From the moment the first squad appeared to the arrival of squad after squad, an elite force of over two hundred people had gradually gathered across the path ahead.
They had all originally fought on the main peak battlefield of Xilang Peak. Sooner or later, almost all of them had arrived to report in from Xilang Peak over the course of this single day and night.
Some among them had originally been taking a temporary rest near headquarters, awaiting further orders while serving as the temporary core of the encampment's defense. Others had touched down just a short while ago, received orders, and rushed straight from the direction of the makeshift airfield to block the way.
One crucial factor could not be overlooked: three generations of the Alphonse family were core members of the frontline command delegation for the Perimeter Xilang Peak battlefield. Moreover, this happened to be a secondary battlefield of the campaign, where even the rank of the command delegation was relatively lower.
Because of their extreme proximity, the Nepal Front—which they were currently acting on behalf of—had committed a substantial number of troops with significant weight to this secondary battlefield. At the same time, due to the influence of their status as a founding Star of Azure family, their stature within the command delegation was elevated far higher behind the scenes.
Therefore, the emergency directive issued under the pretext of "under sudden attack" was handed down directly to the executive units.
The frontline officers had no choice but to carry it out immediately. However, considering the target of the incident and the related rumors, they had agonized greatly over the wording of the final order.
In the end, it was determined not to be a battlefield mutiny, not an interception and kill, not a manhunt, not even an obstruction... but a very restrained term: halt.
This directive was only explicitly conveyed at this moment. The meaning: as long as Major Qing does not advance any further, that will be enough.
...
Blades of grass trampled flat lay low on the road, while the gravel and stones exposed on the surface caught both the moonlight and the light of dawn.
The sky was slightly brighter than before; perhaps in just a little while, the morning glow would appear.
Having stopped, Han Qingyu and his three companions stood there, facing the Azure elite warriors—both familiar and strange—who blocked the road ahead, remaining silent for the moment.
Han Qingyu did not sheathe his blade.
The hand gripping the hilt clutched tight with stifled anguish and fury. If those before him were enemies, no matter how many there were or how formidable, he would have charged forward without looking back, even if it meant dying on the spot. Yet those standing there now were almost all the finest Azure warriors—the comrades and friends who, not long ago, had fought shoulder to shoulder with him on the battlefield.
Wu Xu, Rusty Sister, and Wen Jifei did not sheathe their blades either.
Because they felt the same: they could not accept this!
Clack, shing... clack-clack-clack-clack.
Suddenly, the continuous clatter of blades being sheathed came from the rear of the two-hundred-man line opposite them.
The Chichen Itza Squad had only just arrived. Ferocious and even somewhat aggressive, this Mexican elite squad possessed high combat fervor, having drawn their curved blades early on as they rushed over... only to discover upon arriving that the person standing across from them was none other than The King.
The entire squad was stunned.
On the night of the Flag War, atop the circular positions, when swarms of blue-sheened Great Spikes charged... had it not been for this very man and his blue starlight column sword arriving in the nick of time, their squad would have been wiped out.
That same night, this man had accomplished everything they could—and could not—imagine an Azure hero could ever achieve.
And so, Vice Captain Ethan sheathed his blade. Captain Danny sheathed his blade. Every member of Mexico's Chichen Itza Squad sheathed their blades.
Had it not been for the standing order and the presence of so many squads around them, they probably would have asked The King right then and there if he needed help.
"What the hell is going on here?!" Full of doubts and indignation, Captain Danny asked the man beside him in broken English.
The squad leader next to him shook his head, his eyes just as bewildered as Danny's.
Unlike the squads that had already pieced together the inside story, they had arrived not long ago and knew nothing of the situation.
Squads like this made up at least half of the crowd present.
Right on the spot, someone turned and quickly explained the gist of the conflict to Danny, Ethan, and the others in simple English, including the casualties suffered by Squad 1777 and the circulating rumors.
Soon, however, another man strode over, interrupted the explanation, and spoke in Spanish—the language more familiar to the Mexicans—with absolute firmness:
"The King has mutinied on the battlefield. He stormed frontline headquarters intending to assassinate commanders, which constitutes treason in practice."
Having heard this, Danny turned to look at his vice captain, Ethan. Even after surviving that crisis on the circular positions together, these two still did not get along.
"Asking for my opinion?" Ethan lowered his head, dug at his ear with a finger, looked up, and said in Spanish, "Sorry, I don't understand Spanish very well."
Danny nodded. "Me neither."
For once, the two instantly reached an agreement. Comparatively speaking, both were far more inclined to believe the former account.
Yet even so, they could not simply step over to the other side or walk away from this place. This was a military command, and they were soldiers.
Worried, anxious gazes turned toward the distant figure. Danny opened his mouth, then closed it again, not knowing what he ought to say.
"Clack! I will never believe he would commit treason. And I will never draw my blade against him."
From Venezuela's Mérida Squad, a female member named Stefania sheathed her blade.
