Forge a path to success.

Chapter 59 The Rain Is Burning

Nearly a quarter of the sky turned from jet black to dark blue, brighter than ever before, even on a clear day.

Whether in the workshop, the marshland, or the courtyard, people paused in their work, gazing blankly upwards. The twinkling stars were falling, their color a pure sky blue, yet carrying a fiery, intense heat.

The toddlers excitedly reached out towards the stars, while the older youths shielded them, still bewildered as to what was happening. Stories they'd heard in their childhood flashed through their minds, but they dismissed the idea as absurd. Then the voices of the elderly rang out, trembling with panic and despair.

"The water curtain has broken." The old people's eyes were glazed over. "They're coming...they're coming!!"

The desperate cries of the people were drowned out by the deafening roar. The first bursts of fire pierced through the building and landed on the ground, igniting an inextinguishable blue flame in the courtyard. Wails, screams, terror, and bewilderment filled the air. Social order was instantly shattered by the raging fire, and people scrambled to escape to safety.

But what fell from the sky was not only rain and belongings, but also something far more dangerous: demons lurking in the shadows, transparent and fleeting phantoms, blocking the path of the terrified crowd and reaching out their evil hands to claim their lives.

The feast of non-human beings has begun; they have waited far too long!

·
"The water curtain is 8.7% damaged. It is estimated that the high-level barrier effect will not be able to be maintained after thirty minutes."

"Enemy relic output increased! Predicted time revised to nineteen minutes!"

"A large number of heretical intrusions have been detected. Various types of natural disasters, including Fireflies, Slaughtering Ghosts, and Three Demons, as well as multiple demonic phantoms, have been identified... Demonic reactions are concentrated in the workshop area! It is speculated that the Flesh Demon has descended!!"

Ji Qiufeng sat in the center of the water-sphere-like room, a quarter of the surrounding water curtain tinged with blue. A filthy rainbow light lurked in the shadows, using blue flames as a wedge to pry open a breach. Eyeballs, symbolizing demons, spread out densely, drilling into the wounds in the water curtain.

Anxious reports echoed throughout the room, and the technicians responsible for maintaining the water curtain were in a state of frantic disarray. These men, though lacking combat skills, were crucial to the city and had therefore remained hidden within the headquarters building, never venturing out. Most of them had experienced past battles and knew just how dire the current situation was.

"Youyou, I'm counting on you," Ji Qiufeng said.

The little white snake rushed into the water curtain in the room, releasing a clear, divine light. At the same time, a long, resonant roar echoed throughout the city; the dragon's roar carried majestic divine power, suppressing and annihilating the large number of invading heretics.

Inside the water-curtain room, Ji Qiufeng formed a hand seal and whispered along with the dragon's roar. Their words carried genuine power; almost every building in the city opened its doors, and a gust of wind carried crowds into them. Then, the buildings sank like building blocks, the courtyard floor rose up, and hundreds of hardwood fortresses and dragon-head-shaped turrets emerged. These, along with the already completed Divine Vision Tower, formed a defensive line protecting the headquarters building.

A bright yellow light converged beneath Ji Qiufeng's seat, forming an aerial view of Huilong City. The scene in the image moved according to the city lord's will, and the buildings in reality were also subtly adjusted accordingly. He moved the positions of fortresses and towers one by one, reinforcing the city's defenses. As the real-world defenses rapidly took shape, Ji Qiufeng felt pressure pressing in from all directions, almost wanting to close his eyes.

He clenched his fist, exhaled, and made sure everyone at headquarters could hear him.

"From this moment forward, Huilong City is under wartime alert. All units must remain steadfast in their duties and hold out until the very last moment!"

·
"Everyone, take up the nearest watchtowers and fortresses within your jurisdiction. Slaughter any outsiders!" At the first line of defense outside the headquarters building, Jie An gripped his communicator and roared, "Don't scare yourselves! Lord Huilong will hold off the high-quality enemies. Your mission is to protect the civilians from these small fry!"

"Old Jie, you're just talking nonsense!" the squad leader of the Hongyong area cursed over the comms. "This little shrimp is taller than my house!"

"What's wrong, scared?" Jie An shouted.

"Who's afraid of who's a coward!" The squad leader's angry curses were mixed with the sound of gunfire. "Watch out, all of you, those bastards from the black workshop are here too! Damn it!"

Then came the sound of explosions and a piercing noise, and communications were lost. Jie An opened the sunroof of the police car and saw numerous black specks of light mixed in with the rain of fire. The message from the tower told him that they were manned aircraft resembling discs, each carrying at least three fully armed "Crows," and judging from their trajectory, the target was the headquarters building.

The Black Workshop launched its second attack during the height of the chaos. Now, with Huilong busy maintaining the water curtain, they had to rely on them to hold it off. The defending side activated their towers and fortresses, unleashing water bombs to create a dense network of fire. But the war had begun too quickly; the first aircraft to land had already brushed past Jie'an's head and were approaching the rear defense line.

A golden light suddenly rose from behind, a hurled light hammer smashed through the flying disc, and then a shadow blade flashed out, cleaving the crows in two. Ji Huaisu leaped and charged to the front lines, grabbing a surprised Jie An: "Did you prepare any medicine?!" "What medicine?" Jie An asked blankly. The crows' severed corpses fell to the ground, and a sense of tension gripped Jie An's heart like an invisible hand. He saw the cross-sections of the corpses emitting a golden light.

"Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit! Fireflies!!" Jie An cursed, while at the same time being glad that he had made preparations. "Attention everyone, the crows are all fireflies. Remember to switch to Blessing Water Bullets and maintain distance during the battle!"

Ji Huaisu shoved him against the hood of the car, a crimson claw grazing Jie An's scalp, leaving a chilling sound in the air. Jie An broke out in a cold sweat; if Ji Huaisu had been a fraction slower, his head would have been gone. He looked around, trying to find the enemy, but all he saw were gunshots and frantically running team members, their shadows distorted into eerie shapes by the flames.

He realized something was wrong; a person's shadow shouldn't have taken on an almost acute angle shape. Just as Jie An noticed the anomaly, the shadow boiled over, and the demon's claws leaped out. The same attack came from behind him—two demons lurking in the shadows launched a sudden attack!

Ji Huaisu brandished his hands, unleashing a simultaneous strike of light hammer and shadow blade, forcing the two demons back. They stepped from the shadows into the light, revealing their sinister and ominous forms. The demons in the shadows walked on six legs, their bodies riddled with irregularly protruding claws, teeth, and blades, resembling wolves stitched together by countless sharp objects from the shadows. The outlines of their heads constantly shifted, like heavily twisted acute-angled triangles, their bodies illuminated by the firelight, yet no shadow was cast upon them.

Outer Path Point 2, Calamity Species - Slaughtering Demon.

"I'm going to give it my all." Ji Huaisu shouldered his greatsword. "The command is yours. Be careful!"

She ran with the light shield on her back, two demonic creatures following closely behind, like sharks that had caught the scent of blood. They were demons born of light, who loved to devour light and heat. The light shield couldn't withstand the demonic creatures' claws and teeth, so she could only fight them with the sword of her shadow.

Jie An leaned against the police car, his mind in turmoil. Everything had happened so suddenly. When he was giving the orders, he even felt like he was acting, while the real him was still squatting in the kitchen, pondering what to make for dinner.

He heard his teammates report from the fortress, and he saw crows on the aircraft fire, killing a lookout on a distant tower before being shot down by concentrated water bullets. Standing amidst the hail of bullets, he realized his mission was complete, and there was nothing more he could do in this battle.

Jie An climbed into the car, pounding his forehead and forcing himself to think. There was clearly something amiss in this battle. How did the workshop master control so many fireflies? Unless he himself was a high-ranking Calamity, but someone with that ability would have wiped out the entire resurrection force long ago. His target was headquarters, meaning he had intelligence on Dragon City. The Central Plains front could barely hold, so where else…?

The elevator. The large elevator in the center of the ancient tree leads directly to headquarters; the enemy can move freely using the elevator shaft. He realized this in an instant, grabbed his communicator, and roared, "Who's in the workshop area?! The Black Workshop is attacking the Ancient Tree!!"

Jie An was gripped by despair when he asked the question. The large elevator had stopped during the first wave of attacks, and they had no personnel stationed in the sky. The sky island was entirely the Black Workshop's property. But then his breathing quickened, and a different yellow crystal, distinct from the team's internal communication device, flickered slightly. The man's response, calm and detached, sounded remarkably reassuring at that moment.

"I'll handle it."

·
Chu Hengkong put away the communication crystal and used one hand to lift up the shattered ceiling.

The aftershocks of the first wave of attacks burned down Anza's workshop, production machinery exploded, warehouses caught fire, and the small shop that served as the storefront completely collapsed. Mrs. Anza, lying under the ceiling, was bleeding from a head wound and had her leg crushed; she only escaped death because the counter held up the space.

“Mirror… Mirror of the Moon…” she murmured to herself.

She couldn't hold on any longer and collapsed from blood loss. She clutched a small mirror tightly in her hand, the last clue sculpted from the smoke. Most of the salvage crew retreated after hearing the warning, but Mrs. Anza, preoccupied with her task, remained in the workshop.

Chu Hengkong pulled her out from under the counter and used some bandages left in the shop to give her basic first aid. He walked out of the Ansa Workshop, where the strange figures of crows appeared in the sea of ​​fire. They walked on the flames, like real crows flying from all over the workshop area, their bird-head masks falling off to reveal inhuman, abnormal faces.

Colorless "masks" sprouted on their faces, each mask bearing a different expression: ecstasy, wailing, ecstasy, madness. Countless more masks formed all over the crows' bodies, spreading like boils, completely enveloping them. Then, the transparent masks shattered simultaneously, and their limbs mutated, swelled, and twisted, transforming them into bizarre and monstrous demons!
Those were demons shaped like bone-white seahorses, those were one-eyed demons resembling mammoths, and all sorts of demonic bodies laughed in the raging flames. These evil spirits, who interfered with the human world through illusions, finally had the opportunity to descend into flesh. Nearly half of them looked at Chu Hengkong, their hoarse voices filled with greed, hatred, and anticipation.

"We meet again, Chu Hengkong."

Chu Hengkong drew his rock sword with one hand, the blade humming softly as it left its sheath. The firelight illuminated the man's rugged profile; he faced the demon with his back to the workshop, his coat billowing in the scorching wind.

“It’s great to be able to kill you all again,” he said.

(End of this chapter)