Eternal Emerald Dragon

Chapter 1005 - 1004 - Rising Tide

The Ogros Kingdom no longer existed.

Unlike Kun City and the Eternal Blossom Sect, there was no coup nor was there any invasion. The Kingdom had not really existed for millennia.

A puppet royal family had been in charge as a major trade route for the Shandor Syndicate. So long as goods moved through, the populace and other powers were none the wiser about it.

The important cargo loss, however, led to the King panicking and trying to out the secret to the world. His lack of imagination only hastened his death. Nobles and ministers long under the sway of Shandor killed him themselves and the rest of the royal family quietly.

By the time the punishment force arrived, there was no one left to punish.

A woman was bored inside the former royal suite as she prepared to change the public face of Ogros Kingdom.

The unexpected setbacks in Kun City came with a potential benefit but it meant outing their control of the current area as well. They had enough leeway to pull it off but only just.

Ogros was not that important to the other powers so long as the Gate stayed active and any Fiend or beast issues were addressed as before. Why go to war with a criminal organization if they did not bother your interests?

Some righteous powers would always complain but distance and resources mitigated what they could do.

Dark gold hair was tied back in a tight braid while her blue and amber eyes looked at a stones board. She was playing the mortal game to pass time waiting for reports.

She had grown bored in the last 4 years after she found out her lost product was not only in the possession of a powerful group like the Golden Vermillion Inn, but had somehow massively increased their cultivation.

Mysteries compounded with the revelations of a Fiend lair being found after a million years of silence from them.

The Gate was broken in a way even she could not fathom and the brat from the Eternal Flame Sect was causing a ruckus looking for a wayward princess. That last fact had stunned even her!

The return of the expert Delenn Fionan was not small even for their group! She could not be harmed, the Shandor Syndicate would not dare to face that empire, but a profitable trade was possible.

Yet, it was like she had once again vanished. Her network confirmed the pair of riders, the last people to leave Kun City, never reappeared anywhere.

Either they died inside the spatial tunnel or were ejected randomly into the world. The former was most likely but there was no announcement from the Fionan Empire. They would announce it too as they would come looking for answers.

So if they were randomly ejected into the world, where were they? The population of both beasts and people had decreased by necessity and communication had areas that were just dead.

If they were in those wild places, death would almost be preferable.

The one facet of the pair that shocked her were the confirmed rumors that the Triple Maester could tear through space like the days of old! If he had that gift, it was possible they could be alive but it could be centuries before they surfaced again.

The demon gills could be bait but the Golden Vermillion Inn was powerful enough to hold off Shandor easily.

She hated stalemates but without the ability to even send out the knowledge of their capture effectively, it was useless.

Thus, she had indulged her frustration on Kun City and the Eternal Blossom Sect. The broken Gate and the fall of Ogros to them presented a unique opportunity.

She sighed as she heard the patter of slippered feet from the stone hallway. She looked up to find a servant shuffling in. Half their head was shaved on the left side to show they were royal property but the black collar on their neck was her addition to them.

The servant was androgynous but that was by design. They were more human dolls at the present than people.

The fact such servants existed should have revealed the true allegiance of the Ogros Kingdom.

"Lady Shade, a beast tide is approaching Kun City." The voice was not too deep nor too high. It was interesting as that was usually the only thing retained by the servants. Shade, however, moved to a wall that had jade screens installed into it.

She brought up some flickering and unstable images but it showed enough to see the deep forests were being disrupted on a massive scale.

It was irritating but the Ogros Kingdom was fine. It was not only out of the way but the Law Bindings would stand strong against any beast tide. One of the benefits of the current world was a decrease in the beast tides.

The resources to keep the Law Binding running were hardly taxed for the last million years so withstanding a beast tide was easy.

Still, she frowned as the course was confirmed by scouts reporting even more as time passed.

Kun City was in ruins. The defenses had collapsed and were only haphazardly rebuilt. The former Eternal Blossom Sect was in better shape but she would not open the gates to save those idiots from the Eternal Flame Sect without a profit.

She was about to send a messenger when her face became grim.

While artifacts suffered from the tainted Qi, they still worked to an extent. A scout report came back with a wave of Qi nearly off the scale! It meant the beasts were running at full tilt and exuding Qi like mad.

They were not just rushing to new lands but running from something! She quickly pulled out a jade slip and brought up what local knowledge she could find.

Nothing came up recently. She pushed back to the most ancient records and found a terrifying fact.

"Starhide Wolves! By the spirits!" She changed orders and had the defenses increased! She also had the scouts fall back but stay out in the wilds.

She needed information desperately but was relatively safe.

"Well, brat, you are on your own. Send a messenger relay to my headquarters. We will be needing new slaves for the auctions next year." She wrote off the area. There was no point. Further, they had no idea death was coming for them all.

She went back to her game as the servant ran off to relay some of the orders given. It would be monitored and any survivors might be picked up by her, but she would not put out any effort for them.

"Not bad for a game." She moved the stone chit colored black to its place and smiled as she worked out a new strategy from it. The lives she sacrificed were like the stone pieces. They meant nothing to her.

⬧⬧⬧⬧

Gone.

All the prisoners were gone. At least 15 Immortals were dead! The damnable thing was the sect formations were intact! They never stopped working!

The formations in the pens were working and still intact!

It was not like the raid in Kun City where clear traces could be felt of weaving. There were just elements! Pure elemental Qi but it told him nothing!

The Eternal Flame Sect Master slammed his fist on the table as the guards tried to explain things to him but he used his weaving skill to burn them for days alive. The flames would not consume their bodies to the point of death but still burned.

He also learned that the slaves being used as cauldrons had been consumed but were now missing! The corpses still had some uses for alchemical applications but now nothing!

The owners were found ripped apart. It was like a beast had swept through the sect grounds without making a sound.

The only clue was the massive light explosion during the night. It was actually an Art to make a sun! The amount of Qi should have alerted him all the way in the city ruins, yet he felt not a thing until it was all over and the alarm went out.

The fallout of all that was now staring him in the face.

The woman leading the Shandor Syndicate forces was away but she would be informed soon enough. He was not going to be able to avoid punishment. He would not be killed but he would have to pay a hefty price.

Qi stones would be the least of his concerns for that payment.

He was still raging when all the hairs on his arms stood up. His instincts were screaming at him as a massive plume of smoke appeared above the wall.

"What is happening?" He leapt out of his chair and left the room he was in. He came out on top of the wall and looked to the horizon.

Where the skeletal fingers of Kun City should still be visible to his eyes, was now a moving tide of death! His eyes went wide as he could make out beasts of all shapes and sizes thrashing the city to a pulp!

He lost all interest in the prisoners and their unknown enemy.

"BEAST TIDE!" His voice screeched out as the guards stopped burning and those manning the wall moved to activate the full defenses of the sect but he felt his blood drain as he realized a horrifying fact.

They had been indulgent and used up a lot of resources to imprison their enemies and start to rebuild Kun City. The Law Bindings were still up but compared to before, they had very few resources to maintain it!

He felt a tremor in his heart as he was trapped. If the beasts came for the sect, they were doomed!