Chapter 420. The Doomsday of the Wu Clan

"Place them in the outer perimeter and dispatch a detachment of royal guards to protect them!" In the end, Wu Tan could only make a compromise.

He would neither abandon them entirely nor make a show of loyalty.

But he knew full well that this choice was, for all practical purposes, the same as abandoning them.

Sure enough, the moment word got out, the people outside erupted in fury. This was clearly just a perfunctory gesture!

"Unacceptable! His father and son caused this disaster, yet we're supposed to be the scapegoats? How is that fair?"

"Exactly! They said it themselves—hand over Wu Hong and everything can be discussed. That Wu Hong has always been a troublemaker, and now he's brought a catastrophe that could exterminate the entire Wu clan. And they still won't hand over that scourge?"

"Hand over Wu Hong!"

"That's right! We demand an audience with the King! We demand that Wu Hong be handed over!"

Wu Hong's ascension to Crown Prince had already made many people secretly disgruntled. Especially those princes who had once been qualified to compete with Wu Hong—now they were especially indignant.

These men, though their status didn't match Wu Hong's, were still members of the royal bloodline, and some had consorts in the harem. Now, in order to survive, they tacitly stood in the same trench, denouncing Wu Hong.

They believed that the person who had brought disaster upon the Wu clan was Wu Hong.

As long as Wu Hong was handed over, everyone else could live.

The wave of protests from outside surged in.

Wu Tan's face turned ashen. The enemy hadn't even broken in yet, and the royal family was already falling apart. If this continued, they wouldn't even need to be attacked—they would destroy themselves from within.

Wu Hong screamed curses: "Those traitors who bite the hand that feeds them! Father, let me take a squad and kill a few of their ringleaders—let's see if they still dare to make noise!"

"Wu Hong, you coward! Come out!"

"You disaster! You've shoved the royal family into the pit of fire, and now you don't have the guts to own up to it!"

"If you're a man, come out yourself and go pay for your sins!"

The shouting outside crashed over them in wave after wave.

"We are all members of the royal family, all relatives of the crown! Why should Wu Hong get to hide inside after causing this mess, while we innocent people have to take the blame outside!"

"Your Majesty, you cannot be so biased!"

"Hmph, Your Majesty? He might be in on this himself! He's feeling guilty right now, that's why!"

"I said it long ago—letting this father and son hold power would lead to disaster sooner or later!"

The situation spiraled further out of control, and the insults gradually spread from Wu Hong to King Wu Tan himself.

Wu Tan's brow twitched. Steeling his heart, he issued a command to one of the royal guard commanders: "Go. Take a squad of men. Whoever is shouting the loudest—kill them. Kill a bunch, and if the rest still keep shouting, execute them all! Rebel against those ingrates who devour from the inside!"

A king's heart was made of iron and stone.

Even if those screaming outside were his sons, his brothers, his relatives, his women.

Once they crossed his bottom line, there was only one outcome—death.

The order to kill was given. Before long, the sounds outside dissolved into wailing and shrieking.

"Wu Tan! You'd actually lay hands on your own son! You've gone mad—the Heavens will surely strike you down!"

"Tyrant! Even as a ghost, I will never let you and your son off!"

"The sins you father and son have committed—retribution is already at your doorstep!"

Wu Tan's anxiety only deepened. He continued barking orders: "Kill! Kill them all!"

Wu Hong's eyes also glowed with madness as he pumped his fist: "What are you waiting for? My father the King has given the order—kill them all!"

When the royal guard elites moved, those unarmed royals and their kin had no power to resist whatsoever.

Before long, the shouting outside was silenced entirely.

The royal guard fighters, their blades still dripping with blood, filed back in one by one, their faces grim, to report the completion of their task.

Just then, a cold laugh echoed through the void: "How commendable, Wu Tan. You've saved me the trouble of doing it myself. You've slaughtered your own Wu clan's kin all on your own. Very good. Very good."

"All of you inside who are part of his faction—listen well. This matter has nothing to do with you. I only want Wu Tan and his son. If you want to live, leave Wu Tan and his son immediately. I'm giving you one quarter of an hour to choose. After that quarter hour, anyone who still clings to his foolish loyalty—dead!"

These words hung over everyone's heads like a death warrant from the underworld, draining the color from every face.

At this point, all their morale had been utterly crushed. Remaining here was nothing more than conditioned instinct.

The Four Great National Knights—such powerful beings—had been killed with a single strike from the enemy. They, the royal guard fighters, though formidable, could they surpass the Four Great National Knights in strength?

And Wu Tan and his son, when the critical moment came, had been willing to abandon even their own flesh and blood. What reason did they have not to abandon these guards?

Wu Tan saw this and hurriedly said: "Don't listen to his demonic rhetoric! As long as we hold out until the reinforcements from the Purple Sun Sect arrive, the merit will be yours. This brat clearly has no way to break through, or else why would he waste so many words?"

"Exactly! At a time like this, we must unite! Once the sect's strong fighters arrive, this brat will be a turtle in a jar—dead for certain!" Wu Hong also chimed in, trying to rally them.

But no matter what performance the father and son put on now, the deeply suppressed morale simply could not recover.

Clearly, the massacre of the Wu clan's kin had driven their morale to absolute zero.

A quarter of an hour passed in no time.

Soon, screams began rising one after another from the outer perimeter.

"Your Majesty, Deputy Commander Zhang of the Imperial Guard has been ambushed and killed."

"Your Majesty, Battalion Commander He has gone missing."

The same tragedy played out again. Screams rose and fell without pause, and within moments, the area for thousands of meters around had become a butcher's field of carnage.

The royal guard elites stationed in the outer defenses continued to report deaths and disappearances.