Dark clouds stretched across the neverending skies, covering everything between heaven and the earth. It was almost 7 a.m but there was still no sign of sunlight.
"Just a little bit more! Everyone stay together, we're almost there!" Kuo shouted from the front. There were four other Mad Saint members with him, paving the way for the civilians.
Every now and then there would be a few beasts, jumping out from the nearby forests and attacking the caravan.
All the Mad Saints members were on foot while their contracted beasts formed a straight line, pulling carts full of people behind them. This was how they had traveled for the last 9 hours or so.
Hundreds of civilian lives had been lost when they crossed a newly formed river. It looked relatively harmless at first, but halfway through, thousands of water beasts jumped out and attacked them in waves.
Over two hundred guards and thirty Mad Saints had lost their lives as well, protecting the civilians from these creatures.
The most notable contribution was by an original member of the Mad Saints, Qin Feng (Ch 45). He led a platoon of over fifty people and engaged these water beasts while the civilians crossed safely.
Unfortunately, he was dragged off into the water by a high-level beast, along with many others. Due to the dire circumstances, Kuo decided not to pursue the creature as the Civilians safety came first.
It took them another hour before the Grade-Two city, Livia was in sight.
The old men led by Charles also reached the caravan around this time and did everything they could to help.
The closer they got to the city, the stronger the beasts became. The caravan had to stop on the outskirts because of the large numbers of Demonic beasts.
Maddy was tasked with contacting the city lord and asking for help. He alone fought his way through the multitude of demonic beasts and reached the city.
Upon meeting the city lord, he told him about the caravan and the City Lord himself led an army of over Fifty thousand guards to clear the way for them.
There was no further loss of life and remaining civilians safely entered Livia with the City Lord's help.
There were three profound realm cultivators in this city including the lord himself. One of them was a rogue cultivator who was passing by and decided to help hold back the beast wave, and the other was the head of a local family.
"I understand that but this cannot wait! He stayed there alone to make sure the trap worked. Right now there is no one else left to help him," Kuo stood in a large hall, talking to a middle-aged man seated in front of him. He had short brown hair and a scholarly disposition. But his eyes were very sharp and made people turn away upon meeting his gaze.
"He is a soldier of Mei, it is his duty to protect the kingdom and its civilians by any means necessary. What he did was very noble, but there is nothing I can do right now. The beasts from that horde will join others and so and so forth, until a new horde is formed. I can not leave the Livia unguarded for one man," the man replied resolutely.
"City lord you cannot do this!" Kuo contested.
"I can and I will. Captain Deimos is a great soldier, but I cannot trade the lives of my men for his," the man shook his head. This was the city lord of Livia, 'Kyran'.
On the side of the hall were two chairs where an old man of about 70 years of age, and a young man in his twenties were sitting. These two were the other profound realm cultivators in Livia.
"Child, the situation is not good. We are under attack by unknown forces on several fronts. They might even be in Livia already," the old man with his eyes closed said gently. He only opened his eyes once and glanced towards the young man when he mentioned the enemies might already be here.
The young man smiled nonchalantly and took a bite out of an apple, choosing not to respond.
"What lord Svante speaks is the truth. There are many things going on that we cannot tell you about. The discussion is over, captain Deimos will have to rely on himself to get to safety," Kyran said in a deep voice before getting up and walking out of the hall.
The old man called Svante also got up and patted Kuo on the shoulder while walking out.
Kuo stood rooted to the ground, not willing to accept their decision. As he was thinking of ways to go help Hao Xuan, the young man came up to him and smiled.
****
The place where Galena once used to be had completely changed. Right now there was a crater there, about 300 meters deep. It was filled to the brim with blood and water, and from above looked like a blood-red lake.
This was the aftermath of the explosion. There was absolutely nothing left of the city, nor the beast horde that attacked it.
This was the reason Hao Xuan had stayed back and fought for so long. From the beginning, he had tampered with the city formation and planted thousands of beast cores all across Galena. These cores were connected to the formation and once it was completely broken, they would explode, forming a chain reaction.
The beast cores were the very essence of a beasts cultivation. They held the purest form of Qi and could be used in a multitude of ways, case in point.
All the Qi from the thousands of beast cores that had exploded and the hundreds of thousands from the beasts that had died in the explosion itself was now mixed into this lake of blood.
If left to its own devices, it could easily become a sanctuary for all kinds of creatures to flourish.
