Shao Xuan planned to get on land, regardless of the sandy desert or rolling hills. Definitely better than the ocean without a place to rest your feet. However, Shoa Xuan sensed even more threats as Chacha continued to fly ahead.
Land was not safe either.
Dense little dots appeared from far, grouped together into a sudden emerging cloud of grey as they swarmed towards Shao Xuan.
A flock of birds!
The same scent of death came from these birds.
Reanimated corpses!
The enemy was prepared!
Shao Xuan did not expect Yi Xiang to be able to enslave this many birds. Forget about the desert people, or the giant deep-sea monsters, now this flock of birds too?!
Shao Xuan did not know the extent of Yi Xiang’s abilities or what lay ahead of him. At least, now he knew that flying towards land was still not a smart choice. Yi Xiang had cast a large net to trap Shao Xuan out in the ocean!
Should he force his way towards land? More threats must lie ahead. His gut told him there were more things waiting for him.
Shao Xuan was definitely stronger on land but forcing his way in was not a good idea either. And the desert was just ahead, a place even better for Yi Xiang.
Retreat? Towards the hills?
Also not a good idea.
Should he retreat to the ocean, just as his enemy wanted?
Looking at the figures chasing after him on the surface of the ocean, he patted Chacha, “Continue straight ahead!”
Shao Xuan did not know what was in front but he felt like he had a higher chance of survival there.
The yellow desert and blue sea formed an eye-catching boundary. Sometimes, one could see people in tattered clothing moving about. Those were not Rock Hill people but scattered desert robbers.
Further ahead, there were no more of these people, only stone houses built by the coast. There were people clad in golden armour walking around these houses while others stood, unmoving. Those were the famous undead soldiers.
He heard that there was a temporary ceasefire so right now there was no intense battle going on.
Not just the desert, Shao Xuan could also see the coast of the other side. In this direction, the gap between both mainlands would grow closer though most people did not use this place to cross to the other side due to the ongoing war. They would just become collateral damage.
King City’s troops were ordered to kill whoever they did not recognise while the desert’s troops were even more merciless.
The closer the two mainlands were, the more soldiers could be seen. At the closest point between both mainlands, one could clearly see army camps.
When Shao Xuan passed through, he naturally attracted attention from both sides.
A team of archers from both sides appeared, watching Shao Xuan closely. If it was not for the fact that he flew too high, they would have fired immediately.
“Should we send people to check that out?” An archer asked the leader. They sometimes met situations like that. When they could not shoot, they would send riders— soldiers riding on birds. They too had air forces.
The leader merely stared at the ocean solemnly. He did not answer nor did he look up at the figure.
Since their leader did not answer, his subordinates did not dare do anything either, merely waiting quietly for an order. Those observing the leader noticed a change in his expression from caution to confusion, then quickly to shock. He had turned a ghostly white, as if he had seen something terrifying.
“Retreat!!”
The leader roared with all the strength in his body, startling the archers so much they accidentally fired a few arrows.
No one had time to care. The troops in front quickly retreat. The way they ran looked like they were running for their lives.
On the other side, on the desert, the crowd had received the order to retreat from the coast. Not a single person remained.
Some people wanted to ask what happened but when they looked at the ocean, their hairs stood on end.
“Look, what is that?!” someone asked with a trembling voice.
“A sea beast! A sea beast!”
“Why are there so many heading this way?!”
“Stop looking, just run!”
Whoosh—
A wave many times taller than King City’s city walls rose, then slammed into the people who could not run in time. A gigantic figure broke through the surface, reeking of rotten flesh, then crashed into the shore.
The camps built by the sea were all destroyed either from the waves or from crashing beasts.
Many people thought that these deep-sea beasts would be stranded once on land but these giants merely flapped their fins and tails quickly, charging further inland. Everyone’s jaws dropped.
There were many more peculiar fish that were covered in scales but had thick skin and clawed feet similar to lizards, though with much flatter torsos. They crawled on land much faster than the finned giant beasts. Everything was flattened as they passed through the camp.
The most terrifying part was that none of these animals was alive! They were the same as the army of undead from the desert!
No one knew what to do except retreat.
