Commander Luo Haitian, the Third Young Master Luo Ruofeng, each led an army of eighty thousand, coordinating with the Second Young Master Luo Muyan, who had long been waiting at the border, to launch an offensive against Yan Province in the Tianyuan Empire, seizing territory... The entire Tianyuan Empire now resembled a massive cake, being carved up by various factions...

Of course, the Shu Yun Kingdom, with only a population in the millions, coupled with the Xiao Geng army stationed far in the Western Frontier, mobilized over three hundred thousand troops in total—a testament to Luo Xiaofeng's immense charisma... It could be said that these three hundred thousand soldiers constituted almost the entire military might of the Shu Yun Kingdom, including the four major legions: Wind, Cloud, Thunder, and Lightning.

Beside Luo Xiaofeng, only the fifty thousand Shadow Guard, fifty thousand Capital Guard, and twenty thousand Jin Army remained; virtually no other military force was left behind... It was only thanks to Xiao Geng, who, with the few tens of thousands of troops under his command, managed to keep the Hu Kingdom fully occupied, successfully isolating several vassal states beyond the Tiangang Mountain Range...

Otherwise, had even a single army managed to invade the Shu Yun Kingdom, utter annihilation would have been the result... Regarding Luo Xiaofeng's audacious move, everyone called him insane.

Yes, he was mad; this was an action completely heedless of the consequences... If they lost, the outcome would be national ruin and familial destruction—a tragic end.

As a sovereign, such a decision was strictly unwarranted, yet Luo Xiaofeng made it... Because he understood this was his optimal opportunity.

Unless he wished to remain merely a sovereign for his entire life, if he truly intended to claim the imperial throne, this was the moment... Furthermore, once war was declared against the Tianyuan Empire, there was no turning back.

Either they would conquer the empire in one swift blow and secure immortal merit, or they would perish amidst chaos, leading to the collapse of the state and the slaughter of their families... This was a gamble, an all-or-nothing wager utilizing the strength of the entire nation...

Naturally, if Xiao Geng’s Cloud Army had not been able to hold the mountain pass in the Tiangang Mountain Range firmly, Luo Xiaofeng wouldn't have dared, even with a hundred times the courage. After all, outside the Tiangang Mountains, although the national strength of those few states was not significant, assembling an army of a hundred thousand was not difficult.

Should such an army invade the Shu Yun Kingdom, their nation would be like a scantily clad maiden, left utterly vulnerable to any form of violation... The most crucial factor was the sheer number of insurgent forces already active within the Tianyuan Empire.

If not for the internal strife plaguing the empire, he wouldn't have dared deploy troops against the Tianyuan Empire even with ten thousand times the nerve... The population base of the Tianyuan Empire was simply too vast.

Their active military alone exceeded five million, and counting retired soldiers, the total approached ten million—a number greater than the entire population of the Shu Yun Kingdom... How could a mere chick dare to attack a tiger?

But the situation was different now. The tiger was not just sick; it was gravely ill, lacking the strength even to stir, forced to lie there while small creatures like ants slowly gnawed at its flesh.

The chick finally gathered the courage to peck at the beast... Yet, the danger remained terrifying; the slightest misstep meant utter obliteration...

Therefore, for Luo Xiaofeng, the consequence of sending out ten thousand men was no different from sending out three hundred thousand. Given this reality, why not commit every resource?

They absolutely could not allow the tiger a chance to recover, or annihilation would surely await the Shu Yun Kingdom... It was widely known that the four legions of the Shu Yun Kingdom each comprised fifty thousand troops.

The Wind Army consisted exclusively of light cavalry, swift as the wind, making them the fastest and most agile of the four. The Cloud Army, needless to say, contained both cavalry and infantry, possessing the strongest overall combat capability...

The Thunder Army was equipped with firearms; weapons like the 'Thunderbolt Cannon' were the sole domain of the Thunder Army. Such legions were generally employed for siege warfare and defense...

The Lightning Army was composed entirely of heavy cavalry, boasting the highest efficacy in open-field combat among the four legions... To balance the prowess of the young masters and further enhance overall strength, Luo Xiaofeng divided the remaining three legions into three portions...

