Of the more than three hundred veterans who had remained, only a little over two hundred and sixty were left after that night.
After filling the cups of those two hundred and sixty men, Huangfu Yun stepped before them. Without a word, he filled a bowl for himself, raised it, saluted them, and drained it in one go.
Nie Yangze stood to one side, watching silently, his expression complicated.
The several centurions beside Huangfu Yun all tipped their heads back and drained their bowls.
The more than two hundred and sixty men raised their bowls together and drank them dry.
"Pa—"
A crisp, unified crash rang out as Huangfu Yun and the other centurions, along with the veterans, smashed their bowls on the ground.
Seeing this, Jiang Li narrowed his eyes and murmured,
"Smash the bowls before battle—leave and never return. Succeed, or die trying..."
Shi Lan listened, momentarily stunned. Then a chill ran through her, and she sensed a familiar aura of slaughter. She sprang to her feet and looked toward the city.
Suspended silently above the City Lord's Estate was a colossal square platform, several hundred zhang long and wide. Ten figures, each several dozen zhang tall, stood upon it. It was unmistakably the platform that had been in Huangfu Yun's hand earlier.
Compared with before, the platform was now hundreds of times greater in both size and power.
"This is..."
Shi Lan stared at the hundred-zhang-long execution blade surrounded by the ten figures, her heart jolting.
After yesterday's battle, she had begun to form some guesses about the platform. It must need human vitality to operate. How many people's vitality had it taken to transform it into this?
She glanced around and suddenly realized something was wrong. At this time yesterday, though she couldn't see any demon