At night, the Ancient Capital was under martial law. As the taxi drove along, towering city walls came into view.
The taxi driver was a shrewd businessman. He'd squeezed four passengers into his car, and they were packed like sardines as he drove toward downtown.
Xu Fang sat by the window, gazing at the endless walls stretching away like a mountain ridge. A flicker of awe crossed his face.
Beside him sat an old man wearing gold-rimmed glasses. Seeing Xu Fang's expression, he asked, "First time here?"
"Yeah."
Xu Fang sighed. "I've never seen such a vast Safety Zone. It's breathtaking."
"Of course it is! The Ancient Capital's outer wall was built under the leadership of a Forbidden Mage, with the help of countless Earth Element Mages, including Super Level Mages!"
The old man sounded rather proud.
Seeing his expression, Xu Fang tactfully asked, "Could it be that you, sir, also..."
"Ah, I just did my little part. Nothing worth mentioning, nothing worth mentioning!" The old man's words were modest, but the wrinkles on his face had bunched up like a blooming chrysanthemum.
Xu Fang's question had hit just the right spot.
The driver cut in from the front. "If you ask me, that's just cowardice. Hiding behind your walls like a turtle. If I were in charge, I'd gather up all the mages and go straight for the undead's lair. Wipe them out once and for all!"
The passengers all rolled their eyes.
What kind of clown was this, mouthing off about Forbidden Mages?
The old man had a fiery temper and didn't let him get away with it. "You're a real ungrateful bastard! The country went to all this trouble to build you a Safety Zone. What, you think they got it wrong?"
The driver shot back, "No matter how nice they make it, I still only earn a few thousand yuan a month. I can't even afford a house... Besides, people got along just fine before there was a Safety Zone!"
"Got along just fine?"
The old man's beard trembled. "Let me tell you something! Before the country was founded, the Ancient Capital had only fourteen kilometers of inner city walls, protecting the rich and powerful. Ordinary people had to live outside, never knowing when they might become undead fodder!
"Only after this outer wall was built, enclosing the entire Ancient Capital, and the Military Mages began patrolling night after night, could people like you sleep peacefully, without worrying that the undead would come killing at your doorstep in the dead of night!"
The driver stopped arguing, not because he'd suddenly seen the light, but because every other passenger was glaring at him.
He suspected that if he said another word, the others might gang up and beat him up...
Silence fell over the taxi for a while. Outside the window, the city wall stood before the dark clouds like a shield, a giant dragon protecting the people of the city.
Even if they'd grown used to it, even if they complained and took it for granted, the wall had always stood guard in silence, from beginning to end.
The undead were fairly quiet tonight, and the taxi reached downtown without a hitch.
The Ancient Capital was a sprawling metropolis steeped in history. It was just as bustling as Magic City, and the country bumpkin Xu Fang, used to living in Bocheng, could hardly take it all in.
He found an apartment hotel and checked in. The Undead Tide had badly affected tourism in the Ancient Capital, so even the big hotels were dirt cheap.
After leaving his things at the hotel, Xu Fang didn't go straight to bed. Instead, he went out alone and headed toward the nearest section of the outer wall.
Starting today, he'd be staying in this land of the undead for at least two years. He figured he might as well take a look ahead of time and prepare himself.
"What are you doing here?" a Military Mage barked.
"I'm a Hunter Mage with the Hunter's Alliance!" Xu Fang took out his ID, which bore the name Zhang San, and showed it to him. The Military Mage glanced at it, then waved him up onto the wall.
From inside, the outer wall looked like a towering iron barrel, tightly enclosing the city's bustle.
But standing on top of the wall gave him a completely different feeling.
The dark clouds seemed close enough to touch. The wind blowing toward him was icy, like a ghost breathing down the back of his neck, and carried the stench of dirt and rotting corpses.
The local Military Mages had a more vivid way of putting it: the smell of death.
Before Xu Fang could look around for long, a flash of light streaked across the sky. Someone on the wall shouted, "Everyone, get ready—!"
From the burial mounds out on the wasteland, hands burst through the soil, one after another. Then a horde of oddly shaped undead crawled out, their greenish eyes sweeping in every direction.
The next second—
Whoosh!
Every undead creature suddenly turned its head toward the wall. Their movements were no longer clumsy, and they charged forward at incredible speed!
From a distance, their black bodies looked like a crowd of refugees rushing toward food.
But as they drew near and packed together in a dense mass, chunks of rotting flesh could be seen dropping from their bodies, while black corpse oil stained the ground.
They became a flood of putrid flesh, wave after wave crashing into the wall. Their hideous faces and hungry eyes made countless mages' scalps prickle!
They had no vocal cords, but the black tide still sent wave after wave of terrifying deathly howls toward them.
The fastest undead had already reached the foot of the wall, trying to thrust their hands into its surface.
Some of the stronger ones even formed living ladders, piling atop one another so the others could climb over them.
"Attack!!!"
The field commander roared.
The next second, spells of every color rained down from above, bombing the undead without mercy. Black blood splattered everywhere.
"Fluorescence!"
Xu Fang held his star path in hand and swept out a vast curtain of light. The constant warmth radiating from his Fluorescence made the undead caught in it melt like snow beneath the blazing sun. Even the corpses serving as ladders were wiped out.
"A Hunter Mage? Or a student?"
The Military Mage closest to Xu Fang had noticed him. Seeing his youthful face, he paused in surprise. "Never mind. Since you're here, help us kill the undead. Watch your mana!"
Xu Fang nodded and raised his hand to cast another Radiance.
Then a third.
A fourth.
Gradually, everyone's attention turned toward Xu Fang, the Radiance he cast, and the empty stretch of ground in front of him. Their eyes darted back and forth between them.
They were bursting with things to say—Damn, that's incredible!—but didn't know where to begin.
A third of the mages stationed on the Ancient Capital's walls were Light Mages. Radiance was their signature spell.
But even though they'd seen Radiance countless times, they'd never seen one quite like this.
Its range was frighteningly large, and it packed a serious punch. Ordinary Black Rot Corpses were mowed down in rows like chives.
The Iron Skin Corpses, undead known for their defenses, couldn't be killed with a single blast of Xu Fang's Radiance.
But what nearly made everyone's eyes pop out was that the light didn't fade away on its own. Instead, it clung stubbornly to the Iron Skin Corpse, eating away at its body bit by bit.
A few Black Rot Corpses near it were disintegrated the moment they accidentally brushed against the lingering light.
"So... so powerful..."
A mage murmured.
Countless others felt the same, their hearts in turmoil. At that moment, Xu Fang was the hottest guy on that entire stretch of wall!
For those who fell asleep early, the night was short.
But for the mages on the Ancient Capital's outer wall, the night was as long and grueling as ever.
Xu Fang had already come down from the wall. Together with the other mages, he got a boxed meal from a steaming food cart and wolfed it down wherever he could find a spot.
"Is that enough? Get some more if you need it," said the Military Mage sitting beside him warmly. "We Military Mages get government subsidies. There's plenty to choose from, and you can eat your fill."
"That's enough, thanks, Squad Leader," Xu Fang replied.
The Military Mage smiled. "I saw how you did earlier. You're pretty impressive, kid!"
Xu Fang wasn't sure if he was simply praising him or had some other motive, so he responded by keeping his head down and eating.
"So... you look like a high school student, right?" the Military Mage asked, pretending it was just idle curiosity.
"I'm starting my second year this semester."
"Second year, huh? Great!"
The Military Mage slapped his thigh, his eyes lighting up. He immediately pulled out his phone. "Come on, let's add each other!"
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