Chapter 49.1

"These..." Kevin glanced at the bodies in front of him, his expression growing colder. "Could someone have attacked from the other side?"

However, he quickly shook his head, dismissing the idea.

Not to mention the likelihood of someone discovering the other end of this secret passage and launching an attack, even if they did, there were two armies guarding the passage.

With the advantage of the terrain in this narrow environment, it wouldn't be a problem for one person to act as a gatekeeper. Additionally, any casualties would be concentrated in the front, rather than scattered in the rear.

Furthermore, even if it was a sand ghost capable of silently killing their way through from the front to the back, this situation wouldn't have occurred. The sand ghosts always left no trace, not even a complete body behind.

Oswald halted, prompting Kevin to slide off his back and stride over to the corpses.

Some bodies were lying on their sides, while others were kneeling or lying face down. In any case, their faces were hardly visible.

Oswald took a couple of steps forward and attempted to flip one of the corpses onto its back using his front paws, but failed after two attempts.

"Don't play with your paws here," Kevin politely pushed Oswald aside. Frowning, he carefully turned over a corpse, muttering to himself, "The positions they're in are quite strange..."

Oswald wanted to kick Kevin for referring to him as a dog, but since Kevin was the one speaking, he could only snort in anger from his nostrils and make a feeble excuse: "Try growing an extra pair of legs and see if you can use them freely."

Kevin replied without hesitation, "Don't blame your clumsy hands. Remember, you used to crawl on four legs before you turned one year old, so let's get back to work."

"..." Oswald felt like he was being ridiculed and bossed around every day, but upon reflection, he realized that Kevin's reasoning made sense, and he couldn't think of any way to argue against it.

"Look at the positions of these people," Kevin flipped over the corpse in front of him and gestured towards the visible corpses. "Don't you think they're all in reverse?"

Oswald didn't immediately understand. "What do you mean?"

Kevin turned around and slapped Oswals on the back of his neck. "If the attack came from the front, like if I were to strike you like this, how would you fall?"

"Backward," Oswald replied solemnly.

He now understood what Kevin meant. If the attack or collision came from the front, most people would be knocked backwards and end up lying on their backs.

That's why, logically, most of the corpses should have been lying facing upwards, in line with what they were looking at. But the reality was the opposite.

"Could it be that the attack came from behind?" Oswald asked. "But remember, we were always at the back. If something attacked them from behind, why didn't we encounter it?"

"That's what's strange..." Kevin averted his gaze and inspected the corpse he had flipped over. Soon, he noticed another anomaly.

He didn't have to remind Oswald this time. The flipped corpse had a peculiar expression on its face. The eyes were wide open, with dilated pupils suggesting surprise, yet the slight upward curve at the corners of the mouth indicated a sense of satisfaction.

This contradiction on the same face was deeply unsettling.

They scrutinized all the corpses in the vicinity, discovering that their expressions were almost identical, and there were no visible fatal wounds. Some of the bodies didn't even have a single scratch.

Both of them fell silent for a moment...

What kind of sight would elicit this expression from people before their death?

More importantly, what could cause people to die while wearing that expression?

They couldn't find any leads at the moment. Kevin shook his head and said, "Let's keep going further ahead."

He then climbed onto Oswald's back, and the emperor-turned-Sirius whispered, "Hold on tight," before sprinting forward once again.

The journey wasn't long, but it took longer than before due to the increasing number of corpses. It became almost impossible to go a short distance without encountering more bodies.

"Is anyone still alive?" Kevin frowned, his expression turning ugly as he surveyed the mess under his feet.

"Yes," Oswald replied firmly. "Half of them are still alive. I just counted the number of people."

Although he was certain that "someone had survived", his tone expressed serious emotions, indicating that he did not expect such a situation in the secret passage.

The secret passage soon came to an end, leading to a stone staircase that inclined upwards after multiple twists and turns.

Kevin sat on the back of the giant beast, leaning down to examine the surface of the stone ladder meticulously, not wanting to miss any clues. "There are numerous footprints here, organized but not chaotic. It seems like a stable living area. Judging from the time, those who survived will likely regroup and leave this place. It was probably a few hours ago."

Without any further delay, Kevin and the beast found the exit along the stone ladder.