She was not the captain, but she was her country's sole current S-grade. Still in her growth phase, she was cherished like a treasure. Not long ago, she and her entire squad had nearly been buried upon the snowy peaks.
The next moment, everyone in the Mérida Squad sheathed their blades.
"I don't want to raise a hand against him either, but if he insists on charging through, we..." the squad captain mumbled under his breath.
Before them lay personal gratitude on one side and military duty on the other. And as an elite squad, they represented the entire Venezuela Front behind them.
Spurred by the actions of these two squads, hesitation began to spread across the field.
"Major Qing, look—your friends are all worried about you... We hope you can calm down and think this through first," a frontline commanding officer stepped forward and said in Chinese.
...
On the other side, Denis Alphonse, Eric, and Charles were running along the path to the airfield.
The horizontal distance was not far, directly within line of sight, and they could see the figures amassed at the second perimeter checkpoint.
"The supreme command of the Alliance frontline should be arriving soon, right?" Charles asked with some concern. "If so, then the order we issued..."
"Isn't the emergency directive we issued entirely reasonable? The camp truly did suffer a sudden attack," his father, Eric, chuckled briefly. "It's best if the Alliance commanders arrive. Regardless of what they think, their position will compel them to stop him."
"And then, he will have no choice but to stand there, looking up as we depart," Denis chimed in, smiling triumphantly as he turned toward that direction, before sighing with relish, "What a magnificent sight of agony. If only I could, I'd love to wave goodbye to him in person."
...
They were right; the one who should be anxious was Han Qingyu.
Yet before him was an elite battle line of more than two hundred warriors—they could not cut their way through. Even if they were willing to throw caution to the wind and try... Han Qingyu looked ahead. Standing there was the Sixth Army's Long Blade Squad.
Long Blade had already learned what was going on while on their way here, and the entire squad had kept their blades sheathed from the start.
When their eyes met, Long Blade's captain, Lu Chengzhong, took a step forward. "Major Qing, there is plenty of time in the days ahead. Your future..."
This was already the most blatant violation of military discipline that he, as an Azure soldier, could utter face-to-face on a battlefield. It amounted to validating Han Qingyu's logic for vengeance; he merely opposed him doing so right now.
Han Qingyu looked at him... and shook his head.
Seeing the look in his eyes, Lu Chengzhong was rendered speechless.
"It isn't worth it, Qingzi!" Cao Min shouted from the ranks. They had heard about what happened and chose to believe it; from Han Qingyu's standpoint, they felt both enraged over Squad 1777's ordeal and terrified by his reckless impulse.
Han Qingyu did not speak.
Amid the brief silence, the one who spoke next came as a surprise: it was Wu Xu. Holding his black Binggu Spear horizontally across him, this man who practically never spoke opened his mouth before so many people for the very first time. Earnestly, without head or tail, he said:
"I've heard that the souls of the wronged will not find peace, even if they reach the Yellow Springs."
These were words Wu Xu had probably heard from the elders in his village. He stopped there; the second half went unsaid because he did not know how to express it—they had to give an account to their comrades on the road to the Yellow Springs.
Because those people had not died in battle against the Great Spikes.
A brief silence fell.
"Captain, we..." Cao Min could not hold back from tugging at Lu Chengzhong's arm. He wanted no part in this anymore; he wanted to leave.
"Shut up... Stay right where you are. This is a military order, do you understand?" Lu Chengzhong snapped in a low voice.
...
Denis Alphonse boarded the helicopter, followed by Eric and Charles.
"Grandfather, Father, look..." Charles turned his head, gesturing toward the deadlocked crowd in the distance, and said anxiously, "Those people haven't given way as expected, but do you think he might try to force his way through?!"
Force his way through?!
"That would be for the best. That way, his stupidity and recklessness will bury him once and for all," Denis said with blustering bravado, concealing the terror within him. "A frontline mutiny, breaking through the ranks and killing his own—even if he doesn't die, he will be completely ruined."
"And he will have to slaughter his comrades with his own hands. No, many of them are even his friends." This had been deliberate on their part. The corners of Eric's mouth curled into a dark, sinister grin as he added, "Of course, the greater likelihood is that he will die under the blades of his friends."
In truth, what the Alphonse family was exploiting was very simple: the loyalty and principles of soldiers, along with their deep-seated reverence for military orders on the battlefield.
...
"Get out of the way!" The iron armor let out a sob as Rusty Sister suddenly cried out. Faced with such a torturous dilemma, the seventeen-year-old girl spoke amid immense frustration and helplessness.
Her voice cracked with a sob.
"We beg you all... please make way."
Wen Jifei spoke as well. Facing over two hundred elite comrades and the unyielding mountain of military discipline, he too was out of options... and so he said "beg."
This was the squad that had fought most fearlessly and invincibly on Xilang Peak. Seeing them like this, the entire field fell into dead silence. People unconsciously turned their heads away or looked down, unable to bring themselves to meet their eyes.
