The Attack of the Wastrel

After the beast horde retreated, the Burnt City was only left with a mess and a pungent odour.

Rather than having been bitten to death by the beasts, the citizens were about to suffocate to death from the stench of the Corpse Disintegrating Liquid. Gu Lingzhi and Rong Yuan cooperated to start a huge fire, incinerating the pus surrounding the city and cleansed the area. Similarly, Le Yan also ordered his people to burn the pus and the air around Burnt City finally smelled much fresher. Although there was still the stench of rotten bodies, it was at least not as noxious as before.

Gu Lingzhi suggested, “Chancellor, these beasts seem to have ill intentions. Why don’t you send the civilians to the other cities to avoid the disaster, and call them back when the beast tide is over?”

“Absolutely not!” Le Yan immediately rejected her suggestion without considering it at all. Only after he rejected the suggestion did he suddenly realise that with his image of loving his citizens, he should have agreed to Gu Lingzhi’s suggestion. He laughed bitterly and tried to save his reputation, “Although the Burnt City has lost many of its residents this time, we still have a large population. It is inconvenient to arrange for such a large migration and furthermore, the other five cities also lack the space to accommodate us. It is better not to cause trouble for others.”

“Are you disregarding the lives of the citizens?” Rong Yuan felt that Le Yan’s pretentious attitude was ridiculous and spoke up suddenly, “At such a critical moment, I believe that no matter where the Chancellor decides to bring your citizens to, the people absolutely would not mind it at all.”

On the contrary, they may even be welcomed. However, they were all precious cannon fodder that had delivered themselves to his door. Le Yan did not want to throw them away for nothing.

Le Yan’s face stiffened, “Hehe, Elder Rong is right. Let me consider it for a while.”

Rong Yuan was about to speak, but he was stopped by a female’s low and lazy voice, “Hey, isn’t that the son-in-law of the Spirit City? Why did you suddenly come here? Or did you miss me and decide to come here to play around with me?”

Rong Yuan immediately retreated several steps in disgust, he swallowed all the words that he had been planning to say to Le Yan.

“Lady Le, please be respectful. I had come to help reinforce the Burnt City with my wife. However, if this were to result in Lady Le having a misunderstanding, it would be better if I just returned to the Spirit City instead.”

He was obviously threatening her that he would abandon the Burnt City if she were to continue spouting nonsense. Le Yao gritted her teeth in anger and glared hatefully at Gu Lingzhi. If it were not for this woman, how could Rong Yuan not be tempted by her?

“Elder Rong must be joking, how could you bear to see so many people facing a disaster and ignore them?”

Rong Yuan laughed, “That would have to depend on whether or not there are things that I loathe in the Burnt City.”

This time, Rong Yuan was very direct. Le Yao sucked in her breath. Towards Rong Yuan’s blatant disgust and contempt for her, she was angered for only a moment before she regained her normal behaviors. She played with her hair and giggled, “Going by what Elder Rong has said, you are the savior of all the citizens of the Burnt City, who would dare to show you anything that you loathe? I, Le Yao, would be the first one to get rid of whatever you dislike!”

Le Yao turned towards Le Yan, “Brother, the situation in the city’s southern area has already stabilized, I will have Jiu Le report the casualties later on. I won’t disrupt your discussion anymore and take my leave first.”

Le Yao turned and left gracefully without displaying any more attraction towards Rong Yuan. No wonder there were so many men who were deeply in love with her despite her going about to mess around. At certain times, she was quite decent.

Gu Lingzhi poked Rong Yuan’s waist thoughtfully and considerately said, “If you regret your decision, then quickly go and chase after her. Don’t be reluctant and end up suffering because of that.”

Rong Yuan laughed and ruffled her hair, “I don’t regret anything. Other than you, is there any other woman in the universe that can make me regret anything?”

Gu Lingzhi stared at him innocently and adjusted her hair before she opened her mouth to mention a person, “Consort Rong.”

Rong Yuan was speechless and completely unable to refute her.

Le Yan did not know that Consort Rong was Rong Yuan’s mother and had assumed her to be a close confidante from the outside world. Secretly, he was thinking that Rong Yuan only appeared to be very emotionally dedicated on the outside, but he could actually be swayed. If he did not like women like Le Yao, perhaps Le Yan could pick several outstanding women under him to try and sway Rong Yuan’s heart. The Burnt City would benefit by gaining a strong helper such as him.

Gu Lingzhi and Rong Yuan were unaware of Le Yan’s inner thoughts and they returned to the residence that had been specially prepared for them.

From their accommodations, it can be seen that Le Yan was much more generous than Lin Chongyuan in this aspect. The residence that had been prepared for them, was a mansion located a distance away from the Chancellor’s Manor. It was much larger than the Sanhe Courtyard that they had stayed in in the Spirit City and even had over ten servants. There was a flower garden and a water pavilion within the mansion, while the backyard even contained a pond full of koi fish. Several lotus flowers were blooming in the pond, creating a truly picturesque scene.

Gu Lingzhi and Rong Yuan were extremely comfortable here. After eating the sumptuous dinner provided by the servants, they retreated into their bedroom to train.

