At Han Li's command, the hundred-thousand-strong Heavenly South allied army broke camp like a steel torrent sweeping across heaven and earth. After three days of forced marches, its spearhead pointed straight at the most central forbidden ground of the Mulan Grassland-the Heavenly Lan Holy Temple.
Along the way, most Mulan tribes that had been watching from the sidelines or even resisting in secret chose silence and retreat after witnessing the crushing defeat at Soulfall Valley and sensing the vast, godlike pressure of the Holy Maiden's emergence from seclusion. A few fanatical tribes tried to block their advance, only for a single charge of the Heavenly Cycle Star Demon-Slaying Formation led by Lu Yun to leave corpses strewn across the fields and their forces utterly routed.
When the allied army's densely packed flying vessels and battle formations slowly bore down like a cloud blotting out the sun upon the last barrier surrounding the Heavenly Lan Holy Temple-the Bone-Eroding Wind Wall-the entire temple lay in a murderous, deathly silence.
Four of the twelve once-magnificent Totem Pillars had collapsed, and the rest were riddled with cracks, their light dim. Upon the Altar, the enormous phantom of the Heavenly Azure Totem had shrunk to less than a hundred feet, its aura feeble. Countless scarred Mulan warriors in beast hides stood behind the wind wall, clutching damaged Witchcraft Artifacts. Little fighting spirit remained in their eyes-only numb despair, and a trace of... a final plea directed toward the icebound Altar deep within the Holy Temple.
Leaning on her White Bone Banner staff, Granny Witchbone stood at the edge of the ruined Altar. She looked down at the black mass of allied troops, then turned toward the silent, icebound Altar. Her aged eyes were clouded as she murmured, "Holy Maiden... if you do not act now,