Lin Qiye froze where he stood.
"What did you say?"
"Fake! They're all fake!" The soldier's blood-covered hand seized Lin Qiye's wrist, trying to pull him behind himself. With his other hand, he swung his halberd fiercely, cutting off an Imperial Guard's head.
The Imperial Guard's eyes bulged wide as his head rolled to Lin Qiye's feet, staining the ground red with blood.
"Why do you say they're fake?" Lin Qiye asked with a deep frown.
"Can't you see?" The soldier stretched out a hand and pointed at the Imperial Guard's corpse on the ground.
"See what?"
"He turned into a monster! The kind we saw in the mountain ravine, monsters that looked like Willow Branches!" As soon as he finished speaking, the soldier raised his foot and viciously stomped on the Imperial Guard's corpse.
Even after the corpse had been completely reduced to a bloody pulp, Lin Qiye still could not see anything resembling that Cthulhu monster. Just as he was about to speak, several roars came from behind him:
"Kill all these monsters! Chang'an must not fall into the monsters' hands!!"
"Protect His Majesty to the death!!!"
"The Marquis is still in the Imperial Palace! Save the Marquis!"
"Monsters... Chang'an is full of monsters!!"
"..."
A dense mass of figures broke through the Imperial Guards' defensive line and surged madly into Chang'an amid the glow of blood and fire, like a pack of bloodthirsty wolves.
Several soldiers rushed into the city. Terrified cries came from the houses lining the streets, and they abruptly turned their heads toward them. "There are monster sounds in there too!"
They rushed to the door and kicked it open. The cries inside immediately became even more chaotic. Several civilians huddled in the room with pale faces, while an infant's wailing echoed through the