165: Chapter 165 The Leader

On the other side, Chu Zhanxiao presented a completely different scene.

He reached out and grabbed a large chunk of roasted meat, tearing into it without the slightest hesitation; meat juices flowed down between his fingers, and his Adam's apple bobbed rapidly; every movement was filled with the rugged boldness and hearty spirit of the Jianghu.

Xuanyuan Zhanxian was even less reserved; with a long reach, he tore the fattest venison leg straight off the grill.

Crystal-clear grease dripped down his fingers, but he didn't care in the least. He laughed with bright eyes and a voice like a booming bell: "Boss Qian, just for your culinary skills, even if there's a mountain of blades and a sea of fire ahead, I, Xuanyuan Zhanxian, am sticking with you!"

A vibrant warmth finally rose around the campfire.

Watching everyone's uninhibited behavior, the last bit of restraint Princess Xia Zhiqing felt from Chu Changsheng's aura melted away quietly like residual snow meeting the warm sun, leaving no trace behind.

She was never a reserved person to begin with; she had merely been affected by the tension of Crown Prince Xia Hong and his group, as well as the invisible pressure radiating from Chu Changsheng.

Now, the alluring, charred aroma kept teasing her nose. She readily took the meat Qian Wanguan handed her, cautiously tasted a small bite, and then her eyes suddenly lit up, her voice even taking on a bright tone: "This is truly delicious!"

The few attendants from the Great Xia Dynasty who had been sitting upright saw their Eldest Princess eating with a beaming smile, and their last bit of awkwardness vanished into thin air.

Everyone reached for the sizzling, glistening venison on the grill, and the campfire was immediately filled with crisp chewing sounds, satisfied sighs, and sporadic bursts of laughter.

Even the heavy night seemed to be dyed warm and bright by this flourishing vitality.

The sound of the third watch's wooden clapper trembled over the Imperial City before being completely swallowed by the thick night.

Inside the side hall of the Great Xia Dynasty's quarters, the candlelight was like a bean, flickering uneasily and illuminating three young, tense faces in half-light and shadow.

Wang Qian, Lin Yue, and Su Mu stood side by side, dressed in black martial attire that outlined their ready-for-action silhouettes.

Their gazes were like quenched iron, all fixed on the familiar yet heart-palpitating figure in the main seat—Great Xia's Your Highness, Crown Prince Xia Hong.

The air was stagnant, like a taut bowstring, ready to snap at the slightest touch.

"Your Highness!"

Wang Qian was the first to break the deathly silence, his voice hoarse from suppressed excitement: "The Eternal Graveyard is a once-in-an-eternity Opportunity, and even more so, it is a battlefield for our Great Xia sons to make a name for themselves and forge their reputations with blood! Why... why must you shut us out?!"

He slammed his clenched fist against his side, his knuckles popping, his chest heaving violently, and the breath he exhaled carried the scorching heat of unwillingness.

In the main seat, Crown Prince Xia Hong held a celadon teacup with his fingertips, the curling steam blurring his usual features.

Unlike the dull and obtuse appearance he wore in the imperial court, at this moment, it seemed as if molten gold flowed in his eyes, as if thousands of stars had been crushed and settled within, deep and unfathomable.

He slowly raised his eyes, his gaze like a deep, still pool of an ancient well, silently sweeping over the three of them: "The Eternal Graveyard is not a place to make a name for oneself; it is, in reality... a burial ground for Prodigies. Wang Qian, ask yourself, facing those supreme figures from the Number One Son of Heaven who can tear mountains apart with their bare hands, what chance do you have... of walking out alive?"

He tapped the rim of the cup with his fingertips, producing a crisp sound like jade shattering, his tone adding three parts of biting coldness: "Furthermore, of the 1,397 Prodigies participating this time, nearly half are from the Great Wu Imperial Dynasty."

"They have been fighting in mountains of corpses and seas of blood since childhood; the blood their blades have drunk is likely more than the clear water you have consumed. Tell me, where is your chance?"

"Opportunity is carved out through killing!"

