"TO WHOM MUCH IS GIVEN, MUCH IS EXPECTED!"
Those words alone should have revealed the true intentions of the King of Yunhe, yet Bi Xian and the rest of the Bi family were far too elated to examine them closely.
To understand the weight behind that decree, one had to understand the history of the Kingdom of Yunhe. It had once been a prosperous land carved out through the blood and might of powerful generals, and the Bi family had stood among those founding pillars. However, after the rise of the Gan Dynasty, the Yun royal family chose caution over pride. To avoid drawing the suspicion of the Heavenly Sovereign, they elevated their civil officials while steadily diminishing the influence of their military leaders.
They promoted culture over strength, submission over ambition.
For this obedience, Yunhe earned favor. It became the emperor's preferred retreat, a land of peace and refinement.
But that favor came at a cost.
Year after year, the great general families that had built the nation began to crumble. One after another, they fell into decline until only a handful remained.
Now war loomed, and King Yun Cheng found himself in desperate need of capable military leaders once more. It was not only the Bi family that had been elevated. The Li and Lui families had also been promoted, all in the hope of improving their chances of victory.
But it was all for nothing.
The Battle of Kong'gong Pass was destined to end in failure. Not because these families lacked competence, but because the battle itself could not be won, regardless of who led it.
The Kingdom of Jinshan possessed terrain blessed by the heavens. Even Emperor Fengzu himself had been unable to set foot within their lands. Had they not been starved into submission, they would never have fallen.
In a war fought among mountain ranges, cavalry became useless. The advantage belonged entirely to the Jinshan warriors. The freezing climate showed no mercy. Every element of the battlefield favored the defenders.
Defeat had already been written into fate.
Even now, Si understood that his chances of survival were no more than twenty percent at best, despite all the experience he carried from his past life.
These three families had been tasked with achieving what even the emperor himself could not. When they failed, their future within the empire would collapse with them. They would be stripped of what little glory remained and cast down once more.
It was this very pressure that had driven Bi Xian to desperation in the past, enough to adopt a slave as his son. When he saw Si's talent, he believed that slave would be the one to pull the family out of the abyss they had fallen into.
He had been right, but not entirely.
Si had indeed lifted them from ruin, but he had also led a coup and slaughtered Bi Xian and his sons. As a member of the family, he held a legitimate claim, and he seized it without hesitation.
When news reached the Yunhe royal court, they had not been outraged. They had been impressed. So impressed that they elevated the Bi family once more, placing their hopes upon this new patriarch to cleanse the kingdom of its disgrace.
That gamble had paid off as well. Si had played a decisive role in the war known as the Strife of the Four Kingdoms, earning immense honor for Yunhe. Yet with every victory, his reputation grew, swelling to the point where the people began to place him on equal footing with the king himself.
And that, inevitably, led to another coup.
Mistake after mistake had paved the path to his rise.
And now, he was watching it all unfold once more.
Only this time, he would not be a passive observer. This time, he would shape the outcome and accelerate his ascent far beyond what it had once been.
Si's gaze shifted as Lady Lian embraced her husband, pressing a passionate kiss upon him. Her excitement was plain to see. Soon after, the eunuch departed, and the two thousand Blue Tiger cavalry merged seamlessly into the ranks of the Bi family forces.
From Si's memories, the minimum requirement to join the royal palace's Blue Tiger Army was entry into the sixth stage of the Foundation Realm. Yet many among them had already reached the exalted level.
Their commanding officer, and the king's nephew, was Yun Yu, a peak exalted Foundation Realm warrior standing just one step away from the True Martial Realm.
At only twenty-two, he stood just behind Bi Xian, who was fifty-eight. His potential was unmistakable.
The young man wore light blue armor similar to his troops, though a flowing blue cape set him apart. His helmet obscured much of his face, but his sharp nose and piercing, ambitious eyes did not escape Si's notice.
Huff.
Si exhaled slowly, his breath steady, his thoughts clear.
"So it finally begins," he murmured under his breath.