Chapter 437: A Path to the Capital

Shi Yuan rolled his eyes. "Why else would they come in such large numbers?"

"Do they really think they can take down this fortress?"

"What are those three thousand humans there to accomplish? Are they supposed to be emergency rations or something?"

"Aren't there some sura barracks by the border? How did this invasion force get past them?"

"I'm very curious as to where they came from myself," Shi Yuan murmured. "Before that, though, let's send them a warning."

To the invaders, Shi Yuan shouted, "Listen up! If you proceed further, you'll be considered invaders into sura territory!"

Zhang Lie ignored the warning. Pointing an arm straight at the heart of the fortress, he yelled out, "Attack!"

The rock giants ran toward the fortress, ignoring any and all weapons thrown their way by the defenders. They smashed against the walls with the bulk of their bodies, causing the entire fortress to quake and rumble. At the same time, the crag eagles flew up into the sky and dove down toward the walls, attacking whatever visible defenders they saw.

"An enemy invasion!" the sura shouted. They reacted immediately.

The entire fortress shook as giant after giant struck. Cracks appeared and propagated on its walls, something none of the sura was well-equipped to do anything about.

Following the coordinated attack by the rock spirits and crag eagles, the fortress' walls began to fall, exposing its interior to the citizens of Renhuang. They rushed in and attacked everything in sight.

A blood-colored beam rose into the air as a hulking sura stepped forward, a giant axe in his hands. Its edge gleamed with blood-red light.

"He's here, he's here! The commander of the fortress is here!"

"He's almost as strong as a sura king—I'm sure he'll be able to take down the invaders easily!"

"Our fortress has stood for centuries without being taken down—we can't let it fall to a group of humans!"

The leader of the rock spirits rushed forward and blocked the commander's incredible blow with nothing but his body. Blood-red light erupted from behind his body, streaking forward in a line and splitting the fortress walls in two. The rock giant's body sank into the earth as the commander laughed. "Is this all you've got?"

The edge of the axe had thrust deeply into the rock giant's body, all the way through its chest. However, the rock giant seemed wholly unperturbed. The commander tried to pull out his axe, but it was stuck in the rock giant's body.

The rock giant hurtled forward with a punch, causing the commander to discard his axe and leap backwards. However, that had lost him his weapon for good.

The rock giant pulled out the axe that had been stuck to its body, then bit down on the head. Right before its owner, the axehead was consumed by the rock giant, whose wounds recovered immediately.

The rock giant peered at the commander in disdain. "The quality of your axe isn't up to par. It's far worse than your king's armor."

The commander of the fortress snorted. "As though you've had a taste of that!"

"Oh, I have. Do you see this patch of metal by my chest? It came from your king's armor."

The commander initially reacted with disbelief, but when he saw the crest of fire that featured on the rock giant's chest, his face turned dark. "What did you do to my king?!"

The rock giant shrugged. "I didn't do anything to him. My lord killed him, though."

The commander of the fortress began to yell like a ferocious dog. "No, that's impossible, absolutely impossible! The sura king Xuechi has never lost—he's undefeated!"

"I regret it too. Who told him to attack our city? My lord couldn't let him go after that, and he killed him accidentally."

"I'll kill you!" the commander of the fortress roared. His fists shone with eerie red light, filled with concentrated power. He seemed as though he wanted to smash the rock giant to powder, and in doing so, smash the doubts that he harbored about his king.

Just as he was about to strike, golden light flashed from behind the commander, clawing at his back. The commander didn't stop; he continued rushing forward with glowing fists.

The rock giant was prepared to meet his blow head-on when another figure dashed forward, punching at the commander's temple and sending him flying out into the distance. He smashed against a wall so hard that cracks formed at the site of impact.

The rock giant groused, "What are the two of you doing? I could have taken him on myself."

Those who had stepped forward were none other than Yu Huantian and the chieftain of the Yeluo.

Yu Huantian folded his wings. "We were just trying to help. After all, the governor commanded us not to try to face difficult foes by ourselves. We should take advantage of our greater numbers."

The rock giant scratched its head. "If that's what the governor instructed, I suppose there's no choice..."

The commander of the fortress climbed out of the caved-in wall and howled, "I'll kill you all!"

Given that the rock giant had fought the commander to a standstill, the addition of Yu Huantian and the chieftain of the Yeluo turned the even fight into a one-sided battle.

The commander quickly fell, ending the battle over the sura fortress. The sura within were no match for the Renhuang forces, and they were quickly killed.

The rock spirits happily had another snack. They were amassing so many weapons that they couldn't eat them all immediately. Fortunately, most of the forces had their own bag of holding, in which they could store all their spoils.

Once the battle was over and everyone had had a chance to rest, Zhang Lie commanded again, "We'll now set off for the capital of Xuechi!"

As Zhang Lie and his forces defeated troop after troop, the Xuechi elder remaining in the palace was starting to panic. He paced about the palace. "Where's the sura king? Didn't he claim that he would return immediately?"

He had boasted that he would return before the blood in his blood pool cooled; well, that blood had cooled so much that it was turning gelatinous.

Not only that, Xuechi was falling.

A group of allied invaders from who-knew-where had defeated every enemy and obstacle in their way, and even the main Xuechi forces were unable to hold them back.

"If this continues, by the time the king returns, all he'll see is a pile of ruins… Just what has the king been doing?! It's been more than a day! If he doesn't come back immediately, Xuechi will be destroyed! He... he hasn't gotten so excited about killing people that he's bathing in their blood now, is he?!"

Given his personality, this ridiculous scene seemed more than likely.

What the Xuechi elder could hardly have suspected, however, was that the sura king he was anticipating was now nothing more than fertilizer for the wood spirits.