She understood.
"The defenders set up defensive lines in the buildings on both sides. The attackers pushed onto the main street from the Southern Heavenly Gate, clearing the houses one by one."
Yang Wanqing shuddered. "When you put it like that, it sounds like urban warfare."
Someone in the chat caught on quickly: "Wait... the Southern Heavenly Gate is outside the city. The attackers came in from outside. So whose gate was it?"
Chen Siyao was wondering the same thing. She walked toward a fairly intact wall midway down the main street.
There was writing on it, not carved by later visitors, but already there before the battle—something like a notice or slogan.
She spent a dozen seconds deciphering it.
"'By order of the Heavenly Venerable of the Primordial Beginning, thirty-six thousand troops shall be stationed at the Southern Heavenly Gate outpost...'"
She stopped there.
The Heavenly Venerable of the Primordial Beginning.
The Sect Leader of the Chan Sect.
Yang Wanqing said, "...So this was the Chan Sect's city?"
"This city was a Chan Sect outpost." Chen Siyao turned toward the Southern Heavenly Gate. "The garrison at the Southern Heavenly Gate was under the Chan Sect's command."
The chat went quiet for two seconds.
Then a highlighted message from Professor Li's team appeared: "This corroborates the seventh section of the South Wall mural—the Thirty-Three Heavens were under the Chan Sect's jurisdiction. The Jie Sect launched repeated offensives against the Thirty-Three Heavens."
Another message followed immediately: "In other words, the Jie Sect was the attacking side."
The livestream stayed silent for about five seconds.
Then it erupted.
"Hold on, wasn't the Jie Sect the one that practiced 'education without discrimination'? The one that let everyone survive?"
"The Jie Sect attacked them? They were the invaders?"
"You can't put it that way,