Beneath Soul-Rending Mountain, banners stood like a forest, and battle formations bristled with menace.
Great Qian's Southern Expedition Army had successfully joined forces with the local troops of Yue Prefecture. Linked camps and stockades covered the peaks for a hundred miles around, securing every strategic position.
A full three hundred and sixty thousand troops had converged here in four armies. Together with several accomplished Core Formation cultivators, dozens of Foundation Establishment Dharma Masters, and more than a thousand Qi Refining cultivators, they had spread a net from heaven to earth, vowing to wipe out the Demon Kingdom that Demon King Hou Lu had established here in a single campaign.
Zhang Wenxuan, Marshal of the Southern Expedition, sat inside a hastily erected bamboo pavilion. Experts from the Immortal Sects and extraordinary guards stood on either side of him as he gazed toward the distant mountain through Dharma Eyes enhanced by spells.
Demonic miasma soared into the sky above Soul-Rending Mountain. Black mist billowed like a mushroom, and an enormous Flood Dragon coiled around the mountain, glaring savagely into the sky as it faced off against the eastern army, where the expedition's main force was stationed.
Above the eastern army, a Flood Dragon blazing with golden light soared through the air, looking down on its opponent in a show of might. The two dragons stood poised for battle.
That was the Great Qian Dragon Vein, condensed from the hearts and fortunes of all Yue Province's soldiers and civilians. On this campaign, through Qi-Contained Manifestation, it had naturally taken its place above the army to protect it.
Beneath it, within the realm illuminated by golden light, a power resembling a Nascent Soul Cultivator's Divine Domain manifested out of thin air. All the mortal people inexplicably felt their spirits lift and their strength swell,