The Attack of the Wastrel

It was time for the migration.

Counting just the permanent population of the Forgotten City, there were already about three hundred thousand people. In addition, there were those that stayed near the city. Gu Lingzhi could not just leave them behind to fend for themselves cold-heartedly. They were all going to be part of this big migration. When they received the confirmed numbers of the people that were going to migrate with them to the Spirit City, there were about five hundred thousand. Gu Lingzhi rejoiced that at least the Spirit City was big.

In order to prevent them from getting found by beasts during their trip, Guan Yue specially mobilised all the Expedition Troops of the Forgotten City. He stationed them all around the group to monitor for any beast movements. After knowing that the beasts had already destroyed the Crescent Moon City and was heading to Wasteland City, everyone let out a sigh of relief although they knew they should not be feeling so. However, they did not let down their guard. Gu Lingzhi and Rong Yuan had a discussion. They could not bear to let the Wasteland City fall into the same fate as the Crescent Moon City and decided that Rong Yuan was going to continue to lead the group to the Spirit City while Gu Lingzhi would make a detour to Wasteland City. She would ask if they were willing to follow their group. They would be welcomed to join if they wanted. If Gu Lingzhi made the journey quickly, the entire trip would take about four to five days.

Two days later, Gu Lingzhi managed to rush to the Wasteland City before the beasts got there. After explaining why she was there to the Chancellor of Wasteland City, the Chancellor fell into silence for a while before rejecting Gu Lingzhi’s offer.

“I have heard from others about the Giant Insect Beasts and have thought of a way to deal with it. For the moment, we do not need to head to the Spirit City to hide. I am thankful for your kind intentions Little Chancellor, when we really need help, I will contact you.”

Gu Lingzhi did not force him any longer. She had already expressed her good intentions and there was nothing she could do if Yuan Sheng did not want to accept her good intentions. She already did her part by making a detour over. In addition, going with them may not be any better than staying in the city.

In an ideal journey, the group would not meet any beasts as they made their way to the Spirit City and would safely reach the city.

However, if the beasts were to discover their tracks and attacked them, the result would be obvious… Hence, it was difficult to decide whether staying or leaving the city was the better option.

After confirming that the people of the Wasteland City did not want to go, Gu Lingzhi imparted some knowledge on how to deal with the beast attacks that she got from the Burnt City. She then gave them half a bottle of Corpse Disintegration Liquid and taught them how to use it before leaving.

On Rong Yuan’s side, as everyone from the Lost Lands were Warriors, other than the old and sick, they could all deal with beasts. Rong Yuan then split the group into two. Those that were pregnant, old as well as the children were protected in the middle of the group and were carried by a Dragon Horse carriage. All the other young and sturdy men with martial skills would run along the group, reducing the time needed to reach the Spirit City.

About every few tens of meters, there would be a Gold Class Warrior. Not only were they in-charge of safety, they were also in-charge of maintaining order. After all, the group was extremely big and it would be impossible for Rong Yuan to handle everything himself.

As the group of five hundred thousand people made their way, just the distance they covered with the spreading of the group was already a few kilometres.

Maybe all the beasts were gathered by the Female Worm to attack the Wasteland City, but after covering one-third of the distance, they were only attacked by a small group of beasts and the people had handled it without needing Rong Yuan to take action.

With not as much danger as they had expected, the people finally started to relax their tensed feelings and were no longer on the edge.

On this day, as they made their way through a destroyed village, Rong Yuan decided to take a break at this ruined village since the beasts had already ravaged through.

Finding a relatively clean area, Rong Yuan expertly set up his tent and went in. He handed the remaining duties to Guan Yue to handle.

Seeing the already closed tent, Guan Yue laughed bitterly. However, he had no opinions on how Rong Yuan had pushed all the work to him. After all, the Forgotten City was his and these duties were by right his. Jiang Qing, who always had something against Rong Yuan, huffed unhappily as he mumbled behind Guan Yue, “Isn’t he just a Demigod? What is so impressive about that? If this were the outside world, Chancellor, you would also have most likely become a Demigod as well.” Why did he need to put up with this attitude just to deal with a few insects?

“Have you settled things over there? Has everyone found a place to rest? If you are so free then you should go find some food so we won’t starve to death before the beasts get to us.” Guan Yue said indifferently. He wondered what was wrong with Jiang Qing. Why did he like to find fault with Rong Yuan?

Jiang Qing’s face immediately fell as he thought of the reason why he came here. He then looked at Guan Yue seriously, “Chancellor, this place has just been ravaged by beasts. We won’t be able to catch anything.”

People who did not cultivate spiritual energy would not be able to use a Storage Ring and would not be able to take along large amounts of food with them. Although they had a lot of time to prepare and filled a lot of Rong Yuan’s Storage Rings, which he has never used before, with food, it would not last long with so many people eating.

