His own ragged breathing echoed in Cì Chuān’s ears. The sound of his stumbling footsteps as he raced through the city were drowned out by the blood pumping in his vains and the screams of anguish behind him.

How did this happen?! Why did this happen?! We were so close to conquering this kingdom, so why now?!

Everything had been going fairly well. His older brother had been leading their forces through the city, slowly conquering sections of the city a little at a time. Progress was much slower than they wanted, but that was to be expected. The forces arrayed against them were all Asura Realm cultivators, knew the city’s layout better, and had set up numerous chokepoints and ambushes. Their forces had dropped quite rapidly. Fortunately, they had thought to bring reinforcements. Even if they lost thousands of men, they still had plenty more to replace them.

They had just reached the second near the noble district and were about to launch an assault when a group of powerful cultivators had appeared out of nowhere. The strongest among the Shang Kingdom’s forces had arrived, including a beautiful lady from the Ice Phoenix Sect and several unknown individuals. He had still been confident in their victory. His brother was one of the strongest young cultivators and had even managed to reach the Deva Realm… but that confidence turned into terror when his brother’s head suddenly exploded.

Cì Chuān did not know who had done that. He’d been right next to his brother because the man had refused to let him hang in the back, and so he’d had an up close accounting of his brother’s exploding head, but he had been so focused on what happened that he failed to figure out who had done it. Shortly after it happened, Cì Chuān had run off. His fear had overtaken him and he’d fled the battlefield. Now, the screams of the dying rang in his ears as he tried to outrun any potential persuers.

Yet even as he ran, he could not help but wonder about what happened. The people who had appeared should have been engaged in combat with the combined leaders of the Ming Province and Zhou Kingdom. Why were they attacking now? Had they defeated his father and the others? Impossible! Unthinkable! Yet what else could have happened? There’s no way his father, the most tyrannical man he knew, would have allowed those people to just go free. He could only come to one conclusion.

His father was dead.

Dammit! Where am I?! How do I leave this damn city?!

Cì Chuān wished he had taken the time to study a map. He had no idea where he was or how to reach the gate. It felt like he had already passed through this way several times now. Everything was beginning to look the same too. Hadn’t he seen that corpse before? What about the trashcan in the alley? He was sure he’d seen that.

After rushing around a corner, Cì Chuān was forced to stop in his tracks upon finding his path blocked. The person standing before him was someone he knew exceedingly well. He had dreamed of getting her into his bed every night since the first time they met. On any other occasion, he would have felt very happy to be in her presence, but all he felt just now was terror.

“Hello, Cì Chuān. Fancy running into you here,” Zhou Lihua. She was smiling, but it was not the kind of smile that invoked pleasure. What he felt as he stared into her crinkled eyes was terror. Pure, unadulturated fear. It felt like the death god was staring him down.

He turned around, only to find a man in a mask standing behind him. Of course, Cì Chuān recognized him. It was Jian Wu, the man who had been by Zhou Lihua’s side during the competition. He had never let it show, but he had been insanely jealous of this masked man. How dare this loser get so close to his woman? How dare he act so familiar with her? Those had been his thoughts at the time, but now those thoughts had been replaced with fear. The aura this man was unleashing caused him to nearly lose control of his bladder.

“Where do you think you’re going, prince?” asked Zhou Lihua.

“Ah. Zhou Lihua, my dear… um… I know this looks bad, but I promise none of this was my desire. My father and brother wanted to invade the Shang Kingdom. I… I tried to stop them, but they wouldn’t hear of it,” Cì Chuān tried to talk his way out of this. That was all he could do at this point.

“Is that so? So you didn’t want any of this to happen?” asked Zhou Lihua.

He shook his head. “Of course not. Why would I? I know how fondly you think of Princess Hou Jingshu.”

“I see. I see. That is good to hear… if true. But now, I have a question for you, prince?” He didn’t think it was possible, but Zhou Lihua’s smile became even more terrifying than before. “Wu Jian and I were attacked by two women on our way here. My clansmen were killed by them. You wouldn’t happen to know them, would you?”

“What? Two women? N-no. Of course not. I don’t know that many women to begin with,” Cì Chuān stuttered. He had wondered what happened to those two. He never imagined they would have failed in their mission. They were probably dead now.

Zhou Lihua’s expression turned grim. “I hate liars.”

Cì Chuān only had a second to react. He tried to move away from Zhou Lihua as her hands burned with silver flames, but he found himself unable to move. It was like he had been bound in quicksand. Jian Wu held out his hand and clenched it tight.

“Aaaah?! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”

Cì Chuān could do little more than scream and cry as Zhou Lihua touched his chest. The flames on her hand entered his body and began burning him from the inside out. Tears stained his eyes, blood ran down his throat, and drool escaped his mouth. Then the pain stopped.

“Do you feel like talking now?” asked Zhou Lihua.

“I’ll talk! I’ll talk! Just please don’t do that again!”

Unlike his father and brother, Cì Chuān was not inured to pain. He had never liked being hurt, and those flames hurt more than anything he’d felt, so of course he confessed to everything. He told Zhou Lihua about his desires to claim her, how a mysterious woman had come to him with the promise of allowing him to claim Zhou Lihua if he kidnapped Jian Wu, and how he sent his two slaves after them. He spilled his guts about every secret he could think of. When he started getting into things he had done to other women, Zhou Lihua cut him off.

“That’s good. Thank you. I don’t need to hear anymore.”

“D-does that mean you’ll let me go?” asked a hopeful Cì Chuān.

“I never said I would let you go,” Zhou Lihua tilted her head curiously.

Cì Chuān opened his mouth to plead with her, but flames quickly traveled down his throat, burning it from the inside out. His tears evaporated as the flames engulfed him. His last thought as he was consumed by fire was that he should have never gone after this woman.

