hu Junxian, pointed at Li Xuan, and said, “General Hu, he bears some resemblance to you in your younger days, but I wonder when he will be tempered. His soft heart must be hardened, made as rough as the stones of Guyuan; only then will he be truly useful.”

Li Xuan could not accept Mr. Feng’s words. He immediately threw Yuan Zhen’s head from his hand onto the ground, declaring, “This achievement of beheading a general, bought with tens of thousands of lives, I’d rather not have it!”

Thud.

But when the head hit the ground, it didn’t sound like flesh and blood. Li Xuan was startled. He immediately crouched down and lifted the black cloth. Inside, there was only a section of pine log; Yuan Zhen’s head was gone! Li Xuan looked back at Chen Ji, recalling how he had stopped him from tearing off the black cloth earlier. He must have discovered it then. But to preserve the overall situation, he had kept it covered with the black cloth, enduring in silence.

Chen Ji remained silent. He was able to discover it because when Yuan Zhen’s head was supposedly severed, he hadn’t received any ‘ice flow’. How could a second-rank official of the Jing Dynasty die without an ‘ice flow’?

Mr. Feng looked at the log, his eyes narrowing slightly. He lightly dismounted, and with a flick of his foot, kicked away the robes on Yuan Zhen’s body, revealing several pieces of wood inside the clothes, an imperial decree, and yellow paper talismans pasted on the wood. With his hands tucked into his sleeves, he showed no anger, only a soft sigh of admiration. “He’s truly hard to kill… But, I’ve finally found traces of a fellow practitioner of this dark magic.”

Li Xuan suddenly remembered something. “Wait, if the Yuan Zhen among the Heavenly Policy Army earlier was a wood-and-puppet decoy, why was he able to repel all evil?”

Mr. Feng pondered for a moment. “Presumably, the problem lies with that imperial decree.” With that, he bent down, picked up the imperial decree, and unfolded it. Inside, it was strikingly written in blood. The imperial decree contained no usual “By the mandate of Heaven, the Emperor decrees,” but only eight large characters:

Received Mandate from Heaven,
Eternal Longevity and Prosperity!

At the end, a vermilion imperial seal was stamped!

“An emperor’s blood writ,” Mr. Feng sighed lightly. “I wondered why he carried an imperial decree with him. Turns out it was just to bluff people.” He turned to Hu Junxian. “General Hu, if this person isn’t eliminated, Guyuan will never be at peace.”

Hu Junxian said nothing.

On a desolate cliff, Yuan Zhen stood silently, calmly looking down at the base of the mountain. Inside Guyuan City, only ruins remained. Outside Guyuan City, the Heavenly Policy Army camp was still ablaze, a scene of devastation. A retainer came over and draped a large cloak over him, whispering, “Commander, let’s go. This defeat at Guyuan will surely be used by Lu Jin to criticize you. Perhaps we should simply slaughter a few villages on the way back to collect some heads as a report.”

After a long silence, Yuan Zhen slowly said, “I began dealing with Guyuan when I was seventeen, then only accompanying my father on campaigns, serving as a minor deputy beside him. Later, when my father was gravely ill, he told me from his deathbed that if I ever conquered Guyuan, I must write a eulogy and burn it before his tomb. At that time, I thought Guyuan City was full of old, weak, and crippled soldiers who could only wear rattan armor, use blunt knives, draw weak bows, and had no firearms at all. How hard could it be to take Guyuan? If I were the commander-in-chief, Guyuan would fall in no time.”

“At that time, I looked down on my father,” Yuan Zhen mused. “But later, when I inherited the title and rose from deputy to commander-in-chief, I attacked Guyuan seven times in twenty-three years, and lost seven times. Only then did I realize that my father was actually more formidable than I.” As he spoke, he pointed at the dilapidated Guyuan City below the mountain and sneered, “When I was young, I thought I could fight all the way to the prosperous capital of the Ning Dynasty. Instead, I’ve been dealing with this broken, old little city for over twenty years. I, and that group of stubborn, stinking rocks, will waste our entire lives here.”

The retainer dared not speak.

Yuan Zhen turned to descend the mountain. “Let’s go.”

However, just then, screams of agony came from below the mountain. Under the cover of night, he stood rooted, watching figures move on the bare earth mound below. Over ten retainers stood in front of him, poised and alert. After an unknown time, more than twenty people, carrying long, dripping-blood knives, ascended the mountain in the biting cold wind. Yuan Zhen narrowed his eyes, and after recognizing the approaching figures, a look of realization appeared on his face. “So it’s you. I thought you would never return to Guyuan.”

Third Master Hu shook the blood from his blade and grinned. “I promised the general I would present your head before his grave. How could I break my word to him? All these years, I’ve thought day and night about how to kill you!”

Yuan Zhen looked at the men behind Third Master Hu, each like a wolf or a tiger. His tensed body suddenly slowly relaxed. “So, everyone has their own obsessions.”

Third Master Hu walked up step by step. “In the sixth year of Jianing, the Guyuan border army lost three thousand two hundred and fourteen men; in the ninth year of Jianing, the Guyuan border army lost two thousand nine hundred and thirty-two men; in the fourteenth year of Jianing…” He tallied each number, not missing a single life. Blood debt must be paid with blood.

Xiao Wu whispered behind Third Master Hu, “And the shopkeeper.” Third Master Hu’s expression darkened.

Yuan Zhen shook his head. “Are the soldiers of my Heavenly Policy Army who died any fewer than those from your Guyuan?”

Third Master Hu said with a somber voice, “If this was the destined outcome, why did you return again and again? Couldn’t we have just lived in peace?”

Yuan Zhen suddenly said, “Hu Junyuan, I am more fortunate than you.”

Third Master Hu was startled. “You’re at death’s door, what nonsense are you spouting?”

Yuan Zhen laughed. “I am about to be freed, but you will remain trapped here, unable to break free. Of course, I am more fortunate than you.”

Third Master Hu fell silent. Seeing his reaction, Yuan Zhen burst into loud laughter. “Do you regret coming to Guyuan?”

Together, the more than twenty men behind Third Master Hu swiftly cut down Yuan Zhen’s retainers, one by one. He darted forward, plunging his blade into Yuan Zhen’s abdomen, allowing the warm blood to flow down the blade. Third Master Hu gazed into Yuan Zhen’s eyes. “Any last words?”

The light in Yuan Zhen’s eyes slowly dimmed. “Guyuan… I won’t be coming back in my next life.”