The Day a Blood Edict Abandoned the People of Five Provinces Was the Hour the Hidden Dragon Split the Heavens!

Jiang Bei's voice was not loud, yet every word rang like clashing gold and iron, carrying an unquestionable resolve that slammed into everyone's hearts!

The grand hall fell utterly silent!

The smugness on Cao Xuan's face vanished in an instant, replaced by shock and fury. "How dare you, Jiang Bei! You—"

Jiang Bei did not give him the chance to finish. His voice suddenly rose, booming like a dragon's roar and a tiger's howl:

"I, Jiang Bei, slaughtered demons and barbarians in Qingzhou, beheaded human traitors—my blood has yet to dry, and the bones have yet to be fully buried! The soldiers of Qingzhou stand ready day and night. The peace they bought back with their lives—how can you hand it over to demons with a single word, 'cede'? I killed the demons of Yunzhou! I reclaimed that land alongside Yunzhou's soldiers! The people of the Nine Prefectures have only just seen daylight, and now you want to shove them back into the abyss?!"

His gaze blazed as he swept it over the startled officials, demanding coldly:

"With a great enemy at our gates, instead of thinking of how to unite against it, you think only of ceding land and abandoning the people. Is this all the backbone you have? Is this your so-called National Policy? Is this the 'greater good' you speak of? Using the flesh and blood of tens of millions of common people to fill demons' bellies, in exchange for your cowardly 'hundred years of respite'? How absurd! How vile! Such a scheme of feeding flesh to eagles and drinking poison to quench thirst—how is it any different from wagging your tails and begging demons for mercy?! Was Da Gan founded by selling its land to survive?!!!"

As those words fell, the civil and military officials were