Chapter 2034: Problem
“I... think I smell blood,” Suolun Shi said, her face turning a bit pale. Even though she still couldn"t see the city of death clearly yet, as a member of the Demon race, her sense of smell was especially sensitive.
“There is a city of death up ahead, and from the looks of it, a bitter battle has been fought there. The blood still hasn’t dried yet,” Zu An explained gravely.
Suolun Shi’s voice was shaking as she said, “Could it be the Second Empress’ army...”
Zu An didn’t reply. Instead, he flew even faster.
Soon after, they arrived outside the city. Most of it was already buried under snow, with only some broken walls remaining exposed. It seemed to be a city the Fiend races had abandoned a long time ago during the ancient wars. Even so, a great battle had clearly taken place here not too long ago, because there were bloodstains everywhere. Even much of the snow was dyed dark red. There was a strange stench, as well as the fishy smell of blood mixed into the air. Even Suolun Shi, who was used to all kinds of terrifying things, couldn"t help but retch when she saw the scene.
Zu An continued forward, and Suolun Shi quickly followed behind him. The two looked around. They saw that apart from the bloodstains, there were also some scattered weapons and shields. However, there wasn’t a single person in sight.
“Why don’t we see even a single corpse?” Suolun Shi wondered, her voice trembling a bit. Everything here was just way too strange. Not only were there no corpses from the Fiend races’ army, there were no monster corpses either. Forget about that, there weren’t even any severed limbs or other remains.
Zu An said seriously, “Those monsters eat the corpses. Even the corpses of their comrades are no exception.”
Suolun Shi thought back to how her companions had also been devoured by the monsters. She turned to the corner of a wall and vomited again.
Zu An’s mood was also really grave. If there weren’t any remains, that meant the monsters had won this battle. Otherwise, this definitely wouldn’t have happened. As he stared at the blood-red stains everywhere, he could imagine just how cruel the attack had been. The h.e.l.lish surroundings made him feel an indescribable rage.
Heavy breathing and footsteps started to fill the air around them. Roughly a dozen monsters that resembled komodo dragons moved in their direction, as if Suolun Shi"s vomit had drawn their attention. The monsters’ skin was full of cracks, and it seemed like the flesh underneath was rotten too, with disgusting mucus dripping out all over the place.
“Crawlers!” Suolun Shi exclaimed, her expression changing.
She had witnessed the power of these things. Even though they were all ugly on the outside, they were incredibly fast and strong, able to easily tear through a soldier"s armor. More importantly, there was poison in the mucus covering their bodies. If one were to come into contact with it, one"s entire body would quickly be corroded into a pile of rotten flesh. Many soldiers from the Demon race had lost their lives to these creatures.
The crawlers seemed to have sensed her as well, and looked as if they had just seen the most delicious food. All of them started to become excited. As they dashed at Suolun Shi, their clumsy crawling turned into sprinting; they moved with extreme speed.
Suolun Shi was about to counterattack when a streak of sword ki came from off to the side. In the time it took for sparks to fly off a flint, sword shadows filled the whole area. A moment later, a dozen crawlers’ heads separated from their bodies, and they were killed without even knowing how they died.
Suolun Shi gritted her teeth. She took out a mace from her storage pouch and viciously smashed the crawlers’ heads in, crushing them into nothing.
When he sensed what she was doing, Zu An walked over and asked her, “What’s wrong?”
“Even if their heads are removed, these crawlers can still shoot out their tongues to attack, and they can also spray poison. Back then, many of our people suffered because of that,” Suolun Shi said through gritted teeth. There was hatred in her expression.
Zu An knew she had personally watched as her subordinates suffered a complete defeat, and that she had acc.u.mulated too much pressure. Letting her vent a bit was good too.
Suddenly, he looked in a certain direction and called out, “Show yourself!” With a wave of his hand, a terrifying suction force pulled a being through a wall it had been hiding behind.
At first, Suolun Shi thought it was a monster and rushed over while brandishing her mace, but when she saw who it was, she was stunned. It wasn’t a monster at all, but rather someone dressed in the attire of a Fiend soldier. She exclaimed, “It’s you?”
