Half a month later, Ning Chen and his army reached the Tuoluo Kingdom's Imperial Court.

And Ning Chen nearly died of rage.

The Tuoluo people had all run off and left him an empty town.

The so-called Imperial Court of the Tuoluo Kingdom had exactly one decent building. Everything else was felt tents, scattered every which way.

There wasn't even a wall around it.

Ning Chen sent troops in to search, and it nearly made him cry.

Those bastards had cleaned the place out. Apart from some ragged tents, they hadn't left him so much as a chicken feather.

Even a rat would have walked out in tears, cursing all the way.

The skin on Ning Chen's face twitched as he listened to Yuan Long's report. He almost lost it right then and there.

He had slogged for a whole month, start to finish, to get here, and everyone at the Tuoluo Kingdom's Imperial Court had run away.

"Aaagh..." Ning Chen threw back his head and roared at the sky. "Bastards! Goddamn bastards..."

Tantai Qingyue watched Ning Chen's impotent rage, and behind her face veil the corners of her exquisitely carved mouth curved up. She smiled, delighted!

When the King of the Right Court brought his hundred thousand back, the Great Khan of the Tuoluo Kingdom and the tribal chiefs had talked it over... Fight? Fight, my ass. Run!

The key was that they'd heard Xiliang had surrendered.

If Ning Chen had attacked the Tuoluo Kingdom first, there would certainly have been a great battle.

But Ning Chen had hit Xiliang first.

Xiliang had strong walled cities to hide behind and still got beaten into bowing its head as a vassal. The Tuoluo were no fools. They knew they couldn't possibly beat Ning Chen, so they simply took to their heels.

There was nothing there they'd miss anyway.

Just a field of ragged tents. Next to their lives, it wasn't worth mentioning.

They were certain Ning Chen wouldn't stay on the grassland for long. Once he left, they'd just come back... and go right on raiding the Great Xuan's border…