"Anyone else?"

.

.

.

A hand. A foot. A rib. Even his tongue.

Piece by piece, the Song clansman was torn apart with deliberate cruelty, his life preserved just long enough for the suffering to linger.

When it finally ended, ten soldiers stood behind Xun Wei—robes soaked in blood, hands stained dark red. None of them looked away.

Eight Core Realm cultivators.

Two Profound Realm cultivators.

Xun Wei turned to Li Huxin and gave a single nod. She was satisfied. This was her team.

The assignment assembly was over.

At Li Huxin’s command, the soldiers dispersed, returning to their respective camps to prepare for departure. Orders spread quickly, tents were dismantled, and formations reorganized.

Xiao Fang, however, remained behind.

Inside his tent, he was still attempting to absorb the seven-stone Heavenly-Grade, weapon-type soul crystal—his presence sealed away in seclusion.

Outside, Li Anru and Li Roh stood guard, silent and unmoving.

Before long, Li Huxin and the bulk of the army began to move out. As the camp emptied, Li Lian scanned the surroundings, searching instinctively for Xun Wei. She found nothing. Not even Xun Wei’s own team knew where she had gone.

Li Lian let out a quiet sigh. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Xiao Fang had already told her his plan, yet unease clung stubbornly to her chest. Knowing and waiting were two very different things.

"Captain," one of her team members asked carefully, "are you feeling alright?"

The rest of her team turned their attention toward her. Being watched by ten Profound Realm cultivators would have shaken most people to their core—but Li Lian was different.

Before unlocking the second stage of Dragon Perception, it would have taken all ten to suppress her. Now, having crossed that threshold, her presence was comparable to a true Heavenly Realm cultivator.

Li Lian exhaled slowly.

Xiao Fang was in seclusion.

Xun Wei was off executing her own task.

And she... felt restless.

"I’m fine," Li Lian replied at last, rolling her shoulders slightly. "I just need to stretch."

Her words were calm—but her gaze never left the horizon.

Without warning, Li Lian’s body ignited in flames. Her aura surged outward, rolling across the air in waves, and in the next instant she lifted off the ground.

The power of the second stage of Dragon Perception was still unfamiliar to her. Rather than suppress it, she chose to test it.

High above, Li Huxin and the retreating army slowed, many of them instinctively looking up. Against the darkening sky, Li Lian cut a breathtaking figure—wreathed in fire, her presence radiant rather than oppressive. Her aura carried warmth, reassurance. In the midst of war, it made soldiers feel... safe.

As she flew, the changes became apparent almost immediately.

Her speed had nearly doubled. Each movement through the air felt effortless, as though the wind itself bent to her will. Her flames were no longer purely destructive either—there was a subtle vitality to them now, a gentle heat that soothed rather than scorched.

And then there were her senses.

Li Lian’s eyes suddenly flared red, glowing like molten steel. The world shifted.

Heat bloomed into view as if she suddenly had heat vision.

Every living thing radiated a distinct heat signiture—campfires, soldiers, beasts retreating in the distance—all rendered clearly within her perception.

’So this is it...’ Li Lian thought, startled. ’Unless they’re ice-cold, this would expose any stealth technique.’

The realization made her instinctively search for Xun Wei.

Instead, she saw something else.

High in the sky, half-hidden between layers of distorted air, hovered something unnatural—an eye, no larger than a human head, staring down at the land below.

Before she could focus on it, it vanished.

Li Lian slowed, her brows knitting together.

’Was that the Demon Eye Fang mentioned...?’

The disappearance was too quick for certainty. She shifted her attention outward—and almost immediately found what she was looking for.

A presence, concealed within the forest. A man crouched behind a tree, his aura carefully suppressed.

A spy.

Li Lian’s flames flickered as she instinctively prepared to move—but then she noticed another presence nearby.

Xun Wei.

Hidden not far from the spy, her aura steady and patient.

Li Lian halted midair.

She remembered Xiao Fang’s orders.

Xun Wei and Xiao Hei were to tail the spy—to follow him back to his base.

Interfering now would only ruin that chance.

After a brief hesitation, Li Lian turned away, extinguishing her flames as she descended back toward her team, as though nothing had happened.

When her boots touched the ground, one of her subordinates approached cautiously.

"Captain Lian... are you feeling better now?"

Li Lian smiled faintly.

"Much better," she smiled.

Meanwhile, deep within the forest, beads of sweat rolled down the spy’s face as he cautiously peeked around the tree. His heart hammered against his ribs, heat pooling in his chest.

After witnessing what Xun Wei had done to his fellow Song clansman during the team assignment ceremony, the last thing he wanted was to be discovered.

’That was far too close,’ he thought, forcing his breathing to steady. ’They’re withdrawing—just as planned.’

Relief crept in despite himself.

’I need to return and report this... immediately.’

With that decision made, the spy slipped away into the forest at full speed.

Unbeknownst to him, Xun Wei’s gaze followed his retreat for a brief moment. She raised two fingers and gave Xiao Hei a silent signal.

The hunt had begun.

.

.

.

Night had already fallen when the Song Clan’s main military camp received its latest reports.

One after another, messengers arrived bearing good news.

Three Li camps crippled.

Two generals forced into retreat.

One supply artery severed cleanly.

The opening phase of the war had unfolded exactly as planned.

Laughter and celebration echoed outside the command pavilion—but inside, no one smiled.

At the center of the tent, Song Zhenyuan, Patriarch of the Song Clan, studied the battlefield map in silence. Red markers bled across the terrain like open wounds, each one marking a successful strike. And yet, one position remained untouched.

Li Huxin’s camp.

No report.

No confirmation.

No victory.