Gu Qing Shan, Zhang Ying Hao, and Ye Fei Li crouched down in front of the giant snake’s body.
Quite a few scientists were collecting samples from it next to them, as well as some soldiers to guard them.
But since Gu Qing Shan’s trio were both Professionists and people of the military, in accordance with everyone’s tacit understanding of the rules, no one bothered them.
——–it was in fact encouraged for newly recruited Professionists to come into contact with apocalyptic monsters as much as possible, allowing them to surpass their psychological fears, discover the monster’s weaknesses, and better deal with their threat.
This was common sense.
Ye Fei Li reached his hand forward.
He wiped a bit of the giant snake’s blood and licked it.
“The blood is filled with power—— feels like magic, but it feels like there’s something other than magic in here” he commented.
This was something that only he had the courage to do because his constitution allowed him to not be corroded by external forces.
Gu Qing Shan manifested a few blades of sword qi and sliced off a piece of snake meat.
“Can it be eaten?” Zhang Ying Hao swallowed his saliva.
“Didn’t you just finish an entire portion of military ration?” Gu Qing Shan held the piece of meat in his hand and carefully examined it.
“What I’m looking forward to isn’t the snake meat, but your cooking” Zhang Ying Hao flattered him.
He couldn’t be blamed, because Gu Qing Shan’s cooking always left people wanting more.
“Can’t!” Gu Qing Shan shook his head, “This snake’s entire body is full of venom, which makes it hard to treat—— if I actually spent the effort to clean it completely, the meat would lose most of its flavor as well”
“Hah” Zhang Ying Hao was a bit disappointed.
The two of them exchanged glances.
Although they were joking around, they both noticed a sense of solemnity from the other’s voice.
An invisible pressure had completely filled the air.
This sensation couldn’t be noticed by ordinary people, but those with exceptionally sharp intuition would receive some precognition from the mystics.
“…I feel like I’m standing in front of a brewing sea storm” Gu Qing Shan’s expression was completely sullen as he muttered.
“I’m the same”
Zhang Ying Hao stood up and anxiously looked around.
The troops had split up into several groups, some still maintaining order, some patrolling the city, while some were reorganizing themselves on the spot.
The evacuated people were slowly moving towards the temporary base in a neat and orderly manner.
Ye Ru Xi was standing with several army commanders, observing as Li Da Jun and his men tried to fix the communication device.
There were no monster attacks.
Everything was normal.
“Strange… it’s very rare for my intuition to fail, but then where’s the problem coming from?”
Zhang Ying Hao wiped some cold sweat from his face, feeling nothing but confused.
The world in front of him slowly became heavy and stagnant, the stifling pressure from earlier had gotten even worse.
Gu Qing Shan also couldn’t endure it and directly summoned the twin swords Heaven and Earth from the void of space, wielding them in his hands.
He could feel death approaching!
The two of them abruptly stood up and observed their surroundings.
The night wind was slightly warm.
The troops had started to distribute food to the civilians.
With something to fill their stomachs, the civilians slowly settled down as well.
Everything was normal.
“Damn it, what exactly is it?” Zhang Ying Hao cursed.
Ye Fei Li was still crouched on the ground, then suddenly perked his ears to listen with a confused expression on his face.
Gu Qing Shan immediately noticed this and asked: “What’s the matter?”
Ye Fei Li explained: “Something is flying towards us”
“What is it? A monster?” Zhang Ying Hao asked.
“No, it’s artificial, almost like… a plane? But it’s a lot faster than I imagine it would be” Ye Fei Li replied.
Gu Qing Shan shivered for the blink of an eye.
That isn’t a plane.
With the monster encirclement, planes cannot possibly go through.
Could it be…
The demon ape’s last words resounded by his ears:
…
「 Humans, what pitiable humans 」
…
That apocalyptic monster had clearly intended to fight to the death, but then suddenly gave up on killing Ye Ru Xi and casually retreated.
Pitiable.
That description…
In that instant, Gu Qing Shan’s expression completely warped.
The air was slightly shivering.
A low-frequency shriek was resounding from the air above.
10 seconds.
No, it’s too fast——
7 seconds.
We only have 7 seconds!
