Escape

"First Legion Commander Hisslaj of the Kolmo Kingdom, together with the officers and soldiers of the First Legion, pays respects to His Imperial Majesty, the Supreme Emperor."

"Paying respects to His Imperial Majesty."

The countless officers and soldiers shouted in unison. The resounding voices were so clear that even Samlet and Chen Cheng, who had already fled, could hear them distinctly.

Hughes Hopps dragged his frail body before Hisslaj, and Hisslaj lowered his head even further.

Hughes stretched out his pale hand, resting it atop Hisslaj's head as he spoke softly:

"In the name of the fifteenth emperor of the Thornflower Kingdom, I grant you my sincere blessing."

Then Hughes Hopps withdrew his hand, bent down beside Hisslaj's ear, and said:

"I am His Imperial Majesty."

Upon hearing this, Hisslaj immediately prostrated himself on the ground and cried out:

"We respectfully invite His Imperial Majesty to ride the dragon and ascend to the heavens."

The generals and soldiers behind Hisslaj were at a loss, unable to understand why their general was acting this way.

Though he was still nominally His Imperial Majesty, his Thornflower Empire had long since perished.

Amid the soldiers' confusion, they ultimately prostrated themselves together and cried out, inviting His Imperial Majesty to ride the dragon and ascend to the heavens.

When Hughes turned around, his cheeks grew even paler, taking on an utterly sickly white.

When he entered the small wooden cabin, Queen Sophia on the bed was already asleep like a beautiful thorn flower.

Hughes came to the bedside, a smile on his lips as he held Sophia and fell into a deep slumber.

Outside, once Hisslaj sensed that the people within had lost all life, he rose to his feet. With a sweep of his hand, tens of thousands of soldiers turned and marched away in unison.

Then the clouds in the sky above this area churned, and a vast shadow covered the heavens.

A Red Dragon flew from the clouds and dove toward the cabin below. It unleashed a blast of dragonfire that struck the cabin head-on. Under the searing heat of the Dragon Breath, His Imperial Majesty, who had spent his entire life fleeing and being pursued, and the commoner queen were both burned into a pile of ash.

Hisslaj clenched one hand toward the ashes, and a huge, exquisite earth-yellow Magic Array emerged. The soil on the ground churned, and a brand-new burial mound rose into being.

The Magic Array, as though it possessed life, slowly descended and attached itself to the mound.

After breathing fire, the Red Dragon landed steadily behind Hisslaj. When he landed, the gale stirred up by his enormous wings blew against Hisslaj as he faced the grave mound, lashing his fiery red hair against his cheeks.

At that moment, the Red Dragon's massive head stretched over from behind him, his voice carrying a trace of mockery.

"You humans really are so sentimental. He was merely a fallen wretch whose kingdom had perished long ago, yet you actually knelt before him. Aren't you afraid that your so-called King will be angered?

"And you even set such a powerful seal upon this little mound of dirt. Was that necessary? If you hadn't been standing here acting sentimental just now, I would have caught that little fellow long ago and eaten him."

Yet Hisslaj merely looked coldly at the Red Dragon beside him.

"His Imperial Majesty will always be His Imperial Majesty. That is something a beast like you could never understand.

"And I believe His Majesty the King will not be angered by my actions, because this is the fundamental difference between us humans and beasts like you.

"And do you think you could truly do anything to Samlet even if you caught up to him? Even I have no absolute confidence in taking him down.

"Besides, His Majesty the King's Shadow Guards are no pushovers. Even if the Prince escapes, with the King's hidden guards in place, he will never stir up much trouble again."

Upon seeing Hisslaj's gaze, the Red Dragon said nothing more, though the fury in his eyes was plain for all to see. Hisslaj, however, had no interest in the thoughts of a dragon that had already submitted to him.

He leaped onto the Red Dragon's back. With a beat of his wings, the dragon carried Hisslaj away from this place.

"Pass the order to the entire army. The vanguard will become the rearguard. We return in triumph."

Hisslaj's voice echoed throughout the First Legion. Then the vanguard became the rearguard and followed Hisslaj's figure toward the Royal Capital.

Within the mountain wilderness and forests, Samlet had been running with Chen Cheng for three days.

Over those three days, Chen Cheng had gained a rough understanding of what kind of world this was. The burly man carrying him as he fled was practically a monster.

Based on his own estimates, Chen Cheng calculated that the man's running speed was no less than that of a supercar. Worse still, he was the kind of monster who could keep running at that speed for three days without stopping.

Chen Cheng truly suspected that the man holding him had considered him a baby and had not run at full strength at all.

Over these three days, he had also witnessed all kinds of strange creatures, as well as the bizarre methods unleashed by those pursuing him and the burly man.

The laws of physics still existed here, but the people of this world were nothing but monsters. Whether it was their bodies casually smashing apart boulders and ancient trees, or their hands conjuring lightning and flames to launch ceaseless attacks, all of it ground biological science into the dirt and rubbed its face raw.

Having gone three days without food, Chen Cheng knew that the nutrients he had brought from his mother's womb were nearly depleted. He had to eat, or he would starve to death alive.

