pertwk Chapter 2330 Empty City
Chapter 2330 Empty City
Chapter 2330 Empty City
The State of Shen is located more than 500 li to the northwest.
Below, there is a dense forest with swaying tree shadows.
The crane demon landed on the hillside, bowed to He Lingchuan, and went off to forage for food.
After a long flight of tens of thousands of miles, and especially after two days and one night without rest, they were indeed quite tired.
Ten miles north of here lies Shaocheng.
He Lingchuan didn't want to attract the attention of the local bullies, so he disembarked early and changed roads to proceed.
Judging from Liu Qingdao's description, the Earth Mother must be a monster with exceptional talent in earth and soil, so it's best not to use the snail-toad to advance, lest you alert her.
Dong Rui first released bats as scouts to scout the city.
Which city doesn't have bats? These little creatures are natural scouts.
About half an hour later, the bat flew over and landed on Dong Rui's shoulder.
They had a peculiar way of communicating. Dong Rui was visibly taken aback after listening to this, and said to He Lingchuan:
"Let's just keep moving forward, there's no need to hide anymore."
He Lingchuan frowned: "What, has the Earth Mother already left?"
They arrived as quickly as possible, but found nothing?
“There’s nobody in the city.” Dong Rui was also puzzled. “It’s a ghost town; there’s nobody even in the townships.”
"Nobody? Nobody alive?"
"No, there's nobody here!"
He Lingchuan's curiosity was piqued as well: "Let's go take a look."
At a pace of three people, Shaocheng arrived in the blink of an eye.
This is a lakeside town, nestled against the mountains and beside the water, with a very good geographical location.
He Lingchuan had glanced at the city from the hillside and, judging from its size and building density, the population should be over 100,000, making it a medium-sized city.
If you include its affiliated townships and counties, the population is around 300,000.
The three did not enter the city through the main gate, because the gate had collapsed. Aunt Zhu stood on the ruins of the city wall, examining them:
"It looks like it was crushed by some huge object."
The city wall was not only reduced to ruins, but also firmly pressed into the ground. The thick and hard bricks were shattered into dust, which was scattered everywhere.
This is not an effect that can be achieved by human effort.
Dong Rui gave an analogy: "Is it like the Flying Peak that Qixia Sect blocked the Luohe River?"
If Feilai Peak were to press down on this city wall, wouldn't the result be the same?
Without a wall, they went straight into the city.
Everywhere was a mess; delivery trucks lay overturned, and building doors and windows were broken. Aunt Zhu walked to a broken wall, examined it for a moment, and said with certainty, "This was broken by brute force. Something crashed through the wall and snatched the people inside."
The wooden table in the room was overturned, and there were two bloody handprints on its edge. Clearly, someone in the room had been dragged and grabbed the corner of the table in a moment of panic.
As for what will happen in the end, just look at the street scene.
Aunt Zhu added, "The handprint is very small; it belongs to a child."
Dong Rui's voice came from outside: "Oh, there's half a human hand here!"
He found half an arm in the stables behind an inn.
“An adult male, doing manual labor, probably a groom.” He could tell at a glance. “Judging from the cross-section, it was torn off. Looking at the row of teeth marks on the back of his hand, it must have been caused by the teeth of wolves. It wasn’t just one wolf tearing at each other, and they were all quite large.”
"The haystack is full of blood. This person must have been eaten alive, which happened more than twenty hours ago. Wolves fight each other to eat, they don't wait for their prey to die before they bite." Just as Dong Rui was about to draw a conclusion, Ghost Ape snorted, rummaged through the haystack a few times, and pulled out several pieces of dark, tattered leather, full of tooth holes, and two pieces of horse tail covered in blood.
There are differing opinions.
“…Oh, I see, I see!” Dong Rui could only correct him after hearing his words, “Not only people, but the horses and dogs here were also eaten. Speaking of which, my bat said there was no living thing in the city, not to mention not a single chicken or dog was left, not even a rat was seen. Oh, and there were a lot of feathers.”
Indeed, feathers can be found in all sorts of nooks and crannies, in all colors and sizes.
"It seems there are still quite a few bird demons."
He Lingchuan inspected more than a dozen houses before returning, his face grave.
"There wasn't a complete corpse, but we found fragments of clothing and hair, as well as two or three heads and several pieces of scalp. You wouldn't believe it, the place with the most bloodstains is often the cellar!"
In other words, the city's residents were powerless to resist and could only hide in the cellar, but they were still found by the enemy and killed on the spot!
With nowhere to escape in the cellar, how desperate must these people have been before they died?
They stood in the middle of the street, looking around. How could the word "desolate" even begin to describe this place? The mountain wind blew through the broken tiles and crumbling walls, its mournful sound like the wailing of ghosts.
Dong Rui hissed, "Tu Cheng, that's too ruthless."
Massacring innocent civilians was something even the local strongmen and bandits of the Gold Plains rarely did. After all, people are the most important productive force; if all the civilians were killed, who would they rob and eat?
“The Earth Mother has a notorious reputation; she eats people, and her minions eat people too.” He Lingchuan and the others walked along the main street. “We just don’t know what the Earth Mother is doing here after leaving her original lair, the Silent Mountain. Also, we don’t know if Xi Yu and the other two gods have been here.”
Shaocheng had become a ghost town. The three of them, along with Dong Rui's demonic puppet, patrolled the city for half a day but found no useful clues.
Just as He Lingchuan was about to leave, Dong Rui's No. 66 suddenly let out two low growls and rushed into the alley.
"There's something here!" Dong Rui immediately followed.
Number Sixty-Six disappeared into the alley, stopped at the door of a house at the deepest part, sniffed twice, and then jumped inside.
As the three followed, they heard a scream—
Number Sixty-Six rushed into the cellar and actually dragged out a living person!
The man looked to be in his thirties, lean and dark-skinned. He struggled frantically under the claws of number sixty-six, his screams filled with terror, as if he were about to be torn to pieces in the next second.
However, standing in such a city, everyone thought his fear was justified.
Number Sixty-Six released its claws at Dong Rui's signal.
The man immediately shrank to the corner of the wall, trying to jump over and escape, but was gently pulled back by a single spider silk from Aunt Zhu.
"Help!" He cried out as soon as he saw the hideous spider demon, covering his head and not daring to lift it. "Spare me! Great Kings, spare me!"
Seeing him cry hysterically, He Lingchuan sighed, took two steps forward, and used his body to block his view of the Spider Queen:
"Don't be afraid, we won't kill you."
These words were spoken with great force, each syllable reaching the other person's ears with a strange, comforting power.
This is also a supernatural power that can resonate with the emotions of the audience. The Nine Nether Emperor usually only uses it to inspire people, but now it is to calm the other party down.
These seven short words, like a Buddhist mantra, warmed the person's heart and even eased their fear.
He snapped out of his state of shock and stared intently at the humans and monsters before him.
(End of this chapter)