Chapter Twenty-Five: The Mighty Pass of a Thousand Miles

  "A thousand years ago, there was a Carlos family that rose rapidly to become one of the top three families with several incredibly talented geniuses. At this time, both the Sobel and Carlos families each had an exceptionally gifted young master who were kindred spirits and refused to submit to their families' discipline, relying on their strength to bully others and cause trouble everywhere, bringing a lot of problems to their families. The Sobel family early on abandoned their young master's cultivation according to their clan rules and exiled him to the depths of the highlands."

  The Carlos family valued the talent of their children and spoiled them, but in the end, they caused a great disaster that enraged the entire Elder Council. The Carlos family lost more than half of its power overnight and quickly declined under the suppression of many families." After a brief pause, Ptolemy spoke out a piece of history that Liu Yu had never heard before, leaving him astonished.

  "Today's matter, if I were to blame myself, the Sobel family would never let me off, but in fact, it was Bugarin who didn't follow the rules. The Sobel family will only properly educate him and won't bother me with trouble. This is the style of a family that has been passed down for ten thousand years, being impartial and handling matters fairly within the kingdom."

  After saying a lot in one breath, Tolomei finally gave the final answer. The word "impartial" which made Liu Yu feel a bit strange, however, evoked waves of thoughts in his mind.

  "What I said today you may not understand, but after you join the army and get to know the Sobel family better, you will understand." Ptolemy saw that Liu Yu looked a bit strange after hearing his words, so he added an explanation in a light tone.

  "Fatso, you seem to have a thorough understanding of the rise and fall of the Sobers family and other big families. It looks like your Pas family is not small either!" After a few breaths, Liu Yu finally raised his head and smiled at Tolemny, asking back.

  Today, this fatty's depth of vision is completely beyond Liu Yu's expectations. Before, he thought Tuo Le Mi was just a powerful and well-chosen vassal general, but now it seems that this fatty's mind and thoughts are not those of an ordinary general.

  "Oh, you've discovered that our Pas family was just a small family before and now finally has some prospects. As the head of the family, I naturally have to learn from those big families more. This is my responsibility as the head of the family so that the family can exist for a long time." He looked at Liu Yu very calmly, and Ptolemy frankly admitted that he indeed had some ambitions.

  "But my thoughts are clear to Your Majesty, and there's nothing that can't be said. On the other hand, as the eldest grandson of Huang Jinbi and Your Majesty, your responsibility is not light. Think carefully about what I said today." After saying this, Tuolemi quickly turned around and chased after the main force that had already walked far away, while Liu Yu, who was still standing in place, was muttering to himself.

  In ancient China, there were also some families that had been passed down for many years. Their family rules and ancestral teachings are the objects of study by many modern historians. For example, the family of Fan Zhongyan, a famous minister of the Northern Song Dynasty, has continued for 800 years without decline, which is longer than the duration of all ancient Chinese dynasties. The reason for their prosperity lies in the family rules and traditions of the Fan family, which ultimately boil down to the ideology they uphold.

  It's really unthinkable that among the seemingly barbaric and backward Tibetan tribes, a large family with a long history of inheritance would have such means, it's truly not simple.

  Liu Yu thought even more highly of the intelligence of the Di and Qiang tribes because of this.

  .........

  Three days later, in front of a vast canyon in the eastern border area of the Beastman Kingdom, a group of youths riding high-headed horses slowly reined in their reins.

  This is a deep and narrow valley, with steep cliffs and peaks that pierce the sky on both sides of the canyon. It's believed that even high-level experts would find it difficult to cross these two mountains. In between, a tall city wall made of giant stones completely blocks off traffic from east to west, leaving only one gate as a passageway.

  "One man guards the pass, ten thousand men cannot open it." Liu Yu thought of this phrase as soon as he saw this majestic pass, and the pass in front of him was their destination this time - Xingdoushan Mountain Range Wenshui Pass.

  ..........

  The Hot Spring Pass is located at the junction of the Centaur and Wolfman territories, in the middle section of the Xindu Mountains. The mountains on both sides stretch for hundreds of miles from north to south. If you want to attack the Earthfire Fortress from east to west through the Xindu Mountains, the Hot Spring Pass is the nearest western route.

  These years, the Beastman Kingdom has also achieved a lot in the war with Fandor, pushing the front line eastward by more than 200 miles, so the current border between the two countries is still over 200 miles away from Wenshui Guang.

  Far from the battlefield, and with fewer beastman troops, there are naturally no garrison troops here. Instead, a special ant tribe has been stationed to take charge of the daily maintenance and management of the pass.

  ..........

  "Commander Duwei, the items for the ritual are all prepared." Not long after Liu Yu and his group arrived at Wenshui Pass, a short, sturdy ant-like creature bowed its head to Tuo Le Mi, who had a serious expression on his face, near the west side of the pass.

  At this time, all the young men behind Ptolemy had formed a square formation, wearing uniform black clothes, solemn and heavy.

