Amidst the rolling dust and smoke, the vanguard of the Allied Forces broke through the gates of the royal city and galloped in.
Leading them was the little dragonman Kaiaolen. His crimson armor was stained with blood, and his wings on his back were still covered in gunpowder residue. Seeing Ye Chuan safe and sound in the center of the battlefield, his hanging heart finally settled.
He walked up quickly, his voice filled with the relief of surviving a disaster: "Xi Xi! It's so great that you're okay! Seeing the explosion in the direction of the royal palace just now, we were going crazy with worry!"
As the Allied Forces gradually occupied the camp, the people from the safe zone also rushed over.
Following closely behind was the princess's guard, Torres: "Lord Xi Xi, we have cleared out all the parasite guards on the outskirts of the royal city."
"Teacher—"
"Teacher—"
A small blue figure squeezed out from behind Kaiaolen, trotting over and throwing herself at his side: "Master! It's good that you're alright! I was just worrying about you..."
Princess Irena walked at the very end. Her white dress was stained with some dust, and her long hair was a bit messy, but her eyes were much firmer than before.
She looked at the demon corpses scattered all over the ground and the shattered black armor of the Demon King, then looked at Ye Chuan, her voice carrying a hint of trembling: "Lord Xi Xi, my father and the others..."
"They are already dead."
"Yes, I know." Irena let out a deep sigh.
She knew this clearly.
All the nobles in the royal city had been parasitized, and her own father and royal brother were no exception.
But the royal bloodline had to be passed on.
As Irena thought about this, she couldn't help but take an extra look at Ye Chuan, her half-elf pointed ears quickly turning red.
Would Lord Xi Xi be willing?
Irena wanted to borrow his seed.
"The king has been dealt with, and then... the Demon King has also been dealt with," Ye Chuan said indifferently, his gaze sweeping over the crowd.
To be honest, coming back to this timeline after so long, the faces of many people had become a bit blurry to him, but he still remembered the little dragonman, Torres, and Elara's iconic blue twin tails clearly.
"That's wonderful!" Everyone started cheering; after all, the Northern Expedition was a success.
Looking at everyone's excited appearances, Irena didn't show the slightest joy on her face, but instead revealed a hint of worry.
She looked up at the distant streets of the royal city, where the doors and windows were shut tight in dead silence, with only a few suppressed sobs heard occasionally.
"Lord Xi Xi," she said softly, her tone full of unease.
"With such a huge scandal happening in the royal family, and the king and nobles turning into man-eating monsters, the residents in the city must be terrified."
"Will they... will they believe us? Will they accept us?"
She had grown up in the royal palace since childhood and had never been exposed to the hardships of the common people.
Now, overnight, the world had turned upside down. Not only did she have to shoulder the future of the entire kingdom, but she also had to face the commoners who were filled with fear and resentment towards the royal family. It was inevitable that she lacked confidence in her heart.
Ye Chuan looked at her uneasy appearance and simply explained, "Don't worry. The commoners don't care who sits on the throne; they only care about whether they can have enough to eat and live their days in peace."
"As long as you keep them in your heart, genuinely treat them well, solve their difficulties, and protect them from harm, they will naturally believe in you and support you."
"I hope the Hill Empire will not only be your empire, Irena, but also the country of the people."
His voice was plain but carried a reassuring power. Irena raised her head, looked into Ye Chuan's eyes, and the unease in her heart gradually dissipated.
She nodded vigorously, her eyes becoming firm: "I understand, Lord Xi Xi. I will definitely work hard. I won't let you down, nor will I let them down."
"Good," Ye Chuan smiled. "Let's go, we're entering the city."
The group, leading the army, slowly walked into the royal city.
The once prosperous royal city had now become a scene of desolation.
The streets were empty, the doors and windows of the shops on both sides were shut tight, and debris and bloodstains were scattered on the ground. Occasionally, a few wandering low-level parasites could be seen, only to be swiftly slain by the Allied soldiers.
"Torres, lead the First Legion, divide into squads, and sweep through street by street to ensure the safety of the residents," Ye Chuan began to issue orders.
"Yes!" Torres immediately took the order and dispersed with the soldiers.
Subsequently, Ye Chuan directly used his divine sense, marking all the human-skinned monsters disguised as residents, and directly crushed them with his divine sense.
Finally, Ye Chuan looked at Irena: "I'll leave the rest to you. Go tell the commoners that it's all over."
Irena took a deep breath and nodded.
She walked to the center of the street, looked at the tightly closed doors and windows on both sides, cleared her throat, and shouted with all her might:
"Dear residents! I am Irena! The king and those man-eating monsters have been eliminated! The war is over! We have won!"
Her voice carried a hint of youthfulness but spread clearly throughout the entire street.
From behind the doors and windows, rustling sounds could be heard.
Someone carefully lifted a corner of the curtains, peeking outside secretly.
Seeing this scene, Ye Chuan didn't forget to cast an amplification magic on Irena, so that the whole city could hear her.
"Everyone, don't be afraid!" Irena continued shouting.
"The Allied Forces will not hurt anyone! We will distribute food to everyone right away! We will clear out all the monsters and protect everyone's safety! Please believe me!"
Just then, a woman holding a child carefully opened her door.
Her face was full of exhaustion and fear, and the child in her arms was crying loudly from hunger.
Irena immediately stepped forward, took a bag of bread and a bottle of water from a nearby soldier, handed them to the woman, and said gently:
"Ma'am, feed the child something first. Don't worry, it's safe now."
The woman looked into Irena's sincere eyes, then looked at the hungry, crying child in her arms. She hesitated for a moment before finally taking the food, choking back a sob as she said:
"Thank you... thank you, Your Highness."
With the first person, came a second and a third.
More and more residents opened their doors and cautiously walked out.
The Allied soldiers orderly distributed food and water, while the medical team busied themselves treating the injured.
Seeing that the Allied soldiers not only didn't hurt them but instead did their best to help them, the fear in the residents' eyes gradually dissipated, replaced by gratitude and trust.
The originally dead silent royal city gradually regained its vitality.
Over the next few days, under Ye Chuan's guidance and everyone's efforts, order in the royal city quickly returned to normal.
The remaining parasites were completely cleared out, the streets were swept clean, the shops reopened for business, and children could run and play on the streets again.
Every day, Irena would take her attendants and walk through the streets and alleys, visiting the affected residents, listening to their appeals, and solving their difficulties.
She personally went to the orphanage to visit the orphans, went to the hospital to comfort the wounded, and even went down to the farmlands herself to check on the growth of the crops.
Her kindness and sincerity won the recognition and support of all the residents.
No one spoke of the previous royal scandal anymore; everyone had wholeheartedly accepted the young princess.
A week later, Irena was preparing for a simple coronation ceremony in the palace square.
But before that, she sought out Ye Chuan.
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
m back to his original world. In the end, he realized he had overthought things. [Hey, why is Shen Manni, the female lead, acting strange? Shouldn't she be fawning over the male lead at this point?] [Zhou Qiaoqiao, are you sick? Weren't you supposed to break off your engagement today?] [Damn it! An Youyi, please do your job as an undercover agent and sell my information to the protagonist, you idiot!] ... At this moment, Xu Mo himself didn't know that these female leads had already heard his inner thoughts. Then they decided not to play by the rules. Xu Mo: Please respect my profession as the big villain!