Wang Qian's face flushed red, the veins on his neck bulging, his blood surging: "Even if there is only a sliver of hope, I am willing to raise my sword and fight to the death, to be wrapped in horse hide! So what if it is the Great Wu Imperial Dynasty?"

"Are you asking the fine sons of Great Xia to act like cowardly rats, watching others fight and bleed while we stand by and do nothing?!"

Lin Yue stepped forward, his voice heavy as iron, each step treading on the stagnant air: "Your Highness, we know full well that there is a difference as vast as clouds and mud between us and those top Prodigies, but how can a Martial Artist's heart retreat without a fight?"

"Even if our blood splatters three feet and our souls break in the Eternal Graveyard, we must let the world know—the backbone of Great Xia is unyielding! In our bones, there are no such words as 'living on our knees'!"

His voice was not loud, but every word carried the weight of a thousand jun. The long sword on his back, which had accompanied him through life and death, sensed its master's boiling Battle Intent and determination, emitting a low hum like the roar of a Dragon.

The usually steady Su Mu also bowed deeply, cupping his hands above his head, his tone resolute and allowing no room for negotiation: "Your Highness, every word spoken by Wang Qian and Lin Yue is exactly what is in my heart as well!"

"We may not be able to match the edge of the Number One Son of Heaven, but fighting to the death to entangle those lackeys of Great Wu, and sharing some of the pressure for those who can truly turn the tide of battle, is better than letting them face hundreds of wolves alone, attacked from front and back!"

"This is the meaning of our existence!"

"Clack."

Crown Prince Xia Hong finally set down his teacup.

The bottom of the cup touched the yellow rosewood tabletop lightly; that barely audible sound, in the deathly silent hall, exploded like a thunderclap.

The golden light flowing in his eyes suddenly flared, turning into two tangible, sharp gazes that crashed down!

Wang Qian and the other two instantly felt their breathing stifle, the air around them seemingly turning into copper walls and iron barriers, pressing down until their bones creaked, their bodies swaying uncontrollably, and even raising their heads to look directly became incredibly difficult.

Before this pressure, vast as the abyss and looking down upon the firmament, they were as small as dust, their lives and deaths hanging on the other's whim.

This aura... far exceeded the Golden Core Realm! It was like a dormant ancient deity, opening its eyes slightly at this moment.

"Share the pressure?" Crown Prince Xia Hong sneered, his laughter wrapped in a trace of imperceptible sorrow and coldness, "Do you know how many Golden Core Late Stage Peak death warriors Great Wu has secretly dispatched this time? Seventy-two in total! Each of them has reaped at least ten lives of the same rank under their swords."

"To them, killing is as natural as breathing, an instinct carved into their very marrow."

He rose abruptly, his black robes fluttering without wind, and an even more majestic pressure, like the starry sky collapsing, suddenly filled the entire side hall!

"Your so-called sacrifice, in the face of an absolute chasm in strength, is not even worthy of acting as cannon fodder to slightly hinder their edge."

Crown Prince Xia Hong's voice was as cold as eternal black ice, every word piercing the heart: "Your blood will only add another insignificant number to the achievement ledger of the Great Wu death warriors. To the battle... it is completely meaningless."

His tone shifted, gazing at the three who were struggling to support themselves under the pressure but still refused to kneel, his voice revealing a heavy expectation: "But you are the future pillars of my Great Xia, the 'sparks' that the Dynasty has spent decades of effort and endless resources to cultivate!"

"If you were to be lost here, it would be a pain that Great Xia could not bear, a tragedy of severing the Dynasty's Foundation and cutting off the hope of the future!"

The hall fell into a deathly silence. The candlelight crackled and danced, lengthening the stiff shadows of the group.

Wang Qian's lips trembled violently; he wanted to refute, to shout, but his throat felt as if it were being tightly gripped by an invisible giant hand, unable to make a sound.

A torrent mixed with despair, unwillingness, and cold reality washed away his boiling blood.

Lin Yue and Su Mu also bowed their heads in silence, the indignation and determination on their faces gradually swallowed by the suffocating sense of powerlessness brought about by the naked gap in strength.

