Panlong's Worton

Chapter 21 Doomsday

Linley and Walton looked up at the same time.

Then they saw a sight they would never forget.

A gigantic ape-like monster plummeted from the clouds. No, not plummeted, but swooped down—it crashed into the center of Fenlai City like a meteorite, its target the Holy Island of the Church of Light. The monster was covered in golden fur, its eyes flashing purple light, and it stood over thirty meters tall. With each step it took, the ground trembled.

Purple-eyed Golden-haired Ape. A sacred beast.

Immediately afterward, the sky was obscured. Not just one, but a whole swarm—winged dragons, winged pegasus, thunderwing pegasus, blue-eyed thunder eagles… tens of thousands of flying magical beasts formed a dark, overwhelming legion, surging towards Fenlai City from all directions. Level eight golden sun eagles weaved through the ranks, and there were also true dragons—not sub-dragons, but pure-blooded dragons, whose flapping wings created gales that made the city's buildings sway precariously.

"What...is that?" Walton murmured.

Linley was speechless. The scene before him was beyond his comprehension—a Holy Domain monster siege? And more than one?

The answer was quickly revealed.

The ground began to shake. It wasn't the kind of shaking that the purple-eyed golden-haired ape trod; it was a more intense and violent tremor, as if something enormous was surging forward.

A group of people rushed out from the street corner, screaming and crying, scrambling and stumbling. Behind them, a gray tide swept across the street—no, not a tide, but wolves. Thousands upon thousands of wind wolves, their eyes bloodshot, their fangs dripping with saliva, swept in like a hungry torrent. Behind the wolf pack came even larger figures: mammoths, earth dragons, armored beasts… countless monsters poured in from the breach in the city wall, killing anyone in sight and smashing into any building they encountered.

Fenlai City, one of the most prosperous human cities on the Yulan Continent, was transformed into hell in just a few minutes.

Screams, wails, explosions, the sound of buildings collapsing, the roars of monsters—all the sounds blended together, creating a devastating cacophony.

"What is that?" Lin Lei suddenly remembered the name that Grandpa Delin had mentioned.

As if in response to his question, the horde of monsters in the sky suddenly parted.

An eerie young man strode through the air. He appeared to be in his early twenties, with a handsome face that seemed otherworldly. A vertical line on his forehead resembled a closed third eye. He wore a simple blue robe and was barefoot, each step he took creating ripples in the air.

The young man hovered above Fenlai City, looking down at the hellish scene below. His gaze swept over the burning streets, the fleeing crowds, and the soldiers fighting desperately, finally settling on the direction of the Holy Island of the Church of Light.

"Humans".

The young man's voice wasn't loud, but it reached everyone's ears clearly, drowning out all the noise.

"I am Di Lin. From this day forward, the will of the Monster Mountain Range will once again descend upon the Magnolia Continent. The Holy Alliance and the Dark Alliance will each take half of the territory as the dwelling place for my race. Anyone who objects—"

He stretched out his finger and pointed downwards.

Above the Holy Island's main temple, a massive black vortex appeared. The vortex spun, devouring light, sound, and everything in its path. A few seconds later, the vortex shrank to a single point and vanished.

The main temple complex, along with the clergy, knights, and believers who couldn't escape, vanished completely. It didn't just collapse; it disappeared entirely, leaving behind only a bottomless crater with smooth, mirror-like edges.

"—For example."

Dead silence.

Even the monsters stopped roaring.

Everyone stared at the giant crater, at Di Lin standing in mid-air, and at the endless army of demonic beasts surging from all directions.

Then, panic erupted completely.

"Run away—!"

"The Warcraft is attacking the city!"

"The Holy Land is filled with Holy Land monsters—!"

The crowd went completely mad, trampling each other, screaming, and crying. The royal guard had long since collapsed; soldiers dropped their weapons and fled for their lives alongside the civilians. Noble carriages rampaged through the streets, crushing those who fell, but were quickly overtaken by the monsters and torn apart, carriage and horse alike.

Chaos. Utter chaos.

Linley and Walton stood in the middle of Maple Street, surrounded by corpses and pools of blood, but no monsters had noticed them yet—more living humans in the distance were attracting the monsters' attention.

"Brother..." Walton's voice was hoarse, "What...what do we do now?"

Linley looked towards the royal palace. It was burning there too; the monsters had already stormed in, and he could vaguely hear the resistance and dying screams of the palace guards.

"Let's take advantage of the chaos and leave," Linley decided. "Fenlai City is finished; staying here will only lead to our deaths."

Just as the two brothers were preparing to leave, a group of people suddenly rushed out from the end of the street.

They weren't monsters, they were humans. About thirty people, clad in the armor of the royal guards, were protecting several carriages and desperately charging towards the city outskirts. The lead knight brandished his lance, sweeping away anyone in his path—civilians or low-level monsters alike—and carving a bloody trail through the crowd.