This was Chen Cheng's first cry in three days. Before this, he had stayed as quiet as possible so as not to interfere with the burly man's escape.

He had also roughly understood his predicament. He was the target being hunted by those people behind them, people who ground the scientific pioneers he knew into the dirt and utterly crushed them. Whether he lived or died depended entirely on the burly man carrying him as he fled.

Chen Cheng's cries reminded the burly man that he needed food.

When Samlet heard Chen Cheng crying, he remembered that Chen Cheng had not eaten anything since being born.

But they were currently fleeing for their lives. Where was Samlet supposed to find food for Chen Cheng?

Just as Samlet hesitated, the people behind them caught up using a spatial teleportation array constructed by advanced mages.

The sight of these people enraged Samlet. He wrapped Chen Cheng in a piece of torn cloth and tied him against his chest, then drew the Mithril Sword and turned to charge straight at the pursuing soldiers.

Though there were no shortage of powerful warriors and advanced mages among the pursuers, they were still not worth mentioning before Samlet, a Legendary warrior. To Samlet, killing them was as easy as chopping melons and vegetables, and these people all knew that their role was simply to delay him.

When Chen Cheng saw the bloody scenes, he felt nothing at all. Over the past three days, Samlet had already killed no fewer than several hundred people like them.

Yet just as Samlet was about to resume fleeing, a beast's roar suddenly came from deep within the forest.

Then a level-twelve Cloud Leopard appeared in sight, accompanied by two cubs.

The Cloud Leopard had likely been drawn here by the smell of blood. Behind her, the cubs opened their mouths and let out little cries.

The mother Cloud Leopard also assumed a posture ready to attack at any moment.

If ordinary people encountered a level-twelve Magic Beast, death would be certain. Unfortunately for her, the one she encountered while searching for food with her children was Samlet.

When Samlet heard the little Cloud Leopards' cries, his eyes lit up. Such sounds meant they had only been born recently and their vocal cords had not fully developed. In other words, the two cubs had not yet been weaned, or were just about to be weaned.

Samlet then shifted his gaze to the mother Cloud Leopard.

He placed Chen Cheng atop the crown of a large tree, then pounced barehanded at the mother Cloud Leopard.

After a burst of roars and snarls, Chen Cheng was once again picked up by Samlet.

Then Chen Cheng saw that the mother Cloud Leopard had lost all her earlier ferocity. Instead, she lay meekly prostrate before Samlet, while the two cubs beside her kept whimpering.

Samlet placed Chen Cheng against the mother Cloud Leopard's belly, and Chen Cheng immediately understood what was going on.

Chen Cheng directly latched onto that spot on the Cloud Leopard and sucked hard. Soon, a fishy-tasting liquid flowed into his mouth, and he drank it down.

After Chen Cheng had drunk his fill, Samlet removed the wineskin from his waist, gulped down the small amount of liquor remaining inside, and then squeezed a whole skin of beast milk for Chen Cheng to keep as reserve.

"All right, my little Prince. Now even the wine is gone. My wineskin is His Highness's milk bottle from now on."

While fleeing these past days, Samlet would always speak to him like this from time to time.

After collecting the beast milk, he set off again with Chen Cheng.

Chen Cheng paid no attention to the smell of alcohol Samlet exhaled. His little eyes remained fixed on the mother Cloud Leopard.

Within Chen Cheng's tiny field of view, the mother Cloud Leopard rose to her feet, picked up her cubs in her mouth, then glanced at Chen Cheng before disappearing into the mountain forest.

Another three months passed. Chen Cheng had now been carried by Samlet through the mountains for three months, and throughout those months, all he had eaten was milk from that mother Cloud Leopard.

To be honest, there were times when Chen Cheng truly had not expected that the mother Cloud Leopard would actually cling to him and Samlet.

Whenever he was hungry, the mother Cloud Leopard would appear from who knew where before long, allowing Samlet to squeeze milk from her and feed it to him.

This had always been the case over the past three months. Even when they did not see the Cloud Leopard, Samlet's wineskin would always contain a full pouch of milk in reserve.

Over those three months, Samlet likewise killed batch after batch of pursuers.

When Samlet carried Chen Cheng to the red mountain beyond the forest, he knew that their journey of escape was finally about to come to an end.

But when Chen Cheng saw that red mountain, his eyes revealed astonishment, because this so-called red mountain was actually an extremely high-quality Hematite Mountain.

Sam stopped at the border between the forest and the red mountain. He removed the wineskin from his waist, which had no idea how many times been refilled with various ferocious beasts' milk, and fed the beast milk inside to Chen Cheng.

After three months of fleeing, Sam had also realized that the Chen Cheng he carried was unlike ordinary people. He was extremely intelligent, crying only when he was hungry or needed to relieve himself. At all other times, no matter what happened, he remained completely quiet.

It was precisely because of Chen Cheng's quietness that Sam had felt far more at ease during this journey, without needing to worry that Chen Cheng's cries would draw enemies to them.