I became a prince exiled to the frontier.
Three thousand cavalrymen bore down on us, while fewer than a hundred old soldiers stood atop the city walls.
I shut the gates and pressed my thumb against the bronze tiger tally at my waist, the System's sole medium.
A searing pain shot through my fingertip. Rust-green ripples blurred my vision, and the thunder of countless horses filled my ears.
Three breaths later, the training grounds west of the city split apart, and one hundred thousand Wei warriors burst from the earth, blood-rust seeping through their armor as if they had clawed their way out of the history books!
For three years, I lay low. Grain and supplies piled up like mountains, weapons and armor filled the fields, and the great protective formation devoured the starlight.
My strategist urged me,
