Sending Lives to Their Doom
Death and corpses left the Empress pale with fright. She stared in terror at the center of the Hayes Regiment, where Alexander Hayes sat atop a tall steed, striking and heroic, holding the same iron hand cannon in his grasp.
With a flick of Alexander Hayes’s wrist, the iron hand cannon shot out a hidden projectile, killing an Imperial Guard commander on horseback from a great distance.
The Empress trembled all over, covering her eyes in horror. "Your Majesty, what is that weapon the Hayes Regiment is wielding!?"
Emperor Jin Xuan’s face turned ashen. He shook his head, "I—I don’t know either... I’ve never seen such a weapon. Its range surpasses ordinary bows by several times and its power is astonishing. The Imperial Guards’ arrows are all blocked by the Hayes Regiment’s shields, but the Hayes Regiment’s hidden weapons can pierce right through the shields and leave gaping holes in the men behind them... What kind of terrifying weapon is this!? Who can tell me how Alexander Hayes came to possess such a formidable artifact!?"
No one could answer Emperor Jin Xuan’s question, not even Gregory Gu Jr., who always prided himself on his extensive knowledge.
Gregory Gu Jr. had never seen such a thing before. This kind of astonishing weapon was beyond everyone’s understanding.
Down by the city wall, the Hayes Regiment seemed in no hurry to storm the palace. Wave after wave attacked; when the front line ran out of ammunition, they retreated to the rear to reload, and the back line rotated forward.
Alexander Hayes and his regiment showed no urgency to advance; they simply stood in a straight line, holding their formation.
The Imperial Guards’ arrows couldn’t harm them in the slightest, while the Hayes Regiment’s firearms wiped out the Royal Guards in the midst of their charge.
To face such deadly firearms with flesh and blood, broadswords, and spears was nothing short of sending men to their deaths.
Alexander Hayes sat calmly atop his horse, watching the one-sided slaughter unfold before him. He looked up at the people on the city wall.
From a distance, Alexander Hayes’s gaze made Emperor Jin Xuan’s pupils contract. This once-familiar war god and general now seemed utterly foreign—cold and merciless as he commanded his elite Firestorm Battalion to attack the imperial city he once defended with his blood and life.
Emperor Jin Xuan forced himself to suppress his fear and stay composed.
But the Empress couldn’t keep calm at all. She burst into tears, sobbing uncontrollably. "Your Majesty, this can’t go on! More than half of our tens of thousands of Imperial Guards are already dead. If this continues, by morning they’ll all be gone! Then Alexander Hayes’s army will storm straight in—what will we do then?"
Emperor Jin Xuan forced himself to stay stern and snapped, "Empress, stop your alarmist talk! No matter what, Alexander Hayes is still a subject of the throne! If he dares to kill the Emperor, it’s treason—he’ll be condemned for generations!"
The Empress shrank back, trembling under Emperor Jin Xuan’s rebuke. She lowered her head, afraid to say more. "Your Majesty, is there any news of Prince Ling?"
At the mention of Prince Ling, everyone’s hearts sank.
They had originally thought Prince Ling was careless and let Alexander Hayes escape, but now it was clear that Alexander Hayes didn’t escape by luck. With that mysterious weapon that could kill anyone in his way, he wiped out Prince Ling’s six thousand men without breaking a sweat.
Prince Ling was probably... doomed...
The Empress, realizing her only son was likely dead, covered her mouth and nearly fainted from grief.
She recalled what Lily Evans had said to her earlier—about the last meal, and how if anything happened to Prince Ling, it would be their doing.
Lily Evans’s calm and collected expression flashed before the Empress’s eyes, and in that moment, the Empress suddenly understood.
Lily Evans wasn’t scared silly, nor was she reckless—Prince of Qin’s Manor had been prepared all along!