On October 4, after nearly a month of marching, the Iron Dragon and Zhang Tie's many disciples finally arrived at Flat Sand Valley in Dragon Creek Commandery, Central Province.
After the group entered Central Province in mid-to-late September, all they saw along the way were airships and flying vessels streaming in from every corner of Great Xia toward Central Province. The Iron Dragon alone encountered three waves of Knight experts from Offices of the Chief Justice across Central Province every day. As for other Knight experts whose identities could not be discerned, flying through the skies and patrolling the ground below, there were even more of them. Zhang Tie encountered nearly ten or twenty each day.
As for combat airships, Zhang Tie and the others saw several hundred of them almost every day, combing across the land like a fine-toothed comb. Whenever anything was spotted, elite troops aboard the airships were directly airdropped down. Those dropped from the airships were all elite squads organized by Great Xia's military and led by Warriors above level ten, enough to wipe out small units of bloodmen.
On the ground, garrison troops transferred from all over Dragon Creek Commandery had set up checkpoints at every strategic pass. Armored vehicles and hastily assembled small battle fortresses could be seen everywhere. Bounty constables rushing in from every province traveled in groups through the wilderness, encircling and hunting down the scattered remnants of the bloodmen.
This was no longer warfare. It was a hunt.
Liu Xing and the others marching on the ground encountered several groups of bounty constables every day. They had also happened to witness, and cooperate with, an elite Great Xia military squad's field operation to annihilate a small force of bloodmen.
Seeing such scenes, Zhang Tie knew that after more than a month