Jialing Pass.
The sky belonged to fire and gunsmoke alone; the battlements belonged to fear and death.
"Hah! Hah! Hah!"
Meng Yiran clutched her Serpent Cane martial soul as though it were a drowning woman's last straw. Beads of sweat kept seeping from her forehead, soaking her short hair and her clothes. Every time she gasped for breath, she inhaled great lungfuls of the foul smell of smoke mingled with blood. At first, it had stung her nose and made her gag, but now she had grown accustomed to it. Nothing about it surprised her anymore; it no longer even upset her stomach enough to make her vomit.
After she accompanied her grandparents, the Dragon-Snake Couple, to deliver news of Sky-Blasting Gang leader Yang Ming's grievous injuries to Pope Bibi Dong, Meng Shu and Chao Tianxiang had been secretly transferred elsewhere. As for her, her strength was respectable, and she was both young and female, so Her Highness the Saintess had taken an interest in her and assigned her to serve in the Holy Dragon Army at Jialing Pass. She had thought it would be a cushy posting. After all, Jialing Pass was renowned as the greatest pass under heaven, a fortress that was virtually impossible to capture.
Who could have imagined that, mere days after she reported to the Holy Dragon Army, the Imperial Allied Forces would launch a ferocious offensive against the Spirit Hall Empire? More than half a month had passed in constant warfare. The prolonged fighting had left Meng Yiran utterly exhausted, her arms and legs aching unbearably. Even the hand gripping her Serpent Cane martial soul felt as though its strength was failing.
But rather than letting her guard down, she tightened her grip on her Serpent Cane martial soul.
Over those weeks, Meng Yiran