They had no courage to even unsheathe their swords in the face of a gigantic beast.
A bird someone had shot down flopped on the ground. A soldier sliced its wings off with his sword but this wingless bird continued to flop around, as if it could not feel pain. The scent of death and its grey-white eyes indicated that it was not alive. It moved like a live animal though, and if it had its wings, it would be flying despite having an arrow through its body.
“Desert… It must be the people of the desert!” Their voices filled with fear and panic. They had fought Rock Hill so many times, naturally they knew that these undead creatures must belong to them. However, they had never seen so many reanimated corpses. Not this size, not on this scale.
Was this the final full-scale attack?
Everyone shuddered, chills running down their spines.
Did they have to face this head-on? Their tiny bodies would just be crushed by the monsters, no?
However, as the soldiers waited for their orders nervously, they realised that the giant beasts ignored them, mechanically walking ahead in a straight line. They crawled towards the area where both mainlands were closer to each other, then entered the waters again.
The flock of birds had disappeared while all the other stranded sea animals also crawled along the coast and then slipped back into the waters at the same spot.
When the last giant beast entered the water, and no more new ones appeared again, the King City soldiers slowly heaved a sigh of relief. The stench of rot still lingered. Barely a rock could be seen on the coast, everything had been crushed beneath the giants’ feet into stone chips, their entire camp had disappeared.
Only the messy, blurry footprints on the ground proved that they had just witnessed a terrifying sight.
In contrast, the reanimated corpses they previously fought were just child’s play.
“Sir, the beasts won’t appear again, will they?” asked a soldier fearfully.
“I don’t know.” The leader clutched the hilt of his sword unsteadily. He did not know who was controlling these dead animals but this must be related to Rock HIll. They also wondered, if Rock HIll had the capability to do this, they didn’t they do it earlier? And who was the person who flew past just now?
No one would be able to withstand an army like that, not even a city. It was not within a human’s capabilities.
On the other side, at Rock Hill, Shi Shu looked out at the beast horde without a word. He had rushed over after receiving a report from a subordinate, he knew that Yi Xiang wanted to kill Shao Xuan. Previously, Yi Xiang had been injured during his battle with the Yi clan and the culprit was none other than Shao Xuan of Flaming Horn.
The largest threat to Rock Hill was not King City but Flaming Horn. Today, the only person who could threaten Yi Xiang was Shao Xuan of Flaming Horn! What happened just now meant that Yi Xiang had made the decision to do his best to kill Shao Xuan.
There were many ways to kill off a threat. Direct, indirect, from the front, from the side… If Shi Shu wanted to remove a threat, and they were powerful, he would do it indirectly, from the side. But Yi Xiang was different. No matter the Yi family or Shao Xuan, Yi Xiang only chose a direct attack head-on. At most a few tricks here and there, for example by forcing Shao Xuan out.
To the Yi family, fighting directly in the real world was very energy consuming and damaging to their bodies. Yi Xiang had sacrificed a lot to live such a long life. He would never spend this much energy on anything unimportant or not urgent. Including the war with the six clans. Yi Xiang did not actually care that much about that battle, that was why he never appeared.
However, Shi Shi was confident that with Yi Xiang’s abilities, he would succeed in doing anything he put his mind to. The Yi family was an example.
Once Yi Xiang killed Shao Xuan and Flaming Horn was no longer a threat, even if Flaming Horn and King City teamed up in the future, Rock Hill will never be afraid!
Within the underground palace, tens of thousands of corpses awaited the next command. Yi Xiang did not have to control them himself for Rock Hill City had already trained a batch of shamans who could control the reanimated corpses. They were currently enslaving the corpses.
Shi Shu thought about how Rock Hill would become known in regions outside the desert once they killed Shao Xuan.
On the other side, Shao Xuan did not know what the soldiers or Rock Hill City were thinking about. All he did was listen to his gut feeling. He had no idea what was ahead, now he was like a surrounded prey animal. Only time would tell if he could get out of the trap.
Ahead was the endless ocean. No one would have expected Shao Xuan to not go back to land or ask for help. He merely continued straight ahead towards the open waters.
