The night was as calm as ink, its extreme blackness even lending a few traces of eerie silence to the brightly lit, noisy port.
As time passed, an invisible sense of suffocation gradually spread.
Little by little, people stopped speaking, but their movements forward became even more aggressive.
One survival vessel after another departed the port.
The vessels moored at the shore were visibly dwindling, yet the people at the port were still packed shoulder to shoulder, converging into a torrent like penguins huddled together in groups.
Silent…
yet filled with deathly stillness.
The Cloud Knights clad in heavy armor were like sculptures, numb as they repeated their guiding motions.
Their silver-bright armor reflected a cold gleam beneath the incandescent lights, and the white mist exhaled from within their armor coated their visors with a layer of frost.
The temperature had dropped at some unknown point.
Suddenly, a commotion broke out in the crowd!
Someone raised their head and looked at the ink-black sky, their expression filled with confusion and helplessness.
People followed their gaze and looked over, only to find countless reverse-flying meteors rising from the various grotto-heavens of the Xianzhou Cangcheng.
Those fiery lights streaked across the ink-like, silent night sky, shattering the originally cold night in an instant!
Just as most people were feeling confused and helpless about this, the Cloud Knights beside them, responsible for maintaining order, suddenly moved.
They began to speed up their guidance of the crowd while also keeping watch over their surroundings, making preparations to fight at any moment.
In the eyes of the common folk, those flames just now might have merely been a few reverse-flying meteors.
The vast majority of them had never seen what they were in their entire lives, nor did they need to.
But to the Cloud Knights, those few “meteors” symbolized a signal.
A signal called “war”!
Only when the enemy had already appeared at an extremely close distance outside Cangcheng would those “autonomous defense” systems be triggered.
And after that, the true enemy would appear above the sky!
More and more meteors rose from the ground, until they completely illuminated the pitch-black sky, until everyone realized what was about to happen next.
And so, the panicked people began to crowd together, crashing into one another, rushing desperately toward the survival vessels.
But little did they know that even if they boarded the survival vessels now, they might not be able to leave safely.
At this moment, outside the Xianzhou Cangcheng, flickering points of light rose and fell throughout outer space.
The defensive weapons fired from within the Xianzhou Cangcheng were trying to carve out a path of survival for Cangcheng.
But the number of Abominations of Abundance surrounding Cangcheng was simply far too vast.
Even the most precise weapon system would inevitably have moments when flaws appeared.
And once there was a beginning, the enemy would follow that beginning and tear open an ever-larger gap!
A survival vessel that had just set off was about to leave Cangcheng.
They were fortunate enough to witness the magnificent sight outside Cangcheng as it was now, and at the same time…
that fortune would drag them into the abyss of “misfortune.” “Is this…
war?” Some Xianzhou Natives who had never experienced war looked through the vessel’s portholes at the smoke-filled world outside and could not help swallowing.
The confusion and helplessness in their eyes were almost about to turn tangible and overflow.
“Thank goodness…
thank goodness our lives weren’t meant to end!
We left the Xianzhou one step earlier!” Some people were feeling fortunate about this, but immediately afterward, everyone on the entire vessel noticed that something was off.
“Hiss…
what’s going on?
Why did it suddenly get so hot?” “I don’t know.
Did the ship’s life-support system break down?” For a moment, the temperature inside the entire ship was rising sharply.
At the same time, inside the ship’s cockpit, the captain responsible for piloting the ship was currently staring dumbfounded at the scene before him.
An eerie red light was shining onto his face through the cockpit’s front window, but that light was not coming from those Abominations of Abundance.
Instead, it was…
Coming from a “sun”?
No…
no, no, no…
that was not the sun…
that was a planet emitting red light…
no…
That was…
a planet that was burning?
But why?
Why would a burning planet appear here?
And why did the mountains, rivers, and land on that planet seem to have formed a sinister face, smiling at him?
Why…
why…
wh…
Without realizing it, the bodies of the captain and vice-captain began to convulse.
Their faces began to turn rugged and hideous.
Beneath their flesh, “blood vessels” like bulging veins began to squirm inside their bodies, until finally…
“Pshk!!” Those “blood vessels” burst out of their bodies, revealing their true appearance!
Branches rose from their bodies one after another, and golden leaves began to stretch nimbly, looking full of “vitality.” And the price was nothing more than two “undying” skeletons.
“Hehe…
hehe!!!” The captain, whose entire body was covered in branches, seemed to have lost his mind.
A muddled, foolish laugh came from his mouth that had sprouted branches.
Immediately after…
he gripped the ship’s control lever tightly and began to accelerate at full speed, charging toward that…
burning planet!
The people on the ship still did not know what had happened.
They only felt the cabin jolt, and immediately after, Cangcheng’s figure began to gradually shrink.
Just as they were about to cheer for having escaped “death,” that stifling heat clung to them like maggots on bone, covering their mouths and noses at the moment they should have been celebrating most.
People began to grow dissatisfied, but after one passenger collapsed, it was as if some chain reaction had been triggered.
More and more passengers began to fall one after another.
Then…
under the gazes of those who were still conscious, the people who had “fallen” suddenly stood up.
Immediately after, the flesh all over their bodies began to wither and decay.
Golden branches and leaves surged out along their bodies.
The heads torn apart by the branches let out sinister laughs, and then they lunged at the people who were still conscious!
And the conscious people could only watch this scene powerlessly.
The Long-life Species felt their awareness grow increasingly blurry, while the short-life species watched in terror as the extending branches pierced into their bodies, madly devouring their flesh and blood!
In the end, the ship sailed toward that red planet and became a part of it.
…
“It’s begun…” Inside the snack street, Wen Jin looked at the meteors flying upward in reverse and slowly set down the tea in his hand.
“Are you leaving, young man?” In front of the stall, the owner, who was sitting by the chessboard and playing against someone, raised his head slightly and spoke to Wen Jin.
“Mm.
Thank you for the tea.” Wen Jin nodded slightly to the stall owner, then took a few Arrow of the Hunt coins from his pocket and placed them on the table.
“Hahaha, you’re quite a particular person.
But at a time like this, I won’t waste more words with you.
Safe travels, young man.” “Mm.” Hearing this, Wen Jin slowly nodded.
Then, without looking back, he left the snack street.
The instant he walked out of the alley, Wen Jin stopped in his tracks.
He raised his head, and sparks of the night were reflected in his golden eyes.
He gazed at that brilliant sky and murmured softly: “Safe travels…” ★ ★ ★ T/N: If you spot mistranslation, do tell me.
★ ★ ★ Shilling time!