Even with the news of their all-stars being taken out, Lian Po and Wang Jian continued on their path to take out the Sun Alliance capital base. It was a tough decision to make to not assist their pupils, but it was ultimately the price they had to pay to make sure that they came out on top of this competition. These two, along with Bai Qi, kept pushing their armies deeper into enemy territory at a terrifying pace until they had finally made it to an area that was somewhere near to the enemy's capital base. They did not go up to it immediately and decided to group up before they launched such an important offensive to strategize quickly.
As it would happen, the 3 leaders took their time to properly rest their soldiers for a couple of days while they thought of ways to get past the defenses of the enemy bases as well as a highly likely army that would come out to greet them. Right now, they had an army of close to 20 million soldiers that sorely needed rest. It had taken them a few months of continuous pushing to get them this far, it was natural for the soldiers to be so weary after this long. There was just one thing that the leaders did not anticipate when they chose the spot to hide in. That a few of the mysterious ships that the Bair fighters had shown them once before would fly right by them, and quite a few of them as well.
Bai Qi, Lian Po, and Wang Jian could tell where these behemoths of the sky were going just by the direction they were going, they were going to the capital base of the Sun Alliance. Immediately after the mysterious aircraft passed them, the 3 leaders took a personal trip by themselves along with a couple more of their inner circle to go check it out. Everyone else was ordered to stay at their current position and await further orders. After setting out in some of their fastest vehicles, they made their way to the capital base. It took them a few hours to do so as they were practicing caution and did not want to get noticed.
Just as the base was about to come into view, there were dozens of mushroom clouds that appeared from the position where the base was supposed to be. There was only one explanation for this, the mysterious aircraft concocted by the Bair fighters had dropped a lot of atomic bombs on the massive base. No matter how you slice it, just one would cause massive damage, but this many was a death sentence to anyone in it. The group did not really have an idea of just how large the blast radius was so they decided to fall back and check in on the base later to see just how much survived. Likely not much.
They all made their way back to their combined army and when they were about halfway there, what they saw sent a shiver down their spines. The place where their soldiers should have been there was also a mushroom cloud right on top of it. By the looks of it, the blast happened at least an hour ago, so the group took their chances to see if they could salvage anything from the mess. It was a truly difficult thing to see once they got there. A complete wasteland of soldiers and broken machines of war, some they recognized, but the majority were nameless.
There was absolutely nothing that survived the blast. Not one thing. Not. One. The group was awestruck at the sheer gravity of the situation. Their entire army of 20 million, wiped out just like that. What could they do now, but pack up what little they had and go back home? Then, an even stronger gut feeling filled everyone with dread. If the Bair fighters had targeted their army as well as the Sun Alliance capital base, then who really was to say that they wouldn't go for the Yellow Wang faction's capital base as well. The group of about 500 strategists made their way back as quickly as they could. They were no longer concerned with safety.
Along the way, what they saw was horrifying, Every base that they had already conquered were leveled with a lower level explosion. It would continue to be the case for many more kilometers to come. Once they got to their own land, it became evidently clear that they were in the same boat. Every base of their own that they passed were similarly leveled. Once they were in the range of their telecommunications to work, they made desperate radio calls to anyone that was still listening. No response.
Finally, they got to their own capital base and what they saw was an exact replica of the situation at many of the other sites that they had passed along the way. This was not entirely out of their estimates as they had already seen what the Bair fighters were capable of long ago. The only thing that they could do was to curse at the Bair fighters for making everyone believe that they were out of the tournament and instead decided to wait for an optimal time to take out both sides. Sun Alliance when they were already weakened, and the Yellow Wang faction when their guards were down. They were just too terrifying and too underhanded.
The group realized that they had lost. Everything that they had worked so hard for in this tournament for the past few years did not really amount to anything more than a great show for those spectating and those who wished to see high-level combat warfare. They were so completely beaten that they just sat around and did not really do anything since they were still processing the situation that they were in.
How was it possible for them to be played so easily by just 5 individuals?