Pan Wen, who was completely useless, was once again thrown out. The moment they entered the Inheritance Space, dozens of eyes stared at them curiously.

“Lingzhi, what is the situation like in Burnt City now? Was it really as dangerous as was described in the letter? Were there really a lot of beasts? Don’t they all do their own things independently? Why would they unite and attack a city?”

All of a sudden, Gu Lingzhi was faced with a torrent of questions. Nonetheless, Gu Lingzhi patiently addressed each one. “The Burnt City is a mess right now. The streets are littered with corpses, and it was nearly overrun by the beasts. Unfortunately, there were so many beasts that we could not even estimate the total. Who knows how they managed to coordinate their movements to target us all at once? Still, I suppose if we can find the leader of the pack and catch it, we will be able to figure some things out.”

“What! Burnt City nearly fell?” One young cultivator exclaimed. “How many beasts would there have to be to do that? Could it be that the entire horde of beasts from the Lost Lands started moving?” This made sense, because there was no way a small number of beasts would be able to do this much damage to the more powerful human race.

Gu Lingzhi could only sigh as she said, “Who knows?” Even if this was not all the beasts in the Lost Lands, it was probably a large majority of them.

After sharing more news from the outside world to satisfy the children’s curiosity, Gu Lingzhi began her daily lessons. Anyone who had issues with their cultivation or did not understand something could seek Gu Lingzhi or Rong Yuan for help. Besides the two, they could also look for Bian Cheng.

It was already midnight when Gu Lingzhi was finally done coaching her students. Seeing her, Lu Heng finally asked the question that he was worrying about the entire day. “Seventh Brother, Eighth Sister, do you think… I mean, will the beasts head for the Forgotten City?”

Seeing his worried expression however, Gu Lingzhi could not give any reassurance. Even if there was no evidence to show that the present beast horde was related to the Female Worm from two years ago, she and Rong Yuan were fairly certain that the two events were related. Otherwise, why would it be so coincidental? Just as she and Rong Yuan were starting to feel concerned that the Female Worm had been too quiet, this happened. If one were to say that the Female Worm was not involved, she absolutely would not believe it.

Being unable to get any assurance from Gu Lingzhi, the members of the Langya Troop found themselves unable to sit still. Lu Heng, Xing Mei’er, and Wang Kuan each expressed their desire to leave the Inheritance Space so that they could go take a look for themselves. Nonetheless, Rong Yuan questioned them, “What are you planning to achieve? With just the few of you, can you do anything to the horde of beasts?” All they would achieve there was to increase the total death count.

Seeing the expressions on their faces, Rong Yuan slowly added, “Well, in the worst case scenario, Lingzhi can just bring them all into the Inheritance Space for a while.”

“That’s not good, isn’t it? The Langya Troop has so many people…” Wang Kuan hesitated. As the acting captain of the Langya Troop, Wang Kuan had a broader view on many issues.

“What’s not good about it?” Lu Heng interrupted before Rong Yuan could even reply. “Anyway, we’re all brothers, so what’s the big deal, right?”

Rong Yuan could only smile dryly, saying, “As Second Brother said, we’re all brothers, so there’s no need to hold back. Anyway, it’s not like we’ll be keeping them here forever, just until the crisis is over. It shouldn’t be too big an issue.”

Even as the people within the Inheritance Space were pondering the issue, outside the Inheritance Space, the events were still unfolding. The next day, after a brief respite, the beast horde once again resumed its attack on Burnt City.

Outside the city walls, most of the corpses were cleared up with the Corpse Disintegrating Liquid, while the rest were burnt, leaving only piles of ashes disappearing with the wind. The battlefield had reverted to how it was when it first started a few days ago, making it somewhat easier for the defenders. At the very least, they were able to spare more people to deal with the flying beasts that entered the city.

With the previous experience and Rong Yuan’s advice, the defenders learnt to clear the corpses once they piled up using the Corpse Disintegrating Liquid and fire. Not only did this help to clear the battlefield, it also affected the attacking beasts.

Standing atop the city walls, Le Yan looked down at the battlefield, pleased.

It was time for them to turn the battle around, now that they could keep the beasts outside the city while slowly depleting the enemy’s numbers. If they succeeded in stopping the beast tide with just a single city, they would be able to trample all over the Lost Land’s reputation.

“Brother, look! What’s that?” Le Yao pointed out suddenly.

What else could it be though? It was just beasts everywhere, wasn’t it? Le Yan did not think much of Le Yao’s panic, but nonetheless looked towards where she pointed. Yet, he was immediately stunned when he saw it, and only reacted after a few seconds had gone by. “Quick! Call the Little Chancellor and her husband here!”

One of the guards who was also shocked by the scene immediately responded, rushing off to make his report.

Seeing the humongous flying creature that was rapidly closing in on the city, Le Yan felt his throat turn dry.

He never expected that the common Insect Beasts in the Lost Lands could actually grow as big as the size of a small hill. Now, this “hill” was flying straight towards the Burnt City and would be right in front of the city gates in a few moments.