When the official notice representing Sakura Country's unconditional surrender, accompanied by the footage of Chong Wenguma's headless corpse falling, was simultaneously transmitted back to Great Xia Nation through major news media outlets,

The entire Great Xia rejoiced!

Major online forums were directly flooded, and servers teetered on the verge of crashing several times within seconds.

"Won? Did we really win?!"

"Crap! I'm not dreaming, am I? Sakura Country, which has been pressing down on our heads for so many years, just surrendered like that?"

"It's true! The official notice has been posted! That old bastard Chong Wenguma's head was popped by Marshal Zhao!"

"Magnificent, my Great Xia! Marshal Zhao is awesome! Principal Lin is awesome!"

"It's too surreal... I feel like I'm watching an Epic-grade sci-fi movie."

"I'm crying to death. My grandfather was watching TV just now, and he almost passed out from not catching his breath. Right now, he's hugging me and crying wildly."

Countless people who heard the news burst into tears in the streets, at companies, and in schools, hugging and weeping with total strangers.

Amidst this carnival, the most touching people were those retired veterans who had once participated in the brutal border wars and witnessed with their own eyes their comrades killed miserably under the butcher knives of the people of Sakura Country.

Imperial Capital, Xishan Martyrs' Cemetery.

A fine drizzle was falling from the sky.

An old soldier with graying hair and who had lost his left leg, leaning on a crutch and supported by a group of youths, stumbled over to the rows of nameless martyr tombstones.

"Old Company Commander! Monkey! Dazhuang! Did you hear that?!" The old soldier shoved away the youth supporting him, threw himself onto a tombstone with tears streaming down his face, "We won! That damn Sakura Country surrendered!"

As he cried, he reached out to stroke the long-blurred name on the tombstone, saying with a choked voice, "Marshal Zhao has avenged you! That arrogant Kujo Family is completely done for!"

"You guys down below can finally close your eyes..."

"Wuwuwu... We finally did it... We finally did it!"

The young man beside him with red-rimmed eyes softly comforted, "Grandpa Li, please don't be too emotional. Company Commander and the others will definitely be very happy in heaven when they hear this news."

"Emotional... How can I not be emotional!" The old soldier wiped away a tear of murky fluid, raised his head, let the raindrops beat against his vicissitudes-filled cheeks, and laughed aloud, "I've survived for so many years just to wait for this day! To be able to hear this good news before I die, I, old Li, have no regrets in this life! Even if you let me go down right now to see the old Company Commander, I can stand straight and tell him that our Great Xia has stood up!"

Similar scenes played out in martyr cemeteries across Great Xia.

Those sealed sorrows and humiliations were completely released and washed away at this moment.

Meanwhile,

Completely different from Great Xia's nationwide celebration, inside the major cities of Sakura Country, a spine-chilling dark night purge was unfolding.

In the outskirts of Tokyo City, inside a concealed underground air-raid shelter.

Over twenty panic-stricken high-tier Classer of Sakura Country gathered here.

They were all remaining collateral bloodlines and die-hard vassals of the Kujo Family. After Kujo Koji and Chong Wenguma fell one after another and Sakura Country announced its surrender, they had fled and hid here in disarray.

"Lord Hideki, what should we do now? The army of Great Xia has already taken over Tokyo's outer defense line, and they are searching for us everywhere!" An A-Rank Expert asked with a pale face and a trembling voice.

The middle-aged man called Kujō Hideki gritted his teeth, full of unwillingness and fear: "What are you panicking about! A cunning rabbit has three burrows. This air-raid shelter is built with the highest-grade insulation materials. Even if an SS-Rank Expert uses Mental Strength to scan, they won't be able to find us!"

"But..." Another subordinate swallowed hard, "Are we going to hide here like rats for the rest of our lives?"

"As long as we live, there is hope!" Kujō Hideki sneered, "The people of Great Xia pay attention to benevolence and righteousness. Once the storm passes, with the secret help of Western forces, it's not certain we won't make a comeback! As long as the blood of the Kujo Family still flows in our veins, the Great Sakura Empire has not completely perished yet!"

"Right! Lord Hideki is right!"

"We will never surrender!"

Just as these people were encouraging each other and trying to find a glimmer of luck in despair,

"Crack..."

An extremely faint crisp sound suddenly echoed in the silent air-raid shelter.

