Rotten God Kingdom

(Both chapters are being released together; the next chapter will begin the day after tomorrow.)

Thanks to the precious time gained at the Cliff of the Dead, the travelers had a chance to catch their breath, reorganize their group, and retreat in an orderly fashion towards the lake.

The illusory cliff in Jiang Wang's eyes finally shattered, and he spat out a mouthful of blood.

The moment the blood hit the ground, mold spread rapidly.

He tried to communicate with the Book of Disease in his heart to suppress the out-of-control forces and thus stop the spread of the germs.

Director Xiang looked thoughtfully at the rapidly spreading and then quickly withering colonies on the ground.

No wonder Jiang Wang refused to stay in the Traveler's City; there was another reason behind it.

A sense of regret welled up in his heart. Just now, he had even thought about taking most of the travelers to fight to the death, handing the photo album over to Jiang Wang, and letting him leave with the album.

For him, wherever the photo album is, that's where the traveler's city is.

The heart of the traveler's city is the photo album, not the travelers who live by the photo album.

The guide communicated with the sanctuary and used his special ability, causing the sanctuary to slowly move.

The aura left by the Cliff of the Dead still lingers. The monsters stand where the cliff once stood, silently watching this side, as if waiting for something.

"How about you take a group of travelers and leave from another direction?" the guide asked casually as he maneuvered the house.

"The monster horde has its eyes on us. Do you think we can leave so easily?" Jiang Wang retorted.

Monsters are inherently hostile to humans. The Traveler's City has thousands of people, making it too big a target. They won't let this piece of meat go to waste.

"So what I'm saying is, take some of the travelers and leave, while the rest stay behind to cover the retreat." The guide's voice carried a deliberately relaxed tone.

He seemed completely unfazed by making this decision, but only he knew whether he truly felt pain or not.

"I refuse."

This was the second time Jiang Wang had said those three words to Director Xiang.

"Why?" the guide asked, his tone becoming more intense. "Do you really think we can withstand the monster tide head-on? No one knows the strength of the Traveler's City better than me. We've been able to roam the wilderness for so many years thanks to the guidance of the photo album."

Without a photo album, a target as large as several thousand people would have been devoured by the monster long ago.

The director became somewhat agitated, causing his nose to bleed. He casually wiped it with the back of his hand and asked, "Or are you actually a saint, destined to save everyone?"

"Don't forget, I'm just a passerby hitching a ride, not a traveler. My relationship with this city is simply one of cooperation," Jiang Wang said silently.

"From the moment you received the album's approval, you became a member of the Traveler's City. I may not have such a ruthless gaze, and you may not recognize this identity at all, but the album doesn't lie."

"Yes." Jiang Wang nodded. "You yourself said that photo albums don't lie, so why don't you trust the photo album one more time and believe that the lake is a refuge?"

Director Xiang was naturally willing to believe it.

He wouldn't have questioned the album's guidance if they hadn't wiped out all the monsters there and presumptuously continued their exploration.

They didn't do anything wrong; the timing and order were just wrong.

Perhaps, if Jiang Wang hadn't awakened his fish-man transformation ability, they would have lingered much longer exploring the lake, and their departure from the Traveler's City wouldn't have been so hasty.

But this is not Jiang Wang's fault.

No one can predict what will happen in the future.

"I'm not some saint. We've only known each other for a few days. You don't know what kind of person I am. I'm not someone you should entrust all your lives to."

You can bear the responsibility yourself, or you can entrust it to someone you know and trust.

If a city truly needs a stranger who has only lived there for a few days to survive, then does it even matter whether it is destroyed or not?

The fate of the sick city must be borne by its inhabitants.

The fate of the traveler's city must be borne by them.

If a truly critical moment were to occur, Jiang Wang would not run away.

But now, things are just beginning, aren't they?

Director Xiang is a very good person. In this situation, his first thought was not to save his own life, but to care about the survival of the city.

Jiang Wang felt it was a pity that someone like that died here.

If possible, he would take the guide away before the defeat was inevitable.

An eerie silence fell over the sanctuary.

The scenery kept flashing by.

Jiang Wang saw the weary crowd walking around the church.

They were exhausted and numb, like walking corpses.

Without a car or a house, they can only passively follow behind the city.

But strangely enough, because they were walking and moving very slowly, they missed the battle at Amber Lake and also missed the battle against the monster horde.

This made them the only group in the Traveler's City without any casualties.

Sometimes, fate is just that strange.

At the lakeside, almost all the travelers were stunned by the sight before them.

The lake water became clear, and when you looked down at the entire lake, the eerie feeling disappeared, as if the lake had never been polluted.

Even the traces of the battle on the lake shore have vanished without a trace, as if something is trying to trace the conflict that once took place in this area.

"Have you seen my dad?" the boy asked every passing traveler, looking up at them and asking the same question: "Have you seen my dad?"

"What's your father's name?" A traveler, seeing the child's pitiful state and assuming his father had died in the previous battle, approached him to ask.

The boy shook his head.

"Who doesn't know their own father's name?"

The travelers didn't ask any more questions; they were too busy to play house with a little kid.

