The sky above the Grand Coliseum echoed with the deep, somber braying of nine hundred golden dragon-horns.
From the northern royal boulevard, a sea of gold-and-black armor marched toward the arena gates. Fifty thousand elite Imperial Dragon Guards—the supreme standing army of the Great Da-Qi Conferred Empire—formed a three-ring military outer edge around the stadium walls. Each soldier was a Core Formation veteran. Their axe-spears gleamed with lethal formation light. Their black dragon banners flapped wildly in the evening wind.
At the head of the army rolled the Nine-Dragon Imperial Sun Chariot, pulled by eight horned terrestrial drakes whose claws sparked against the solid mountain stone.
The half a million citizens celebrating on the arena pitch suddenly fell into dead, frightened silence.
Mothers clutched their children. Merchants quietly scooped their gold coins back into their sleeves. The tributary kings from the outer provinces pulled back toward the lower walls, their faces turning chalk-white.
“The Emperor has arrived...” a tributary duke whispered, his knees trembling. “Fifty thousand dragon guards! He has mobilized the entire royal host! He has come to avenge the Crown Prince!”
“An all-out civil war...” another elder shuddered. “Even if Master Lu Yuan possesses godlike power, can he fight fifty thousand elite fighters and the royal dragon core?”