"Looks like they've boarded," someone muttered instinctively while looking toward the rear.
The crowd turned together to look back.
Turning forward again, their eyes converged on Han Qingyu. He had remained silent all this time, yet everyone present knew that once he spoke, it would be the final decision.
"I must pass today."
Han Qingyu finally spoke.
Time was running out, and he had made his choice. Shifting his right hand back to an upright grip on his dead iron war blade, he said, "Please do not stop me."
At this moment, all eyes were fixed upon him.
Han Qingyu opened his left palm. Swish.
Something fell from his hand.
Clink, clink... crunch.
Everyone focused their gaze toward the ground.
There, three gold and two silver—five Azure Guardian Medals—lay on the gravel path between the two sides.
Inlaid with dead iron, the medals carried substantial weight; some struck stones, while others dug into the dirt.
He had brought them back from the Huaxia All-Army Conference. He had received them early on the morning he boarded the plane to return to Xilang Peak, and in the rush of the journey since, he hadn't even had the chance to put them away properly.
And because of the bloody battles over this final day and night, every single medal that hit the ground was stained with blood.
They looked filthy, just like the combat uniforms the four had not yet had the chance to change out of after returning through the night, smeared everywhere with dried bloodstains. Blood-seeped bandages were wrapped around their bodies and arms.
"Azure, Sole Witness Legion of the Huaxia Front, Ninth Army, Squad 1777, Han Qingyu... Today, I pave the road with my merit. Comrades, please make a path for me."
He said he wanted to pave the path with a lifetime of honors.
Three gold, two silver. These were the merits this man had earned for Azure in just over a year—Azure Guardian Medals that many might never receive a single one of in their entire lives, won through repeated bloodshed and mortal peril.
And his illustrious exploits atop Xilang Peak had not even been recorded yet.
In this instant, everyone realized: even up to this very moment, he still considered himself an Azure warrior. Yet this was likely his final stand.
This was a plea, and also an admonition—the final resolve of Major The Qing.
The medals had hit the ground. If they could not pave a way, let the wind and sand bury them.
"If all the merit a man has achieved cannot even buy him a path forward tonight, then I think everything he's done truly wasn't worth it."
Her eyes reddening in an instant, Stefania spoke in English, sniffled, and turned right around to leave. But her captain and vice captain immediately held her back firmly. No one dared to be the first to break ranks.
Because of this dispute, brief chaos stirred in the ranks.
Amid the clamor, swish... clink!
Two more bloodstained Azure medals—one gold, one silver—fell onto the road.
Wu Xu said nothing. Retracting his open palm, he gripped the Binggu Spear tightly.
Clink! The silver medal in the iron armor's hand dropped to the ground. Having never had good luck with medals, Rusty Sister had only one, a silver, but among the four, she was perhaps the one who treasured the Azure medal the most. She had intended to take this medal home to show her grandfather.
Swish, clack...
His right hand still injured, Wen Jifei retracted his only movable left hand, then bent down to pick up the dead iron straight sword he had just rested on the ground. These were the two silver Azure Guardian Medals that a "Dice" had earned over the past year.
The medals hit the ground; one sank straight into the sandy soil.
The other bounced and spun, rolling swiftly forward in a meandering arc all the way before the front rank of the squads before finally toppling over, clinking against a smooth stone.
Clink...
A trembling chime.
Silence.
The wind blew across, stirring the sand and dust to settle over the medals.
"Let's go."
A sudden voice rang out as White Eraser's captain, Wei Jiang, sheathed his blade. He waved his hand and led his squad straight to the side.
A commanding officer nearby opened his mouth, but ultimately gave up.
"Even on the day you saved our entire squad, I, Wei, never admired you as much as I do today," Wei Jiang said to Han Qingyu as he walked past. "Too bad I never got to invite you over to White for drinks."
In Long Blade Squad, Lu Chengzhong glanced back at Cao Min, then at the rest of his squad. "What are you staring for? Move."
Cao Min took a few steps, then halted at the side of the road. "Aren't we going to watch?! Captain Lu, I want to stay and watch!"
Lu Chengzhong hesitated for a moment. "Then just walk slower, can't you?!"
"Can we leave now?!" Stefania shook her arm, roared at her captain, broke free, and turned around to beckon her teammates, who were already itching to leave, to depart with her.
Chichen Itza left as well. As they walked, Danny and Ethan even called out to the neighboring squads to join them. Under such circumstances, those squads naturally had no need—and no desire—to hold their ground any longer. Even those planted by the Alphonse family, unable to stop what was happening, didn't dare make themselves targets by lingering behind.
Without anyone realizing it, the sky had grown a bit brighter, and the morning glow appeared on the horizon.
In the distance came the sound of helicopter rotors beginning to turn.
Near at hand, silver and gold Azure medals paved the gravel road. The two-hundred-man elite battle line parted to both sides, clearing a path before Han Qingyu and his three companions.
Chapter 350