Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
Edited by Aelryinth
Although the black fog filled the air, making it impossible to see what was happening inside, Huang Juyun and the officers present could vaguely guess that the demonic creatures were probably transporting the exotic beasts’ corpses through the demonic gateways to the world they were originally from.
As for why they were transporting the exotic beasts’ corpses, no one knew. In any case, it wasn’t something good!
The video ended. The conference room was silent.
Huang Juyun took a deep breath, then gave the order, “After I return to Bei Du, you have to train hard to prepare for bad times. Although the demonic creatures that have entered Mercury are still rather weak, no one can say for sure what will happen in the future.
“Perhaps, this will be an even bigger threat than the beast swarm.
“As soldiers, we are burdened with the responsibility to protect the people. We mustn’t take it easy!”
Everyone stood up at the same time, replying resolutely, “Rest assured, General. We’ll train hard and be prepared for battle!”
Huang Juyun gave them a slight nod. He swept his gaze across everyone’s faces, then walked out of the conference room with long strides and headed straight to the airport in a vehicle.
Along with the sending of the video, there was also an urgent order from the army.
The Alliance government was very mindful of the situation of the exotic beasts’ corpses being taken away by demonic creatures. They had given orders to the various regions, requesting the military to quickly make a move and first launch probing attacks on locations where the demonic gateways were, and if possible, try to thoroughly destroy the demonic gateways.
None of the regions dared to be careless about this. Their respective militaries quickly convened meetings, and summoned the commanders of the various cities to investigate the plausibility of this operation collectively.
Huang Juyun’s return trip to Bei Du was exactly to attend the general military conference.
—–
Beneath the black fog that was hidden from the military’s satellite, the corpses of the exotic beasts were being transported to the black door.
Within the demon world, inside the tunnels scattered closely together across the skies, countless demonic creatures were transporting the exotic beasts’ corpses. They were lined up in neat rows, walking towards the gigantic mountain in the middle, placing those corpses at the foot of the mountain.
On the platform, the dozens of the strongest creatures were working together and laying down a strange and mysterious array.
Following the array’s completion, a demonic energy shrouded the mountain. Afterwards, the exotic beast corpses at the foot of the mountain melted one after another, turning into energy in its purest form. They were like countless tiny streams, pouring into the gigantic flower bud in the center of the platform.
Although the amount of energy produced from the melting of a single corpse was extremely low, when all of them were pooled together, they turned into a thick pillar of energy that directly enveloped the gigantic flower bud.
Seeing this, the dozens of terrifying creatures didn’t show any signs of happiness on their sinister, or demonic faces.
Those exotic beasts were too weak!
Even though the number of exotic beast corpses were extremely impressive, the level of energy was very low. Compared to the massive amount of energy the flower bud needed, it was truly insignificant.
The huge tree trunk-like beam of energy poured down, but the flower bud showed almost no reaction at all. It still seemed like it was barely hanging onto life.
The terrifyingly powerful creatures couldn’t help but shoot their gazes towards the closely dotted black tunnels suspended in the air. They very much wanted to combine their strengths together to smash through the spatial restriction in the tunnels, but they knew that it was almost impossible by just relying on their strengths alone.
However, not being able to send stronger fighters over meant that they wouldn’t be able to obtain the corpses of stronger exotic beasts. In turn, it would take an extremely long time for the flower bud to recover.
The powerful creatures looked up the purplish-red sky, their faces sunken like dead water.
—–
For the common citizens, the demonic world’s invasion was simply a nightmarish piece of news.
The once-a-decade beast swarm was frightening enough. Heavens knew how many people would die during every beast swarm, yet now, before the first wave had tided over, an even more ferocious beast had found its way to them.
Luckily, from the observations on the demonic gateways over the past two days, the government had spread information on their discovery to the common citizen.
The invading demonic creatures weren’t as terrifying as they had imagined. As of now, they couldn’t even break through the encirclement of the exotic beasts.
In their notice to the citizens, the army had also declared their intention to make a move against those demonic gateways. They hoped to thoroughly eradicate the invading demonic army, and try to destroy the black doors, preventing future troubles.
Of course, the people didn’t place too much hope on the latter part. Were things related to space and time so easily destroyed?
Let alone others, just consider the spatial gateways leading to the beast worlds scattered across the globe. Since when had a single one of them been destroyed?
In the early days, humanity on Mercury had tried all kinds of methods, including constructing a steel wall around the spatial gateways, or even detonating a nuclear warhead at them, etc. However, in the end, the spatial gateways remained undamaged. When the time came for the beast swarm, the exotic beasts from within still poured out from the gates ceaselessly.
The steel walls were like cardboard to the stronger exotic beasts, torn down without much effort. They weren’t of any use whatsoever.
