After hearing Xi Ying's words, Yuan Ming was met with another long silence on his end.

Then, he finally spoke again, "If the people from Cloud Desolate Alliance have all withdrawn, then Da Jin Capital must have surely fallen too, right?"

"Da Jin Capital was breached even earlier than Chang Chun Temple. However, something happened just before the fall of Da Jin Capital." After a moment of hesitation, Xi Ying spoke.

"What?" Yuan Ming asked, sensing that the matter was likely related to him upon hearing her mention it.

"Previously, Chang Chun Temple had called for all external disciples to return to the Sect to jointly defend against the enemy. Liu Tianming had not responded at all. Unexpectedly, just the day before the Wu Yue Sect invaded Da Jin Capital, he suddenly appeared on the city wall," said Xi Ying.

Upon hearing this, Yuan Ming felt a heavy weight sink in his heart.

"Liu Tianming declared in his capacity as the sovereign that he would lead the Da Jin cultivators and fight to the death against the Wu Yue Sect, until the city fell," Xi Ying lowered her head to glance at Guoguo before continuing.

"Is he... still alive?" Yuan Ming asked.

"The initial attack on Da Jin Capital wasn't led by the main forces of the Wu Yue Sect, their leader was a Nascent Soul cultivator, but he was killed by Liu Tianming under the city walls. In a fury, the Wu Yue Sect sent a Venerable..." Xi Ying did not finish her sentence, but her meaning was clear enough.

"What happened afterward?" Yuan Ming asked in a grave voice.

"According to the news that came back, the Liu Royal Family was very resolute, preferring death to surrendering to the Wu Yue Sect, so the casualties were extremely severe. Except for the lineage of the current Crown Prince who had relocated earlier and escaped to Chang Chun Temple, preserving the dynasty, the rest perished for their country," said Xi Ying.

After speaking, Xi Ying waited a long time for Yuan Ming to compose himself, but he never continued the conversation.

"He originally had the chance to withdraw, at least to Chang Chun Temple first. The people who escaped said he declared that as the ruler of a nation, he had no reason to abandon his country and flee," Xi Ying thought for a while, then shared these details with Yuan Ming.

After a long time, Guoguo's bowed head was finally raised again.

"This fool, he never wanted to be the Emperor…" Yuan Ming sighed deeply.

"Yuan Ming, concern leads to chaos. Now, to say Da Jin Capital is like a dragon's lair and a tiger's den is an understatement; do not act impulsively and lose your life for nothing," Xi Ying advised upon hearing his words.

"Don't worry, I just raided the den of the Wu Yue God. He's probably itching to turn me into ash. I won't be walking into a trap. Moreover, no one has seen whether Liu Tianming is dead or alive, right? I'll possess him in a few days and then I'll know his whereabouts," Yuan Ming's voice came through, his emotions evidently more stable now.

"What are your plans next?" Xi Ying inquired.

"Since you followed them to the Cloud Ridge Mountain Range, I'll head over there to meet up with you, but I will definitely have to take a roundabout route, so it will be a bit later," Yuan Ming said.

"Alright, then we'll meet in the Cloud Ridge Mountain Range," Xi Ying agreed with him.

After Yuan Ming responded, he ended the possession, and his soul returned to his own body.

...

Seven days later, in the evening.

At Qu Jiang, outside North City Gate.

The remnants of the city wall were scorched black, the traces of being burned by war still vividly visible, everywhere showing breaches smashed by colossal beasts.

Inside and outside the city wall, corpses lay everywhere, the stench of decay filled the air, and crows pecked at the bodies all around.

The open city gates and the official road extending outward, the surviving citizens of the city were struggling to escape, all disheveled and filthy, wearing tattered clothes.

Although they had survived the horrific slaughter, their spirits had already suffered severe trauma.

One by one, they looked gaunt and numb, their eyes hollow as if they were living corpses, dragging their heavy footsteps, slowly moving out of this dead city.

Under the blood-red dying sun, the figure of a young man in a gray robe appeared at the city gate.

He looked up, glanced at several corpses hanging above the gate dressed in armor, his expression unchanged as he walked through the gate.

The person was none other than Yuan Ming.

Although he verbally promised Xi Ying he absolutely wouldn't risk coming to Da Jin, how could he possibly not come?

Yuan Ming passed through the gloomy city gate arch and stepped into the city.

Although he was prepared, the hellish scene before him still profoundly shook him.

The capital, once bustling with closely packed houses like smoke and lively streets, now where was any trace of its former self? As far as the eye could see, there were only broken walls and ruins.

The original orderly streets, now chocked with corpses and rubble, no longer showed the signs of living people, only the carrion-eating crows circling low in the sky.

Among the destroyed rubble of houses, one could see the mutilated corpses of citizens and traces of blood not yet completely dried.

As the sun set, the city was utterly silent, Qu Jiang like a city of the dead.

Yuan Ming followed the main street to where the General Mansion once stood, passing familiar shops and stores all now reduced to ruins, all that which was familiar, now irretrievable memories.

Since Yuan Ming's parents had left the capital, the Yuan Mansion had been stripped of its title as General Mansion, but it had not been reclaimed by the government, and direct and collateral relatives of the Yuan Family still lived there.

