Chapter 235 - 233: River of Calamity and Pestilence

The Hei Race camp was in a complete uproar.

Although the Twelve Clans helped one another, they were all fiercely protective of their own territories. Resources were so scarce that losing even a small amount to plunder or destruction was a devastating calamity.

If a large number of people from another clan arrived, there were only two possibilities: either they were declaring war, or...

They had been wiped out.

In the open area at the foot of the slope in the Hei Race’s territory, countless Mo Race members were in tattered clothes, a ghastly sight. Some had worn their feet raw, blood and mud caked into bloody crusts, yet they still pushed on. Others, on their last breath, leaned on crutches.

The wounded who could no longer move had already been abandoned along the way.

Among the group of several hundred, there were also twenty to thirty people from Europe. With their deep-set eyes and assorted suits of Rune Armor, they were easy to spot.

This group looked to be in a horrendous state as well. Most were injured, and some were simply being carried on their companions’ shoulders.

The bizarre scene sent a chill down everyone’s spine.

Even Madman Huo Jun, who had come to greet them, had an expression as cold as frost.

One person from the Europe team could speak Yanhua. They were wearing a complete suit of "Rune Armor," but its surface was covered in dents and scrapes, and the runic patterns were dim and lifeless.

"Advisor Huo... It’s the Corpse Calamity... The Corpse Calamity has struck the Mo Race’s territory."

Huo Jun asked coldly, "What was the scale? Even you couldn’t hold it back?"

Although Europe was the weakest of the three major powers and had been in serious decline in recent years, they were still counted among Cyan Blue Star’s strongest nations.

As far as Huo Jun knew, Europe had only managed to take over one clan due to supply issues, but their advance team still had forty to fifty people, each on par with the Innate Realm. They also had numerous True Gang experts and were even led by a master at the Jade Viscera Realm.

They were well-armed, and every member was a capable fighter.

To put it bluntly, those fifty people could wipe out all Twelve Clans of the Noon Realm combined, yet here they were in this wretched state.

The person took off their helmet, revealing a middle-aged woman with terror in her eyes. "Scale? It’s endless! It’s a torrent of every dead thing from the Noon Realm’s past thousand years! Hundreds of millions of them!"

Xu Mo, Yang Shen, and the others had rushed to the scene. Xu Mo frowned. "Didn’t you detect it ahead of time?"

The advance teams had been in the Noon Realm for a while, focusing on gathering intelligence about the "Calamity Plague" and "Corpse Calamity" that caused the Noon Realm’s mass extinction.

But the Noon Realm People’s level of civilization was simply too low. Almost all information was passed down by word of mouth, supplemented at most by a few terrified written accounts. To this day, none of the elite scouts Yanhua had sent out had ever encountered it.

Without any intelligence advantage, even scouts traveling far out were only clearing a thin line through the fog of war. In terms of total area covered, it was a drop in the bucket, and the information wasn’t updated in real time.

The Europeans’ technological level was even lower than Yanhua’s.

Strands of hair clung to the middle-aged woman’s temples, and she was drenched in sweat. "No... Our comms equipment started failing frequently about a week ago. We couldn’t even find our lost team members... Some of our scouts never returned."

"The swirling sand obscured our vision. By the time we saw it with our own eyes, it was already just outside the Mo Race’s territory. We figured we were just getting grazed by the edge of that terrifying river, so we decided to defend our position."

At this, the middle-aged woman’s voice trembled.

"We misjudged. When faced with hundreds of millions of corpses, anything that stands in their way will be trampled flat."

"We fought for hours, but it was hopeless. You can’t kill them all... you just can’t kill them all!"

Huo Jun asked, "Why didn’t you request aid from Harmony Island? And if you were retreating, you should have gone toward the Gate of the Exotic Realm!"

The woman shook her head. "We couldn’t... The corpses cut off our route to the Gate of the Exotic Realm. It’s still advancing, relentlessly..."

The middle-aged woman’s head snapped up, her gaze sweeping over everyone. "You’re next. Their path of advance is heading right for you. They don’t tire. They won’t be much slower than we were. In two or three hours at most... no..."

"Given its direction, it may have already cut off your route to the Gate of the Exotic Realm!"

Huo Jun was silent for a moment, then suddenly barked, "Deng Ming!"

Deng Ming stepped forward from the rear. "Advisor Huo, your orders."

His personal power far exceeded Huo Jun’s, but at this moment, Huo Jun represented the military and the official chain of command; he was the experienced pillar they all relied on.

