Doanh Thuong Hoang was severely wounded following his battle with the Western Wolf Lord and required extensive bed rest to recover. However, he was a man consumed by duty. Despite his illness, he worked harder than anyone else, showing a diligence that deeply worried his generals. Even his father’s pleas for him to rest fell on deaf ears. Although Doanh Thuong Hoang tried to hide it, the officials still noticed the fits of coughing during long meetings, the eyes glazed from sleep deprivation, and a regal frame that had grown alarmingly thin. The power of the Black Fire Meteor still blazed within him, but the flame of his own life was flickering out. He shifted the nation's focus, prioritizing the production of Dragon Wood Golems and Bird Wood Golems as the primary vanguard to replace traditional infantry.

  The King constantly experimented with new designs, such as Giant Wood Oxen capable of high speeds and Giant Wood Elephants carrying mobile siege towers. These mobile fortresses were manned by archers and mages equipped with complex formations and mana crystals. Their exteriors were reinforced with super-hard wooden plating—as durable as iron—and enchanted with Fire Resistance talismans, making them lightweight yet indestructible. This wooden theme extended to the entire army’s equipment, from armor and shields to spears and staves.

  Combined with the iron discipline of the Legalist School, the entire Little Yellow Kingdom functioned like a well-oiled war machine. Perfection was mandatory; error was not tolerated. Every man was forced into military training, requiring mastery of at least one weapon. The citizenry labored with fervor, but as time passed, the regulations grew increasingly oppressive. Over half of the laws carried the death penalty. This obsession with total war and the reckless extraction of resources did more than just anger the Druids; it disrupted the land's spiritual balance. The ancient seals of the Earth Gods began to weaken, creating invisible rifts that allowed spectral entities and demonic miasma from the underworld to seep through—a harbinger of a calamity far greater than mere war.

  Deforested lands were converted into vast farmlands to sustain a population geared entirely toward the war effort. Once food supplies stabilized, the Legalists implemented aggressive pro-natalist policies: rewards for childbirth, land grants for those with grown sons, and gifts for newlyweds. They adopted a "Soldier-Farmer" system, teaching martial arts during the off-season and farming during the harvest. Taxes were based on land ownership, meaning those with more land paid more. This relieved the burden on poor, landless peasants, who began to see large families as a source of joy and profit, causing the population to skyrocket.

  Doanh Thuong Quan urged his brother to relax the harsh punishments, seeing the long-term damage hidden behind the short-term gains. But Doanh Thuong Hoang refused to listen; he demanded speed and perfection in all things, mirroring his own nature. This relentless drive for perfection was grinding the country down, just as it was grinding down his own life. As his health failed, he hid it behind increased labor. He was desperate to rescue the former King and the brothers of Chau Ngoc Yen (the current King) to secure his legacy before his eyes closed forever. The Little Yellow Kingdom was just like its King: presenting a facade of strength and perfection while concealing a terminal rot within.

  Five years later, the Little Yellow Kingdom mobilized for the final confrontation. Over two-thirds of the military—nearly 250,000 soldiers—marched to war. The two nations lined up on opposite banks of a river. The Little Yellow Kingdom had clear-cut every tree on both sides to create a vast, open killing field.

  The Western Wolf Kingdom mobilized four Great Generals (A-rank, equivalent to Core Formation): the Iron Wolf General, the Earth Wolf General, the Black Demon Wolf General—who was loathed by his peers despite his power—and a new addition, the Werewolf General. The latter was a Druid capable of wolf-shifting, supported by the Spirit White Wolf (the guardian spirit of the forest). Angered by the Little Yellow Kingdom's environmental destruction, the Forest God and the Druids had sided with the Western Wolves.

  Additionally, a secret neutral group led by Noe appeared. Represented by Celestial Master Vong Tran, they gathered Shamans, Onmyoji, Exorcists, Buddhists, practitioners of the Asura Path, and the Five Poison Cult. Noe had prophesied that this event would trigger a "Ten Thousand Demon" outbreak and the birth of a Great Chaos Demon King (S-rank, Level 700+). Most of this group were only B-rank (Foundation Establishment), with the exception of Grand Celestial Master Truong Phong Ba (A-rank, Level 699), the leader of one of the three Great Celestial Sects.

  Positioned further away was the elite force of the Celestial Sects, including two S-rank (Nascent Soul) masters and many high-level disciples. The Immortal Path of the Celestial Sect was a small branch with fewer than five Nascent Soul cultivators (whereas other major sects had over ten). Because no one wanted to risk their lives on an S-rank mission, they had invited a Patriarch of the Celestial Master Sect named Seven Star (Level 899). They had also reached out to the Forest Deity, the White Wolf Demon King (Level 920). The agreement was that the Forest Deity would handle the matter first, but if he failed and the Demon King ran rampant, the Celestial Sects would intervene with their full power.

  The war began with skirmishes to probe enemy strength. By custom, they fought in the morning and cleared the dead in the evening. Both sides held their main forces in reserve. For days, ordinary troops clashed. It was a proving ground for minor generals like Han Thuong, while the Great Generals watched from the rear.

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  Han Thuong proved his genius, defeating numerous enemy officers. He always took the field with ten Ice Elementals, five meters tall. Five of these golems wielded blades and shields to push the line, while Han Thuong created a battlefield of thick mist and slippery ice. The remaining five elementals bombarded the enemy with Ice Bolts from afar. Moving with supernatural agility and the ability to turn Invisible within the ice, Han Thuong constantly blindsided and slaughtered his foes.

