Volume 3, Chapter 82 – The One Appearing Before Mu Yelan—Is It His Mother? Or…

After hearing the intelligence report from the imperial guard, Mu Yelan sucked in a sharp breath and hurriedly leaped to the top of Qingxiao Pavilion, gazing into the distance.

Then, this empire’s emperor couldn’t help but dramatically change expression.

“……”

At this moment, the distant sky was shrouded in endless darkness. An overwhelming horde of Corrupted Beasts, like an unstoppable black torrent, was swallowing the entire world. They circled and danced in the air, their wing beats stirring up fierce winds that swept up dust and debris, blocking out the sunlight. The nearby plains seemed to have fallen into eternal night, with only the eerie blue eyes of the Vassals of Sky monster horde flickering with bone-chilling light.

The Corrupted Beast horde was rapidly approaching the capital, and the roars of those monsters followed accordingly.

The howls rose and fell continuously, deafeningly loud, drilling into everyone’s minds like demonic whispers, tearing at their sanity.

The garrison troops still maintaining order in Qingyan City were already cowering beneath the city walls, their faces pale as paper, sweat soaking through their clothes. Their eyes were filled with despair, and some even collapsed to their knees, hands covering their heads, trying to block out those terrifying curse power auras that struck directly at the depths of their souls. However, this force surged like a tide, pressing down so heavily that people couldn’t breathe, their chests feeling suffocated as if crushed by boulders.

For a moment, the space between heaven and earth emanated a putrid and bloody smell, with an aura of despair and terror rippling throughout.

Some began to scream, some muttered prayers, and others stared blankly at the sky, their eyes devoid of life…

Biting his lip, Mu Yelan suddenly leaped down from the high platform and returned to the group of imperial guards.

As soon as he came down, Mu Yelan grabbed the collar of the commander of the imperial guards and questioned sternly:

“Shangguan Jie! Didn’t you say there were at least two more hours?! Why are the Vassals of Sky monsters attacking now?!!”

“I’m, I’m sorry, Your Majesty.”

Shangguan Jie hurriedly shook his head innocently:

“I, I was just conveying the information collected by the intelligence department to you!”

“Tch…”

Mu Yelan snorted coldly.

At this point, assigning blame was meaningless.

“How is the evacuation proceeding?!”

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“A quarter of the citizens haven’t been teleported away yet. It’s estimated to take at least another hour.”

“……”

“One hour…”

After muttering to himself, Mu Yelan turned his gaze to the other imperial guard members behind Shangguan Jie and seriously issued orders.

“You all go to the teleportation base immediately to maintain order on site!! Use every means possible to get people away! Bring out those old, unsafe teleporters too—now is not the time to consider safety!”

“Yes!” ×N

“Also, protect Mu Yun’er. Absolutely cannot let anything happen to her—you must safely send her to the Divine Kingdom, understand?!”

Mu Yun’er was Mu Yelan’s sister from the same mother, the family member he valued most in this world.

No matter what happened, Mu Yelan would not allow anything to happen to his sister.

Faced with Mu Yelan’s orders, all the imperial guards knelt on one knee and solemnly responded:

“We guarantee to complete the mission!” ×N

“Go.”

“Yes!” ×N

The next instant, accompanied by a burst of spiritual power, eight imperial guards quickly disappeared from their original positions, carrying the emperor’s decree.

“Shangguan Jie.”

Mu Yelan turned his gaze to this commander of the imperial guards who intended to live and die with him.

“Come with me. We must buy as much time as possible.”

“Understood, Your Majesty.”

Watching Mu Yelan quickly running toward the interior of Qingxiao Pavilion, Shangguan Jie couldn’t help but take a deep breath with complex emotions. He knew his final moment was about to come…

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But for the sake of allowing the citizens and his family to evacuate smoothly, Shangguan Jie still followed without hesitation.

Soon, under Mu Yelan’s leadership, Shangguan Jie came with him to the royal secret passage within Qingxiao Pavilion and quickly shuttled through it.

Mu Yelan was very clear now that with just the tens of thousands of remaining soldiers left in the capital, it was impossible to contend with the Vassals of Sky.

But since he hadn’t sensed the auras of the Celestial Blight and the Five Dragon Kings in that scene that blotted out the sky and earth just now, a glimmer of hope arose in Mu Yelan’s heart.

Even without those heavy weapons from the weapons depot, as long as the Vassals of Sky’s top-tier combat power hadn’t arrived, there was still hope to delay for a while.

