Evidence Laid Bare, Deputy Commander—Guess How This Ends

Li Zhengyang headed toward the command headquarters as the entire fortress remained mired in the chaos following the Beast Tide.

Medics ran back and forth carrying stretchers, while the screams of wounded soldiers came from every direction.

Below the Western Section wall, thirty-seven bodies covered in white sheets had been arranged in two rows.

Several recruits squatted nearby, crying.

As Li Zhengyang passed those white-covered bodies, he lowered his head for a glance.

The corpse at the edge had half a hand exposed. A watch was still on its wrist, its screen shattered.

He knew that person. A recruit from Third Platoon, Seventh Squad, who had arrived a day after him and slept in the bunk diagonally across from his. Yesterday, he had even asked about Zhang Mang, smiling with two little tiger teeth showing.

Li Zhengyang withdrew his gaze and quickened his pace.

The command headquarters was the tallest building in the fortress's central district. It had three stories, with four armed guards stationed at the entrance.

Li Zhengyang walked straight inside.

"Stop! No one may enter command without authorization!"

He did not slow down.

He released a thread of Astral Qi, and all four guards' legs gave out at once, dropping them to one knee.

They had not been struck.

They had been crushed down.

The pressure of a Ninth-Rank Martial Spirit upon guards at the Great Martial Master level was like Mount Tai pressing down on their heads.

He pushed open the door.

Inside the command headquarters' operations room, more than a dozen officers were gathered around a sand table, reviewing the Beast Tide battle.

Zhang Jianbiao stood beside the sand table, pointing at the Northwest Section as he spoke to a staff officer beside him.

The sound of the door opening made everyone turn their heads.

Li Zhengyang walked in drenched in Magic Beast blood, the Dragon-Gallbladder Golden Spear in his right hand. Its tip pointed downward, scraping a line across the floor.

Seeing him like this, several officers instinctively put their hands on their weapons.

The instant Zhang Jianbiao saw him, surprise flashed across his face.

This brat was still alive?

"Li Zhengyang! You barged into command headquarters. Do you know what crime that is?"

"I came to ask you something."

Li Zhengyang planted his spear on the ground with a clang.

"All three firing positions on the Western Section wall failed. No backup weapons were issued. When the Beast Tide came, not a single reinforcement arrived for four hours. Thirty-seven recruits died."

"Whose signature was on this deployment plan?"

The operations room fell silent.

Zhang Jianbiao's Adam's apple bobbed.

"Combat deployment is the result of a collective decision by command. It has nothing to do with a private from Bladebreaker Battalion. You will immediately—"

"A collective decision?"

Li Zhengyang stepped closer, cutting him off. He took out his phone, pulled up a photo, and raised it.

The photo showed the defense-zone assignment chart for the Western Section wall.

In the signature field at the lower right, there was only one name.

Zhang Jianbiao.

"I took this photo from the Western Section command post. It bears only your signature, without Commander Zhao Tiehan's approval."

"Under regulations, any order involving a major adjustment to wall defense zones must be approved by the highest commander. You bypassed Commander Zhao and made the deployment yourself."

Zhang Jianbiao's expression finally cracked.

"What does a private like you know about regulations?"

"I know other things too."

Li Zhengyang pulled up a second photo.

A panoramic view of the warehouse in the Blood-Colored Gorge mine.

Spirit Ore, pills, weapons—the Quartermaster Department serial numbers on the crates were crystal clear.

A third photo.

A shipping manifest.

Sender: Fortress No. 13 Quartermaster Department.

Signatory: Zhang Jianbiao.

A fourth photo.

A close-up of the Quartermaster Department serial number on a pill bottle.

Li Zhengyang turned his phone in a circle, making sure everyone in the operations room saw clearly.

"Deep within Blood-Colored Gorge is an underground transit warehouse. It stores Spirit Ore, pills, and standard-issue weapons withheld from the fortress Quartermaster Department. The shipping manifest bears your name, Zhang Jianbiao."

"Frontline soldiers were injured and had no Healing Pills. They lay in the infirmary for half a month, their meridians damaged so badly they could no longer return to the battlefield."

"Where did the pills go? You sold them off."

Zhang Jianbiao's face instantly flushed crimson.

The surrounding officers began whispering among themselves.

Several of their expressions turned ugly as well. They remembered the soldiers under their command who had been crippled because of medicine shortages.

"Bullshit!"

Zhang Jianbiao slammed his palm against the sand table.

"These photos are all fabricated! You're a recruit from Bladebreaker Battalion—where did you get the nerve to slander the deputy commander?"

He turned and swept his gaze over the officers in the operations room.

