He Lingchuan gave him a deep, searching look. "Isn't your injury still unhealed?" Sure enough, his earlier assessment had been spot on—this fellow was an opportunist through and through.
"It's no trouble."
He Lingchuan did not object either. Standing up, he said, "Let's go."
He was indeed full of curiosity toward Thousand Stars City. After all, the destruction of this city had occurred thirty or forty years earlier than Panlong City's, against an enemy equally despair-inducing in strength.
Resting a hand casually against the stone house, he covertly released an eyeball spider.
Uncle Da was right across from them; he could not afford to be careless.
The eyeball spider glanced at the owl across the way and immediately shrank into a crevice between the stones.
The two walked together toward the phantom city.
Before turning away, He Lingchuan cast a glance toward the campfire opposite them. He saw six or seven Chiyan people get up as well, chatting and laughing as they headed toward the phantom city, while Uncle Da remained behind with several subordinates to guard the carriage.
He Lingchuan frowned inwardly.
It was only natural for the caravan hands to go sightseeing, but these Chiyan people had recently been engaged in a heated game of battle royale with Fu Shanyue, and there was an important master in that carriage. How dared they let down their guard and wander off?
Uncle Da even acquiesced to such dereliction of duty?
After they had walked several dozen zhang, He Lingchuan asked Fu Shanyue, "Have you seen this phantom apparition before?"
"Never. I've taken this route at least three or four times, and today is the first time I've seen it." Fu Shanyue had removed his splints that afternoon; with his hand concealed under his cloak, no one could tell his arm was injured. "But I've heard of these phantoms. There's even a specific term for them: the dying flare of Thousand Stars City.
"Lingxu City despised these phantasms. They set fires and cast spells here several times, trying to wipe them out. Heh, useless." Fu Shanyue looked around as he walked. "Later, they discovered it only triggers under very specific conditions—perhaps unusual scenes like today's, where a violent thunderstorm is followed immediately by a brilliant, hanging moon. So Lingxu City gave up. I've heard from others who witnessed the phantom city that they, too, only saw what's before us after severe weather. Some people even made special trips to wait for it, only to come up empty every time."
He Lingchuan had heard of such phenomena back in his original world as well—sound and light imprints supposedly preserved by chance occurrences in nature, purely coincidental.
As for this place...
"This is the scene right before Thousand Stars City fell, isn't it?" People were rushing back and forth everywhere, delivering weapons and medicine, carrying the wounded, fighting fires, and formations moving to intercept enemies leaping down from the city walls... Even women and the elderly had been sent into the fray, yet hands were still desperately lacking.
Flames blazed everywhere, explosions erupted on all sides, and earth-shattering cries filled the air.
Countless silhouettes woven from vapor—young and old, monster and human, burly and frail—passed straight through He Lingchuan and Fu Shanyue, hurrying toward death. Though the years had passed and the people were long gone, witnessing this scene still drew a sigh from He Lingchuan's heart.
He understood that decades later, a similar dirge of doom would play out in Panlong City as well.
"Looks like it." Walking toward the palace structures behind them, Fu Shanyue said, "The Yuan Kingdom repelled armies assembled by Lingxu City three separate times—a rare feat in history. Even after the King of Yuan perished and Thousand Stars City was destroyed, the Twilight Plains carried on the King's dying will, staging three more uprisings, killing many officials and soldiers, and sparking massive turmoil in the central region."
He Lingchuan was slightly surprised. "Three more uprisings?"
"Indeed. It shows how fierce and resolute the people of the Yuan Kingdom were back then." Fu Shanyue said faintly, "Otherwise, how could it have provoked such thunderous wrath, driving the Great Emperor to personally order his armies to slaughter across the Twilight Plains for thirty straight days? Do you know how many died back then?"
He Lingchuan shook his head.
