Chapter 2257: Heroes in the City

Nasus had come to Vekaura not to see the ugly sun temple, but to be directed by the bloody words scrawled on the wall of the astrological tower. He sensed that the owner of an ascended bloodline had appeared in Vekaura.

This bloodline had existed long before the empire was in ruins, but when its territory spanned the entire continent, it was the most precious and powerful bloodline in ancient Shurima. So the top priority was to find that person before the enemy did.

After all, the ascended blood could bring Azir back from the void to the present world, or it could destroy the reborn Shurima in an instant for evil purposes.

Ten warriors wearing dusty cloaks and covered in bronze plate armor stood between Nasus and the priest. He was a tall, thin man wearing a robe covered with iridescent feathers, a pair of large sleeves like flying wings, and a turban like an ebony bird's beak. The face under the turban looked noble, without mercy, and awe-inspiring.

"Are you Nasus?" the priest asked. His voice was deep and expansive, with a royal tone, but Nasus felt his fear. It was one thing to claim to have seen a god descend, but it was another to see it with one's own eyes.

"Yes, I am Nasus. But more importantly, who are you?" Nasus needed to confirm whether the cleric in front of him was the one whose bloodline he was looking for.

The cleric straightened his back and puffed out his chest, like a male bird in mating season, and said proudly: "I am Azrasilselamu, descendant of the Eagle King, the first harbinger of Vikora, the one who illuminates, the light walker, the fire guardian, the messenger of the morning..."

Nasus interrupted him: "You say you are the blood of Emperor Azir?"

"Of course!"

"Then prove it with your blood." Nasus slammed the axe handle to the ground, raising a cloud of dust. The dust stopped in the air, like a shimmering veil, and then circled around the cleric and his warriors and slowly fell.

In the blink of an eye, the circle of sand and dust turned into a hurricane. The warriors involuntarily shielded their faces, and the priest couldn't see clearly. He choked and coughed, and his waist was almost bent in half.

The sandstorm was wrapped in the furious wind in the deepest part of the desert, and it could twist a group of Ikasul into skeletons in an instant. Armor was useless, and the sand would get in from every corner and crevice and scratch people's skin. The sun disk swayed back and forth in the strong wind summoned by Nasus, and the ropes in the iron rings were tightened.

The priest's face was full of bloody streaks caused by sand, and there were scarlet tears on his cheeks. Nasus carried him to the sun disk. Although this disk was a fake and not melted with a single bit of gold, it could still reflect sunlight, which was enough. The sun was the best way to detect the blood of the king.

Nasus pressed the priest's face to the disk, and the metal burned by the scorching sun branded his injured skin, and he screamed. Nasus threw the crying man aside and stared at the hissing stream of blood on the disc. The blood had been roasted into brown lumps, and the smell of blood wafted into his nose.

"Your blood does not belong to the ascended bloodline." Nasus said sadly: "You are not the one I am looking for."

Just as Nasus was playing "sizzling barbecue" here, the bandit group in the distance had already killed to the city of Vikaola. The dust stirred up by the marching troops gathered into a cloud, approaching with murderous intent.

Through the smoke and dust, you can see the bright sunlight reflected on the spear tips and armor. The residents of Vikaola heard the beating of war drums and the sharp sound of military trumpets.

Then the figures of pack horses appeared in the dust. The screaming war beasts were tied to the yoke with thick ropes and driven by soldiers holding goads. These monsters have calcified scales and curved fangs. They are natural battering rams that can easily push down the crumbling walls of Vikora.

There is almost nothing left of this abandoned house on the eastern edge of Vikora. There is a large skylight on the roof, and the sand is ankle-deep on the ground, but there are still four walls. When the weather is hottest, there is a shade above the head to provide some shelter.

Taliyah's package stands in the corner of the house, ready to be picked up and taken away at any time as usual. On the wall hangs a leather bag filled with clean water and goat milk, next to the clothes is enough dried meat to last for several weeks, and the leather bag is filled with stones collected from all over the Valoran continent.

Lin Jiu's eyes swept across the bandit group and fell on this abandoned house. He didn't have perspective and couldn't see the situation inside. But he could vaguely feel that there was a guy inside whose bloodline could attract the power of the sun, which made him pay more attention.

The one who can trigger the reaction of the power of the sun is undoubtedly the blood of the king in Shurima. As a visitor to the Paradise of Samsara, he naturally cannot stay here for a long time. Rebuilding the Empire of the Sun is one thing, but he can only be a supporter. Lin Jiu needs a successor to the Empire of the Sun after he leaves. He can see what the blood inheritor is like later.

Taliyah helped the woman in front of her take off her armor and cleaned her body as much as possible. Except for the almost fatal wound, the woman's body is a map drawn by scars. This is the result of a lifetime of fighting, and almost all of it is in front.

This woman was picked up from the desert. Taliyah pushed aside the black hair between the woman's hot eyebrows and looked at her face carefully, wondering how she could be so badly injured and half buried in the sand dunes at the edge of the Great Sai Desert. She was beautiful, but she also had a hard sharpness, and even coma could not soften her completely. Her skin was a light brown dyed by the sun, typical of the local Shurima, and when her eyelids occasionally fluttered open and closed, Taliyah saw that her eyes were a clear sky blue.

Taliyah suddenly heard a muffled explosion from the west, and then a sound that she could not misunderstand: rocks rolling and rubbing against each other. She walked to the window and looked out. At first she thought it was an earthquake, but soon she felt it was a landslide. Given the condition of most of the buildings in the city of Vikaola, it would not be surprising if it was the sound of a house collapsing.

"Wheel mother." Lin Jiu also roughly knew who the inheritor of the royal bloodline was, the goddess of war, Sivir, a mercenary in the Shurima desert.

Then he roughly knew what period it was now. Azir had just returned from the void, and Xerath and the crocodile had also escaped. After seeing the light of day again, Xerath learned that Azir had successfully ascended, and naturally he was restless. On the one hand, he was thinking about how to eradicate Azir, and on the other hand, he planned to exterminate Azir's descendants, that is, Sivir.

It was a good thing that the royal bloodline he sensed was Sivir. But Lin Jiu knew that what he was doing was not to reproduce the glory of the Shurima Empire, but to rebuild a brand new empire. This empire still worshipped the sun and was still located in the desert, but it would no longer be the Shurima Empire.

Sivir, the princess who had never enjoyed the benefits of the Shurima royal identity for a day, had no feelings for Shurima. She only fought for herself. She was simply the best successor in this derivative world after Lin Jiu left.

Lin Jiu's identity as the Son of the Sun + the blood of Princess Sivir, this combination created the Empire of the Sun, which would not work even if Azir returned. Lin Jiu did not have to worry about Azir stealing the fruits of the revolution after he left.

After confirming the approximate time, Lin Jiu looked at the bandits who began to attack the city, and was afraid that these guys were the vanguards of Xerath's temptation.