The cruelty of war had become ever more apparent in recent days. Every order issued by those making the decisions determined the lives and deaths of tens of thousands of soldiers and countless civilians. One wrong step, and a million lives would be buried alongside it.
Fan Lingyue's ruthlessness was not only directed at her enemies, but at the soldiers under her command as well. So long as it benefited the war, no matter who it was or how many there were, she could abandon them without hesitation.
Yet no one could deny that it was precisely because of this terrifyingly calm ruthlessness that the Northern Mongols had swept forward with unstoppable momentum, fighting their way into the heartland of Great Xia's Central Plains while suffering less than a third of their forces in casualties.
Likewise, the hands of Great Xia's decision-makers were stained with blood, and they bore immense pressure.
Every Martial Marquis of Great Xia had been a peerless genius, yet throughout the ages, very few had managed to break through to the Innate realm. The reason was actually quite simple.
The Martial Marquises of Great Xia bore too much sinful karma upon themselves. Breaking through the barrier to the Innate realm was thousands, even tens of thousands of times harder for them than for ordinary people. Almost no one could accomplish it.
Even Great Xia's God of War had relied on the great artifact beneath the Great Xia Imperial Palace that suppressed the nation's fortune to shatter that seemingly indestructible barrier and enter the Innate realm.
The remaining nine Martial Marquises of Great Xia had all stopped at the peak of the Ninth Rank, or half a step into the Innate realm. There were no exceptions.
That day, a special person arrived atop Yangguan City's walls. His