The Almighty Dominance (by Sunshine) novel Chapter 653

The camp outside Qingyang had gone quiet in a way no battlefield ever did.

Not the hush of discipline. The hush of men weighing their own necks against ten thousand taels of gold.

White leaflets still drifted between tents like slow snow. Soldiers stood in small knots, shoulders hunched, eyes sliding toward one another and away again.

Every sergeant, every captain, felt the same invisible blade pressed to his throat.

The bounty paper was simple, merciless, and everywhere.

It made everyone a potential enemy, with a blade aimed at their neck. It left them restless.

Although Liu Dai’s inner circle had tried to burn the pamphlets and whipped men for picking them up, it changed nothing. The words were already inside every head.

Ten thousand taels for the governor’s head.

A city lord’s seat for any man who delivered it.

No questions. No punishment for past service.

The promise of riches and power hung like a golden chain — tempting, yet shackling every man who dared to grasp it.

Then the sky changed again.

A fresh swarm of drones swept overhead. This time, the papers that rained down were fewer, heavier, and sharp — aimed like arrows at the heart of the last loyal core.

Some people caught the papers and froze, their faces turning pale.

TO THE MOUNT TAI SECT AND PUYANG BLADE CLAN

Deliver Liu Dai’s head within three days. Or every hall, every training ground, every village connected to your people will burn.

Your wives. Your children. Your elders. Your disciples.

No exceptions. No mercy. Choose.

The new threat hit harder than the bounty.

Seven thousand soldiers in the camp—core disciples of Mount Tai and Puyang Blade Clan—read the words and felt their blood turn to ice.

Restlessness spread like wildfire. Men who had once stood shoulder-to-shoulder now edged away from each other.

Conversations died when officers approached. Hands stayed on weapons.

The air itself felt charged, ready to explode.

In the governor’s mansion, the war hall reeked of fear and torch smoke.

Advisor Sun’s voice trembled as he delivered the report. “My lord… seven thousand of our best belong to Mount Tai and the Blade Clan. They are reading the new leaflets. The elders are meeting in private. They speak of protecting their sects before it is too late.”

Liu Dai’s face twisted with rage. The vein at his temple pulsed like a living thing. He swept a bronze cup off the table, sending wine splashing across the floor.

“They dare?” he snarled. “After everything I gave them? Bring the grand elders. Bring Ling Xue. Bring every captain from those two factions. I want them here before the moon rises. We will settle this tonight.”

The order went out under heavy guard.

Night had fallen by the time the summoned leaders arrived—sixty of the highest-ranking officers and elders.

Ling Xue walked at the rear with twenty of the Blade Clan’s Captains.

The heavy doors slammed shut behind them.

Liu Dai wasted no time. His voice cracked like a whip across the hall.

“Which of you dogs is already sharpening the knife for my neck?”

Silence answered.

He jabbed a finger at Grand Elder Feng Zhou of Mount Tai, a mountain of a man whose beard was streaked with gray. “Your sect has bled for me. Now you whisper about saving your precious disciples while that demon threatens to wipe your entire mountain clean?”

Feng Zhou’s jaw clenched. “My lord, we fight for Yan Province and for you. We won’t target your head. We only wish to return to our sect and fight the enemy.”

Liu Dai’s eyes snapped to Ling Xue. “And you? General Ling Xue who lost five thousand men to mist and shadows? You would sell me out to save your Blade Clan?”

Ling Xue held his gaze steady. “The Blade Clan thinks exactly as the Mount Tai elders do. We only want to return home and fight the true enemy. We will never forget the kindness you gave us, Governor. We will never betray you.”

Liu Dai let out a sharp laugh. “So all of you are thinking the same? You say you will never betray me… and yet you still claim to be loyal to me?”

“Yes.” All of them bowed.

Liu Dai’s smile was small and vicious. “Very well. Then prove your loyalty.” He raised his hand. Hundreds of his personal death guard stepped forward, blades already drawn, their faces blank as executioners. “Take all of them outside. Execute them in front of the camp. Let every man see what happens to traitors.”

The words landed like a death sentence.

Chaos erupted.

The death guard surged forward to seize the elders, but these were not frightened conscripts.

They were Mount Tai and Puyang Blade Clan warriors, hardened by decades of battle. Feng Zhou, the grand elder, roared in defiance.

They obeyed instantly.

Twenty of Ling Xue’s best Blade Clan captains slipped through the side passage like shadows, blades still dripping, while the war hall behind them dissolved into a slaughterhouse. Steel screamed against steel. Men roared and died. Liu Dai’s voice rose above it all, raw and unhinged.

“Kill them! Kill every last traitor!”

Ling Xue did not look back. She burst into the outer courtyard with her men, boots pounding stone, the night air cold and sharp against her sweat-slicked skin. Alarm bells shattered the darkness—wild, frantic clangs rolling across the entire camp like a death knell.

They kept running.

Outside the mansion walls, the seven thousand Mount Tai and Puyang warriors had already begun to fracture from the main army. Whole companies peeled away from their tents and cookfires, forming tight, armed knots near the northern road. No orders needed. The three-day ultimatum had done what the gold bounty never could: it made the choice personal. Their sects. Their families. Their entire way of life. Every man felt the blade at his own throat.

Ling Xue spotted the main Blade Clan force waiting just beyond the picket lines. Horses stamped and snorted, already saddled, weapons ready. Faces were hard under torchlight, jaws set, eyes burning with the same grim purpose she felt in her own chest.

She vaulted into the saddle without slowing. Her voice cracked across the gathering like a whip.

“Collect every one of our people!” she shouted. “We attack Liu Dai now! Whoever dares to stop us—kill them!”

The words ignited the night.

From the mansion gates behind her, more figures spilled out—bloodied, furious Mount Tai elders and captains who had fought their way free of the slaughter. They sprinted toward the swelling ranks, qi still crackling around them, swords bare.

One gray-bearded elder, chest heaving, roared as he reached the line. “Liu Dai killed our own! Cut them down in cold blood! This must not stand—he’s gone mad! All of you—attack now! We take that pig’s head tonight!”

Another elder joined the cry, voice shaking with rage. “He turned on us! Our brothers died in there for nothing! Mount Tai—form up! We end this!”

A Mount Tai captain nearby spat on the ground, eyes blazing. “The old bastard just tried to execute our grand elder. The sects will not forget this.”

The words spread like wildfire through the seven thousand. Blades rasped free. Horses wheeled. Men who had marched under Liu Dai’s banners for years now turned their steel inward.

No hesitation. No debate. Only the cold, clear knowledge that the man they had followed had just tried to murder their leaders in their own hall.

Ling Xue raised her sword high. Torchlight flashed along the blade.

“Move!” she commanded.

The ground trembled as seven thousand warriors surged forward in a single, vengeful wave—straight toward the governor’s inner keep.

Alarm bells screamed louder. Loyalist shouts rose in answer. Somewhere ahead, Liu Dai’s fanatics were already forming a desperate line.

The night exploded into open civil war.

And in that moment, the last shred of Liu Dai’s army tore itself apart from the inside.