"I’m ordering you to lead a team immediately and scout the Corpse Calamity’s position and speed. Find out if it has already blocked our route to the Gate of the Exotic Realm. If you make contact, you are authorized to engage and test its strength."

"Understood!"

"Wang Jun, step forward!"

Another man stepped forward from the rear.

"Take a guide and head to the Yin Race encampment immediately. Report the situation. Do not return after you arrive. Continue on to the Shan Race and Stone Race territories, which are under Magna’s control. This will be a long and dangerous mission. Once it’s complete, you are authorized to operate under Magna’s command for the time being."

"Yes, sir!"

"Li Hai, step forward!"

"Your orders are to organize patrols. Set up a dispersed formation with a thirty-kilometer radius! Report back immediately with any sightings!"

Each of the men acknowledged their orders.

In that moment, the composure and authority Huo Jun displayed proved he was truly the soul of the advance team.

He had the bearing of a great general—calm and collected.

’Breaking Evil... The "Breaking" part means leading the charge!’

His "Madman" moniker from peacetime was simply a reflection of his love for military combat, a nostalgia for the days of old.

"Everyone else, check our defensive positions! Take stock of all supplies, both ours and the Hei Race’s. We have several hundred more people now. I want an accurate count of how many days we can hold out if we dig in."

With communications suppressed by the atmospheric conditions, all intelligence had to be gathered by men on foot, just like on some ancient battlefield.

But none of this was enough to make the Madman flinch!

After issuing all his commands, Huo Jun bared his teeth in a grim smile.

"Everyone! Condition One!"

——————

Dozens of kilometers away...

Amidst the desolate and arid mountains, the very sky, once veiled by sandstorms, had already transformed.

A somber, dreamlike, yet magnificent river of purple aurora snaked its way across the planet’s surface.

It seemed to be far beyond the atmosphere, yet also close enough to touch... Wherever it passed, the churning sandstorms were suppressed, the air growing still and heavy.

The River of Calamity and Pestilence... This was the name the Noon Realm People gave it a thousand years ago.

No one knew how it formed, nor did they understand its purpose.

It simply flowed on in silence, endlessly advancing through the world, unpredictable and unfathomable.

Wherever the River of Calamity and Pestilence passed, it polluted water sources and extinguished all life...

Trees and vegetation withered rapidly from the toxic water. Beasts and insects that drank from it or ate near it died, only for their corpses to rise again under the light of the River of Calamity and Pestilence.

Even skeletons buried deep underground for ages would be reanimated as mindless corpses, so long as they retained the structural potential for movement.

These undead husks followed the River’s aurora, embarking on an eternal, unending journey, undying and incorruptible.

According to ancient legend, when the River of Calamity and Pestilence first appeared, only a small number of undead followed in its wake, which the civilization of the Noon Realm could easily destroy. This, however, had no effect on the River itself, which continued its endless patrol of the planet’s surface...

It crossed continents and oceans, mountains and deserts, wandering aimlessly with its army of the dead.

It did not actively hunt humans, but wherever it passed, nothing could grow.

The first year... only tens of thousands of undead followed it.

The tenth year... tens of millions of undead formed an inexhaustible tide.

The fiftieth year... the Noon Realm’s civilization began its decline into extinction.

The one hundredth year... the planet itself began to wither completely...

And now... at this very moment.

On the boundless plain, a gray-black torrent moved slowly but inexorably forward...

Upon closer inspection... one would discover that the torrent was composed entirely of a boundless sea of corpses.

Humans... animals... bizarrely shaped creatures...

It was more than ten kilometers wide, its length stretching to the horizon... Within this torrent of the dead, the most ancient among them dated back a thousand years. Undying and tireless, they had already been marching in the wake of the River of Calamity and Pestilence for a millennium...

Still bound within the Corpse Calamity, they could not find a moment’s peace. Even though the world had long since become a barren, broken wasteland, their journey would never end...

Even the creatures of the sea could not escape. Unable to come ashore, the boundless undead simply piled up along the coastlines, forming a veritable sea of bones.

Though those coastlines were extremely remote, in regions the Cyan Blue Star People had yet to explore.

The Noon Realm People relied on groundwater to survive, which meant they were fated to stand and defend their homes rather than migrate.

In their thousand-year history of struggle, countless clans had been annihilated by the River of Calamity and Pestilence. Some were slaughtered by the Corpse Calamity, while others lost their homes and died of starvation and thirst in the barren wastelands.

The River of Calamity and Pestilence doesn’t hunt humans, but it never stops moving. Occasionally, it even splits into tributaries, causing the army of the dead to spread out...

And now, it had arrived in the land where the Gate of the Exotic Realm was located.

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