Only God
Chapter 290 - 250 Xilan’s Ordeal

Chapter 290: Chapter 250 Xilan’s Ordeal

The vast swarm of rebels had taken control of the entire Royal City, people divvying up the King’s treasury, basking in the jubilation of their celebration, believing they had won everything. However, Xilan knew victory was not so secure.

This was merely a victory within one Royal City.

Throughout Ajia Land, aside from the Royal City, there were dozens of city-states. In face of the news that the Royal City had been seized, they would surely not sit idly by but would join forces with the loyalist troops in the wake of the tremendous shock to suppress these rebellious people.

In the Royal City, even with tens of thousands rebelling, at the end of the day they were just a disorganized rabble. The sole purpose of the rebellion was to execute the King, and now that the King was dead, their goal had been achieved. The fighting spirit of many had already begun to dissipate.

Now, the few thousand troops that had returned to the Royal City under the leadership of General Beck, instead of besieging the city, took advantage of the chaos to break out and seek the aid of other city-states.

Those city-state Lords, vying for the throne, would first rally together and come to the Royal City to quash this uprising.

Xilan knew that relying solely on their forces they could absolutely not withstand those waves of attacks. The Stone Slaves were able to succeed in their rebellion largely because King Anuket was obsessed with grand achievements and had deployed the Royal City’s garrison to join in the far-off campaign.

Now, their only choice was to leave this place.

Moreover, Xilan had no intention of establishing a New Kingdom. He was not a man of overflowing ambition; what he wanted was merely to protect the Church and pursue the path of the Prophet.

After the execution of the King, Xilan had begun to prepare for departure from the Kingdom. They intended to leave and settle in the distant Ancient Elf Kingdom.

Faced with Xilan’s decision, many could not understand. However, after Xilan sought their future with the "Prophecy" in the Ancient Language, he became even more firm in his convictions.

The Prophecy told them, if they continued to stay in the Royal City, they would face utter annihilation. There would no longer be a place for the New Rule Garden to exist in the world; everywhere would be filled with wailing and bloodshed.

Thus, just five days later,

Under Xilan’s leadership, a vast number of Stone Slaves began to leave the Royal City, cross the desert, and head for the distant Elf Kingdom.

During this journey, the majority of the hundred thousand-plus rebel group, mostly unwilling to accept this outcome, chose to stay behind in the Royal City.

Xilan didn’t stop them. After several failed attempts to persuade them, he had no choice but to leave Ajia Land with more than twenty thousand people.

The majority of them were True Believers; after packing their belongings, they embarked on a treacherous desert journey. Strings of camels exited the Royal City gates, carrying what used to be the reserves of Nobles and Ministers, now distributed by Xilan among the rebels.

At the same time, Xilan also wrote to the two Kings of the Elf Kingdom, requesting their help to assist the True Believers in reaching the Ancient Kingdom.

Shortly after their departure, the city-states of the Kingdom indeed banded together.

An army of over fifty thousand troops thunderously arrived at the gates of Ajia Royal City.

The allied forces, led by Prince Alai, easily defeated the numerically superior rebel army, just as Xilan had predicted.

The sparsely armed Stone Slaves, without much training, were simply incapable of withstanding the regular army’s fierce assault.

Of the hundreds of thousands in the rebel army, how many could draw a bow, skillfully wield various weapons, or even form formations?

After easily overtaking Ajia Royal City, the allied forces, eager to confirm the successor to the throne, refrained from a large-scale massacre. They executed the leaders of the rebellion and swiftly dispatched cavalry units to chase down the True Believers crossing the desert.

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The True Believers had been traveling through the desert for nineteen days.

Dawn was gradually breaking.

Xilan had not slept throughout the night. Standing up high, he looked back over the desert. Among the more than twenty thousand people – men and women, old and young – their progress was slower than he had anticipated.

He mounted his horse and rode among the followers of the true faith as they set up camp under the pale dawn light. Though the desert night was dry and cold, luckily there was no unrest among the people, bound together by their shared faith.

Even though nothing had happened, after making his rounds, Xilan still felt an urgent panic.

He guessed the allied forces would send out troops to pursue them, yet these twenty thousand people had already pushed forward with all their might.

And the reinforcements from the Elves had not enough time to rendezvous with them.

"Just five more days... just five more days," Xilan whispered.

According to his estimations, if they could hold out for five more days, the Elf reinforcements would arrive and meet up with them.

Just as Xilan was about to ride toward a dirt mound, the Elf suddenly widened his eyes.

On the distant land, amidst the murky darkness, a series of vague fires leapt up.

With an eagle-like vision, he saw that what started as just a few sparks soon became dozens. Cavalry scouts, tirelessly tracking the followers of the true faith, rode fast, unbothered by night or day.

Xilan’s lips trembled; he realized something.

That group of cavalry was merely a scouting party. Once they detected the followers from afar, they would never give them a chance for close-quarters combat; rather, they would immediately turn their horses around to report the followers’ position to the main force.

And once detected, the largely on-foot followers would face a merciless slaughter on the vast desert expanse.

"We must lead them away."

Xilan, holding his horse’s reins, rushed into the crowd.

"Ansha, Mirokaga, wake everyone up immediately and continue moving forward!"

After hastily relaying the task to the two preachers and quickly explaining the reason, the preachers trusted him unconditionally and followed his orders. Soon, the twenty thousand and more were roused from sleep, hurriedly packed up, and continued to head north.

But Xilan knew that simply leaving was not enough; someone had to draw away the cavalry scouts.

Among these Stone Slave followers, there were barely any who could ride, and they did not have many horses. Xilan managed to gather a team of about ten people, and under his leadership, they charged towards the group of scouts.

For the safety of the twenty thousand and more, they had to distract this group of scouts.

...

The pendulum of fate often swings between fulfillment and disappointment.

Xilan and his group of cavalry managed to lead away the scouts.

But just as they were about to celebrate,

Xilan suddenly heard the wind tearing across the ground.

Then, in an instant, sand swept across from the south, with stones whirling in the sky, screaming like demons.

The sandstorm pursued them relentlessly, like a venomous snake.

Xilan and his party were separated in the sandstorm, and, to his surprise, after stumbling in the storm chasing left and right, he walked the desert for two days and nights...

In the end... he unexpectedly encountered the cavalry that was pursuing the True Believers.

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