Chapter 235: Eye of the Earth

The Imperial Emperor was enjoying a lavish lunch. The supreme ruler of humanity was in a good mood today, as the Kingdom Alliance had agreed to meet with him to discuss how to handle the Orc Race.

As long as the Kingdom Alliance doesn't cause trouble behind my back...

Hmph! The Luonan Empire will be able to go all out and wipe out the Orc Race. When the time comes, the entire world will be in the palm of my great Luonan's hand.

At that moment, a guard sprinted into the room, nearly tripping over the threshold.

"Your Majesty! Disaster has struck!"

The Imperial Emperor frowned imperceptibly.

"What is the matter? Why are you panicking?!"

"W-wolf smoke! Wolf smoke!"

"What?!"

The Imperial Emperor lost his composure in an instant, shooting to his feet.

Wolf smoke was a nationwide emergency warning signal in the Luonan Empire, spreading even faster than messenger hawks. Once lit, it meant the flames of war had already reached the empire's territory, and every city and town needed to raise their defenses to the maximum.

His face darkening, he hurried up to the pavilion. Leaning against the railing, he looked out at the distant sky. Pillars of thick smoke billowed up from the mountains on the horizon.

That was the direction of the Great Orc Prairie!

"This is impossible! Blade Fortress has nearly 300,000 elite imperial soldiers, and both grand dukes are veterans of war! How could they fall overnight..."

The Imperial Emperor roared, abandoning all decorum.

Suddenly, as if a realization had struck him, he froze.

"Could it be a rebellion?!"

Right then, the clear cry of a hawk echoed through the air, and a messenger hawk descended into the imperial palace.

"Quickly! Bring me the letter!"

A nearby guard bolted down the stairs.

Before long, the missive was delivered into the Imperial Emperor's hands.

After reading its contents, the Imperial Emperor felt his vision swim. He cried out in anguish.

"My grand army!"

He staggered, on the verge of collapsing. The terrified guards rushed forward to support their monarch.

"Your Majesty! Your Majesty! What happened?!"

Relying on the guards to stay upright, the Imperial Emperor stared blankly ahead and muttered to himself.

"Dragons that the Dragon-Shooting Cannons cannot handle... and three of them appeared at once!"

Suddenly, he recalled a passage from an ancient text: Among the Guardians of both humans and orcs, there were entities that defied all common sense. Only a Guardian could contend against a Guardian.

"Yes! Guardians! Only a Guardian can fight a Guardian!"

The Imperial Emperor violently shoved the guards aside and stumbled to his desk. He grabbed a pen and scribbled furiously. Once finished, he stamped his supreme seal onto the parchment.

"Hurry! Deliver this letter to Duke Shingesa as fast as possible!"

Watching the guard rush out the door, the Imperial Emperor slumped heavily into his chair. After a moment of thought, he managed to calm himself.

"Send my orders to every member of the nobility! Rally all our military forces to resist the Orcs!"

...

The orc chieftain, Sodmar Warcry, sat atop a pitch-black worg. Hooking his Warblade onto the leather strap around his mount's neck, he watched the chaotic town before him with cold eyes.

The clash of weapons, the wails of the people, and the furious roars of soldiers all blended into a deafening clamor that would have driven a normal person mad.

But to Sodmar Warcry, the noise was as beautiful as music.

Catching the scent of scorched wood and thick blood in the air, he inhaled deeply, an intoxicated expression on his face.

"Ah! This is the scent of revenge!"

In front of him lay a collapsed wall. The muscular orc soldiers had violently smashed through the town's perimeter, swarming through the breach to hack down anyone who resisted with sharp axes and broadswords.

As for those who fled or hid inside their houses, the orcs completely ignored them.

Watching a group of human women and children flee further and further toward the forest, a nearby worg rider could not help but ask.

"Grand Chieftain, are we really going to leave those fleeing humans alone?"

Sodmar Warcry furrowed his brow.

"These are the White Guardian's orders."

The guard muttered under his breath.

"I really don't understand why the Guardian would issue such a command."

Sodmar Warcry replied.

"Enough, do not overthink it. The power and wisdom of the Guardian are beyond our comprehension. Just follow orders."

The surrounding orcs nodded in agreement and said no more.

Naturally, there was no need to question the Guardian's strength.

As for wisdom, if that White Guardian had not used a ploy to slaughter the 300,000 elite soldiers of the Luonan Empire in one fell swoop, the Orcs' march would not have been nearly this easy.

Thus, none of the orcs felt any dissatisfaction with their chieftain's explanation.

In the eyes of a certain White Guardian—who had ordered them to avoid killing noncombatants whenever possible—humans and orcs were no different. Sooner or later, they would all become his subjects.

The resistance fighters fell into pools of blood one after another, and the cries of defiance in the town grew weaker.

The orcs began ransacking the shops along the street and the mansions of the nobility, throwing all the gathered Elemental Crystals into large chests.

Finally, a group of orcs carried the chests out through the breach in the wall and placed them in front of their Grand Chieftain.

Thud!

The chests landed heavily on the ground.

Sodmar Warcry looked at the chests of Elemental Crystals before him and nodded in satisfaction.

"You lot, transport these chests back. The rest of you, follow me to the next target!"

The massive, surging army of Orcs set out once more.

Scenes like this were playing out all across the Luonan Empire.

Prior to their departure, a certain White Guardian had called all the large clan chieftains together to announce a competition: the 'Great Elemental Crystal Gathering Contest.'

As a result, all the orc chieftains believed that Elemental Crystals were the tickets needed to qualify for the Portal, and they were putting everything they had into collecting them.

...

A messenger hawk soared across the sky of the Luonan Empire, descending into a majestic fortress.

This fortress was exceedingly strange. Viewed from above, its City Wall formed the shape of a figure eight, consisting of one large circle and one small circle joined together.

Inside the smaller circle were densely packed military buildings, looking not much different from any other stronghold.

The standard thirty-meter-high City Wall of the fortress was connected by stairs to an enormous outer ring wall that reached a hundred meters in height and a thousand meters in diameter. All along this massive wall sat a dense ring of gargantuan ballistae, similar to Dragon-Shooting Cannons.

Furthermore, these ballistae were not like regular siege weapons—they were aimed inward. Soldiers manned the firing stations at all times, and below the ballistae, more guards stood at the inner edge of the wall, holding specially made heavy crossbows.

Enclosed within this ringed wall was a massive, bottomless sinkhole.

Dark! Abyssal! As if it were ready to devour everything!

This was the Eye of the Earth!

Right then, a man sprinted across the lower wall and climbed the seventy-meter vertical stairway to reach the massive outer wall.

Dressed as a civil official, he pulled out a token and flashed it to a nearby guard, gasping for breath.

"Hurry! Emergency orders. I need to go down."

The soldier carefully inspected the token in the official's hand. It was indeed Duke Shingesa's crest.

"Turn the winch!"