243 Massacre

Eastfell City, like many other cities in the Crawford Kingdom, was designed according to the old feudal system and was made to be self-sustaining with its future growth in mind.

It was a beautiful city surrounded by lush fields of agricultural farming and awash with fresh air, but right now, this once beautiful city, the gem of the Eastfell Region had become a blazing inferno filled with dense billowing black smoke and madness. Buildings burned, fields were ruined, and people scrambled for their lives.

The Southern Valaran Army led by sect members of Bloodfiend Sect was currently razing the city to the ground and slaughtering its people after the army reached the city.

A mother carrying her baby daughter was seen being chased by a group of Valaran soldiers and tripped over a stone on the street among many other scenes of similar cases of people being hunted down by soldiers.

"Nooo!" The mother protected her darling baby within her arms as she rolled on the ground. She looked at the soldiers with a fearful expression and tearfully pleaded, "Please, at least spare my girl. She is just a baby!" 

The Valaran soldiers wore hesitant expressions as they looked at each other as the mother show her baby to them, but a grunt came from the back and their expression turned resolute with gritted teeth as they slashed out with their drawn swords.

"No!" The mother was both shocked and furious at their heartlessness. She retracted her arms and shielded her baby as she suffered the fatal onslaught of their attack.

"Why are you doing this? Are you still humans?!" 

Helplessness, despair, unwillingness, and desperation could be seen in the mother's eyes as she coughed up blood and strength were drained from her body, before she drew her last breath not long after.

The baby wailed loudly like it was mourning for her mother's passing. The Valaran soldiers could not bring themselves to kill the baby even after they killed her mother.

"Kill it. Everyone in this city has to die, otherwise, the one to die will be you!" 

The voice sounded again from behind and the Valaran soldiers trembled. 

Soon, the baby's wail was no more.

The owner of the voice belonged to an inner sect elder. Seeing the deed was done, the person flicked his sleeve and went to supervise a different area.

Similar scenes were taking place all over Eastfell City.

Accompanying the inner sect elder was a group of inner sect disciples and outer sect members. The inner sect disciples remained indifferent, but the group of outer sect members was confused.

What kind of war was this? They were not conquering but destroying everything and blatantly wasting away human resources that could be used for cultivation. 

After the group was gone, the Valaran soldiers gripped their fist kowtowed an apology to the dead bodies.

"We're sorry!" 

…

Eastfell Governor's Mansion.

"What's the meaning of this?! This was not part of the deal!"

The Governor roared to a hooded figure with great fury after seeing his beautiful city burned and his people killed from the top balcony.

"The deal was after we successfully conquer the kingdom and remove the Crawford Royal Family, the Eastfell Region will become independent and belong solely to you, but we didn't say in what state we would give it to you!" The hooded figure sneered.

"Y-You!" The Governor pointed at the hooded figure while trembling with rage. "Arghh! I'll kill you, you crazy bastard!"

Before the Governor could attack, another hooded figure suddenly appeared behind him and stabbed him in the heart!

The Governor turned to the new assailant and retreated several weakened steps with his strength and vitality rapidly declining. "Why? How could you burn the bridge after crossing it?! We cooperated for so many years!"

"Without destruction, there can be no creation." The hooded figure said indifferently. "Since you no longer see eye to eye with us, we no longer need you."

What the upper circle of the Bloodfiend Sect wanted the total eradication of the Crawford Royalties and all who worships the Hero King!

"You wanted to wipe out the entire population of the Crawford Kingdom?! That's millions of lives we are talking about! You are crazy! You're all fucking insane!" 

The Governor roared with the last of his strength. He passed away with his eyes wide open. Horror and deep regret could be seen in them.

"We are pretty much done here. Proceed with the plan. When the situation here spreads to the other region like wildfire, I doubt those idiots would open their gates for us willingly." The hooded figure smirked.

The other hooded figure wiped his dagger nonchalantly and nodded. A beacon was fired into the sky to inform their sect disciples in the surrounding regions to proceed with the next step of the plan.

"Wait a minute." The other hooded figure suddenly paused. "We have company."

On a distant hill, just outside Eastfell City, A strong army of 10 thousand Crawford soldiers arrived under the leadership of the Brigadier General, Rohan.

"What madness!"

Rohan's mood plummeted at the state of the burning city in front of them, while the eyes of the soldiers turned red from the horrific scene before them. 

The Brigadier General drew his sword and raised it high, before issuing a string of orders with a deep but resonating voice, "Charge into the city and kill all these mad dogs for me and save the people! The airship will provide support from above!"

"Such atrocity will not be allowed in this kingdom! We will accept no surrender from these fiends! Spare no one!"

"Go!"

With their specialized muskets equipped with bayonets, the soldiers obliged in unison with shocking volume that shook the very earth before they charged like the rumbling of ten thousand hooves!

"Kill!"

The army quickly flooded the city occupied by 20 thousand enemy soldiers and its dwindling residents. The enemy soldiers were already low in morale from the senseless killing of innocents. They were no match for the high angry spirit of the Crawford army.

While the city battle took place, no one knew that two figures were quietly overlooking the situation in the clouds above Eastfell City before they finally disappeared elsewhere.

…

Azure River crossing, north, Extreme Misty Forest.

As mentioned by the Grand Elder, he was not the only Transcendent that participated in the war. The Grand Elder of Illusory Butterfly Sect had also participated.

To the Illusory Butterfly Sect who had their headquarters situated inside the misty forest, they were extremely familiar with it and intended to use it as cover as they sneak an entire 20 thousand strong Durham army with them around to attack the Capital directly.

But not after building the bridge to cross the Azure River that split the Extreme Misty Forest in half, they courted disaster on the other side.

It was the outer region, which was considered the safest part of the forest. Any problem that could be solved by the Transcendent leading the group in this region was not considered a real problem. 

But alas, a Perilous Land was, after all, a Perilous Land. Who knew that there was such a monstrous being in this region of the woods?

Only a few survivors from the Illusory Butterfly Sect was left. The monstrous being was still present, but they had all been rooted by extreme fear and could not escape. 

The entire 20 thousand Durham soldiers were wiped out and the Grand Elder was even eaten whole.

That monstrous thing had the form of an angel, but when it ate the Grand Elder, it was like the devil that crawled out of hell! The survivors could not stop shivering as they recalled the sight.

Corpses piled like mountains as a heavy stench of blood filled the place. Some dangled in the air by silky red strings that could be seen hanging all over the surrounding trees. They were blood-soaked spider webs.

The Spider Queen Arachnia could be seen sitting on a mountain of corpses while gnawing on the bone of one of her victims with a disgruntled expression.

The bone was tossed to the side before she eyed the survivors coldly and said, "Tell me, humans, do you know what you did wrong?!"

The Spider Queen's flawless beauty, none of the survivors had the heart to admire as they trembled and shook with fear. "W-We shouldn't have intruded on your sanctuary…" 

"Wrong!" Arachnia pointed to her collapsed hut and roared with fury, "I wouldn't give a shit if you were all just passing by, but you actually all had the galls to destroy the home that I went through great pains to build?! Speak! Where did you all come from?! 

The survivors wanted to cry but no tears would flow. They had truly suffered an unjustified calamity. That shabby and dilapidated wooden hut already looked like it was going to collapse with a single gust of wind.

Who knew that it would actually collapse from a small bump while they were investigating it?!

"We… We come from the Illusory Butterfly Sect…"