Ling Jiu wasted no time in bringing Bai Ya away from Whitehole 2, passing through a wormhole to return to Ganymede.
At last, they opened a wormhole and through which they traveled back to Mars. Things on Mars had gone through tremendous changes in the past few days.
Lakes and rivers had started to form in places with low elevation such as canyons, cracks, and impact craters, with the injection of seawater through six wormholes.
Ling Jiu could see from above Mars six ‘yellow rivers’ carrying muds and sands gushing on the yellow earth like an angry dragon and branching into small tributaries before pouring into every corner of the Martian land.
The six wormholes had an incredibly high flow rate. A massive amount of seawater poured onto Mars every second.
Lakes and rivers, and an ocean like those on Earth would appear on the surface of Mars in a few years at this flow rate.
Mars had undergone tremendous changes in just a few days. But Ling Jiu and Bai Ya could not care less. What happened on Earth had occupied their hearts and minds.
Instead of rushing back to Earth immediately, they performed a Blink Arcana to come to the Ares Plain.
When they left Mars earlier, they had each left a duplicate of themselves to practice self-cultivation and take care of Wukong. These duplicates were the best way to keep an eye on the situation.
But they did not expect that all the duplicates had left. No one was on the Ares Plain.
“Let’s head back to the matriculation camp!”
When they arrived, they found the camp was also empty; all trainees had gone.
Ling Jiu knew the situation was far from good at seeing this.
The matriculation camp normally forbade trainees from returning to Earth. Now that everyone was gone, he could imagine how bad the situation was.
The two hurriedly traveled through the wormhole and returned to the South Pole, and then recalled their duplicates immediately.
Their faces changed the moment memories fed back into their minds.
“Is the situation really so bad now?”
Ling Jiu and Bai Ya looked at each other and saw the horror in each other’s eyes.
Things started three days ago.
A terrifying dimensional fissure appeared in the deepest part of the Pacific Ocean, triggering mega earthquakes of magnitude 8.8, which eventually caused a mega tsunami.
The coastal countries and base cities around the Pacific bore the brunt of the attack, with millions of casualties.
Unfortunately, the worst was yet to come. Before the earthquakes and tsunami subsided, a wave of terrifying direbeasts lunged out from the dimensional fissure, sweeping across the entire Pacific Ocean and attacking the Pacific coastal cities.
According to the information sent back by their duplicates, the weakest direbeasts were comparable to Class-8 direbeasts. Those of Class-9 were abundant, along with many stellar-class ones.
San Francisco Base City in the United States was the first place getting attacked.
San Francisco, a large base city with a population of tens of millions, turned into a purgatory on Earth in just one day under the attack of hundreds of thousands of direbeasts.
Countless people had lost their lives.
Countless arcanists had died tragically.
Countless families had been displaced.
The economic loss was incalculable.
Humankind had experienced many disasters, large and small, throughout the 30 years since the rise of the direbeasts, but there had never been such a shocking massacre.
Previously, even if there was any direbeast invasion causing the crumbling of defenses, it only happened to small and medium-sized base cities.
The large and mega base cities had the most advanced weapons and equipment, and the largest number of arcanists.
In people’s mind, these large and mega base cities had always been synonymous with safety and sturdiness. But now…
There was no time to grieve humankind, as within three days after the dimensional fissure appeared, direbeasts had attacked base cities such as Manila, Sydney, Vancouver, Los Angeles and others.
It was an existential threat. The high-level humans quickly summoned the arcanists to fight, dispatching an army of arcanists to the coastal base cities that were under attack.
It was a pity that the direbeasts were too powerful. Humans had been fighting back vehemently, but had still failed to stop the direbeasts’ advances.
After the direbeasts wreaked havoc in these large and mega base cities, they moved on and left behind devastation and death.
Countless people had died tragically, families were broken, and a dozen large and mega base cities were in ruins in just three days.
Bad news came one after another. These three days were the darkest days of humankind in the past 30 years.
Some people call these three days Three Black Days, which meant the darkest three days in human history.
Of course, the disasters that had happened could not be undone. The next wave of direbeast invasion was the top priority. The higher level of humans had recalled all the arcanists, including those from the Ultimate Matriculation Camp.
Ling Jiu’s and Bai Ya’s duplicates had left Mars and returned to Earth under this circumstance.
They were assigned to defend Modu City Base City, one of Huaxia’s four major mega base cities, and Hong Kong Base City, one of the fifteen large base cities.
Now that they had recalled their duplicates, they had to return to their respective positions. Desertion was a serious offense neither of them could afford to commit.
“I am leaving, Honey.” Bai Ya looked at Ling Jiu. “Take care of yourself.”
“Who is in charge of the personnel assignment? I can’t believe that they separate us!” Ling Jiu felt like cursing someone.
“It’s okay. The priority now is to return and guard the base city. There will be trouble when direbeasts invade and we are not there,” Bai Ya said softly, trying to comfort him.
