## Chapter 1: Sky Tower (11)
==============================
In the silent sky, the embassy was ablaze.
Flames soared higher and higher, illuminating the faces of those present with a flickering glow.
Hovering in mid-air, the Great King of the Split Land pressed a hand against his severely wounded shoulder, gazing in disbelief at the white-clad woman calmly playing her harp not far away.
A fear of a certain woman buried deep within his memories surged up suddenly, causing the Bull-Headed Man to instinctively take two steps back.
Even though she wasn’t the same person, why did he feel such a soul-deep dread?
“Who on earth are you? You cannot be the Great King of the Split Land.”
The tinkling notes of the white-clad woman’s harp made the Great King, who initially brimming with confidence and ready to make a grand show, lose his arrogance.
He could clearly sense that thick clouds of explosive energy were gathering all around him, ready to pop at any moment.
Despite his hard skin, impervious to normal weapons, he still felt he couldn’t endure this tremendous pressure. It was hard for him to imagine how that woman—who he had never seen before—could wield such power using just a small harp. Even the former lord of White Feather City, who dominated the Chaos Forest, couldn’t even touch the edges of her garment.
Clearly, failing to answer would lead to d*ath.
Answering might give him a flicker of life.
Having waited too long for his new body, “Lie Tu” didn’t want to sink back into the endless darkness again.
He hesitated for a moment, just about to speak,
but suddenly, a shadow zipped past him, landing a heavy chop on Lie Tu’s neck.
With a muffled groan, he fell from the sky like a rock, crashing to the ground, out cold.
The mysterious figure vanished without a trace.
The reinforcements from Black Stone City and Cold Wind City arrived soon after and unleashed a barrage on the fleeing demon embassy.
Without the two harpists to hold them down, Morris and the others, now easy targets flying in the air, flapped about frantically trying to dodge the hail of arrows and flying projectiles.
Throughout this chaos, several demons fell from their steeds, arrows lodged in them, or were thrown off by crazed griffins that had been hit.
Seeing the situation was getting out of hand, Lin Nan called out to Trissa, who was still playing a hypnotic tune off to the side, “Let’s go, we need to catch up with the embassy right now!”
“Yes, my lord!”
The two dashed toward the beleaguered embassy crew.
The moment the hypnotic music stopped, the Seven Feathers woke up from their dreamy slumber, frustrated and flustered.
The Bird Demons flooded the sky like a horde, their feathers, harder than steel, fired off like a barrage of machine guns, unleashing a storm of bullets.
“Boom boom!”
The flock of iron feathers sparked a series of air explosions, the sounds of destruction echoing everywhere, and the scattered feathers ended up injuring many of their own comrades who were bowing and shooting arrows down below.
Amidst the ongoing chaos and shouting,
the embassy managed to flee the skies over Black Stone City, though they lost a third of their number in the process.
It seemed the enemy had no intention of wiping them out outright; once they left Black Stone City, the pursuit ceased—they were merely driven away.
The embattled group, having survived a near-d*ath experience, hurried on until they found a mountain about ten kilometers away from Black Stone City to stop, where the two harpists tended to the wounded.
Morris pointed towards Black Stone City, fuming and yelling, “Aaaaargh!”
Adeline, with red eyes and tears flowing down her cheeks, lamented the loss; they had arrived in Black Stone City with over fifty people, yet now barely more than thirty remained.
If it weren’t for Lin Nan’s previously cast guard buff, boosting their defenses by 50%, they surely would have lost even more lives.
The survivors’ spirits were low, heads hung as they sat cross-legged on the ground, while the griffins huddled together, digging for hidden insects and snakes.
Moments later, with Lin Nan’s full assistance, the group’s wounds gradually healed.
But the emotional scars would take much longer to mend.
“My lord, what do we do next?”
Adeline asked in Morris’s stead.
At this, everyone’s gaze converged on her.
“You all need to rush to Cangyan City for reinforcements. I suspect their target is also the Sky Tower.”
Among the group, Trissa’s expression darkened, clearly worried.
Whether they stayed here or accompanied the embassy back to Cangyan City, the plan to destroy the Sky Tower’s underground entrance was clearly becoming tougher to execute.
When faced with the temptation of unknown power and wealth, people often chose to take risks.
It’s human nature—hard to criticize.
And those like Trissa, who would rather destroy the gateway to wealth than fall for its allure, were few and far between.
Even Lin Nan found himself curious about what lay beneath the Sky Tower; what secrets were hidden down there?
Had the Goddess of Destiny, Laksis, still been slumbering underground for thousands of years, or was the hell that Trissa’s ancestors spoke of—one that terrified them—truly existent?
If uncovering the truth could provide some power to combat the judgment day two years from now, then this trek wouldn’t be in vain.
Morris and the others naturally had no objections to Lin Nan’s arrangement, nodding vigorously and preparing to set off.
Adeline said, “My lord, the count wants to know if you will accompany them.”
“I’ll stay behind; the situation in Black Stone City is too complex. I want to find out who’s pulling the strings.”
Just as the Great King of the Split Land was about to reveal part of the truth, a sudden figure appeared out of nowhere, knocked him unconscious, and immediately vanished, leaving Lin Nan with no chance to confront them.
If she was correct, this person was undoubtedly deeply connected to the betrayal of the Cold Wind City army.
If the Heart-Eating Worm could indeed transfer consciousness, that would be terrifying.
The higher-ups on the Cold Wind City side could very well have been caught in a trap led by the Tiger Demon, giving the enemy a sense of invulnerability, hence freely disregarding the demons’ feelings.
They merely needed to explore the Sky Tower before the demon army arrived and leave a pile of rubble for the distant demons to find.
Trissa looked at Lin Nan with a complex expression but her eyes were resolute.
“My lord, I want to stay here with you.”
Lin Nan shook his head. “No, it’s too dangerous here. Even I need to be cautious and alert.”
She understood Trissa just wanted to accomplish her goal while the situation hadn’t degraded to its worst yet.
And just as Trissa was speaking, five demon men from the survivors stepped forward, kneeling on one knee before her, declaring, “We wish to follow the lady’s lead.”
No need to say, they were surely Trissa’s loyal subordinates.
But just with these few individuals, thinking about breaking into the fortress-like Sky Tower was simply a fool’s errand.
“No matter what, I still want to give it a shot.” Trissa showed remarkable determination.
“What if it leads to d*ath?” Lin Nan questioned.
With grit, Trissa replied, “Since joining the embassy, I’ve never thought of coming back alive.”
