For a moment, the entire Zhenguo Hall seemed to have turned into a vegetable market.

The heads of the major theater commands argued until their faces were red, and no one was willing to give in.

Even the governors of those provinces joined the fray.

"Our Central Prefecture is the granary of the world, with the strongest logistical support capability! Our men can complete assembly at the fastest speed and pierce straight into the enemy's heart!"

"Our Modu controls the economic lifeline of Great Xia Nation. As long as the Marshal says a word, we can immediately convert all civilian ships into military ones and bloom from the center against them from the sea!"

"We..."

Everyone knew just how perilous this battle would be.

Everyone was clear about how slim the chances of victory were.

The vanguard army often meant the highest casualty rate and slim chances of survival.

But who made them soldiers.

Who made them Classer of Great Xia Nation.

From the moment they put on this military uniform and became Classer, their lives no longer belonged entirely to themselves.

Defending the home and protecting the country was a mission carved into their bones.

If the future was bleak, then they would risk their lives to fight for a future!

If darkness descended, then they would use blood to ignite a prairie fire of sparks!

Qi Zhenyun and a few pro-peace generals were stunned.

Immediately after, they revealed a bitter smile.

Matters had reached this point, and there was hardly any room for redemption left.

On Zhao Qingcang's face, a gratified smile finally appeared.

He walked onto the high platform, his gaze sweeping across the fanatical or resolute faces below.

"Very good."

"I saw the backbone of our Great Xia Nation soldiers."

Zhao Qingcang's voice was not loud, but it suppressed all the noise.

"They thought we were lambs to be slaughtered, thinking that our claws and teeth had been worn down."

"Today, we will use our actions to tell them."

"The land of Great Xia Nation was forged with the flesh and blood of hundreds of millions of ancestors!"

"The dignity of Great Xia Nation shall not be trampled upon by any despicable villains!"

He paused abruptly, his voice like a giant bell.

"Go back and hold a mobilization meeting, tell that group of howling brats under your command!"

"Actively prepare for war!"

"I give you three days."

"Three days later, in the name of the Great Xia United Front Marshal, I will officially declare war on Sakura Country!"

"To the death!"

"Yes! Marshal!"

The mountain-shattering and sea-overturning response almost overturned the dome of Zhenguo Hall.

With this, the supreme military conference ended.

The generals of the major theater commands walked hurriedly, striding out of Zhenguo Hall, each of them carrying a piercing Killing Intent.

A war storm sweeping across the entire country had already begun to brew.

Qi Zhenyun, however, lingered and did not leave.

He sat silently in his seat, watching one colleague after another walk past him with a complicated expression.

Zhao Qingcang understood that the other party had something to talk to him about.

When everyone had almost left and only a few people remained in the hall, Zhao Qingcang slowly came before Qi Zhenyun.

He did not sit down, but simply stood quietly, looking at this old companion of his who had worked with him for half his life.

"Old Qi, you've worked hard all these years."

Qi Zhenyun slowly shook his head, his voice somewhat hoarse.

"Speaking of hard work, you are far above me."

Zhao Qingcang no longer beat around the bush with him and said straightforwardly, "Old Qi, is there something you want to confess to me?"

Qi Zhenyun raised his head, a bitter smile appearing on his wrinkled face.

"It looks like you already know."

Zhao Qingcang pondered for two seconds and said, "I only realized it through the beast tide in Dongning Province."

"A beast tide of this scale can only be produced within ruins."

"And a beast tide of this scale also occurred in Ximeng City ten years ago."

"You were the one in charge of handling that matter back then."

"Ever since then, I felt like you had always been hiding something from me."

Zhao Qingcang's gaze turned sharp.

"I want to know, why?"

Qi Zhenyun let out a long sigh and slowly stood up.

"Things have come to this, and I should make a clean breast of it to you."

"I hope the Marshal will come with me; I will take you to meet someone."

"Let's talk as we walk."

Zhao Qingcang nodded silently and followed Qi Zhenyun out of Zhenguo Hall.

The night was already deep, and a military special vehicle silently glided into the night sky of the imperial capital.

Inside the carriage, the atmosphere was heavy and condensed.

Qi Zhenyun spoke first, breaking the silence.

"You guessed right."

"Our Great Xia Nation, apart from the ruins just discovered in Dongning Province, indeed also has another ruin near Ximeng City."

"Only, the time when those ruins were discovered was not ten years ago, but forty years ago..."

"At that time, I was the personal guard of the previous Marshal, which is your teacher, Marshal Deng Qihe."

"At that time, Marshal Deng received intelligence about a Secret Realm appearing outside Ximeng City and ordered me to lead a team to check it out."

"After I went there, I found that the Secret Realm was extremely vast, and there were still buildings and texts left behind by the Ancient Remnant Clan inside."

"Later, Marshal Deng told me that that place was not a so-called Secret Realm, but the legendary ruins."

Forty years ago?

Zhao Qingcang was stunned, these four words echoing repeatedly in his mind.

That was a year far too distant.

So distant that memories had already been covered with a thick layer of dust.

For a long time, Zhao Qingcang looked at his old companion and asked in a hoarse voice.

"Why?"

"Why such an important matter, yet you've kept it hidden from me for so long?"

There was no anger in his tone, only a deep, unresolvable confusion.

Qi Zhenyun did not answer immediately.

He just looked at Zhao Qingcang, his expression extremely complicated.

"Because in this matter, your teacher, Marshal Deng Qihe..."

He paused, seemingly weighing his words, and finally said in a deep voice.

"He made a huge mistake."

"We had to consider the prestige of this Old Marshal at the time."

Teacher?

Mistake?

Zhao Qingcang's heart sank abruptly.

Marshal Deng Qihe was the person he respected the most in his life.

He was his guide, and even more, the former spiritual totem of the entire Great Xia Military Department.

In his memory, the teacher was always that giant who strategized, never missed a calculation, and stood upright between heaven and earth.

How could he make a mistake?

And a huge mistake that needed to be hidden for forty years.

A thought flashed through Zhao Qingcang's mind instantly.

"That beast tide in Ximeng City ten years ago..."

He blurted out, then immediately denied it.

"That's not right."

"Teacher has been dead for over thirty years."

"How could the beast tide ten years ago have anything to do with him."

He felt increasingly bewildered, staring at Qi Zhenyun and asking word by word.

"What on earth happened?"

Qi Zhenyun sighed faintly, leaned back in his seat, his gaze becoming distant as he fell into deep memories.

"After the Marshal learned of this news, he showed unprecedented importance to it."

"He put aside all military affairs at hand, personally led a team, and went secretly to Ximeng City."

"That team gathered the Great Xia Military Department's top archaeological experts, Formation Masters, and a batch of elites with the strongest combat capabilities at the time."

"I was also among them."

"We entered the ruins and began a carpet-style exploration."

"The deeper we went, the more alarmed we became."

"The scale of those ruins far exceeded our imagination; it was like a huge kingdom buried deep underground."

"We discovered many incredible things inside, including unheard-of ore, long-extinct plants, and even some... creations similar to mechanism Puppets."

"The exploration process lasted for nearly a month."

"Later, something was discovered in the deepest part of the ruins."

Qi Zhenyun spoke up to here and stopped.

Zhao Qingcang didn't even think and blurted out directly: "Divine Artifact?"