But when Yuan Ming came back, the entire Yuan Mansion had also been reduced to broken walls.

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Immediately, he saw the old doorman who had been his childhood companion, stiffly dead in a wooden reclining chair.

His head was pierced, his eyes looking towards the sky, half his face gruesomely pecked away by crows.

In the broken courtyard, decaying bodies lay everywhere,

Although Yuan Ming knew there were no survivors just by sweeping his Divine Sense, he couldn't help but wanting to see for himself.

After seeing, this debt could be clearly recorded on Wu Yue Sect's account.

Then, Yuan Ming activated the Corpse Control Technique, gathering over a hundred corpses from the courtyard, and in the central garden, he dug over a hundred graves, burying them all.

Afterward, he hurried all the way to the Imperial Palace.

The originally heavily guarded Imperial Palace had long since been devoid of any defense forces.

The situation here was even more severe than outside.

Because those living inside the palace were mostly the unfree palace maids and eunuchs who had no chance to escape until the very last moment.

Thus, the bodies here were even more numerous and densely packed than outside.

The palace, now enshrouded in night, was pitch-dark without a glimmer of light, silent as a ghost town.

Yuan Ming stood outside the Meridian Gate, his Divine Thought sweeping across the palace, detecting no signs of life.

He sighed, his form transforming into a Blood Shadow as he entered the palace, passing the Qianqing Palace where the Emperor held court and the Yangxin Hall where the Emperor rested, to no avail.

Among the many corpses, he did not spot Liu Tianming.

Perhaps he was still alive?

Yuan Ming, harboring a sliver of hope, halted his steps in front of the Yangxin Hall.

He walked into the palace, sat down cross-legged in the hall, flipped his hand to retrieve the Stealing Heaven Tripod and a stick of Black Incense, rubbed the incense head to light it, and then inserted it into the incense burner.

The fire on the incense flickered, wafting plumes of smoke upward.

But before the incense had burned down much, Yuan Ming's eyes suddenly snapped open, filled with a gaze of confusion and worry.

"Can't find him..."

He murmured to himself, his focused gazesuddenly turning frantic.

The attempt to possess Liu Tianming using Black Incense Possession had failed.

No matter how he tried to visualize Liu Tianming's voice and smile or shouted his name over and over in his mind, his Divine Sense couldn't sense the other's existence or complete the possession.

That largely meant the person he wanted to possess no longer existed in this world.

Liu Tianming might already be dead!

The thought made Yuan Ming's throat constrict, an emotion he had rarely experienced since becoming a cultivator.

In his mind, he kept seeing images of Liu Tianming, who would smile and say,"Brother Ming, in the future let's ride white horses and wield treasured swords together, adventuring through the martial arts world, and to hell with this Emperor business; let whoever wants it have it..."

The voice faded, leaving no trace of his existence in the empty palace.

Yuan Ming's emotions couldn't settle, a surge of murderous intent rising uncontrollably.

"Thump thump, dry wood prone to fire, be cautious with the candles." Just then, a shout suddenly came from outside the hall.

Yuan Ming frowned and immediately darted out.

Soon, he saw a solitary lantern lit in the distance on a plaza, hanging about five feet high.

Under the orangish-red light of the lantern, one could see a hunched figure, struggling to pull a wooden cart along the stone path.

Every few steps, the figure would stop to knock twice on the bamboo stick and gong in hand, then continue pushing the cart.

The voice was not loud, but through the empty and desolate palace, it carried very far, very far.

Yuan Ming moved his Divine Sense towards the figure and discovered no fluctuations of Spiritual Power or Divine Soul, clearly an ordinary person.

But what was an ordinary person doing here?

He didn't rush forward, instead watching from afar, only to see that person pull the cart straight into a palace.

When he came out, there were already five bodies on the cart, all neatly arranged and their clothes tidied, clearly someone had taken care of them.

Unable to contain his curiosity any longer, Yuan Ming flew to the person's side.

"Who? Who's there?" The sudden appearance of Yuan Ming obviously startled the person.

Yuan Ming did not answer but instead asked, "Who are you?"

Hearing someone talking, the person seemed less frightened than before, lifting the lantern closer to Yuan Ming, the light revealing an old, dark, and withered face.

He appeared very aged, with drooping brows and eyes, down-turned mouth corners carrying a trace of bitterness, and eyes that were all white with no black pupils, strikingly a blind old man.

"I am a night watchman at the palace," the blind elder honestly replied.

"Everyone in the palace is dead, what are you doing here?" Yuan Ming asked with a frown.

"Making rounds," the blind elder quickly said.

"Didn't you hear me? Everyone in the palace is dead, there are no living people left," Yuan Ming said, puzzled.

"I know there are no living people left, I have been collecting bodies in the palace these past few days, not even a living ghost to be found," the blind elder replied.

"Then why don't you leave?" Yuan Ming asked, perplexed.

"This is what I do; I've done it all my life. As for leaving... I don't even know where to go," the blind elder sighed and said languidly.

On hearing this, Yuan Ming was taken aback, thought for a moment, and then didn't try to persuade him further.