"Drive these Death Spirit Masters out of my empire! Who will come with me?"
"I will!"
"Kill!"
As the two armies faced off and morale surged, the dark mass of Death Spirit Masters opposite them suddenly seemed to have been struck with an immobilizing spell. Forget fighting back-even their earlier arrogance vanished. They did something utterly baffling: collectively retreated, then turned and left in orderly ranks.
They left a crowd of hot-blooded warriors standing bewildered in the wind, swords still waving.
"What are they doing?"
"Don't fall for it. They must be playing some new trick. These Death Spirit Masters are downright treacherous."
"No, no, they're leaving."
"They really left!"
"Huh?"
Everyone puzzled over this inexplicable behavior, unable to make heads or tails of it.
But as reports of victory arrived one after another, first from the Golden Star Empire and then with good news from Moonwhite, they had no choice but to believe it: the Death Spirit Masters really had left.
Meanwhile, in remote Death Valley, Jian Tongyao and the others cleaned up two or three houses fit to stay in. The interiors were bare, with nothing left inside. Even the stools and bed boards had been made from trees that had long since withered, barely adequate to sit on.
"I really never expected you to come here. If it hadn't been for you, I might have been in trouble again." Jian Tongyao thought of how recklessly she had entered Death Valley that day. She had originally intended to help Seventh Sister eliminate some Death Spirit Masters, but who could have known that those in Death Valley's town were only a fraction of them? Many more had been hiding throughout Death Valley. Could anyone imagine a valley packed with Death Spirit Masters?
That sea of black had struck