**Chapter 256: Reinforcements Have Arrived**
Luxianbei carried Long Bang as she walked step by step away from the marketplace. Just as she was about to step out, she paused and looked back.
Before her eyes, the long street was shrouded in varying shades of “red.”
Crimson gleams and scarlet bl**d splatter… even the sky was tinged with a flame-like crimson.
Standing at the street’s edge, Luxianbei gazed at the ravaged road, and in that moment, a hellish scene unfolded before her.
Those who once lived on this street, now turned into bloodied corpses, seemed to come alive again.
Gone were the days of laughter and joy, replaced only by chaos, slaughter, and heinous acts that stripped away their humanity.
Enough, it was already enough… Luxianbei thought to herself, closing her eyes and allowing the darkness to swallow everything before her.
Thus, a great drought descended.
Suddenly, like a scorching midsummer sun quietly rising, intense light enveloped the entire long street, and the abruptly rising temperature distorted the air.
Tendrils of steam, as if pulled by some force from the sky, were drawn from the bl**d pooled on the ground, the filthy mud, and even the cracks in the buildings, dissipating into nothingness before they could touch the edges of the sky.
Fragmentary sounds echoed, wood cracked, corpses collapsed, and sinister fissures rapidly spread between the buildings and the ground.
Following this, with a crisp sound of pottery shattering upon hitting the ground, sparks erupted, landing on the remains of a corpse that had already turned into a dry husk.
The completely dehydrated corpse became excellent fuel at that moment, and flames quickly spread along the entire long street.
The roaring flames, like countless jagged tongues, constantly licked at the deep red gleams that floated in the air, and high-pitched wails resounded fiercely along the burning street.
Dark shards and powder manifested out of thin air, battered by the scorching waves unleashed by the flames, swirling above the long street, creating a murky storm illuminated by sparks.
Luxianbei still kept her eyes closed, her back to the overwhelming flames as she proceeded, her red hair swaying gently like some rising aura.
At this moment, she finally understood how the tragedy of countless lives lost within Yumen Pass, sealed for a thousand years, had come to be.
From a certain perspective, the plans of Longxiang and Hong Bian had been the best solution they could come up with.
Longxiang, along with over a hundred Longxiang Army Armor Soldiers, sacrificed their lives to seal the Shaman Queen, and then Hong Bian offered herself as a sacrifice to God Realm Yumen to sustain the life force within the city; this would at least keep things going for several years, or even a dozen years.
Looking at it this way, they certainly didn’t lose.
However, they overlooked one point: Yumen Pass would not be able to wait for reinforcements, or rather, there would be no reinforcements coming at all.
The longer they waited, the less likely it was for reinforcements to arrive!
The various military governors and guards capable of reaching Yumen Pass for support in a short time were caught in a dilemma between following the emperor’s orders or disregarding them, and would they waste their own strength to support based on a call for help from the already deceased Longxiang?
The emperor, who was far away in Chang’an and had just ascended the throne, was not his father, who had the title of “Little Taizong”; instead, he was an emperor recorded in history as one who succeeded through incompetence, who even, from a certain perspective, forced out formidable figures like Huang Chao.
Such an emperor, upon receiving a plea for help, might not even glance at it, and even if he did, he would likely just say, “Since the crisis of the Shaman Queen has already been resolved, why bother with sending help?”
As for Longxiang and Hong Bian and the myriad of lives in the city, let them d*e!
Thus, the God Realm Yumen, unable to await reinforcements, became a pool of stagnant water, continuously eroded by the Shaman Queen’s power over the millennium, gradually turning turbid and blackened, emitting a foul smell, giving rise to grotesque colonies of bacteria, and as the initial colonies decayed, new colonies were born from their corpses.
In the end, only a group of the most ruthless, violent, and cunning urban legends adapted to this extreme environment roamed the once bustling streets.
In this view, the Shaman Queen had not lost.
In this war, there were no real winners, only countless losers…
“Boom—!”
At the moment Luxianbei reopened her eyes, a loud bang erupted from the street behind her, engulfed in flames.
The firelight trembled violently, as if compressed by some invisible force, rapidly contracting from the entire long street to a small space, shrinking down to a dazzling point, and finally with a flash of light, dissipating into nothingness, leaving behind charred earth several miles long, shrouded in thick smoke, winding within the city walls like a grotesque scar.
The deep red gleams enveloping the long street had completely turned to ashes, as if they had never existed.
Luxianbei stood still, looking down at the ground.
