The woman within the Blood River Repentance Formation was none other than the current Princess Royal of the Great Wei Dynasty, the "War Goddess" Xiao Yinghao, the equal rival of Gu Yuye.
Xiao Yinghao had gone to war at the age of thirteen. Now, at twenty-seven, her martial cultivation had reached the Third Rank. She commanded the White Dragon Army with near invincibility, wherever she went, victory followed.
Across the Six Northern Routes, Gu Yuye and she each guarded three routes, having defended against the Qiongman invasion for many years.
Unlike Gu Yuye, who was a master of strategy and calculation, her command style more closely resembled that of the late General Ding Xingfeng, relying on absolute force to crush all opposition.
Though Gu Yuye's cultivation was higher, he rarely took to the field himself, preferring to plot and maneuver from behind the lines.
Xiao Yinghao, on the other hand, often led the charge herself, serving as the "Dragon Head" of the White Dragon Army Formation.
It was because of this that the soldiers, once dispersed and reorganized from Ding Xingfeng's army, gradually accepted her leadership and willingly obeyed her command.
The famed reputation of the White Dragon Army Formation was built upon real, hard-earned military merit, countless severed heads and a trail of victories carved out step by step.
This time, she had personally led a small force on a covert mission because traces of activity from the "Unveiling" Dao branch of the Demonic Sect had been discovered on the battlefield of Autumn Peace Road.
Within the Tenfold Dao of the Demonic Sect, the "Unveiling" Dao was the most mysterious. Yet its Dao Lord was paradoxically the most clearly identified of them all, a so-called "Thousand-Year Elder" named An Qisheng, a qi refiner from the Ancient Zhou era.
Indeed, An Qisheng claimed to be a surviving man from the final years of Ancient Zhou.
From the fall of Zhou, through the dynasties of Qi, Xia, Ning, and Wei, more than three thousand years had passed. If he truly had lived from that time until now, calling himself "Thousand-Year Elder" would not be an exaggeration at all.
But to live so long, An Qisheng must possess the cultivation of the First Rank Eternal Realm.
Even those at the Second Rank had lifespans no longer than three thousand years.
Hence, most people believed that An Qisheng's claim was nothing more than self-aggrandizement.
The reason the "Unveiling" Dao was considered mysterious was because their faith was neither overtly evil nor frightening, but rather, enigmatic.
They worshiped the "Heavenly Gate," calling themselves "Messengers of the Dao."
A hundred years ago, the previous Sword Saint, Ying Baishou, spent a thousand years nurturing his sword before finally exhausting all his strength to cut open the "Heavenly Gate."
But even before that, the followers of the Unveiling Dao had already devoted themselves to opening the Heavenly Gate.
According to the teachings of the Ancient Zhou qi refiners, "Heaven and Earth are like a grand furnace, yin and yang are the charcoal, and man is the copper within", a metaphor meant to illustrate how difficult cultivation was.
The Unveiling Dao, however, interpreted it differently: cultivators who breathed in the qi of Heaven and Earth to temper themselves were, in truth, nothing more than pieces of copper trapped within that great furnace.
The so-called "eternal and indestructible" were merely those forever confined within it.
To ascend higher, they must lift the lid of that furnace.
That lid was the "Heavenly Gate."
This was the essence of the "Unveiling" Dao's name.
Yet within this doctrine lay a terror capable of shattering the heart of every cultivator.
If Heaven and Earth were but a furnace, then what were the cultivators within it? And what existed outside that furnace?
Such thoughts could not be pursued too deeply.
The Unveiling Dao was deemed heretical precisely because of this.
These self-proclaimed "Messengers of the Dao" spread their teachings far and wide, but in truth they were destroyers of Dao-hearts. Their words sowed doubt, causing cultivators to question the meaning of their existence, often driving them into madness, or even suicide.
Thus, when the "Confucian Saint" Xie Qian rebuilt the Confucian Path, he denounced the Unveiling Doctrine as seductive and ruinous heresy. By upholding benevolence and virtue to stabilize human hearts, he accomplished a great service to the world.
