"Bang!"
Ultimately, as the Chu Yun Empire's commander Gui Zhu dragged the Jia Ma Empire's Grand Marshal Mo Ya into a self-detonation, only a piece of black charcoal fell from mid-air.
That was the corpse of Mo Ya, who had been blown to pieces and was now as dead as could be. With this, the fierce battle between Dou Wang had come to a curtain call. As for the ending, there was no winner.
As the highest commanders of the conflict between the Jia Ma Empire and the Chu Yun Empire, both men had perished in this tiny Black Rock Mountain Range.
The one who orchestrated all of this was Xiao Lin, who kept his achievements and name deeply hidden. In the eyes of outsiders, he was nothing more than a nine-star Dou Ling with a bit of talent.
"This... it's over just like that?"
Even after witnessing everything with his own eyes, Mu Chen still appeared somewhat incredulous. He felt as if he had done something, yet also felt as if he had done nothing at all.
Then, their Jia Ma Empire's Grand Marshal Mo Ya and the Chu Yun Empire's commander Gui Zhu started fighting, and finally, they just perished together in such a perfunctory manner.
Why did it feel like a dream?
Not just Mu Chen, but the others felt the same way.
Had they just come here to play a walk-on role?
"Wake up. Although seeing isn't always believing, Mo Ya's corpse has turned into charcoal; that definitely can't be faked. Now we should go and rescue Nalan Jie and the others."
The first to recover was, naturally, Xiao Lin.
Although the current result was indeed a bit unexpected, it didn't exceed his imagination by much. After all, the only other two possibilities were either Mo Ya barely surviving with heavy injuries, or Gui Zhu having the last laugh.
But regardless of the outcome, even if one of them had survived, they would have certainly paid an unimaginable price. When that time came, their group of over thirty people would have swarmed forward.
Even if Xiao Lin only used the strength of a nine-star Dou Ling, it likely would have been enough to pile on and kill whoever had barely managed to live. Therefore, the result wouldn't have changed.
Now that the two had died together, it saved them the trouble of acting. Of course, Xiao Lin had not forgotten what their original purpose for coming to the Black Rock Mountain Range was!
"Oh, right, right, right. I almost forgot about that."
After vexedly slapping his own forehead, the group headed toward the deepest part of the Black Rock Mountain Range. During this time, they also collected the corpse of Grand Marshal Mo Ya, which had turned into charcoal.
Although the matter of Mo Ya's treason was already a proven fact, since his corpse remained, it had to be brought back and handed over to the Emperor of the Jia Ma Empire for disposal.
Subsequently, the group arrived at the place Xiao Lin had seen earlier, which was blocked by a cloud of purple miasma. Immediately, the group began to display their various skills, preparing to disperse the miasma before them.
At the same time, some people started shouting toward the depths of the Black Rock Mountain Range. The goal was to get the people inside to act together, so both sides could disperse the miasma simultaneously.
Very quickly, after the people on the other side of the miasma confirmed the identity of those outside, they also began the process of clearing the miasma.
It took roughly less than half an hour.
With the joint efforts of both sides, the miasma artificially arranged by the Chu Yun Empire people was completely dispersed.
One could see the people coming out from the other side of the miasma; every single one was sallow and thin, with the muscles on their faces sunken in. It was obvious that they must have been hungry for quite a long time.
However, the good news was that they were not in any life-threatening danger.
This wasn't surprising.
After all, the original plan between Grand Marshal Mo Ya and the Chu Yun Empire was to use Nalan Jie and the others to lure a batch of the younger generation from the Jia Ma Empire to come to the rescue—namely Xiao Lin and Mu Chen's group—and then wipe them all out in one net.
Therefore, before Xiao Lin and Mu Chen arrived to rescue them, Nalan Jie and the others naturally wouldn't face life-threatening danger; they had simply suffered a bit of hardship.
But as soldiers, this bit of hardship was nothing to them. At this time, Xiao Lin also saw his best friend, Nalan Jie.
Similarly, Nalan Jie also saw Xiao Lin.
Just as Xiao Lin revealed a smile and wanted to greet Nalan Jie, who would have thought the other party would charge up and give him a massive bear hug.
"Good brother, I knew you would come to save me! Great kindness needs no words. Although we both have sons, if I have a granddaughter in the future, I will definitely have her marry your grandson!"
Nalan Jie made an incredibly excited promise.
However, as Nalan Jie's words fell, the smile on Xiao Lin's face froze. Recalling the classic engagement-breaking plot from the original work, Xiao Lin felt that this matter needed more consideration.