Of the eighty thousand soldiers commanded by the Third Young Master Luo Ruofeng, fifty thousand were drawn from these three legions, while the remaining thirty thousand were split between twenty thousand from the Iron Army and ten thousand personally recruited by him... Although the Iron Army had twenty thousand men, only the slightly over eight thousand who had returned from the Western Frontier with Ye Jingyu possessed true combat effectiveness...

Their fighting strength even surpassed that of the four main legions... And these eight thousand men were each provisioned with a warhorse acquired from the Hu Kingdom.

Luo Ruofeng immediately assigned them to Ye Jingyu to form a vanguard unit marching toward the Tianyuan Empire... Ye Jingyu sat somewhat dazed upon the back of Ni Bo.

Over these past few days, unsure of what Ni Bo and Hei Ming Shixuan had been doing, a small bump had appeared on Ni Bo’s head, and his stature had increased, making him considerably more handsome than before... As for Hei Ming Shixuan, Ye Jingyu had left her in Yun Jing, along with Gongsun Xiangyi and Lin Xiaoyi...

The reason was simple: Ye Longyi was severely injured and required careful recuperation, making it impossible to take him to the battlefield. Gongsun Xiangyi needed to stay behind to care for him, and Hei Ming Shixuan also remained to look after things.

As for Lin Xiaoyi, his power level was still insufficient... In his mind, he was still replaying the ambush from half a month ago.

Xue Hengzhi had ultimately sacrificed his life to secure an escape opportunity for them, but they had failed to wound the Grandmaster of the Tiangang Sect. Later, Ye Jingyu learned that the Grandmaster was, in fact, the sect's long-hidden Grand Elder, whose power reached the peak of the Grandmaster realm, rivaling that of Bing Ming...

Xue Hengzhi's death struck him profoundly. His path had always been smooth; even in the Western Frontier battlefield, he had narrowly escaped death and gained a fortuitous encounter.

Moreover, his subsequent journey through the Valley of a Hundred Burials had not only greatly advanced his personal strength but also gathered a cadre of experts around him. He had initially believed they could easily eliminate Qin Yan, never expecting Qin Yan to be surrounded by so many formidable figures...

Because of that battle, the news that Yuan Xiang had not died had been secretly reported to the Sovereign Luo Xiaofeng, but Luo Xiaofeng, perhaps due to the impending war or other reasons, had completely ignored it, leaving Ye Jingyu deeply disappointed... From that engagement, he finally recognized the terrifying nature of Qin Yan and fully understood the magnitude of his enemy's strength, which was far beyond his previous assumptions...

If he wished to exact revenge, he needed to strive harder, continuously improve... Recalling Qin Lie's earth-shattering punch and its overwhelming Will of the Fist, he recognized his own negligence...

Yes, his Soul Power had reached the Spirit Manifestation realm, granting him the actual capacity to slay Grandmasters and even challenge Martial Saints. However, this was contingent upon maintaining a certain distance and deploying his peerlessly potent Spirit Arts (Soul Techniques utilizing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth at the Spirit Manifestation realm).

Without using Spirit Arts, his Soul Power was only marginally superior to an average Soul Condensation Master... Even with the Heaven Shaking Seal, a Profound-grade Soul Artifact, executing a close-quarters kill against a prepared Grandmaster, especially one at the peak of that realm, would be exceedingly difficult...

After all, a Spirit Manifestation Soul Master was like a slender child wielding a handgun. Given sufficient range, they might injure or even kill an adult Martial Saint, but in close quarters, the child might be cut down before even reloading.

A Grandmaster was akin to a young man; without giving the child a chance to fire, he could still dispatch the child easily... Of course, Ye Jingyu himself was a relatively sturdy 'child.' Even without relying on Spirit Arts, he had the 'stone' of the Heaven Shaking Seal, allowing him to barely contend with a young man...

Thinking of this, Ye Jingyu was wracked with self-reproach. If he had not underestimated Qin Yan’s power due to his arrogance and had unleashed his Spirit Arts regardless of the risk, perhaps Xue Hengzhi would not have died; perhaps the outcome would have been different...

But Ye Jingyu understood: there are no 'if's in this world. What he required was not to dwell on the past but to constantly grow stronger, to become undeniably more powerful than Qin Yan...

Gazing at the patch of red clouds in the distance, the self-reproach slowly receded from Ye Jingyu’s heart, replaced by a fierce surge of self-confidence... He was so young, yet already capable of contending with Grandmasters and threatening Martial Saints.

What was there left for him to fear?