A Night of Desperation

Chapter 372: Tide 370 Wave 4

At this moment, the guards standing outside the car window saluted the passengers and allowed them to pass.

Yu Hong noticed that one of them had three Spirit Talismans on his chest that Yu Hong himself had enhanced.

It seems that these three types of Spirit Talismans had become quite widespread.

The car slowly passed through the Black Wall defense line, which effectively linked the Spirit Station buildings into a ring.

Passing through here meant entering the defensive range of the Spirit Station.

As soon as they entered, the four people inside the car could clearly feel the difference.

The gray fog in the air was much lighter than outside.

If the gray fog around the Heavenly Pillar above the sea was a ten, then the fog in other areas of Taizhou was a three.

And the fog within the defensive range of the Spirit Station was only at one.

"What is the principle behind this?!" Qing Huang, noticing such a stark difference for the first time, asked in disbelief.

"There are quite a few magicians gathered inside the Spirit Station, all experts from our Spirit Light Mutual Aid Alliance. The convergence of Spirit Light, resonating with one another, creates an unseen influence field. This field restrains the encroachment of the gray fog from the Spirit Disaster," Yu Hong explained simply.

Of course, he didn’t say that within the Spirit Light was an element of the Light Disaster—the Cosmic Divine Light—that when concentrated, also emits slight radiation from the Light Disaster, which is fundamentally at odds with the Black Disaster and also seems to have a certain resistance against the Spirit Disaster.

"Now it seems, Spirit Light secret techniques are not some evil, secretive skills; they are actually life-saving medicine!" Yu Hen sighed.

The car continued on its way.

Along the way, they encountered more pedestrians, both patrolmen and ordinary people, bustling about the streets—almost resembling Taizhou before the outbreak of the Spirit Disaster.

Yu Hong also saw many people gathered near the military’s temporary command center by the Taoist Temple, fervently discussing something with the representatives in charge.

"Some people over there want to go out and bring their relatives in. But the rule here is that once you are in, you are not allowed to leave at will. Everything is distributed by the military on a quota basis. This is a common occurrence," Yu Hen informed them.

Yu Hong nodded but said nothing.

Through the car window, he unexpectedly spotted Gao Wen and Song Siyu, two acquaintances he had met since arriving in this world.

Both of them stood beside their parents, in the crowd, negotiating with military personnel.

They were just part of the crowd, which had gathered at least thirty to forty people, but fortunately, everyone was just talking and didn’t resort to violent actions.

Yu Hong didn’t greet them; he had no time for that now.

Entering the Taoist Temple, the steadfast Zheng Ming quickly came out to greet them with his men.

Along with him were Vice Mayor Xu Jianfeng, military representative Chen Ning, and Liu Shanhe, the chief commander of the military magicians.

"Master Yu, you’re finally back. The situation is grave; we must be ready to shrink our defensive line!" Vice Mayor Xu Jianfeng, with a serious look on his face, hurriedly approached as soon as the car door opened.

"Let’s talk inside," Yu Hong said, noticing his expression and the ashen faces of Liu Shanhe and the others, already having a rough idea of the situation.

He was the first to get out of the car, leading everyone into the courtyard of the Taoist Temple.

In the courtyard, the incense burner had been moved aside to make room for a makeshift command tent.

Inside the tent, a projector was on, casting a map of the entire Taizhou region from a satellite onto the screen.

Walking in, Xu Jianfeng picked up a command rod and pointed to three locations on the map.

"After we received the Spirit Disaster information you risked gathering, we immediately sent people to verify it. We’ve confirmed that three places—Jinqiao Town, Dragon Mountain Town, and a third location—are infested with the Gold Armor Dragon-Headed monsters you described."

"How many are there?" Yu Hong asked as he sat down.

"At least a thousand at each site."

"What?!" Yu Hong was shocked, his eyes widening as he abruptly stood up again.

"Yes, you heard right. We’ve lost many magicians just to get an accurate count. There are no fewer than a thousand Gold Armor Dragon-Heads, and at least five thousand Silver Armor Snake-Heads. As for the number of Carriers and Walking Corpses, there are too many to count. Right now, the area in these three directions has been sealed off, and the military is only keeping a few highways to the outside world open."

"How could there be so many?!" Yu Hong couldn’t understand. Apart from Huangsong Island, the other two directions shouldn’t have that many Dragon-Headed creatures.

"It must be because other cities nearby have collapsed, and their monsters have migrated here..." Liu Shanhe, the military magician representative, sighed. "Several of my magicians have just returned from other provinces.

Now their airports have stopped operating, and only two railways are still functioning. The fog has curtailed most means of transportation. Many places have lost communication signals. It’s complete chaos out there. Taoist Sects are overwhelmed with their own troubles, with each branch trying to protect itself. But many small forces can’t withstand the Spirit Disaster at all and have suffered devastating casualties..."

"It’s exactly that. Currently, Luancheng is in disarray, and everyone is contracting their forces to defend their small territories," military representative Chen Ning confirmed with a nod.

"Commander Chen, has there been any specific directive from above?" Yu Hong frowned and looked at him. He was unaware of the Taoist Sects’ situation, but the military hierarchy couldn’t possibly be inactive.

Chen Ning represented the stationed sixty thousand Yasong National Defense Army in Taizhou, including both the navy and the army. There had to be directives for so many troops.

"There is an order, but it’s just for us to stay put and wait for further commands. And this order came more than ten days ago; there hasn’t been any additional directive," Chen Ning shook his head. "I’ve tried multiple times to contact higher authorities, but I can’t get through."

