Night had not yet lifted its weight from the land when the war horns of Wei Bing sounded for the third consecutive day.
What had begun as scattered reports—minor skirmishes along distant ports and border outposts—had, within mere hours, unfolded into something far more calculated. The Xie Kingdom did not advance like a conventional army. They did not march in formation, nor did they announce their presence with banners and drums. They appeared—at once, everywhere.
Through the eastern ports along the Yongsheng River, disguised as merchant vessels. Through the southern mountain passes, where no army had crossed in decades. Even through inland routes long abandoned, as though they had studied Wei Bing's defenses not as an enemy… but as an insider.
By the second day, three states had fallen into disarray.
By the third, the court could no longer deny it—this was not a mere invasion, but an operation of calculated precision.