Wang Ye and Jiang Xin rode their motorcycles faster than the temple and arrived at the lakeside first.

"Where's my brother? My brother's name is Jiang Wang." Jiang Xin looked around but couldn't find Jiang Wang in the busy crowd.

"He and the guide are in the sanctuary." Wang Jin saw Jiang Xin and approached her. His breathing was rapid, indicating that he had run the whole way.

Husbands and wives are birds of the same forest, and when disaster strikes, they fly separately.

After lending out the diving suit, Aru never paid any attention to Wang Jin again.

Jiang Xin felt a little worried when she thought of the cliff that had suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

It's unclear whether the cliff was Xiang Dao's doing or Jiang Wang's.

Are you my mother?

The boy saw Jiangxin and thought she looked a lot like Jiang Wang. He walked up to Jiangxin and tugged at her sleeve.

"Whose child is this? Why is he randomly claiming someone as his mother?" Jiang Xin looked down at the boy, somewhat anxious.

This child is already seven or eight years old, and she's only sixteen. How could she possibly be her child?

"Then you are my aunt." The boy looked closely at Jiang Xin's face and became more and more certain that Jiang Xin was related to his father.

"Wait, this kid looks familiar." Wang Jin grabbed the boy's arm, turning the boy's face towards him.

Jiang Xin asked suspiciously, "Could it be the result of your romantic entanglements in the wilderness over the years? Well, now the creditors have come knocking on your door."

Wang Jin felt increasingly uneasy as he looked at the scene. Suddenly, as if he had remembered something, cold sweat trickled down his spine.

"Why aren't you saying anything? Think carefully, is this your child?" Jiang Xin persisted.

Even if this is the end of the world, you can't start something and then abandon it, especially since the girl has already given birth to the child.

It must be difficult for one person to raise a child.

But soon, Jiang Xin noticed that Wang Jin's expression was off.

"No, it's not mine, you must be joking..."

This is clearly the child from the amber at the bottom of the lake!

How did he get out?

"Auntie, please take me to find my dad, okay?" the boy pleaded, shaking Jiang Xin's arm.

Wang Jin and Jiang Xin exchanged glances.

The boy was right next to me, so it wasn't convenient to talk to him.

But that's okay.

Get started first!

Jiang Xin composed herself, squatted down, and cupped the boy's face in her hands, restricting his view.

"Tell your sister, what's your father's name?"

The boy shook his head and said, "I don't know. Dad is Dad. Dad has never told me what his name is."

Jiang Xin looked at Wang Jin, hoping to glean some useful information from his expression.

"Then tell me, what does your father look like? How tall is he? What color clothes does he wear?"

The boy pointed to Wang Ye standing next to him and said, "He's a bit taller than him, wearing gray clothes, and he's handsome."

Jiang Xin tried to stall for time, while Wang Jin, trembling, pulled a pistol from his pocket and aimed it at the boy's head.

"My dad looks a lot like you, that's why I think you're my mom..."

boom!

Gunshots rang out from the lakeside.

The bullet stopped about ten centimeters behind the boy's head.

The amber luster spreads outwards from the bullet's center, gradually expanding outwards.

The boy looked up and stared straight into the middle of the river.

"I understand, you're bad people," the boy murmured. "You're bad people, you don't want me to see my dad."

Jiang Xin forced a smile, still wanting to maintain control of the situation: "Listen to me, this is a misunderstanding. Aren't I your aunt?"

"No longer."

The tranquil lake changed once again, but this time, the source of the change was the boy in front of him.

The lake water began to boil, and within seconds the water that had regained its clarity turned a murky golden yellow again, spreading from the shore toward the center of the lake.

The boy slowly reached out his hand towards the river.

A layer of pale yellow crystals began to appear on Jiang Xin's face, and the aura emanating from the boy made it difficult for her to move.

This feeling is like facing a terrifying monster in the wilderness.

Wang Ye mustered all his strength to pull out a rifle from behind him. He pulled the trigger, but no shot was fired.

He pulled the trigger a second time, but it was as if it were welded shut and wouldn't budge.

He looked down and saw that the gun barrel was covered in pale yellow crystals.

This boy is not human; he is a monster of the wilderness.

Countless thoughts flashed through Wang Ye's mind in an instant. He reached out and pushed Jiang Xin, helping her break free from that state.

"Run! Don't look back!"

When Wang Ye touched Jiang Xin's hand, it began to turn amber. The boy merely glanced at him, and his entire arm exploded. He fell backward, clutching his severed arm, convulsing in pain.

Jiang Xin was pushed a few steps forward, and before she could even stand up, the boy's hand followed.

"You people, you deserve to die for not letting me see my father!"

At the critical moment, Jiang Wang finally arrived.

When he arrived at the lake, his first thought was to look for the center of the river, but he never expected that when he found the center of the river, he would see the boy he had seen at the bottom of the lake.

Before he could even think about what the boy was or why he was there, Jiang Wang had already taken a gun from the armory and opened fire.

The bullet slowed down, changed color, and hovered in mid-air, freezing completely less than a meter away from the boy.