  "Alright, let's begin." With a wave of Ptolemy's hand, the ant-man immediately directed several other ant-men to carry out a few items from the stone house at the foot of the mountain.

  A golden beast god statue about one meter high, a sword that looks quite exquisite, a long spear made of pure iron, and a flag folded neatly on a wooden plate. Because it was folded, Liu Yu did not know what pattern was embroidered on the flag.

  "Go!" After a quick glance at the items brought out by the ant people, Ptolemy gave a low command and led the way to a small valley on the west side of the pass. Liu Yu and a group of young men followed closely behind him, and soon this not-so-large team disappeared quietly into the gorge.

  ...........

  In a few moments, hundreds of young men's figures appeared in the football field-sized basin. Liu Yu, dressed in black, was standing at the front row of the Bimon team. As soon as he entered the basin, his attention was focused on the east side of this small basin right in front of him.

  There stood two black stone tablets, about five meters high and two meters wide, close to the towering mountain rocks. Although Liu Yu was still tens of meters away, he couldn't see the words on it clearly, but the crimson color of the text stood out in this grayish-black basin, making people naturally focus their attention on the stone tablet as soon as they entered here.

  It was at this time that several ants carefully walked to the front of the stone tablet, bowed their heads and placed the beast god statue in the center. Then they carefully placed three things: a sword, a long spear, and a flag on the ground in front of the statue.

  "Kneel down, all of you!" Just as Antman had arranged a few items, Tolemy, who had been standing solemnly at the front of the youth team, led by example and knelt on one knee. Liu Yu and other young Monks naturally didn't dare to be slow and immediately followed suit.

  "The tenth regiment of the kingdom, Tollemi Pas, by order of King Cro Wielin, under the witness of the beast god, sacrifices for the great warriors who died in battle to defend the people of the beast god." As all the young Bimons knelt down, Tollemi stood up straight and looked at the statue of the beast god in front of him, loudly proclaiming a decree from King Cro.

  "Sacrifice!" The young men present, including Meng Yi, were all filled with doubt upon hearing this. None of them had expected that Ptolemy would bring them on a journey of over a thousand miles just to come here and make sacrifices for some fallen beastmen warriors.

  On the other side, after loudly proclaiming King Cro's orders, Ptolemy got up and slowly walked to the front of the beast god statue. Under the gaze of many young Bamons, he first picked up the sword at his waist. A brown light flashed in his hand, and the sword together with its scabbard was directly shattered into seven or eight sections. Next, the long spear was also pulverized.

  With the two shattered weapons still lying before and behind the statue, Ptolemy stooped to pick up the folded flag, and with a casual wave of his hand the flag was fully unfurled.

  Liu Yu, who was not far away, saw it very clearly this time. The flag embroidered with two crossed swords and spears, the background color of the flag itself is sky blue.

  "On this battlefield, the flags and arms of the Phanord royal family were captured. Let us pay tribute to the brave spirits." As soon as many young Bimons saw the flag in Ptolemy's hand clearly, his words echoed in the ears of all young Bimons.

  "Whoosh!" At that moment, Tolemey threw the flag in his hand to the ground, and the flag had already caught fire when it left his hand. Liu Yu, who was silently watching all this, understood that Tolemey, apart from being a Dou Huang, was also an early seventh-grade magic master, although he was of the earth system, but with his strong spiritual power, he could still forcibly manipulate a little fire element to ignite the flag without any problem.

  The blue flag was quickly burned, but the station stood up and Ptolemy silently looked at the two stone tablets. The hundreds of young men behind him were kneeling on one knee, not even daring to breathe. In the beast tribe's customs, the most respected are the brave warriors who died for their country, so when sacrificing the dead generals, the young men all instinctively restrained their behavior.

  "You all go around yourselves, but don't damage a single blade of grass or tree here." After a long time, a low voice sounded beside the ears of all the boys.

  ............

  "The beast god is above, in the 24th year of King Subite, a large army of 4 million men from Fanode surrounded my tribe, and my tribe was forced to retreat from Vesuvius due to being outnumbered. At the Warm Springs Pass, the enemy pursued relentlessly, 1 million soldiers vowed to defend to the death, and after 87 days of bloody battle, more than 800,000 enemies were killed. The Warm Springs Pass changed hands seven times, and three kings and four dukes were beheaded under the city wall, defeating the enemy army and preserving my tribe's existence."

  In this war, 700,000 out of 1 million soldiers were killed in action, not a single one had an intact body. Eighty-six War Kings, twenty-two War Emperors, twelve War Saints, eighteen Demon Commanders, ten Great Demon Commanders and four Law Saints died in battle. King Subite was wounded thirty-seven times by swords and knives but never retreated a step before dying at the Warm Springs Pass.

  Our younger generation should remember the bravery of our ancestors, inherit the glory of our nation, conquer Prussia, and comfort the loyal souls of our ancestors.

  Herta Sober