Most importantly, however, the Unveiling Dao had never proven that the "Heavenly Gate" actually existed.
For over a thousand years thereafter, the Unveiling Dao had lain dormant, until Ying Baishou's sword cleaved open the Heavenly Gate.
Yet even then, he only managed to open it halfway before using his own Eternal Realm flesh and blood to seal it once more.
Since then, no one had been able to approach it, nor discover what lay beyond that gate.
No one knew what Ying Baishou had seen, nor why he had chosen to sacrifice himself to close the very gate he had opened with his own sword.
The truth behind it all could only be revealed if someone else reopened the Heavenly Gate, but that seemed unlikely ever to happen.
Still, the existence of the Heavenly Gate was now beyond question.
After that, the Unveiling Dao rose again, seeking to reopen the gate, an ambition that threatened to undermine the very foundations of all cultivation.
Xiao Yinghao had no choice but to take this seriously.
Her personal guards had reported the presence of a Fourth Rank Divine Path master, which was why she decided to strike personally, using thunderous force to catch the enemy off guard.
But what she had not anticipated was that this entire operation was a long-prepared trap.
"A formation of this magnitude could never have been completed in a single day. The enemy must have known my movements."
Xiao Yinghao stared coldly at the endless blood river before her.
"Gu Yuye... you really couldn't wait any longer, could you?"
The blood river churned violently, waves of crimson rising as countless resentful spirits took shape, ghastly faces rushing toward her.
At its very center lay row upon row of female corpses.
Their bellies were swollen, torn open at the center, revealing crimson fetuses that had never been born.
The Blood River Repentance Formation used unborn infants as its magical medium, with mothers who had died in childbirth serving as living altars, an authentic Qiongman Tian Sa curse formation.
The more people were killed, the more resentment was gathered, and the stronger this formation became.
It was clearly designed specifically to ensnare Xiao Yinghao!
The moment she stepped into the formation, she knew she would not easily escape.
She drew a deep breath, planted her sword into the bloody mire, and sat down cross-legged. Steeling her mind, she resisted the encroaching illusions and chaotic thoughts.
Then, from the surrounding void, came the aged voice of a Qiongman Tian Sa.
He cackled, saying, "War Goddess of Great Wei, surely your heart now worries for your mighty White Dragon Army? Then come, see for yourself how your so-called army is trampled and slaughtered beneath my Qiongman host!"
To shake Xiao Yinghao's resolve, nothing could be more effective than showing her the fall of her own army beneath enemy hands.
For any commander, such an unbearable defeat would be enough to crack the Dao-heart.
A roar sounded, the blood river surged violently toward her.
The scene of the Autumn Peace Road battlefield unfolded before her eyes...
...
"I am the princess's consort, her husband in name and law. The White Dragon Army under my command cannot be said to have changed masters."
Gu Fangchen spoke calmly, his expression utterly steady, taking advantage of Xiao Yinghao's current entrapment to bestow upon himself yet another identity.
After all, she wouldn't emerge from the Blood River Repentance Formation for seven days. By the time she did, he would be long gone.
And she would have no idea who had done it.
The thought made Gu Fangchen's expression firmer, utterly convincing.
Yao Jin, too, was swayed by his composure. He looked up at the countless banners fluttering across the heavens and the surging dragon-like blaze sweeping through the sky. Seeing the soldiers, their spirits reignited under the army formation's power, his inner scales tipped decisively.
This was indeed the White Dragon Army Formation,
With their familiarity, there could be no mistake.
Yao Jin took a deep breath.
"If you are her husband, then you are no outsider. So be it, at this moment of life and death, we gamble once more!"
"All troops, heed my command, enter the formation!"
At the heart of the protective array, Gu Fangchen's eyes snapped open. Countless banners fell like meteors as the life-flames of 150,000 soldiers lit up in his sight, each thread of consciousness linking to his own.
The White Dragon Army Formation, activated!