"Speak! How goes the battle ahead? Have the demons crossed the border?!"
The scout reined in his horse, gasping for breath.
Yet his face wore the look of someone who'd seen a ghost.
"R-reporting to you, Commander!"
"Up ahead... Baxi Prefecture..."
"There... there are no demons."
Xu Xiao froze. "What?"
"There are no demons!"
The scout's eyes widened, as if he still hadn't recovered from what he'd just seen.
"Baxi Prefecture is still standing!"
"I saw no demons surrounding the city, nor any beacon fires or smoke signals... It's just..."
Xu Xiao's brow furrowed. "It's just what?"
"It's just too quiet."
Xu Xiao heard this and was overcome with suspicion.
No demons?
How could that be?
Judging by the time, those beasts should have reached Baxi Prefecture by now...
Could they have suffered a defeat and retreated?
The moment the thought arose, he stamped it out.
Impossible.
Jiannan Circuit was short on troops. What could possibly hold them back?
"Could it be an empty-city ruse? Or perhaps..."
Xu Xiao's expression changed abruptly.
"Everyone, stay on guard!"
"Follow me into the city!"
Whether the road ahead led into a dragon's lair or a tiger's den, or into some cunning trap—
Now that they were here, there was no reason not to go in and take a look.
The army reached the gates of Baxi Prefecture.
Xu Xiao reined in his horse and looked up at the city.
The walls were in ruins, breached everywhere by tremendous force.
Dark-red blood splashed across more than half the walls like spilled ink.
But this blood didn't belong to the people!
Countless demon corpses were packed together.
Some had been cut in half at the waist; others had their skulls pierced through.
They'd died in every manner imaginable, not a single body intact.
This...