CHAPTER 648: CHAPTER 389: ENTERING ENEMY TERRITORY PART 2

"Today, we need to get rid of the soldiers," Yan Xiaobao said with an intense expression on his face. "We need to eliminate them so that we have the power to begin the siege the day after tomorrow."

After hearing the order, the Saint nodded. Yan Xiaobao flapped his wings once again, ascending until he hovered just above the battlefield.

"Beasts!" he shouted. His voice surged across the region, effortlessly reaching the ears of those inside the walls. The sheer force of it made citizens fear that the walls might not hold.

"Beasts!" he roared again, the sound cascading down onto every beast across the battlefield below. "Fight as if there’s no tomorrow! Tonight, I want to see everyone dead! Let the weak wills flee, but slaughter the rest. Slaughter them as they once slaughtered the mystical beasts! Let their blood run dry. Let their corpses collapse! Give them no time to counterattack. Unleash the beast within you!"

The air erupted with shrieks, howls, snarls, and the roars of beasts. Weapons clashed against claws, teeth, and other instruments of war. The cacophony spilled into the city itself, through its narrow streets, ringing in the ears of its citizens, who were now consumed with anxiety about how this war might end.

From above, Yan Xiaobao monitored how the beasts grew more ferocious. They leaped onto humans, biting into them, tearing them apart with claws, and devouring pieces of their bodies. One after another fell. The beasts completely dominated the battlefield, and when the moon finally sank into the evening sky, only a handful of humans remained. Seeing them, Yan Xiaobao let out a heavy sigh. "Retreat!" he commanded, and the beasts obediently followed his orders. The human army had been utterly crushed. The few remaining soldiers either fled or retreated into the city. After tonight, Yan Xiaobao would have to deal with them in the second phase of the war.

"Are you sure we shouldn’t kill them all?" Wan Qiao asked curiously, eyeing the surviving humans. Her gaze was filled with murderous intent, her entire being radiating her will to kill.

"It’s fine," Yan Xiaobao chuckled softly. "Tomorrow, they’ll be gone. Besides, we won’t be fighting tomorrow. Tomorrow, we need to clean up the countless corpses so our machines can move closer to the city gates. If we spot any humans, we can easily kill them all then." He spoke with a complete disregard for the humans. To him, the essential task was to calm down and prepare for the siege. Killing the enemy was one thing, but dealing with the experts inside the city was an entirely different matter.

The city walls were packed with experts, standing so closely that there was barely room for any beasts. Yet Yan Xiaobao had a profound understanding of how to handle this war. Even if An Hee were present, he wouldn’t falter.

Watching the beasts retreat, the hearts of the few surviving humans trembled. As they arrived at the city gates, tears streamed down their faces, and they began pounding fiercely against the doors, shouting incessantly to be let in.

"Let us in! We fought for you. Don’t let us die out here!" "Let us stand by your side! We really don’t want to die!" "Open the damn gate, you bastards! We fought for you; now let us live!" Their cries pierced the air, and as they spoke, the expressions of some guards on top of the city walls were filled with disgust, while others were tinged with pity. Regardless of what the soldiers did or said, the gate remained closed.

The night grew long as the soldiers continued their attempts to convince the guards to open the gate, but nothing changed. When the first rays of sunlight illuminated the city gates, the soldiers cast one last glance at the walls of the beloved Capital they had fought for. Then, shaking their heads in defeat, they swiftly left the battlefield, heading toward the Sun Kingdom. "I hope you lose this war. Treating your loyal soldiers this way is unacceptable," one of the soldiers spat, turning his back on the Capital he had once sworn to protect. The promise that had once bound him was now broken, discarded by those he had pledged his loyalty to.

As the sunlight reached their camp, Yan Xiaobao woke all the experts. "Today, we clear the corpses. Today, we pave the way across the battlefield so that we can bring out our weapons. This is no longer easy; now we will take it seriously. Our opponents are robust, as strong as we are, and we cannot allow them to gain the upper hand."

"Today, we will move the corpses. Separate them from the battlefield itself because we need space to position our machines. Tomorrow is the day the true war will begin!" Yan Xiaobao’s speech grew sharper, and by the time they heard the voice of the Great Marshall, they were already filled with fury.

Before long, every beast moved to the previous day’s battlefield, and they began collecting corpses with a completely nonchalant attitude, stacking them in mounds on the sides of the field. Some corpses were gnawed on, while others were discarded outright. As they moved the bodies, the beasts showed an eerie calm, utterly unaffected by the death surrounding them on all sides.

"They won’t use their arrows while we’re cleaning up, huh?" Yan Xiaobao said, leaning against a tower as they worked with deliberate care. His eyes now saw everything in shades of gray, his vision enhanced twentyfold since his eyes had transformed into wolf-like ones.