A million armored soldiers forge a military soul; an Immortal Lord subdues a Demon Emperor with one finger

At Qingzhou's southernmost edge stood Southern Suppression Pass.

This ancient, mighty pass stretched for over a thousand li, like a black dragon of steel lying across the border between Qingzhou's human territories and the Ten-Thousand-Demon Marsh.

Over a hundred thousand years, the black evil-warding bricks of its walls had been soaked in the blood of countless Great Demons, then dried by the wind. They had long since turned dark red, exuding a suffocating weight of history and killing intent.

Yet today, the army that arrived at this ancient pass made heaven and earth change color.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Heavy footsteps rumbled from behind Southern Suppression Pass, so perfectly synchronized that even the pulse of the earth seemed to resonate with them.

One million!

A full million cultivator soldiers, fully armed and clad in black iron heavy armor, slowly advanced onto the walls and surrounding heights of Southern Suppression Pass like a boundless black ocean.

This was the newly formed [Great Zhou Qingzhou Northern Pacification Army], which Chu Bai had assembled by integrating the Heavenly Abyss Mystic Guards, the Myriad Sword Sect's sword cultivators, the former Southern Suppression Army troops, and the private soldiers of various Aristocratic Clans.

At the very center of the army, nine hundred-zhang mechanical dragons, forged from mechanical puppets and Flood Dragon bones, pulled an immense floating throne crafted from violet-gold warm jade through the air.

Chu Bai, the Prince Who Quells the North, wore a spotless Violet-Gold Royal Robe and a flat-topped ceremonial crown. With one arm resting at an angle on the throne's armrest, he looked down upon the ancient wilderness ahead, perpetually shrouded in green poisonous miasma.

His aura was restrained to the utmost, without the slightest trace of Golden Core Stage pressure leaking out. Yet as long as he sat at the center