As for the people outside the city, the soldiers naturally treated everyone equally.
Soon, bursts of gunfire struck the ground at their feet. This was the first warning. The second time, they would shoot for real.
“Centipedes… Centipedes… There are so many giant centipedes! They’re coming! Open the gate, quick!”
The bullets failed to stop Fang Jin from pounding on the gate. His fear of the centipedes had surpassed his fear of bullets.
The soldiers above hesitated when they heard this. They did not fire a second time. Instead, one of them quickly got up and went to report to his superior.
They had received orders that there might be an enemy attack today. J City could very well be hit by a zombie horde, and they had been ordered to remain on combat alert at all times.
So when Fang Jin said those words, they did not choose to ignore him. Instead, they began reporting the situation up the chain of command.
Before long, an officer came over to speak with them and asked about the situation ahead.
Fang Jin had learned his lesson this time. He only said that there were monsters ahead, charging toward J City. He refused to say anything more, insisting that he would only explain the details after they let him into the city.
There was no way the officer would agree. In fact, he did not have the authority to make that decision himself. The order to seal the city had come from above.
Since Fang Jin refused to say anything, there was nothing the officer could do. He could only make preparations to meet the attack while waiting for orders from his superiors.
When the officer ignored him, Fang Jin finally snapped.
He turned around, got back into his car, and rammed it hard into the sealed city gate.
The orders from above had not yet arrived, and the officer did not dare shoot Fang Jin immediately. He was worried that his superiors might demand that the informant be brought in for questioning. If the man were dead by then, he would have no way to explain himself.
But one informant was enough.
So the bullets mercilessly pierced the heads of Fang Jin’s two companions.
As the two men collapsed, Fang Jin finally regained some clarity. His reason returned, and he dropped to his knees at the city gate, desperately begging them to let him in.
He was filled with regret.
If he had never gotten involved with that female ability user back then, he would never have gotten into a conflict with others and lost his right to enter the city.
If he had treated Lin Wenxue well back then, then even if he had been driven out of the city, perhaps the people who had taken Lin Wenxue in would have taken him in as well.
But what was the use of thinking about all that now?
There was no longer any movement atop the city wall. No one paid any attention to Fang Jin kneeling below.
Because—
In the distance, as far as the eye could see, clouds of dust were rolling through the air.
More than a dozen enormous centipedes, each one like some colossal creature, slithered toward the city gate…
Elsewhere, at Cai Yuanhan’s residence.
With someone leading the way, Yuan Long hurried into a private room. Only after seeing that Yuan Shaohua was safe and sound did he finally let out a heavy sigh of relief.
It was an ordinary room, though quite comfortably furnished. It seemed Cai Yuanhan had not made his son suffer.
“Dad!”
When Yuan Shaohua saw Yuan Long, he was overwhelmed with surprise and immediately rushed over and threw his arms around his father.
“Xiaohua…” Yuan Long held his delighted son, his expression complicated.
“Dad, those bastards actually dared to lock me up! Hurry and arrest them all! Have them dealt with under military law!”
Once his initial excitement passed, Yuan Shaohua let go of his father. The first thing he did was complain about what had happened to him.
Yuan Long looked at his son standing before him, his expression bitter and complicated. The boundless indulgence and pampering he had once shown his son were completely gone.
Perhaps he really had been wrong.
He should never have indulged his son without limits. That was how he had raised him into the arrogant, naive young man he was now, someone who had no idea how high the sky was or how dangerous the world could be.
But what use was regret now?
He could only hope that when he eventually met his wife again, she would not blame him for raising their son badly.
“Dad? What’s wrong?”
Yuan Shaohua had never seen his father look like this before. Seeing how terrible his father’s expression was, he was frightened as well.
“Nothing. Dad’s fine. But there are some things Dad needs to tell you. You have to remember what I say.”
In the end, Yuan Long could not bring himself to scold his son. He straightened his expression and spoke to him with extreme seriousness.
At that moment, Yuan Shaohua finally realized that he had gotten all the people his father had given him killed or lost.
Was his father going to blame him for it?
“Son, you’ve grown up. From now on, you have to learn to take care of yourself. Don’t be so willful anymore. Something has happened in J City, and Dad has to stay here to deal with it. I’m entrusting you to an uncle surnamed Cai. You’ll leave with him. He’ll protect you.
“But on the way, you can’t be willful anymore, because Dad won’t be by your side. This time, Dad can’t send ability users to protect you either. Do you understand?”
Yuan Long’s face was full of reluctance and solemn affection.
There was no scolding!
Yuan Shaohua stared at him blankly.
But something about those words felt strange. They sounded like a farewell.
Yet they had only just reunited. After going through so much hardship, he had finally managed to return to his father’s side. What was happening?
Why was his father trying to send him away again?
So Yuan Shaohua began making a scene as he always did. A man in his twenties now acted like a little child, whining and throwing a tantrum in front of his father.
Yuan Shaohua still had no real understanding of what was happening. He simply instinctively used the same methods he had always used, trying to force his father into giving in.
He didn’t want to leave again.
The outside world was terrifying. The people outside were terrifying too.
And his father had even said that this time, there would be no one to protect him…
Only this time, Yuan Shaohua did not get his way.
Yuan Long coldly pushed him away, firmly handed him over to the people who had previously detained him, and immediately left.
This time, no matter how much Yuan Shaohua cried, threw a fit, or begged, it was useless.
The crisis in J City had now been confirmed.
