Mountain of Corpses, Sea of Blood

Zhou Mengyan, Ruan Fei, and the Madam arrived at Zhang Shi's camp one right after another.

In just a short span of time, the scene of corpses piling up like a mountain inside the tent had vanished, as the twenty-seven naval generals had already been carried out by the personal guards.

Yet traces of the carnage were still impossible to miss!

Blood that had seeped deep into the earth, splintered furniture, and indelible smudges left on the blankets, not to mention the many soldiers on their knees, scouring every inch of the ground to clean up the mess...

All of it made it abundantly clear that a brutal, life-and-death slaughter had unfolded here not long before.

So the news that had come back was true.

As real as real could get.

Zhang Shi... had single-handedly killed twenty-seven naval commanders.

But the perpetrator, Zhang Shi, was behaving with remarkable ease at that moment. He was still sitting behind the official desk, reading a book leisurely, his expression so calm and unruffled that he looked as if he had just done something utterly trivial.

When he saw Grand Commander Zhou Mengyan walk in, Zhang Shi reluctantly closed the book. He had been reading a section about insights into people obsessed with romantic infatuation, and had just reached the most critical part, brimming with new realizations, only to be interrupted. He could not help but feel a little reluctant to stop reading.

But with Zhou Mengyan there, he could not afford to be impolite. He stood up, walked over to Zhou Mengyan, bowed, and said, "Brother, why did you come here in person?"

"Such a trifling matter has disturbed you!"

"It seems that what I, your brother, have done has not met with your satisfaction. That is my fault. Next time, I will surely do something that will leave you completely pleased."

Zhou Mengyan was given a fright.

Good grief, you wiped out twenty-seven naval generals in one go, and you are saying that is not enough?

What on earth would you consider a satisfactory outcome?

Are you planning to kill me next?

He hurried to say, "Brother Zhang, you, you really killed all twenty-seven of those men?"

In fact, on his way over, Zhou Mengyan had already seen the personal guards carrying the corpses out, so he was almost certain that all twenty-seven men were dead.

But even with what he had seen with his own eyes, he still felt the urge to ask the question out loud.

Zhang Shi smiled faintly and said, "Of course!"

"As you instructed, Grand Commander, I have taken care of them."

As he said this, Zhang Shi shifted his body slightly to the side and glanced at the Madam, making it obvious that those words were deliberately spoken for her to hear.

The Madam's body trembled, and she nearly stumbled and fell to the ground.

She was utterly stunned, completely petrified by a harsher, more tangible reality than anything she had ever witnessed on the battlefield.

A woman of her status was no stranger to the sight of battle slaughters, nor was she unfamiliar with the ruthless schemes of power struggles. But the moment she looked at Zhang Shi, a wave of sheer dread rose from the very bottom of her heart.

It was a sense of absolute, psychological overpowering. It was the ferocity forged through real, brutal trials on life-and-death battlefields, not the arrogant self-importance of those who merely stood on high ground and dictated strategies.

Once the Madam clearly recognized this truth, she fully understood what her own fate would be.

The tide had turned against her.

Or rather, the moment Zhang Shi had come to pledge his allegiance to her, the moment she had decided to teach Zhang Shi a lesson to put him in his place, she had already lost completely.

She had lost everything, without a single thing left to show for it.

The Madam said no more. She glanced at Zhang Shi first, then fixed a long, meaningful gaze on Zhou Mengyan, a look that seemed to hold a lifetime of unspoken thoughts. Then she turned and left, her steps firm, her back resolute, until she vanished from everyone's sight.

Zhang Shi noticed this entire scene, but Zhou Mengyan did not, for his mind was still in turmoil and anguish.

Twenty-seven naval commanders, all carefully cultivated over the years, the very backbone of his naval forces!

They were gone, just like that?

What was to become of the navy now?

How was he supposed to fill such a massive gap in their ranks?

How were they supposed to fend off Ren Tianye's impending, fierce offensive next?

He could not help but stammer, "Brother Zhang, this, this, this..."

"Wasn't that going a bit too far?"

"Not at all," Zhang Shi replied with the air of a seasoned veteran. "Brother, a general who knows when to act must make resolute decisions and have the drive to cut through tangled chaos with a sharp blade."

"Though we have eliminated a group of people now, no one will dare to oppose you ever again. Once you take full control of the entire military camp, you will be able to unite all your forces as one cohesive whole."

"You will become the true master of the Yangtze River!"

"Why should you have allowed yourself to be constantly dragged down by these sordid troubles?"