Chapter 671: Chapter 400 Unbelievably High Price
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Miss Sunx looked at the two beasts beside her but said nothing. When he glanced into his own heart, Lan Feng sighed. As he thought he could also see the red fog energy belonging to the red wolf, his eyes widened. He could even control the monks’ blue energy. Although he couldn’t manipulate the energy of other phenomena, the fog energy he had begun to sense excited him greatly.
Before long, the palace came into view. Yan Xiaobao slowed his pace. Although he wished to succeed quickly, he was still aware of the possibility of crusader ambushes along the way. If they rushed in recklessly, they might all die. Slowing down, everyone surveyed their surroundings. Their sharp eyes and noses took in everything nearby, yet as they approached closer to the palace, they detected no movements or scents.
There hadn’t been much fighting near the castle. Most residents in the area had fled early without being killed, but the stench of blood lingered heavily in the air. This smell deeply worried Yan Xiaobao.
Upon arriving at the palace, the smell of blood grew even stronger. Yan Xiaobao was fully prepared, knowing he had not brought soldiers or the Emperor by his side. Looking at Miss Sunx, Yan Xiaobao could see she was berating herself as well; this was her army, and her face was riddled with worry and fear. These were her guards—some of these men and women had been with her for thousands of years—but now she and Yan Xiaobao had left them behind. Alone, while there was a massive crusader force present.
The castle had been breached. The walls were shattered, the columns crushed. Furniture lay destroyed as though worthless, and anything of value had been stored in multiple storage stones to divide later. Everything valuable was gone, leaving the castle eerily empty and desolate. As they stepped through the main castle doors, the doors hung precariously on their hinges, but the worst was the overwhelming smell of blood and death.
They were killing them. They couldn’t rush through the castle to reach the beasts and the Emperor left in its depths. But they knew the dangers of haste, so they moved cautiously through one room after another, corridor after corridor. The closer they got, the stronger the smell grew. Moments later, the scent of blood mixed with the stench of rotting flesh, reminding Yan Xiaobao of the crusaders they had encountered earlier, a glimmer of hope sparking in his heart. Perhaps they had managed to fight back against the crusaders. After all, Yan Xiaobao remembered seeing only one hundred crusaders on the walls earlier, while the army the Emperor had left him exceeded five thousand soldiers. There was a possibility they had won the battle, but a small voice inside whispered, "Don’t get your hopes up—deep down, you know that’s impossible." Yan Xiaobao clenched his fists and prayed to God, begging that they hadn’t all perished. Yan Xiaobao silently thanked Lan Feng for maintaining control over his body. He knew that if he had taken control, he would have charged into the rooms, abandoning all sense of caution. Walking through the castle, the silence was suffocating. Although everything reeked of blood, it was evident that the fight had ended. The mingling scents of blood and rotting flesh kindled a flicker of hope in everyone as they rushed into the room where they had earlier left the soldiers and the Emperor.
The sight they encountered froze the entire army in their tracks, even Lan Feng, who controlled Yan Xiaobao’s body, paused and faltered. Before them was a room drenched in blood. The beasts lay dead across the floor. Small black cloaks scattered everywhere, indicating that while the beasts had perished, the crusaders had paid an unbelievable price.
In the center of the room sat the Emperor. His face was twisted in terror, tears streaming down his cheeks. He had collapsed onto the ground, trembling uncontrollably, his arms shielding his eyes. Taking in the scene, Yan Xiaobao and Lan Feng were bewildered as to why the crusaders hadn’t taken the Emperor away. A moment of contemplation revealed the answer—they simply didn’t care about the Emperor. Their orders were likely not to guard anyone but to slaughter as many beasts as possible. Seeing the dead beasts weighed heavily on Yan Xiaobao’s heart. His eyes burned, and he once again silently thanked Lan Feng for keeping control of his body. He had failed his soldiers, leading them to their deaths, but he couldn’t let himself succumb to self-pity. No one knew if there were more crusaders lurking nearby.
"Pull yourself together!" Lan Feng told him. "We won’t wallow in guilt. Even though you’ve lost some soldiers, you still have others under your command. You owe it to them to stand strong!" Hearing these words, Yan Xiaobao understood what Lan Feng meant. With solemn self-reproach, he was finally able to focus on the events around him.
"Let’s first count how many crusaders have died here," he said, and Lan Feng nodded in agreement. Then he approached the corpses of the fallen beasts and black cloaks. Lan Feng moved across the room, counting fifty-eight cloaks, and couldn’t help but feel a surge of pride for their soldiers. Among them were two experts wielding Holy Level powers as well as all the ordinary crusaders, whose strength rivaled that of the beasts. While the soldiers far outnumbered the enemy, the Saints Team had clearly bridged that gap. They had fought with tireless effort until the bitter end. If anything, Yan Xiaobao should take pride in his guards rather than pity them. Glancing around, he noticed the expression on Miss Sunx’s face. Her eyes weren’t wet with tears; instead, they were as hard as stone. Her lips didn’t tremble but instead bore a steadfast, somber smile.