Pressing Borders, Three Nations Submit!

In April, Daqing and the Cang Country officially went to war.

Across the barren wilderness of the southern border of the Cang Country, black and red banners formed a sea. The four major military arrays of Daqing arrived in full force, the green-robed sword arrays of the Mu Family disciples embedded in the flanks of the formations. The Golden Core elders of the Mu Family hovered in mid-air, their auras condensed yet unreleased. Mu Xingqi stood beneath the dark-iron commander's banner at the very front, his wide sleeves drooping down, the coercion of the Spirit Transformation Stage concealed within his entire body. It neither overawed his own side nor deliberately pressed toward the enemy array; only a pair of eyes swept across the much more heavily numbered and better-armored army of the Cang Country with a dullness devoid of ripples.

In this punitive expedition against the Cang Country, Daqing was originally the weaker side. The military strength of the Cang Country exceeded Daqing's by thirty percent, and multiple Nascent Soul Realm cultivators presided over the central army—this was precisely the source of confidence that allowed them to repeatedly violate the borders. Yet Mu Xingqi personally led the army, bringing along every single disciple and elder of the Mu Family, not to rely upon them, but solely for tempering.

Most of the elders of the Mu Family were at the Golden Core realm, yet they lacked the quenching and grinding of frontline slaughter and warfare. The disciples were mostly at Foundation Establishment, and had even more need to witness the true blood and fire of the battlefield rather than being cooped up in the sect's alchemy rooms and Sword Tombs.

"Beat the drums, advance."

Mu Xingqi's voice was not loud, yet it fell clearly into the ears of every Daqing soldier