Chapter 102 Mutation
Vessels gleaming with blue radiance, massive in size, materialized above the skies of Zhenjiang City.
The appearance of the flying vessels resembled whales from the deep sea, indeed a sight of profound mystery.
These were the Giant Whale Skyships, the standard-issue flying artifacts of the Zhenjiang military.
Not only were they incredibly fast, but the interior of these ships also had powerful attack arrays inscribed within.
Once Spirit Stones were placed into these arrays, they could harness the Spiritual Power within the stones to unleash terrifying Water Attribute Spiritual Power waves.
The Giant Whale Skyships had always been the ultimate weapons of the Zhenjiang military for expeditions to annihilate the enemy!
Of course, powering such mighty artifacts required a massive number of Spirit Stones, too.
Therefore, unless necessary, Zhenjiang City would not easily deploy the Giant Whale Skyships.
But now, Zhenjiang City did not hesitate in the slightest to use up Spirit Stones, summoning all of the Giant Whale Skyships at the military's disposal.
With an aura of grim solemnity, the uniformly robed Zhenjiang military cultivators entered the various vessels in an orderly manner.
Not a sound was made through the process.
For cultivators who were by nature untamed, one could imagine how extraordinary this was.
Only the Great Xia Imperial Clan could nurture and afford an army of cultivators like this.
In just a moment, every Giant Whale Skyship was brimming with cultivators.
"Depart at once!" commanded the Nascent Soul Great Cultivator, Seven Kills True Monarch, his voice booming like thunder.
At the order of Seven Kills True Monarch, the Giant Whale Skyships instantly transformed into streaks of blue Radiance, sweeping out of Zhenjiang City and flying toward various Prefecture Cities in different directions.
....
Inside Zhenjiang City.
Gazing at the fading blue Radiance of the Giant Whale Skyships, Rakshasa spoke, "Asura lord, the Zhenjiang army has boarded the Giant Whale Skyships and has completely left Zhenjiang City."
Asura merely nodded, his voice ferocious, "Good! Good!
Issue the command, and after an hour when the Zhenjiang army is sufficiently far away, immediately commence the operation!"
"Yes, subordinate will prepare now!" Rakshasa said with fervent eyes, respectfully responding.
...
Among the urgent humming alert tones, Lu Qingshan rose and walked toward the chamber's sealed door.
But before he could manually open the door to the chamber, the heavily warded door had already slowly begun to open outward.
This was someone activating the gate from the outside world, using mechanisms set up earlier.
"What's the hurry?" Lu Qingshan was taken aback.
The purpose of such a mechanism was solely for emergencies during cultivation when someone might need assistance at greatest speed.
Disturbance during cultivation was greatly taboo for cultivators, so unless it was an urgent matter, this mechanism would not be triggered.
If it were merely the Black Ice Platform identifying the true identities of the Underworld Cultivators, requiring their intervention to capture the enemy, while urgent, it wouldn't be to this extent.
Could it be that some major incident has occurred?!
A sense of foreboding flashed through Lu Qingshan's mind.
The door opened, and what came into Lu Qingshan's view was the face of Xu Hao, except his expression was filled with urgency.
Behind Xu Hao stood all four members of Tiger Squad.
"Captain, what has happened?"
"The Netherworld has incited the Corpse Puppet Chaos in the major Prefecture Cities within Zhenjiang Prefecture. While the Mansion Master dispatched the Zhenjiang army to quell the chaos in the various Prefecture Cities, the Netherworld seized the opportunity to launch an attack on Zhenjiang Prefecture!"
Xu Hao succinctly explained the current situation.
Corpse Puppet Chaos?!
His words landed like a boulder in Lu Qingshan's heart, stirring up a storm of shock.
According to the course of history, the Corpse Puppet Chaos was not due to happen until the end of the year.
Now it was only September, and the Corpse Puppet Chaos had already erupted?
This timing was a full three months earlier than the original trajectory!
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This sudden change instantly disrupted all of Lu Qingshan's original arrangements.