A massive, crimson shadow rapidly emerged from the depths of the earth, gradually approaching, swirling at her feet, the air trembling beneath the terrifying spirit energy fluctuation, as if venting its anger or loudly reprimanding.
Reprimanding her for standing in opposition despite being “one of their kind”?
“If you must ask why…” Luxianbei tilted her head, her expression blank, “It’s because I am the reinforcements for Yumen Pass!”
Crossing over a thousand years, the God Realm Yumen had finally awaited reinforcements!
She, Luxianbei, was the reinforcements!
Upon receiving Luxianbei’s response, as if making a final threat, the bl**d shadow beneath her roiled violently one last time, then gradually fell into silence…
“Che!” Luxianbei rolled her eyes, “Just impotent rage.”
I was scared! I thought it was really going to jump out and beat me up!
————
To the west of God Realm Yumen, in a modest residence, the small courtyard was filled with drying spice racks.
At this moment, those racks had been knocked over by someone, and various spices were scattered all over the ground, their rich fragrance spreading, yet failing to mask the bloody stench in the air.
A winding trail of bl**d stretched through the scattered spices, extending from the front door to the depths of the small courtyard.
At the end of that bl**d trail was a ragged, bl**d-soaked youth, collapsed in the center of the main room, leaning against the wall, breathing heavily. Next to him lay a bloodied and mangled corpse.
Xie Erlang could no longer remember how he had returned home.
When he came to his senses from a sea of bl**d, he found himself lying in the center of his family’s main room, his elderly father already lifeless beside him.
Gripping a bl**d-soaked hatchet, he stared wide-eyed at the corpse on the ground, shaking his head repeatedly, muttering nervously.
“No… it’s not true… I didn’t know… I killed that beast… I killed that beast! Why? Why did it come to this?”
Suddenly, his expression twisted into a fierce snarl, and he charged forward a few steps, striking at the bloodied corpse with wild slashes.
“No! I didn’t k*ll my father! You’re not my father, you’re that beast! Killing you, I, I killed you!”
The brief clarity did not bring Xie Erlang any relief; instead, it plunged him deeper into greater pain and fear.
In his daze, he found himself back in front of the spice shop, raising the hatchet towards the back of that one-eyed man.
At that moment, the words the one-eyed man had once said to him echoed in his mind.
“Xie Erlang, isn’t it time to pay your respects to your father?”
“Xie Erlang, can you even do it? If not, just lend me that girl from the Li family for a while, ten months later, I’ll guarantee you a big, fat baby!”
“Xie Erlang, how about I help you take care of your sickly old man? Just split the family property with me, and I guarantee your brother won’t dare let out a peep!”
“…”
Xie Erlang couldn’t stand listening to the one-eyed man’s malicious words any longer and swung down, severing his head.
But what followed was an utterly terrifying scene.
The one-eyed man’s head, upon hitting the ground, didn’t d*e on the spot; instead, it continued to mock him with more taunting words.
The echoes grew louder in Xie Erlang’s ears, more and more unbearable, as if trying to shatter his mind.
Thus, he raised the hatchet once more.
Uncertain how much time had passed, when he finally dropped the hatchet, most of the one-eyed giant’s body had turned into a pool of muck.
However, the whispering voices in his ears showed no signs of stopping.
The voices came from all directions, and lifting his gaze, he saw the one-eyed man’s figure all over the street.
Everywhere, regardless of height or size, man or woman, young or old, bore that repulsive face, his voice echoing all around.
“Xie Erlang… Xie Erlang…”
He kept swinging his kn*fe towards the one-eyed men gathering around him, running away endlessly, desperate to silence the voices in his ears.
When he came to his senses, he found himself back home, where his sickly father was already lifeless.
Yet even now, the maddening voices still lingered in his ears.
“Xie Erlang… Xie Erlang…”
Amid the incessant sounds in his ears, Xie Erlang seemed guided by something beyond human understanding, a torrent of information flooding into his mind.
The massacre within Yumen Pass was triggered by a demoness who brought drought and disaster…
Yumen Pass would never await reinforcements; continuing to wait would only invite d*ath…
In the near future, a group of chosen, devout individuals would regain their freedom…
To save Yumen Pass, they must retrieve the fallen corpse of Hong Bian; those corpses could bring miracles…
As this information flooded in, the previously agitated Xie Erlang gradually quieted down, a calm and strange smile spreading across his face smeared with bl**d and flesh.
“Thank you for the guidance of the miracle…” Xie Erlang muttered to himself, raising a hand to wipe the bl**d off his face, then grabbing a piece of clothing from the wooden table and draping it over himself, quickly covering his body and face before walking swiftly outside.