***

The battle dwindled not longer after Cì Han was killed. Hou Jingshu had wanted to keep him alive so she could force a surrender and turn the Zhou Kingdom into a vassal state, but that was impossible now that Loong Chen had killed him. She was still curious about that man. She also wanted to scold him for ruining her plans, but there was already so much on her plate that she couldn’t deal with his actions.

First things first.

She needed to deal with the fallout of this war.

“We’ve managed to get a talley of the fallen,” Yu Chenguang stood as he held a scroll of parchment in his hands. Hou Jingshu sat on the throne normally reserved for the emperor and listened intently, as did those sitting around them. “Four thousand six hundred fifty four cultivators have died from our side. On the enemies side, we estimate around fifteen thousand died. The rest have surrendered and are being processed.”

“Your did quite a magnificent job, You Majesty!”

“Four thousand might seem like a big number, but it’s quite small in the grand scheme of things!”

“Your brilliance has seen us through this crisis!”

Several clan leaders heaped on the praise. Shuffling echoed from behind her. She recgoznied the cadence and weight of the shoes. She wanted to look back at Wu Jian, but instead, she held up her hand for silence.

“Yu Chenguang. I’d like a list of all the people who died today.”

Yu Chenguang bowed. “It will be done.”

“Good. Now, how long do you estimate it will take to replenish our forces?”

“I’d say… at least two decades.”

Hou Jingshu did not like thinking about human beings as resources, but it was a truth that ruling a nation required her to. Cultivators were a part of her army and responsible for the defense of the kingdom. They took time and resources to nourish. Both the quality of the cultivator and the quantity of cultivators at her kingdom’s disposal were important for the continued safety of the kingdom. If she did not think of them as resources, she would be unable to figure out how best to use them to defend the kingdom.

“That will take too long. With the Heavenly Sword Sect currently dealing with its own issues, we do not have the luxury of resting on our laurels.”

Everyone fell silent. Hou Jingshu furrowed her brow. What should she do this in this situation?

“Why are you guys making this into such a big deal?” asked Loong Chen suddenly. The man was relaxing in a corner of the room without a care in the world. Everyone turned to look at him, some with disapproval, but none of them said anything. His presence was just that overwhelming.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean this isn’t a big deal. You can solve this problem easily.” Hou Jingshu waited for Loong Chen to say something. He grinned and held his silence for several seconds longer. “If you lack quantity, then go for quality. The Zhou Kingdom and Ming Province just invaded your nation and were soundly defeated. To the victor goes the spoils. There should be no issues if you claim both nations to expand your territory. You can then use the resources from those nations to increase the power of your cultivators. Raise a few of those at the peak of the Human Limit Realm up to the Deva Realm and you’ll be set.”

Murmurs erupted among the nobles. Many of them were smiling as they discussed the proposal as though it had merit. Even Hou Jingshu considered the idea.

“That might work for the Zhou Kingdom. Emperor Cì Shā who refused to allow sects to flourish due to his fear of someone becoming stronger than him. Since there are no sects, we can invade their kingdom with little danger to ourselves. The Ming Province is another matter entirely. Burning Flame, Martial God, and Wind-Lightning might have been three of the four strongest sects there, but that doesn’t mean they were the only strong sects. There is still Water-Moon Pavilion to contend with. Rumor has it they have ties to Supreme Ocean Palace.”

Supreme Ocean Palace was one of the Three Celestial Sects, the strongest among all sects in the Xaio Continent. Supposing the Water-Moon Pavilion did have ties to Supreme Ocean Palace, Hou Jingshu could not do anything, for she could ill afford to anger a Celestial Sect now that the Heavenly Sword Sect didn’t have the resources to protect her kingdom.

They weren’t the only powerful sect in the Ming Province either. The Four Great Pavilions might have ruled the land, but they were not a monolithic state like the Zhou Kingdom. There were plenty of other sects that would likely begin fighting over resources in the Ming Province now that the Four Great Pavilions were down to just one. She could only hope Mei Xilan would soon return with good news.

“Aaaaaaah. That kind of thinking is for the weak,” Loong Chen grumbled. “The strong have no need to think so much. Just take what you want and kill anyone who gets in your way.”

Hou Jingshu glared. “That is not how we do things here. I cannot afford to do something that would threaten the safety of my people. We’ll take your suggestion under advisement in how to deal with the Zhou Kingdom, but we won’t use the same method for the Ming Province.”

“Tch.”

Ignoring the dragon as he clicked his tongue, Hou Jingshu turned back to the others. “Let’s begin sending cultivators into the Zhou Kingdom to assess the situation. We’ll hold back on dealing with the Ming Province for a little while. I’ll leave dealing with the Zhou Kingdom to Ming Hochang and Li Huang.”

The two older men stood up and bowed.

“It shall be done, Your Highness.”

“With that settled, has there been any news on Ching Yuon and his son? Have we located their whereabouts?” she asked.

Liu Heifeng stood up. “Not yet. However, we questioned several of the cultivators we have captured and a few claim to have seen them fleeing from Shang City via the eastern gate. We searched the area in and around the city but found no trace of them. I believe they are attempting to flee the country.”

“I’d like to prevent that.” Hou Jingshu looked at Wu Yong. “I’m going to leave the matter of capturing them to you. You may use any means necessary. Try not to kill them if you can, but I give you permission to if it can’t be avoided.”

“Yes, Your Highness,” said Wu Yong, bowing.

The meeting continued on for several hours, and Hou Jingshu was exhausted by the end of it, but she couldn’t afford to rest just yet. There was at least one thing she really needed to do first.