  Riding his Nine-Eared Dog, Han Thuong led the vanguard. The water beneath his feet froze instantly, allowing him to cross the river without getting wet, while enemies standing in the water found their legs encased in ice, leaving them helpless. Only those with significant magical prowess could withstand him briefly, but even they fell to his invisible strikes. He never overextended; he utilized the advantage of the river and retreated to support other flanks when necessary. He monitored the ears of his Nine-Eared Dog to judge his opponents: if fewer than six ears twitched, he attacked; if seven, he was cautious; if eight or nine, he fled immediately. Consequently, his unit was the safest and most successful in the army.

  Emboldened by these victories, the Little Yellow Kingdom deployed its main force: the Dragon Wood Golems and Bird Wood Golems. The Dragon Wood Golems breathed long streams of fire and dropped explosive crystals that resonated with the flames to create devastating blasts. The Bird Wood Golems carried elite archers who sniped enemy counterparts from the sky, protecting the Dragons.

  The Wolf Generals were prepared. Groups of Iron Wolf Soldiers formed Three-Star Formations using Iron Fang Chains. One soldier focused on manifesting a hundred-meter iron chain, another hoisted it, and the third guided it to snag the Bird Wood Golems and drag them from the sky. The larger Dragon Wood Golems required four or five chains to be grounded. When dragged down, the soldiers aboard the golems would steer the wooden beasts into the enemy ranks in a suicide dive, detonating all their crystals in a deafening roar that took many Western Wolf soldiers with them.

  As the battle reached its peak, the Werewolf General launched a surprise ambush from the woods, leading a "Beast Tide" of forest creatures ranging from 1.5 to 10 meters tall. They crashed into the Little Yellow Kingdom's rear camp like a tidal wave. In response, the Giant Wood Oxen and Wood Elephants counter-charged. The Oxen acted as heavy cavalry, ramming the beasts, while mages inside the Elephant Towers used the Three-Star Formation: Great Fire Sphere. One mage created a massive fireball, another propelled it, and the third guided it into the densest clusters of beasts. The Druids retaliated with Great Wood Dragons—massive, dragon-headed roots that tunneled underground to trip and entangle the wooden constructs.

  The Earth Wolf General and his tunnels pulled Little Yellow soldiers into deep pits. He specifically targeted Han Thuong to avenge his fallen comrades. He erupted from the earth with a massive stone axe, aiming to split the young general in two. However, Silver Beard appeared just in time. "Ha ha! I knew it! Your opponent is me!" Their clash was so violent the ground shook, forcing soldiers to flee the area to avoid being buried alive.

  The war dragged on for days. Both sides suffered horrific casualties; over half the soldiers were dead, leaving fewer than 100,000 survivors combined. They paused for two days and nights to bury the dead. Morale plummeted. Everyone wanted an end. Then, news arrived: the father of Chau Ngoc Yen had died suddenly of illness in the Western Wolf capital.

  Doanh Thuong Hoang collapsed, overwhelmed by despair. His dream of winning the war to bring the former King home had vanished. The war had become utterly meaningless.

  A few days later, during the ceasefire, the Black Demon Wolf General made his move. Thousands of Soul-Summoning Flags were planted across the landscape. An endless bell began to toll. Throughout the night, from the forests, mountains, and rivers, a chorus of wailing rose from the earth—quiet at first, then growing into a roar of hellish agony. The dead from the past several days began to rise, crawling out of mass graves and trudging toward the Little Yellow Kingdom's camp. The stench of death and demonic miasma choked the air.

  Though the sun began to rise, the area around the camp remained shrouded in pitch-black clouds. The soldiers were paralyzed with terror as they watched the living dead crowd their gates. In the moment of deepest despair, the fire mages gathered and launched glowing orbs into the sky like miniature suns, piercing the gloom to reveal the horror surrounding them.

  Standing among the undead were massive Flesh Golems—amalgamations of thousands of corpses that grew larger as more bodies fused into them. Doanh Thuong Hoang took to the sky on his Dragon Wood Golem, using his Black Fire Meteor to incinerate the horde. While many fell, others laughed a terrifying, hollow laugh; the shadow element within his Black Fire actually empowered the undead. Under the influence of the Black Fire and the surging miasma, the corpses fused together into a thirty-meter-tall entity capable of breathing Black Fire itself. The Black Fire Archdemon had been born. It smashed through the gates of the Little Yellow Kingdom’s camp, and the screams of the living filled the air as the undead flooded in.

  In the midst of this, Grand Celestial Master Truong Phong Ba invoked his magic: "Wind Summoning, Water Parting." A torrential rain fell, splitting the black clouds and allowing sunlight to pour through. The light slowed the undead; some were frozen in place. The Exorcists, Onmyoji, and Shamans finally arrived, accompanied by Heroic Spirits—the deified souls of ancient generals and humanoid Spirit Cultivators.

  They had sensed the gathering of ten thousand demons the previous night but had waited for sunrise to use the sun's power to weaken the host. They hadn't expected the birth of the Black Fire Archdemon. They immediately moved to suppress the demon horde, but even they avoided the Archdemon, whose power exceeded the Core Formation stage. The exorcism group consisted mostly of Qi Refiners and Foundation Establishment cultivators. Despite their specialized artifacts, none dared to engage the Archdemon directly; they focused solely on carving an escape path for the remnants of the Little Yellow Kingdom's army.