Chapter 496: Destruction of the Heavenly Eagle Kingdom (Two)
The Sect of Dragon and Tiger was the Heavenly Eagle Kingdom’s final line of defense. With their retreat, the Heavenly Eagle Kingdom no longer had the ability to defend themselves against the Qinhuang Kingdom. The other Heaven Saint Masters from the kingdom had no desire to fight and throw away their lives. They had been pulled into this by the Heavenly Eagle Kingdom while not having any personal grievances with the Gesun Kingdom. They had done nothing wrong, so they surrendered without a second thought.
The Sect of Dragon and Tiger were the pillars of the Heaven Saint Masters of the Heavenly Eagle Kingdom, but the Heaven Saint Masters were the pillars of support for the ordinary soldiers fighting down below. So when the Heaven Saint Masters were all captured, the soldiers lost their fighting spirit and began to surrender.
Finding a thick iron chain, Jian Chen had Xiao Tian and the others bind up the Heaven Saint Masters. Although it wouldn’t actually serve to do so, in the eyes of the regular soldiers down below, the reality was quite different.
At this treatment from the Qinhuang Kingdom, the individuals from the Heaven Saint Masters were silently fuming in anger, but they could only swallow their anger and bear the shame. Although this was a loss of face right in front of all these soldiers, if it meant that their lives were saved, what point did face serve? Besides, being captured by the hands of the Qinhuang Kingdom’s Imperial Advisors wasn’t too grievous.
“Xiao Tian, you ten will stay here and look over them. If anyone tries to rebel or has any other ideas, then kill them.” Jian Chen commanded to the ten Imperial Advisors.
“Yes, Imperial Protector!” Xiao Tian replied before bringing the captured Heaven Saint Masters down to the walls of the city.
Jian Chen looked to Qin Wuming and the other two, “Qin Wuming, Qin Wutian, Qin Wujian, have a hundred thousand of the Eastern Deity Swords follow me to surround the imperial palace.” Unknowingly, Jian Chen’s voice had a dignified tone to it. Perhaps because he had been commanding people for some time now, Jian Chen was now nurturing this type of power within himself.
“Yes!” Qin Wuming immediately began to rally some soldiers.
Jian Chen slowly descended to the ground before landing right besides the king of the Gesun Kingdom and the others.
“Xiang’er, how is the situation up front? How did the Heavenly Eagle Kingdom suddenly bring out so many experts?” Changyang Ba was the first to blurt out. He was extremely worried about the battle ahead, but because he was a far distance away, he wasn’t able to see the situation too clearly.
“Father, all is right. The Heavenly Eagle Kingdom found help with several other Heaven Saint Masters, but they have retreated. Right now, all of the experts of the Heavenly Eagle Kingdom have surrendered and are now our captives. The city has been captured, all that needs to be done is to arrest the king in his palace.” Jian Chen spoke calmly. To him, this was almost like an everyday occurrence, so it didn’t bear heavily on his mood.
“Haha, my dear nephew, allow us to go with you to the imperial palace. This king wishes to see the king of the Heavenly Eagle Kingdom in his beaten state.” The king of Gesun Kingdom laughed. There was longing in his voice, and right now, the signs of being a king couldn’t be detected anywhere in him.
“I wish to go as well!” Princess You Yue was eager as well. Perhaps it was because she was too excited, but her beautiful face had turned quite pink. Yet, this shade of pink only served to add to her charm.
Jian Chen smiled, “Right now all the Heavenly Eagle Kingdom’s experts have been captured. All that remains within the palace should be Earth Saint Masters and the sort, meaning there should be no threat at all. We’ll all go at once then.”
The Gesun Kingdom’s 500,000 soldiers did not enter the city and instead set up camp outside. Jian Chen brought the king, Changyang Ba, and the others on magical beasts into the city on the blood-stained roads. Sometimes blood would be splashed up into the air; the smell was so eye-watering that the princess had to use her hand to cover her nose and hold her eyes shut so that she wouldn’t look at the ground.