"The Capital is a primary target area for the Seven Evil Alliance, surrounded by twelve Yin Qi Sky Pillars... They’re too overwhelmed to care about you all," Qing Huang abruptly interjected with an explanation.

"....!" Twelve Yin Qi Sky Pillars.

Several people looked at each other in dismay, no one spoke again; if this was true, the chaos everywhere could be understood....

Clearly, the danger and trouble the national core seemed to face was much greater than they had imagined.

"This many... our Spirit Stations can’t hold." Yu Hong was carefully looking at the projected map at this moment.

Comparing the defensive forces with the number of Spirit Disaster Monsters in his mind.

"Master, about the sanatorium..." He turned to Yu Hen.

"We’ve lost contact, can’t get through for now, but it should be soon; according to the schedule, by tomorrow, we should be able to...." Yu Hen replied.

Yu Hong stood up and paced back and forth a few steps.

"Excluding possible support from the Taoist Sect, how much power do we have on hand now?"

"Against the Spirit Disaster, ordinary weapons are useless, firearms are only a bit effective against the Walking Corpses. So, not counting the soldiers, the real power we can use comes from over three hundred people from the Mutual Aid Alliance plus the Taoist Temples." Yu Hen answered. "These three hundred people are now spread out across the entire black wall defense circle of the Spirit Stations, guarding all vehicle and pedestrian traffic in and out."

"How is the grading system coming along?" Yu Hong asked.

"Based on the classification and levels you provided, plus past combat achievements, we’ve preliminarily sorted them into danger levels one to nine, including five people in Level Nine, forty-three in Level Eight, sixty-six in Level Seven, and the rest are Level Six and below."

"For War Level, which corresponds to Temple Master Level, we only have Mr. Qing and Zheng Rou, the two of you. Our strength in high-end powers is too weak. If multiple War Level powers attack, the situation could collapse."

"Have you included Spirit Light in the calculations?" Yu Hong asked.

"No, we need specific test data to...."

Yu Hong fell silent for a few seconds.

"Based on the amplification of Spirit Light, adjust everyone’s average assessment level up by one."

"Okay." Yu Hen nodded, "Additionally, regarding supplies, thanks to your early warning, I’ve stocked up quite a lot, so there are no major issues. Commander Chen has also prepared over a dozen large warehouses, more than enough to last for several months. The only key issue now is, when we actually come into contact and clash, whether the black wall defense circle of the Spirit Stations can hold."

"Relying on these three hundred plus Magicians, even if all of them are Spirit Light Magicians, it’s going to be hard." Yu Hong shook his head. "But you need to consider that they aren’t only focusing their attack on one place. The power of the Spirit Disaster is dispersed, so what we need to counter is not all of it, but rather just one part of it."

As they were talking, someone suddenly rushed in from outside at a quick pace.

"Trouble’s here!!"

It was Cheng Shu, who wore a fitted military uniform, her complexion pale, forehead sweaty, as she loudly announced while lifting the tent flap.

"The Spirit Disaster at Jinqiao Town has started moving towards the city district! It’ll collide with our northern Spirit Station’s black wall defense circle in about five minutes!"

"Shall we all go take a look?" Yu Hong said in a deep voice.

He had done as much as possible to enhance the local Magicians’ strength; now, it was time to test whether his preparations worked.

It would be sufficient just to hold back the mid- and low-level creature wave; the higher-level ones couldn’t rely on these measures.

As for how to deal with those top-tier troublemaker monsters, he already had a plan in mind.

Since the Seven Evil Alliance was causing trouble, it was time to wipe them out in one fell swoop, show themselves to stop the loss. While these people were busy clashing heads with the Taoist Sect, a surprise attack from behind would do the trick.

Then, go finish off the Taoist Sect’s high-ranked fools who have crap for brains, infect them all with Spirit Light, and forcefully take control.

He was thoroughly fed up with this world that clearly had the strength but always took things lightly.

"Let’s go."

Leaving Yu Hen and Chen Ning to coordinate the overall situation, the rest quickly drove to the northern Spirit Station.

By the time the car arrived, many civilians had already gathered here.

They came by car, on foot, and were all looking for high ground, trying to look out beyond the black wall.

However, the over five-meter-tall black wall completely blocked everything from the outside.

Only a very few could climb onto nearby buildings, but these climbers weren’t Magicians and could only see densely packed Walking Corpses with grey patterns stumbling towards the black wall across the scorched flat ground outside.

These Walking Corpses alone were enough to cause cries of alarm from the people inside the black wall, their faces ashen, with many women breaking down in tears on the spot.

Yu Hong and his group quickly climbed to the third floor of the Spirit Station under the saluting soldiers at the wall and looked outside through the reinforced windows.

"This area outside used to be a wooden bungalow district, which was decisively ordered to be burnt down by Mayor Xu, only then repelling an attack by the Walking Corpses." Chen Ning explained, obviously not his first encounter with these Walking Corpses. Looking at the horde of Walking Corpses outside, his expression was not good.

"These Walking Corpses, referred to as Heavenly Soldiers in the illusions of their higher-level monsters, seem slow from afar, but their speed increases explosively when they get close.

They’re very strong, averaging around two to three times the strength of an adult male. Normal bullets don’t do much to them, unless you completely blow their bodies apart, they can still get up and charge."

"Let’s not hurry; let our brothers and sisters from the Mutual Aid Alliance give it a try." Yu Hong said.

Yu Hen beside him nodded, whispered a few instructions to the stationed Magicians from the Mutual Aid Alliance here.

Soon after, a group of black-clothed Magicians leaped down from the top of the black wall.