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Catherine collected her thoughts, her face regaining its composure as she took a deep breath and said, "Right now, of course."

With that, she took a step forward, her body suddenly erupting with a fierce golden radiance. The female Saint Realm Martial Emperor transformed into a streak of light, charging toward the distant city. The four guards behind her, all formidable warriors, naturally employed their own methods to keep pace with Catherine.

Catherine’s speed was naturally as swift as lightning, covering several kilometers in mere moments. The defenders atop Lion Heart City saw only a golden streak followed by blue, white, black, and gray shadows before they could even comprehend what was happening—the enemy had already reached the city walls. Fortunately, Lion Heart City was the heart of the Lion Clan’s power, cultivated over centuries, and its embedded magical defense network automatically activated to repel intruders without needing manual initiation. As Catherine approached within fifty meters of the walls, layers upon layers of magical barriers shimmered into existence, attempting to block the enemy outside.

But before a Saint Realm Martial Emperor, no magic—save forbidden spells—could hold them back.

*Hmph!* Break—!" Catherine didn’t even draw her sword. Instead, she condensed her icy golden combat energy into her palm and slashed outward with a hand-chop, striking the magical barrier head-on. With a sharp *hiss*, the surface of the barrier churned violently, erupting with intense light at a hundred times its usual speed—yet it still couldn’t withstand the power of a Saint Realm Martial Emperor. In an instant, it shattered like a bubble, followed by the second barrier, the third, all the way to the twelfth.

After shattering the barriers in one go, the female Saint Realm Martial Emperor clenched her fist, condensing her combat energy to an unprecedented degree. Like a golden comet, she struck with a thunderous explosion, smashing directly into Lion Heart City’s metal gates.

**BOOOOM!**

The massive shockwave sent the gates—along with the gatehouse above—flying into the sky. The barracks and inner gates behind them were obliterated. Within a radius of several hundred meters, the area looked as though it had been bombarded by countless tenth-tier spells, leaving utter devastation in its wake.

Just as the entire city was thrown into chaos by the colossal explosion, Catherine’s voice resounded across the skies of Lion Heart City.

"‘Holy War Saint Realm Martial Emperor’ Catherine Blizzard Lion is here. All Lion Clan warriors, come before me!"

Faced with Catherine’s domineering summons, no Lion Clan member dared to defy her—not even the few Beast Orc Warriors stationed in the city.

Heroic Wolf Clan Scroll, Chapter 144: The Lion King’s Banner Changes Hands

Among the Lion Clan, who claimed to be the royal lineage of the orcs, the Holy War Saint Realm Martial Emperor Catherine’s Battlefang Clan and the Orc King Samantha’s Splitfang Clan stood as polar opposites. One was an ancient noble house with a history stretching back three thousand years, having produced nine generations of orc kings and founded three dynasties of varying scales—yet had declined to the point of relying on external aid due to various misfortunes. The other was a meteoric newcomer, barely decades old, yet rising to prominence through the genius of a single unparalleled figure, amassing nearly half the orc alliance’s power in a short time—and even after Samantha’s death, retaining the strength to shake the entire continent.

Had the peerlessly domineering Orc King Samantha still been alive, the disparity in power between the two factions would have been obvious. Even with Catherine as a Saint Realm Martial Emperor, the ancient but declining Battlefang Clan would not have matched even a tenth of the Splitfang Clan’s might. Yet after Samantha’s death, the situation changed drastically. The weaknesses of the newly risen faction began to surface—not only its unstable foundation but also the grudges and hidden enemies accumulated during its rapid ascent. With the Splitfang Clan losing the throne of the orc king, its legitimacy was questioned, and the smaller Lion Clan families and vassal races that had once submitted out of fear now showed signs of unrest.

In contrast, the Battlefang Clan displayed the profound heritage of a three-thousand-year-old noble house. Though its direct lineage lacked talent, its sprawling network of kin and marital ties covered nearly half the Lion Clan’s lineage. Such an ancient clan never lacked resources—only a core figure to unite and command them. Previously, Catherine had been marginalized, her brothers overtly or covertly swayed by Samantha, reducing the Battlefang Clan to little more than a puppet of the Splitfang Clan. But once the golden-haired Martial Emperor ascended to the Saint realm, the clan’s elders and branch families began subtly aligning with her. Though they still had to tread carefully under Samantha’s shadow, by the time the orc king reformed the imperial system, Catherine had already secretly seized control of forty percent of the Battlefang Clan’s power.

Had it not been for Samantha’s assassination coinciding with Catherine’s near-fatal injury from the Dragon Saint’s surprise attack, she might have already claimed leadership of the Lion Clan. Even so, now that the Lion Clan’s sole Saint Realm Martial Emperor had awakened, she leveraged her prestige to quietly strip her brothers of their authority, truly taking control of the Battlefang Clan. That was why Catherine dared to enter Lion Heart City today with only a handful of elite guards.

After all, orcs—especially the Lion Clan—never retreated from a direct challenge. Even when Catherine, heavily pregnant and on the verge of labor, faced the ambush of all humanity’s Saint Masters, she hadn’t considered retreating for a second. Thus, trying to subdue this orc royal lineage through sheer force alone was pure delusion. Only by turning external pressure into internal strife could Catherine hope to bring the entire race under her rule.

Naturally, the Splitfang Clan was doing everything to prevent this.

Just as Catherine stepped into the city, an elderly Lion Clan member bearing the Splitfang Clan’s crest suddenly stepped forward and shouted, "Lady Catherine! Though you are a Saint Realm Martial Emperor and the direct descendant of the late Orc King Samantha, you have married into the Wolf Clan! Do you think the Lion Clan is full of cowards, that you can command Lion Heart City’s people so brazenly?"

Catherine coolly regarded the old lion and the eager warriors behind him. Resting her left hand on her sword, she raised a palm-sized Gold Badge with her right and snapped, "By the authority of the 214th head of the Battlefang Clan, I invoke the rights of the Rhine Elder Council’s seven permanent elders to summon all Lion Clan members to deliberate on the position of clan leader. Who dares obstruct me?" "Head of the Battlefang Clan?!" The elder, a high-ranking member of the Splitfang Clan and currently its chief diplomat in Lion Heart City, never intended to stop Catherine—only to stall. But the sight of the Gold Badge sent him reeling. "Impossible! You abandoned the Battlefang name! How could the clan possibly grant you leadership?!"