Forge a path to success.

Chapter 124 Rescue Operation
Ji Huaisu brandished her light shield and emerged from a pile of rubble. The dust explosion came too fast and too suddenly; even though the igloos protected the city as a whole, the aftershocks of the attack still caused chaos and casualties among the citizens.

She found Vande, who had been jolted out of her pocket. The beholder was stuck upside down in the mud, a few tentacles twitching occasionally, looking like a piece of squid sashimi that hadn't been properly prepared. She scooped Vande up and hurriedly activated her communication relic: (Akong, how are things over there!)
(Hold on, save the city... find the Ice Man...) Chu Hengkong's voice was broken due to magic interference. (Be careful... the Firefly Corpse...)
(the same as you.)
She paused communication, dodging a glowing claw. Glittering clumps of mud surged from the ground, transforming into amorphous humanoid forms. The characteristics of the Cataclysmic species began to manifest; the innocent victims of the first earthquakes turned into glowing corpses, and another sinister force was stirring.

Ji Huaisu knew she couldn't waste any more time. She grabbed Vande and rushed towards the direction with the highest water element concentration. Vande's eyes were still darting around: "What class is it now?"

"You useless college student, wake up! You graduated a long time ago!"

"Oh, oh, oh, oh." Van der rubbed his eyes, still confused. "I saw so many students and thought it was me..."

Ji Huaisu slammed on the brakes and swerved. She saw the students too; across the street, an entire school of elementary school students were being guided by their teachers to the playground for refuge. This could prevent injury from falling debris, but in the face of the natural disaster caused by the stone demon, it was practically meaningless. The school building behind them was already teetering on the brink of collapse, and the next second it would crash down on the children.

Ji Huaisu leaped onto the playground and pressed a metal object resembling a token onto her light shield. The faint light instantly amplified, forming a large light barrier covering the playground. This was an enhancement device developed by Youyou; its range could be flexibly adjusted as long as it provided power. At the critical moment, the collapsing building was stopped by the light shield, and Ji Huaisu breathed a sigh of relief. But at that moment, she saw wriggling shadows, seemingly sentient, undulating behind the children.

A beast covered in sharp blades leaped from the shadows—it was the Cataclysmic Species of Point 2, the Slaughtering Demon! At point-blank range, the beast, who reveled in tearing flesh apart, pounced on the child. Ji Huaisu had made a mistake; her light shield created a large area of ​​shadow, which, while protecting against external attacks, also provided the Slaughtering Demon with a path to infiltrate.

A gleaming black blade blocked the beast's teeth; a masterful strike severed the fangs, forcing the demon to retreat. A girl in a yellow outfit descended from the sky, her scarf fluttering behind her.

Ji Huaisu was overjoyed: "You are Miss Retreat!"

"Hmm, let's just say that's how it is. It's quite a coincidence to meet here, Miss Light Shield." Qingye drew another longsword. "I think I understand the situation. The tentacle man on your side is fighting with the mayor, right?"

Van der was taken aback: "You know that?"

"Don't underestimate my reasoning skills!" Miss Qingye seized the opportunity to boast, unleashing a cross-shaped slash that forced back the demon. "We'll talk later, let's deal with this one first—"

A glint of twilight flashed in Vande's eyes, and the incredibly agile Demon Slayer, under the influence of hypnosis, froze in mid-air, taking a direct hit from Qingye's cross slash. Its body was cleaved in two by the blade's light, and Ji Huaisu seized the opportunity to transform into a shadow blade and strike out with her sword, completely slaying it with the enhanced power of her shadow blade.

"Deal with this Demon Slayer..." Qingye's jaw almost dislocated. "Seriously? The two of us killed the Demon Slayer in an instant?! And what kind of technique was that?! How can you use shadows like that?!"

"With Vande's help, killing a dog is a piece of cake." Ji Huaisu sheathed his Shadow Blade, and couldn't help but sigh that hypnosis was truly an incredibly powerful thing. If he had brought Vande into the arena back then, Kanin would never have had the chance to be so arrogant.

She patted Qingye, who was still in shock: "What were you trying to say?"

Qingye snapped out of her daze: "Come with me to rescue the Ice Man, or we'll be too late!"