No matter what, Qingyan City was the capital of the Kingdom of Qingyun. After being carefully managed by the royal family for hundreds of years, it still had certain trump cards for self-preservation.

It should be able to hold them off.

No, “it must hold them off…”

Mu Yelan whispered firmly.

—”Strange…”

Shangguan Jie, following Mu Yelan, seemed to mutter in confusion at this moment.

“What’s strange?”

“…The Celestial Blight’s Corrupted Beasts—why are there so many? That sky-blocking mass just now… there must have been at least several million, right?”

A trace of confusion flashed in Shangguan Jie’s eyes.

“No matter how you look at it, fighting until now, I’ve already eliminated six vassals and over a million Corrupted Beasts. But why? Why are there still so many Corrupted Beasts? The Celestial Blight’s territory, Cinderfloat Isle, shouldn’t have that many living beings, right?”

Shangguan Jie’s confusion was not unfounded.

After all, Corrupted Beasts don’t reproduce among themselves.

Corrupted Beasts are monsters born from infected corpses using curse power.

Therefore, Ulutiel, whose territory was on Cinderfloat Isle, had always been considered to control a relatively small number of Corrupted Beasts. After all, the area around Cinderfloat Isle was too barren to cultivate more Corrupted Beasts.

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However, faced with this question, Mu Yelan’s expression visibly darkened at a rate visible to the naked eye.

He already had an answer in his heart.

“Damn sacrifices…”

Those monsters were probably born from the people sacrificed by the Kingdom of Qingyun every year…

“Sacrifices… Your Majesty, you mean…”

“Hmm, I never thought that our Kingdom of Qingyun has been helping the evil goddess strengthen her forces all these years without realizing it. How ridiculous.”

“How could this be?”

“Now is not the time to dwell on this. We need to hurry. There are still some special weapons stored in the royal treasury. Using those weapons, we might be able to… hmm?!!!”

Suddenly, with the appearance of a figure ahead, Mu Yelan’s words came to an abrupt halt, and he stopped completely, standing frozen in place.

“This, how is this possible?”

At this moment, an unexpected figure quietly entered Mu Yelan’s line of sight.

It was a woman dressed in a long gown in the style of the Kingdom of Qingyun’s royal family, with golden hair carefully pinned up behind her head.

The woman stood quietly in the center of the corridor.

The dim light in the corridor illuminated the woman’s delicate face, adding a touch of mystery to her beauty.

The moment he recognized that familiar face, Mu Yelan’s body trembled with excitement.

“Mo-Mother? Mother?!”

Mother?

Hearing this, Shangguan Jie, who was following behind Mu Yelan and installing a self-destruct device on himself, also stopped and looked ahead following Mu Yelan’s gaze. Then, this commander of the imperial guards’ pupils suddenly contracted.

Emotions of shock and wild joy suddenly overflowed from his pupils.

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“Wife!!!”

Excitedly shouting out, Shangguan Jie’s entire being couldn’t wait to rush forward and embrace that graceful figure.

Mu Yelan: ????What????

Shangguan Jie’s unexpected roar unsurprisingly caused Mu Yelan to break down.

The next moment, Mu Yelan suddenly reached out, directly grabbed Shangguan Jie’s collar, and pressed him against the wall.

“Shangguan Jie! You bastard, what nonsense are you spouting!! That’s my mother?! Shouting like that at a nation’s empress dowager?!! Are you seeking death?!!”

Mu Yelan’s words carried murderous intent.

However, Shangguan Jie, whose attention was completely ‘absorbed’ by that pink graceful figure in the distance, didn’t care at all. Instead, he tried to break free from the restraints like someone possessed, instinctively arguing:

“What empress dowager!! Didn’t the empress dowager die long ago?!! That’s my wife! Wife!! I knew you wouldn’t die!! Those trash from the Vassals of Sky couldn’t possibly kill you!”

“Shangguan Jie! I think you’re asking for… hmm?”

Suddenly, Mu Yelan frowned.

This wave of instinctive roaring from Shangguan Jie actually caused Mu Yelan’s thoughts to gradually return to calm, abandoning the bizarre idea of killing Shangguan Jie and rushing over to embrace his mother.

The emperor’s rationality came back online.

Moreover, Shangguan Jie was right—Mother had already died…

Back then, Mother had died of illness right in front of him and Mu Yun’er, and he had personally presided over the cremation ceremony.

How could she still be alive?

Thinking this, Mu Yelan suddenly clenched his fist and glared viciously at the ‘mother’ ahead.

—”Who exactly are you?!”