Doomsday Lord Ch. 20 | Rescue Operation

Chéng Yáng ran ahead of the group to make sure the gate was clear, then, one by one,the rest of the group trickled inside. Once they were all in, Chéng Yáng shut the gate.

A few seconds later, a deafening crash echoed in their ears as one Hell Pig after another slammed into it. It the gate were a normal one, the force behind those charges would have knocked it off its hinges. Thankfully, unless its Durability reached zero it would always stand firm.

A Hell Pig’s charge dealt seven damage, so although it was capable of breaking through the gate’s Armour, there would need to be hundred of them before Chéng Yáng had to worry about the Settlement’s defenses being breached.

Chéng Yáng walked up onto the wall, followed by the Mages and Rangers. They could see the Hell Pigs milling around, as well as a few other herds that had come over, attracted by the commotion.

As he farmed the monsters, Chéng Yáng lectured the group.

“Large monsters like those are especially dangerous because Knights will have a hard time blocking their attacks. Although the inertia from their weight doesn’t increase the damage of their attacks, the force behind them is still there. Even a single Hell Pig is akin to a disaster before reaching the High-Grade Apprentice level. Whenever you encounter monsters like that, make sure to run. Come back to the Settlement and rely on the walls. If you can’t get to the Settlement, do your best to find something to block their charge before it hits you.”

Everyone made sure to engrave that advice into their memories since this knowledge would be able to save their lives.

When they were on their way to Huìmín again, Chéng Yáng checked his Soul Fragment balance: 152. He couldn’t help but sigh. He was a long way off from unlocking eight times cultivation speed. Hunting in a group was just too inefficient.

Since they had already cleared most of the monsters between them and the city, the journey back to where they’d gotten before took less than five minutes. Then, they were able to enter the city proper.

When they did, everyone was stunned. The entire place smelt of blood and there were smashed corpses visible everywhere. Although Chéng Yáng had told the what to expect, actually seeing it was traumatic.

Some people with weaker mentalities collapsed to the ground and almost everyone puked. How could they, who had grown up in a sheltered environment be able to handle the shock of this scene.

Despite their shock, everyone did their best to stay quiet. They remembered what had happened when Liú Hào shouted and didn’t want to attract any monsters.

Chéng Yáng waited patiently for them to recover. He’d actually had a worse reaction than most of them when he’d first seen a similar scene in Xiāngyáng. It was natural for them to need some time to recover, and some of them might even have nightmares for the next few nights.

Perhaps they would have nightmares for the next few nights.

After a while Lǐ Wànshān walked over to Chéng Yáng on unsteady legs.

“Mr. Chéng, it can’t be that every city is like this now right?” It was clearly written on his face that he had been imagining his family as one of the incomplete corpses on the ground.

“I’m afraid it is.” Chéng Yáng gave the man a sad look, “Don’t give up hope, only a fifth of the population will have died by the end of the week. During that time, as long as you’re lucky its not too hard to survive. After that however, the casualty rate will increase exponentially. This first week is the most critical, if we can’t become strong enough to reach Xiāngyáng in time, then you can lose hope.”

Lǐ Wànshān pensively surveyed the desolate scene.

“I understand.” He said after a long pause.”Whatever you need me, no, us, to do, I’ll complete it to my best ability. As long as we can reach Xiāngyáng before the end of the week.”

Hearing that, the others that were worried about their families had similarly resolute looks. They did their best to quickly recover so that they could work towards saving the people they loved.

“Everyone spread out.” Chéng Yáng said when he thought they were ready. “In groups of two search the area near here for survivors. When you find some, bring them back to this spot. Once we have twenty, we’ll escort them back to the Settlement. Any more and we won’t be able to protect them. Also be on the lookout to backpacks, food, and things we can use to grill meat. No matter what, meet back here in fifteen minutes.”

The others nodded, then split off to search the ruins.

While moving, in order to avoid detection by wandering monsters, they stayed low to the ground, slowly advancing between crumbled walls. The groups separated, fanning out across the ruins; letting out a soft voice every now and then to attract any hidden survivors.

If they happened to run into a monster that was on its own, they wouldn’t hesitate to quickly kill it. Any two random Phoenix Village’s Citizens could easily take care of a single monster.

Thankfully there weren’t many monsters wandering around. Most of them had clumped up into obvious herds. So long as they were careful, there was no danger of attracting them.

---

“Yángzǐ! Look over there!” Liú Hào, who had partnered with Chéng Yáng, excitedly pointed at the remains of an apartment building thirty meters from them.

The rubble had created a complex pattern of caves, and a person’s face could be seen peaking out of one of them.

Chéng Yáng waved at the man to show that they’d seen him. The man excitedly waved back, then, with a worried look, pointed towards his left.

Looking over, Chéng Yáng found the source of the man’s distress. A lone Graveseeker was idly gnawing on a bone no more than twenty meters from where the man was hiding.

Chéng Yáng walked forwards, towards the monster, ignoring the panicked waving of the man in the ruins. With practiced ease, he and Liú Hào easily dispatched the creature in a matter of seconds, to the shock and surprise of the hiding man.

“Come out!” Chéng Yáng quietly but clearly said to the hiding man.

Despite his previous eagerness, the man hesitated. He’d just watched these two people easily dispatch something he considered to be a walking disaster. Not to mention that the way they did it was completely absurd, Chéng Yáng’s Magic Missile had left a deep impression on him.

“A-are you human?” He croaked.

“Are we human?!” Liú Hào immediately became angry. “You’re the one that’s not a human! Your whole family is inhuman!”

Although he was mad, Liú Hào had learned his lesson from last time, and kept his voice to a reasonable level.

“Thank you! Thank you for saving me!” Despite Liú Hào’s harsh words, the man didn’t get angry, but seeing that the duo seemed otherwise normal, was ecstatic that he’d really been saved.

“Don’t mention it.” Chéng Yáng waved off the gratitude. “It’s not like you’re safe now, there’s still monsters everywhere.”

The man immediately sobered up when he remembered he that he was still in a monster infested wasteland.

“How did you do all that?” He whispered in a low voice. “With the sword and that ball of light?”

“We’re just got some special abilities is all.” Chéng Yáng gave the man a mischievous smile. He had no intention of wasting time explaining the situation to every person they ran into. “Do you happen to know where any other people are hiding? We want to bring them to a safe location.”

“I do, I do! If you follow me I can lead you too them!” The man nodded excitedly when he heard that Chéng Yáng knew about somewhere safe, “There’s a lot of people hiding around here. I’ve been delivering food to the ones that are too injured, old, or young to find their own. That’s what I was doing when that monster trapped me in these ruins. My name is Zhào Chuān by the way.”

Chéng Yáng indicated for them to lead the way. As they walked, Chéng Yáng got to know that Zhào Chuān had been a middle school teacher before the apocalypse. Part of the reason he’d been going around delivering food was that he’d been worried about his former students.

With Zhào Chuān help, Chéng Yáng and Liú Hào were able to quickly gather another dozen people. Although many of them had seen or heard the arrival of the Phoenix Village group earlier, it wasn’t until Zhào Chuān visited that they dared to make themselves know.

After they witnessed the power Chéng Yáng and Liú Hào displayed, they were more than willing to believe that they could bring them somewhere safe and left their hiding spots.

Although they were only completing a short loop back to their starting point, Chéng Yáng found and rescued more than thirty people. Most of them had been hiding in the ruins, but a few had been either searching for food, or had come out when they saw a crowd. Chéng Yáng made sure to take notice of the former. Anyone with enough guts enough to brave the chance of encountering a monster was worth nurturing.

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