Receiving two pieces of intelligence in quick succession, Ziyan found herself seized by a strange, dreamlike unreality.
Before her eyes stood the Leopard Cat army—united in purpose, surging forward like a tide.
Ten Leopard Cat divisions, each composed of ten patrol squads.
One hundred Leopard Cat commanders, leading nine hundred Leopard Cat soldiers, advanced in crushing formation!
Rolling waves of yōki spread like storm clouds, blotting out the sky and casting the once-bright heavens into oppressive gloom.
At the forefront, the Leopard Cat Great Elder strode forward, gripping his skull staff.
Mounted upon it were two massive canine heads.
The pupils of every Dog yōkai shrank violently. Their breathing halted.
Fresh, still-warm blood dripped from the severed necks, soaking into the dry, dust-kicked earth of Dog Clan territory—
Watering the soil.
And from that soil, a towering tree of hatred began to grow.
With each step the Leopard Cat Great Elder took, the two canine heads swung like collapsing mountains.
Then, with brutal force, he hurled them—
Bang!
They smashed into the fortress barrier.
Again.
And again.
Thick blood sprayed across the pearly-white barrier like rain, blooming into blossoms of crimson humiliation.
The blood crept downward in slow rivulets, staining the once-pure barrier red.
In that instant, every Dog yōkai's eyes turned scarlet.
Scarlet with hatred.
With each impact, reflected in their eyes were the increasingly distorted faces of the two fallen elders.
Once-familiar, once-dignified visages were reduced to mangled ruin beneath enemy hands—until flesh separated from bone.
Each image was a blade, carving into the hearts of the Dog Clan.
Pain.
Rage.
Hatred burned ever higher.
Oppression.
Dead silence.
Countless murderous gazes converged in the air; grinding teeth hissed out hatred sharp enough to cut bone.
"Third Elder, let us charge out!"
At the center of all eyes stood Ziyan.
Her posture remained upright, yet she bore pressure as heavy as mountains and seas.
The gale tore through her hair, but could not dispel the weight between her brows.
Her frozen gaze began—slowly, to move again.
Ziyan did not dare look at her clansmen.
She knew her heart mirrored theirs.
She feared she would not withstand the silent, grief-stricken pleas burning in their eyes.
Her icy gaze swept across the Leopard Cats' twisted, exhilarated faces—
And finally locked onto the Leopard Cat Great Elder, who met her stare with cold indifference.
"So this… was how the Great Elder felt back then…"
When she was still a mere commander, she had witnessed it with her own eyes—
The Dog Clan Great Elder standing motionless within the fortress as hundreds of their people were slaughtered outside.
Among them—
Her parents, who had failed to retreat in time.
Those blood-soaked scenes etched themselves into her mind like an unending nightmare.
After that battle, she didn't even remember how she returned to the clan lands.
In her daze, she had collided with some slender white dog—only snapping awake when it yelped an indignant "Woof!"
Only after becoming an Elder did she slowly understand.
The agony the Great Elder had endured for the sake of the clan.
How he bore doubt, resentment, even hatred from his own people—
And carried it all in silence.
Step by step, he reclaimed the Dog Clan's trust and reverence, surviving until today.
And now—
History had become a cursed boomerang, slamming that same impossible choice straight into her brow.
Charge out—
And perhaps avenge the Great Elder and Second Elder.
Release the rage and humiliation choking her people.
But it would inevitably drown even more of them in blood.
The fortress—so painstakingly built, would fall.
Could the gateway of the clan be squandered by her own willfulness?
If the Great Elder were still alive, he would hang her up and beat her senseless!
Yet if she did not charge out—
If she allowed two elders who gave their lives for the clan to be subjected to such monstrous humiliation—
How could her heart ever find peace?
This was not only desecration of the dead.
It was a trampling of the Dog Clan's very dignity.
Each time those severed heads struck the barrier, her heart felt smashed by a heavy hammer.
Reason trembled in her mind, urging her to flee.
The memory of her parents' deaths beyond the fortress overlapped with the blood blossoms before her eyes.
"Tōga… Tōga…"
The whispered plea for support gave form to that smug, slender white dog.
In that moment, focus returned to Ziyan's gaze.
Compared to the Great Elder of the past, who had nothing—
She had far more.
Outside the barrier, the Leopard Cat army's roars continued unabated.
"Destroy the Dog Clan!"
"Kill all Dog yōkai!"
"Surrender, Dog scum!"
Each shout was salt ground into open wounds.
"Leopard Cats… Leopard Cats… Leopard Cats…"
Ziyan's mutter grew louder—
Until her final roar echoed across the fortress and battlefield alike, vibrating the very air.
Under the Leopard Cat Great Elder's tightening gaze, the purple-haired girl seethed with hatred.
"Dig out the Leopard Cat Fifth Elder for me!"
"Skin her!"
"Tear her tendons!"
"Grind her bones to ash!"
"How dare you—!"
Realizing she meant the very spark of this war, the Leopard Cat Great Elder's hair bristled as his yōki erupted like black flames.
He watched as Dog yōkai unearthed the Fifth Elder, Chiyan, whose corpse was still mostly intact.
Before the eyes of every Leopard Cat soldier—
They carved apart the Leopard Cat goddess they once worshipped.
Slice by slice.
The Dog yōkai watched as Leopard Cat cries turned to silence, then twisted into grief and fury—
And savage satisfaction bloomed in their hearts.
At that moment, Ziyan stepped forward, standing in midair.
Her brows rose sharply as her voice—cold and ringing like drawn steel, swept across the field.
"Old Leopard Cat, you probably don't know this yet."
"Byakukonmaru is already dead."
"And the two Leopard Cats in Wind and Thunder Gorge—every last one of them, is dead as well."
The former was confirmed intelligence.
The latter, her deduction.
She believed it completely.
If Tōga could kill Byakukonmaru, then slaughtering the Leopard Cat Third and Sixth Elders would be effortless.
"You killed two of our elders, yet only you stand here now."
Ziyan sneered.
"Did the other two Leopard Cats die as well?"
"Once seven high-ranking yōkai strong, your Leopard Cat clan is now reduced to a single old cat waiting to die!"
"Sharp-tongued little bitch!"
Amid Leopard Cat shock and Dog Clan jubilation, the Leopard Cat Great Elder flung aside the Dog elders' remains.
The shattered canine skulls rolled across the ground, caked in dirt and dust.
He stared coldly at Ziyan as white-blue flames burst from his skull staff.
"A joke."
"Our elders will soon gather here and slaughter your two old dogs."
"This, was merely an appetizer!"
"Second Elder, move!"