News of the Evil Cult's invasion quickly spread throughout Shenzhou City.
This time, however, Shenzhou was not caught unprepared as Magic City had been. The crowds were evacuated as soon as the Evil Cult appeared.
Not a soul could be seen on the streets. No one knew whether an Evil Cult member might appear the next second and go on a killing spree.
On a deserted road, a man, a teenage boy, and a teenage girl in shabby clothing looked around with great curiosity.
The man looked distinctly displeased as he surveyed the surroundings. "Ji Mumu, what are you looking at?"
"Huh? I'm looking at the decorations here!" Ji Mumu wore a pair of damaged flying goggles on her little head. She muttered, "I've never been inland before!"
"Heh... inland. This is the place we've protected for so long. It's our home." The man gave a disdainful smile, though it was hard to tell what he was laughing at.
"Home? Isn't Ruined City our home?" Ji Mumu didn't understand what he meant.
The boy beside them spoke, his gaze cold. "Let's not talk about home for now. Uncle Kui Xing, why exactly did you bring us inland?"
The man was Kui Xing. He smiled and said, "I brought you here so you could get a good education."
"There's nowhere in Ruined City for you to gain knowledge. This is also a chance for you to broaden your horizons. What's so good about staying at the border and looking at those abominations every day?"
"At your age, you should be studying at an academy."
His words left Ji Mumu both surprised and delighted, but the boy's expression was dark and uncertain. He looked ready to turn around and go back.
"Uncle Kui Xing, can we really go to school inland? I'm afraid..." Ji Mumu looked down at her clothes, and her excited expression suddenly grew somewhat dejected.
The boy spoke up as well. "I don't want to study inland. This place doesn't suit me."
The two had only just entered the city, and they were already at odds.
"Mumu, appearances don't matter when it comes to studying. Besides, isn't there someone even scruffier right next to you?" Kui Xing discreetly pointed at the boy as he spoke gently.
"You!" The boy naturally knew who he meant.
But Kui Xing wasn't afraid. He simply ruffled the boy's hair and teased him.
"And you, Qi Hong, what's the use of thinking about fighting abominations all day? Spend more time learning how to control your abilities."
"You spend every day hanging around that tavern in Ruined City. Just how old are you?"
Qi Hong tossed his head haughtily and said no more, though his eyes wandered somewhere else again.
After all, they had simply spent too long at the border. Everything inland held an attraction for them.
Looking at the two children, who were still so young, Kui Xing couldn't help feeling a little wistful. But then he looked around, and his expression turned very strange.
"Huh? Has it been too long since I last came to Shenzhou City?"
He stared at the empty street, somewhat baffled. Under normal circumstances, it should have been packed with people right now.
Had everyone gone home to hide from an epidemic?
But that couldn't be right. There should at least have been one or two people around, shouldn't there?
Yet the three of them were the only people on the entire street. Everyone else seemed to have vanished.
"Uncle Kui Xing, why isn't there anyone here?" Even Ji Mumu had noticed something was different.
Perhaps something like this might happen in Ruined City at the border, but this was inland. And it was one of the country's major, well-known cities, yet now it was completely deserted.
Just as the three of them stood there bewildered,
A brilliant red flash appeared in the sky.
A flare had been fired.
Canglan Academy.
The streets were packed with students, all hoping to leave the academy.
Just moments ago, the academy had issued an announcement on their Student Badges.
[All students currently on academy grounds who are tested and found to have broken through the Dripping Water Realm and reached the Looking River Realm are permitted to leave and enter the academy to support the members of the Shenzhou City Special Affairs Bureau.]
[For the strength test, a Sequence Master will personally examine you at the academy entrance]
[Young people should have lofty aspirations]
[Everyone has the will to soar to the heavens; may calamity and suffering fall back before you!]
[And may your journey into the outside world this time be a success]
As he listened to the broadcast playing on a loop, Li Chen turned his gaze to the plaque bearing Canglan Academy's name.
"Lofty aspirations, huh?"
Su Zhe, who stood beside him laden with bags, spoke up. "Chen-ge, I'm ready!"
"This time, we're definitely going to take on the Evil Cult!!"
Jianping looked at Su Zhe as if he were an idiot. "We're not going out there to fight the Evil Cult directly. We're going to deal with the unrest inside Shenzhou City."
Almost all the Special Affairs Bureau's personnel had been sent to deal with the Evil Cult. Although the students were going out to provide support, they were still rookies who had never been on a battlefield.
If they were sent to deal with the Evil Cult's members now, even before they could make a move, large numbers of them would already have fallen.
"That's true. If I had to take on the Evil Cult right now, I really would be a little scared." Su Zhe scratched his head and spoke sheepishly.
"Let's go," Li Chen said. "It's time we saw just how much chaos Shenzhou is in right now."
The Sequence Master at the entrance discerned the auras of Li Chen and the others at a glance and let them through.
As they left the academy, they were each issued a temporary Special Affairs officer badge. That meant they were now Special Affairs officers, and any contributions they made during this period would be credited to them. They would even receive rewards.
Otherwise, so many students wouldn't have been clamoring to get out.
Luo Lin and Meng Xi hadn't come out with Li Chen and the others. They had gone off somewhere, apparently to take care of something.
This time, there were only the three of them.
"Chen-ge, where are we going first?" Su Zhe took a map of Shenzhou City out of his bag.
It wasn't that he was unwilling to use navigation on his phone. Su Zhe simply wanted to use a map.
Li Chen silently took out his phone and glanced at Su Zhe, whose head seemed to have something wrong with it. "We'll go to Shenzhou City's Neon District first. It's a street that's among the hardest for the Special Affairs Bureau to police."
"Now that the Special Affairs Bureau has withdrawn all its personnel and sent them elsewhere, there are bound to be small-scale dirty deals or even riots in the Neon District."
"Huh? Chen-ge, how do you know that?" Su Zhe looked utterly puzzled. He didn't remember Li Chen ever coming to Shenzhou City, and he was at Li Chen's side every day.
Jianping spoke calmly from beside him. "Does the map you're using have news reports?"
"What do you mean?" Su Zhe was a little confused.
But before he could think any further, Li Chen and Jianping had already walked away.