"What sound?" Kujō Hideki turned his head and scanned the metal walls around him.

"The sound... coming from underground." A perception-type Professional lay on the ground, listened carefully, and then their face turned pale, "No, it's coming from... coming from Taro's body!"

Everyone looked in unison at the young Professional named Taro in the corner.

"I... I don't know..." Taro's face was filled with horror as he suddenly clutched his stomach, "So painful! My stomach... something is biting me!"

As soon as his voice fell, with a muffled "Puchi" sound!

Taro's stomach burst open, and fresh blood mixed with internal organ fragments spewed all over the ground!

"Ah——!"

Amidst the terrified gazes of the crowd, a fist-sized beetle, pitch-black all over and exuding a metallic luster, crawled out from Taro's ruptured belly.

Its mouthparts were still stained with fresh flesh and blood, and a pair of compound eyes flashed with red light.

"Th... What monster is this?!" Kujō Hideki stepped back twice in fright and pulled out the Katana at his waist.

"Puchi! Puchi! Puchi!"

One after another, sounds of bursting bellies rang out in the air-raid shelter!

The remnants who were just shouting about making a comeback one moment collapsed into pools of blood while clutching their stomachs, groaning and rolling in agony.

One Soldier Beetle after another crawled out from their bodies.

Although these Soldier Beetles were small in size, they were extremely fast with hard shells, and ordinary swords could not leave even a white mark on them.

"Help! Don't come over!"

"Lord Hideki, save me!"

Kujō Hideki desperately brandished his Katana, knocking away two Soldier Beetles that lunged at him, but he quickly discovered in horror that a tiny blood hole had appeared on his arm at some unknown point.

"No... No..." He felt something inside his body crazily gnawing at his internal organs, and that piercing, agonizing pain robbed him of all combat effectiveness.

In less than three minutes,

Silence returned to the air-raid shelter.

Over twenty Kujo Family remnants all turned into mutilated corpses scattered across the floor.

No one knew who did it, and the official authorities of Great Xia didn't even dispatch a single soldier.

One could only see those Soldier Beetles that had drunk their fill of blood crawling out of the corpses, turning into streaks of black light that burrowed back into the ground and vanished without a trace.

At the same time, similar tragic assassinations were simultaneously staged in the corners of major cities across Sakura Country.

The remaining forces that originally belonged to the Kujo Family didn't even have a chance to struggle before they were completely wiped out by an invisible, terrifying force at the very first moment after their surrender.

And right in this vacuum period of power,

An organization called Divine Dynasty rose strongly within Sakura Country.

In Tokyo, the former headquarters building of the Kujo Family had now replaced its plaque with one reading Divine Dynasty.

Inside the spacious conference room, Nakamura Shinichiro wore a crisp black suit and sat imposingly in the head-of-Clan seat that originally belonged to Kujo Koji.

He possessed a bit more of the composure of someone in a higher position than when the Omiya Family was destroyed.

"Lord Nakamura," a trusted subordinate respectfully handed over a report, "All underground forces and industries of the Kujo Family in Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, and other places have been completely taken over by us. Those remnants who tried to resist... have all died in accidents."

Nakamura Shinichiro took the report, glanced through it casually, and sneered, "Expected. With that lord's methods, not even ashes of the Kujo Family people will be left."

"My lord, our expansion speed is too fast, which has aroused the wariness of many other families," the subordinate said with worry. "Besides, the Great Xia Military Department over there..."

"You don't need to worry about the Great Xia Military Department; they are our umbrella." Nakamura Shinichiro stood up, walked to the huge floor-to-ceiling window, and looked down at the city that had just experienced the baptism of war.

"Without the tacit approval and push of the Great Xia Military Department, do you think we could have so smoothly replaced the Kujo Family's position?" He turned his head, looked at the Omiya Family remnants present, and said coldly, "Remember, we are no longer the Omiya Family; we are Divine Dynasty! Our mission is to manage this country well for that lord and turn it into Great Xia's most loyal dog!"

"Then... My lord, the leader of Divine Dynasty..." An old man of the Omiya Family spoke hesitantly.

"Watch your words!" Nakamura Shinichiro's gaze turned sharp, directly cutting him off.

He could hardly hide his fanaticism.

"The identity of the organization's leader is not something you are qualified to inquire about. You only need to know that he is called the Ever-changing Star Lord!"

"His will is the highest command of Divine Dynasty!"