Chapter 235: Storms and Winds Rocking

"Mother, how can they be working with the Whisperers, whom you have always regarded as mortal enemies?"

From Rosalind's perspective, the Whisperer faction, which had been stirring up trouble for Griffin all along, was a mortal enemy.

In a sense, the Whisperers' seduction was the source of all disasters, the source of Rosalind's unfortunate life. Yet the Whisperers' "knowledge" seemed to have been brought by Xiao, and Rosalind's birth was the result of that knowledge's harm.

"Tsk, what a mess of accounts."

Li En somewhat understood why Little Hela looked down on the Kingdom.

A small country stitched together from just these few cities, filled with a huge mess of chaotic affairs; if there were no benefits to getting involved, only endless troubles would follow.

There were already two seals for just the "Beasts," not to mention a host of cults and Waishen Sect followers.

It is too difficult for this country to even survive. Hela had absolutely no need to step into this quagmire; the continent is vast, and the multiverse is vast.

Perhaps, if Lex had left the Kingdom back then, he would have found happiness too.

"You've made me tempted," Li En sighed. He felt that, in a sense, the Kingdom had brought this upon itself; the premise of salvation is that the target must be worth saving.

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

Lex's original thought was not wrong; if he had directly implanted the "memories" into Li En, it would likely have made him despise the Kingdom even more.

In the end, Hela still obtained "freedom." In her own words, she intended to stay here for a while before heading to the northern or southern continent.

"After all, she is my mother." Previously she had hesitated a bit, but now it seemed she didn't need to consider it at all.

Her mother had completely lost control; now the Queen sisters would probably fight to the death. If this civil war reignited, could the already crumbling Kingdom really withstand it?

Fortunately, in this attack, the Princess lost most of her retainers and subordinates, so she shouldn't be able to stir up trouble in the short term.

Li En also realized that the goal of "moving the capital" was, in a sense, a reform of breaking the cauldrons and sinking the boats, but from another angle, it was also a helpless act of "isolationism."

Or rather, escape.

Now the new capital still controls a region; abandoning it completely would mean pressing all of the Kingdom's administrative power, core institutions, and military forces onto the City of Radiance and its surrounding few second-tier cities.

"Lacking the strength to maintain the current scope of power, discarding secondary resource and population regions—it sounds terrible, very desperate."

But it seemed to be a helpless choice as well. The Empire is at dusk; discarding areas that cannot be maintained and concentrating all power on the core homeland, though ugly, is a way to prolong life. It is also hoping that the enemies, after devouring the living space yielded, will not pursue them to the bitter end.

Holding fast to the core region and honestly acting as a small country, perhaps after another three or five generations, there might still be a chance to rise.

"The premise is eliminating that resurrected Deer."

It could probably only be said that the Kingdom's past sins were too heavy; with leaks on all sides and enemies watching hungrily, now, giving their all, they are merely at the level of struggling to survive.

"By the way, there are still the Whisperers. Why not just give up and destroy them directly?"

Obviously, these things were still lurking within the Kingdom; the Great Red Dragon's sterilization was incomplete.

And if the Great Red Dragon were here, it would probably feel wronged about things like the Outer Gods; just like viruses and bacteria within the human body, once they appear and infect, they are basically impossible to completely cure (they are always present within the world, in the air); as long as coexistence can be maintained, it will have to do.

If they were truly completely cleaned out, the world and mortals might lose their immunity.

One breath from the Great Red Dragon could reduce world-ending contamination to the current "harmless level" of "scattered cultists," which was already quite absurd.

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

Li En couldn't hold back and began the Dragon of a Thousand Faces' routine, starting to curse himself.

But this really had a reason. The one who understood oneself best was always oneself, and the one who would screw oneself over the most was also oneself; that "main quest" that guided him here was definitely a huge trap.

If Li En had just arrived here, say, having accumulated certain resources and strength in a small town or village before developing in a big city, seeing this mud pit would guarantee he would run away without a second thought, at most taking a few people with him.

But now, looking at Miss Shaliman, Dai Niya, and the friends in the dock district... if the situation wasn't completely hopeless, could he really just leave?

Reason says one should cut losses in time, but if one were truly completely rational, one probably couldn't be called human.

"Damn it, Li Ensu!"

In the end, Li En could only curse a few times to vent his anger, then go about his own business.

Hela was more rational than expected, which made Li En breathe a sigh of relief. Although Dai Niya was hissing all the way, it was really great that they didn't fight.

"Damn it, Lex, you're influencing my judgment again." In a sense, Li En was also quite stubborn.

Dai Niya went back to work obediently; even just issuing wanted notices for various cultists was estimated to be troublesome.

To express sincerity, Hela unhesitatingly sold out some "allies." The various families of the Old Capital had been infiltrating and operating within the Kingdom; they were public in the Old Capital, but in other cities, they were rats crossing the street.

All along, the Kingdom's spies sent to the Old Capital basically died very miserably; the various factions and survivors of the Old Capital truly hated the Kingdom. This wasn't just the cultists and outsiders; those citizens were the main force of hatred against the Kingdom.

In their view, they were not only victims of the Dragon Calamity but also the Kingdom's abandoned ones, and this was actually an undeniable fact.

These citizens were able to survive surrounded by cultists, elemental beings, and various monsters; it would be hard to describe them as "ordinary citizens." To them, the outsiders were also "resources" offered up, and the spies attempting to lurk basically didn't survive two episodes.

Growing up in such an environment, Hela truly had no goodwill toward the Kingdom at all.

"Lia, how is your status?" Back home, Li En asked the mechanical maid who came to greet him.

She must have been overloaded; is the stability around her currently significantly too high, and is she still in an overheated state?