The Indomitable Master of Elixirs

That sword, which had once shone brightly and represented the highest of honors, was now almost entirely buried in the yellow earth. Only a small bit of the sword handle could be seen and it was that inch of glimmer that caught Ji Fengyan’s eye. That glint struck Ji Fengyan like a shock of thunder.

In the blink of an eye, Ji Fengyan had rushed over to the pile of rubble. She pushed the debris aside and dug out Yang Shun’s sword—which had never once before left his side.

As she held that icy-cold blade in her hand, Ji Fengyan stared fixedly at a mound of dirt before her.

Yang Shun had once said that during a battle, the only thing that every soldier and every General could always rely on was their sword. A sword should never leave one’s side, even during slumber.

But…

A sense of foreboding rose in Ji Fengyan’s heart.

At this moment, a flurry of footsteps sounded.

Ji Fengyan turned instinctively and saw a miserable-looking Linghe hurrying over with a few thousand soldiers.

“General?” A look of happy delight flashed across Linghe’s eyes the second he saw Ji Fengyan. But before that joy transmitted to the rest of his face, he realized…

Ji Fengyan looked abnormally grave.

Linghe’s gaze landed on the dirt-covered sword in Ji Fengyan’s hands. He felt a vague sense of familiarity.

“General, that is…” Linghe suddenly noticed the caved-in tunnel behind Ji Fengyan. Although the tunnel had completely collapsed, the pungent smell of gunpowder emanated from the soil.

Ji Fengyan tightened her grasp on the sword. Her eyes suddenly cleared and she commanded the few thousand soldiers with no hesitation.

“Dig open this tunnel immediately!”

It startled Linghe. He could not understand the rationale behind Ji Fengyan’s decision—even so, he was already leading the soldiers to carry out Ji Fengyan’s orders.

The few thousand soldiers started digging, working their way through the dirt. Countless demon corpses were buried under all that rubble. But as they dug deeper… Linghe and the rest felt something was off.

Under that mound of demon bodies, they suddenly uncovered a corpse wearing the Blaze Army armour. They immediately starting digging faster, unearthing an increasing number of bodies belonging to the Blaze Army soldiers.

Those lifeless faces were frozen in hideous expressions. Scores of Blaze Army soldiers had been buried in the yellow dirt, their hands a mess of open flesh and blood. The surrounding soil were also full of countless scratch marks…

Linghe could easily see that these Blaze Army soldiers had not died in battle with the demons, but had been… buried alive in the collapsed tunnel.

“How could this have happened…” Linghe was thunderstruck. Although they had encountered several explosions along the way, they had managed to evade them all without harm. He never imagined that this time, so many Blaze Army corpses were actually buried in this caved-in tunnel.

“General…” Linghe instinctively turned towards Ji Fengyan, only to realize that her eyes had become frighteningly cold.

“This tunnel has completely crumbled. If we… continue digging, I am afraid it will cause a second cave-in.” Linghe forced his words out.