The carriage had no royal crest, and the curtains were drawn, but the wheels left deep tracks on the stone slabs—the carriage was carrying heavy loads, most likely the wealth accumulated by the royal family.

"A royal escape party," Linley immediately understood. "They want to take advantage of the chaos to flee with their treasure."

The column was drawing ever closer. The knights were clearly well-trained; facing the sporadic attacks of magical beasts, they formed ranks to resist, fighting and retreating with great efficiency. At this speed, it was entirely possible they could break out of the city.

Wharton looked at Linley: "Should we stop them?"

Linley stared at the carriages, his eyes gleaming. Killing Clyde was a personal vendetta, but the royal family's millennia-old wealth... if he could obtain it, it would be of immense help in rebuilding the family and confronting the Papacy in the future.

Moreover, in the current situation, who cares about killing a few more members of the royal family?

"Stop them," Lin Lei uttered. "Leave the treasure, kill them all."

The two brothers tacitly separated and hid in the shadows of the buildings on both sides of the street.

The convoy approached.

The lead knight was a scarred, burly man, an eighth-level warrior. He wielded his lance with ferocious power, piercing the head of a fifth-level wind wolf with a single thrust, sending the corpse flying. He shouted, "Quick! Stay close! We'll be safe once we're out of the city!"

No sooner had the words left his mouth than a dark figure swooped down from the roof on the left.

Beibei.

The Shadow Mouse's target wasn't the knight, but the horses pulling the carriage. Like a black lightning bolt, it weaved between the four horses, leaving a deep, bone-revealing wound on each one's leg. The warhorses neighed and knelt, the carriage abruptly stopped, and those inside screamed.

"An ambush!" the scarred knight roared. "Form a circular formation!"

The knights reacted swiftly, immediately closing in and surrounding the carriage with their lances pointing outwards. However, their formation was designed to counter magical beasts and to prevent a frontal assault.

Linley and Walton, on the other hand, come from above.

Linley leaped from the rooftop on the right, "Slaughter" already drawn mid-air. The blade flashed like a blood moon falling, slashing towards the outermost knight. The knight raised his lance to block, but the lance shaft snapped like rotten wood before "Slaughter," the blade cleaving through his armor, cutting from his shoulder to his abdomen.

Amid screams, Linley landed, rolled, and with his second strike severed another knight's horse's leg. The horse fell to the ground, the knight tumbled, and Linley stomped on his throat, crushing it.

Walton charged in from the left. He lacked Linley's agility, relying solely on brute force—a sweeping slash of his greatsword sent three knights and their horses flying. The sounds of bones breaking, armor shattering, and dying screams mingled together. He stepped forward, delivering another vertical slash that cleaved open the carriage.

Amidst the flying sawdust, stacks of wooden crates were revealed. Several crates broke open, spilling glittering coins and colorful gems all over the ground.

"Treasure!" a knight exclaimed.

But the Scarface Knight was more clear-headed: "Forget the treasure! Kill the enemy! Otherwise, we'll all die!"

He turned his horse around and thrust his spear straight at Walton's back. The thrust was swift and ruthless, the tip of the spear gathering fighting spirit and emitting a sharp whistle.

Walton didn't turn around, but swung his greatsword backward. The blade struck the lance shaft, the terrifying force causing the scarred knight's hand to split open, and the lance flew out of his grasp. Only then did Walton turn around and kick the horse in the belly.

The warhorse neighed and flew backward, knocking over two of its companions.

The thirty-man guard was decimated within ten seconds of the Linley brothers' surprise attack. The remaining knights finally realized that these were no ordinary bandits, but powerful figures they could not contend with.

"Run!" someone shouted.

The surviving knight turned his horse around, trying to escape. But Bebe stood guard at the end of the street; anyone who dared to rush past would have their throat slit.

The massacre continued.

Linley's knife and Walton's sword moved like two meat grinders through the crowd. Every slash was fatal, every sword shattered bone. Blood splattered, limbs flew, and screams echoed everywhere.

Two minutes later, the battle ended.

All thirty-four knights were wiped out. Dozens more corpses littered the streets, the pools of blood widening and mixing with the blood of Clyde's guards, making them indistinguishable.

There were still people inside the carriage. Lin Lei walked over and used his knife to lift the curtain.

Inside sat three women and two children, all dressed in elaborate clothes, their faces deathly pale and trembling. Upon seeing Lin Lei's blood-stained face, one of the women fainted on the spot.

"Royal concubines and princes and princesses," Walton said, walking over. "Should we kill them?"

Lin Lei looked at the two children. The older one was seven or eight years old, and the younger one was four or five years old. They were hugging each other tightly, tears streaming down their faces, but they dared not cry out loud.