If possible, he didn't want to dig a pit for his own grandson.
"No, Nalan..."
"It's settled then!"
Xiao Lin originally wanted to argue a bit, but who knew that Nalan Jie wouldn't give him any chance to refuse at all. He finished his sentence and walked away immediately, leaving Xiao Lin standing alone, dazed in the wind.
This was considered a small interlude, and it passed for the time being. Thereafter, the group left the Black Rock Mountain Range and rushed back toward the Jia Ma Empire's military camp.
Along the way, Nalan Jie and the others also learned from Xiao Lin and Mu Chen about Grand Marshal Mo Ya's treason, and how he had ultimately died together with the Chu Yun Empire's commander, Gui Zhu.
Upon learning that they were almost ambushed by the Chu Yun Empire because of Grand Marshal Mo Ya's conspiracy, everyone was indignant and also felt a wave of lingering fear.
After all, if Xiao Lin hadn't seen through Grand Marshal Mo Ya's conspiracy, they might have all been finished today!
Because of this, Xiao Lin once again harvested a collective gaze of admiration. Though he didn't know if it was just his imagination, Xiao Lin always felt that Nalan Jie had a look of shared glory on his face.
To Nalan Jie, Xiao Lin was his best friend and would become his in-law in the future. In that case, Xiao Lin being respected by everyone was the same as him being respected by everyone, wasn't it?
Well, that was Nalan Jie's logic.
It had to be said that Nalan Jie himself was quite simple-minded.
When the group returned to the Jia Ma Empire's military camp, they also informed the others about Grand Marshal Mo Ya's treason.
At first, some people didn't believe it, but when they couldn't find Grand Marshal Mo Ya in the camp and instead saw Xiao Lin and the others bring out Mo Ya's corpse, everyone fell silent.
At this time, even Grand Marshal Mo Ya's die-hard loyalists felt their hearts waver. In the end, everyone discussed it and decided to set this matter aside for the time being, waiting for the Imperial Family to handle it themselves in the future.
As generals of the Jia Ma Empire, their responsibility was naturally to win the current war!
Unlike the Jia Ma Empire's side where the generals already understood everything, everyone on the Chu Yun Empire's side was still kept in the dark.
To this end, when the Jia Ma Empire's generals agreed to launch a round of surprise attacks against the Chu Yun Empire, they directly beat the opponent's army of several hundred thousand until they couldn't tell north from south.
After all, the Chu Yun Empire's side still didn't know that their commander Gui Zhu had already self-detonated.
Although Grand Marshal Mo Ya of the Jia Ma Empire didn't show his face, after all the generals unanimously issued orders, the lower-level soldiers naturally only followed commands.
Therefore, the Jia Ma Empire won this battle without any suspense. Subsequently, the generals of the Jia Ma Empire jointly submitted a report, informing the Jia Ma Imperial Family of everything that had happened here.
Within two days, a Dou Wang member of the Jia Ma Imperial Family arrived at the front lines to take over command of the army.
On the other side, the Chu Yun Empire, because they didn't know what was happening, suffered defeat after defeat in the subsequent war and were driven out of the Jia Ma Empire's territory.
Even under the leadership of that Jia Ma Imperial Family Dou Wang, they counter-seized quite a bit of the Chu Yun Empire's territory.
Finally, it wasn't until the Chu Yun Empire sent an envoy to sue for peace that the war between the two sides ceased once again. The war between the Jia Ma Empire and the Chu Yun Empire had actually reached its limit by now.
Both sides could be said to have suffered significant losses. In the early stage, because of the inside traitor Grand Marshal Mo Ya, the Jia Ma Empire suffered repeated defeats.
In the later stage, because the Chu Yun Empire didn't know their commander was dead, they were caught off guard by the Jia Ma Empire and also suffered great losses.
Plus, both sides had lost a Dou Wang Grand Marshal, which could be considered a blow to the very bone.
What finally forced the Jia Ma Empire and the Chu Yun Empire to hold peace talks was that the surrounding countries, seeing both nations suffer such huge losses, were already starting to become restless.
To avoid a situation where the "snipe and the clam fight while the fisherman catches both," the Jia Ma Empire and the Chu Yun Empire had no choice but to choose to stop the war!
As for the subsequent peace talk matters, they had nothing to do with Xiao Lin and the others.
After the two sides decided to negotiate, the generals including Xiao Lin, Nalan Jie, and Mu Chen—who were only training in the Jia Ma Empire's army rather than having sold their lives to the Imperial Family—all returned to the Jia Ma Imperial Capital.
This war could be considered to have completely settled.