Chapter 555 - 349: Dormancy and Fall: The Inauguration of the Exotic Beast Era (Part 2)

Chapter 555: Chapter 349: Dormancy and Fall: The Inauguration of the Exotic Beast Era (Part 2)

In the Australian outback, large groups of "suicidal pilgrims" appeared on a highway, shouting that they wanted to "face divine judgment." They were promptly dragged into a chasm by a Tier Fourteen Earth Demon Abyss Demon.

On the banks of the Ganges River in India, hundreds of ascetics refused to enter the Underground Cities. They chanted in the black mist until a Tier Nineteen Void Soul-Devouring Leech appeared and sucked their brains dry, leaving only mummified corpses sitting with palms pressed together in prayer...

...

As the black mist shrouded the planet, countless Exotic Beasts plummeted from the sky all across Earth.

Their curled bodies ignited with eerie blue tail flames from atmospheric friction, a cluster of burning paratroopers making precise landings on every continent. The Statue of Liberty in New York was snapped in half at the waist by the tail fin of a Tier Twelve Eclipsed Moon Star Remains Beast. A Garuda Nether Phoenix circling over the Sahara Desert kicked up tornados of sand with its wings. And on the western edge of the Pacific Ocean—a two-hundred-kilometer-wide Earth Abyss Titan, wreathed in magma and tidal waves, was crashing down toward Japan’s Shikoku Island.

Shikoku Island was pulverized on contact, the shockwave spreading in a massive ring. On the coast of Kyushu Island, the Fukuoka Tower snapped like a matchstick, and the crust of the Kansai Region was blasted into the stratosphere. Seawater, flash-evaporating and condensing, formed thousand-meter-high murky waves. The outer walls of the Osaka Underground City shattered like an eggshell, and tens of thousands of residents who couldn’t evacuate in time were swept into the vortex along with rebar and concrete. The anti-air arrays deployed in the Seto Inland Sea barely caused a ripple on the giant beast’s hide before they were utterly destroyed by the magnitude 9.8 earthquake triggered when the creature burrowed into the planet’s mantle.

Over three hundred kilometers away, Mount Fuji roared like thunder. Deep inside the base within the mountain, Chiba Yuki, clad in white like a divine maiden, plunged the Celestial Cloud Sword into a lake of magma. The boiling silicate fluid followed the patterns on the blade, weaving a protective matrix.

"Mother, Lake Biwa has vanished from the radar!" Chiba Asatsuyu cried out, clutching a violently shaking instrument.

Chiba Yuki strode into the void, her Hunting Kimono whipping about in the surging Spiritual Power. She dispatched nineteen Shikigami: Aoi Monshou’s Demon-Slaying Pestle erupted with Buddhist light; Red Wisdom’s Karma Fire Folding Fan spun in the air; the White Hidden Master’s Nine Ice Crystal Fox Tails wove the Frost Heaven Barrier; Moon Night Viewing’s Glaive of the Glimmering Moon slashed across the heavens...

The Twin Gouyu flanked them, with Asatsuyu’s Red Kite Fire Wings and Yukigiri’s Abyssal Ice Gouyu shining in harmony. The three combined their strength to guide the Earth Veins, managing to protect an area of several dozen miles around Mount Fuji, with the Shelter at its heart.

By the time the mighty Earth Abyss Titan had completely burrowed into the planet’s crust, western Honshu had become a boiling, murky sea. The wreckage of Yokohama Harbor’s cruise ships and convenience store signs bobbed in a bloody foam, and the undersea chasm created by the beast’s descent continuously spewed sulfurous gases.

In Europe, a Female Beast with a wingspan of nearly a thousand kilometers appeared in the sky and dropped numerous young. This one was clearly more powerful. It vanished in mid-air and reappeared a second later, eight hundred meters underground, heading for the Earth Core.

The United States, Africa, Australia, the Middle East, Siberia... hundreds of thousands of Exotic Beasts descended on nearly every corner of the globe. These smaller beasts began to occupy mountains, forests, lakes, and humanity’s abandoned cities, building nests. Others plunged into the oceans.

As for the Female Beasts that had transported them, they all vanished deep underground, their whereabouts unknown.

Though tragic, it was far better than in the previous life.

In Li Xiang’s previous life, the Apocalypse had arrived without warning. People hadn’t moved into the Underground Cities; they were still on the surface. When they looked up and saw the sky filled with what looked like a meteor shower, many thought it was a spectacular, once-in-a-lifetime event. They flocked outside to watch, some taking photos and recording videos. The result was a tragedy. They met the first wave of Exotic Beasts head-on, with no shelters to protect them.

On the first day the darkness fell, the global population plummeted by seven to eight hundred million. Seven days later, the losses had mounted to nearly four billion.

The carnage was comparable to Shituo Ridge.

But the horrors of Shituo Ridge were confined to a 250-mile stretch, whereas this was happening in every populated region on the planet.

This time, however, everyone knew. They weren’t brilliant meteors; they were vicious Exotic Beasts. Everyone hid and lay low. And while there were still losses, the death toll was under one hundred million.

Of China’s seventy-two Underground Cities, one was unlucky enough to be destroyed by a casual swipe of a Female Beast’s claw. Another seven or eight satellite cities were also discovered and invaded by Exotic Beasts.

「Li Family Village Underground City, Main Sector」

Jiang Cai’Er, Yao Yao, Zhao Xueqing, Lei Xiaohui, and the rest of the Underground City’s top brass were all gathered in the central command room, their eyes fixed on the radar screens.

They had lost contact with the satellites, so there was no visual feed from the sky, but numerous high-power surface radars were painting a crystal-clear picture of the outside world.

When a Female Beast with a wingspan of two to three thousand kilometers appeared on the screen, everyone gasped. ’How can anything be that big?’

’Is that a spaceship? Even the city-sized ships in sci-fi movies aren’t that huge!’

Lei Xiaohui asked, "Should we attack?"

Yao Yao retorted, "Are you crazy? How are we supposed to fight in this situation? We follow Brother Xiang’s orders and lay low."

Zhao Xueqing added, "In other words, play it safe and focus on leveling up."

Yao Yao immediately perked up. "I’m an expert at that! When you’re losing, you have to play defensively and drag the game out. It’s the only way you get a chance to make a comeback."

Ultimately, however, the decision fell to Jiang Cai’Er.

All eyes turned to Jiang Cai’Er. With Li Xiang gone, she was in charge.

"We’ll lay low," Jiang Cai’Er said, her expression grave. She switched another feed to the main screen. It displayed a list of tens of thousands of names—all the member bases of the Anti-Exotic Beast Alliance, connected by a global network.