Tianqing Kingdom''s border.


    Si Shui Pass, this was one of the three cities that had previously fallen to the Tian Kingdom.


    Xiao Yi led fifty thousand Imperial Guards, along with fifty thousand elite troops from Heiya City, and with Zhang Baisheng and Zheng Le pushed forward directly towards the Tian Kingdom.


    As for Hou Sailei, he was assigned to stay and defend Heiya City.


    This arrangement nearly brought the seven-foot man to tears!


    "Your Highness, Si Shui Pass is just ahead…" Zheng Le said in a deep voice.


    Zhang Baisheng looked distantly at Si Shui Pass thaty stretched across thend, his expression somewhat sorrowful, "The originalmander of Si Shui Pass was an officer under mymand— an honest man, brave in battle. Unfortunately, he was killed by a rain of arrows while covering the retreat of the civilians when Geng Jie and others broke through Si Shui Pass…"


    "Rest assured, General, their sacrifices will not be in vain!" Xiao Yi dered solemnly.


    "Hmm!"


    Zhang Baisheng nodded his head.


    If Xiao Yi had said this a few days ago, he would have just smiled and dismissed it.


    But now…


    After the battle at Heiya City, Xiao Yi hadpletely earned their respect.


    "Report…"


    Suddenly, a scout hurried back from the front, his face filled with urgency, "Cavalry General, fifty li ahead, a vige has been discovered, but… but…"@@novelbin@@


    "But what?" Zhang Baisheng asked, frowning.


    The scout''s eyes reddened, his teeth clenched as he ryed, "But all the vigers in that vige have been ughtered."


    "What?"


    "Lead us there quickly!"


    Everyone followed the scout.


    A momentter.


    They arrived at the vige, which was not a small one, containing a hundred households.


    Only…


    The vige before them was inplete disarray, with signs of burning everywhere, and bodies strewn about in all positions.


    Men, women, the elderly, and children, all were mercilessly killed, not a single survivor!


    "Those Tian Kingdom bastards, how could they... they even ughter innocent civilians?"


    "Your Highness, look over there…"


    Zheng Le suddenly pointed ahead.


    Xiao Yi followed his gaze, and his pupils constricted sharply, as if the temperature around him dropped dozens of degrees instantly.


    Everyone felt a bone-chilling coldness.


    It was a mill with arge stone mill covered in uneven bloodstains.


    What truly enraged Xiao Yi were the severed hands and feet still lying on that stone mill. These limbs were small; thergest were merely those of a two or three-year-old child, and the smallest even of a newborn— they had been ground into pulp by the millstone, now scattered on the ground…


    Ugh…


    Some of the soldiers who couldn''t bear the sight covered their mouths, violently retching.


    Xiao Yi, Zhang Baisheng, and Zheng Le, however, shivered with rage!


    Fury!


    Fury that reached its peak!


    Kill!


    The will to kill soared to the skies!


    "How could these animals… how could they bring themselves to do such a thing?" Zheng Le gritted his teeth, feeling as if a raging fire was burning within his chest, wishing it could burst forth at any moment.


    Zhang Baisheng''s face was ashen, his fists clenched tightly, crackling with tension.


    His nails dug into his flesh, with blood streaming down through his fingers, yet he seemed totally unaware.


    Looking at the half-meter-high pile of minced flesh surrounding the stone mill, with broken bodies on top.


    Your next chapter awaits on empire


    They could almost see the infants still in swaddling clothes, or toddlers just beginning to speak, being brutally thrown by Tian Kingdom soldiers onto the stone mill, ground into flesh and blood by the grinding stones. Some of these children couldn''t even talk yet, some had not even opened their eyes before being reduced to pulp between those massive stones!


    Gritting sounds…


    Xiao Yi clenched his fists, his jaw clenched tight, his eyes bloodshot as he looked towards Zhang Baisheng and Zheng Le, "Do you still think my massacre of those four hundred thousand prisoners was too cruel?"


    "It was too merciful; they should have been cut into a thousand pieces!"


    "These beasts…"


    Zheng Le and Zhang Baisheng had eyes red with anger.


    Whoosh!


    Xiao Yi took a deep breath, squatting on the ground, and looking at the scattered flesh around him, he clenched his teeth and said, word by word, "I, Xiao Yi, swear here that I will definitely crush Tian Kingdom and avenge you all!"


    Indistinctly.


    It seemed to Xiao Yi and the others that in the midst of the shredded flesh, the color-drained shackles fell away from the smiling children, and they ascended to heaven.


    They were freed!


    "Settle the remains of our fellow vigers properly!" Xiao Yi instructed.


    The crowd set to work, clearing the remains within the vige.


    After the cleanup was done.


    It was already sunset.


    Xiao Yi gathered his army of one hundred thousand, his face covered with frost, his sharp gaze sweeping over his men.


    The army seemed unusually suppressed.


    Gone was the joy of a great victory that hade with the start of the campaign.


    Clearly, everything that had happened in this vige had be a huge stone, weighing on everyone''s heart.


    "Non-kin, their hearts must differ!"


    Xiao Yi''s sudden voice drew everyone''s attention, and they all looked up at him, "You''ve also seen what happened, this is war. If we fail, the Tian Kingdom''s army will invade, and countless citizens of Tianqing Kingdom behind us will suffer this same fate. Our rtives, our friends, our loved ones… no one will be spared!"


    The crowd was tense, gritting their teeth.


    Xiao Yi raised his voice, "Do you want to see such scenes again?"


    "No!"


    The crowd shouted loudly.


    Xiao Yi''s voice grew louder, echoing among the hundred thousand soldiers, "Then what should we do?"


    "Kill!"


    "Kill!"


    "Kill!"


    A hundred thousand men, their killing intent soaring into the sky.


    Whoosh!


    Xiao Yi abruptly drew the Fire Qilin Sword, the de cleaving the air, and with one stroke, he cut off a piece of his garment, dering loudly, "I, Xiao Yi, hereby swear that wherever our weapons point, we must break through Tian! Should I break this oath, may I be like this garment!"


    Zhang Baisheng raised his longsword likewise, cutting off a piece of his garment, "Wherever our weapons point, we must break through Tian!"


    Zheng Le followed suit, "Should I break this oath, may I be like this garment!"


    Whoosh!


    Whoosh!


    Whoosh!


    The action of the hundred thousand was uniform.


    Raise arms.


    Cut garments!


    "Wherever our weapons point, we must break through Tian!"


    "Should I break this oath, may I be like this garment!"


    The roar of a hundred thousand men shattered the skies, their murderous intent and battle spirit coalescing into a blood-red cloud that hovered over their heads.


    Xiao Yi pointed forward with his longsword, "Advance!"


    The sound of the hundred thousand-strong army rolled like a tide of iron, moving forward.


    Along the way.


    The hundred thousand-strong army led by Xiao Yi was unstoppable wherever they went.


    The several thousand Tian Kingdom soldiers stationed at Si Shui Pass had already fled at the sight of them, leaving behind a burning ghost town. The roaring mes reached for the sky, but as Xiao Yi''s army passed by, heavy clouds gathered above, chill winds howled, and torrential rains fell, extinguishing the mes until the sky cleared after the storm!


    Following that, Huai Shui City, Liu Yin City…


    Without much effort, these two cities were also reimed by Xiao Yi and his men.


    The three cities lost to the Tian Kingdom were all returned to the hands of the Qing Tian Kingdom.


    It was only at this point...


    that Xiao Yi and his entourage finally set foot on the territory of the Tian Kingdom.


    A grand feast of ughter hence began to unfold…