novelSusiti Chapter 374 The Moon Goddess's Despair! 10 troops just vanished like that?
Chapter 374 The Moon Goddess's Despair! 10 troops just vanished like that?
The moon goddess could not understand what it meant to be gone.
Isn't her barracks perfectly fine right there?
How could it be gone?
Her lips parted slightly, and her pupils reflected the disheveled appearance of the two women in white, their faces streaked with tears and covered in mud. Her mind went completely blank, as if someone had cleaved her in two.
Two women in white knelt on the ground, trembling all over. Finally, one of them managed to squeeze out a complete sentence:
"Master! The entire tunnel has collapsed! Everything's gone! Absolutely nothing!"
The Moon Goddess felt as if her mind exploded, her eardrums buzzed, and her vision went black, as if someone had hit her on the back of the head with a stick.
What does it mean when the tunnel completely collapsed?
How could her decades of hard work, with its 100,000-strong army and ten first-rank elders, just collapse like that?
Her voice trembled uncontrollably: "Is anyone hurt?"
The two women in white looked at each other, their lips trembling, unable to utter a single word.
Injuried?
Is anyone else injured?
The question should be, "Are there still people alive?"
They dared not say that there were no survivors, that not even a corpse could be found, that the ruins contained only blood, dirt, rubble, and broken trees.
The Moon Goddess stared at the two people kneeling there like idiots, letting out a low, beast-like gasp.
She stood up abruptly, not even having time to put on her mask, and rushed out of the training room!
At this moment, her cultivation was pushed to its limit, and the aura of a half-step terrestrial immortal surged out like a tide, sweeping across the entire hall!
The woman in white was thrown to the ground by the blast wave, and watched helplessly as the white figure disappeared outside the door.
The moon goddess moved so fast that she was just a blur as she emerged from the cave, passed through the dense forest, and crossed the mountain ridge.
The wind whistled in her ears, and branches whipped against her, but she felt no pain.
Only one thought occupied her mind—impossible, impossible, absolutely impossible!
Unbeknownst to her, four people were watching her from a mountain peak several miles away.
Qin Mu stood with his hands behind his back, his moon-white robe fluttering gently in the mountain breeze, a half-smile playing on his lips.
Zhao Qingxue stood beside him, watching the white figure rushing away, and smiled gently.
"I really want to see her expression when she sees her barracks turned into that state."
Yunluan released her hand from the sword hilt, a slight smile playing on her lips. "No need to ask, her expression must be priceless!"
Qin Mu smiled.
"If her barracks were built on the ground, I wouldn't have been able to wipe them out so easily. But since they were built underground, it was much easier to wipe them out; I didn't even need to dig a pit."
The three women smiled slightly upon hearing this.
Jiang Zhaoyue pursed her lips, her eyes reflecting Qin Mu's profile, and the warmth in her heart deepened.
Zhao Qingxue's smile faded, and she turned to look at him. "Your Majesty, what are your plans next?"
Qin Mu withdrew his gaze and stood with his hands behind his back.
"Now it's up to Han Zhong. We'll see which side he's on. What use is he if I send him out only to have to solve everything myself?"
Zhao Qingxue nodded, and Yun Luan and Jiang Zhaoyue also nodded slightly.
Qin Mu turned around and walked down the hillside. "Let's go back to the city for a drink. We have important business to attend to tonight."
The three women were slightly taken aback, and then their faces flushed slightly.
Zhao Qingxue turned her face away, gently stroking the scabbard of the Frost Moon sword with her fingers, her ear tips turning red.
Yunluan lowered her head, an unnatural blush rising on her cold and stern face.
Jiang Zhaoyue bit her lip and lowered her eyes.
Qin Mu walked at the front, the smile on his lips deepening.
The three women followed behind him, their footsteps echoing softly among the rocks. No one spoke; only the mountain wind blew past their ears, carrying with it a faint, suppressed sob from afar.
.........
The moon goddess's figure flashed like a white lightning bolt, sweeping across dozens of miles of mountain roads.
She pushed her cultivation to its limit, each step shattering the rocks beneath her feet, each breath stirring up a whirlwind.
Branches whipped her face, thorns tore at her clothes, but she was oblivious.
Only one thought was in my mind—impossible, absolutely impossible!
Suddenly, everything became clear.
She stopped.
The valley beneath our feet has vanished!
Instead, there was a huge, irregular pit, several miles in circumference and several feet deep!
It was as if the earth had been slapped hard by an invisible giant hand; the ground caved in, the edges were jagged, and the rubble was exposed.
The trees were uprooted and lay scattered haphazardly at the bottom of the pit.
Some were broken in half, their white stubs pointing skyward; others were buried in the soil, with only a few bare branches sticking out, like the outstretched fingers of a drowning person.
The air was thick with the pungent smell of blood, seeping from the cracks in the rocks, from the soil, and from under every piece of rubble—so strong it was nauseating!
The Moon Goddess stood on the edge of the cliff, her legs went weak, and she almost knelt down.
Her eyes were fixed on the ruins, her pupils reflecting the devastation.
My lips were trembling, my fingers were trembling, my whole body was trembling.
She opened her mouth as if to shout something, but it felt like something was blocking her throat, and she could only make a "hoarse" sound.
How could this happen?
She doesn't understand!
She personally oversaw the construction of this tunnel, selecting the hardest granite for the stone and the thickest hemlock for the beams, with each support being repeatedly reinforced.