"Kid, can you be realistic? We're barely able to protect ourselves in this situation. Does it, a mere point 3, need our help?" Vande pointed to the sky. "Look at that giant ice sheet; it's withstood several waves of bombing. Even if it covered us—holy crap!!"

The Eye Demon let out a piercing scream. Ji Huaisu looked up upon hearing this and gasped in shock after seeing what was happening.

Through the ice cap, she saw a giant "funnel," with immeasurable sand swirling high above the city, its cone-shaped lower end extending into a thin brown line. That line pierced deep into the igloo, and the brown color, representing the power of the stone demon, spread through the ice at a speed as fast as a drop of ink falling into clear water.

The brown sand was the Stone Demon's own dust, which, like a swarm of indiscriminate locusts, dismembered, divided, and assimilated the ice, claiming it for itself with a higher level of power. Seeing that bombardment was ineffective, the Stone Demon changed tactics; it was now using its sand needles to pierce through the igloo. When that color penetrated the barrier and reached the ground, the entire igloo, along with Sethron's body, would be devoured by the Stone Demon!
"Damn it, what's the point of fighting now!" Ji Huaisu cursed. "How dare he, a mere Wudingchen, swallow the Turbid Tears? Is this the strength of a 3rd-level particle? It doesn't seem much weaker than a Demonic Gale!"

"Shut your crow's mouth! If it were Mobiao, we'd all be dead by now!" Vande's eyes turned pale. "You said those gray mosaics were your kind, right? Can't you ask your cute little elves to think of a solution? If this keeps up, this city is doomed!"

At that moment, a burst of light and fire shot out in the distance, followed by another violent earthquake. Chu Hengkong used his second Dragon Pattern Spear to stop the landslide, but everyone knew that this did not mean the crisis was over. The igloos in the sky could collapse at any moment, the initial earthquake was still ongoing, and buildings were collapsing every second.

Both Chu Hengkong and Shakes were assassins, specializing in one-on-one battles between powerful individuals. However, the Calamity Seed was a tyrant renowned for its wide-area attacks; the aftershocks of a single Stone Demon battle were enough to destroy a small town twice over. There was no safe place in Golden Leaf City now. The Calamity Seed's influence was becoming increasingly pronounced; the aura of the Demon Slayers was appearing repeatedly, and the Fireflies were spreading like wildfire through the streets. They wanted to rescue Sethlen, but they couldn't bear to leave the helpless child beside them.

Ji Huaisu realized this too, and in a fit of desperation, she clutched her chest and roared, "Ancestors, if you know this in the afterlife, please show yourselves! If you don't come out, everyone will die!"

The Shadow Knights rose from the ground, their heavy light shields linked together, forming a shimmering wall in front of the civilians!

The three elementary school students were stunned; none of them had expected their plea for help to come true. A slender knight stood before Ji Huaisu, his armor a deep brown, like the earth itself. His gaze swept over both Ji Huaisu and Qingye.

"Allied forces...?"

Upon hearing the voice of the yellow-armored knight, Ji Huaisu nodded vigorously without thinking, "Allied forces! I am an allied force!!"

The yellow-armored knight struck his breastplate as if in salute, while the other knights drew their swords, channeling power into his back with their shadow blades. He plunged his heavy greatsword into the earth, momentarily pausing the tremors that shook the city. Centered on the tip of his sword, an earthen-yellow magic circle emerged from the ground, spreading throughout the city in the blink of an eye. Twelve stone prisms rose from the magic circle, stabilizing the trembling earth and supporting the collapsing buildings.

Discipline Seal - Earth Lock.

The yellow-armored knight's figure vanished into dust after unleashing his attack. Another tall knight stepped forward, his armor as red as flames. He glided across the city using a shield of light, arriving beside Chu Hengkong, who was battling a landslide. The lingering flames of ambition seemed drawn to him, gathering around the knight's shield.

He raised his azure shield of light high and plunged into the fire along with his weapon. The flames instantly intensified tenfold, forming a wall of fire that surrounded the sand funnel in the air.

Discipline Seal - Flowing Fire Seal.

The remaining knights formed a tacit formation, using light shields to protect the civilians and shadow blades to fight off the natural disaster, which solved the immediate crisis. Ji Huaisu cheered and pulled Qingye along, rushing towards the location where the ice house had landed.

Qingye hadn't been able to speak since the beginning. After finally processing what was happening, she managed to ask with difficulty, "You are... a necromancer?"

