Several months passed in the flick of a finger.
Deep within the City Lord's Mansion in Wind-Splitting County City.
Inside a secluded study, blue-gray stone walls shut out all the clamor of the outside world.
Qing Chen sat cross-legged on a meditation cushion, the faintly fluctuating spiritual pressure around him slowly settling;
he opened his eyes and slowly exhaled a long, heavy breath of turbid air.
The breath shot like an arrow, traveling several zhang before gradually dispersing.
Through days of warfare, slaughter, planning, and deployment, his nerves had not relaxed for a moment, stretched taut as a bowstring;
even with his formidable physical body, tempered through countless trials and already at the half-step indestructible realm;
he felt a trace of weariness from deep within his mind.
Now, at last, he had temporarily settled Tie Ming, Tie Qingniu, and the thirty thousand Anman Prefecture cavalry under their command, along with the assorted troops he had absorbed-more than fifty thousand men in all.
Only after deploying them all to defend the strategic positions around Coiled Snake County had he finally gained this rare moment of leisure.
As for Withered Skeleton, Black Miasma, and Poison Drool Counties, three thousand men from the original Miao-Conquest Army had been assigned to each, each guarded by two Golden Core Stage commandants;
they supported one another like interlocking horns, making the arrangement reasonably secure.
This decisive battle had been like walking a tightrope, nearly emptying the reserves he had accumulated over the years and forcing him to employ many of his hidden measures.
Fortunately, fortunately. The final outcome had been good.
Not only had he achieved the results he had anticipated and obtained the Nascent Soul Formation Pill he had dreamed of, but he had also gained the [Golden Flood Dragon Blood Marrow Heart].
An unexpected