There were numerous strange phenomena outside the city. J City was about to face an enormous crisis. They might overcome it, or the city might be destroyed in an instant.
Yuan Long had only two choices: fight or flee.
So when Yuan Long went to Cai Yuanhan earlier that day to discuss joining forces to defend J City, Cai Yuanhan did not hide his own plans from him.
Cai Yuanhan was willing to hand over part of the combat force under his command to Yuan Long, and he was also willing to return his son to him.
The condition was that he wanted to leave.
And he wanted to take the entire ability-user defense force with him.
Yuan Long would have to provide protection for their departure.
Two hours had passed since Chu Tian left—two hours, which was enough time for them to investigate whether the disaster was real.
After assessing the entire situation, Cai Yuanhan, the current highest authority in the base and the person who should have been the city’s most steadfast protector, made the same decision as Chu Tian:
Go to the northern city.
If they could hold it, they would hold it.
If they couldn’t, they would find an opportunity to open a breach and escape.
He had more than a hundred ability users under his command. He had no worries about being unable to rebuild his forces somewhere else.
Yuan Long held Cai Yuanhan’s decision in contempt.
As a soldier, there was absolutely no way he could flee in the face of battle.
He might have failed in life because of his son, but he firmly believed that he was still a qualified soldier.
He would not run.
He had decided to defend this place!
Of course, Yuan Long had one condition of his own.
Cai Yuanhan had to take Yuan Shaohua with him and do everything in his power to keep him safe.
In the end, Yuan Long still allowed his personal feelings to influence him. He used his son as part of the deal and entrusted him to Cai Yuanhan.
It was a transaction, and Cai Yuanhan naturally agreed.
Besides, if Yuan Shaohua were with them, Yuan Long would work even harder to draw the enemy’s fire in order to ensure his son’s safety, wouldn’t he?
And so, a decision concerning the survival or death of an entire city and its one million inhabitants was born from such a transaction.
Northern City Wall.
Chu Tian and the others were in the midst of a fierce battle.
Everyone had gotten somewhat carried away with the killing. After all, one-sided slaughter really could stir up excitement in those doing the killing.
But gradually, everyone noticed something strange.
The seemingly endless swarm of rats had actually begun to retreat.
They started pulling back, spreading out toward both the left and right as they withdrew.
“What’s going on? Are they scared?” Zuo Li asked in confusion.
With the rats leaving, everyone’s attacks gradually stopped as well.
Taking advantage of the lull, some people began using the purification cores Li Nan had distributed before the battle to replenish their abilities.
Pei Qianxing, who had never seen anything like this before, watched everyone curiously.
“They really are scared.”
Chu Tian looked toward the direction the rats were retreating and gave a bitter smile.
“But they aren’t afraid of us! At least, probably not. Something even more terrifying must have arrived!”
Everyone had originally been relieved, but after hearing Chu Tian’s words, they became tense again.
“Something even more terrifying? What could it be?” Zuo Li was somewhat uneasy.
The giant rats were already incredibly powerful. If they hadn’t had the advantage of their position, encountering such an enormous swarm on the ground would have left them chewed to pieces long ago.
So what could possibly be more terrifying than this swarm of rats?
Chu Tian shook his head.
The mental awareness he had extended outward had actually encountered a mental barrier ahead.
He did not know what that barrier was, but he could sense an enormous threat behind it.
Animals had sharper senses than humans. Perhaps the rat swarm had sensed the same threat—or an even greater one—and that was why they had hurriedly scattered.
“Whatever it is, we can only fight to the death, can’t we?”
Chu Tian’s expression was emotionless.
“It’s even more dangerous outside the city now. We can only hold this place firmly. As long as we keep them outside the city, we’ll have a chance of survival.”
Quan Xiaoyu noticed the confused, enlightened, and slightly envious expression on Pei Qianxing’s face as he watched everyone.
After thinking for a moment, he walked over, handed Pei Qianxing several cores, and carefully explained how to use them.
Once he finished, he did not even wait to see whether Pei Qianxing had remembered everything before immediately returning to Chu Tian’s side.
Pei Qianxing accepted the cores with a look of astonishment.
Although he had roughly figured out what they were used for by watching everyone earlier, and had also more or less realized that this was the secret behind Xiao Ziran’s rapid recovery, he had never expected that the cold, expressionless young man would actually give him some too—and even explain in detail how to use them.
Wasn’t something this precious supposed to be a secret of their team?
What exactly was that young man’s position within the group?
Before this, Pei Qianxing had barely noticed him and had simply assumed he was an ability user who depended on Chu Tian.
Yet something this valuable was simply handed over without hesitation, and the method of using it was explained just as readily?
Pei Qianxing was utterly astonished.
After returning to Chu Tian’s side, Quan Xiaoyu deliberately glanced at him.
Chu Tian immediately understood what he meant. He reached out, patted Quan Xiaoyu on the head, and said with a smile, “You did the right thing! We’re all comrades fighting side by side now. We should share it with him. One more person fighting means everyone has one more chance of survival.”
Only then did Quan Xiaoyu smile at Chu Tian and nod.
Sometimes, he really could not tell whether what he was doing was right or wrong.
In the past, he could only do what he thought was necessary, wait for the result, and only then find out whether he had been right or wrong.
Now, whenever he was uncertain, he could ask Chu Tian.
Chu Tian always gave him a definite answer.
Whether it was right or wrong, Chu Tian always had a sufficiently reasonable explanation.