“Query: How many *huoyoudan* (fire oil bombs) do you all have left?” After several rounds of bombing, the entire main altar, except for a few unimportant places, or those important places hidden underground where *huoyoudan* had no effect, was pretty much ablaze everywhere. At this moment, Xie Bo saw allied forces in the woods near the Daoming Sect's main altar searching and killing Daoming Sect members fleeing the fire, slowly but steadily approaching the main altar, looking for a breakthrough. He decided to play a ruthless card.

Now, the most densely populated area in the entire Daoming Sect main altar was where the believers and members lived together, and the southern residential area happened to be adjacent to the side where the Special Operations Battalion was preparing to break through. Xie Bo planned to launch a concentrated attack on this side to open a passage for the ground. As long as the Special Operations Battalion rushed into the main altar, the damage they could cause with their combat power would be immense.

"The Second Team seems to have more *huoyoudan*. Judging from the reports, the Second Team reported at least eight to ten each," the signalman reported a moment later.

"Very good." Xie Bo then ordered an extremely dense *huoyoudan* drop. When hundreds of *huoyoudan* were concentrated in a relatively small area, the explosion, mixing, and overlapping blast waves caused the airship fleet in the air to sway.

Ground troops began to move. The place where the Special Operations Battalion broke through was not ideal. They were supposed to run right into a branch of the Eagle Hall, but after Xie Bo's actions, the Eagle Hall was too busy to deal with themselves. The Special Operations Battalion easily entered the main altar. They directly penetrated the outer living area and headed towards the area where the big figures of the Daoming Sect might be.

Another group that stormed into the main altar was Liu Yong's friends from the martial world. This group didn't care about rules or targets. There were quite a few ruthless characters among them. Although these martial artists might not usually be noticeable, either practicing martial arts in their manors or wandering around all day, when they had a chance to show their skills, they were merciless. They were too lazy to pay attention to the scattered believers, but they spread out, and as soon as they encountered anyone who dared to resist, or leaders who were trying to establish order, they immediately attacked and cut them down with a few knives.

Xie Bo's airship squadron quickly used up all the *huoyoudan* and had to watch the gleaming ground, climb a little higher, and adjust its course to return. Their attack was quite thorough, turning almost all the important areas of the Daoming Sect main altar into scorched earth. After multiple bombings, they had gained a lot of experience in this kind of thing. The *huoyoudan* loaded on the airships might not be very suitable for attacking buildings, especially large pavilions. One or two *huoyoudan* would just set them on fire. It was difficult to burn down or collapse the buildings. They dropped no less than a hundred *huoyoudan* to level the main hall of the Hunyuan Palace. But *huoyoudan* were very effective in attacking crowds, not only for their killing effect, but also for the widespread panic they caused. And when the fire caused screams and cries in the crowd, the airship crew members, who were generally more silent than before, didn't care at all. On the one hand, they had heard too much and had become a little numb. On the other hand, they had come with hatred, resentment, and revenge in mind, fearing that they had not killed enough people.

When the airship squadron returned, the fire turned the sky red, and the sky gradually brightened. When the rising sun shone red on the earth, the scene seen on the airship seemed as if the whole world was red, like blood. This poignant beauty left everyone speechless. Then, Xie Bo ordered, "Set the speed to four and return to Xuanshan Pass."

After a round of attacks, plus intercepting a large number of fleeing followers, the ground troops also began to withdraw. After completing the bombing mission, the Guards Infantry Battalion burned the ballistae they had painstakingly brought. They had no hesitation. The cost of ballistae in Yunzhou was quite low, and the technology was becoming more and more mature. As soon as they left the camp with these ballistae, the supply team of the Logistics Battalion would send new ballistae to the empty warehouses in the barracks.

The Inner Court Secret Guards and the martial world figures would not return to Yunzhou directly but would continue to be "active" in Xiling for a while. The Special Operations Battalion was divided into two parts, one part returned to Yunzhou, and the other part began to carry out another mission in Xiling. After the convoys began to leave one after another, the Daoming Sect main altar slowly began to restore order. Those leaders who did not dare to stand up and give everyone confidence in the chaos and sword light, carefully emerged one by one at this time, organizing everyone to put out the fire, rescue people, and reorganize defense and vigilance. However, when everyone was on guard, they began to constantly look at the sky, praying that they would not see patches of shadows again.

