"Reporting to the General! Prefecture Lord Yun Manlou's army has collapsed! He's taken the Yun Clan and fled. There are no reinforcements in sight!"
"Shadowfell City has fallen. The Crown Prince has evacuated as per your arrangements."
"Since the Wu Race Sage Elder appeared, the Lotus Ferry Nunnery has remained completely silent. Abbess Dairou hasn't shown herself. Inside their Grotto-Heaven, they're packing up their valuables."
"Marshal Bi Shihu's reinforcements made it halfway, but they've now retreated!"
"...."
Li Tianyue's blood-robed army charged into the Wu Race ranks.
These 320,000 Soldiers, who had followed her from the Eastern Border to this battlefield against the Wu, were slaughtering their enemies alongside her.
Clad in red, this army was like a sharp sword, viciously stabbing into the black tide formed by the massive Wu army.
They pressed forward with indomitable will.
Under Li Tianyue's command, the Spiritual formation of these 320,000 soldiers manifested into the forms of the Four Divine Beasts, rampaging across the battlefield.
Yet, even the sharpest sword has moments of weakness.
Li Tianyue rode atop a Nine-Headed Ghost Lion that had been sent from the Northern Border.
Wielding dual swords at the very forefront of the Spiritual formation, she was the very tip of the blade for the entire blood-robed army.
As piece after piece of bad news reached her ears, Li Tianyue remained expressionless, merely casting a glance toward Shadowfell City in the distance of the battlefield.
That was the main stronghold of the Western Border's Defense Army against the Wu.
She had guarded this place for many years. Yet, in the face of that giant tree stepping across the battle lines and the Wu Race Elders standing atop it, this city—once deemed impregnable—seemed like nothing more than a laughable toy.
Throughout a lifetime of campaigns, both great and small, Li Tianyue had never witnessed such a desperate plight.
The Wu Race had shattered the unwritten rules.
A Body Integration realm Sage Elder had intervened.
As Heavenly Fire rained down from the clouds, human lives proved frailer than paper.
Suddenly, Li Tianyue snapped her head upward. Within the cloud-filled sky, she glimpsed three terrifying auras.
The Spirit Tablet on her lit up.
.....
High in the sky, three figures stood upon empty air.
Each of them cast a sidelong glance at the blood-red army below.
The Human Race was in full retreat. Only a single force still charged headlong into the enemy ranks. Even as they carved through the Wu army, they had already sunk deep into a tightening encirclement.
All three hailed from the Divine Bird Totem. Golden birds wreathed in flame were embroidered across their fire-red robes, and the one at the front bore the face of a youth.
Elder Huai Fan kept his hands tucked within his sleeves.
His long, narrow eyes rested on the white-haired woman in black armor and a blood-red robe far below. A flicker of respect passed through his gaze, along with faint reluctance.
"Blood-Robed General Li Tianyue. The Butcher. It would be a terrible waste for her to die here."
The two elders at his sides wore different expressions, yet both shared the same trace of regret.
When war first broke out, they had wished nothing more than to tear Li Tianyue limb from limb.
Now that the chance had come, they found themselves admiring her talent and lamenting her fate.
And beneath that admiration lay unease.
"Look there," one of them said, pointing toward the battlefield's flanks.
Chaos reigned. Some Human cultivators still lingered atop their Spirit Boats, only to turn and flee in silence.
Against the main clash, where the Blood-Robed Army drove like a spear into the Wu ranks, the spiritual power on the outer edges of the battlefield appeared thin and scattered, like two faint streaks barely holding their shape.
From above, the Wu army spread like a sea of black ink. Across that dark expanse, the Human forces had once formed three parallel lines advancing in unison (三).
But only the central line held firm, cutting straight into the enemy's heart.
The upper and lower lines faltered. They touched the edge of battle, then broke away, retreating in the opposite direction.
Huai Fan's expression shifted.
"Those were the Azure Dynasty's armies. The moment our forces pushed into Shadowfell Prefecture, Li Tianyue had already prepared her counterattack.
She meant for the Blood-Robed Army to split the field, while the other two armies swept in from both sides and seal us in, wiping out our tribesmen in one stroke.
Unfortunately for them, they did not expect us to abandon the old rules. We shattered the board before their plan could close."
A chill crept down his spine as he spoke.
Their decision had been swift and ruthless. If not for Sage Elder Nirvana's support in this battle, he did not dare imagine the cost.
Fortunately… the others had fled.
"In the end, she was left behind. Even after sensing our Sage Elder's aura, she carried out her orders without hesitation.
Meanwhile, the Lotus Ferry Nunnery of Shadowfell Prefecture, Prefecture Lord Yun Manlou, and Marshal Bi Shihu chose to run.
Had they followed through and committed to a final stand, they might have stalled us."
Huai Fan let out a quiet sigh.
"Abbess Dairou treasured her own life too dearly. Yun Manlou and Bi Shihu saw the tide turn and saved themselves.
Otherwise, there might truly have been a battle worth speaking of. Li Tianyue would not have stood alone, trapped within our encirclement.
This defeat… was not a failure of strategy."
But the words had barely left his lips.
Huai Fan's eyes suddenly went blank.
A tremor rippled from below, and the space ten meters in front of him wavered, as if a slit had been torn open by something sharp.
Glistening cold light radiated an unspeakable killing intent, gradually revealing a razor-sharp edge as it swept past Huai Fan on both sides.
Two long spears!
One was silver; the other shone like the moonlight in the sky.
Pfft!
With just two soft sounds, the clansmen standing to his left and right desperately tried to defend against the spears. Yet, the weapons shattered their techniques and pierced right through their bodies.
All of this happened within the span of a single thought.
Amidst the Blood-Robed Army, black mist began to surge and billow.
A figure clad in moonlight-colored armor, with black mist seeping out from the crevices of the plating, was now standing right beside Li Tianyue, staring with deathly intensity at the three Elders.
The spears had pierced the bodies of two of the Elders, yet the wounds were not fatal.
As the two Elders stopped their bleeding, their hearts filled with vigilance, the two long spears suddenly vanished into thin air.
When they looked again, the weapons had already fallen into the hands of the figure shrouded in black mist.
A pair of pitch-black pupils pierced through the layers of clouds, locking onto them firmly, as if gazing directly into their souls.
The three, who had originally intended to move in and kill Li Tianyue, suddenly felt a dark power binding them tight within the sky, daring not take even a single step.
They all looked back in unison, their Primordial Spirits already projecting outward.
In the rear, that thousand-meter giant tree had already stepped inside Shadowfell City. With wanton trampling and Heavenly Fire descending to destroy the world, it took only moments for the city to be engulfed in flames.
"Stop."
As an ancient voice rang out, the giant tree suddenly froze in its tracks, as if locked in time.
Its massive leg, seemingly capable of propping up the heavens, paused bent in mid-air, causing the entire tree to shudder.
The many Elders standing on the topmost tender leaves all sensed the aura of space fluctuating behind them.
Even Sage Elder Nirvana, with his benevolent countenance, furrowed his brows. "A troublesome individual."
The aura of Space. He sensed that exceptionally difficult aura—something that was troublesome to the extreme, even for the Void Refining realm!