The night was dark, and the wind ran high.
As time passed, the battle gradually settled.
At the foot of the mountain, the battle cries had slowly subsided.
Only scattered screams remained, along with the dull thud of hooves trampling over corpses.
The Northern Pacifying King's and Northern Azure King's iron cavalry were drawing their formations together and clearing the battlefield, stringing the kneeling, pleading Northern Barbarian captives into lines and driving them toward the clearing at the foot of the mountain.
Torches flared to life, illuminating the mountain woods as brightly as day.
Watching the movements below, Jiang Ning slowly drew the golden radiance around him back into his body, and the great sun in the night sky vanished with it.
The next instant.
A figure landed on the mountaintop north of the city.
At the same time.
On the mountaintop north of the city.
The moment Jiang Ning appeared, the entire mountaintop fell into deathly silence.
Both Ashina and the leaders of the Golden Tribes noticed his arrival at once.
Jiang Ning swept his gaze across them. Every face bore an expression of lifeless resignation, reverence, or despair...
Ashina was the first to react. She quickly regained her composure, stepped forward, and bowed.
"Ashina, a subject of Big Snow Mountain, pays her respects to Great Xia's Luo River King."
The leaders of the Golden Tribes behind her also came to their senses and followed her lead, presenting themselves as subjects of Big Snow Mountain as they bowed to Jiang Ning.
Their bearing was respectful, even tinged with flattery and fear.
Jiang Ning was not surprised at all.
The culture of the Northern Barbarian Great Grassland differed from that of Great Xia.
Great Xia valued integrity and dignity: better to die standing than live on one's knees.
But on