The battle for Yizheng City wound down. The military moved through the city systematically — arresting death-eaters, killing those who resisted on the spot, and rounding up the ordinary people who'd been living under death-eater subjugation.

The operation had begun in the morning. By noon, it was finished.

What remained were the death-eater squads that had been outside the city when the assault began. The military planned to hold Yizheng for a day, sending out convoys to bring the ordinary survivors back to Command territory.

Most of the returning death-eater squads, seeing what had happened to the city, didn't come back.

One larger group was spotted by the military and immediately encircled by vehicles. Once surrounded, the death-eaters inside didn't resist.

Instead, under their leader's direction, they went still.

"I'm asking to see whoever's in command." The leader stripped off his sharkskin, raised both hands, and called toward the armored vehicles in front of him.

Senior Colonel Han Shoucheng, the senior officer at the front, drove up in his armored vehicle. "I'm Han Shoucheng. You are—"

The leader's expression shifted through several things at once when he heard the name. He let out a long breath. "Old Han. It's Chu Chuanshu. Trembling Brigade, commander."

Han Shoucheng exhaled too. "Chu — you were the Flying Dragon Brigade's commander. I genuinely never imagined."

"Nothing to imagine. Every person has their own way of thinking and living. We are where we are. No regrets — not me, not my people. Just some sadness. We were soldiers once. Now we're killers." He paused. "Old Han. I have a request. We're not going to survive anyway. Let us die with something to our name."

"What are you proposing?"

"I can't face our old commander anymore — not in the condition he's in. There are Jin-Skin Dolphins in the Yangtze. My brigade has been luring the King of Jin-Skin Dolphins — we've already drawn it to Shiye Island. One more step and we can bring it onto the dried riverbed and kill it there. The hide from a specimen like that would make the finest sharkskin…