Chapter 235

"Mother has always regarded the Whisperers as mortal enemies—how could she possibly be working with them?"

From Rosalind's perspective, the Whisperers, who had long been stirring up chaos for Griffin, were outright mortal foes.

In a certain sense, the Whisperers' corruption was the origin of all disasters and the root of Rosalind's tragic life; yet their "knowledge" seemingly came from Xiao, and Rosalind's very existence was the result of that knowledge's curse.

"Tch. What a mess."

Li En finally understood why Little Hela looked down on the kingdom.

This tiny nation, cobbled together from just a few cities, was full of endless chaos—once you got involved, you'd gain no real benefits, only endless troubles.

There were already two seals for "Beasts," not to mention countless cults and foreign god worshippers.

Simply staying alive in this country was too hard. Hela had absolutely no reason to step into this quagmire—the continent was vast, the multiverse was vast.

Perhaps, had Lex left the kingdom back then, he too might have found happiness.

"You've got me tempted," Li En sighed. He even felt that, in a certain sense, the kingdom had brought this upon itself. To save something, it must first be worth saving.

If it hadn't been over a decade already, and if most people here weren't innocent, Li En would've left long ago.

Lex's original idea wasn't wrong—if he'd directly implanted "memories" into Li En, it might've made him despise the kingdom even more.

In the end, Hela still gained "freedom." In her own words, she planned to stay here for a while, then head north or south across the continent.

"After all, she's my mother." She'd hesitated before, but now she clearly didn't need to consider it at all.

Her mother had completely lost control—now the queen sisters would likely fight to the death. If this civil war reignites, can the kingdom, already on the verge of collapse, even survive?

Fortunately, in this attack, the princess lost most of her retinue and subordinates—she shouldn't be able to cause trouble anytime soon.

Li En had also begun to realize that the "capital relocation" goal was, in a certain sense, a desperate reform—but from another angle, it was merely the desperate act of isolationism.

Or, put simply, running away.

The new capital still controls a region; if they abandoned that too, it would mean concentrating all of the kingdom's administrative power, core institutions, and military forces solely in Huicheng and its surrounding handful of second-tier cities.

"Lacking the strength to maintain your current territory, abandoning secondary resources and population zones—it sounds terrible, utterly hopeless."

But it also seemed to be the only choice left. The empire was in twilight; shedding unmanageable regions and concentrating all strength in the core homeland, though ugly, was a way to prolong its life—hoping that enemies, after swallowing the surrendered territories, wouldn't pursue total annihilation.

Holding fast to the core region, humbly remaining a small kingdom, perhaps for three or five generations, might still offer a chance for resurgence.

"Provided, of course, we eliminate that revived deer."

It really could only be said that the kingdom's past sins were too great—leaking from all sides, with enemies watching hungrily—and now, even with all their strength, they were merely struggling to survive.

"By the way, what about the Whisperers? Maybe we should just give up and destroy them outright."

Clearly, these things were still lurking within the kingdom—the Great Red Dragon's cleansing had been incomplete.

And if the Great Red Dragon were here, he'd probably find it unfair to blame foreign gods—like viruses and bacteria inside the human body, once they appear and infect, they can never be fully eradicated (they remain in the world, in the air); as long as coexistence is maintained, it's good enough.

If you truly wiped them clean, the world and mortals might lose their immunity entirely.

The Great Red Dragon's breath alone had reduced apocalyptic contamination to today's scattered cultists—now harmless. That was already insane.

"Damn it, Li Ensu! Bastard Dragon of a Thousand Faces!"

Li En couldn't hold back—he began his usual habit of cursing himself.

But there was good reason for it. No one understood him better than himself; no one betrayed him better than himself. That "main quest" that led him here was undeniably a massive trap.

If Li En had just arrived here—say, in some small town or village, having built up resources and strength before moving to a big city—he'd have seen this sludge pit and left without a second thought, maybe taking a few people with him.

But now, look at Sallyman, Denya, and his friends in the docks district. Under circumstances that weren't yet beyond saving, could he really just walk away?

Reason says to cut losses early—but if one were entirely rational, one wouldn't really be human.

"Damn it, Li Ensu!"

In the end, Li En could only curse a few times to vent, then get back to work.

Hela was more rational than expected, which eased Li En's mind. Though Denya had been huffing all along, at least they hadn't fought.

"Damn it, Lex—you're still messing with my judgment." In a certain sense, Li En was stubborn to the core.

Denya obediently returned to overtime work—just issuing arrest warrants for cultists would be a headache.

To demonstrate sincerity, Hela unhesitatingly handed over several "allies." The various families of the old capital had long been infiltrating the kingdom—they were open in the old capital but lurked like vermin everywhere else.

All along, the kingdom's spies sent to the old capital met gruesome ends. The various factions and survivors there truly hated the kingdom—not just the cultists and outsiders, but the citizens themselves were the main force of that hatred.

In their eyes, they weren't just victims of the Dragon Catastrophe—they were abandoned by the kingdom. And this, in truth, was an undeniable fact.

These citizens had survived surrounded by cultists, elemental beings, and all manner of monsters—they could hardly be called "ordinary civilians." To them, outsiders were simply easy "resources"; infiltrating spies rarely lasted two episodes.

Growing up in such an environment, Hela had absolutely no affection for the kingdom.

"Liyah, how are you holding up?" Li En asked the mechanical maid who greeted him at home.

She must've been overloaded—is her surrounding stability still too high? Is she still overheating?