Chapter Ninety-Six: Rushing to China (Please Recommend and Bookmark!)

Across a broad plain, Yang Fan, Li Xianyi, Hu Dao, and more than twenty others were running for their lives as if they were children at play.

Not far behind them, a billowing wall of dust surged onward.

Yang Fan stole a few glances over his shoulder, and his heart thudded wildly.

“Faster, even faster! They’re catching up!”

He shouted at the top of his lungs.

Everyone around him pushed their speed another notch higher, each face flushed deep red.

Those above the third rank drove their qi; those below the third rank whipped their blood essence into motion. All of them broke into a frantic sprint.

Yang Fan took the lead, dashing at the very front. Even Li Xianyi, who was at the peak of the fourth rank, could not catch him.

There was nothing to be done. Yang Fan did not fear exhaustion. The moment the qi in his sea of energy ran low, the system replenished it at once, so he had no need to worry. With his Ninefold Stride, three steps could cover twelve meters in an instant. This was no joke.

While he ran, Yang Fan cursed inwardly.

Damn it all, what kind of place had they been brought into?

Before entering, the headmaster had told them nothing. When they first arrived, the scenery had been so pleasant, with green mountains and clear waters, that he had even thought this might be some blessed land. Yet before long, so many beasts had suddenly come charging out.

One wrong word, and they were already at each other’s throats.

At the entrance alone, many had fallen. It had been too chaotic to count them exactly, but dozens of people had certainly been left lying in pools of blood.

At the thought of that, anger surged in Yang Fan’s chest.

Those people had not died in the ruins, nor had they fallen in battle on the front lines. To perish in such a baffling place was truly a bitter waste.

Yang Fan glanced back at the swarm of beasts behind them, and helplessness rose again in his heart.

Running like this was not a solution. But if they fought...

He swept his eyes over their surroundings.

With just over twenty people against at least fifty beasts, it was better not to think about it.

While running, Hu Dao shouted, “Li Xianyi, think of something! What do we do?”

Li Xianyi was panting hard too. He answered, “What can we do? We only have twenty-odd people, and only three of us are above the third rank. What solution do you expect me to come up with? There are at least fifty beasts behind us, and every last one of them is second or third rank. What do you want me to do? We can only shake them off!”

After hearing that, Hu Dao turned to glance at the beast horde not far behind them and said, “We can’t outrun them. They’ve all got at least four legs; how are we supposed to beat them in a race?” Then his gaze fell on the man leading the charge at the very front. A thought flashed through his mind. This fellow might actually be able to outrun them.

Yang Fan’s face was dark as he listened to Hu Dao and Li Xianyi speaking. Thoughts churned through his mind, but he could not come up with anything useful.

Then suddenly, in the front-left direction, another cloud of dust rolled toward them.

Yang Fan and the others looked carefully, and their hearts immediately turned to ash.

Yet another beast pack.

Roughly a dozen or so.

When everyone finally made them out clearly, no one said another word.

It was a dead end.

Blocked in front, pursued from behind—if this was not a dead end, what was?

Li Xianyi’s long sword flew from its scabbard in an instant as he shouted, “Fight!”

Hearing that, Yang Fan drew his long saber as well and roared as he charged toward the newly appeared beast pack.

There was no hope left. In this unknown space, with no reinforcements and nothing to rely on, all they could do was fight to the death.

The closer Yang Fan drew to the beasts, the greater his unwillingness became.

His life had only just begun. His state of mind had only just changed. He had not yet had time to do anything, not yet had time to grow—was he really going to fall here?

Behind him, the twenty-odd others all carried the resolve to die, and yet the same unwillingness burned in each of them.

...

Far away in the ruins, Li Tian was sitting in the command center, where file after file was being delivered to his desk.

One look was enough to tell that every document concerned the Kunlun Secret Realm on Earth.

The sudden appearance of the Kunlun Secret Realm had drawn the gaze of the entire world to Huaxia. Mount Kunlun lay within Huaxia’s borders, and Huaxia was famous for valuing its land above all else. One inch of mountains and rivers, one inch of blood—that was no empty saying.

Nearly every file on the desk was an application from overseas nations requesting entry into the Kunlun ruins.

Li Tian scratched his head and looked them over, feeling helpless.

At that moment, an invisible thread of spiritual power extended to his side.

Li Tian frowned, then relaxed. Spiritual power surged from his own body and interwove with it.

“What do you think?”

A voice sounded in Li Tian’s mind.

Without hesitation, Li Tian replied, “You’re Xia Qiuming, the head of Sky Net and the supreme commander of the ruins. Why are you asking me?”

Far away in Dragon City, Xia Qiuming gave a helpless smile and answered, “Can you speak properly? Since when have you ever treated me as the supreme commander?” He paused, then went on. “The Kunlun Secret Realm appeared out of nowhere. According to Zhang Daoyi’s report, it was caused by the collapse of that bronze giant ape. But something about it still feels wrong to me. It didn’t appear earlier, it didn’t appear later, but just when the Dark Realm launched a massive invasion, it suddenly emerged. That alone feels suspicious. And this secret realm stops the strong while allowing the weak to advance—this part I cannot make sense of at all. If it were truly a blessing to all under heaven, should it not make the strong stronger? Raising the weak from the very beginning—this move, no matter how I look at it, I cannot understand.”

Li Tian was silent for a moment before replying, “I don’t know either. And we’ve never entered this so-called Kunlun Secret Realm, so we don’t know what it’s really like inside. We have no basis for judging whether it’s dangerous or auspicious, good or bad. We can only wait until the first batch of people comes out before we learn anything at all.

“The fact that this ruins allows entry only to those below the fifth rank, while everyone above the fifth rank is stopped, is something I truly cannot understand.”

Xia Qiuming also fell silent.

After a long while, he said, “The overseas nations are all demanding entry into Kunlun. What do you think we should do? Allow them in, or not?”

At that moment, another strand of spiritual power pierced the long sky and arrived at Ju Bei City, forming a bridge of communication with Xia Qiuming and Li Tian.

“If you ask me, they shouldn’t be allowed in. First, the Kunlun Secret Realm is in Huaxia. Who knows what those barbarians are thinking? Second, in this war, those bastards overseas have done little but sit on the sidelines. One and all, they’ve been hiding like turtles. Since they’re so fond of cowering in their shells, what’s the point of improving their strength? Let them hug their sturdy ships and artillery and keep to their own corners!”

After hearing the newcomer’s words, Li Tian could only shake his head helplessly.

“Old Han, why be like that? Honestly, it wouldn’t hurt to let some people from overseas come in. After all, the border can only admit those below the fifth rank. Even if they mean no good, we can still keep them under control. Besides, resisting the Dark Realm is not just Huaxia’s burden alone. Since there is now a secret realm that can nurture lower-level cultivators, we should not be too possessive of it.

“But the number has to be controlled. No more than five hundred from each country. One group out, another group in. We can’t let them all pour in at once. On one hand, we don’t understand the Kunlun Secret Realm; if there’s some great terror inside, they could all be wiped out in one sweep. On the other hand, five hundred is neither too many nor too few, and it is not enough to pose a threat to our people inside.”

After hearing that, Xia Qiuming replied, “Yes, that will do.”

Far away in Dawnlight City, Han Daohong stamped his foot but said nothing more.

Not long after, a top-secret document was sent from the ruins to Earth.

That very day, overseas nations began summoning the cultivators they had stationed in the ruins and dispatching them to Huaxia.