On another hilltop, five young people gathered on the top floor of a red pavilion. Watching the black river water rise to the threshold, their expressions grew increasingly grim.
"Even the ancestor's corpse can't suppress this river water." A trace of agitation flashed across the leading young man's face.
They had nowhere left to run.
Once the river water flooded the wooden building, the "clansmen" within it would immediately sense them. Then they would have to face an unending siege.
Endless, relentless, until death.
"We have to drag those three old fellows into the water. Otherwise, at this rate, we won't last until five days from now."
Five days marked one tidal surge.
After the tidal surge, the river water would recede, and they would be able to live another year. The Zhang Family had previously sent someone out to form an alliance by marriage with the Wu Family of Exterminating Evil Island, taking advantage of the opportunity window between tidal surges. That plan had indeed succeeded. During the time Zhang Junwei was married into the Wu Family, the Zhang Family had gone nearly twenty years without a Black Tide.
"It's all the Wu Family's good-for-nothings' fault. We gave them so many resources, and they only held out for twenty years."
Another young man cursed in exasperation.
"Once we get through this calamity, I'll definitely go level the Wu Family and take back every last dowry item."
"The outside may not be any safer than here. The Great Calamity has descended again."
"What's the point of saying all that? We should be thinking about how to resolve the crisis in front of us. Those three old fellows are hiding in the ancestral hall. The evil thought left behind by the ancestor is more effective there than the ancestor's corpse."
After