Chapter 308
“Quick! The south gate is open, it’s safe that way—run!”
On the street, Chi Hao was helping evacuate the crowd.
He was in a section very close to the giant gorilla, and just looking at the massive beast made his scalp tingle with fear.
A creature that size must be at least seventh-tier, no—eighth-tier!
If it were only this one, the fortress could still rally a resistance. But now, there were at least five such monsters inside Qingmu Fortress!
The once-indestructible stronghold had been breached from the inside. They had no defense left—all they could do was flee.
As much as he hated to admit it, the situation was clear—
Qingmu Fortress has fallen!
“Where did these monsters come from?” Chi Hao asked through gritted teeth, eyes red. “How did they suddenly appear inside the fortress?”
He stared at the densest area of monsters—their headquarters, unmistakably.
By his side was his roommate, Mu Sheng.
Though they didn’t get along usually, the crisis forced them to put aside personal grudges.
“Could it be backlash from high-tier ability users?” Mu Sheng guessed.
“Huh? Backlash from five of them?”
Chi Hao didn’t buy it. “These monsters are all at least seventh-tier. A backlash weakens you by a tier—so that means we’re talking about five eighth or ninth-tier ability users going into backlash at the same time?”
“Do you really think that’s possible?”
Mu Sheng frowned. Logically, of course not. But he’d heard a rumor… something about the fortress recently acquiring a crystal mine…
“There’s no point discussing this now. Let’s get the people to safety first.”
Chi Hao pressed his lips together and stayed silent.
Watching the fortress fall, seeing the chaos of people fleeing in all directions, he felt like a huge stone was crushing his chest—he could hardly breathe.
A safe place? After leaving the fortress, where could possibly be considered safe enough to shelter millions from Qingmu Fortress?
He could already foresee the tragic future ahead…
[Friend “Eastern Sweet Tang” requests a voice call with you]
Chi Hao paused, walked a little distance away, and answered the call.
“An An?”
“Brother Chi Hao, I heard everything from Yunqing—Qingmu Fortress has been breached? Are you okay?”
Warmth spread through Chi Hao’s heart at those words.
Even though the fortress had fallen, he wasn’t too worried about himself. As long as he escaped, he could always run for a couple of months and reach Mount Jufeng, where his sister was.
As soon as things went south, he had already notified Hong Li and Xie Zhaori.
Hong Li told him to run. Xie Zhaori, after a moment of silence, told him to drop everything and meet them in Desolate City.
Chi Hao had considered leaving in the chaos, but seeing the terrified, helpless masses, he just couldn’t walk away.
In fact, he had an absurd idea—what if he led the refugees to Mount Jufeng?
His sister and Old Xie always said Desolate City was developing fast—the future of the wastelands, building a new world…
Maybe they could take in some refugees?
But then he remembered: it would take at least two months to get from Qingmu Fortress to Desolate City.
Could he really lead such a massive group through the mountains, surviving mutant creatures and natural disasters, and keep them safe?
Just then, Yunqing happened to contact him, and he shared the idea.
Yunqing said he’d look into it.
And now, it seemed he’d told An An…
Hong Li said An An was a senior member of the Commerce Church—maybe the church had some way to help them?
“I’m okay for now,” Chi Hao said briefly, summarizing the situation.
“Do you have a plan?” Tang Yu’an asked.
Chi Hao opened his mouth slightly, but before he could speak—
The sky darkened above him.
At the same time, a sharp screech pierced the air—shrill enough to pierce eardrums.
Chi Hao instinctively covered his ears and looked up.
A massive bird swept overhead, its wings casting a shadow like nightfall—it looked like the legendary Roc.
Screeching sharply, it flapped its wings, unleashing a hurricane to attack the people below.
The fleeing crowd near the south gate was forced to stop. People clung to whatever they could to avoid being blown away.
Even so, some weak children were swept into the air.
Chi Hao jumped up and grabbed one child mid-air. A vine shot up from the ground and wrapped around his waist, pulling him back down.
“Thanks.”
He returned the child to their family and casually thanked Mu Sheng, who had rescued him.
Mu Sheng, a wood-type ability user, was a rare offensive specialist. His plants couldn’t bear fruit, but they were excellent for combat.
“Let’s run too,” Mu Sheng said, looking at the massive bird. “We can’t beat that.”
If these monsters really were backlashed ability users, then the chance of regaining sanity was slim.
During backlash-induced beastification, they would attack all life indiscriminately.
Bracing against the hurricane, Chi Hao said with difficulty, “How are we supposed to run in this wind? Let’s find somewhere to hide first…”
But then, for some reason, he suddenly stopped mid-sentence.
Mu Sheng didn’t want to waste time. This kind of situation was beyond people like them to fix.
