Three days later.

Above the Main Keep of the ancient city of Nagoya.

Blood-red cherry blossoms drifted through the sky, fluttering down over this city that had witnessed centuries of rise and fall.

Inside and outside the city, countless Sakura Country warriors clad in armor and countless panicked ordinary residents looked up at the figure in the sky.

He was a young man with black hair and dark eyes, standing tall and wearing a simple combat suit, yet exuding a terrifying aura as heavy as a mountain.

Opposite him stood an old man dressed in hunting robes, holding a folding fan, his expression gloomy.

He was the last remaining SS-Rank Expert of Sakura Country, the Onmyoji—Chong Wenguma.

"Just who... are you?" Chong Wenguma's voice was tense, his eyes filled with dread and suspicion.

Three days ago, the Great Xia Military Department suddenly launched an unprecedented general offensive. Principal Lin Zhu, rumored to have died in battle, reappeared on the battlefield at her Peak state. Tens of thousands of vines erupted from the ground, instantly destroying the complex mountain defense line they were so proud of.

He had thought that was Great Xia's final trump card.

Yet today, while he presided over Nagoya, prepared to wage a final decisive battle against the Great Xia Military Department, this unfamiliar young man appeared out of nowhere. With just a single move, he opened a breach in the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons Array that Chong Wenguma had set up to cover the entire city.

That terrifying mastery over the Law of Space sent chills down his spine!

"Who am I?"

Hearing this, the young man raised his head, revealing a handsome and immensely familiar face.

He chuckled, his laughter playful yet drenched in murderous intent.

"Chong Wenguma, we've dealt with each other for decades. Do you not even recognize an old friend?"

When he clearly saw that face and heard that familiar voice, Chong Wenguma's entire body shuddered!

His body trembled uncontrollably, and the folding fan in his hand fell to the ground with a click. His cloudy old eyes bulged wide, his lips quivered, and he squeezed out each word through his gritted teeth.

"Zhao... Qing... cang?!"

"No! This is impossible!!"

Chong Wenguma looked frantic, stumbling backward repeatedly.

"You clearly... in your battle against Qinze Taichiro, you clearly died as thoroughly as one could die! Why... why are you standing here?!"

He stared at Zhao Qingcang's face—which looked at least forty years younger—feeling the vitality and energy fluctuations surging within him that were even more vast and boundless than during his Peak forty years ago. A thought he could not accept flooded his mind.

"The Pendulum of Life..." he muttered in a daze.

In the next second, as if realizing something, he raised his head, his terrified expression twisting into boundless rage and mockery!

He pointed at Zhao Qingcang and burst into wild laughter, his shrill and piercing laughs echoing over all of Nagoya.

"Hahaha! So that's how it is! So that's how it is!"

"What a Great Xia! What a land of benevolence and righteousness!"

Chong Wenguma laughed until tears streamed down his face, his voice full of contempt and disdain.

"On one hand, you reviled our Sakura Country for reviving an SS-Rank as treating human life like grass and acting like devils! On the other hand, you sanctimoniously launched this so-called righteous war against us!"

"And the result?! After getting the Pendulum of Life, aren't you exactly the same?!"

"The very first thing you did was revive you, the Great Xia Marshal!"

"I'm truly curious. To revive you, just how many lives of innocent citizens did Great Xia sacrifice? A hundred thousand? Two hundred thousand?"

"How are you any different from us! You bunch of hypocrites!"

Facing Chong Wenguma's hysterical questioning and accusations, Zhao Qingcang remained indifferent, his eyes devoid of warmth.

"We naturally have our own ways."

He snorted coldly, his tone domineering.

"There is no need to explain anything to a dying man."

The moment his voice fell, Zhao Qingcang's figure vanished from the spot!

Chong Wenguma was greatly horrified. Without a second thought, he mobilized all his mana. Tens of ferocious, terrifying, and powerful shikigami roared out from the the void behind him, forming a tight defense sphere.

However, before spatial authority, all of this was futile.

"Pfft—!"

Zhao Qingcang's figure appeared behind him like a ghost. An ordinary-looking fist, carrying power capable of shattering the the void, struck him squarely in the back of his heart.

Chong Wenguma's body shook violently, his protective barrier shattering on impact. He spewed blood as he flew forward, all his internal organs turned to dust by the impact.

"Cough... cough..." He awkwardly stabilized himself, mouthfuls of fresh blood gushing out and staining his hunting robes red.

His gaze turned resolute and frantic!

"Even if I die, I'll drag you down with me!"

Chong Wenguma pressed his hands together. The bodies of the dozens of powerful shikigami hovering around him began to swell, emitting an extremely volatile aura of destruction!

Self-detonating shikigami!

This was an Onmyoji's ultimate resort for mutual destruction. Dozens of shikigami comparable to S-Class Professionals self-detonating at once possessed enough power to reduce the space within tens of miles to nothingness!

He wanted to use this earth-shattering strike to create a chance of escape for himself!

However, looking at the distorted faces of the shikigami about to self-detonate, a mocking curve appeared on Zhao Qingcang's face.

"Playing with explosions in front of me... you really are absurdly naive."

Zhao Qingcang raised his right hand, spread his five fingers, and lightly clenched his fist toward the area about to explode.

"Space—Freeze!"

"Buzz—!"

A faint hum echoed.

The time and space of that area were forcibly frozen in place!

The bodies of the dozens of shikigami, swollen to their limits, and the destructive energy about to burst forth froze eerily in midair, becoming a vivid three-dimensional picture.

"No..."

The madness and ferocity on Chong Wenguma's face turned into despair and terror.

He wanted to flee, but the surrounding space was incomparably rigid, binding him in place, unable to move a single inch.

Zhao Qingcang's figure appeared right before him.

"It's over."

He pointed a finger forward, the force of the the void swirling around his fingertip as he lightly tapped the center of Chong Wenguma's forehead.

"Bang."

A quiet pop.

The head of Sakura Country's last SS-Rank Expert exploded, red and white matter splashing everywhere.

Among the falling cherry blossoms across the sky, the headless corpse tumbled weakly from high above, finally crashing heavily onto the bluestone floor of Nagoya's Main Keep.

As Sakura Country's final guardian deity fell,

Below, the hundreds of thousands of Sakura Country warriors who witnessed this scene with their own eyes collapsed emotionally.

They threw away their weapons, fell to their knees, and let out desperate wails.

Their faith crumbled then and there.

The morale of the Great Xia Military Department surged to its Peak, sweeping through Sakura Country's last line of defense like a torrent.

Having lost all high-level combat forces and facing wave after wave of domestic protests and riots, Sakura Country, beset by internal troubles and external threats, no longer possessed any power to resist.

In less than a week,

the major traditional noble factions led by the Kujo Family sent representatives to the Great Xia headquarters one after another, announcing their unconditional surrender.

At this point, after paying a bitter price, the curtain fell on this once-mighty and ambitious island nation.