Gu Qing Shan completely discarded all of his other thoughts.
“Ying Hao, I think it’s a nuclear warhead!”
He roared, then heavily thrusted the Earth sword in his hand into the ground.
Secret Art, [Drawn Shadow]!
A boundless array of black sword images suddenly bloomed, pierced through the concrete ground, and bore deeply down below.
At this point, Zhang Ying Hao also realized what was happening.
“FUCK——-”
He cursed, propped, the assault rifle on his shoulder, and exchanged its nozzle for a larger one, then aimed at the sky.
One second.
Two seconds.
Without hesitation, Zhang Ying Hao pulled the trigger.
Bang!
The resounding heavy gunshot surprised everyone around.
Zhang Ying Hao was forced two steps backward by the intense recoil, after which he let himself fall down——-
Rumble rumble rumble——
The earth was constantly trembling.
After Gu Qing Shan’s strike, surprised screams resounded all over.
In a 5-mile radius of him, every soldier, General, scientist, and civilian, fell into the crater he had just created.
Gu Qing Shan’s heart sank.
Not enough!
This isn’t nearly deep enough!
He swung the Earth sword and thrust it into the earth once again.
“STOP! Gu Qing Shan!”
Ye Ru Xi shouted.
Because of how abrupt it was, quite a few people were injured from the fall, some of them were even bleeding or had broken arms and legs.
Ye Ru Xi put an unconscious civilian down, completely furious.
She rushed like a blurred image towards Gu Qing Shan.
Zhang Ying Hao tried to stop her but was struck by a cluster of grey fog that emanated from her body and sent flying into the inner wall of the crater.
Ye Fei Li unleashed dozens of red spikes to stop her but was also easily dispatched.
At this point.
From a point far above them, a sharp high-pitched noise could be heard.
Everyone looked up.
From the horizon, a ball of fire created from intense light even more blinding than the sun instantly illuminated the entire city.
The world became silent.
Even the military personnel’s expressions changed.
A nuclear warhead!
Why is there a nuclear warhead here!?
Gu Qing Shan’s face also twisted.
Although Zhang Ying Hao had managed to hit the nuclear warhead from a distance——-
It was still a nuclear bomb!
Gu Qing Shan circulated his spirit energy to unleash another sword seal.
Secret Art, [Torrent]!
“AAAAAAA, GET DOWN!”
He shouted.
The crater that was already quite deep sunk down several meters more.
The people in the crater fell down again.
Gu Qing Shan used the sword to prop himself up, completely soaked in sweat, barely still standing.
Foundation realm cultivators.
Only had so much spirit energy.
As he unleashed his full strength just now, he exhausted all of his powers.
Fortunately, a crater this deep should be barely enough to escape the heat and the first round of shockwaves from the nuclear bomb at the horizon.
“Don’t look at the explosion!” Ye Ru Xi loudly shouted.
But her voice was completely obscured by the sound of the explosion, leaving no one able to hear her.
Ye Ru Xi stomped her feet to leap up and threw a punch at the opening of the crater.
Layers upon layers of grey fog manifested to cover the entire hole.
Even the intense light outside had been blocked out, leaving the inside of the crater in complete darkness.
The earth trembled.
Shockwaves were beginning to form.
The mushroom cloud instantly reached several thousand meters high.
Zhang Ying Hao climbed out from the dirt, spat out some sand, and tossed the Card in his hand forward.
Poof!
Over a dozen dimly glowing worms appeared.
“Please help me solidify this place, thank you” Zhang Ying Hao said.
The worms nodded, then quickly scattered into the walls of the crater and did their work.
Hoh——- hoh——– hoh———-
The howling wind created by the shockwaves resounded throughout, followed by numerous desperate screams together with the sound of crashing and collapsing buildings.
Everyone now understood what was going on.
Quite a few people began to cry.
——–their family members were still outside, which meant that it was impossible for them to survive.
They were the most fortunate, as they had fallen into the crater that Gu Qing Shan created, and the nuclear bomb was detonated prematurely at the horizon by Zhang Ying Hao that they managed to survive.
Ye Ru Xi walked up to Gu Qing Shan and patted his shoulder: “I blamed you wrongly”
Gu Qing Shan was dead tired, so he only nodded without replying.
