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Qiling Academy spanned a huge area, therefore it was situated in a more suburban part of the city, far from the city center. Incidentally, the invasion was close to the school. The money that the Federation spent on the school was very much worth it ever since the start of the special training and Xiang Ning’s rise. Although nothing dramatic could be seen in a short seven to eight months, the entire school had indeed experienced improvement in capabilities. The percentage of martial artists among the students had risen to eighty percent, with the remaining students close behind.
What did martial artists represent? In the human world, ranks were representative of one’s status, as well as their ability to protect others when faced with a threat.
In the eyes of the beasts, they were delicious meals. Seeing a human in the wilderness was like meeting a premium piece of beef steak, their scent enough to make the beasts drool.
With thousands of students studying at Qiling Academy, the concentrated scent of martial artists was like a paradise to the beasts. As long as they could invade the school, they would feast!
Within the conference room of the Thunder Dojo, Marsh City’s highest levels of management started making decisions and arrangements.
“Assemble three thousand of Marsh City’s reserves to guard the streets in the southwestern region. Evacuate the civilians in under one hour!”
“Inform the fortresses on the front lines to send us a third of their people!”
“Release a city-wide alert for all martial artists of tier two and above to gather at the Thunder Dojo!”
“The ten major schools will be listed as priority protected zones. Three hundred reserves will be sent to each school, two hundred to the schools in the western and southern zones. They shall collaborate with the special trainees to guard the school!”
...
Almost a hundred people hurried around the conference room, while Dojo Master Fang lightly massaged the center of his eyebrows. During his last stint in Tranquil City, he had fought one of the tier seven masters of the Seven Deadly Sins, sustaining a serious injury in order to capture him. In the end, he still slipped away. If he had to fight again, he wasn’t sure if he would return alive.
“Have you found the source of the beasts?” asked Fang Zhenyuan.
The vice city lord’s brows were knitted. “Yes.” He swiped and a projection appeared before them, displaying a three-dimensional hologram of Marsh City’s southwestern region.
There were four red lines, each of them representing a path that the beasts had taken after they arrived. The source was from a point in a more obscure part of Marsh City’s countryside, but even so, there were a hundred civilians living there and the entire place had been flattened.
With that red dot as the center, the lines extended into the city. To Fang Zhenyuan’s disbelief, they were traveling through the former mining tunnels. He was furious—those tunnels were supposed to have been sealed and destroyed after mining!
As for why they hadn’t been destroyed, the reasons were obvious.
More than two-thirds of the people in the room looked toward Fang Zhenyuan, while the Federal officers in charge of this matter were drenched in sweat. He huffed and fell back into his seat. Now that they had found the source, they must find a way to bomb the place! However, they were concerned that the beasts would merely dig alternative tunnels. The holes would just grow bigger and bigger.
“What if… we use.…” suggested the vice city lord. Based on the weapons they had in the city, detonating an explosive from afar was easy.
“No. Based on the depth of the underground cave, it will require more than ten units of explosives for it to collapse. With that scale, the shockwaves would be large enough to devastate the residential areas!” Fang Zhenyuan shut it down sternly.
“Sir, our investigations show that these beasts are led by a tier six Boulder Demon beast!”
“Tier six?!” Everyone who heard the report frowned. The tier four Octoviolet Silversnake had been enough to create mass destruction, though that’d been amplified by its berserk factor. This tier six beast meant that many tier four and five Beast Generals would appear alongside it!
Tracing that line of thought, Fang Zhenyuan’s worries grew. He immediately issued a command, “Reinforce the front lines with the remaining two-thirds of the reserves. It is imperative that they hold on until reinforcements arrive from the fortresses!”
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After the command, the conference room was silent, the air heavy. There really weren’t many martial artists currently in the city. The only truly powerful weapon on their side was Sect Master Fang himself, but what if the people from the Seven Deadly Sins appeared once again? He must guard the final line of defense, thus he mustn’t go into battle unless it was necessary.
Fang Zhenyuan’s reason for that was the secret hidden beneath that mountain in the suburbs. There lay the hidden Chaos, a level eight battleship. It must never fall into the hands of the Seven Deadly Sins!
......
On the other side, completely ignoring his own body’s condition, Xiang Ning ran to the shaded path. A small figure was running toward him, and into his arms when she saw him.
Fatty Wang, who was following behind, heaved a small sigh of relief as Su Muhan also arrived.
She looked at them and said, “Wang Zhe, meet the rest of the special trainees. You’ll all need to help the military reserves protect the school.”
Wang Zhe looked at Xiang Ning, then at Su Muhan, but Xiang Ning said, “Go with them. We’re very safe with Teacher here!”
“Sigh, you two come with me.” Su Muhan led the way.
They went to the nearest underground bunker. It was spacious, and Xiang Ning could tell that the walls were made of no ordinary material. It was strong enough to make a Hunter Mk.4 weapon, which meant that a tier four beast would only be able to break into the room after considerable effort. The bunker was a safe place with sufficient stock for a hundred people to live for ten days.
When the door was tightly closed, the dark room lit up with a warm glow. A hologram was projected into the room. Qi Jiuming appeared, comforting the school.
Xiang Ning held his sister in his arms, quietly watching Qi Jiuming’s announcement. Although he spoke in a very implicit manner without telling them the full truth, the students still felt anxious. It was just a sixth sense all living things had.
Xiang Ning felt it the strongest. With his Combat Instinct activated, he felt a threat from every direction. His physical body and mental power were extremely weak now. If he were at his peak, he would have run toward the feeling to fight, looking for punching bags.
But now, all he wanted to do was shut it off.