Chapter 27

At Dragab, Venka and Cholang arrive with supplies and intact forces from the north. With Kitay, they analyze Nezha’s choice to fight near Xuzhou in monsoon rains, concluding he aims to neutralize Rin’s fire. They prepare the tomb-city’s defenses, hide artillery, mark structural weak points for Dulin, and anticipate close-quarters combat under rain.

Among Xuzhou’s monuments, Rin recognizes a statue of the Winter Empress as actually Tearza, implying the Red Emperor rewrote history. As rain intensifies, Nezha’s army appears. Kitay deploys cart-mounted “turtles” to soak arrow fire while Venka’s marksmen target artillery. Dulin advances under cover, then collapses Republican cliff positions with tremors despite his cart being hit, buying the Southern Army a breach.

In the ravine, mud and rain reduce both sides to chaotic melee. The remaining turtles close to toss pipe bombs, rupturing Nezha’s front line and letting Rin’s infantry surge. This chaos masks the real gambit: Venka’s squads unfurl a vast tarp across the ravine, cutting off the rain and creating a dry corridor.

Rin enters under cover, summons the Phoenix, and incinerates the exposed Republicans. With minutes before the tarp ignites, she presses forward and targets Nezha, who delays to cover his troops’ retreat. Rin orders a full volley to finish him.

Nezha raises a massive water barrier that halts arrows, rockets, and cannonballs midair. Rin tries to evaporate it with peak heat; the tarp burns away, yet the barrier holds. Realizing Nezha’s divine link now rivals hers and that he never intended a decisive stand, Rin recognizes the battle as a probing maneuver that showcased his superiority. When Nezha drops the barrier and resumes the downpour, Rin refuses pursuit and orders a retreat, furious at being outplayed.