Jiang Wang didn't stop. He transformed into a fish-man, unleashing terrifying physical potential. At the same time, he communicated with the Book of Diseases in his heart.

All the cards were played in an instant.

Jiang Wang was surprised to find that he could not detect any germs on the boy.

He then communicated with the germs in the air, allowing them to attach themselves to the boy.

The germs began to multiply the moment they came into contact with the boy's skin, and mold bloomed all over his body.

The boy turned to look at Jiang Wang and saw that familiar face from his memory. His eyes first showed surprise, and then a hint of doubt appeared.

"Father? Are you going to kill me too?"

A strange light crept into the boy's left eye, and an amber glow began to appear on Jiang Wang's body.

"Damn it, what is this thing?"

Jiang Wang's own bacteria proliferated in a stress response, and his white skin rapidly crystallized, resembling dry, cracked soil that fell off in chunks.

The power of disease is resisting the force that turns everything into amber.

"Dad! Are you going to kill me too?" the boy shouted.

Jiang Wang found the boy's words hard to understand.

He slowed down, carefully observing every detail of the boy, figuring out the source of his power, his weaknesses, and his habits, so that he could kill him with a single blow!

The boy focused all his attention on Jiang Wang, while Jiang Xin took the opportunity to drag Wang Ye, who was lying on the ground gasping for breath, away.

"Are you a human or a monster?" Jiang Wang asked.

"I'm not a monster, I'm a human, Dad, don't you remember me? I am..." The boy's voice trailed off as he spoke.

In his memory, there was no past, no father's name, and no name of his own.

He was like a wandering ghost in the world, unable to find an anchor to anchor himself in the human realm.

His only memory, the only reason that could keep him rational and prevent him from going insane, was Jiang Wang standing before him.

The only person who left an impression on his mind.

Jiang Wang didn't understand why the boy in front of him called him "Dad," and he was also certain that he had no relation to the boy in front of him.

"You are a human being, yet you wield a butcher's knife against your own kind."

Jiang Wang stopped talking. In the few words he exchanged, he noticed only one unusual thing about the boy.

The boy's left eye.

That left eye, gleaming with an amber luster.

It is also the source of a boy's power.

Jiang Wang slowly approached: "If you are a human being, then give up resisting. I can guarantee that I will not lay a hand on you."

Many people here have special abilities; you're not the only one who's special.

"But they shot at me!"

Jiang Wang couldn't find anything to say.

If the boy is indeed human, then what Jiang Xin and the others did was indeed unreasonable.

"Let's sit down and have a proper talk, shall we?" Jiang Wang said gently.

The boy tilted his head, seemingly sulking, and after a while, he slowly nodded.

Jiang Wang breathed a sigh of relief.

If we can talk, that's good.

……

the other side.

The guide is organizing the travelers to form a defensive line.

"Director, there are signs of monsters appearing in the direction we came from, and they are all converging on this side."

This is the third message the guide has received, and it's all about monsters.

The monsters rushed towards them from all directions, leaving them no blind spots.

Director Xiang had been thinking about whether to send some people to hold off the monster horde while a small group broke through from other directions, but now it seems that's not going to work.

The guide prayed to the photo album twice more, and the only revelation he received was—stay where you are.

However, judging from its appearance, this is clearly the final destination where the monsters gather.

Director Xiang rubbed his forehead, feeling quite a headache.

Even now, he still can't figure out why the monsters suddenly appeared and converged in this direction.

"Director, the first wave of monsters is approaching."

The guide climbed to the top floor of the sanctuary and looked out over the battlefield.

At the very front were rows of houses, neatly arranged together, serving as the city wall.

The travelers, weapons in hand and sweat dripping from their brows, kept their eyes fixed on the direction from which the monster was approaching.

"Go and fetch Jiang Wang for me," the guide instructed a traveler.

Even if things reach a point of no return, he will still hand the photo album over to Jiang Wang to take away.

He has traveled to so many places, seen so many people and things, and knows the price of losing a photo album.

Photo albums are not only usable by humans, but also by monsters.

If the photo album falls into the hands of monsters, there will likely be an additional "Traveler" monster in the wilderness, which would be a disaster for humanity.

The monster is closing in, and the first round of combat has begun.

The monsters at the forefront brutally destroyed the defensive line and the houses.

Based on the guide's experience, what follows will be a protracted battle, with the monsters relentlessly searching for every hiding human and torturing them one by one.

This time was clearly different. After breaking through the defenses, the monsters ignored the terrified humans around them and rushed straight towards the lake.

The director also keenly noticed that some ordinary wild animals were following behind the monster.

Their bodies did not undergo any mutations, nor did they use any special abilities.

They seem to be just ordinary wild animals.

The travelers' resistance gradually weakened; they found that the monsters seemed uninterested in them and dared not risk provoking them by firing their guns again.

A long, drawn-out roar came from afar, and the tracks of monsters emerged from the bushes, heading straight for the lake.

Rather, they were heading straight for the boy next to Jiang Wang.

Jiang Wang, who was already close to the boy, heard the beast's roar and his expression changed.

How could the travelers have been defeated so quickly?