As for the spatial gateway which had a nuclear warhead detonated atop it, countless exotic beasts swarmed out of it, too, and they weren’t affected by the leftover radiation, either.
Well, perhaps there was a certain effect on them, but if so, it was so miniscule that there weren’t any notable changes.
Since nuclear detonations weren’t able to destroy the spatial gateways, humanity had thoroughly forsaken the idea of using them to wash the lands. It would simply be drinking poison in an attempt to quench one’s thirst.
Even if it managed to repel one beast swarm, what about the next? After using nuclear warheads, the environment on Mercury would be greatly affected. If they were used too frequently, heavens knew what environmental changes there would be…
——-
In order to store the many ingredients they were about to buy, Zhang Che and Miss Tienan didn’t go directly to the ingredients trading hub. Instead, they first went to rent a large freezer warehouse.
Without fulfilling the required storage conditions, many ingredients would quickly deteriorate.
Although it cost over ten million dollars, the current Zhang Che didn’t mind at all.
When that amount was converted into purple crystal points, it was only at four digits. Compared to his astronomical wealth, it really was nothing.
After renting the space, the two drove to northern Bei Du.
This time, they didn’t buy common ingredients. The ones they looked for were all those ingredients that were extremely limited, yet had many uses.
Supply for those ingredients couldn’t meet the demand for them. If you only started looking for the ingredients when you needed them, they would probably be impossible to find on the market. As such, they were Zhang Che’s first objectives.
As for those common ingredients, there was no need to buy them. Who would go stockpiling something that could be bought at anytime?
The various high-grade ingredients were rare, and their prices were so high that they gave him a scare.
In only half a day’s time, Zhang Che spent close to ten million purple crystal points! That sum of money could buy them a few mid-tier legend-quality beast cards!
Even so, Zhang Che didn’t feel any pain at all, because the ingredients he bought were listed on the recipes for his legend-quality babies to rank up.
If they were needed for legend-quality beast cards to rank up, it was totally normal for those ingredients to be pricier. He already considered it good luck to be able to buy them.
——
As the two were engaged in a buying frenzy, militaries in the regions across the globe that were still in daylight had arranged for large amounts of fighter jets to start advancing to the nearest demonic gateways.
Although they said in their notice to the civilians to not worry, everyone knew exactly what kind of danger awaited them.
What kind of secrets were behind the demonic creatures’ transportation of the exotic beast corpses? No one knew. However, after discussion among the government higher-ups, they had a preliminary estimate.
First, the invading demonic creatures might need to consume the corpses of the exotic beasts to grow stronger.
If that was the case, there wasn’t much pressure to humanity on Mercury.
An increase in strength wasn’t something they could achieve overnight. Even the demonic creatures weren’t an exception to this law.
Second, perhaps the spatial tunnels opened by the demonic creatures were under some form of restriction, leaving the truly powerful ones unable to cross the spatial tunnel into Mercury.
After all, how could the demonic world, which had managed to open a spatial tunnel, not have any truly powerful creatures among them?
Facing such a situation, the demonic creatures transporting the exotic beasts’ corpses might be for the purpose of lifting the restrictions of the spatial tunnel, and in turn allowing their stronger creatures to enter Mercury.
If that was really the case, then it would be dangerous.
Once those unstoppable demonic creatures invaded Mercury, the result would be unimaginable.
It was precisely because of such guesses that the military had chosen to attack the locations where the demonic world was invading. Of course, it would be for the best if they successfully destroyed the spatial tunnels. If not, they had to slaughter the demonic creatures that were already in Mercury, stopping them from transporting ever more exotic beast corpses back.
——
At the endless ice plains several thousand kilometers north of Hua Xia…
A demonic gateway was located here. Due to the number of exotic beasts in this area being lower, the invading demonic army here had started to gain the upper hand in their battle against the exotic beasts. As a result, more exotic beast corpses were produced here.
If it wasn’t for some extremely powerful commander-class exotic beasts occupying the area, perhaps the demonic creatures would have broken through the encirclementand quickly invaded south, dealing a huge blow to the cities in northern Hua Xia.
It was currently close to dusk. Fortunately, the weather was pretty good. The skies were clear, and visibility was great.
High up in the sky, a spread of black dots suddenly emitted a wave of buzzing sound, flying from south to north at high speed.
As those black dots grew nearer, the buzzing sounds also grew louder.
This time, Hua Xia’s military had mobilized over a thousand fighter planes and formed an incredibly huge fleet, covering the sky.
Among them, a third of the fleet was comprised of the most advanced fighter jets, while the rest were bombers carrying large amounts of explosives, and were similarly the latest models.
The fighter jets were flying at Mach 4 speed. Setting off from a few important military bases in northern Hua Xia, it only took them about two hours to arrive at the skies above the ice plains.