“I"m a survivor of the battlefield; I"m not a monster! Don’t kill me!” the person hurriedly cried out as he waved his hands. This man was too terrifyingly strong! He didn’t even see how the man had attacked, but then those dozens of crawlers had lost their heads. Meanwhile, he was so far away, and yet he had been pulled over so easily.
“Are you the Little Golden Peng King’s subordinate?” Suolun Shi asked, feeling as if the soldier was a bit familiar. Considering her status, she had interacted with the Little Golden Peng King and naturally recognized his people.
The soldier was overjoyed and immediately explained, “Yes, princess. This subordinate is the scout captain of the Little Golden Peng King’s troops, w.a.n.g Gu. I met the princess a few days ago.”
Zu An asked, “Why are you here? Are you a survivor of this place?” As he spoke, he sized up the soldier. This person was quite clean, without many battle scars.
w.a.n.g Gu said with an anxious expression, “The Little Golden Peng King heard that the Second Empress’ army was ambushed by monsters, so he sent me over to check on the situation and see if there were any survivors. There are dozens of brothers just like me who went in different directions. Now, it seems I am the only one who found the scene of the crime.”
Suolun Shi moved closer and said, “Big brother Zu, he is indeed the Little Peng King’s subordinate.”
Zu An secretly examined w.a.n.g Gu. There were no monsters attached to the man, so he let him go before asking, “Are these members of the Second Empress’ main army?”
Scout Captain w.a.n.g Gu replied, “That’s right, but according to the information we obtained, the remaining troops of the Second Empress broke out and left. They weren’t completely defeated.”
When he heard that, Zu An sighed in relief. As long as the Second Empress wasn’t dead, there was still a chance. He asked, “Where is the Second Empress right now?”
“This subordinate doesn’t know the details. I only know that they’ve broken out. As for which direction they went in, I"m not sure,” w.a.n.g Gu replied.
“Where is the Little Golden Peng King?” Zu An asked. Even if the scout captain didn’t know, there was no way that someone with the Little Golden Peng King’s status wouldn’t.
“Approximately two hundred miles northeast,” w.a.n.g Gu said as he pointed in a direction.
“Take us there,” Zu An said, thinking to himself that two hundred miles wasn’t that far. He intended to check on the situation first.
“Understood!” w.a.n.g Gu hurriedly replied with a nod. Then, with a shake of his body, two pairs of wings suddenly appeared, and he soared into the air. He said, “Regent, princess, please follow me.”
Zu An nodded. As one of the most talented scouts, w.a.n.g Gu naturally did have some ability. He casually held Suolun Shi’s slender waist, then followed along.
When he saw that Suolun Shi didn’t oppose the gesture in the slightest, w.a.n.g Gu was a bit surprised.
Is Suolun Shi going to marry the regent? I must let the young master know about this crucial piece of information.
Even though w.a.n.g Gu wasn’t slow, he was still much slower than Zu An. However, Zu An didn’t urge him to go faster, and instead took the time to sort out out his thoughts. Since the beginning, he had sensed that some things were fishy. Now, he finally figured out where the problem lay.
At first, he"d been told that the Second Prince led his main army into the sealed land to fix the ancient seal, and thus finally put an end to the conflict. It was believed that no monsters had left the sealed land recently because the main forces had gone right into the enemies’ home base. Primeval Iron City hadn"t seen any signs of fighting.
So why were there monsters everywhere inside? Shouldn"t they have been fighting fiercely against the Second Prince? After all, the army the Second Prince led was quite powerful. If they seized strategic positions, facing the monsters here should have been an evenly matched affair. Once he rushed in, there should have been no way for the battle to end quickly. How could the monsters have the chance to attack the reinforcements the Second Empress came in with?
Could it be that the Second Prince’s army was already completely wiped out? Or had some incredibly powerful monster torn through the entire army? If so, why hadn’t they left the sealed land?
Suddenly, he thought in surprise,
Could it be that these guys did all this on purpose, deliberately using the pretext of requesting reinforcements to bring the Fiend races’ army inside?