Even if the earth were to turn upside down, the entire mountain shouldn't have collapsed!
She plunged off the cliff and slid into the deep pit!
Gravel slipped from her feet, her knees hit the stones, and blood seeped out, staining her white dress red, but she felt no pain!
She threw herself onto the ruins, frantically digging at the mud and turning over the rubble with both hands, her fingernails breaking and bleeding profusely!
"Is anyone there?! Is anyone still alive?!"
Her voice echoed through the valley, striking the surrounding cliffs and bouncing back again and again.
No one answered.
Only the wailing sound of the wind blowing through the ruins sounded like the weeping of countless lost souls.
She parted a huge rock and saw a hand.
His fingers were curled up, his fingernails were filled with black dirt, and a thick beam was pressing down on his arm.
She grabbed that hand and pulled it outwards with all her might.
The crossbeam remained motionless, but the hand was severed at the wrist, revealing exposed white bone and a bloody mess at the break.
She stared blankly at the severed hand in her hand, watching the fingers of that hand still twitching slightly, like a snake whose body had been cut off.
Her tears finally welled up.
She discarded her severed hand and went to dig at another spot.
She dug out a head; the eyes were still open, the pupils were dilated, and the mouth was wide open, as if it were shouting something.
She recognized the face—it was the Fourth Elder!
A top-tier expert at the peak of the First-Rank Vajra Realm, and one of her most formidable generals!
At this moment, his head was smashed and deformed, his forehead bone was dented, and blood was flowing from his seven orifices, which had already dried.
She dug more than a dozen more sites.
Every place they dug up contained corpses—those crushed, suffocated, or killed.
None of them were intact, and none of them were still breathing.
She slumped on the ruins, her hands hanging limply at her sides, blood dripping from her fingertips onto the ground.
Her white dress was soaked with mud and blood, her hair was disheveled, and her face was covered in tears and mud.
She gazed at the desolate ruins, at the scattered tree trunks and rubble, and at the blackened blood seeping from the cracks in the stones.
Her army of 100,000, ten first-rank elders, and decades of hard work.
All gone!
All the wealth she had painstakingly accumulated over decades vanished overnight!
A bitter smile curled at the corners of her lips.
That smile was uglier than a cry, like a flower struck by frost, its petals withered and curled, drooping precariously from the branch.
She regretted it.
It shouldn't have been located underground.
The military camp was built underground to hide it and evade the pursuit of the Qin Dynasty.
They hollowed out the entire mountain and laid down layers of restrictions, thinking it would be foolproof.
Unexpectedly, a natural disaster buried everything.
Yes, it was a natural disaster.
She looked up at the gray sky above.
She didn't suspect anyone.
How could anyone possess such immense power? Overturning mountains and seas, destroying the heavens and the earth—those are things only legendary immortals could accomplish!
She lowered her head and looked at her hands.
The silver lines on the palm had completely disappeared; that was a sign of the dissipation of true energy, a symptom that only appears when one's mind collapses.
For the first time, she felt despair towards herself.
For decades, no matter what difficulties she encountered, she never despaired.
She did not despair when the cult leader was wiped out, she did not despair when she was fleeing alone, and she did not despair when she was rebuilding the Moon Goddess Cult from scratch.
She gritted her teeth and took each step to get to where she is today.
But now, standing before these ruins, gazing at the 100,000 corpses buried under the earth and rocks, she suddenly felt incredibly tired.
I'm so tired I can barely stand.
This is the foundation upon which her Moon Goddess Cult relies for survival, the capital she has to confront the imperial court, and the biggest card she holds.
Now that she's lost her cards, how can she resist the Qin Dynasty? How can she strengthen the Moon Goddess Cult?
She still remembered the cult leader holding her hand before his death, his eyes unfocused, his voice as weak as a mosquito's buzz: "The Moon Goddess Cult... is entrusted to you... you must complete... what I haven't finished..."
She knelt before the cult leader's bed, holding his hand, tears streaming down her face. "Rest assured, cult leader, I will definitely do it."
Did she succeed?
She had spent decades building up an army of 100,000 and stockpiling mountains of grain and weapons, thinking she finally had the resources to fight the imperial court.
But a natural disaster wiped everything out.
How could she possibly fulfill the cult leader's last wish? What could she possibly use to do so?!
Her tears flowed even more fiercely, welling up in her eyes and sliding down her mud-splattered cheeks, dripping onto the gravel at her feet.
She didn't wipe it; she just sat there, like a broken statue abandoned in the ruins.
She suddenly thought of the North.
The Northern Territory only allied with her because her Moon Goddess Cult had the military strength to rival the Great Qin.
Now that they've lost their troops, if the Northern Border finds out, they'll definitely abandon them immediately!
Her back suddenly straightened.
Like a bent bamboo suddenly springing up, the tip of the bamboo is still trembling, but the body of the bamboo has already straightened up.
We can't let them know!
The northern border must not know, the imperial court must not know, and no one else must know!
This news must be blocked, even if it costs us our lives!
She suddenly stood up.
The movement was too sudden, and everything went black. I stumbled and had to grab onto a protruding rock to steady myself.
Gravel rolled down from beneath my feet, falling into deeper cracks with hollow echoes.
She remembered the two women in white.
They saw the ruins with their own eyes, and when they went back to report, they even broke down her door. They found out!
They must be silenced!