After listening to Xiying's words, there was another long silence on Yuan Ming's side.
Then, he asked again: "Everyone from the Yunhuang Alliance has evacuated, so the Great Jin Kingdom must also have fallen, right?"
"The capital of the Jin Dynasty was conquered earlier than Changchun Temple, but something happened before the capital of the Jin Dynasty fell." After hesitating for a while, Xiying said.
"What?" Yuan Ming heard her mention it and knew that the matter was probably related to him.
"Previously, Changchun Temple called on the disciples outside to return to the sect to fight against the enemy together, but Liu Tianming never responded. No one expected that just the day before the Wuyue Sect invaded the capital of the Jin Dynasty, he suddenly appeared at the top of the city." Xi Ying.
said.
When Yuan Ming heard this, his heart suddenly sank.
"Liu Tianming announced that as the king of the country, he will lead the monks of the Jin Dynasty to fight to the death with the Wuyue Sect until the city is broken." Xiying lowered his head and glanced at Guoguo before continuing.
"Is he...still alive?" Yuan Ming asked.
"Originally, it was not the main force of the Wuyue Sect that attacked the capital of the Jin Dynasty. It was led by a Nascent Soul monk, but Liu Tianming killed him in the city. The Wuyue Sect was furious and sent a venerable...
"Xi Ying didn't finish her words, but the meaning was already obvious.
"What happened next?" Yuan Ming asked in a deep voice.
"According to the news that came back, the Liu family was very tough and would rather die than surrender to Wuyue Sect, so the casualties were very heavy. Except for the prince's family who moved out early and fled to Changchun Temple, and retained Guo Zuo, the rest
All of them died for their country." Xiying said.
After saying that, Xiying waited for a long time for Yuan Ming to calm down, but she still didn't see him continue to speak.
"He had a chance to evacuate. At least he could evacuate to Changchun Temple first. I heard from the people who escaped that he said that he was the king of a country and there was no reason to abandon the country and flee." Xiying thought for a while, but still kept these things
The details were told to Yuan Ming.
After a long time, Guoguo's head was lifted up again.
"This fool, he obviously never wanted to be the emperor..." Yuan Ming sighed deeply.
"Yuan Ming, caring leads to chaos. It is not an exaggeration to say that the capital of the Jin Dynasty is now a dragon's pond and a tiger's den. You must not be impulsive and lose your life in vain." Xiying heard this and persuaded.
"Don't worry, I just found Wu Yueshen's lair. He is eager to crush me to ashes. I won't throw myself into a trap. Besides, no one can see whether Liu Tianming is dead or alive, right? Wait.
A few days later, I will possess him and I will know his whereabouts." Yuan Ming's voice came, and his mood had obviously stabilized.
"Then what are your plans next?" Xiying asked.
"Since you followed them to the Yunling Mountains, I will rush there to meet you, but I will definitely have to take a detour and be late." Yuan Ming said.
"Okay, then we'll meet in the Yunling Mountains." Xiying made an agreement with him.
After Yuan Ming agreed, the possession ended and his soul returned to his body.
…
Seven days later, in the evening.
Qu Jiang, outside the North City Gate.
The dilapidated city walls were scorched black, and traces of being burned by wars were still clearly visible, and gaps created by the collision of giant beasts could be seen everywhere.
Inside and outside the city walls, corpses were strewn everywhere, the smell of putrefaction rose to the sky, and crows were everywhere pecking at the corpses.
On the open city gates and the official roads extending outward, the remaining people in the city were struggling to escape. They were all unkempt, covered in filth, and in ragged clothes.
Although they managed to survive the horrific massacre, their minds had already been severely damaged.
Each one of them looked haggard, looked numb, and had empty eyes like living corpses. They dragged their heavy steps slowly toward the outside from this dead city.
Under the bloody setting sun, a figure of a young man in gray robe appeared at the city gate.
He raised his head and glanced at the hanging corpses in armor above the doorway. The expression on his face did not change at all, and he walked in through the door.
The person who came was none other than Yuan Ming.
Although he verbally promised Xiying that he would never risk coming to Dajin, how could he not come?
Yuan Ming walked through the dark city gate and stepped into the city.
Although he had already prepared, the hellish scene in front of him still shocked him deeply.
The capital city, which used to be filled with smoke and row upon row of bustling houses, now has no trace of the past. Everywhere you look, there are broken walls and ruins.
The originally criss-crossed and orderly streets were now blocked by corpses and rubble. There were no more living figures on the road, but only carrion-eating crows hovering at low altitude.
In the rubble of the completely destroyed houses, you can see the mutilated corpses of people everywhere, and the blood stains that have not completely dried up.
As the sun sets, the whole city is silent, and Qujiang looks like a dead city.
Yuan Ming walked along the Central Axis Street to the original General's Mansion. All the familiar shops and shops along the way had been reduced to ruins. Everything that was once familiar or unfamiliar had become irretrievable memories.
Since Yuan Ming's parents left the capital, the title of General's Palace was removed from the Yuan Mansion, but the palace was not taken back by the court. Some direct and collateral relatives of the Yuan family still live here.
