Drinking strong liquor in great gulps.

Yue Qianfeng looked up at the sky and suddenly said, "Old man, after this you should just stay here with Your Majesty. That fellow Chen Dingye is your descendant, sure, but you’re over two hundred years old now, it’s not like you have any deep feelings for him anyway, same with the Divine Martial King, isn’t that so?"

"They’re blood brothers."

"So, that brat Wen Mian is your descendant too, isn’t he?"

"Wen Mian is a good lad. He’s a good person, his martial arts are strong, he’s refined and courteous, but when it’s time to fight, he’s fierce and brave. A lot better than Chen Dingye!"

Chen Tianqi burst out laughing. "So that’s why you’re trying to recruit me to surrender."

"No wonder you show up every day to get beaten, sticking your face out just to get hit!"

Yue Qianfeng shook his head and said,

"Wrong, wrong. I came here only to cross hands with you. When I was young, even though I did spend a while as a rather incompetent bandit, when I was a kid, I listened to storytellers telling your tales. Whenever they got to the parts about heavy-snow cavalry charging, about you breaking formations alone, my blood would boil too."

Chen Tianqi just drank. He looked at the stone stele before him and said,

"So you know what this place is?"

Yue Qianfeng sat up and said, "Fifty years after Chen Country was founded, its national strength was flourishing. Back then, the kings of the various states hadn’t completely fallen out yet. That spring, you led your great army all the way to the Turkic grassland, but because your logistics couldn’t keep up, you had no choice but to withdraw and return to court."

"At that time, you were all very unwilling to accept it, and you slashed your spear down into the ground."

"You raised this stone stele, and told the comrades-in-arms who had followed you here that next time, you would definitely bring them to fight even deeper in."

Chen Tianqi smiled and said softly, "Yes. But only after so many years have passed have I finally come back here again." The aged famous general shook the gourd in his hand, then calmly poured it out.

Reflected in the liquor did not seem to be this aged man.

But the renowned general of those youthful, high-spirited years.

Behind him battle flags snapped in the wind, and behind him were his brothers and comrades-in-arms.

There were also the friends under his command who had been willing to entrust their lives to one another.

But the liquor spilled, and the dream still ended. Those men, those who had lived and died together, those who had charged the lines shoulder to shoulder, had long since been left in the past.

The strong liquor splashed over the stone stele. The stele had long since been destroyed; only the last bit of its base remained. Chen Tianqi poured out the remaining liquor in his hand, then lightly stroked the cold broken edge of the stone stele with his palm and said softly,

"Everyone, I’ve come a little late."

"Do not hold it against me."

Yue Qianfeng looked at Chen Tianqi and felt a sense of bleak desolation.

Yue Qianfeng said, "Old man, let’s talk about something happy. After that Turkic Great Khan lost, I, Old Yue, finally managed to move up another step."

"Now, I’m the tenth among the top ten generals under heaven!"

Yue Qianfeng was bold and proud.

"From now on, only those who can beat me can be counted among the top ten under heaven!"

"Perfectly justified!"

Chen Tianqi stood and said, "Wrong. You’re the ninth among the top ten generals under heaven."

Yue Qianfeng froze. "What???"

"How did I become ninth? Who dropped out?"

"Yuwen Lie, or He Ruoqinhu..."

Yue Qianfeng got no answer. Suddenly his pupils shrank as he thought of something. He sprang to his feet and strode over, saying, "Old man, old man???"

Yue Qianfeng stopped short and saw Chen Tianqi standing quietly beside the stone stele, one hand gripping his wine jug, the other gripping his battle spear. Chen gave him a sidelong glance and said irritably,

"What are you shouting for? I’m not dead yet."

Yue Qianfeng let out a long breath. "You scared the hell out of me."

But Chen Tianqi suddenly flicked his hand and tossed the wine jug to him, his tone tinged with teasing and jest, a crafty smile on his face, as he said,

"Now, it’s time to die."

Yue Qianfeng stared blankly. "Ha?!"

Instinctively he caught the wine gourd, watching as Chen Tianqi took a step forward.

With that single step, it was as if he had crossed a hundred years of time. After the pacification of this grassland, after offering strong liquor in thanks to his old comrades, the last of Chen Tianqi’s Vitality slowly dispersed.

His gaze was calm and tranquil.

At the end, Chen Tianqi had no regrets, just as he had been willing to preserve his Vitality to become Chen Country’s Weapon.

In the end, he still felt grateful to that somewhat unfilial descendant.

For letting this final breath of Vitality be spent on the battlefield of the grassland.

To die in the great war that pacified the Turkic, rather than in the internal strife of the Central Plains.

That too was...

Dying where one belongs.

"Exhilarating, exhilarating..."

Yue Qianfeng looked at Chen Tianqi, who had lost all Vitality, and a complicated expression crossed his face.

Yet the corners of Chen Tianqi’s lips held a faint smile.

In his final sight, he looked out over the grassland before him, as if he saw one familiar face after another. His era, his past, his brothers and comrades-in-arms, were watching him beneath the whipping battle flags.

"I have troubled you all... to wait so long."

"I..."

"have returned..."

The inscribed long spear fell heavily to the ground.

Chen Tianqi, grandson of Emperor Chen Wu, First Divine General of Chen Country one hundred and eighty years ago, once galloped across a chaotic age and held up Chen Country, famed as the peerless war general of his time—also a general who had clung to life, broken his oath, and endured humiliation for more than a hundred years.

After the great war on the grassland, he finally exhausted his Vitality.

He died at the stele commemorating the broken enemy formation,

one step further to the north!

When the news of Chen Tianqi’s death arrived, Li Guanyi was silent for a while. His palm lightly brushed over the Weapon—the Jiuli Divine Weapon’s gold-iron was basically finished being forged.

At the instant it pierced the Turkic Great Khan, streams of Qi Fortune gathered and sank into the Weapon. Heavenly stars, earthly fire, and the weapons of the human world completed the last part of this Divine Weapon.

With the blood and heart of a king of a nation, who had ridden the battlefield and finally died in battle, its quenching was completed.

The rank of this Divine Weapon was destined to be out of the ordinary.

Li Guanyi casually swung this Jiuli Divine Weapon gold-iron, feeling the howl as its edge tore through the air. His palm lightly stroked the blade edge as he looked at the distant sky. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

Chen Tianqi is dead, the grassland pacified.

The great war with Ying Country will still take time, will still demand the full strength of the nation.

Now, it is time—

to destroy Chen.

To kill.