The Demon Emperor was Saint Emperor

Chapter 75: Meeting Face to Face

After Legion Commander Stern left, the resistance from the Royal Guard became even weaker.

Many who initially harbored illusions had now come to their senses and began to retreat.

There was no choice; if they didn’t wake up, the blood splattering on their faces wouldn’t be someone else’s...

"Useless! A bunch of useless fools!"

The Imperial Chief Steward dared not shout, fearing he might attract Lynn’s attention.

After cursing, he rolled his eyes and quietly slipped towards a side door of the Imperial City.

He was just doing his duty; although he earned the Emperor’s trust and benefited greatly, if he were to sacrifice his life for him, wouldn’t he miss out on enjoying wealth and fortune?

And damn it, I don’t even have a son! Who am I risking my life for?

"The Chief Steward ran away! The Chief Steward ran away!"

"The Legion Commander is missing too! They’ve all run off on their damn horses!"

Soon, it was discovered that Legion Commander Stern and the Imperial Chief Steward had slipped away.

The front lines were already running red with blood, and there wasn’t even anyone left to command from the rear; trying to sneak away quietly was impossible.

With the commander and steward fleeing, both the leaders and the financiers were gone, this was a catastrophic blow to the so-called Royal Guard, even more deadly than Lynn’s rampant slaughter along the way.

Without superiors to know of their deaths and without a steward to offer consolations for the fallen, what’s the point of fighting?

"Escape quickly!"

"Run for your lives!"

The originally organized and somewhat formal resistance force suddenly collapsed, with the front ranks desperately retreating and the rear ranks frantically fleeing outward, causing the entire Royal Guard to fall into chaos. Lynn didn’t even need to continue his attack; they had already begun to slaughter each other in their rush to escape.

Facing hordes of terrified children against a single terrifying Saint Tier, dealing with one’s own colleagues was much easier.

However, not everyone had the opportunity to escape; those who had already steeled themselves and charged in front of Lynn had no time to flee and could only clatter, dropping their weapons and kneeling on the ground, clutching their heads and crying for mercy.

Regarding those who set down their weapons, Lynn wasn’t interested in a massacre; he wasn’t some murderous demon, nor was he inclined to cruelly kill surrendered soldiers.

Although killing them would yield some experience points, Lynn preferred to farm those necromancers encountered in the underground lair and the elite demon race after traveling to the Demon Realm.

They were the ones who truly provided him with a wave of experience; since there was no game interface, the so-called experience points weren’t a numerical manifestation but rather a tangible feeling of slightly enhanced strength, akin to the results of rigorous training.

Unfortunately, his primary profession was already at max level, so the experience points were all funneled into the Demon Emperor profession; he was far less proficient with magic power compared to Fighting Spirit, and thus, saw no significant effect yet.

And now these waves of "experience points" were even more peculiar; he’d never heard of players gaining experience by slaughtering NPC armies. If such a setting existed, the game would be chaotic.

Lynn estimated that his ability to gain "experience points" from killing the Royal Guard was related to his identity as the Demon Emperor; the demon race primarily gained strength through slaughter and destruction, so killing humans or demons naturally made them stronger.

However, Lynn could only be considered a nominal Demon Emperor, having no deep-seated demon nature within him, and no interest in slaughter or destruction. If not for these people’s sacrificial loyalty to the Celestial Mandate Emperor, he would have found it sufficient to kill only one of them.

Stepping through pools of blood, past defeated soldiers kneeling in prayer, Lynn walked step by step towards the center of the Imperial City.

He wasn’t in a hurry, for the Celestial Mandate Emperor had nowhere to run.

Just as he had predicted, in the Palace’s inner courtyard, the Celestial Mandate Emperor was desperately roaring inside the Golden Hall with several favored concubines and princes.

"Why! Why have all the teleportation arrays failed?! Even the matured spatial channel of the Golden Hall cannot transport us?!"

The Celestial Mandate Emperor berated the Imperial Decree Officer in charge of the palace’s escape routes with reddened eyes; upon hearing of Lynn’s assault, he had promptly gathered his valuables and prepared to flee.

But every teleportation point he tried had failed, and now even the final escape route in the Palace, which he had spent enormous effort maintaining, was locked down by an unknown force, leaving him with nowhere to run.

He couldn’t possibly escape on foot or by dragon vehicle, could he? Did he think a high-tier Saint’s speed was a joke? What legs or vehicle could possibly outrun a high-tier Saint?

"My son, where is your dragon? Lend your dragon to Father! When Father returns, he shall appoint you Crown Prince!"

In fury, the Celestial Mandate Emperor suddenly recalled the Eldest Prince who had just returned from the Giant Dragon Empire; after all, he had brought back a mature giant dragon, with which escaping as a rider would be beyond a high-tier Saint’s reach.

After all, the sky is the domain of the dragon race, and even the strongest Fighting Spirit Wings couldn’t catch up with the fleshy wings of a giant dragon.

Upon hearing the substantial benefits his father promised in panic, the Eldest Prince first brightened up, then quickly faded back into gloom.

The other princes looked upon him with envy or resentment, all wishing that the dragon he had seduced wouldn’t obey, or better yet, would be dead.

"Earlier, I asked her to take me... no, take you away from here, but she said she was a dragon of the Giant Dragon Empire and not involved in the affairs of the Celestial Destiny Empire. I begged her, but to no avail..."

The Eldest Prince spoke with a face full of bitterness; upon hearing a high-tier Saint had breached the Imperial City, he too panicked, but upon hearing the assailant was a level 700 or higher expert, his knight companion immediately declared herself uninvolved: she was a guest from the Giant Dragon Empire, not the Celestial Destiny Empire’s dragon, and was not obliged to assist them in escape.

Damn it! Before coming, she had even agreed to marry him; if not for the overwhelming strength of the mature giant dragon, how could the dignified Eldest Prince of the Celestial Destiny Empire marry a plain-looking and promiscuous female dragon?

He already felt he was suffering a loss, and now, at this critical moment, his knight companion and fiancée turned out to be so unreliable that if convincing a dragon to be a mount wasn’t so difficult, he would’ve wanted to switch dragons right away.

"Damn it! What about Helena? She also has a dragon! Send someone to find her! Borrow her mount!"

Having only joined the Celestial Destiny Empire for less than a day, the unreliable dragon wasn’t an issue; after all, he had a capable daughter whose mount Natasha had been residing in the Celestial Destiny Empire for many years, and using her at such a critical moment wouldn’t be excessive.

"No need to send anyone, I’m here."

Just as the Emperor’s trusted eunuch tumbled, attempting to flee from the Golden Hall, Helena’s voice happened to come from outside.

Moments later, under everyone’s gaze, Princess Helena, dressed in military attire, entered the Golden Hall with her giant dragon.

"Thank goodness! Darling daughter, come... Damn it! Why are you with him?!"

The Celestial Mandate Emperor seemed to have grasped the final straw, looking excitedly at Helena and Natasha while sprinting towards them, only to spot amidst them such a silhouette he had neither met nor stopped thinking about.