Chapter 577: Airborne Armies! Direct Assault on the Core!

"Report, Your Highness, the Silver Sand Fortress is just twenty li ahead."

At the front of the advancing army, a scout came forward to report.

This army was not the Flame Empire's army, but the Purple Gold Empire's army.

"These bastards just hide behind their fortresses. Order the Vanguard Commander to attack—we must move fast, or that fourth brother will beat us to it."

Said the third imperial prince of the Purple Gold Empire.

In this succession struggle within the Purple Gold Empire, only three imperial princes remained eligible: the third, the fourth, and the sixth.

The three human kingdoms along the endless desert were evenly matched in strength, so each imperial prince would lead an assault on one kingdom—the first to conquer it would inherit the throne.

The reason for such prolonged preparation was that the Purple Gold Empire's main forces would not move, nor would the Church's armies—this time, each prince had raised his own army, supported by noble forces as the primary attackers.

The more noble support one gained, the larger his army would be.

The Church would also dispatch powerful warriors to stand guard, but these warriors were evenly distributed among the three princes, showing no favoritism.

Moreover, the Church would not send overly strong warriors—their numbers and strength were roughly equal to those of the three human kingdoms, sufficient to counter their elite combatants.

Thus, the decisive factor remained the three imperial princes' armies!

Through this method, the next emperor would be decided.

Currently, the third and fourth princes had received equal noble support, while the sixth prince lagged slightly behind.

In response to the three Purple Gold princes' assaults, the three human kingdoms unanimously adopted a defensive strategy.

That was to defend layer by layer using numerous fortresses.

These fortresses, blessed by the gods, could even withstand a single legendary-level spell.

The third prince of the Purple Gold Empire was assigned the central kingdom of Silver Sand—the Silver Sand Fortress was his first target to capture!

Under the third prince's orders, massive siege engines were dragged forward, and his army launched a fierce assault on the Silver Sand Fortress.

Shortly after, the other two princes also launched attacks on the two other human kingdoms.

Simultaneously, the three human kingdoms along the endless desert plunged into war.

For these three human kingdoms, this war was a fight for survival—if they lost, commoners' lives might not change much, but the royal family and nobles would be utterly destroyed, let alone the Church!

Thus, every human kingdom—Church, royal family, and nobles alike—unleashed all their strength to resist!

Each human kingdom had assembled armies of extraordinary size, nearly all exceeding one million troops.

Of course, the quality of these armies was no better than the former Hellin Kingdom's million-strong force.

Almost the entire royal and noble leadership of the three human kingdoms had arrived at the frontlines to oversee the battle; only minimal garrison forces remained in their homelands!

To them, the vast, thousands-of-kilometers-wide endless desert was the perfect barrier—their enemy could only come from one direction.

Yet they never imagined that the direction least likely to see an enemy had already been successfully invaded!

"Holy Maiden, you take the farthest Hanhai Kingdom. Elder Princess, you take Jialanxi Kingdom. I'll handle the central Silver Sand Kingdom."

In the endless desert, Meng Ying laid out her plan.

The fox maiden Sister Qing Ling and the Elder Princess both nodded.

The armies had already been assigned.

The fox maiden Sister Qing Ling and the Elder Princess each led 250,000 troops.

The fox maiden Sister Qing Ling led 500,000 troops.

But Meng Ying's 500,000 troops were almost entirely human warriors—not a single beastman among them.

This distribution was for logistical convenience.

Silver Sand Kingdom was closest; Hanhai and Jialanxi were farther away.

The armies led by the fox maiden Sister Qing Ling and the Elder Princess divided their airships into two batches, allowing them to transport troops directly to the royal cities of Hanhai and Jialanxi in one go—a surprise attack!

After delivering Sister Qing Ling and the Elder Princess's forces, the airships could swiftly return and transport Meng Ying's army.

The three human kingdoms had never stationed much defense along the endless desert.

Now, with their entire nations mobilized against the Purple Gold Empire, they didn't even maintain patrols!

Even if they had defenses, they'd be useless—airships could simply bypass their fortresses!

In the Divine Continent, outside the top-ranked great empires, no mid-sized empire likely possessed as many airships as the Flame Empire!

Building airships was no easy feat—take the Purple Gold Empire, for example: its total airship count certainly did not exceed fifty, and all were small vessels, scattered among noble families.

"Report, Your Majesty, according to magical messages from our scouts, the Purple Gold Empire and the three kingdoms have entered war."

A female winged messenger came to report.

Meng Ying had done little direct intelligence work—she had deployed vast numbers of scouts, and countless winged warriors patrolled the skies.

In short, she had perfect awareness of the battlefield's dynamics!

"The time has come—attack!"

Meng Ying immediately issued the order.

The three legendary beings then separated.

The fox maiden Sister Qing Ling and the Elder Princess each led 250,000 troops, boarding airships to head for the distant Hanhai and Jialanxi Kingdoms.

The territories of the three human kingdoms were vast, but with airship speed, less than three hours later, the Elder Princess's army arrived first above the royal city of Jialanxi Kingdom.

"How is the front-line situation?"

In the royal city of Jialanxi Kingdom, the king regularly inquired about the front-line status.

"Your Majesty, our troops are locked in battle with the sixth prince's Purple Gold forces within the fortresses—currently at a stalemate."

Said a messenger.

"Good. Also, send word to the kings of Silver Sand and Hanhai—ask for their battle updates."

Said the king of Jialanxi Kingdom.

The three human kingdoms had long cooperated to resist the Purple Gold Empire, fully aware that when lips are gone, teeth feel the cold—so they all closely monitored each other's situations.

"Yes, Your Majesty."

The messenger went down.

The King of Lanxi simply could not sit still, pacing back and forth inside Wang Gong.

After pacing for the better part of half a day, the King of Lanxi suddenly felt his eyelid twitch uncontrollably, an inexplicable irritation rising in his heart.

"Strange, why is my eyelid twitching so badly? Could something major be about to happen?"

The King of Lanxi thought.

He could no longer sit still, so he simply left Wang Gong and went to the messenger office in charge of sending and receiving magical letters, and asked:

"How is the situation at the front line?"

The messenger was rather speechless — he had only just given the king his report a few minutes ago.

But since the king was asking, he had no choice but to answer, so the messenger could only say: "Reporting to Your Majesty, the front line is still in a stalemate."

"That's good then."

The King of Lanxi let out another breath of relief.

But he still felt unbearably stifled, so he went out of the room and came to the small plaza outside the palace.

"The sun is quite nice today."

The King of Lanxi thought.

At that moment, on the ground ahead of him, he saw many shadows.