With Isabella, a Saint Rank powerhouse, stepping in, the garrison force that had been blocking the gate no longer dared to cause any trouble. They even waived the identity check and allowed the group to enter the city directly.
After resolving the matter and seeing Sui Yun’s carriage safely into the city, Isabella departed on her own without even leaving a word of farewell.
However, the atmosphere inside the carriage fell into a strange, eerie silence. Even the usually lively Little Goldie shut his mouth and shrunk back silently, his gaze darting between Po Kong and Xia Duo as if he had sensed something was wrong.
In the end, it was Sui Yun who broke the suffocating silence. “Sigh... I can only blame myself for being useless. This is something I should have been the one to bear...”
“Big Brother Sui Yun, what exactly is going on? Why does Po Kong suddenly have such a powerful fiancée? And...” Starlight couldn't help but ask.
After careful consideration, he believed that this matter needed to be clarified face-to-face no matter what. If things were kept hidden at such a critical juncture, their newly formed four-person team would likely face the risk of falling apart.
Po Kong was clearly unwilling to speak of it, and Sui Yun seemed to know the truth. Therefore, asking Sui Yun directly was the best choice.
Facing Starlight’s inquiry, Sui Yun remained silent for a long time before finally nodding. He began to speak, slowly recounting a long-buried past.
The story began with the general situation of the Crimson City-State. Ever since the great war with the Demons seventeen years ago, the overall strength of the human side had plummeted significantly.
It wasn't just the frontline city-states; even the military strength of the Royal Capital, Lionheart City, had been cut by more than half.
However, among them all, the one that had preserved its strength most effectively was the Crimson City-State, located in the heart of the continent.
Due to their distrust of other races, the Crimson City-State’s army had remained outside the main body of the Allied Forces from the very beginning of the war, serving instead in roles of logistics and containment.
While such actions were somewhat looked down upon, they had effectively preserved their core strength. Furthermore, the various families led by the House of Red leveraged their geographical advantage to monopolize nearly half of the Allied Forces’ logistics transport, allowing them to reap enormous profits.
After the war, while other families and city-states were in a period of weakness, the Golden Era of the Crimson City-State quietly arrived.
Formidable military power, immense wealth, and perfect timing—all of this allowed the House of Red, the actual controllers of the Crimson City-State, to reach a level of prominence that even began to eclipse that of the Royal House of Leon for a time.
From the perspective of the Royal Family, they naturally could not allow a subordinate noble to become so dominant. However, still in a state of weakness themselves, there was little they could do.
In response, someone proposed a suggestion to the King: secretly support other families within the Crimson City-State to create a degree of internal chaos. This would suppress the momentum of the House of Red while giving other city-states a chance to breathe.
And the simplest way to achieve this goal was through a marriage alliance.
The Royal Family highly approved of this plan. The task of executing it fell upon the family Po Kong belonged to—the House of Mars.
Compared to other families, the House of Mars possessed several natural advantages.
First, as the only Duke in the entire kingdom without a large fief, the War God Grand Duke had stood firmly by the Royal Family’s side for the thousands of years since the Kingdom of Leon was founded, making him the most loyal candidate.
If a member of the House of Mars could successfully marry into a family within the Crimson City-State, the resulting powerful alliance would naturally form a check against the House of Red.
Second, with the marriage alliance as a pretext, the War God Legion could be stationed near the Crimson City-State legitimately. With this renowned army present, even if the House of Red harbored thoughts of rebellion, they could be nipped in the bud.
Most importantly, the second-largest family of the Crimson City-State—the House of Pride—already had a deep friendship with the House of Mars. The Count Pride of that time had been a member of the War God Legion in his youth and had served as one of the War God Grand Duke’s deputies.
Among the young nobles of that era, Isabella Pride and Sui Yun-Mars were childhood sweethearts who had grown up together.
Not only did both possess extraordinary talent, but they were also a perfect match in heart and mind. If they could successfully unite, it would undoubtedly be a powerful alliance that was virtually invincible.
At the time, no one raised any objections to this arrangement by the Royal Family, as it appeared to be a win-win situation from every angle.
Thus, naturally and logically, the House of Mars and the House of Pride established this marriage alliance under the witness of the Royal Family.
Just as everything was gradually getting on track, things did not develop as expected. A war several years later completely disrupted everything.
Following the Demons, the beastkin of the southern continent gathered their armies once again. Taking advantage of the human kingdom’s period of weakness, they crossed the southern Wind-Eroded Desert in one go and bore down on the Azure City-State.
Caught off guard, the Azure City-State’s army could only rely on natural barriers to stall the invading beastkin army. Although they managed to defend themselves, an beastkin unit still broke through the defensive line, crossed the Corana Mountains, and entered the heart of the human kingdom.
Upon learning that the defenses of Azure had been breached, Lionheart City dispatched its stationed troops overnight, vowing to completely eradicate the invading enemy.
Among the leaders of that expeditionary force was Count Pride—Isabella’s grandfather. Sui Yun and Isabella, as the leading figures of the new generation of warriors, also set out with the army, aiming to lead a mobile unit to intercept the host that had penetrated deep into the kingdom.
At the same time, Grand Duke Mars led the War God Legion from another route to reinforce the Azure City-State. As long as the situation on the front lines could be stabilized, they could form a pincer movement with the interception unit and annihilate the enemy in one fell swoop.
Unfortunately, the humans had miscalculated the beastkin’ deployment and combat strength.
This time, the beastkin did not choose to pillage everywhere as they had in the past. They only left a portion of their forces to besiege the Azure City-State, while their true elite troops had already slaughtered their way deep into the continent through the gap in the defenses.
Before long, this terrifying elite force met the interception unit led by Count Pride face-to-face.
Count Pride’s unit was originally intended only to contain the enemy on the plains; they had never expected the gap in strength between the two sides to be so vast. As soon as they clashed, the human army was left reeling.
Count Pride knew that if the beastkin were not stopped here, the cities in the rear would surely suffer a bloody massacre, repeating the tragedy that had befallen the Crimson City-State thousands of years ago. Thus, he issued the order to fight to the death and never retreat.
In this way, without any terrain for cover, the human mobile unit engaged in an incredibly cruel and bloody battle with the beastkin elites.
On the other hand, after Grand Duke Mars rushed to the Azure City-State, he immediately realized the beastkin’ trick. He left half of the War God Legion to guard the city and immediately led the rest back to provide support.
However, he was ultimately unable to make it in time. By the time the War God Legion flanked the beastkin troops overnight, the battle ahead was nearing its end.
Although the War God Legion annihilated the beastkin elites—who were exhausted from long-distance combat and lacked supplies—with overwhelming momentum, the human side paid a tragic price.
In that bloody battle, the army led by Count Pride was almost completely wiped out, with only a few hundred survivors remaining. The Count himself, acting as the commander-in-chief, died on the front lines, taking an beastkin general down with him.
And Sui Yun, in order to protect Isabella, was gravely injured and even lost an arm.
Ultimately, the battle concluded with a pyrrhic victory for the humans. The human army, which had yet to recover its vitality, was significantly weakened once again.
Although Sui Yun and Isabella received titles and rewards from the Royal Family upon their triumphant return and were treated as heroes, there was one point that the people in power criticized.
That was the fact that although Sui Yun had kept his life, he had become crippled.
In the unique cultivation method of War God Battle Qi, one must rely on the meridians and flesh of the entire body to distribute its intense side effects. For Sui Yun, who had lost his right arm, the path to further progress was undoubtedly severed.
Even if he could retain a portion of his strength, he was no longer the genius who stood at the peak of the younger generation.
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