Chapter 1220: The Calm Before the Storm

“Hahahaha! Weren’t you three Ninth Grades acting all high and mighty? I won’t even fight back today! You’re welcome to try and slaughter a Peak!

“Oh? What’s wrong? Lost your nerve?

“When you killed Cang Ji earlier, weren’t you all exceptionally arrogant? Why so quiet now?

“Come on! Show me that same courage and kill me!

“Come! Who dares to step forward and take my head?

“Hahahaha! You’re just a bunch of cowards! Marshal Yuan Longhan’s ragtag soldiers are nothing but cowards!”

…

Fei Ningxiao’s manic laughter echoed endlessly. Like a madman, he alternated between muttering to himself and shouting total nonsense.

Unable to endure it any longer, Yan Chenyun unleashed another saber strike at Fei Ningxiao. However, his next move was intercepted by Wang Yetao. This time, they saw it perfectly clearly.

Yan Chenyun’s strike landed, carving a gaping wound into Fei Ningxiao’s head. The latter truly had not mounted any defenses. Instantly, large, viscous globs of blood dripped down, continually smashing against the First Shield.

The First Shield was the Divine Land’s strongest Absolute Defense. Activated by Nie Haijun and the Grandmasters of the Security Team, it successfully blocked the vast majority of the blood from seeping through.

Yet, even the most impenetrable defense has a flaw. A significant amount of blood mist inevitably permeated the barrier, eventually raining down onto the Second Shield.

Fei Ningxiao was a Peak existence, after all. The fact that the Absolute Defense could prevent his true descent was already a terrifying achievement; the shield was simply powerless against this seeping blood mist.

Yan Chenyun was at his wit’s end, trembling with pure rage. All the Grandmasters currently battling Fei Ningxiao were so infuriated that their faces turned ashen, and they could hardly breathe.

…

“Martial Uncle, is there really no other way?”

At the relocation site, Bai Ziqing asked Gu Feizi with deep concern while treating the wounded. Through various visual feeds, the relocation site had a clear view of the battle in the sky. Everyone present was smart enough to realize the dire crisis the Divine Land was facing.

“Alas, short of waiting for Marshal Yuan Longhan to return, there is nothing we can do.

“We are dealing with a Peak. Managing to stop him from destroying Dongdu City is already an incredible feat,” Gu Feizi said, shaking his head with a bitter expression.

Recently, the Divine Land had secured victory after victory. They seemed to have forgotten the taste of defeat and the terror of being dominated by alien races. In truth, war was always a coin flip between victory and defeat. There was no such thing as an invincible army in this world. This was especially true when facing a suicidal Peak who had come with the sole intent of mutual destruction. Sometimes, failure wasn’t something you wanted to endure, but you had no choice in the matter.

Su Yue bit his lip. He was also trying to come up with a solution, but right now, it seemed like a complete dead end. He was merely a weak Fourth Grade; he couldn’t offer any help whatsoever.

He actually wanted to charge into the gales and transport the researchers out of the Third Shield. But it was impossible. Su Yue wasn’t afraid of getting hurt; rather, he knew he couldn’t completely protect the wounded. Besides, with just his individual strength, how many could he really save?

Furthermore, Yan Chenyun would never agree to let him take such a risk. Zhao Zhuangyuan wouldn’t allow it either.

“Hey, look! The fierce winds inside the Second Shield have stopped!” someone suddenly shrieked.

Sure enough, astonishment instantly washed over everyone’s faces.

“Huh? They really stopped!” Su Yue’s pupils shrank as he muttered with a frown.

In a split second, the howling gales inside the Second Shield abruptly ceased. Fei Ningxiao stopped laughing. The hurricane no longer roared. This sudden development left everyone dumbfounded. In that instant, it was as if the entire world had been frozen on a piece of paper.

Those were hurricane-force winds! They had stopped without rhyme or reason. Even the construction debris that had been swept into the sky plummeted to the ground in a fraction of a second, completely still.

THUMP-THUMP!

THUMP-THUMP!

The world fell silent for a few breaths as everyone’s hearts pounded violently in their chests.

…

“Did… did we win?” At the relocation site, a wounded man who had recently escaped the Research Institute asked with a trembling voice.

“We might have won!” A Fifth-Grade Commander from the Zhenqin Corps nodded beside him. Looking at the situation, it seemed to be the only plausible explanation.

The gales had halted. The earthquakes had subsided. Even Fei Ningxiao’s hideous, giant face was frozen in the sky, looking terrifyingly ugly.

The wounded inside the Third Shield were already seizing the moment to rush outward. A few fleet-footed individuals with minor injuries were the first to exit the Second Shield, finally leaving the bounds of the Research Institute. Although the Martial Artists on the outside still couldn’t get in, they seemed to see the dawn of victory.

