Chapter 1223: The Last Victim

A rumbling roar echoed from behind the rift.

Without the forceful support of the Turbid Disaster's roots, the gray rift suspended in the air began to close at a visible rate. The small roots clinging to the ground also rapidly retracted, pulling back towards the Bitter Flesh Turbid Forest.

Even now, the horror in everyone's eyes had not receded in the slightest.

Sun Bumian's kick just now, which seemed to pierce through heaven and earth, was like a brand etched into everyone's minds, impossible to shake off.

This was Chen Ling's first time seeing Sun Bumian fight with such an invincible posture. But if he clearly possessed the power to single-handedly destroy the world, why had he not shown any of it during the Era of the Nine Lords?

No, if one carefully compared Sun Bumian from both eras, it would be evident that during the Era of the Nine Lords, he seemed much more timid, constantly muttering about avoiding disaster if it didn't seek him out. When Chen Ling first met him, Sun Bumian would calculate where trouble might arise and hide far away, completely lacking the fearlessness he displayed in the current era.

Seeing the rift about to heal and the Turbid Disaster no longer able to strike across realms, Sun Bumian, still in the air, with a thought, quickly dispersed the power of reincarnation gathered around him.

His aura began to diminish, and his face visibly paled.

For the first time, pain flickered in Sun Bumian's eyes. After forcing himself to take a deep breath, his body swayed, and he stumbled out of sight from the air.

"We... survived?"

Fu Kun finally snapped back to reality, and a look of relief washed over his eyes.

The Turbid Disaster did not pursue them, nor did the other calamities from the Bitter Flesh Turbid Forest. They continued to approach the Mid-Levels Hotel under the protection of the starlight, and the suspended hearts of both the citizens and the escorting inheritors finally relaxed.

However, just as the rift was about to close completely, another anomaly occurred!

Just as everyone relaxed due to the Turbid Disaster's retreat, a slender root, like a bolt of lightning, shot out from the rapidly healing rift, tearing through the sky in an instant and flying precisely towards a certain direction in the crowd!

Its speed was astonishing, like a vengeful and furious avenger; even the air was instantly torn apart. By the time Chen Ling and Ying Fu reacted, the root had already shot towards the rear end of the queue.

"Oh no!" Chen Ling's heart sank.

At the same time,

Chu Changqing, who was being carried on Su Zhiwei's shoulder and slowly moving forward, suddenly felt a chill rise from the back of his neck, and an unprecedented sense of life-or-death crisis flooded his heart.

He had no time to think; his innate intuition as a half-treant made him react instinctively.

"Watch out!"

Chu Changqing exerted himself with a sudden force, pushing Su Zhiwei violently with his thick, treant-like arm. Already exhausted, Su Zhiwei was shoved away, stumbled, and nearly fell to the ground.

She was startled at first, then frowned and turned back.

The next moment, she saw the final root from the depths of the Bitter Flesh Turbid Forest wrap around the fallen Chu Changqing like lightning, enveloping his body and instantly pulling him back towards the rift!

"Chu Changqing!!!" Su Zhiwei and Lu Xun shouted simultaneously.

But the root's speed was incredibly fast and its strength immense. Even with Chu Changqing, the half-treant, enveloped, it showed no signs of slowing down. It spanned several kilometers, intent on pulling him back into the Bitter Flesh Turbid Forest.

A figure clad in a crimson opera robe dashed out rapidly!

Chen Ling pushed his speed to the limit, chasing madly after the root, countless questions flooding his mind.

He didn't understand... Why, even at this point, would the Turbid Disaster still target Chu Changqing? And judging by the posture, it seemed to want to capture Chu Changqing alive. What exactly did it want?

"Director Chen..."

Chu Changqing, wrapped in the root, looked at the rapidly pursuing Chen Ling through a narrow gap. A desire to survive flickered in his eyes, and he struggled to raise his treant-like arm, trying to reach out to Chen Ling.

Even with Chen Ling pushing his speed to the limit, he could only barely keep up with the root's retreating speed. He also raised his hand, desperately trying to grab Chu Changqing's receding figure...

But the next moment,

The root, with Chu Changqing's figure enveloped, retracted directly behind the rift.

The rift rapidly healed, eventually vanishing without a trace. Chen Ling's figure dashed past its former location, only to grasp at empty air.

The crimson opera robe fluttered in the air, and Chen Ling stood frozen.

Chu Changqing, one of the Nine Lords...

...was taken by the Turbid Disaster??

This was a situation Chen Ling had never anticipated. The situation, which had been improving thanks to Chen Ling's efforts, suddenly took a sharp downturn at this moment!

He had thought he had already saved several of the Nine Lords and established good relationships with them, but now everything had changed. With Chu Changqing taken by the Turbid Disaster, and Chen Ling, as he was now, utterly powerless to resist, and the convergence of the two worlds not yet officially begun, he wouldn't even have a chance to rescue him.

Heaven knew what Chu Changqing would experience in the Bitter Flesh Turbid Forest during this time. Would he live or die?

Although Chen Ling had speculated that everything in the era archives might be a preordained past, he had no evidence. If his interference truly altered Chu Changqing's fate, or even led to the death of one of the Nine Lords, then he would truly become a sinner for eternity.

"Chu Changqing..."

Chen Ling gazed at the emptiness before him and murmured to himself.

The underground facility.

Figures, guided by staff and military personnel, rapidly descended the expanded staircase into the underground.

In just over ten minutes, Sun Zhongliang had mobilized all movable lighting equipment within the base to illuminate the staircase, allowing all survivors to enter the shelter through it. Nearby medical personnel were frantically busy, continuously screening the seriously wounded from the crowd and bringing them down for rescue one after another. The influx of survivors, batch after batch, caused the entire underground facility to operate at overcapacity.

Sun Zhongliang stood in the stone corridor, watching one blood-soaked or dazed survivor after another being guided into the underground facility, his gaze incredibly complex.

"Is this all?"

"What?" The staff member next to him was startled.

"Up until now... are there really so few survivors?"

"...Yes, we only have this one emergency entrance."

"How many people have been admitted in total?"

"So far, a total of over twenty-four thousand." The staff member paused for a moment. "The casualties outside are quite severe, and during the evacuation, some severely injured or immobile individuals couldn't make it here..."

Only over twenty thousand people so far...

This number was far less than Sun Zhongliang had anticipated. He could almost visualize the hellish scene outside. What kind of disaster could have caused such horrifying casualties?

"...I'm going up to see," Sun Zhongliang suddenly said.