I didn't care about the army coming from behind. Shi Yaozu said that it was the Red Demons, and I trusted him.
What I couldn't take my eyes away from was the army marching toward us from the east. While the pounding of the hooves caused my heart to beat in rhythm, it was the sea of red that made my breath catch in my throat.
An ocean of crimson and steel, flooding the horizon like the world itself had cracked open. The combined armies of Chixia and Yelan descended from the hills, moving as one, their banners of red and yellow catching the light like blood-slick wings. Rows upon rows of soldiers marched in lockstep—so many that I couldn't see where they ended. They stretched from one end of the valley to the other, a wall of death so deep and wide it drowned the landscape.
They weren't a force.
They were a flood.
