National Guardian's Gone and We're Done

"Now you all should get it, right? If Ji Shengyue weren’t an idiot, why would she have set up so many traps to frame Chu He?"

"From the very beginning, the Great Jing Empire has only ever had one National Guardian War God, and that was Chu He."

"The reason the Great Jing Empire started to decline is precisely because Chu He left."

"When the people of a nation begin to forget their own heroes, that is the beginning of its demise."

"Are there any master Martial Artists among the common people? Someone should just sneak into the Royal Palace and assassinate Her Majesty the Queen. Otherwise, the Great Jing Empire’s future is completely hopeless."

"I’m planning to move. I’m going to the Great Xia Empire. That’s where I belong."

Similarly,

on the Great Jing Empire’s online platforms, the name "Chu He" became a trending topic.

More and more citizens were beginning to realize that their initial belief—that Chu He was just chasing fame and neglecting his duties—

was all just slander, a dirty trick orchestrated by Ji Shengyue.

It was a malicious scheme. Unfortunately, the public couldn’t distinguish between true and false information online,

and they subconsciously trusted the supreme ruler of their Great Jing Empire.

The result was a terrible, tragic mistake.

Without Chu He, the Great Jing Empire had become a shadow of its former self.

Some cities were still being plagued by Evil Spirits, yet no one was being sent to deal with them.

The people in those cities either fled or became displaced.

Many more had already lost their lives to the Evil Spirits’ clutches.

Although Fujiang City had not been attacked by Evil Spirits, its people were living in misery.

Upon encountering people from the Lighthouse Empire, who were typically tall and fair-skinned, the citizens of Great Jing had to get out of their way. It didn’t matter if the person was a man or woman, what they looked like, or how tall they were.

If someone from the Lighthouse Empire cursed at them or hit them, they could only swallow their anger and endure it.

This was because when some local Great Jing Guard members couldn’t take it anymore and arrested one of them,

they were the ones who were punished, forced to kneel outside the Martial Artist Base.

They were there to offer a public, humiliating apology.

Several members of the Guard, unable to bear the humiliation, chose to end their own lives right in front of the Martial Artist Base.

In response, however, the members of the Lighthouse Empire’s Guard only roared with laughter.

They even dumped a pile of foul, filthy garbage directly onto the corpses of the Great Jing Guard members.

All the citizens of the Great Jing Empire who witnessed this scene were red-eyed with fury, but they were powerless to do anything.

...

「Green Forest City.」

"With this public apology, the Great Jing Empire is now an empire in name only. Unless Chu He can return and become its leader, Great Jing is basically finished. It will never recover."

Xiao Cangqing, Gao Yimin, and Dai Ju had naturally also seen the storm brewing online.

Most of Green Forest City had been destroyed,

but Xiao Cangqing, Gao Yimin, and Dai Ju hadn’t led their people away. Instead, they had pitched numerous tents right in the middle of the ruins.

For Martial Artists like them, the quality of their resting place was unimportant.

"Based on what I know of Ji Shengyue, she shouldn’t be capable of something like this," Dai Ju said. She couldn’t comprehend the Queen’s recent actions, which were growing more and more absurd.

’Even an ordinary person in her position would never have allowed the release of an apology that was destined to be nailed to the pillar of shame.’

"You don’t have to think too hard to figure it out. It must be the Lighthouse Empire applying pressure—

pressure that Ji Shengyue couldn’t possibly withstand.

That’s why she had no choice but to issue that announcement.

I imagine she hasn’t had the time to pay attention to the public uproar recently."

Xiao Cangqing closed the news page.

"Those King’s Realm Martial Artists we’re keeping under guard here were originally hoping they could return to the Great Jing Empire," Gao Yimin remarked with a bitter smile. "But now, their restless stirrings have died down considerably."

"No matter what, we’re all citizens of the Great Jing Empire. We were born and raised here. We have family and friends.

It’s truly hard to accept that the Great Jing Empire would one day become an object of scorn for the entire world."

"Quick, look! What’s that in the sky?" Dai Ju said, looking up with a grave expression.

On the horizon, a dense swarm of bats was flying toward them.

They were like a vast black cloud, blotting out the sun.

"The temperature is dropping. An Evil Spirit has appeared," Xiao Cangqing said as he stood up from his chair, his voice filled with shock and uncertainty.

"When did an Evil Spirit of this level appear in the Great Jing Empire? We heard nothing about it."

"Could it be the Lighthouse Empire?"

Dai Ju’s mind worked quickly, and she immediately grasped the truth. "Didn’t we hear a while ago that the Lighthouse Empire sent people to Great Jing? It was right around that time that Ji Shengyue made her choice. She was the one who was wronged, yet she had to apologize to the Lighthouse Empire."

Her voice was firm. "It must be the people from the Lighthouse Empire. They’re the ones who made Ji Shengyue feel so powerless."

"Run!"

Xiao Cangqing’s body trembled, and he shot away at high speed, heading in the opposite direction of the approaching bats.

The Elemental Power and Mysterious Power within him mixed together, transforming into a surging force that propelled his body forward.

Xiao Cangqing was now almost one hundred percent certain that the newcomer was a powerful expert from the Lighthouse Empire.

He wasn’t willing to take any chances.

’How is he running so fast?’

Gao Yimin and Dai Ju’s expressions turned ugly.

Xiao Cangqing was in the Emperor Realm, but the two of them were still stuck in the King’s Realm.

"No, wait! The bats are going after Xiao Cangqing!"

Dai Ju, who had been about to flee, noticed this.

The dense swarm of bats in the sky had suddenly accelerated, flying in the direction Xiao Cangqing had gone.

"Let’s not go in the same direction as Xiao Cangqing."

Gao Yimin and Dai Ju exchanged a look, having made their decision.

’They’re actually after me!’

As Xiao Cangqing fled at top speed, he kept looking back.

He had hoped the swarm of bats would target the Martial Artists in Green Forest City first,

but to his surprise, the bats didn’t pause at all. They were chasing him relentlessly, heading straight for him.

"Where do you think you’re running?"

Just as Xiao Cangqing glanced back one more time,

a young man’s deep, magnetic voice sounded from ahead.

Xiao Cangqing skidded to a halt.

A hundred meters in front of him, a young foreign man had appeared out of nowhere.

He held a black umbrella, dressed in an elegant suit and a formal hat.

He wore a pair of pristine white gloves and a smile that seemed befitting of a nobleman.

"Get out of my way!"

Sensing the danger, Xiao Cangqing didn’t waste any more words and immediately unleashed the Mysterious Power within his body.

From the sky, countless fishing lines began to descend...