The Wei Mansion was bright with lights and full of guests.
It was the eighteenth birthday of Wei Tian, the only son of Marshal Wei Yan. Every young noble connected to the First Prince was there, laughing and drinking. In the center of the crowd, Wei Tian was acting like a king, bragging to his friends.
"The Frost-Fang Kingdom in the north are just barbarians," Wei Tian said, waving his glass. "If it were up to me, I'd lead three armies and crush their capital in six months!"
"Young Master Wei is a genius!" his friends cheered. "Those savages are nothing to you!"
Just then, a calm voice came from the door. "Is that so?"
Everyone turned. Li Tianhan, dressed in simple black robes, stood there with his hands behind his back. He walked in like he owned the place, even though he wasn't invited. The room went silent.
Wei Tian's face turned red with anger. "Li Tianhan? Who let you in? You aren't welcome here!"
Li Tianhan didn't even look at the guards. He stared straight at Wei Tian with a cold, playful smile.
"I heard you plan to win a war in six months," Li Tianhan said. "But tell me, Young Master, how will you feed your men? Winter comes early in the north. The mountains will be buried in snow. When the roads are blocked, will your huge army eat ice?"
Wei Tian froze. He had read books about war, but he had never thought about how to move food through a blizzard.
Li Tianhan stepped closer. "The ground in the north is nothing but swamps and thick forests. Your horses will be useless. If the enemy hides in the woods and picks your men off one by one, what will you do?"
"I..." Wei Tian's forehead started to sweat.
"The people of that kingdom are born fighters," Li Tianhan said, his voice getting colder. "A big invasion will just make their neighbors join the fight against us. You'll be surrounded and killed. Have you even thought about that?"
Wei Tian couldn't say a word. His face went pale. The friends who were just praising him now looked at him like he was an idiot. Li Tianhan didn't sound like a bragging teenager; he sounded like a veteran general.
"You know nothing about real war, yet you talk like a hero," Li Tianhan said. "It's embarrassing that a Marshal has a son like you."
He turned and walked out. Wei Tian stood there shaking, his knuckles white as he squeezed his fists. The shame was eating him alive. He hated Li Tianhan more than anything.
The night was pitch black as Li Tianhan walked home. He knew he had poked a hornets' nest, but that was the plan. He wanted the enemy to strike.
As he turned into a quiet alley, he felt a sudden chill. Five shadows dropped from the rooftops. Every single one was a Spirit Lord.
"Go, Your Highness!"
Li Tianhan's old protector appeared instantly. The old man burned his life energy to reach a temporary peak of power, throwing himself at the assassins to buy Li Tianhan time.
But there was a sixth man.
A final Spirit Lord lunged from the darkness, aiming a palm strike at Li Tianhan's back. The force was so strong Li Tianhan's bones began to creak before the hit even landed.
Most people would have died instantly, but Li Tianhan had the experience of three lifetimes. He twisted his body at an impossible angle, letting the hit miss his heart. The blow still sent him flying forward like a cannonball, crashing through a wall.
"What?" the Spirit Lord gasped. He couldn't believe a kid at the Spirit Tempering Realm had dodged his kill-shot.
Li Tianhan didn't stop to breathe. He used the momentum to scramble through the ruins, zig-zagging to stay alive. He was covered in blood, but he avoided every fatal strike. The assassin was getting frustrated. If this took any longer, the city guards would arrive. He used his power to "lock" the air around Li Tianhan so he couldn't move.
"How dare you!" a voice boomed like thunder.
A golden light smashed down between them, blowing the assassin back. The killer spat blood and vanished into the night.
Later, in the Emperor's study, the Azure Emperor looked at Li Tianhan's bloody, pale face. He was so angry he crushed his jade pen into dust.
"Assassins in my own capital?" the Emperor roared. "Do they think I'm dead?"
But deep down, he was amazed. A kid at the Spirit Tempering level had survived a fight with a Spirit Lord for that long. Li Tianhan was becoming a legend.
Li Tianhan coughed up a bit of blood to look more injured than he was. "Your Majesty... those killers... they fought like the barbarians from the north..."
The Emperor's eyes sharpened. He immediately thought: Li Tianhan was attacked right after leaving Wei Yan's house. Either Wei Yan is a traitor, or he's too stupid to see killers in his own neighborhood.
The next day, the Emperor took action. He fired a dozen officials loyal to Wei Yan. Then, he ordered Marshal Wei Yan out of retirement and told him he had to lead the war in the north to make up for his failure to keep the capital safe.
