Thousands of miles from Zizhu Prefecture's border, a large army gathered beyond what the eyes could see.
This was the Governor's army.
At the center of the camp was the General's tent. Inside was General Sun, an old man with scars of war on his wrinkled face. His prestige was only second to the Stage Governor.
The campaign to take over Zizhu Prefecture came as an emergency. The Governor wanted to seize control of Zizhu Prefecture without raising any dust.
He aimed to loot the prefecture of whatever they discovered and leave quickly before higher authorities discovered anything.
Looking at the decorated General Sun, the commanders inside the tent had respectful expressions on their faces.
Currently, they were discussing how swiftly they would take over the prefecture when a messenger rushed in.
"General!" he shouted and stretched out the scroll.
General Sun creased his brow and took the message. Quickly, he unfolded the scroll, and when he read the content, his expression changed from shock to annoyance.
"Those barbarians are getting ahead of themselves," he mused in anger. "Since they dared deploy their army, then I won't mind killing every one of them without any defense to their land again."
"General," one of the commanders called when they saw the various conflicted expressions on his face.
"Get ready, we're moving out," General Sun commanded.
Even though all the commanders didn't know what was going on, they all saluted and rushed out of the tent.
The war would begin sooner than expected.
Meanwhile, in Cold Steel Pass, the atmosphere was filled with tension.
Last night, news of the deployment of the Celestial Forte Army had spread throughout the garrison.
Even though Cold Steel Pass was famed for being the strongest army of the prefecture, news had spread about how fearsome this new army was.
Outside the garrison, General Shi, Meiling, and the two commanders stood side by side as they waited patiently.
Behind them were ten thousand soldiers in clean formation. Everywhere was silent; not even the chirping of birds could be heard.
After waiting for one hour, three dots appeared on the horizon. In the next couple of seconds, the dots were getting closer at blinding speed.
Watching the fast-approaching dots, the tension among the soldiers was palpable.
In the next minutes, the dots had enlarged, taking the form of massive beasts.
"Besides, with that armor, only a handful of people could match me."
Sighing, the expression on his face lessened, and he advised, "Be careful and return immediately."
"I will." A bright smile appeared on her face as she gave him a warm hug.
Looking at her departing back, General Shi shook his head, and his expression returned to normal.
"Don't worry, nothing will happen to her," Biyu said confidently.
"I know."
"Good. Let's focus on our main task. The army would arrive in less than a week. We need to be prepared to march out of the border after that."
Three days later, a massive beast appeared a thousand miles from the state capital.
From the distance, they could see how massive the state capital was compared to their cities.
Towering buildings rose to the sky, and the never-ending wall surrounded the capital.
On the wall were soldiers with an intimidating gaze armed to the teeth.
"So, this is the state capital," the only female among the commando said with a mischievous smile.
"Yes, amazing," Meiling said with a smile.
"Barely."
"What! What do you mean by barely?!" She widened her eyes in shock, staring at the woman.
"Enough of the chat. We need to move," the thin ordinary man said.
He was the second person among the Commandoes.
"Let's separate. You only contact each other when needed," the last person, a bald sturdy young man said.
Looking at the three people walking toward the State Capital as if they were taking a stroll toward an ordinary town stunned her to stupor.
"What could be so amazing than this?" She muttered and jumped to the back of the waiting Thunderbird beast.
Five days later, the Celestial Forte army arrived at the border and was joined by the Cold Steel Pass soldiers.
What happened next was a massive march of over five hundred thousand soldiers out of the prefecture to confront their enemies.