Xiqi had lost.
It had lost so badly that it no longer dared even raise its banners.
From Jiepai Pass to Golden Rooster Ridge, hundreds of miles of mountain roads were littered with abandoned armor, broken weapons, and battle flags bearing "Campaign Against Shang by Heaven's Will" trampled into the mud.
Jiang Ziya issued seven military orders in succession.
The signal flags had barely risen before the vanguard broke apart.
Nangong Shi personally executed three deserters, yet still could not suppress the terror throughout the camp.
Because everyone knew.
The Yuqing Saint had gone to Guanjiangkou.
Then retreated from Guanjiangkou.
Even the Sage had retreated.
What grounds did they have to keep fighting?
Yin Jiao led Great Shang's armored cavalry in pursuit for three hundred miles.
Lightning from Wen Zhong's Golden Whip rolled behind them, while Zhao Gongming and the Three Xiao stood among the clouds, merely overseeing the battle without slaughtering mortal soldiers.
But that immortal might alone had been enough to crush the last scraps of courage in Xiqi's battered army.
By the time Jiang Ziya fled to Golden Rooster Ridge with his men, fewer than one in ten soldiers remained at his side.
Inside the Commander's Tent, the silence was frightening.
Nangong Shi knelt on one knee, his armor split in three places, bloody water dripping down his arm guard.
"Prime Minister, we've lost most of our provisions and baggage."
"The rear camp has scattered, the vanguard dares not advance, and we can't rally either flank."
"The officers and men... have no will to fight left."
Jiang Ziya sat behind the Marshal's Desk, his palm pressed firmly against the God-Beating Whip.
The golden whip that had once symbolized investiture of the gods authority now weighed as heavily as a mountain.
He had lost.
It was his most