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The Xieluo Mountains stretched like a winding dragon, their lower reaches coiled within the Balak Kingdom.
Three commanderies-Danya, Phoenix, and Jiuhua-lay beneath that expanse, like three brilliant pearls set into the jade sash of the continent.
Now, the view focused on the renowned Phoenix Terrace on Phoenix Mountain in Phoenix Commandery.
It was both a lofty viewing platform standing proudly halfway up the mountain and a strategic pass that had once been impregnable.
In those distant days, merchants and travelers had passed through in an endless stream, while soldiers maintained a strict watch. Prosperity had flourished everywhere.
Yet fate had played a cruel trick.
During the last calamity, a sudden Soul Beast Frenzy had swept in like a violent storm. Ferocious soul beasts had flooded the pass like a black tide.
When the smoke cleared, the prosperity was gone. Only shattered walls remained, silently recounting past glory and present desolation amid the windblown sands of time. Phoenix Terrace had become a ruin.
Where an iron plaque proclaiming "One man holds the pass" had once hung high, only half a rusted bronze nail remained.
Now, a group of straight-backed figures stood like steel upon the ruins of the pass.
They were not ordinary civilians, but battle-hardened soldiers of the Balak Kingdom.
Their leader wore bright plate armor as crimson as flame. Beneath the moonlight, it shone with a dazzling radiance, like the fires of war or flowing blood.
His face looked hewn by blades and axes, its stern lines etched with the weathering and resilience of years. Beneath thick brows, his eyes were deep and bright, revealing the courage and resolve of a veteran of countless battlefields. He appeared to be in his fifties, though he was actually past sixty, and possessed a composure