Ye Ru Xi turned to the commanders.
Every commander had ashen expressions on their face, their hearts completely withered.
Nuclear weapons can’t kill monsters, so whoever fired that nuclear warhead was aiming to kill everyone here.
Why?
Why did they do such a thing?
Ye Ru Xi tried her best to maintain outward calm and told the military men: “Don’t worry everyone, we will definitely not forgive the culprit. Please endure it for now until this calamity had passed”
“I swear that I will——–”
She was interrupted by a loud shout.
“KILL HER!”
Li Da Jun exclaimed.
Several carriers of [Order] acted at once, ambushing Ye Ru Xi who had her guard down.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
A 7-colored shield protected Ye Ru Xi.
At the same time, Ye Fei Li wielded the Forgetting River Soul Flaying Hook and blew a whistle.
FWEET——–
Instantly, everyone became frozen.
Sound-based technique, [Forgetting River Returning Souls]!
This was a Divine Skill that Ye Fei Li could perform through the Forgetting River Soul Flaying Hook!
A bright red flash flickered through the air.
Several screams resounded.
“Leave one alive!” Gu Qing Shan said.
“Don’t worry” Ye Fei Li appeared from the red flash.
He pinned Li Da Jun in front of Ye Ru Xi with one hand.
The other carriers of [Order] had already been killed.
One breath’s worth of time had passed.
Everyone returned to normal.
Ye Ru Xi was stunned and questioned in disbelief: “Major Li, why—- did you want to kill me?”
Li Da Jun was bloody all over, but he suddenly laughed: “You damned apostle of the Apocalypse, it was you who doomed everyone in this city”
He was both laughing and crying at the same time: “[Order] had told us, you are the seed of calamity, you will bring about an even more terrifying end compared to the Apocalypse, you must die!”
Ye Ru Xi froze.
Her complexion completely pale and muttered: “I don’t understand what you’re saying, I’ve always stood against the Apocalypse, I’ve always stood in the frontlines, why must I be killed? What is the reason!?”
Her voice was starting to sway, becoming a bit unpredictable.
“Don’t pretend, General, what that grey fog of yours had caused, are you saying you don’t remember?”
Ye Ru Xi kept her mouth shut and lowered her head.
Li Da Jun stared straight at her and spoke full of regret: “Ye Ru Xi, you are too powerful. If not to kill you, why would the alliance army have used a nuclear weapon?”
“Regretfully, you still managed to survive”
He turned to Ye Fei Li and Gu Qing Shan, as well as Zhang Ying Hao who was controlling the worms.
These three!
If I can go back in time, I would never have recruited them!
Damn it! Damn it all!
Gu Qing Shan caught a canned drink that Ye Fei Li tossed to him, popped it open, and gulped it down.
After regaining some strength, he stood up and told Ye Ru Xi: “There’s not much time, the radioactive fall out will soon reach the ground, and the monsters have still surrounded the city. We don’t have anywhere to escape right now, so we have to come up with a solution soon”
Ye Ru Xi just stood there, completely motionless as if her soul itself had been stripped from her body.
…
At another location.
The human world alliance’s HQ.
All of humanity’s elites were gathered here.
“The nuclear warhead was prematurely detonated, that seed of calamity survived” someone stated.
“I’ve also received confirmation from [Order], that is, unfortunately, the truth of what happened” someone else replied.
Silence.
No one said anything.
It wasn’t until a few moments later that someone tried asking:
“Then… should we continue with the follow-up plan?”
“Agreed”
“There’s no other way, this is the number one priority of [Order], agreed”
“Agreed”
“Right, if one doesn’t do it… we’ll fire a few more!”
“All votes ‘yes’, carry it out”
Three minutes later.
[Fox Squad, requesting permission to carry out the top-secret mission]
“Copy that. Permission granted. The gates of Terminal 3, 4, 5, 6, and 9 are engaging, please check your reserve fuel and ammo one last time”
[Report, everything ready]
“Copy that. In three seconds, you may begin to take off!”
“Three”
“Two”
“One”
“Lift off!”
With a resounding sonic boom, the entire fighter jet squad shot out from the base and headed towards the horizon.