In the middle of the court, Li Tianhan stepped forward.
"Your Majesty, the future of our nation is in its youth. I ask for permission to form a Martial Talent Army made of young geniuses. Let us go to the north and prove ourselves in battle!"
The Emperor was thrilled. "Granted! I name you Commander-in-Chief of this new army!"
The news shocked the empire. Inside the Wei Mansion, Wei Tian was so mad he smashed his favorite vase.
"Li Tianhan? That trash is a Commander?" he screamed. "I'll show him. I'll make sure he never comes back from the battlefield!"
The north was buried in snow for three months. In the capital, the Emperor was thrilled to receive one victory report after another about the Martial Talent Army.
Li Tianhan was becoming a military legend. He wiped out enemy scouts at Blackwater River and burned their food supplies in a daring night raid. He even snuck behind enemy lines to kill a high-ranking commander. While he was winning the war, Wei Tian and the other noble sons did nothing but talk. The difference was embarrassing.
Late one night, Li Tianhan stood alone in his tent, looking at a map. His finger rested on a dark, narrow pass called Broken Bone Valley.
He knew exactly how the enemy liked to set ambushes from his past life. He decided to set a trap of his own. He wrote a fake report about a secret enemy team moving a "sacred treasure" through Broken Bone Valley. He knew this would be too tempting for a greedy person to ignore. He marked the route on a piece of leather and wrote a small note: A mission worthy of a Lordship. Then, he crumpled the leather and tossed it in the trash.
A moment later, a young officer named Liu Feng came in to clean the tent. He was actually a spy for the Fifth Prince. When he saw the map in the trash, he couldn't help himself. He opened it, saw the note about becoming a Lord, and his heart started racing. Greed took over his mind completely.
Back in the capital, the Fifth Prince looked at the stolen map. He sent a man to a shady border market to check the story. The man came back with news: a drunken Frost-Fang merchant was complaining that a "secret caravan" had blocked the roads.
The Fifth Prince was excited. He didn't want to risk his own life, so he saw a perfect chance to use Wei Tian.
If Wei Tian wins, his father will owe me, the Prince thought. If he dies, his father will blame Li Tianhan for the mess. Either way, I win.
The Prince went to the Wei house and showed the "secret" to Wei Tian.
"Look at this," the Prince whispered. "Li Tianhan is stealing all the glory. This is your chance to prove you are a better soldier. One win here, and you'll be a hero."
Wei Tian hesitated. "Should I tell my father?"
The Prince laughed. "No! If you tell him, the regular army takes the credit. If Li Tianhan finds out, he'll get there first. You have to move now while he's sleeping!"
The thought of Li Tianhan's mocking face snapped Wei Tian's reason.
"Fine! Let's do it!" he screamed. "I'll show everyone what a real hero looks like!"
He gathered his family's private guards and a group of arrogant noble friends. They snuck out of the camp at night and headed for Broken Bone Valley.
The valley was deathly quiet.
"Wei Tian, something feels wrong," one of the nobles whispered.
"Shut up, you coward!" Wei Tian snapped. He could almost taste the glory.
When they saw a small group of wagons at the bottom of the valley, they cheered. But in that exact second, an arrow shot into the sky. Thousands of torches lit up the cliffs above them. The ground shook as heavy enemy cavalry charged from both ends of the valley, trapping them.
"Ambush!" Wei Tian screamed. His joy turned into pure terror.
It wasn't a fight; it was a massacre. His friends were cut down in seconds. Wei Tian tried to run, but three spears pierced his chest at once. As his life faded, he was simply confused.
"Why... how..." he choked out before his eyes went dark.
As the enemy soldiers cheered and cleaned up the bodies, a new army appeared from behind them like ghosts. It was Li Tianhan and the Martial Talent Army. They were well-rested and struck with overwhelming force.
Li Tianhan sat on his horse, watching the chaos with cold eyes. When the fighting stopped, he walked over to Wei Tian's body and reached down to close the boy's eyes.
"Give Wei Tian a hero's burial," Li Tianhan told his officer.
"And write a report. Say that Young Master Wei Tian volunteered to be the bait to lure the enemy out. Say he died bravely for his country."
In the capital, Marshal Wei Yan read the report. His only son was dead. He coughed up blood and collapsed. When he woke up, he looked twenty years older. His eyes were full of a hatred so deep it was frightening.
He gripped the paper and whispered one name through his teeth.
"Li... Tianhan..."