The first to be drawn to the fleet of aircraft wasn’t the demonic army, however. Instead, it was all kinds of flying exotic beasts at the outskirts.
These exotic beasts stranded on Mercury were incredibly familiar with humanity’s aircraft. After sensing the threat, they actually flew high up into the air at the same time.
In the conference room in the military headquarters in Bei Du, everyone’s faces were unusually grave.
Fortunately, the military had long devised a solution for such situations.
Facing the ambush of those flying exotic beasts, the fleet of aircraft did not meet them head on. Instead, they rose their altitude and made use of their speed, which exceeded most flying beasts, to continue on their way.
From a certain perspective, the exotic beast remnants could now be considered allies of humanity. It was better if they avoided conflict with them.
As for the tiny fraction of flying beasts that were really fast, they were showered with concentrated rounds of missiles and retreated with ashen faces, no longer daring to chase them.
Exotic beasts were afraid of dying, too, especially the powerful high-tier exotic beasts. They were much more aware of pushing their advantage and keeping away from harm than the ordinary low-tier exotic beasts. Seeing they were in a bad spot, naturally they wouldn’t rush up stupidly.
Soon, the fleet of aircraft flew over the exotic beasts’ encirclement and arrived at the skies above the demonic gateway.
“Each formation is free to attack, watch out for your own safety!”
Following the command of the Major in charge of this operation, the fleet of aircraft suddenly spread out and formed smaller groups, launching a quick attack on the closely dotted demonic creatures below.
For a period of time, missiles came flying out of the bellies of the various aircraft models, dragging tails of flames behind them, and fell into the demonic army below at speeds several times faster than the speed of sound.
Loud rumblings rang out continuously from the explosions. Large masses of fiery light could be seen erupting as they detonated, and clouds in the shape of little mushrooms rose to the skies.
At the same time, the bombers that came flying to the skies above this area dropped units of bombs, targeting the areas that were shrouded in the layer of black fog.
Amid the concentrated explosion noises, countless demonic creatures were blown to bits, and some of them were directly burned to ash.
From that, they could tell that the demonic creatures weren’t very strong.
To put it in perspective, attacks like that were unable to hurt mid-tier legend-quality exotic beasts at all. However, a wide spread of demonic creatures had fallen to them. Obviously their strength was a little low.
If it wasn’t for their advantage in numbers, they really wouldn’t be able to withstand the attacks of the surrounding exotic beasts.
The demonic creatures’ response wasn’t slow, either. A fraction of them who were capable of flight quickly rose to the skies, wanting to strike down the aircraft that were causing such heavy casualties among them.
However, the aircraft came prepared. Some smaller squadrons immediately separated from the fleet and each took care of an area, launching miniature missiles.
Brilliant fireworks started blooming in the skies. The demonic army that came flying up quickly suffered heavy casualties, and was unable to break through this deadly net of steel and fire.
Following the explosions of the heavy missiles, the black fog in the central area below started scattering, revealing the enormous black door that stood a hundred meters in the air.
In Bei Du’s military conference room, everyone present widened their eyes, looking at the screen.
However, what depressed the high-ranking officers was that the black door wasn’t affected by the bombardment at all. Even though the missiles kept exploding against it, the black door remained undamaged.
Although they were expecting it, their hearts fell when they saw the reality.
The heavy bombardment lasted for over an hour, until all the missiles in the bombers were dropped. The fighter jets only kept a small portion of their missiles for defensive use before the attack finally stopped.
The demonic army’s gathering point below had truly turned into a Purgatory.
The smoke of war permeated the air. Incomplete corpses lay everywhere. Looking from the satellite images, at least half of the demonic army fell.
However, no one felt happy about such a pleasant result.
As long as the demonic gateway remained standing, demonic creatures would continue invading endlessly. Humanity would still have to bear the huge pressure of surviving.
The fleet of aircraft returned. The exotic beasts in the surroundings that had stopped their assaults started attacking towards the demonic gateway again.
——
The military’s attack results weren’t announced to the public.
That night, the army and government had called for a large-scale joint conference during the night. It didn’t matter if the base commanders were unable to make their way to Bei Du from their respective cities, because the conference was done through a video conference. Everyone could participate regardless.
The reason for the conference was to discuss how they were going to handle the demonic army’s endless invasion. It was obviously impossible to solely rely on the exotic beasts.
Although the situation now seemed like the exotic beasts held a huge advantage, they were alone on Mercury, with no reinforcements to replenish their numbers. The demonic army, however, could keep sending soldiers in through the spatial tunnels.
As time passed, the scale of victory would naturally tip towards the demonic army’s side.
Also, due to the unknown dangers posed by the demonic creatures’ transportation of exotic beast corpses, humanity couldn’t sit by and watch as they continued developing.
Heavens knew what changes there would be in the end, when the demonic creatures had obtained enough exotic beast corpses!