Right now, the only goal was to survive!
Seeing the giant gorilla drawn by the bird’s presence and moving their way, Mu Sheng was ready to bolt—
When Chi Hao suddenly grabbed his hand.
Mu Sheng tried to shake him off, only to see—Chi Hao was holding a pillow in his other hand?
The pillow was a deep purple-red, with intricate patterns, and looked surprisingly fancy.
“…Why are you holding a pillow?”
Chi Hao’s expression was just as strange.
“Let’s give it a try…”
“…What?”
“Tie everyone nearby together!”
The giant bird above flapped its wings again, summoning an even stronger storm than before.
Mu Sheng instinctively obeyed, releasing vines to tie everyone within dozens of meters together.
He thought Chi Hao meant to use their combined weight to resist the storm. For once, he thought Chi Hao had a smart idea.
But then—
Chi Hao suddenly lay down, resting the back of his head on the pillow!
When he saw what was happening, Mu Sheng was completely dumbfounded. Was now really the time for a nap? Or did Chi Hao think lying on the ground would keep him from getting blown away?
“The wind… seems to have weakened?”
Chi Hao, still clutching Mu Sheng’s ankle and sensing the force of the storm, said in surprise.
The pillow was actually working!
70% ability damage reduction—what kind of divine artifact was this?
That’s right—the pillow was the Purple-Red Sleep Pillow, which Tang Yu’an had given to Chi Hao through a portable storage after learning of his crisis.
Although the activation condition for this artifact was a bit strange, Chi Hao chose to trust Tang Yu’an in the heat of the moment.
And the wind had indeed lessened. Especially when compared to the distant scenes of buildings and debris being blown sky-high, the difference was glaring—
Because Mu Sheng’s vines had entangled at least a hundred people, and the Purple-Red Sleep Pillow’s protective radius was based on the user’s height.
And with the streets crammed with fleeing refugees, tight spacing meant lots of body contact.
At that moment, there were at least several hundred people physically connected.
Under the pillow’s protection, all of them only experienced 30% of the storm’s force. It was still strong, but no longer enough to blow people away.
The only downside? The pillow only protected living beings. Inanimate objects were still being hurled by the wind.
However, thanks to the 100% physical damage immunity provided by the pillow, even if something did hit them—it caused no harm.
Mu Sheng soon realized this too.
What was going on?
Suddenly, Chi Hao cried out, “Crap!”
Mu Sheng looked up—the giant gorilla was right in front of them, its massive foot about to stomp down on the crowd they had just protected.
If that foot landed, there’d be nothing left but a field of corpses. No one would survive.
Mu Sheng didn’t even dare to look—but before he could react, the gorilla’s foot had already fallen.
Screams rang out.
But—
The expected scene of blood and gore never came. When the gorilla lifted its foot again, the people underneath were completely unharmed?
Even the rampaging beast seemed momentarily confused.
It tilted its head, then stomped down again—this time, with even more force.
Screams erupted again.
Yet when the foot came down and people instinctively closed their eyes, they felt… nothing.
Opening their eyes, they saw the gorilla repeatedly stomping on them, even angrily grinding them down with its palm.
And yet—
They were completely fine.
After enough stomps, the terrified screaming began to die down.
At that moment, a voice amplified by a loudspeaker echoed through the eerily quiet street:
“Everyone group together! Group together! Only by sticking together will you be protected!”
Mu Sheng was stunned. He looked down and saw Chi Hao had pulled out a megaphone from who-knows-where, shouting instructions at the crowd.
“You…”
When did this guy awaken such a ridiculous power? Mu Sheng stared at Chi Hao, feeling like he didn’t even recognize him anymore.
People around who heard the announcement quickly grouped together.
Even though it sounded unbelievable, they had just seen it with their own eyes—no matter how hard the gorilla stomped, no one died.
What was there to doubt?
People further away couldn’t hear what Chi Hao was saying, but the grouping behavior had already begun radiating outward from his position.
More and more people entered the pillow’s protective range.
Seeing the situation stabilize a bit, Chi Hao finally let out a sigh of relief. At least some lives had been saved, right?
Just then, a familiar screen popped up:
[The Mysterious Merchant has updated the elite quest “Establish a New Branch Store”]
[Quest Description: Your moral conduct has been approved. Once your level reaches the requirement, you may establish a branch. Upon establishment and reaching Lv21, you may unlock the Guardian Barrier.]
[Quest Objective: Reach Level 20]
[Reward: Branch store rights, 1,000 points]
Seeing the updated quest, Chi Hao couldn’t help but smile.
Finally—I don’t have to suffer through that moral conduct test anymore!
Only…
How was he supposed to level up in his current state?