But when Yuan Ming came back again, the entire Yuan Mansion had turned into ruins.
At a glance, he saw the old concierge, the guy who had been his childhood playmate, dying stiffly on a wooden deck chair.
His head was pierced, his eyes were looking at the sky, and half of his face was eaten away by crows, leaving him unrecognizable.
The dilapidated yard was filled with corpses that had begun to decay.
Yuan Ming actually knew that there was no living person inside as soon as his consciousness swept away, but he still couldn't help but want to come in and take a look.
After reading it, this account can be clearly recorded on Wu Yue's head.
Later, Yuan Ming activated the corpse control technique to control more than a hundred corpses in the yard, dug more than a hundred graves in the garden of the atrium, and buried them all in them.
Afterwards, he rushed all the way to the palace.
The palace, which was originally heavily guarded, no longer had any defense force inside.
The situation here is even more serious than outside.
Because most of the people living in the palace are palace maids and eunuchs who have no freedom, they have no chance to escape until the last moment.
So the corpses here are even more numerous and denser than outside.
The palace has entered the dark night, it is pitch black without any light, and it is as dead and silent as a ghost town.
Yuan Ming stood outside the Meridian Gate, scanning the palace with his spiritual thoughts, but found no living person.
He sighed, transformed into a blood shadow, and entered the palace. He walked past the Qianqing Palace where the emperor went to court, and saw the Yangxin Palace where the emperor rested, but found nothing.
Among the many corpses, he did not see Liu Tianming.
Maybe he's still alive?
Yuan Ming held a trace of luck and stopped in front of the Yangxin Hall.
He walked into the palace, sat cross-legged in the hall, turned over his hands and took out the Heaven Stealing Cauldron and a stick of black incense, rubbed the incense head with two fingers to light it, and then inserted it into the incense burner.
The flame of the incense head flickers, and smoke rises.
But before the flame from the incense burnt downwards, Yuan Ming's eyes suddenly opened, with a look of confusion and worry in them.
"Can't find it..."
He muttered something to himself, and his eyes gradually focused, suddenly becoming a little panicked.
Using black incense to possess Liu Tianming failed.
No matter how much he tried to visualize Liu Tianming's voice and smile, and called his name over and over in his heart, his spiritual mind could not sense the other person's existence and could not complete the possession.
This means to a large extent that the person he wants to possess no longer exists in this world.
Liu Tianming may be dead!
When he thought of this, Yuan Ming's throat felt a little clogged. This was an emotion he had rarely experienced since he became a practitioner.
Liu Tianming kept appearing in his mind, and he said to him with a smile: "Brother Ming, let's ride on a white horse, carry a sword on our waist, and travel together in the world. Whoever wants to be the emperor of Lao Shizi should be... "
The sound dispersed, and there was no trace of his presence in the empty palace.
Yuan Ming could not calm down, and a murderous intention could not help but arise.
"Dong dong, the sky is dry and everything is dry, be careful of the candles." At this moment, a burst of shouting suddenly came from outside the hall.
Yuan Ming frowned and immediately stepped out.
Immediately, he saw a solitary lantern hanging five feet high in the square in the distance.
Under the orange-red light of the lantern, you can see a rickety figure dragging a wooden cart along the stone road.
After every few steps, the figure would stop, knock the bamboo clapper and gong in his hand twice, and then continue on his way.
His voice was actually not loud, but through the empty and lonely palace, it could be heard very far.
Yuan Ming's thoughts moved and he scanned his body, only to find that there was no spiritual power fluctuation on his body. Even the fluctuations of his soul were no different from those of ordinary people. He was clearly an ordinary person.
But how could ordinary people appear here?
He didn't rush forward, but just watched from a distance, and saw the man pulling a wooden cart straight into a palace.
When he came out, there were already five more corpses in the car, all neatly stacked, and their clothes had been tidied up. Apparently they had helped clean them up.
Yuan Ming could no longer hold back his doubts and flew to the man.
"Who? Who's over there?" The man was obviously startled by Yuan Ming's sudden appearance.
Yuan Ming did not answer, but asked: "Who are you?"
As soon as he heard someone talking, the man seemed less scared than before. He held a lantern and leaned towards Yuan Ming. Under the light, an old, dark and shriveled face appeared.
He looked very old, with droopy eyebrows, droopy mouth corners, a slightly bitter look on his face, and only the whites of his eyes without black pupils. He was clearly a blind old man.
"I am the watchman in the palace." The blind old man replied honestly.
"Everyone in the palace is dead, what are you doing here?" Yuan Ming asked with a frown.
"Update." The blind old man said quickly.
"Didn't you hear what I said? Everyone in the palace is dead and there is no one left alive." Yuan Ming said in surprise.
"I know there are no survivors. I have been collecting corpses in the palace for the past few days, and I haven't seen a single living ghost, let alone a living person." The blind old man replied.
"Then you still won't leave?" Yuan Ming asked doubtfully.
"This is what I do. I have been doing it all my life. I don't know where to go." The blind old man sighed and said leisurely.
Yuan Ming was suffocated when he heard this, and after thinking about it, he stopped trying to persuade him.