Follow the path of Dao from infancy

Cangya City, built against a cliff, is expansive. Its city walls are towering and sturdy, reaching into the clouds.

Inside are magnificent towers, arrow towers, and bustling residential districts. The city is extremely lively and prosperous, and it is also Grand Liang State's border trading post with Northern Cold Country, with heavy traffic of horses and carriages.

But that was eight hundred years ago.

Now,

there is only a small mound left.

The mound is inscribed with the characters "Cangya"; this is now the city.

A sea of military tents surrounds the mound, firmly ensconced around it as the center.

On the perimeter of the tents, several battle flags are planted.

The flags flutter in the cold, whistling wind, bearing the ancient characters "Heavenly Origin."

These are the flags of the Li Family.

The five great Divine General Mansions, each with its own title, such as the Wang Family's Tianzhao Divine General Mansion, and the Li Family's is the Heavenly Origin Divine General Mansion.

At this moment, a cold wind howls, and dust rolls across the land.

At the edge of a cliff behind the military tents, there are graves of varying sizes, with shabby, wooden, carved tablets inserted haphazardly. They serve as both headstones and markers for those buried beneath.

Chink, chink.

Nearby, several soldiers in damaged armor are digging holes with iron shovels.

Soon, a few more arrive with a stretcher, which carries a hand, a mangled thigh, torn armor, and a dented helmet.

Once the holes are ready, they place these remnants inside and then fill them with sand.

Afterward, they find a tree, cut a piece off, split it into a wooden tablet, and use their fingers to etch a few words before planting it atop the grave.

On some stretchers, there are only a few fingers and fallen boots.

These too are buried, and the wooden tablet is inscribed with the words:

Li Family soldiers.

The cold wind silently sweeps in, blowing through the military tents, weaving through the gaps between them, squeezing out sobs of lamentation.

Li Hongzhuang, clad in bright red armor, stands silently in front of the graves, her face expressionless.

Most of the wooden tablets here bear no names because the battles with the demons have been too fierce, and preserving a whole body is already quite difficult.

After the new graves are all properly filled in, she extends her hand, and a deputy offers her a jug of strong liquor.

With a flick of her finger, she kicks out the cork and pours the alcohol over these graves.

The last mouthful, she drinks herself.

Thus, she shared a drink with these brave soldiers.

Without giving another glance, she turns and leaves.

She has been doing this for twenty years, and for twenty years, she has witnessed this scene.

From the deputy who passed her liquor to now commanding the army.

Because the third brother and the sixth brother who once helped her with the liquor have both fallen in succession.

So, although a woman, she still chose to step forward.

To hold up the sky for Grand Liang State!

Li Hongzhuang is the youngest daughter of Li Tianzong. She has nine brothers renowned throughout the world, each extraordinary and revered by all. Among them, the most prodigious was Li Junye.

But he also died over a decade ago.

At that time, she was stationed at the Frontier Pass and could not leave her post, so she could not attend the funeral of the ninth brother whom she played with in the courtyard since childhood. Her tears could only fall on this battlefield.

She still remembers her father saying that when naming her, he hoped she would find a good family to marry into.

To then raise children and take up scholarly pursuits instead of the sword.

To be spared the hardship of slaying demons.

But since childhood, seeing the wounds on the soldiers who came back to report military news and the empty tablets in the ancestral shrine, she knew she could not abandon her sword.

So she trained diligently, taking a master and learning Peerless Techniques.

Later, she descended the mountain to join the worldly affairs, wielding her three-foot-long blade to slay the millions of demons outside the Pass.

Here, she has been fighting continuously for twenty years!

Twenty years of harsh weather and battle have left her once delicate skin as rough as sandpaper.

Her once-flowing hair, now pinned under her helmet, has long since been soaked with blood from fights with demons and grease, becoming dirty and smelling faintly of blood.

These are things women find hardest to tolerate, but she has become accustomed to them.

Aside from her appearance, which remains as stunningly beautiful as ever, nothing else has changed.

But her once gentle and clear eyes have turned as cold and sharp as the stars of winter.

"Commander, the tally is complete, 28 demons slain, seven dead, twelve injured,"

another deputy reports as he approaches Li Hongzhuang.

Li Hongzhuang is expressionless. She had witnessed the earlier battle and already had a rough understanding of the casualties. She simply says:

"The family sent a letter saying that reinforcements will arrive soon. Once they do, we are to withdraw and rotate out."

"Have there been any reports on the whereabouts of the reinforcements?"

The deputy shakes his head slightly, about to speak when suddenly, a horn sounds from outside the military tents.

Both of their expressions change, and they move swiftly, leaping into the air.

From their vantage point in the sky, they see a few dots approaching from the direction of Dragon Pass Road. As they draw closer, they make out a young man and woman, along with a white fox.

"How could there be people coming from Dragon Pass Road?"

Both are taken aback and quickly fly toward them.

They are stationed at Heavenly Gate Pass, which has received some reinforcements over the years, but not many. It seems there has been some intention to abandon Heavenly Gate Pass.

Dragon Pass Road, however, has long been lost to the demons.

Even the troops that came to reinforce usually took a detour around Dragon Pass Road. Some were already lost in the sands of Dragon Pass Road, suffering heavy losses.

"A military camp?"