Once the beasts across Shangyuan City had largely been cleared out, the city soon returned to its former order. Hundreds of thousands of residents emerged from their homes, still shaken, greeting and embracing friends and neighbors. Shops lucky enough to have escaped the beasts' destruction gradually reopened, and the city slowly came alive again.
City Hall sent staff to survey damage to houses, roads, public facilities, and more, as well as to tally the casualties.
On Guan Lang's orders, the Patrol Defense Bureau left a small contingent in the city to maintain order.
Most of its personnel—nearly nine hundred—gathered their weapons and equipment and drove with Huang Tian toward the Wild Plains Mountain Range on the far northwestern outskirts. The journey was hardly peaceful, though. Once they left the city, beasts frequently appeared along both sides of the road.
Whenever they spotted one, they could hardly ignore it. They traveled in fits and starts, leaving personnel behind along the way. By the time they reached the vicinity of Wild Plains Mountain, dusk had fallen, and barely more than five hundred of the original nine hundred remained.
"It'll be dark soon. How about we rest tonight and enter the mountains tomorrow morning?" Guan Lang stood beside Huang Tian in front of an armored vehicle. He looked up at the fading sky, then toward the deep mountains, feeling distinctly uneasy.
"Sure." Huang Tian nodded. Day or night made no difference to him; he could see in the dark. The patrol officers could not. At night, it would be pitch-black, and they could barely see the path, much less clear away beast carcasses and clean up the battlefield.
With Huang Tian's agreement, Guan Lang clapped his hands and called to his subordinates, "We'll rest tonight. Apart from those on night watch, everyone get