For the past few days, everyone had only been eating breakfast and the food that they brought from the Forgotten City would only be able to last another two meals before they had to completely rely on hunting to fill their stomachs.

However, from their journey so far, it was incredibly difficult to find even one beast. Now, most people were relying on their breakfast to make the journey. Upon hearing that there were no beasts to hunt in the place they were staying tonight, Guan Yue sighed and asked a few of his better servants to look further. Who knows, maybe they would come across one or two.

“Mother, do we have to starve again tonight?” A five-year-old young girl, with two braids asked her mother as her eyes shone with tears.

She did not understand why they had to suddenly move. Wasn’t their house in the city good? Wasn’t it easy to catch beasts? Her grandfather used to catch a lot of beasts and exchanged it for Blue Crystals to buy food for her. Why did they have to fear the beasts so much and even leave their warm home because of it? Now, why did they have to go hungry?

The mother, who was looking exhausted from the journey, patted the young girl’s head and took out a piece of biscuit that she had saved from her breakfast and handed it to her. She pacified, “Eat this tonight. Darling, be good, it will be better when we reach the Spirit City in a few days.”

The starving young girl immediately shoved half the biscuit into her mouth. However, she swallowed it too quickly and almost choked on it. She had to swallow a few mouths of water in order to swallow the biscuit. After having a few months, she suddenly turned to look at her mother as she seemed to remember something. She then pushed the remaining biscuit to her mother’s lips and said, “Mother, eat it too.”

The mother smiled and shook her head, “I’m not hungry, go ahead and finish it darling.”

The young girl believed her mother and continued to eat the biscuit. Dimples appeared on her face as she smiled happily, causing her mother’s heart to clench as she looked at her young child. When did her little darling girl become so pitiful that just eating a biscuit would make her so happy?

A tear rolled down her face and the mother lifted her sleeve to wipe it. From the corners of her eyes, she seemed to catch sight of something weird. That was…

“It is a beast!” The woman cried out as her eyes lit up.

A beast! That meant that there would be meat! Whoever found the beast first would get the first piece of meat as the reward. It seems like she would not need to starve tonight!

Her happiness did not last long as she was suddenly thrown in shock by shadows that kept on appearing. The people around her immediately prepared to fight.

“It is the Bat Beasts.” Guan Yue mumbled as he saw the numerous black shadows appear. The thing that he was worrying about finally happened. The beasts had found their tracks and were preparing to attack them.

“Quick call Demigod Rong, I will deal with them first!” With this, Guan Yue immediately rushed to where the Bat Beasts had appeared.

The numerous Bat Beasts completely covered the entire sky and was rushing towards the people like a cloud.

The Warriors were in fighting mode as they prepared to face it. They waved their swords as they became a mess with the Bat Beasts. The woman who had first realised the Bat Beasts hugged her daughter and hid into the middle of the group. One of her hands covered her daughter’s eyes to prevent her from seeing the bloody scene while the other hand covered her own mouth as she struggled to not cry.

With this attack, it suggested that they had been found by beasts and they could no longer continue on their journey without worry like they had been doing the past few days. For the rest of the journey, not only would they need to worry about how to fill their stomachs, they also had to be wary of beasts that could suddenly appear.

“Everyone, don’t panic. There aren't many of them. Protect the old and the young. Those that can fight, come with me to kill the Bat Beasts!” Guan Yue shouted. His two metre long blade shone with a fierce aura as he charged and struck at the incoming Bat Beasts. In a few seconds he had killed several. In his next move, yet a few more Bat Beasts fell to the ground.

Guan Yue’s confidence and stance helped several people who were panicking gain back their composure and successfully calmed the masses. Numerous Bat Beasts dove down from the sky, their sharp teeth exposed as they screeched. In a split second, several people started to hold their heads in pain as the invisible mind attacks pierced their brains. The old and frail with nothing to defend them were even worse off as they rolled on the floor in pain under the mind attack. Fresh blood flowed from their nose and mouth.

The Warriors were nowhere better as their brains felt like exploding under the mind attack of the Bat Beasts. However, they had to remain strong and continue to defend. Their eyes were bloodshot as they slashed wildly at the Bat Beasts.

“Hoo—” A fire dragon that was as thick as a pail suddenly appeared and shot at the Bat Beasts. The Bat Beasts that were hit by the fire dragon immediately let out a cry of pain as they fell from the sky.

Long ago, in the Heavenly Lands, Rong Yuan had found out that fire was the Bat Beasts’ weakness. Hence, he immediately created the fire dragon to suppress the danger slightly. The appearance of the fire dragon caused the Bat Beasts to go into a frenzy and their mind attacks were not as powerful as before.

Realising this, everyone became more alert as they counter-attacked. Several Bat Beasts which had been frightened by the fire dragon were chopped in two.