"When Thousand Stars City fell, not a single one of the 230 members of King of Yuan Shao Yuqing's clan was spared. Even a ten-year-old child was dragged out to be sliced by a thousand cuts, wailing for an entire day before dying. By comparison, the King of Yuan and his son dying in battle on the front lines was considered a quick and painless death.
"Afterward, the army was ordered to conduct an indiscriminate hunt and slaughter across the Twilight Plains—regardless of good or bad, man or woman, reason or fault. Nine out of ten homes across the entire Yuan Kingdom were left empty. Back then, rivers and streams across the plains ran red with blood, open-air burial grounds lay everywhere, and vultures and crows circled overhead all day long."
He Lingchuan drew a sharp, quiet breath.
"Only when the thirty-day limit finally ended did the great army withdraw. But so many had died that plague soon ran rampant here." Fu Shanyue scratched his head. "Two hundred years have passed, yet the Twilight Plains have still not recovered, leaving it in the state you see today. After that, the tributes that demon kings everywhere offered to Lingxu City grew considerably richer."
When the hare dies, the fox grieves.
"Whenever a demon king rebels around here, does Lingxu City slaughter hundreds of thousands or even millions of civilians?"
The residents of the Twilight Plains were also subjects of the Beijia Kingdom; they too were Beijia people. Even if someone led them in revolt against the Demon Emperor and the gods, the "chief culprit" was the King of Yuan. Generally speaking, even for a capital crime like rebellion and treason, killing the leaders would suffice. Who ever harvested heads on such a massive, indiscriminate scale?
Just like when Nian Zanli defected to Beijia with Wuzhou: even if the Yuan Kingdom defeated him, at most they would execute nine generations of his clan. How could they slaughter every last commoner of Wuzhou?
What ruler would undermine their own foundation like that?
If the Demon Emperor were fickle, moody, and prone to hysterical bouts of fury, He Lingchuan could understand it. As the saying went: when the Son of Heaven is enraged, a million corpses lie in wait and blood floats shields like rafts. Monarchs had tempers too, with moments when nothing short of mass killing could appease their fury.
Yet He Lingchuan had clearly heard that this Demon Emperor was calm, astute, possessed grand vision and great talent, and was a rare wise mind among the demon race.
Fu Shanyue shook his head. "More than ten demon kings had rebelled in the past. Only this once was the punishment so unprecedentedly severe. The Emperor's reverse scale must have been touched."
Yet He Lingchuan couldn't shake the feeling that Lingxu City's playbook felt strangely familiar.
Just then, several dozen riders suddenly appeared ahead, galloping toward the city gates. Two gold-armored divine generals accompanied them, striding two zhang with every step, their giant feet thumping heavily enough to shake the ground.
He Lingchuan nearly drooled at the sight of these two gold-armored divine generals.
How much effort had he expended just to craft a single gold-armored bronze automaton? Moreover, stranded far from home, he lacked the financial means to upgrade it; every material required for that thing was exorbitantly expensive.
And here were two upgraded versions running about right in front of him.
A huge fireball hurtled down from high above, at least seven chi across. It was a rolling stone catapulted by siege engines outside the city, coated in oil and ignited so its destructive power multiplied upon landing. A good portion of the fires raging throughout Thousand Stars City were their doing.
Seeing it happen to crash down toward the detachment, a gold-armored divine general lunged forward, leapt, and threw a punch, blasting the giant fireball more than five zhang away.
Just like a home run.
The gold-armored divine general's movements were simply too fluid, too vigorous! It was many times stronger than his own; He Lingchuan felt another pang of envy.
The mounted troop did not slow down, arriving before the two in the blink of an eye.
Suddenly, more than a dozen figures burst out from an alleyway. Judging by their attire, they were court ministers. Disregarding whether hooves might trample their heads, they threw themselves to their knees in the middle of the road, crying out in unison:
"My King! Thousand Stars cannot be saved; please evacuate immediately!"
