Crown Prince of the Empire, I quit!

Qin Ming slowly retracted the giant black iron sword.

The sword's blade was covered in sticky dark gold slurry and charred debris.

Under the visor, those bottomless eyes, like two cold abysses that swallowed up all light, quietly looked at the charred and broken body on the stretcher, which was branded with the same beast pattern.

Qin Ming's gaze, like two bottomless abysses, fixed its gaze on the faint ember. The blade of the great black iron sword dropped, and a sticky dark gold slurry dripped down the tip, creating tiny dents in the charred bones with a soft sizzling sound.

Inside the cave, there was only the subtle sound of corrosion and the cold sound of iron armor rubbing against each other as the black-armored soldiers cleared the battlefield and dragged away the remnants of Toru Khan's defeated army.

"Your Majesty!" Ying Qi appeared beside Qin Ming like a ghost, his voice as low as ice.

"High Priest Toruhan has been killed, and the remaining Shadow Pharmacists and tribal warriors, numbering 317, have all been captured. The deep valley below the cliff has been sealed, and the remaining insect nests are being cleared."

Qin Ming didn't respond. His gaze remained fixed on the faint, dark-gold ember on Liu Yueli's spine. Every flicker of that ember seemed to stir some lingering, invisible force deep within the cave, causing the surrounding gray mist to produce subtle, breathing-like fluctuations.

at this time!

“Report——!!!”

A shrill roar tore through the dead silence of the cave! A black-armored scout, covered in blood and with shattered armor, rushed into the cave like a ghost crawling out of a pool of blood! He threw himself in front of Qin Ming's horse, his voice filled with despair and fear that tore through his throat:

"Your Majesty! Urgent news! Black Wind Pass! Black Wind Pass has been lost!!!"

Like thunderclaps from a clear sky, the movements of all the black-armored soldiers in the cave froze instantly! Meng Zhi turned his head abruptly, his copper-bell-like eyes blazing with an unbelievable ferocity!

"What?!" Meng Zhi's roar was like thunder.

"Where's Hande?! Where's the 100,000 cavalry?!"

The scout coughed violently, spewing out black blood mixed with fragments of internal organs. His voice was intermittent, like a broken bellows:

"Han, General Han has been ambushed! Shenmu King Hua Yunhong personally led the 'Rotten Heart Willow Guards'... to launch a surprise attack on the rear of Black Wind Pass... The poisonous miasma obscured the sun... The cavalry were trapped in the battle... and they were slaughtering each other... General Han... General Han fought hard but was captured..."

"Captured?!" Meng Zhi's eyes were bloodshot! His huge fists were clenched so tightly that they made a creaking sound!

The scout's voice was filled with endless fear. "King Shenmu has declared... If Your Majesty doesn't withdraw his troops within one day, he will cut off one of General Han's limbs and hang it on a beacon tower at the border. If Your Majesty still doesn't withdraw his troops after ten days, he will... feed General Han... feed him the 'Rotten Heart Willow'..."

"Hua Yunhong—!!!" Meng Zhi roared like a wounded lion, shaking the gravel from the top of the cave to pieces! He turned sharply towards Qin Ming, his eyes burning with a murderous rage.

"Your Majesty! I beg your command! Return to the rescue immediately! Destroy the Shenmu Kingdom! Skin the Dog King alive!!!"

Qin Ming's gaze, beneath his veil, remained as cold as ice, without a single ripple. He didn't look at the scout, nor at the furious Meng Zhi.

His gaze penetrated the swirling gray fog in the cave and the thick rock walls of the Bone Burial Cliff, as if he could see the bloody purgatory of Black Wind Mouth thousands of miles away, shrouded in poisonous miasma and where iron cavalry were killing each other.

Hua Yunhong...King Shenmu...the emperor who manipulated everything behind Toruhan and lurked like a poisonous snake...finally showed his fangs.

“Rotten Heart Willow Guard…” Qin Ming’s icy voice echoed in the deadly silence of the cave like the friction of cold iron. “The last… fang of the Divine Wood King Court.”

He slowly raised his hand, and pointed his armored fingers at the broken remains of the pitch-black sacred tree deep in the cave.

"Burn it." The voice was not loud, but it carried an unquestionable will to destroy.

"Here!" The black-armored soldiers, already prepared, immediately threw the cloth soaked in flaming oil at the remains of the sacred tree! Torches were thrown!

boom--! ! !

The orange-red flames instantly engulfed the pitch-black wreckage! Thick black smoke mixed with a pungent burnt stench rose into the sky! The remains of the sacred tree crackled in the flames, like the final wail of a dying beast!

The moment the flames rise!

On the stretcher, the faint dark gold ember on Liu Yueli's spine suddenly flickered violently! Like an ice cube dropped into boiling oil! An extremely weak wave, yet carrying a mixture of biting cold and scorching sulfur, suddenly spread from the depths of the brand!

"Ugh..." A faint, painful groan, like one squeezed from the depths of a nightmare, escaped from Liu Yueli's charred lips! Her chest, which had long since stopped rising and falling, arched upward ever so slightly, as if pulled by invisible threads! From the edge of the charred, carbonized brand behind her shoulder, a few strands of sticky, cold, dark red jelly exuding a sweet, decayed scent slowly oozed out like a venomous snake awakening!

Qin Ming's gaze suddenly froze beneath his veil! Deep within his deep eyes, the frozen pond stirred violent ripples for the first time! It wasn't shock or ecstasy, but rather a kind of... icy determination, like an abyss opening wide, ready to swallow everything!

"Return." Qin Ming's cold voice was decisive, like a military order forged from cold iron. "Target—Black Wind Mouth."

"Your Majesty! Lady Liu..." Sun Miao's haggard face was full of surprise and confusion.

"Take her with you." Qin Ming's voice was unquestionable, and his armored finger pointed at Liu Yueli's stretcher, "along with the ashes... in this cave." His eyes swept over the burnt remains of the sacred tree on the ground, and the dust in the air mixed with sulfur and decay.

"Yes!" Sun Miao didn't dare to ask any more questions and immediately ordered his personal guards to carefully lift the stretcher.

Qin Ming spun his horse around, his Panlong heavy armor gleaming coldly in the dancing flames. His gaze, concealed beneath his veil, swept over the remains of the sacred tree, twisted and crumbling in the flames, and the dark gold embers on Liu Yueli's spine on the stretcher, flickering violently from the flames.

"Hua Yunhong..." The cold voice seemed to come from the underworld, "I... am here."

The black armor torrent was like the receding tide of black steel lava, carrying with it a rage to burn everything and a trace of indescribable, cold hope. It rolled over the corpses and ashes of the Bone Burial Cliff and rolled back towards the direction of the Black Wind Mouth!

Black Wind Pass, a veritable canyon of death.

The steep black cliffs on either side, as sharp as a knife or an axe, like the fangs of a giant beast, tightly guarded the throat of the key road leading to the heart of the Shenmu Kingdom. At this moment, this narrow valley had completely turned into a bloody purgatory.

A thick, indissoluble gray-green miasma, with a pungent, sweet, and pungent aroma of decay, hung heavy over the entire canyon like sticky corpse fluid. The miasma swirled and swirled, obscuring the light and tinging everything within the valley with an ominous, dead green. Within sight, less than ten steps!

In the valley, corpses piled up like mountains! Broken black armor!