The heavens and earth are vast and flat, all things shrouded in a desolate birth and death.

The Flying Eagle soared across the firmament, finally retracting its wings, piercing through the layers of clouds, and falling upon the earth.

After the clouds dispersed, what entered the sight of the Divine Eagle’s eyes were banners like long spears, tearing through the sky, pointing towards the heavens.

The encampment, centered around the largest banner, unfurled in all directions. The arrangement of these camps vaguely corresponded to the ancient Eight Diagrams, yet it radiated an aura of the unique, chilling aggression of the Military School, beyond the Mystical Sect’s aura.

Desolate, piercing.

Dignified, solemn.

The Divine Eagle flapped its wings. After a piercing eagle cry, it lowered its altitude, skimming right above the grim military formation. What it saw was the battle generals wielding long spears, elites clad in the black armor of the Central Plains patrolling in groups of five.

It was the stately armored cavalry, the vaguely ominous aura of the Grand Cavalry of the Yue Family Army.

The ultimate grandeur of the world’s top-tier army unfolded before its eyes.

The Divine Eagle felt the face-flushing sense of such an ominous air, its spirits lifted, and it cried out long. With a single shake of its wings, it soared high, inverting its view from the grim and dignified army to the valiant and stoic battle generals, and finally back to the camp, the heavens, and that towering banner piercing the sky.

With another flap of its wings, it flew up to the very top of the banner.

The Divine Eagle seized the crossbeam of the banner with a single claw.

The scarlet banner unfurled below, red Qilin cloud patterns billowing between heaven and earth.

The gaze of the Divine Eagle fell upon the central army of the camp. Li Guanyi, clad in armor, was flipping through intelligence reports. The distance to Zhenbei City was only over a hundred miles, considered very close. The towns outside Zhenbei City, facing the fierce Qilin Army, had no heart for resistance, surrendering at the first sign of danger.

The Qilin Army, wielding the might to quell the entire Chen Country within just over a year, met no challengers.

With an almost effortless posture, they arrived near Zhenbei City.

Li Guanyi personally led the army, ready for battle at any moment, harboring a vendetta for his parents that was irreconcilable, determined not to rest until avenged.

Chen Wenmian was the same. Initially leading the Grey Wolf Guard Heavy Cavalry outside, as one of the five directions of the grand army, when Li Guanyi pressed towards Zhenbei City, Chen Wenmian proactively advanced his forces, seeking to ally with Li Guanyi to jointly attack Chen Dingye.

For Chen Wenmian, his parents’ tragedy, especially his mother’s years of suffering and ultimate relief through self-immolation, were all orchestrated by Chen Dingye, the nominal father of his first decade of life but indeed a mortal foe.

As a child, being unable to avenge one’s parents, how could one stand between heaven and earth?

The Grey Wolf Guard pledged to be the Vanguard Army.

Seeing the usually gentle and jade-like Chen Wenmian’s determined demeanor, Li Guanyi could not bring himself to refuse, nor would he. Hence he agreed, with himself and Chen Wenmian advancing as the final force to confront Chen Dingye.

Zhenbei City is the world’s first Heroic Pass, founded by the strongest grand Siming of the Yin Yang Family line over several centuries and personally designed by the Mo School’s giant three hundred years ago. Throughout these centuries, it remained Chen Country’s strongest defense, never breached frontally.

But the old Siming was still around, and Pang Shuiyun had left contingencies in Zhenbei City.

When Chen Dingye returned, he resolved Pang Shuiyun’s contingencies.

However, he did not have the skill to topple and rebuild Zhenbei City. This supreme Heroic Pass still retained its original foundation design from three hundred years ago. This time, Li Guanyi invited the old Siming directly to the military front lines.

Planning to thoroughly conquer this Heroic Pass of Chen Country under the designer’s guidance, fully uniting Chen Country to avenge his parents, advancing invincible, but just yesterday, urgent military intelligence came back from the front scout camp.

Li Guanyi personally called back Chen Wenmian, who was serving as the Vanguard Army’s Great General.

Handing the intelligence to him to review, after reading the front-line information, Chen Wenmian bore a somber look and was silent for a long time.

Li Guanyi said, "A great battle occurred at Zhenbei City."

Even though the Turkic Great Khan intended to obscure the truth with [the Turkic on the grasslands forming alliances on all sides] guise, this battle was too direct and too brutal.

It could not be hidden at all.

Intelligence disseminated rapidly after the battle, with outsiders unable to grasp the precise happenings clearly.

Perhaps there was infighting during the alliance.

Or perhaps they had prepared traps for each other.

In any event, many possibilities existed, but the outcome was clear and evident.

The Chen Country’s hooked spear heavy armored corps and the Turkic Iron Futu had an extremely ferocious close quarters battle thirty miles outside Zhenbei City.

The Iron Futu, having lost its heavy armor, after mounting the Dragon Colt, lacked its high mobility and terrifying impact force. In close quarters, combating the hooked spear heavy armored soldiers, they used their weaknesses against the strengths of the enemy. Many Iron Futu were tripped by the hooked spears at the knees and ankles, losing balance and falling.

They were then overpowered by Chen Country’s lightly armored soldiers skilled in ground techniques, forcibly stripped of their face masks, and stabbed in the face with daggers.

Conversely, many hooked spear warriors and Night Rider Cavalry were ruthlessly slain by the Iron Futu, perishing outside Zhenbei City, staining the yellow earth with their blood.

When thousands of trusted aides around the Mountain God Temple joined the melee, both armies, ten miles from this point, noticed the anomaly and immediately mobilized.