The Wind-Calming Passage did not collapse back into a rift.
After closing completely, it vanished without a trace.
Yet no one was happy about it—not the Martial Immortals, nor the soldiers of either nation who gradually learned part of the truth.
On October 23, at four in the afternoon, the Western Frontier Recovery Campaign was officially declared victorious!
At the same time, Martial Arts Alliance Chairman Yun Sheng and Marshal Xiao Yilan, Commander-in-Chief of the Chinese Army, jointly issued an arrest warrant.
Ten minutes later, Liu Songming, Chief of Staff and acting commander of the Western Frontier Defense Army, was arrested.
Also caught were seven generals, along with even more mid- and low-ranking officers.
At eleven that night, after an emergency military tribunal, Liu Songming, Fu Yanru, and fifty-five others were sentenced to death and executed immediately.
The other two hundred-odd accomplices were sentenced to life imprisonment.
The next day, rumors began circulating among the troops.
It was said that several Martial Immortals whose names could not conveniently be disclosed had personally taken part in the executions.
That night, the wails from the Execution Ground continued until dawn.
On October 24, Yun Sheng hurried to the Abyss Rifts in Beihai, Baishan, Lingnan, and other places guarded by Martial Immortals.
He met in succession with Lu Sanjiang, ranked third on the Martial Immortal List and known as the "Fist Saint," Zhou Qing, ranked seventh, Yang Hanshan, ranked eleventh, and Xiang Tianming, ranked sixteenth.
On October 25, the Martial Arts Alliance joined forces with the Hua Nation government and launched an internal purge codenamed "Clear Source."
The operation targeted the dozens of great Lineages, including the Zhou, Yang, Liu, and Han families, along with their affiliated forces, which had committed "harmful acts" before and after the Western Frontier Campaign.
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