Shangjing City.

The warm winter sun is far above the gray sky, and the cold wind blows through the busy streets, covering the damp ground on the roadside with a thin layer of white frost.

Next to the dark brown bare tree trunks, countless pedestrians wrapped in thick down jackets lowered their heads to look at their frozen red palms, exhaled a breath of hot air, complained about the weather, and then hurried away with their hands in their pockets.

Zuo Qing stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window holding a cup of hot tea. Hot steam rose from the cup and condensed into a cloud of white mist in front of the window.

His eyes were staring at the distant sky, and I wonder what he was thinking.

"The Heavenly Court has been born..."

He paused and sighed, "These peaceful days are finally over... I can't spend this New Year well."

On the sofa behind him, an old man in white clothes held a black chess piece in his hand. He gently placed it on the chessboard on the coffee table and smiled slightly.

"Are you reluctant?"

"Of course. After all, who doesn't like to live in peace?" Zuo Qing said slowly, "But since the war has come to us, we can't just passively take the beating... When we win, the peaceful days will return."

He turned around, walked over to the old man in white and sat down, took out a white piece from the chess box and placed it on the chessboard.

"Taigong, what are our chances of winning?" Zuo Qing asked.

Jiang Ziya did not answer in a hurry. Instead, he picked up a black piece and placed it down again. There were now four black pieces on the chessboard in front of him, surrounding the lonely white piece.

"If it's just passive defense, the maximum is only 10%."

"What about taking the initiative?"

Jiang Ziya narrowed his eyes slightly, lifted up the white piece, moved it one square to the side, and shook the black piece that was originally closest to him out of the board.

White breaks the deadlock and fights one against three.

“…30%.”

"It doesn't sound like good news." Zuo Qing sighed.

"War is not a simple game of power. In addition to head-on decisive battles, there are many other factors that can affect the outcome of the battle." Jiang Ziya said slowly.

He stretched out his hand and pointed at the three black dots.

"Who can guarantee that there won't be other accidents with these three black spots?"

Zuo Qing looked at the three black pieces and the black piece that was knocked out of the game and fell into deep thought.

"Grandpa, how much time do we have left?"

"Ten days."

Ten days?

Zuo Qing nodded.

Just then, there were two knocks on the door, the office door was pushed open, and a night watchman walked in.

"What's up?"

"Commander Zuo, the Nightfall team is back."

Hearing this, Zuo Qing raised his eyebrows and a smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.

He picked up the teacup, took a sip of hot tea, and his anxious heart relaxed a little.

These little guys came back just in time...

"They also brought back a human ceiling with magical weapons from Japan." The night watchman said immediately.

puff--!!

The hot tea in Zuo Qing's mouth suddenly sprayed out and landed accurately on Jiang Ziya opposite him.

Jiang Ziya: ...?

"What did you say?!"

…

Night Watchman Cemetery.

The cold wind blew up the snow-white petals, like the first snow in winter, and they fluttered among the cold tombstones.

A figure in a black suit, holding a bunch of white flowers in his hand, was standing quietly in front of a brand new tombstone.

On that tombstone, several large characters were deeply engraved:

——Member of the [Blue Rain] team, deputy captain of the 136th team stationed in Cangnan City, the tomb of Wu Xiangnan.

Lin Qiye stared at the tombstone for a long time, bent down, gently placed the white flower in his hand in front of the tombstone, and sighed.

The tombstones of the Night Watchmen are carved by the deceased's teammates themselves. This is an unwritten rule within the Night Watchmen. Back then, Zhao Kongcheng's tombstone was carved by Hongying herself.

Now the [Blue Rain] team has been completely wiped out. Among the 136th team stationed in Cangnan, only Lin Qiye knows that Wu Xiangnan has died in battle, so the deputy captain's tombstone can only be engraved by Lin Qiye himself.

This was the first time that Lin Qiye carved a monument for someone else.

Because Wu Xiangnan turned into a human body and left no corpse, there is just an empty tomb under the tombstone in front of us.

In the lonely night watchman's cemetery, he was the only figure standing quietly in the cold wind.

A moment later, a second figure walked into the cemetery.

"Commander Zuo." Lin Qiye turned around and saw the person coming, and took the initiative to speak.

"Yeah." Zuo Qing, who was beside him, looked at the tombstone with a complex expression in his eyes. "I heard about Wu Xiangnan on the way here... To be honest, I still can't believe that the three of you killed a god."

"The God was killed by Deputy Captain Wu." Lin Qiye glanced at the tombstone. "Wang Mian and I just tried our best to help him fulfill his long-cherished wish."

"Every one of you is amazing." Zuo Qing said, "In addition to posthumously conferring the title on Wu Xiangnan, just based on your and Wang Mian's achievements, each of you should receive an individual Star Sea Medal. Now is a special period, so we won't hold a ceremony for you. I'll find time to have someone deliver it."

Zuo Qing bent down and placed the flowers he brought next to Lin Qiye's flowers. After paying tribute, he walked out of the cemetery with Lin Qiye.

“Commander Zuo, the Heaven has descended.” Lin Qiye said.

"Yes, I know."

“What will happen next?”

“…I don’t know the details.” Zuo Qing was silent for a moment and said, “In this vortex of war between gods, there is very little we can do. Our most important mission is to protect the ordinary people behind us and to defend Daxia.

If the Great Xia God is the first line of defense of Great Xia, then we, the Night Watchmen, are the second and last line of defense standing before all living beings.

No matter what happens, we must not panic.”

Lin Qiye nodded silently.

Zuo Qing was right. If a full-scale war between gods really breaks out, then if you don't reach the ceiling of humanity, you won't be qualified to participate in it. Although [Night] is a special team, it is still far from the war between gods.

All they can do is hold this last line of defense.

"What do you need us to do?" Lin Qiye asked.

Zuo Qing seemed to have made plans for this, and said calmly: "The war is coming, and there is no time for the rookies in the training camp to grow slowly... I will give you ten days. After ten days, they must graduate from the training camp and be deployed to different Night Watch teams. Only in this way can we mobilize enough veterans to rush to the front line.

In the next few years, these new recruits will be the backbone of maintaining internal stability in Daxia.

During these ten days, no matter what method you use, you must make them qualified night watchmen.

Can you do that?

Ten days?

Hearing these two words, Lin Qiye's heart sank slightly, but he did not hesitate for too long and nodded.

"able."

Since Zuo Qing mentioned the number of ten days, it means that some kind of change will occur after that. The sense of crisis lingering in Lin Qiye's heart became stronger and stronger.

They don't have much time left.