However, Su Yue frowned, staring dead at Fei Ningxiao’s massive head.

Something was wrong. Nothing about this situation felt right. For a moment, Su Yue’s vision blurred. Even though Fei Ningxiao’s head was still hanging in the sky, Su Yue felt as if he could no longer truly see him. It was an incredibly bizarre sensation, much like staring at a mirage.

…

“Fei Ningxiao, what the hell are you playing at now?” Wang Yetao cursed angrily, his expression freezing over.

The three Ninth Grades also sensed something eerie about Fei Ningxiao. Although the face still exuded the aura of a Peak, it truly gave off a lifeless feeling, as if it had lost its soul.

However, the three Ninth Grades still didn’t dare to rashly launch an attack to kill him. The fierce winds had finally died down; now was the critical time for the wounded to evacuate as quickly as possible. Not just within the Third Shield—even inside the Underground City, many injured personnel were taking advantage of this lull to be transported out. It was a golden, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

“I have a bad feeling about this!” Lightning crackled wildly beneath Mo Qizheng’s feet. His heart pounded fiercely, and his arms trembled involuntarily.

“General Zhao, did we win?”

Inside the Third Shield, a Sixth-Grade Major General asked Zhao Zhuangyuan. The other Major Generals also wore expressions of pleasant surprise. The fierce winds had abruptly stopped, and the earthquakes had ceased. In ten more minutes, all the wounded above ground could be fully evacuated.

However, Zhao Zhuangyuan tightly clenched his fists. Brows deeply furrowed, he didn’t say a word. Unbeknownst to anyone else, his forehead was already covered in bean-sized drops of sweat.

High up in the sky, Nie Haijun’s palms were also trembling slightly. He stared coldly at Fei Ningxiao’s giant face, his mind restless. Perhaps that animal Fei Ningxiao was brewing another sinister plot.

Beneath the First Shield, every member of the Security Team looked utterly dreadful. Wang Qidan’s Qi Blood had burned so rapidly that he was reduced to mere skin and bones, emaciated to the point of hardly looking human. This was the price of fighting a Peak. None of the experts could afford to relax.

…

At the relocation site, many Martial Artists had already begun to cheer. The Divine Land had won. That so-called Blood Boiling Race Peak didn’t seem so tough after all.

Just then, another batch of wounded was transported over.

“Su Yue, we won, right?” Wuteng Feng asked, looking at Su Yue with utmost seriousness as he forcefully suppressed his joy.

“No!” Su Yue’s face was even more ashen than before, looking as grim as a rusted iron weight. He shook his head with absolute certainty.

“That can’t be. If we didn’t win, why did Fei Ningxiao stop talking?” Wuteng Feng was taken aback by Su Yue’s response. Su Yue currently looked like a condemned prisoner being marched to the execution grounds.

He thought, “You’re a powerhouse who has killed a Grandmaster on the battlefield. How could you be scared into such a state? Kid, have some confidence. Don’t be such a downer.”

“This is… the calm before the storm!” Su Yue clenched his fists tightly.

In truth, he didn’t possess any superhuman perception, nor did he have the ability to foresee enemy movements. It was intuition. Everything was based purely on instinct.

Cang Ji, a newly ascended Peak, had been incredibly difficult to kill. Meanwhile, Fei Ningxiao was a terrifying Peak existence who had rampaged across the world for over a century. Could he really be defeated this easily? Based on Su Yue’s understanding of the alien races, the calmer this guy was right now, the more horrifying the conspiracy he was brewing.

…

RUMBLE!

Sure enough, just as Su Yue’s words faded—and before Wuteng Feng could ask anything else—the earth began to tremble once more. It happened without any warning, and the quakes were even more violent than before.

Many of the wounded who were preparing to leave the Research Institute stumbled unsteadily and instantly fell to the ground. Amidst the violent earthquake, they completely lost control of their bodies. This time, there were no sweeping gales, so they merely fell and were not in any life-threatening danger. Some of the wounded stubbornly picked themselves up; even if they had to crawl, they were determined to crawl out of the Second Shield.

RATTLE! CLATTER!

RATTLE! CLATTER!

The crushed rocks, shards of glass, and scraps of metal on the ground began to vibrate frantically, just like Huang Dou in a winnowing basket.

At some unknown point, a thread-thin, blood-red line drifted into the air. This silken thread wove back and forth, as fast as a laser. In the blink of an eye, countless pieces of building debris were linked together by the thread.

Then, a towering monolith—fully as tall as three grown men—slowly floated up and firmly planted itself in the center of the Research Institute’s grounds. The monolith was originally a mottled grey from the various debris, but it was now dyed completely in scarlet blood.

[AN ARMY OF LOSERS, A NATION OF COWARDS]

Shortly after, eight hideous, massive words materialized on the center of the monolith.