He had intended to use his foreknowledge of future events to eliminate the Netherworld's arrangements and weaken its influence in Zhenjiang City by leveraging Zhenjiang Tower during the last period before the outbreak of the Corpse Puppet Chaos.
As the timing of the Corpse Puppet Chaos approached, no matter the situation, he would have left Zhenjiang City, the place of trouble, to safeguard his own wellbeing.
But now, everything had changed.
The premature outbreak of the Corpse Puppet Chaos also meant that he, who thought the chaos wouldn't occur until the end of the year, had not left Zhenjiang Prefecture and thus failed to avoid this significant plot event.
"Stop dazing, the Tower Master has ordered us to assemble and protect the evacuation of the citizens from Zhenjiang City!" Seeing Lu Qingshan lost in thought, not knowing what he was pondering, Xu Hao called out to him.
Evacuate?
Hearing Xu Hao's words, Lu Qingshan's mouth twisted into a bitter smile.
Having already experienced the Corpse Puppet Chaos once in his previous life, Lu Qingshan knew all too well that the Netherworld's plot against Zhenjiang City this time far exceeded what anyone else could imagine, both in scale and means.
Evacuation was just a naive thought at the start of the chaos.
The entire Zhenjiang City was enveloped by the Asura Blood Fiend Formation, a demon formation the Netherworld had set up at an unknown time and presumably for quite a while.
Under the huge barrier, not a single person could escape from Zhenjiang City.
It wasn't until a day later when the cultivators from Qing State rushed to Zhenjiang City after learning about the situation, that the chaos finally came to an end.
But it was already too late.
Zhenjiang City had turned into scorched earth.
If he remembered correctly, after this great chaos, the number of humans who survived in Zhenjiang City, including players, was less than one-tenth of the number before the chaos began.
It was a devastation, a blood-soaked massacre, a painful disaster!
Zhenjiang City would flow with rivers of blood, and all of this was just for the birth of a demon child.
Even as someone with a firm will like Lu Qingshan, facing such a prospect, his heart couldn't help but feel somewhat disheartened.
...
Putting aside the complex feelings in his heart for the moment, Lu Qingshan realized the urgency of the situation and did not dare to hesitate, following Xu Hao and the others immediately to head outside.
He quickly forced himself to adjust his mindset.
Let's first assess the current situation!
As that thought crossed his mind, Lu Qingshan also harbored another thought.
——With the change in the timing of the Corpse Puppet Chaos, could the situation within Zhenjiang City also have changed accordingly?
Perhaps, things are not as bad as they were in his previous life?
Following the crowd, Lu Qingshan, who still couldn't quite believe the situation, arrived above ground.
By this time, this place was already brimming with guards and cultivators.
This was also somewhat of good news. Explore more stories with empire
If it weren't for this mission, normally, the guards would be scattered in different places and would not have gathered in Zhenjiang Tower like they were now.
If it were the latter case, let alone thinking about reasonably allocating guards for various actions, even getting the six cultivators of the small teams to meet up would not be an easy feat.
A single cultivator acting alone is always less secure than several people looking out for each other.
The first thing Lu Qingshan did after coming up from the underground headquarters of Zhenjiang Tower to the surface was to quickly survey the current situation.
Under a dark and unclear sky, a gloomy firmament enveloped Zhenjiang City, beneath which swirled a dense layer of blood-red fog, constantly rolling and flowing.
Looking further into the distance, there once stood a district of densely-packed buildings.
But at this moment, those pavilions and buildings had turned into ruins, a complete mess.
Among the debris lay the bodies of dozens of fierce-looking beasts with blood-red pupils scattered haphazardly.
Blood-pupiled Demon Wolf, Eight-eyed Demon Spider, Twin-winged Demon Mantis...
With just a glance, Lu Qingshan recognized the names of these monsters.
All were demonic beasts raised by the Underworld Cultivators using Fiendish Demonic Qi!
But even though they were demonic beasts filled with malevolent energy, daring to wreak havoc around Zhenjiang Tower, a place crowded with strong cultivators, being beheaded was a just fate.
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