“All right.” Ling Jiu nodded slightly. “This direbeast invasion was anything but normal. Even the stellar beings can’t guarantee their own safety. Promise me, Bai Ya. Protect yourself, do within your means, and don’t try to be brave.”
“I know. You, too.”
Tears welled up in her beautiful eyes. “We have never separated since we entered the matriculation camp two years ago. I didn’t expect that we would have to part with each other this time. I can’t bear to leave you, Honey.”
“Same here.” Ling Jiu took a deep breath. “We are leaving soon, Bai Ya. I will give you a Dimensional Arcana. It is to ensure your safety.”
“I don’t want it.” Bai Ya shook her head. “You replicated that Dimensional Arcana from your ex. I don’t want it.”
Ling Jiu had no words. Why is she still making a fuss about such a thing at a time like this? Besides, Ai Yuhe isn’t even my ex. She and I have never started anything, okay?
“How about Time Rewind?” Ling Jiu asked helplessly. “This arcana can rewind time by five seconds. It might save your life at the critical moments.”
“Rewind time by five seconds ago? I am good with this.” Bai Ya’s eyes lit up as she kept nodding.
“Please bear with it. It will hurt.”
“Okay.”
Ten minutes later, Bai Ya successfully installed Time Rewind. Ling Jiu made a duplicate of himself to escort Bai Ya back to Hong Kong, while he flew back to Modu.
During the flight to the Modu, he called his family at home. He was relieved to know that his parents were safe at home. Wukong was with them for the moment. They were safe.
But after talking with his parents for a while, he frowned upon learning the situation.
Ling-er had also entered the Ultimate Matriculation Camp three days ago, just in time for the direbeast invasion. It sucked that she was assigned to a coastal base city, just like other matriculation camp trainees.
What sucked more was, she was neither assigned to Modu Base City, nor to Hong Kong Base City but to Bao’an Base City.
Bao’an, Didu, Mohai, and Nanyue Base City were four mega base cities in Huaxia.
Besides, Bao’an Base City was closer to the Pacific Ocean than Mohai Base City. The possibility of being invaded by direbeasts was higher.
“I can’t believe that they have sent Ling-er to Bao’an Base City!”
Ling Jiu gritted his teeth. “Who did the personnel assignment? This is not good. I have got to go to Bao’an to see Ling-er. What if something happens to her?”
Thinking of this, he made another duplicate of himself and told the duplicate to head to Mohai Base City, while he flew towards Bao’an Base City.
As it turned out, Ling Jiu’s hunch was correct. When he arrived in Bao’an, he saw a shocking scene.
On the endless blue sea, waves were rolling and surging, and gigantic monsters stretched across the sea like a massive ship.
They plowed through the sea and swept towards the coast. The water was getting shallower and shallower, and they were gradually exposed as they got closer to the coast.
Those were hideous direbeasts, whose overall appearance differed completely from all the direbeasts that Ling Jiu had ever encountered before.
They were unlike the aquatic monsters in the oceans of Europa and Ganymede, or the forest direbeasts on Whitehole-2, but more like bugs.
Yup.
Bugs.
There were giant ladybugs over 1,000 meters, blade-wielding giant mantis with hard shells all over their bodies, spiders that were over a few hundred meters tall with several spear-like long legs, and huge ants that were red all over and coming in groups.
…
It was like all the insects in this world had come out at once all of a sudden.
They waded through the sea overwhelmingly, just like an endless sea of insects. It was so horrible that it could scare people to death with just a glance.
“Direbeasts!”
“Direbeasts are coming!”
Countless arcanists and soldiers with long guns and short cannons were standing on the city wall of Bao’an Base City at this moment.
Everyone stared at the endless number of giant insects with uncontrollable fear in their eyes.
This army of direbeasts was unstoppable. Wherever it went, no one base city could stop its advances. Could they stop this direbeast invasion now?
They did not really know.
A public address broadcasting voice blared across the city at this time. “Relay the order: load all electromagnetic guns and get ready the nuclear mortars!”
“Nuclear mortars?”
Electromagnetic gun is a conventional weapon, used in hunting the leader of the direbeasts. Everyone knows about this. But nuclear mortars are nuclear weapons.
Although the smallest nuclear mortar is only 10 tons, once it explodes, not even grass could survive in a radius of 400 meters. Its destructiveness is unparalleled.
The thing was, the optical radiation, shock waves, and radioactive pollution of nuclear mortars were terrifyingly lethal. No one could live in and around the city if released.
However, because of the direbeast invasion and the destruction of many large and mega base cities, people could understand why nuclear mortars were used.
It was better to use nuclear mortars to fight to the death than wait for the destruction of the base city. Could the consequences of using nuclear mortars be more serious than a mass casualty and the total destruction of the base city?
“Everyone, war is imminent. I don’t have much to say except this: You all may have heard and seen the destruction of other base cities. Once Bao’an Base City falls, other base cities such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, Vancouver, and Sydney will face the same fate. To prevent the same scene from happening to Bao’an Base City, I beg you all to do your best. The lives of the twenty-thousand residents in Bao’an Base City are now in your hands.”