"What are you standing around for? Seize him! Breaking into command headquarters, framing a superior officer, disrupting morale!"

No one moved.

It was not that they did not want to.

They did not dare.

Li Zhengyang's aura weighed down the room. These officers, all Great Martial Masters, struggled even to stand straight. Who would dare step forward and arrest him?

Zhang Jianbiao's breathing grew heavy.

He stopped calling for others.

He moved himself.

The Blood Qi of a Fifth-Rank Martial Spirit surged at full force, and Astral Qi erupted from his body.

His right hand drew the saber at his waist. With one step, he crossed three meters, the blade cleaving toward Li Zhengyang's neck.

One slash.

He had put everything into that slash.

All the Blood Qi of a Fifth-Rank Martial Spirit poured into the blade, making the Astral Qi along its edge three times thicker than usual.

Li Zhengyang did not raise his spear.

He lifted his left hand and pinched the blade between two fingers.

He caught it.

Zhang Jianbiao's full-force strike was caught between two fingers, two inches from Li Zhengyang's neck.

The blade hummed and shuddered between his fingers, yet could not advance even half an inch.

Zhang Jianbiao's pupils contracted violently.

Even a dignified Fifth-Rank Martial Spirit could not budge him?

What the hell was this brat's strength?

Li Zhengyang's fingers tightened.

Crack.

The standard-issue saber snapped in half at the middle.

The tip of the upper half embedded itself in the sand table, still humming and trembling.

Zhang Jianbiao stood frozen in place, gripping the hilt of the broken saber.

Li Zhengyang raised his foot and kicked him squarely in the chest.

Zhang Jianbiao flew backward, his back smashing into the operations room wall and collapsing part of it.

He slid down the wall and sprawled on the floor, spitting out a mouthful of bloody foam.

"Thirty-seven lives."

Li Zhengyang walked over and crouched before him.

"To cover up your smuggling, you transferred all the recruits to the worst defense zone and let the Beast Tide silence them for you."

"Who the fuck are you to wear that uniform?"

At that moment, the operations room door opened.

Someone walked in.

All the officers snapped to attention at once.

Zhao Tiehan.

The highest commander of Fortress No. 13, a Ninth-Rank Martial Spirit.

He was in his fifties and not particularly tall, yet his presence alone left everyone in the room struggling to breathe.

His gaze swept over Zhang Jianbiao on the ground, the broken bricks and shattered saber scattered everywhere, then finally settled on Li Zhengyang.

"Li Zhengyang, where is the evidence you spoke of? If you have no evidence, your crime will be grave indeed."

Li Zhengyang handed over his phone.

Zhao Tiehan took it and went through the photos one by one.

There was not a sound in the operations room.

When he reached the final photo, Zhao Tiehan closed the phone.

"Guards."

Two military police entered from outside.

"Zhang Jianbiao is suspected of selling military supplies and abusing his authority, resulting in the deaths of combat personnel. He is immediately stripped of all duties, imprisoned, and sentenced to death at a later date!"

The military police stepped forward and hauled Zhang Jianbiao up from the floor.

Blood still spilled from Zhang Jianbiao's mouth as he shouted indistinctly.

"Zhao Tiehan! You're taking a recruit's few photos as proof—"

"Shut up." Zhao Tiehan did not even look at him. "I had people checking the Quartermaster Department accounts for the goods you handled three days ago. Did you think he was the only one with evidence?"

All color drained from Zhang Jianbiao's face.

As he was dragged away, his legs left two long trails across the floor.

Only Zhao Tiehan and Li Zhengyang remained in the operations room.

Zhao Tiehan returned the phone to him.

"I read the battle record for the Northwest Section wall. One man held it for four hours. Zero breaches."

Li Zhengyang said nothing.

"How old are you?"

"Twenty."

Zhao Tiehan looked at him for several seconds.

"A Martial Spirit at twenty. There isn't a second one in all of Fortress No. 13."

He took a letter from his pocket and tossed it over.

"A notice just arrived from Northern Frontier Military Region headquarters. Next month, there'll be a Military District Martial Warrior Selection Tournament. The age limit is under twenty-five. The top three will directly enter the military region's core combat team. The prize pool is four million Great Xia yuan, with the champion taking two million alone."

Li Zhengyang had already been about to leave.

His steps stopped.

"How much?"

"Four million."

Li Zhengyang opened the letter and read it through.

Zhao Tiehan watched his reaction and added, "Of course, the contestants won't be weak. The favorite for the championship is the captain from the military region's First Fortress, a Martial Sect."

A Martial Sect.

An entire major realm above him.

Li Zhengyang folded the letter and slipped it into his pocket.

"When is registration due?"

"Two days from now."