The entire attack lasted only a little over an hour, which was very short. But as soon as the soaring fire started, the nearby Xiling garrison was alerted. Usually, the Daoming Sect took good care of these armies, and the Daoming Sect still had great power in Xiling. They couldn't stand by if something happened. But when these troops arrived, they suddenly discovered that they couldn't find the Pope of the Daoming Sect and several of the most important figures in the Daoming Sect's main altar. The highest-ranking person who could stand up and speak on behalf of the Daoming Sect was actually Mo Leng, the boss of the Eagle Hall. Those god-like figures in the eyes of the followers were not dead, this was the news Mo Leng revealed, but they had now been transferred to a safe place. Even Mo Leng felt that it was a little strange for those clergy to run away to a safe place at this time to take refuge. In this situation, if one or two strong clergy members could stand up to appease everyone's emotions and unite everyone, the effect would be great. But Mo Leng actually knew what kind of people the Pope and his gang were. The high-level officials of the Daoming Sect were more like high-ranking officials of the imperial court than devout clergy. They were eloquent, cunning, but their personal charisma, especially their courage, was quite lacking. In recent years, the Leiyin Demon Sect had risen in the northern lands, and the Daoming Sect had fallen behind the opponent in almost every step, which was quite speechless. Whether it was openly fighting for followers or launching military offensives to clear out the Leiyin Demon Sect, the high-level officials of the Daoming Sect had never implemented an idea to the end. Faced with disaster, standing by and doing nothing did not increase Mo Leng's disappointment much, or rather, he had become increasingly pessimistic about the future of the Daoming Sect since the Pope ordered the establishment of the Snake Eye organization.

Mo Leng, who stayed behind, cooperated with the army to clear the ruins, appease the followers, and organize the surviving members of the Eagle Hall. With Mo Leng, a guy who might not usually be very popular, standing up to command, the situation quickly improved. Everyone gradually recovered from the shock, grief, and fear. Everyone began to realize that Yunzhou was so powerful, and that the war and death that they thought would not happen to them were so close.

In Yunzhou and Zhenzhou, the experience of this point was also very obvious. Thanks to the timely measures of the Jinglue (Pacification) Office, almost everyone in Yunzhou knew about the ambush that Ye Tao encountered when he went to Yaning to deal with corruption cases. Although they didn't know the specific situation, the Jinglue Office had already revealed the signal that they would definitely retaliate, overtly and covertly. To be honest, Tan Weixin was quite skilled in these crisis public relations measures. Although no one had ever asked for or even imagined things like government transparency in this time and space, everyone's admiration, worship, and reliance on the leader made everyone very concerned about anything that happened to the family that ruled Yunzhou. Perhaps, this was just the spirit of gossip.

Everyone also realized that although Yunzhou had just ended a magnificent battle and achieved a great victory, the flames of war had not stopped. During the revenge operation, a song began to circulate in the lands of Yunzhou and Zhenzhou.

"Gently knock on the sleeping heart, slowly open your eyes, look at the busy world, is it still spinning lonely? The spring breeze does not understand the amorous feelings, blowing the heart of the young man, let the tears on yesterday's face dry with the memory. ...Look up to find the wings of the sky, migratory birds appear its shadow, bringing the news of distant famine and ruthless war that still exists. Jade Mountain white snow flutters, burning the heart of the young man, is the true heart melted into notes, telling your blessings..."

The song was so melodious and gentle, although it was quietly reminding that the flames of war were still not far away, it still did not carry a trace of worldly concerns. The song seemed to be praying for Ye Tao, for Yunzhou and Zhenzhou, for the future of the entire Dongping, and it seemed to be expecting something. The lyrics "Youth does not understand the world, rouge is stained with dust" could remind everyone of the battlefield, but it also seemed to be reminding everyone of their rash and ignorant youth. And when the song progressed to "Sunrise awakens the morning, the earth is reborn with splendor," a faint feeling of heroism had already begun to surge in everyone's heart.

When Ye Tao woke up, this song had already spread in many places. On the day when the great revenge operation was quietly carried out, and officials from various governments in Yunzhou were quietly reminding everyone that news would be coming soon, it was also the first day that Ye Tao resumed his work in the Jinglue Office. And this song had faintly become the theme song of Yunzhou.

On the second day that Ye Tao resumed work, the work that had been stalled due to Ye Tao's injury restarted. If it had been in the past, when Ye Tao was not around, everyone would have been able to continue to maintain the normal operation of Yunzhou. But this time was different. Although Tan Weixin, Dai Yun, and others tried to maintain emotional stability and tried to deal with some things, their minds were on Ye Tao, and some delayed things were inevitable. And organizing the revenge plan was the top priority, which would crowd out personnel arrangements for other affairs. Fortunately, at least for the time being, Yunzhou had returned to normal.

At this time, news came from Danyang: Tan Xiaopei will arrive in Yunzhou within a month. This was the first time that the Dongping monarch was going to seriously inspect the lands of Yunzhou and Zhenzhou that he had already held in his hands.