Book 12, The Descent of the Gods – Chapter 34, Accepting the Heavy Burden
Linley’s sudden departure caused the group of people in Dragonblood Castle to feel rather worried.
“Father, is the reason Uncle left just now because he is going to go search for...?” Cena said softly.
Although he didn’t finish the words, everyone in the hall understood. They, too, suspected that the culprit behind the large-scale appearance of dead cities in the Rohault Empire was a Deity. If Linley were to fight against another Deity, what would the result be?
“I know my big brother’s temper very well.” Wharton furrowed his brows. “Although he doesn’t like to get involved in things that have nothing to do with him, he definitely will not shirk from any of his responsibilities.”
Right. Linley’s responsibilities!
Everyone in the hall, Delia included, nodded slightly.
Right now, aside from the human Deities in the Necropolis of the Gods, the only human Deities in the Yulan continent were Linley and Desri. Linley and Desri, as Deities, stood at the very peak of mankind in this plane.
To Linley and Desri, the Yulan continent was their root and foundation!
Their homeland!
Deities from other planes had descended onto their homeland and had begun to wantonly slaughter humans.
At a time like this, as Deities, Linley and Desri absolutely had to stand out. If even they stayed hidden and only protected themselves...then didn’t that mean that the humans of the Yulan continent would be slaughtered freely by those experts who had fled from the Gebados Planar Prison?
“At a time like this, all we can do is rely on Lord Linley and Lord Desri.” Cena said softly.
In front of Deities, even Saints had to lower their heads. Only other Deities such as Linley and Desri were able to hinder them.
Within the quiet mountain village where Desri was living.
Linley’s sudden arrival naturally was a source of great joy to Desri’s people. Reynolds, as well, hadn’t seen Linley for a long period of time. He wanted to have a good chat with Linley, but this time, Linley had come on an important mission. Nobody dared to get involved, allowing Linley and Desri to speak in detail.
Within the mountain residence.
The warbling of the springs could be heard. Linley and Desri were seated facing each other.
The two of them were currently the two most powerful humans of the Yulan continent plane.
“What!!!” Desri suddenly rose to his feet. Linley had just started to speak, but Desri was already shocked.
Linley’s face was heavy, and he nodded. “Right. The citizens of many cities in the Rohault Empire have been utterly slaughtered, and the cities are now dead cities. You should know that this happened in the Baruch Empire before as well, but this time, too many cities have died. In just a short period of time, the total number of deaths has exceeded a hundred million!”
Desri’s eyes were filled with shock. “A hundred million. If they had to be killed one at a time, how long would that take?”
A hundred million!
A simple number to say. A single town usually had around ten thousand people in it. This represented ten thousand small towns.
“Linley, what do you think we should do?” Desri looked at Linley.
Linley rose to his feet. His eyes seemed to be blazing with fire. His voice couldn’t help but turn clear and loud. “What we should do? Desri, regardless of what happens between the Empires of the Yulan continent, these are the affairs of our Yulan continent! Internal affairs!”
“The Yulan continent is our root! I definitely will not permit those Deities of other planes to engage in this sort of wide-scale slaughter here. What do they take our place to be? A butchery?”
Linley’s heart was filled with fury.
Linley stared at Desri. “Desri, are you planning to just hide here?”
Desri’s gaze turned sharp and fierce as well. “Linley, what the hell do you think you are saying? Right now, O’Brien and the others are in the Necropolis of the Gods. Amongst the humans of the Yulan continent, only we two Deities are currently present. Do you actually think I would hide away in a time like this?”
“A hundred million were killed this time. Who knows how many more will be killed next time? A hundred million? A billion? The entire Yulan continent only has a population of a few billion. Most likely, within a few decades, the entire Yulan continent would become entirely devoid of human life.” Desri said in a harsh, serious voice. “Linley, there are some things that must be done. A long life isn’t necessarily a good one.”
“The Yulan continent is our base. I naturally will stand out to defend it.”
Desri’s voice was very firm.
Linley revealed a hint of a smile on his face. Desri laughed as well.
The two experts now understood what each other was thinking.
They actually weren’t afraid of death. What they were afraid of was dying like a blade of wild grass, to no purpose whatsoever.
To be able to train in the Elemental Laws to the point of becoming Deities meant that both Linley and Desri had extremely strong wills. If they set their mind to something, even if they died, they would accomplish it. If a person had fallen to such straits that even his homeland had become someone else’s butcher shop without him doing anything about it, then that would be a life worse than death.
The setting sun shone down upon the fleeing refugees on the desolate road, stretching out their shadows. Tattered clothes, dirty and thin faces, eyes filled with both fear as well as hope for the future. They worked hard to move towards the north.
In mid-air.
Linley and Desri, shoulder to shoulder, came to a halt. By now, Linley and Desri had entered the borders of the Rohault Empire.
“Let’s go down and take a look. Let’s ask those refugees. Perhaps we can get a truer understanding of the situation.” Desri said. Ever since they had crossed over the border into the Rohault Empire, Linley and Desri’s faces had lost their smiles. Their faces were very solemn.
The Rohault Empire was in a state of utter chaos.
A wind arose, then dispersed. Linley and Desri appeared in the midst of some wild grass by the side of that desolate road, then strode from the grass onto the road. On this road, there were many fleeing refugees. Nobody paid attention to Linley and Desri.
“How much suffering have they endured?” Desri looked at the dim, terrified looks in the eyes of those refugees, sighing as he spoke.
Linley had the same feeling in his heart.
