Book 4: Chapter 8.2: Capturing the City, Part 2
Book 4: Chapter 8.2: Capturing the City, Part 2
The next day:
“Sa-save me! Clan Head, vampires ate the entire Middle West Village. They had a blood feast the previous night. Clan Head, you have to take revenge for our entire village! Sob! Sob! There were so many vampires. I hid in a thatched outhouse for an entire night before I managed to escape. Clan Head! Sob! Sob! Sob! Middle West Village is part of our clan’s business!”
The same thing happened again. The other day, it was the Zhang Clan; today, it was the Li Clan. The Li Clan tried to smooth things over and keep the peace. However, the Li Clan suffered the same fate as the Zhang Clan by the third day. The entire clan vanished overnight; no one remained.
Horror spread across the entire city.
“Your Majesty, this city has one hundred million people. By spreading the information in this manner, only a small portion of the populace will learn of it. Furthermore, people are trying to keep it a secret. All others will hear are just some small rumors.” Tang Chu frowned.
“Sometimes, small rumors spread even faster than widespread announcements. We did not say anything. They were the ones who made wild guesses on their own, right?” Gu Hai smiled.
Such rumors about six or seven clans spread like a virus. In a mere ten days, the entire city had already heard of the disappearances.
They vanished mysteriously. Will this happen to me someday?
We don’t even know how they died, and their entire clan got exterminated with nothing remaining? Vampires? It has to be the vampires!
Countless citizens were suddenly horrified. They felt like there were eyes on them, eyes that belonged to vampires. They suspected they were being reared in this place for the vampires to eat once they got sufficiently fattened.
Azure Foundation City felt like a demon’s nest. Are those evil demons caging us up?
Horror spread in everyone’s heart. Many people wanted to flee Azure Foundation City, no longer wanting to remain there. However, they still had family staying there. Could they just leave?
Some people did leave Azure Foundation City out of fear. However, the people who knew them thought they had been eaten by vampires when they disappeared, which fanned the dread.
“Don’t be afraid. It must be someone trying to cast the Yuan Nation’s army in a bad light. Aren’t the previous defenders doing well in prison? There’s good news of them every day. Nothing happened to them; they did not get their blood sucked.”
“That’s not right. Something’s wrong. Madam Zhang went to visit the prison the day before. However, she is missing now?”
“Huh? My elder cousin went to visit the prison as well. When she returned, she said that everything was fine. Now, she is missing!”
“They are missing?”
“More than one thousand people have visited the prison over the past ten days or so, right? Where are they? Will someone who visited the prison say something?”
“…”
The people who visited the prison during the initial stage seemed to have disappeared into thin air.
Given that, no one could prove the innocence of the city lord and the officials.
“I don’t want to stay here anymore! Sob! Sob! My elder cousin got eaten by vampires! Vampires must have eaten her. Another of my elder cousins was imprisoned there. Vampires must have eaten him as well. I want to leave! I want to get away from this group of demons!” someone cried out.
Gu Hai had arranged for such people to cry out loudly at various places in the city.
“The Yuan Imperial Dynasty? A nation of demons?”
“If only the Divine Foundation Royal Dynasty were still around. If only His Majesty were still alive!”
Fear, panic, and resentment accumulated. Suddenly, the citizens all turned restless.
“Chase the demons out of Azure Foundation City! Chase the demons out!” someone shouted.
“We don’t want to get eaten! Chase the demons out!”
“Demons! Get out of Azure Foundation City!”
Loud cries came from the surroundings.
Gu Hai had arranged for some clans to send people to wander the streets and call out such rallying slogans.
The initially fearful citizens slowly became battle-hungry.
——
City lord’s official residence:
The city lord showed a sullen expression. “What’s going on? Didn’t you say that it would be fine? Where are those people?”
“It’s a scheme, City Lord!” the subordinates said anxiously.
“Humph!” the city lord snorted coldly while flinging his sleeves out.
“City Lord, someone is deliberately making trouble. I’ve already sent people to suppress and capture them,” one of the officials said.