The interior of the city was like the Pure Land within the secular world. Although some smoke could be seen wafting around, it was not as bloody as the outside of the city. Everything seemed to be at peace here. Traveling through the interior of the city for a while, Jian Chen finally saw Qin Wuming and the other two riding on their bloody mounts along with their division of soldiers.
“To the imperial palace!” Jian Chen shouted, riding his magical beast mount to the very front toward the imperial palace. On both sides of the streets, the commoners and the mercenaries stood by and watched the charge. Their fingers pointed at the army of the Qinhuang Kingdom with an endless amount of discussion, but everyone’s faces had a look of worry and terror, afraid of what the war meant for them.
With the speed the army was traveling at, it took them less than a candle worth of time to arrive at the Heavenly Eagle Kingdom’s imperial palace doors. However, compared to the past, the imperial palace had lost all of its might. Despite the guards all being there, they all carried a bleak and desolate expression, almost like it was the dusk of judgement day for them. Walking to the very end, none of the soldiers had the same dazzling light of magnificence to them.
When the squadron of soldiers on top of the walls of the palace saw Jian Chen’s group, their faces instantly blanched before getting off the walls and out of sight in a panicked run.
“Surround the palace, don’t let anyone out! If anyone doesn’t comply, kill them without pardon!” Jian Chen commanded out loud so that everyone from the Eastern Deity Swords could hear.
“Yes!” The ten thousand soldiers all roared to the heavens before moving to surround the palace in a flash.
Jian Chen and the others rode into the palace at a leisurely rate on their magical beast mounts. Right behind them was a group of a hundred elite soldiers, each one was an Earth Saint Master.
At this moment within the interior of the palace, the king sat by himself with a decadent look on his dragon throne. His eyes were vacant as he stared around the palace without any spirit to them. He had already received a report about the result of the war. Originally, he had thought he could depend on the power of the Sect of Dragon and Tiger to escape without mishap. With the Sect of Dragon and Tiger being one of the strongest sects on the Tian Yuan Continent with a power that wasn’t too beneath the Qinhuang Kingdom, he thought that even the Qinhuang Kingdom would fear confrontation with them.
He didn’t think that the Gesun and Qinhuang Kingdom would be so intent on destroying his Heavenly Eagle Kingdom. Not only did they not hesitate to back away from the Sect of Dragon and Tiger, they had even swore an oath to trample over the Heavenly Eagle Kingdom.
Looking around the empty palace halls, the king had a sorrowful feeling in his heart. He knew that after this event, the Heavenly Eagle Kingdom would be forever committed to being history never to return.
“Ai, how unexpected. Truly unexpected. For a simple mistake in the past, the sweat and blood generations and generations have put into founding this country was ruined.” The king sighed helplessly.
At this moment, the palace eunuch came running into the halls in a hurry. Frantically, he spoke, “Your Majesty, the eldest prince, second prince, and third princess has successfully entered the secret passageway and escaped. There’s not much time left, your Majesty has to leave here now, or there won’t be any time left.”
The king of the Heavenly Eagle Kingdom shook his head without saying a word. The palace eunuch wasn’t able to understand what the meaning was.
“Your Majesty, there really is no time to spare. The army of the Qinhuang Kingdom has already entered the palace and will be here in a moment. Your Majesty, if we don’t go now, it’ll be too late. We must leave now. While the green hills last, there’ll be wood to burn. As long as our lives are saved, then there will be a chance to make a comeback.” The eunuch spoke in a panic.
“No, I won’t run!” The king finally spoke. Pushing away the eunuch, he stood up from his throne and looked at the still empty palace halls. With a gloomy spirit, he muttered, “If you wish to go, then go. This king won’t go. This king will stay. This king will not go, this king won’t leave this place. This king wants to stay.”
“Your Majesty, don’t speak so foolishly. There’s no time, we must leave straight away! There is no time if we go later.” The eunuch was panicked now and began to pull at the king’s arm.
“Get out!” The king exploded before swinging his arm to throw the eunuch away. “This king will not go. This king will be with the Heavenly Eagle Kingdom. When the kingdom lives, the people live, when the kingdom dies, the people die!” The king began to grow more and more emotional, these words had been shouted out loud.