He remembered the manor in Wushan Town, and how his father taught him swordsmanship when he was a child, while his mother watched tenderly from the side. The sunlight was warm then, and the wind was gentle.

"Never mind." Linley sheathed his knife. "Let them go."

Walton didn't object. He walked to the carriage and said to the people inside, "Get out and escape. It's your luck to have survived."

The woman and child scrambled off the bus and ran away without looking back, disappearing into the burning street.

Linley began inspecting the carriages. There were five carriages in total, three carrying people and two carrying goods. The cargo carriages were piled high with boxes: gold coins, gems, magical materials, precious herbs, antique artworks... A rough estimate put their value at least in the tens of millions of gold coins.

"We've struck it rich," Walton whistled.

The two brothers began looting. Linley had a spatial ring, but its capacity was limited, only able to hold the most valuable items. Wharton found several sturdy leather bags, filled them with magic cores and gems, and strapped them to his body.

Just as we were busy, a deafening roar suddenly came from the sky.

The two looked up and saw an even more shocking sight: more than a dozen Saint-level magical beasts hovered above Fenlai City, forming a circle. They were of various shapes and sizes—there was a hundred-meter-long azure dragon, a jet-black tiger, a giant lion with wings on its back, and a thunder eagle crackling with electricity…

The aura emanating from each of them suffocated Linley. It was a crushing defeat on a level of life itself, like an ant looking up at a dragon.

At the center of this group of sacred beasts was Di Lin.

The eerie young man stood with his hands behind his back, his gaze indifferently looking down. Opposite him, seven figures stood in mid-air—the Pope of Light, Haitings, and six Saint-level experts: Chief Judge Usenno, Ascetic Leader Luoye, Fanatic Leader Leiming, two Saint-level knights, and an old man in white robes whom Linley did not recognize.

Seven human Saint-level beings faced more than a dozen Saint-level magical beasts and the unfathomable Di Lin.

"Eelin," the Emperor declared, "from this day forward, I will redefine the rules. The Holy Alliance and the Dark Alliance will each take half of the territory. You have two choices: accept, or die."

Haitings remained silent. The faces of the Saint-level experts behind him were ashen, especially Usenno, whose eyes were so sinister they seemed to drip water.

But no one dared to make a move.

Di Lin's finger strike just now caused the Holy See's main hall to vanish. That power transcended the realm of the Holy Land and touched upon the domain of the gods.

"We..." Haitings finally spoke, his voice bitter, "accept."

These three words seemed to drain all his strength. The Pope appeared to age ten years in an instant.

Di Lin nodded: "All humans must evacuate the designated area within three days. Those who fail to do so will be executed without mercy."

Having said that, he turned and strode away. A dozen or so Saint-level magical beasts followed him, disappearing into the clouds.

But the horde of monsters on the ground did not retreat. They continued to rampage, continued to slaughter, and continued to turn Fenlai into a living hell.

Haytings and the other Saint-level powerhouses took one last look at the burning city before turning and leaving. They needed to preserve their strength, rebuild the Holy See, and prepare for a future counterattack.

As for the commoners, nobles, and soldiers in the city... they can only pray for their own good fortune.

"This is god-level..." Walton murmured, "viewing all living beings as ants."

Linley gripped the hilt of his knife tightly. Everything that had happened today had completely overturned his understanding of the world. He thought that as a level seven mage and a level seven warrior, plus his dragon form, he was already a powerful figure. But in front of a god, in front of Di Lin, he was ridiculously weak.

And then there's the Holy See. They can sacrifice their mothers, disregard the lives of countless civilians, and abandon the Holy Capital to preserve their strength—how can he, alone with just a knife, possibly contend with such a power?

"Brother," Walton suddenly said, "we have to go. The monsters are swarming over here."

In the distance, a torrent of monsters was advancing along the street, leaving nothing but desolation in its wake.

Linley took one last look at Clyde's body—the king was dead, his eyes wide open, his death unfulfilled. He then glanced at the treasure scattered on the ground, treasure they couldn't take with them.

"Walk."

The two brothers turned and ran towards the outskirts of the city. Beibei led the way, tearing apart low-level magical beasts they encountered and avoiding high-level ones.

Buildings burned on both sides of the street, corpses piled up, and survivors screamed and fled for their lives, only to be quickly caught, pounced on, and torn apart by monsters. The hellish scene repeated itself endlessly before my eyes.

Two hours later, they finally broke out of Fenlai.

Looking back, the once-prosperous holy city was now a sea of ​​fire. Thick black smoke billowed, obscuring the sky and the sun, while the roars of monsters and the screams of humans could be faintly heard, like a lament for the end of the world.

"It's over," Walton said, panting.

"No." Linley looked at the burning city, his eyes cold. "This is just the beginning."

Clyde is dead, but the Papacy still exists.