—
The conference lasted through the night. The contents discussed were unknown to the ordinary citizens.
After the meeting was adjourned, everyone’s complexion was ugly, no matter if they were from the military or the government.
After Huang Juyun left the meeting, first he went home and rested for a few hours. Afterwards, he immediately contacted Zhang Che and asked him to make a trip over to the Huang family’s ancestral home.
At present, Zhang Che was in his beast card shop, Premium House. Seeing a scene that was as busy as a market, he felt elated inside. Ever since he had brought a large amount of beast cards back, especially the twenty-some Nirvana Snake beast cards, the shop’s business had boomed.
He didn’t expect his father-in-law to give him a call at this time. From his tone, Zhang Che sensed that this matter wasn’t simple.
-Could it be that there are some unforeseen events in the demonic world’s invasion?-
Zhang Che hurriedly left the shop and got into his car, driving to the Huang family’s ancestral house to the east.
His father-in-law didn’t say anything specific during the call. He only told Zhang Che to quickly make his way over. However, the more it was like that, the more serious Zhang Che felt this matter was.
Indeed, when he arrived at the Huang family’s ancestral house, he saw the heavy expression on Huang Juyun’s face. The latter waved at him, telling him to sit down in the study, and directly said, “Xiaoche, prepare yourself for the next few days. I have a mission for you.”
Zhang Che’s expression turned serious. He didn’t ask what the mission was, and only nodded heavily.
Huang Juyun continued, “Yesterday afternoon, the military launched a quick strike operation. Although we obtained great results from it and eliminated large amounts of demonic creatures, the black door is like the spatial gateways leading to the beast worlds, and could not be destroyed.
“After the allied conference last night, and in order to prevent more demonic creatures from flooding into our world, we have decided to select a portion of powerful fighters from the army, and to enlist a portion of powerful beastmasters at mid-tier or higher and form an allied team to head towards the demonic gateways closest to us and suppress the invading demonic creatures.”
Zhang Che knew that he was part of the civilian enlistment. He nodded, not rejecting Huang Juyun.
Let alone that this was the combined decision of both the military and the government, and so being impossible to reject, this matter was directly related to the survival of humanity. As a powerful mid-tier beastmaster, this was truly his responsibility.
Seeing Zhang Che having no intention of refusing, Huang Juyun couldn’t help but sigh in relief. At the same time, he also grew worried.
If possible, Huang Juyun didn’t want for this kid with great potential to take part in such a mission, either. Danger wasn’t the main reason, however. Some places in the beast world was even more dangerous than this.
Most importantly, in the next few years, until the arrival of the fifth beast swarm, those who were involved in this mission would have very little time to go train themselves in the beast world.
Even if they took turns for time off, it would be very good if he had two or three months of leave in a year.
For the current Zhang Che, this would have too much of an effect on his growth.
There was no choice, however. Huang Juyun didn’t dare to act selfishly at this crucial moment concerning humanity’s survival, and let Zhang Che avoid the draft.
It was fine if Zhang Che had been only an ordinary mid-tier beastmaster. He could still have hidden his strength.
However, the key thing was that he had just left an extremely deep impression on the higher-ups just a few days ago during his victory in the arena deathmatch. How could he possibly hide from enlistment?
“As for your training, you don’t have to worry. At that time, I’ll fight my hardest to get more days off for you. Perhaps you’ll only have to go to the frontlines for a period of time before you can end this mission. After all, genius beastmasters like you can’t waste your precious time in those places. When a bigger crisis comes, you’ll only be able to display more use if you develop quickly.”
Although Zhang Che had agreed to this mission without any hesitation, Huang Juyun still consoled him.
The allied conference had too many implications. So, these matters weren’t fully considered.
When the situation at the demonic gateways was under control, neither the government nor the military would want to have genius beastmasters like Zhang Che waste their time there.
After all, if he was allowed to continue developing, Zhang Che would surely become a cornerstone among the beastmasters. No one was willing to see him stagnate here.
Well, probably with the exception of the Zhen family…
Zhang Che chuckled and said, “It’s fine, Uncle Huang. I want to see for myself what kind of existences are those demonic creatures, too. It can be considered preparing for the future. With this experience, I won’t be totally clueless in future fights against them.”
These were Zhang Che’s heartfelt words.
Earlier, Huang Juyun had told him about some matters related to the demonic world’s invasion. He had some knowledge regarding the demonic world’s forces, and knew that what they were seeing now was no more than an appetizer for what was to come.
In the future, stronger demonic warriors would surely invade their lands. To be able to gain some understanding of those invaders would be extremely helpful for future battles.
“Mhm, I’m glad you can understand,” Huang Juyun nodded, “Go back and rest for two days, and prepare yourself. You might have to leave for a very long period of time…”
