On a broad desk carved from agarwood, a military map of Qingzhou, refined from Demon Beast hide, slowly unfurled.
Spiritual energy swirled over the map. Points of differently colored light glittered like stars, marking the deployments of both sides and the circulation of fortune.
Chu Bai sat in the seat of command, draped in a commander's cloak. His face was as calm as a deep pool, but faint golden dragon phantoms circled in the depths of his eyes.
His long, powerful fingers tapped lightly against the desktop. In the command tent, where a falling pin could have been heard, those crisp sounds seemed like a countdown to death in the hands of someone who held absolute power over life and death.
"Marshal." Clad in heavy armor, Zhang Cheng strode into the tent, knelt on one knee, and presented a secret scroll sealed with purple-gold wax in both hands. "The latest military intelligence from Qingzhou Prefecture."
Chu Bai nodded slightly and beckoned. The secret scroll fell into his palm as though drawn by an invisible force.
His divine sense swept forcefully over it. The seal on the scroll dissolved instantly, and lines of information steeped in chilling killing intent poured into his mind.
A moment later, Chu Bai tossed the secret scroll onto the desk, a meaningful, cold smile curling at the corner of his mouth.
"Of Qingzhou's Thirty-Six Prefectures, four have already sent their elite armies streaming into Lingchang Prefecture through Interstate Teleportation Formations and Large Flying Boats. What's more..."
Chu Bai paused, gazing through a gap in the tent toward the distant northern horizon.
There, a purple pillar of energy pierced heaven and earth, pinning down the void for tens of thousands of miles like the divine needle that steadied the seas.
That vast, terrifying pressure seemed capable of