CHAPTER 494: CHAPTER 424: THEY CAN’T WIN ANYMORE

"Wah—!"

Just as everyone was stunned, almost losing their ability to react, a wretched cry suddenly came from beside them.

Shang Ruyi hastily lowered her head to look, and it was Shantong’er. As he witnessed the tragic scene before his eyes, his dark, bright pupils were trembling incessantly, his face turned pale, and he suddenly bent over, vomiting out everything he had eaten before.

"Shantong’er!"

Shang Ruyi hurriedly squatted down to support him, while another hand reached over, gently patting his back.

It was Nie Chong.

His gaze was drawn back from the Capital, and his face was somewhat pale too. But at this moment, he couldn’t care less about himself as he helped Shantong’er pat his back and catch his breath, softly saying, "I told you to eat less."

"I, I..."

Shantong’er seemed like he wanted to say something, but couldn’t utter a word. His eyes were red, and tears and snot ran down his face. The body, once strong like a small bull, was now uncontrollably trembling.

Apparently, he was terrified.

Although this child had gone through quite a bit, even rising to become the Ninth Master in Wanggang Village, he might have been involved in conflicts, possibly having seen killings, yet the true brutality of war was beyond the imagination of ordinary people. Even— Shang Ruyi remembered when she first met Yu Wenquan, praising him with "Godly archer shakes Dragon Gate, constructs corpses into the Capital," words that won Yu Wenquan’s favor and altered her marriage smoothly.

At the time, all she thought of was such a great hero subduing rebellion and killing enemies fearlessly. She didn’t realize, behind those few words, lay such a sight of carnage.

The Capital, turns out to be such a cruel thing.

A surge of unspeakable contradiction and pain rose in Shang Ruyi’s heart. She couldn’t help but lift her head, looking towards Yu Wenye standing at the forefront.

Compared to the shocked people around, he remained extremely calm, one hand resting on the crenellations, coldly looking at the Capital ahead which was becoming clearer and more terrifying under the sunlight. At this moment, you could even see streams of blood flowing from the mountain of corpses, staining half of a river red.

A gust of wind blew, and the shimmering waves of the river seemed to hint at a crimson blood color as well.

Mountains of corpses and seas of blood, this was truly mountains of corpses and seas of blood!

And that gale, also wrapped around with the stench of corpses, attacked once more.

Immediately, more people on the tower began to retch, several unable to hold back now, covered their mouths, and rushed down the tower to vomit. The sound of vomiting echoed in the space between the city walls, magnified countless times, resonating like thunder in everyone’s ears.

Shang Ruyi lifted her head again, and around her were only face after face, pale and void; although some were barely holding back tears and nausea, in their eyes, the fear spawned from their hearts was completely undisguisable, and that emotion was slowly spreading across the tower, gradually sweeping through the entire Fufeng with the rancid wind wrapping around corpse stench.

The people of this place had collapsed.

At this moment, Shang Ruyi’s heart suddenly sank—this, is what Yu Wenye meant by a greater blow?

The annihilation of all eighty thousand troops was, after all, just a phrase from the soldier who conveyed the news. These people only knew that eighty thousand soldiers had died and could no longer fight, but once the news was heard, it was over.

But this scene before them was different.

This Capital, built with the bodies of eighty thousand soldiers, allowed them to see the cruelty of war clearly and made them understand in reality that if Fufeng, drained of eighty thousand soldiers, were to confront Xue Xian again, what would be the outcome.

This might be the likely outcome for each person standing here!

Shang Ruyi instinctively stepped forward: "Feng Chen!"

Only at this moment did Yu Wenye slowly turn around, in the sunlight. His handsome face showed not a trace of warmth, and he calmly looked at the people around him.

He said, "Have you all seen clearly?"

...

No one was able to answer his question.

Who still couldn’t see?

The pale faces, the despairing eyes, at this moment, through the sunlight piercing the clouds and illuminating the land, were even clearer; they seemed like ghosts fallen to Hell, utterly hopeless.

But some still looked at him.

If everyone else was in despair, trapped in Hell, then in front of them, the Assistant General, should be their only hope, because the court entrusted Fufeng to him, gave him the critical task of resisting Xue Xian. He should have ways to cope, and the ability to restore all the broken spirits.

So, at this moment, more and more people lifted their heads, looked at him with gleaming eyes.

What would he say?

What more could he do for the people here, for this Fufeng County?

As everyone’s gaze, reflecting sunlight, looked at Yu Wenye with scorching heat, Shang Ruyi also held her breath—she remembered Yu Wenye had said, when they heard the news of the total annihilation of the eighty thousand army before, it was not yet the time to boost morale, because arriving in Fufeng would be an even greater blow, and no matter how strong a person’s resilience was, it couldn’t withstand such repeated blows.

Now, should be the time for him to lift morale, right?

Thinking of this, Shang Ruyi clenched her fists, her palms almost entirely covered in cold sweat, nervously watching him.

But on Yu Wenye’s face, there still remained the unchanging coldness, even his deep, unfathomable pupils showed no trace of light. He glanced at the soldiers shrouded in heavy deathly air around him, and said lightly, "You have all seen clearly, now go down."

"...!?"

Shang Ruyi widened her eyes all of a sudden!

What?!

He let these people just walk away like this?

At this point, after letting everyone witness this tragic scene, with morale at its lowest to the brink of collapse, he still doesn’t say anything? At this rate, this troop will completely lose fighting spirit, how can he still lead these forces, let alone win this war!

Not only her, even Mu Xian and Cheng Qiao beside her showed expressions of astonishment, staring at Yu Wenye, dumbfounded.

But he, still had no other measures, only waved his hand.

This time, everyone seemed to feel something—as if even this Great General, at this point, has given up.

If that’s the case, what reason do they have not to give up?

Thinking of this, these people no longer hesitated, in fact, many could no longer bear standing on the tower, turned around, and headed down, sighing relentlessly. The rising and falling sighs converged into a heavy, prolonged sigh, casting this battle that had yet to start into the abyss of defeat.

They, could not win.