"Ridiculous!" The horsemen reined in sharply, and a man parted from the ranks. Around forty years of age, with long eyebrows, a pale countenance, and an imposing, noble bearing, he declared, "A sovereign dies for his state. I live and die with Thousand Stars City! You may leave ahead; I shall dispatch men to escort you out of the city."
Amidst the din of artillery and flames, the ministers cried out, "As long as you are here, the Yuan Kingdom still stands!"
"Our kingdom lies in the heart of Beijia, surrounded by enemies on all sides. Even if we wanted to retreat or flee, where would a path of survival lie? Cursed be the Xuluo Kingdom for breaking faith and defecting on the eve of battle! It was my folly to overestimate the King of Xuluo and launch this rash enterprise!" the King of Yuan said coldly. "The mistakes I made cannot be redeemed even by a hundred deaths, and they have cost hundreds of thousands their heads. What face do I have left to leave Thousand Stars City alive?"
Another elderly minister said, "Preserve a spark of hope for our Great Yuan, so the nation does not perish and its lineage is not extinguished!"
"A spark?" The King of Yuan suddenly smiled. "The spark has already flowed out of Thousand Stars City. Our dying wishes will surely be inherited!"
The ministers looked at one another, seeming to breathe a collective sigh of relief.
The elderly minister asked again, "Then what of the young princes?" Had they left the city safely?
Compared to demons, humans placed far greater importance on the continuation of lineage.
"Yunhe fought enemies on the city wall and has already died a martyr. But Yunhai was only eleven..." The King of Yuan choked up, unable to continue, his hand pressing firmly onto the hilt of his sword.
The vapor phantom was so vivid that He Lingchuan could even see the veins bulging on the back of his hand from the sheer force of his grip.
Even Fu Shanyue was moved. "He killed his own son with his own hands? A true hero!"
He Lingchuan gave him a sidelong glance. Did this guy have some misunderstanding about what made an outstanding man? Yet he also understood: the King of Yuan simply could not bear to let his young son suffer humiliation after his death.
To be able to bring himself to strike down his own flesh and blood truly warranted being called a man with a heart of stone.
The ministers were stunned.
The rims of the King of Yuan's eyes were red, yet he declared, "No matter where they fled, they could never escape the grasp of gods and demons. Vast as this world is, there is no shelter for them. Haha! I would rather my children die with their eyes open than live in cowardly servility like the rest of the herd!"
"Our King is wise and resolute." Tears streamed down the elderly minister in front. "In that case, this old minister will go on ahead." With that, he drew the sword at his waist and calmly slit his own throat.
The other ministers followed suit, one after another.
After a flurry of thuds, only a few ministers in the rear ranks remained trembling, their thighs shaking violently.
With the city's fall imminent, did they have any other way out?
The mounted warriors bowed their heads in respect to the ministers who had taken their own lives. The King of Yuan closed his eyes for a moment, then laughed aloud. "Good, good! Once I slay a few more enemies, I will join you all at the Yellow Springs!"
Without so much as a glance at the few soul-shaken ministers standing by, he barked an order, and the riders galloped off toward the city walls.
What followed was scene after scene of blood and carnage.
Seeing all of Thousand Stars City transformed into a sea of purgatorial fire, even Fu Shanyue, callous as he usually was, let out a long breath.
This was the final moment of a mighty demon kingdom frozen in history. As the eldest son of the Chiyan Kingdom, he likely felt a profound flood of emotion.
"At this time, Chiyan didn't even exist yet," He Lingchuan heard him mutter under his breath, prompting him to ask, "What?"
Less than two hundred years ago, Chiyan hadn't even been born yet? "Your father is the founding monarch?"
"Yes," Fu Shanyue said. "Chiyan has existed for only a little over a hundred and fifty years. It's the youngest and most vibrant demon kingdom in all of Beijia."
Right then, a brief, sharp scream sounded from ahead to their left.
Human screams were everywhere in the phantom illusion, yet Fu Shanyue frowned. "No, that's not right. There's the smell of blood!"
Chapter 415