Today’s battle situation will probably soon reach the Capital, and these families can be said to have gained no merit, instead losing over two hundred family elites, and causing the Qingyang Pass garrison to lose dozens of soldiers in vain. As for the other side, all their people saved the most fiercely contested Beining Pass without a scratch, with the entire garrison and civilians on the brink of conflict. In comparison, even they themselves are deeply ashamed, and the elders of the various aristocratic families in the Capital are likewise disgraced.

"Why not simply negotiate with Mu Hanyan, our Eight Great Families unite to defend the two passes, the odds might be better." Fang Family’s Young Master, Fang Zi, tentatively suggested.

The sword pets of He Qingzong and others today truly opened his eyes with envy, recalling when he foolishly allied with Dan Tai Xuan, he felt the urge to slap himself.

"No way, matters of war are no child’s play. We have fought shoulder to shoulder all along this journey, protected each other with our hearts and souls, if we break apart now, we’ll be like a pile of loose sand, what will we use to counter the Exotic Beasts." Dan Tai Xuan vetoed Fang Zi’s suggestion with one sentence.

Back then, he put out quite a few harsh words, and if he were to compromise with Mu Hanyan now, where would a steward of the Holy Court put his dignity? Even if it’s an Outer Court Steward, it’s still a steward, dignity is far bigger than these noble family’s sons.

Fang Zi was so angry he was almost swearing, crap about heartfelt protection, if it hadn’t been for Mu Hanyan’s Divine Power, scaring the Exotic Beasts into fleeing, many of them would have probably fled a long time ago, talking about loose sand, aren’t they a pile of loose sand right now?

Although resentful, faced with Dan Tai Xuan’s coercion, he still didn’t dare to insist, just quietly turned his head, full of disdain.

"Lord Tantai is right, our Five Great Families have long been as close as family, if we separate, it will be disadvantageous to the battle situation, not to mention, even if we bow to Mu Hanyan, she might not accept, even if she accepts, the relationships with families like He Yan Zhang’s are different, we won’t gain anything, instead of this, we should abandon enmity and unite to show the world the true prowess of our Five Great Families." Changsun Yi’an found a broken fan from somewhere, shaking it as he spoke, looking like a sagacious military advisor.

"Young Master Changsun is right, Mu Hanyan is arrogant by nature, never considering us major families, we absolutely cannot bow to her." Mo Yanhong echoed. His conflict with Mu Hanyan is the deepest, knowing well if he were to ally with Mu Hanyan, the position of Family Head would never fall to him, his resolute attitude undeterred.

"Then let’s follow Young Master Changsun and Young Master Tantai’s words, with the situation undecided, there will surely be many hard battles ahead, the battlefield changes in an instant, united, we may not lose to them." Dan Tai Xuan finalizes.

Fang Zi looked at the stubborn Dan Tai Xuan and Changsun Yi’an, unable to say anything more, just sighed long.

The following days were just as Mu Hanyan had predicted, the Exotic Beasts did not abandon their attacks, almost every day, large numbers of Exotic Beasts surged from Longyan Mountain, frantically assaulting Beining Pass and Qingyang Pass, even taking advantage of the two passes being heavily defended to attack Lu’an City.

However, the strength of these Exotic Beasts did not undergo much change, apart from a few comparable to Ninth Rank Sword Masters, most were only equivalent to low-level Sword Masters, or high-level Knights.

The catapults at Beining Pass were repaired and barely usable again, but even without them, it didn’t matter, the four Red Cloud Gold Armored Elephants stood behind the pass, hurling giant stones infused with Qi from above, their power comparable to the catapults.

Most Exotic Beasts were smashed to pulp halfway through, but some lucky ones reached the pass opening, greeted by a contingent of heavy-armored elite soldiers, and family elites riding grim sword pets, even scarier than the sword pets beneath them.

After leaving behind the cold bodies of countless companions, the Exotic Beasts repeatedly returned unsuccessful, while Beining Pass’s gate resounded time and again with the loud cheers of the soldiers and citizens.

In contrast, Qingyang Pass was much harder to defend, they lacked Red Cloud Gold Armored Elephants to use as catapults, and family sons had no sword pets for protection, worse still, on the battlefield, they scattered like a heap of sand, each fighting on their own, faking injuries and death one after another. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

Even so, after continuous fierce battles, the Five Great Families lost over two hundred elite sons on the field, had it not been for the experienced and fiercely loyal guarding soldiers, Qingyang Pass alone might have been overtaken by Exotic Beasts innumerable times.

Golden twilight gradually spread across the earth, night fell once more, ending a day’s offensive and defense.

"Ah, if only I had followed Young Master Mu from the beginning, I wouldn’t be so embarrassed now." On Qingyang Pass, a family son who had just crawled out from under an Exotic Beast’s corpse sighed.

"I wanted to as well, but the Young Master insisted on following Dan Tai Xuan, what could we do?" Another family son climbed out.

Seeing someone else as insightful as himself, the first was slightly startled, then they exchanged wry smiles.

Being elite heirs of various aristocratic families, they cherish their own pride, being at the height of their youthful vigor, eager to achieve fame and establish merits in history. But there’s no way, everyone around them is like this, they don’t want to die in vain either.

Not just them, even the young masters of each family outwardly fight bravely, but during combat, their eyes are unfocused, always searching for escape routes, how can they blame them for fearing death?

Across them, a graceful yet heroic figure walked onto the wall, those two family sons immediately straightened their backs.

In the past days, Mu Hanyan leading the defense of Beining Pass herself, that fearless stance won everyone over, including them.

Mu Hanyan nodded in greeting, though dissatisfied with Dan Tai Xuan and the other young masters, she bore no ill will towards the other family sons, holding respect for those brave and fearless ones.

Seeing Mu Hanyan greet them, the two flushed red, ashamed of their cowardly acts earlier.

"It’s late, get some rest early, tomorrow will likely be another hard battle, protect yourselves, return to the Capital alive." Mu Hanyan said gently.

Tears rolled down their cheeks, out of shame as well as being moved.

Lost in a daze, they couldn’t recall how they climbed down from the city wall, but at that very moment, they made a decision they would never regret for life: henceforth, they would no longer be cowards, no longer lie among corpses feigning death, they would use their swords and blood to uphold their dignity, never allowing anyone to look down on them again, only this way, would they be worthy of the respect in Mu Hanyan’s eyes, and those words of encouragement.