"Mage my foot! I'm a knight!!"

Vande, with his sharp eyes, spotted a fluffy gray ball popping out of the ruins. Gulibo, carrying a large flowerpot, ran frantically, sweat beading on his nose: "Take me with you! Let's go get some too!!"

·
High in the air, at the top of a gravel funnel.

Chu Hengkong sheathed his spear, suppressing his urge to catch his breath. The fierce battle with Shaks had already drained him of a great deal of energy, and the two consecutive Dragon Pattern Spear attacks at this moment were tantamount to cutting off his fuel supply. At the same time, the One Qi Thousand Autumns was still in operation, providing him with increasing pressure every moment.

At this moment, he actually missed Yingshi Town a little. Back then, if he lost the Immortal Machine battle, the worst that could happen was that everyone would die together, without any psychological pressure. Now, he could always save his own life, but the hundreds of thousands of civilians below him couldn't. It was precisely because his own life was not in danger that the burden on his shoulders was particularly heavy.

He declared with fervor: "You don't need to destroy your own city."

For the first time since the battle began, a man's voice echoed from the sand. A stone goblin with a hollow head emerged from the dust, shaking its withered fingers like a musician.

"Have you ever played with building blocks, martial cultivator?" The stone demon Jin Ye's voice drifted. "I really enjoy playing with building blocks, stacking small cubes to create beautiful buildings, and using those buildings to construct miniature cities. Once the city is complete, I kick it down, sending it crumbling into a pile of dust—"

That's so much fun! It relieves stress and relaxes the mind. Creating and destroying are equally pleasurable, and I'm enjoying my life right now!

It tapped its empty head and let out a harmless laugh: "Do you think I have no reason to target a worker? No reason to knock down and smash these little blocks? No reason to be your enemy? I certainly have no reason to do it, but I also have no reason not to. So why don't I make a move?"

"To do as one pleases, to be a god or a demon in the blink of an eye—this is the true meaning of the unchanging dust. To crush your reasons and meanings brings me...unparalleled joy from the bottom of my heart!"

The stone demon's torso was pierced by a spear, and hundreds of laughs rose from the dust. Hundreds of stone demon clones fell, clapping and laughing around Chu Hengkong.

Chu Hengkong decided to remain silent. He finally understood why these unorthodox paths were called "demons." Incomprehensible, without reason, lacking logic, they were like natural disasters given form, allowing primal emotions to run rampant in the destruction. The moment it touched the hidden depths of the earth, the magic scholar Jin Ye had already gone completely mad. Now it had lost its human form, merely a demon wielding its power.

"What incredible luck! It's like the heavens are helping me! My many brilliant ideas were just missing someone to test them out, and here comes you, this indestructible and indestructible thing. Don't die easily, make the most of this consumable!"

The stone goblins chattered like a flock of birds, emerging one after another amidst malicious laughter. Stone, soil, gravel, and air—substances affected by the calamity multiplied with the laughter, and the Golden Leaf began to unleash its true power. Nearly half of them focused on drilling through the funnel-shaped ice layer, while the majority gathered high in the sky, forming transparent spheres.

The sphere was large enough to easily cover several city blocks. It was completely transparent yet undeniably "visible" because every tiny particle within it was vibrating at an extremely high frequency, like a blurry, unstable space. The transparent sphere grazed the wall of fire at the edge of the funnel, and with a precision beyond visual perception, the flames were disintegrated and devoured, and a third of the fire vanished instantly.

"Overclocked vibration cutting sphere... Ah, that sounds awful, let's call it this instead." Jin Ye whistled, "Eraser."

The sphere that had swallowed everything paused in mid-air before falling with lightning speed. Chu Hengkong thrust his tentacles directly into the sky, causing the flames of ambition to coalesce into a towering pillar of fire.

Roasted!

Without hesitation, he made his judgment and unleashed his once-a-day burst of power. A pillar of azure fire roared up, like a burning beam that withstood the all-consuming attack of the golden leaf. However, the stone demon merely laughed triumphantly, as several more identical gusts of destructive wind blew in, ready to launch their attack as soon as the pillar of fire disappeared.

Beneath their feet, nearly a third of the igloos supporting the city had been assimilated by gravel. Golden Leaf City was in imminent danger.

(End of this chapter)