Zhou Ming did not linger long in Antai Commandery, withdrawing his Divine Sense from the notice at the city gate.

His figure turned in mid-air, sighting the direction of Yuyang Commandery in Youzhou, and transformed into a purple-gold stream of light, breaking through the air.

Having been away for half a year, he needed to return as soon as possible to understand the state of the world.

However, having flown for less than half an hour along the way, he sensed that something was wrong.

The various cities that should have been taken over by Empress Su Mingyue's army had, for some reason, changed their banners.

In the garrison camps of the major cities, where the familiar black banners of the Youzhou Army should have been,

there were now messy, colorful flags fluttering in the wind.

Some flags were embroidered with a large "Zhang" character, others with "Wang," and a few didn't even bother with characters, simply depicting a crude tiger head totem.

Every time he passed a city, the flags had changed, and none were the same.

Zhou Ming lowered his flight altitude and stopped above a large city at the border between Chong Province and Youzhou.

On the city walls, several dark red flags embroidered with the character "Sun" were snapping in the wind.

Zhou Ming spread out his Divine Sense and sensed a familiar aura within the City Lord's Residence in the center of the city.

It was a Martial Artist in the Blood Refining Realm, and one who had cultivated the Dushi Sutra.

Above this person's head was a thick Causal Chain.

Zhou Ming recognized him at a glance: this person was one of the Martial Artists who had walked out of the Blood Pool prison.

Zhou Ming formed a hand seal, and a dense fog rose around him, completely obscuring his figure, before he flashed into the study of the City Lord's Residence.

The Martial Artist was sitting cross-legged on a low couch, reciting the Dushi Sutra, with a hand-copied scripture spread across his knees, muttering to himself.

Suddenly feeling the air in front of him distort slightly, he looked up.

He was scared half to death.

A churning, indistinct mist stood three paces in front of him, exactly the same as the mysterious Immortal who had carved scriptures on the cliff in the valley and killed Emperor Liu Jun with a single palm strike.

The Martial Artist shuddered, rolled off the low couch, his knees went weak, and he knelt on the ground, his forehead slamming heavily against the blue brick floor, his voice trembling:

"Immortal... Immortal!"

"Tell me, what is the current situation in the Great Xia?" Zhou Ming did not want to waste words with him and asked directly.

"This... Immortal," the Martial Artist carefully raised his head to look at Zhou Ming, but saw only a churning mist, unable to make anything out.

He swallowed hard, his voice filled with awe and nervousness.

"Reporting to the Immortal, the Great Xia is in complete chaos now, and... not just the Great Xia, the Great Yuan and Great Yan are also in complete chaos."

After finishing, he secretly glanced up at the dense mist again, still seeing nothing, only hearing a stern voice from within the fog.

"Tell me in detail."

The Martial Artist hurriedly lowered his body and poured out everything that had happened over the past six months.

Since the day Zhou Ming released them from the prison, these two thousand-plus Martial Artists above the Blood Refining Realm had been reciting the Dushi Sutra day and night in front of the stone wall.

They were already experts in the martial path, possessing not only astonishing memories but also fast speaking speeds.

In just a day or two, some had successively refined their first strand of magic power in their Dantian.

With magic power at their disposal, these people were unwilling to stay in the valley for another moment.

They broke into the Endless Forest in twos and threes, relying on their mostly restored martial strength to carve a bloody path and escape this nightmare land that had imprisoned them for who knows how many years.

After leaving the Endless Forest, these people were like sand entering the sea, each returning to their original Family, School, or faction.

With this, the world fell into complete chaos.

With great power belonging to themselves, no one was willing to live under others again.

Let alone a group of desperate people who had been imprisoned in iron cages, drawing blood to survive, filled with nowhere to vent their hostility.

Each of them had once been a powerful figure dominating a region, and each was accustomed to the power of life and death.

Now that they had regained their freedom and cultivated magic power that Mortals could hardly reach, how could they possibly care about any imperial court or any emperor?

The first to suffer was Emperor Yongchang, Liu Ji. Since these people couldn't kill Liu Jun, they took their anger out on his descendants.

Late one night a few months ago, a group of Martial Artists who had snuck into Yuyang Commandery from somewhere raided the Imperial Palace.

Although the Imperial Palace's Imperial Guards had cultivated the Dushi Sutra, their cultivation was still shallow, and they were no match for these Blood Refining Realm Martial Artists.

The Imperial Guards' defensive line was torn open, and the group of Martial Artists rushed into Qianyuan Hall as if entering an empty space.

It is said that Emperor Yongchang was picking oil lamps to fight crickets at the time, and he was blasted into pieces with a single palm strike, leaving no corpse behind.

After killing Emperor Yongchang, these Martial Artists prepared to attack Yongning City.

At the critical moment, it was Empress Su Mingyue's army outside the city that arrived in time.

Although the individual cultivation of her soldiers was inferior to these Martial Artists, they had the advantage of large numbers, were well-trained, and the entire army had mastered the dozen or so simplified Sorcerys that Zhou Ming had left behind.

Tens of thousands of fireballs, ice needles, earth walls, and wind blades rained down outside Yongning City, forcing the group of Martial Artists back by sheer quantity over quality.

That battle was so fierce that half of the city wall of Yongning City collapsed.

It was fortunate that Empress Su Mingyue reacted quickly; if she had been any slower, the entire Yongning City would likely have been reduced to scorched earth.

But even with the advantage of Sorcerys, Empress Su Mingyue's control over the Great Xia inevitably began to disintegrate in the following months.

On one hand, the Martial Artists who had returned from the valley were spread throughout the world, occupying commanderies and counties, declaring themselves kings and hegemons.

They were either recruiting troops and horses to attack cities and seize land, or returning to old clans to hollow out imperial officials.

Or they were secretly uniting to form mutual defense alliances, and the entire territory of the Great Xia was carved up into dozens of large and small factions.

On the other hand, a more fatal reason plunged Empress Su Mingyue into unprecedented distress.

Old Marquis Su Yongning had returned.

Old Marquis Su Yongning brought several other Martial Artists who had also escaped from the valley out of the Endless Forest and headed south all the way back to Youzhou.

When he appeared under the walls of Zhenbei City, the old soldiers guarding the city could hardly believe their eyes.

The Old Marquis wasn't dead?

This news spread like it had wings throughout the Northern Border Army.

Those old generals who had just retreated from the battlefields of Yun Province and Chong Province rushed to Zhenbei City on horseback, kneeling in the city gate tunnel and weeping bitterly while hugging the Old Marquis's legs.

Old Marquis Su Yongning's prestige in the border army had been earned through decades of fighting, and this prestige would not dissipate just because he had been absent for more than half a year.

Empress Su Mingyue's position as young commander had originally been based on the premise that her father had died in battle.

Now that the Old Marquis had returned, those old generals who had followed Old Marquis Su Yongning for most of their lives naturally gathered back under his command.

A large portion of the military power in Empress Su Mingyue's hands was thus divided away.

The Martial Artist said up to this point, carefully adding:

"But I heard that the young commander did not fall out with the Old Marquis."

"The father and daughter seemed to have closed the doors of the Commanders Residence and talked for a whole night, and after they came out,"

"The Old Marquis took his old subordinates to sit in the Northern Border front line, while Yuyang Commandery and the hinterland of Youzhou were still managed by the young commander herself."

"As for other places..." He stopped speaking sheepishly.