“What? You bastard! Are you trying to push all the citizens into rebellion by capturing them now?” the city lord shouted as he rushed out of the hall.
Indeed, groups of Yuan Nation soldiers tried to arrest the people shouting the rallying slogans in the streets.
“The vampires are killing people. I’ll fight you to the death!”
“The vampires are trying to silence people again. Kill them and chase them out of Azure Foundation City!”
Gu Hai had sent some of the Divine Foundation Royal Dynasty’s experts to mingle with the people shouting the rallying slogans. These experts immediately clashed with the Yuan Nation soldiers.
Bang!
The vampires among the Yuan Nation soldiers got beaten up. They turned into hundreds of vampire bats and tried to flee.
“Don’t let them run! He is a vampire! Kill him!”
The city turned chaotic. Some places even got set ablaze.
As the city lord stood on a floating island in the sky, he looked sullenly at the surrounding tumult.
“Citizens, please do not panic. This city lord has already done my best to restrain the blood race. There are absolutely no incidents of the blood race harming anyone. The prison has no problems whatsoever. Anyone can go and check!” The city lord’s voice rang throughout the entire city.
“He is lying. Where are the relatives of the defenders? They have killed all the relatives. Chase the demons out of the city!”
“If we do not chase the evil demons out today, our blood will be sucked by those evil demons tomorrow. Everyone, let’s chase the demons out together!”
The city was in chaos. The Yuan Nation soldiers and citizens fought each other. Of course, the ones taking the lead among the citizens were the clans that had sworn loyalty to Gu Hai.
As the city lord looked at the chaos in the city, his expression turned even grimmer.
“City Lord, what should we do?”
“We need to suppress this quickly and capture the culprit!” the city lord said coldly.
“Yes!”
The Yuan Nation’s army prepared to mobilize.
Just at this moment, war drums pounded outside the city.
Dong! Dong! Dong!
When the war drums boomed, the city lord’s expression changed. “War drums? Is someone attacking the city? Oh no! Defend the city with everything we have!”
“Dogs of the Yuan Nation, return Azure Foundation City to me. Azure Foundation City citizens, do not fear. We are here! We carry the will of the previous emperor. Although His Majesty has died, we cannot let Azure Foundation City’s citizens fall into the hands of demons. We are the foundation rock golems. We have come to take back the city. Who will aid us? Hah!”
Bellows resounded outside the city.
The familiar voices of those foundation rock golems seemed to calm all the restless and fearful citizens instantly.
“His Majesty sent someone to save us?”
“His Majesty has already died. That is not His Majesty’s army. It is the Han Royal Dynasty’s!”
“The Han Royal Dynasty inherited His Majesty’s will. We don’t want to be the citizens of demons. Since His Majesty chose the Han Nation, the Han Nation is definitely similar to the past Divine Foundation Royal Dynasty!”
“The foundation rock golems are attacking? The foundation rock golems are coming. Brothers, come with me to open the city gates. Let the foundation rock golems in and kill the demons.”
“Quickly open the city gates!”
Under the encouragement of the clans—which Gu Hai arranged for—many citizens immediately rushed to the four main city gates.
“Stop them! You bastards, quickly stop them!” the city lord exclaimed.
Now, the city lord had to not only resist an invading enemy but also deal with civil strife.
There was trouble both within and without. The situation turned extremely terrible.
“Ah!”
“The demons killed my elder brother! The demons killed my elder brother! Ah!”
“Beat the demons to death! Beat the vampires to death!”
The injury of just one citizen amplified the citizens’ rage tenfold. Can these Yuan Nation soldiers, who would kill citizens, rule us?
“If we don’t chase the demons away now, are we going to wait until they slowly eat us all up?”
“You evil demons! I’ll fight you to the death!”
The foundation rock golems attacked the city gates from the outside, and the citizens attacked the Yuan Nation soldiers inside. The situation devolved into utter mayhem.
Although the city had eight hundred thousand Yuan Nation soldiers stationed there to defend it, it had at least one hundred million citizens. The citizens quickly swamped the soldiers.