Linley’s gaze suddenly fell on a muscular youngster. That youngster’s gaze was resolved, and on his back he was carrying an ancient, silver-haired old lady. Amongst the hundreds of people present, Linley felt that only this youth seemed to have a bit more spirit, and Linley could also tell at a glance that he was a warrior of the fifth rank.
Linley immediately walked over, and Desri followed him.
Seeing Linley and Desri walk over, the youth instantly looked at the two of them warily. “Milords, what do you need?” This muscular youth had some worldly experience, and he could sense that these two people in front of him were not ordinary.
“My friend, I want to ask you a question. What exactly has happened, to cause you all to flee like this?” Linley’s attitude was very gentle.
Hearing these words, the muscular youth was actually a bit puzzled. “Many of the citizens of our Rohault Empire have been slaughtered, milords. I imagine every refugee knows this. Why do you ask me?”
“I, too, know that many citizens have been slaughtered, and that the number is very high. I am just puzzled. For so many people to have been slaughtered, this shouldn’t have been something that happened just a day or two ago. Why is it that you are only fleeing now, after so many people were killed?”
Linley had been wondering about this the entire time.
A hundred million people.
A Saint, even one who killed hundreds of thousands of people each day, would still have to spend several months in slaughter. News of the ‘dead city’ events should have spread very quickly. How could the citizens have waited for over a hundred million to be slaughtered before they began a wide-scale refugee flight?
He had asked Cena this earlier, but all Cena could say was that they hadn’t had a chance to investigate this yet.
Hearing these words, the muscular youth couldn’t help but reveal a bitter smile on his face. “Milords, if you asked an ordinary person, they probably really wouldn’t know the answer.” As he spoke, the muscular youth let out a long sigh. Linley and Desri’s eyes couldn’t help but light up.
Clearly, this muscular youth knew some secrets.
“Please tell us.” Desri spoke.
The muscular youth didn’t know that the two in front of him were Deities. His eyes were filled with a hint of pain and helplessness. “This isn’t a major secret. When I was stationed in the Barrow [Ba’luo] Legion, many people there knew about this.”
The Barrow Legion?
How could reclusive experts like Linley and Desri pay attention to the legions of an Empire?
“Roughly three years ago, our Barrow Legion, a legion of roughly three hundred thousand people, was divided into many smaller units. We were sent to various intersections throughout the southern reaches of the Empire. Our order was that we were to be stationed there, and that nobody was to be permitted to pass through. Anyone who dared to pass through would be killed.
Desri and Linley were secretly shocked.
They somewhat understood now.
This was why the massacre had claimed a hundred million lives before everything had exploded into chaos.
“At first, we didn’t understand either. Although there were a few people who wanted to pass through the intersections we controlled, and they talked about ‘dead cities’, we soldiers viewed carrying out our orders as paramount. When they tried to pass, we immediately killed them.”
“Initially, when we killed the first two, we didn’t pay attention. But later, one time...one of the people who wanted to flee through our intersection was the good friend of our senior captain. For the sake of our senior captain, we didn’t immediately kill him. But who would’ve thought that this person told us that many cities throughout the southern regions of the Empire had been massacred. In the hometown of our senior captain, the only survivor was that friend. The only reason he had survived was because that day, he had went boar-hunting in the mountains, and thus he had escaped that calamity.”
As the muscular youth spoke, his voice shook.
“By then, we had been stationed there for two full months.” The muscular youth said bitterly. “At that time, our entire unit was stunned. The senior captain immediately sent someone to investigate in the nearby cities. And the result was...well, you should know.”
The muscular man shook his head. “We were preparing to inform the other units, but then we found out that we weren’t the first to make this discovery. Another unit had made this discovery before us.”
Linley and Desri now both understood.
When Saints moved to exterminate a city, when they spread out their spiritual energy to cover the place, generally speaking nobody would escape their notice. The lucky survivors would generally...be like that person who was boar-hunting at night. Only when they returned to the city would they realize what happened.
Thus, the number of escapees was extremely low.
But there were so many possible corridors of escape. A single Legion had many subunits. All of them were stationed in separate intersections, and most likely, each of them would only encounter two or three lucky survivors, but most of those lucky survivors would be slaughtered.
After all. Obeying orders was paramount.
“After learning everything, all the brothers in our unit revolted. Our parents, our spouses, or children were all dead. The people in our homeland were all dead. What was the point of us brothers staying in the army?” The muscular youth was somewhat angry as well. “Compared to those brothers of mine, my luck was a bit better. My homeland wasn’t in the south, and so my family members managed to avoid this calamity.”
The muscular youth turned to look at the old lady he was carrying on his back, his face revealing a hint of concern.
“Thank you.” Linley said sincerely.
At this moment, Linley and Desri’s hearts felt so cold. They could all guess how this came about.
Many cities were massacred, and most likely, there were still more Saints flying in the air, from city to city, killing those lucky survivors. Those who managed to flee to the army camps were extremely rare. But something like this couldn’t be hidden forever.”
“From what this youth said, this slaughter seemed to have been going on for two months.” Linley made this hypothesis.
Linley and Desri glanced at each other. Both of them quietly snuck back into the wild grass by the road, and then the two of them shot into the air, flying towards the south at high speed. Linley and Desri both had new targets.
“What we need to do is to find those Saints located within the Rohault Empire.” Linley was very certain that the Saints within the Rohault Empire would definitely be aware of a major event like this.
In fact...
These events should have been carried out by Saints.
After all, it wasn’t too likely that a Deity would personally go from city to city slaughtering people. Linley expected that a Deity would control and order some Saints to go carry this out. What they needed to do was to find out some information about this Deity from the Saints.
Know thy enemy, know thy self. Only then would one win every battle.