The Great Qing Rises Again, a Million Soldiers Press the Border

It had been roughly a few months since Lin Hanzhou emerged from seclusion.

A piece of earth-shattering news, enough to shake the entire Great Gan Dynasty to its core, arrived.

It traveled from the northern border to the Capital City at the speed of an eight-hundred-li urgent dispatch.

The Great Qing Dynasty, which had remained silent for a full fifty years, had once again brazenly marched south.

When this blood-stained military report was presented upon the dragon desk in the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the entire imperial court instantly fell into a deathly silence.

Every official who learned of this news wore an expression of utter disbelief.

On the dragon throne, Empress Li Yue Chan's face was as dark as water, looking grim to the extreme.

Fifty years ago, that tragic Battle of the Capital Defense was still vivid in everyone's memory.

The legend of that White-Haired Sword Saint, who with a single sword slew two grandmasters before the front lines and moved through ten thousand troops as if walking through an empty courtyard, was still recounted with relish by storytellers across the land.

That battle had effectively broken the spine of the Great Qing Dynasty.

Everyone had assumed that for at least several hundred years, the Great Qing Dynasty would have no strength to march south again.

But now...

"Minister of the Ministry of War!"

Li Yue Chan's icy voice shattered the tranquility of the great hall.

"This... this subject is here!"

The Minister of the Ministry of War stepped out of the ranks, trembling.

"Read!"

"Yes..."

The Minister of the Ministry of War unfolded the military report in his hands and read it in a dry, raspy voice.

"Reporting to Your Majesty, the Great Qing Dynasty has invaded with the strength of their entire nation. Their vanguard, claiming a million-strong army, has already broken through several cities in Liao Province over the past three days and occupied more than half of Liao Province."

"What?!"

"A million-strong army?! This... how is this possible?"

"More than half of Liao Province has fallen? This..."

"Weren't they already crippled by the State Preceptor fifty years ago? How do they still have the strength to invade the borders of our Great Gan Dynasty?"

The entire imperial court instantly erupted into chaos.

However, what made them feel even more desperate was yet to come.

The Minister of the Ministry of War took a deep breath and, with a voice choked with tears, read the most lethal piece of intelligence.

"According to frontline scouts, there are suspected to be ten grandmaster-level powerhouses among the Qing Army... accompanying them."

Boom!

The five words "ten grandmaster-level powerhouses" struck like five bolts of divine lightning, crashing down upon everyone's heads.

The entire hall fell into a deathly silence once more.

But this time, it was not because of shock, but because of a despair that seeped into their very marrow.

Ten!

That was ten grandmasters!

It was a number of powerhouses that the Great Gan Dynasty could not muster even if they exhausted the strength of the entire nation.

In these fifty years, the Great Gan Dynasty had relied on massive amounts of resources to barely produce three grandmasters.

Counting the two who were originally guarding the northern frontier and monitoring the sects, the Great Gan Dynasty now only possessed five grandmasters in total.

Five against ten.

Their high-end combat power was at a completely overwhelming disadvantage.

How could this war even be fought?!

One had to know that a single grandmaster was comparable to a million-strong army.

Having one extra grandmaster would be a devastating blow to the situation on the battlefield, let alone five.

"Impossible! This is absolutely impossible!"

An old official roared, losing his composure.

"This must be false information, a feint by the Qing Army."

"Fifty years ago, they had two grandmasters slain by the State Preceptor, which already caused them severe injury to their muscles and bones."

"Fifty years later, where could they possibly conjure up ten grandmasters?!"

"Indeed, Your Majesty, there must be something suspicious about this matter."

"Your subject believes we should immediately dispatch scouts to investigate and report back."

Upon hearing this news, the court erupted into a flurry of discussion.

Some suspected it was false intelligence, while others felt the report was undeniably authentic.

Despair, ashen and deathly, already marred their faces.

On the dragon throne, the expression of Li Yuechan turned grave as never before.

Her heart was likewise filled with doubt.

Why?

Why could Great Qing, a nation they had once crippled, produce ten Grandmasters in a mere fifty years?!

This completely defied the logic of the martial path.

Even with Great Gan possessing Lin Hanzhou, a Protector Grand Master who was near-divine, and with his personal guidance of talented martial artists coupled with the resources of the imperial family, they had barely managed to produce three Grandmasters.

If Great Qing truly possessed ten Grandmasters, they must certainly harbor an unknown secret.

But she knew this was not the time to investigate that.

Now, she needed to confirm whether there were truly ten Grandmasters within the Qing Army marching south.

If it were merely a feint by the Qing Army, that would be fortunate; the fear was that the news was true.

In that event, Great Gan would be utterly unable to contend with the enemy and would be swept aside.

"Report—!"

At that very moment, a messenger covered in blood scrambled into the great hall, rolling and crawling.

"Reporting to Your Majesty, an urgent dispatch from Qing Province..."

"The Qing Army's offensive is too fierce. Our defensive lines are retreating steadily, and the General of the State has fallen in battle."

"The entirety of Liao Province fell completely several hours ago, and the Qing Army is currently marching toward Qing Province."

"Qing Province is in imminent danger; I implore Your Majesty to send reinforcements immediately!"

After finishing these words, the messenger tilted his head and collapsed, unconscious on the floor.

The General of the State had fallen, and Liao Province had been occupied by the Qing Army once again!

This news crushed the psychological defenses of everyone in the court.

One must know that the General of the State was a powerhouse at the Grandmaster level.

That such a warrior could be killed was proof enough of the terrifying strength of the Qing Army.

For a Grandmaster to be left without even a chance to escape, it meant that multiple Grandmasters must have attacked simultaneously.

Viewed in this light, the report that the Qing Army possessed ten Grandmasters was likely true.

In this way, Great Gan was in peril.

Faced with such a terrifying disparity in strength, the ministers all wore expressions of panic.

They understood clearly what the death of the General of the State signified.

It was precisely because of this that they had almost entirely accepted the news of the ten Qing Grandmasters.

On the dragon throne, the beautiful face of Li Yuechan was likewise etched with distress.

The Qing Army suspected of having ten Grandmasters, the loss of a province, and the death of their own Grandmaster.

Any one of these reports would be catastrophic news.

Now that they had all arrived at once, it was truly a case of rain falling on a leaking roof.

With the current national strength of Great Gan, even including the three great sects, they were insufficient to contend with ten Grandmasters.

Helpless, Li Yuechan could only pin her hopes on Lin Hanzhou.

Since he had been able to slay two Grandmasters in succession fifty years ago, his strength today must surely be even more terrifying.

Combined with the four remaining Grandmasters of Great Gan, it was not impossible to fight the ten Grandmasters of the Qing Army.

However, Li Yuechan was somewhat reluctant to let Lin Hanzhou participate in this battle.

During that battle in the Capital City all those years ago, he had burned through fifty years of his lifespan; he had already done too much for Great Gan.

She was terrified that he would die in this great war, for Great Qing possessed ten Grandmaster powerhouses!

Yet, if she did not seek him out, Great Gan's current strength was completely unable to resist.

When that time came, more towns would fall, and the inhumane massacres of the Qing Army would repeat.

As the Empress of Great Gan, she could never tolerate such things happening again.

In the end, she made her decision: she had to request the State Preceptor to act.

The Protector Grand Master who had become the guardian deity of Great Gan, a man who had been all but deified.