Dawn broke, and a new day began.
But countless people would never see it.
Cities across the country, once bustling with life, had lost all their former vitality.
Instead, swarms of Mutated Creatures roamed through residential neighborhoods and along the streets.
Countless survivors hid in the shadows, waiting for rescue in despair and terror.
After a night of rescue efforts by the Imperial Army and numerous Super Martial Artists, more than 800,000 survivors had been saved in Yun City, though the losses had been devastating.
Yun City had originally been home to ten million people. Seventy percent had mutated, and of the remaining three million or so, more than two million had likely died at the hands of Mutated Creatures.
The Imperial Army had managed to rescue more than 800,000 people in a single night. It was clear they had done everything they could.
The Imperial Army's shelter in Yun City had been built in the eastern suburbs.
It covered five million square meters and was surrounded by walls three hundred meters high.
It could hold so many survivors because it had nine underground levels.
Inside the shelter, in the central conference building,
the surviving officials of Yun City sat around a long conference table in the luxurious hall, watching the satellite projection screen at the center.
At the head of the table sat a stern-looking middle-aged man in uniform, two stars on his shoulders.
The others were also dressed in military uniforms. Men and women alike wore grave expressions.
They had used satellites to scan the entire city.
To their horror, they discovered that there were more than thirty million Mutated Creatures in total.
They were spread across every county, district, and town in the city...
Mutated humans were relatively rare; insects, animals, and birds made up most of them.
Rats and ants were especially numerous.
Quite a few towns nestled against the mountains had already become genuine ghost towns. The satellites couldn't detect a single survivor.
Things could have been worse.
In Gu Qijue's previous life, only two or three hundred thousand people had survived in all of Yun City.
Among them, there had been only two or three thousand Super Martial Artists.
Thanks to Mu Qingxue's warning after her rebirth, the Imperial Army had been prepared and rescued twice as many survivors.
Gu Qijue had survived for eight years amid such a high death toll largely through sheer luck.
"General, what kind of tree is that? It's growing far too quickly. It hasn't even been three minutes, and it's already two hundred meters tall..."
Lin Manjiao, head of the Satellite Department, split the satellite projection into nine screens. A towering tree appeared on each one.
Both the trunks and leaves of these trees were deep blue.
The fruit covering their branches resembled red apples. It gradually ripened from deep blue to red, glowing faintly.
Countless Mutated Creatures surged toward the mysterious giant trees like a tide.
There were so many that anyone with a fear of clustered objects might faint at the sight.
Creatures in the sky and crawling across the ground had all been drawn by the scent of the fruit, which grew stronger as it ripened after the trees reached full height.
A Mutation Tree had also sprouted in the center of Yun City.
It grew beneath the morning sun.
Countless Mutated Creatures gathered around it, seemingly waiting for its fruit to ripen...
The Imperial Army's senior officers in the conference hall stared at the images on the screen, their scalps tingling.
"What kind of tree is that, and what kind of fruit? How can it draw in every Mutated Creature within ten kilometers?"
A man with one star on his shoulder asked, his blood running cold.
He was Vice General Ye Zhanguo.
"Mu Qingxue should know. I'll contact her and ask!"
General Lin frowned slightly and used the satellite to contact Mu Qingxue.
A moment later, the call connected, and Mu Qingxue's voice came through:
"General Lin, did you contact me to ask what the nine trees growing in Yun City are?"
"They're Mutation Trees. Their fruit can be consumed by both Super Martial Artists and Mutated Creatures. For the former, it can raise their Super Martial rank; for the latter, it can trigger rapid evolution. They're extremely important to us."
"Also, I'm already leading all the Super Martial Artists toward the Mutation Tree in the city center. General Lin, could you bombard the area around that tree?"
Having lived through a previous life, Mu Qingxue knew exactly what the city center was like now.
She had just been about to contact Lin Zhengxiao and ask him to saturate the area around the Mutation Tree in the city center with rocket fire.
Lin Zhengxiao smiled. "As soon as I saw that the area within ten kilometers was crawling with Mutated Creatures, I had the same idea. I'll await good news!"
After ending the call with Mu Qingxue, General Lin immediately ordered ten thousand rockets to bombard the area around the Mutation Tree in the city center.
At the same time, on the rooftop of a building over ten stories tall, two kilometers from the Mutation Tree in the city center,
Gu Qijue stood at the head of the group, watching from afar with White Fox, Zhao Hu, Ji Shang, and ten other Super Martial Artists.
They were the only ones who dared get this close. Without Gu Qijue and White Fox there, Zhao Hu, Ji Shang, and the others would already have been torn apart by the endless Mutated Creatures.
Deng Tian stared in amazement. "That tree is enormous. Its branches cover an area a li across..."
"With a sea of Mutated Creatures surrounding it, how are we supposed to pick the fruit? Even if we brought snakeskin sacks, we couldn't gather much."
Tang Huang stared at the Mutation Tree, which held at least several thousand fruits, wishing he could claim them all for himself.
Gu Qijue said calmly, "We'll pick as many as we can. The lure of these fruits is so powerful that even Mutated Creatures won't retreat for me, the Calamity-tier ceiling. To them, the fruit is as irresistible as white powder to an addict."
He had never intended to claim the entire Mutation Tree for himself.
There were so many Mutated Creatures that even if he killed them one by one, he'd never finish them all.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh—
Just as Gu Qijue finished speaking, several shadows leaped across the rooftops, passed over all the Mutated Creatures, and landed beneath the Mutation Tree.
Awooo! Grrr!
The Mutated Creatures surged like a tide, roaring at the four figures, but none dared charge them.
At the mere glance of those figures, the Mutated Creatures nearby whimpered and backed away.
"Those are... the Aberrant Creatures we encountered earlier. There are four of them..."
White Fox sucked in a sharp breath.
The four figures beneath the Mutation Tree were indeed Aberrant Creatures.
Aside from their skin color and claws, they were almost identical to the one they had encountered earlier.
Two of the four Aberrant Creatures had black skin and four claws, while one had golden skin and six claws.
They all emanated an eerie, sinister, and evil aura.
In the early stages, human Super Martial Artists stood no chance against Aberrant Creatures. Even Saint-tier Super Martial Artists would be slaughtered. If you encountered one, you were as good as dead. They were absolutely not to be provoked.
"You stay here. White Fox, come with me!"
Gu Qijue showed no fear. If anything, he seemed faintly excited.
Devouring an Aberrant Creature was even more nourishing than devouring a Calamity-tier creature.
With that, he beckoned White Fox to leap across the rooftops with him.
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