Their hands gripping their swords had knuckles turned white, but they had to admit—Your Highness was right.

Their blood and courage, in front of those machines truly born for slaughter, were nothing more than futile, tragic... moths flying into a flame.

Crown Prince Xia Hong paced to the window and pushed open half of the latticed window.

The sobbing night wind immediately wrapped the biting cold of late autumn and rolled into the hall, stirring the corners of his black robes and blowing the candlelight into a frantic sway, flickering on and off.

He looked toward the ink-stained, silent firmament, his gaze deep, as if he had already pierced through the endless Void Realm, landing on that Eternal Graveyard sealed by time and departed souls, seeing the monstrous war fire and bloody slaughter calamity gathering and about to erupt within.

"The Great Wu Imperial Dynasty has been laying its plans for over a thousand years," Crown Prince Xia Hong's voice drifted in with the wind, carrying a coldness that saw through everything, "The opening of the Eternal Graveyard this time is, for them, by no means some Prodigy trial, but a 'cleansing' meticulously planned for countless years."

"They want to use this ancient, rare Opportunity to round up and eradicate all the young talents and seeds of orthodoxy in the Myriad Heavens and Worlds that might threaten the eternal hegemony of Great Wu!"

He turned around suddenly, his gaze like lightning, fixing back on the three of them.

His tone softened slightly, yet carried an unquestionable, mountain-like heavy determination: "Therefore, I want you... to live."

"Live, and witness the coming era with your own eyes. It will be a chaotic age unprecedented in history; the Laws of heaven and earth will collapse, the universe will be in turmoil, alien races will eye us like tigers, demons will rise... mountains of corpses, seas of blood, and the common people will weep blood."

"But—" He paused, the golden light in his eyes flowing again, bursting with a daunting radiance, "It will also be an age where heroes emerge, champions rise, and legends are written!"

"Great Xia needs you, these 'sparks', to ignite a prairie fire in the long winter night of the future, rather than burning out prematurely and pointlessly on someone else's chessboard, turning into a handful of cold ash that no one remembers."

"But... Your Highness!" Lin Yue gritted his teeth so hard that blood seeped from between them, squeezing out a hoarse question, "Are we just to watch helplessly as Great Wu acts so arrogant and domineering, watching Great Xia become a bottom-tier power in such a world-renowned event, losing face and dignity?! We... are unwilling!"

Crown Prince Xia Hong suddenly laughed.

That smile carried three parts of arrogance looking down upon the world, and seven parts of unfathomable depth in control of everything; the molten gold-like light in his eyes flowed ceaselessly, as if reflecting the long river of fate.

"Bottom-tier? Face?" He shook his head gently, his tone suddenly turning into resolute, clanging iron, "You underestimate your own people too much."

He stepped forward, his pressure slightly restrained, but his words carried more power: "With Xuanyuan Zhanxian, Chu Zhanxiao, and Jian Tanghuang holding the fort, in this third round, my Great Xia... will definitely take the championship!"

"The three of them?!" Su Mu looked up abruptly, astonishment and deeper doubt intertwined in his eyes, "But Your Highness, even if their talent is unparalleled throughout history, facing the wheel-war siege and Formation traps of hundreds of Great Wu Prodigies, two fists are no match for four hands; I fear that even they..."

"Rest assured."

Crown Prince Xia Hong cut him off decisively, his tone as certain as a mountain, brooking no doubt.

"The power hidden within these three, the Karma and fate they carry... far exceed your imagination." His gaze seemed to pierce through the hall wall, looking toward the direction where the three were, his voice low and filled with a strange kind of confidence, "This game, they... can break it."

He raised his hand and waved it lightly, his expression returning to the solemnity and determination of an emperor: "Enough. I know your will and your spirit. Now is not the time to show reckless courage."

"Depart immediately, return to Great Xia in secret, and act according to the plan I previously instructed."

"Live on. Become stronger. Then, wait for the arrival of that era... wait for the moment when Great Xia truly needs you to raise the battle flag."

The last sentence, like a brand, was deeply engraved into the three men's violently beating hearts, lingering for a long time.