Strange!?

"Damn it! Those beasts! I'll skin them alive!"

Jiang Fei glared at the woman standing atop the Second High School building and clenched his fists in fury.

The Second High School campus was utterly silent. The ground shifted faintly, and through the cracks in its surface, one could see Blood Veins spreading outward like snakes.

"Brother Fei, is there really no way to destroy this Blood-Sucking Array?" Chen Yun asked, unwilling to accept it.

Jiang Fei shook his head. "Unless we have a Seventh Realm Warrior..."

"Or we could've killed the people setting it up, consequences be damned, as soon as the first formation core activated!

But it's too late to talk about that now..."

Jiang Fei's voice was bitter. The enemy's six formation cores had activated at slightly different times.

If Qi Da had done whatever it took to kill the enemy when the formation core at First High School had just activated... perhaps only a few thousand people would've died.

It wouldn't have come to this...

But Qi Da couldn't be blamed. Who could've guessed that the enemy was setting up a Blood Sacrifice Array?

Besides, the enemy were the ones who'd caused this disaster. To blame your teammates for being softhearted instead of those beasts... what was wrong with you?

The ones who deserved the blame most were actually the Martial Suppression Bureau!

The enemy had been operating right under their noses for years, and even had a mole who'd risen to a high position!

The Martial Suppression Bureau, which was specifically responsible for internal affairs, hadn't noticed a thing?

This was a catastrophic dereliction of duty!

Even if they survived this, they'd probably be sent to the Outer-Heaven Battlefield to serve as cannon fodder, fighting until they died! Only then would they have atoned for their sins...

"Why did this suddenly happen..." Chen Yun murmured.

She realized there was nothing she could do now.

They'd planted the stele they'd brought from the Bureau around the perimeter of the Second High School, stopping the Blood Veins from spreading... but all it did was slow them down.

The people at the Bureau had already conducted a detailed analysis.

If nothing unexpected happened, they had three hours!

In three hours, the Blood Veins from all six Blood-Sucking Arrays would be able to spread across the entire city!

Then, in just a few more minutes, they'd drain the residents of Chenyang City into dried-up corpses...

"Are we really supposed to just watch... watch them..."

"Xiao Yun..." Jiang Fei patted Chen Yun on the shoulder, hesitating.

"If we'd taken over Chu Yuan's case a few days earlier, maybe we could've found out sooner..."

The Martial Suppression Bureau was fairly capable. They'd actually begun to suspect that something was wrong with Yan Xuan.

They just hadn't had a chance to act before all this happened.

The woman atop the Second High School building was in their intelligence reports, too. She'd met with Yan Xuan before and was one of his accomplices...

Chen Yun thought that if the Martial Suppression Bureau had taken over Chu Yuan's case sooner, they might have discovered Yan Xuan a few days earlier.

Jiang Fei shook his head. These people had been hiding in Chenyang City for years, with a mole covering their tracks... How could they have been found so easily?

They'd probably only had time to go looking for trouble with Chu Yuan because the formation had already been completed.

Even if they'd discovered them a few days earlier, the formation might simply have been activated a few days sooner...

"Wuwu..." Chen Yun buried her face in her arms and sobbed quietly.

Jiang Fei silently looked up at the woman on the roof, filled with helplessness.

"Wuu..."

The sobbing echoed in his mind, growing louder and louder until his frustration mounted.

"Xiao Yun, stop crying."

"..."

"Stop crying!" Jiang Fei couldn't help shouting. He didn't realize that his eyes were already bloodshot.

Chen Yun's trembling shoulders suddenly went still. Slowly, she raised her head and looked at Jiang Fei.

Her face was pale, and the corners of her lips curled into a bizarre smile. Her pupils had already been swallowed by black.

A hollow, shrill voice came from her lips, its echoes overlapping. "Brother Fei, I'm not crying. The one who's crying... is clearly you!"

Jiang Fei stumbled back two steps in disbelief, as if a bucket of ice water had been poured over him.

How could there... still be something strange here?

"Heehee..."

A pair of icy hands quietly covered his eyes...

Qi Da, of course, hadn't kowtowed to Yan Xuan.

He knew that even if he kowtowed until he left afterimages, Yan Xuan still wouldn't spare the teachers and students of First High School.

Otherwise, the people behind Yan Xuan would skin him alive...

Outside the school, a figure suddenly flew through the sky and arrived.

"Principal Qi!"

"Captain Ma?" Qi Da felt a wave of relief. He knew the newcomer: Ma Hui, from the Chenyang City Martial Suppression Bureau.

The Bureau had acted quickly. After all, though the whole process sounded complicated, it had only taken a few minutes...

"Quick! Save them first!"

Ma Hui had no time for pleasantries. He struck toward the school building with his palm!

Yan Xuan didn't stop him. He only watched with a cold smile.

After all, the moment Yan Xuan made a move, Qi Da would stop him. There was no point.

A cold wind swept past, and frost instantly covered the school building! Then came a series of cracking sounds.

Under everyone's watchful eyes, the enormous building suddenly collapsed like flowing sand! It turned into a cloud of crystalline dust that scattered through the air!

The teachers and students of First High School, trapped inside, lost their footing and fell from midair...

But a net caught them!

A net woven from crisscrossing Blood Veins... like a fishing net.

This was the Blood-Sucking Array itself!

The Blood Veins were densest around the school building, but the entire First High School campus was within the Blood-Sucking Array's range!

Ma Hui wasn't surprised. When it came to understanding the Blood-Sucking Array, he was definitely far more knowledgeable than Qi Da.

He struck again, splitting a huge gap in the net, and a tremendous surge of energy swept everyone inside out.

"Tch. Clinging to life..." Yan Xuan sneered again.

Ma Hui was the head of the Chenyang City Martial Suppression Bureau. He was a little stronger than Qi Da, but still only at the Fifth Realm.

He couldn't shake the Blood-Sucking Array!

Ma Hui knew that, of course. All he'd done was move the people from the area where the array's draining force was strongest to a somewhat weaker area.

The array had already marked them. Moving them out of the school now wouldn't help!

But... every extra moment they lived was worth something.

Qi Da hurriedly whispered, "Captain Ma! What do we do now? Give us a plan!"

Ma Hui shook his head, his voice heavy. "Our only option is to focus our strength and break out, saving a group of people for the future..."

"Bullshit! How many people can you get out by breaking through? What about everyone else?

"You have so many experts in the Martial Suppression Bureau! And the military has plenty of experts, too! You're telling me you can't deal with them?!

"Besides, if we break out, can't we just ask the higher-ups for help?" Qi Da immediately pointed out a whole host of flaws in Ma Hui's words.

"Then let me ask you: if you were in their shoes, would you send only one person to handle such an important formation?"

"...No."

"Exactly."

"So where are the others?"

"Outside Chenyang City... blocking the exits..."

"Blocking the exits!? Then what's the point of breaking out?

"If we can't get through as we are, how are we supposed to make it out by bringing a bunch of dead weight along?"

"Tsk..." Ma Hui looked helpless. "Wouldn't it sound better if I explained it more gently? Just think of it as breaking out..."

Qi Da understood. Basically, they'd hide for now, then carry out their "breakout" after the Day of Vengeance finished sacrificing Chenyang City and left...

At that moment, Chu Yuan stared blankly at the sky.

The other five pillars of light, along with the one above First High School, were all bending toward a central point.

It was as if they were about to join together, like five fingers closing into a fist.

Without a doubt, something even more terrifying would happen once it was complete!

To make matters worse, Chu Yuan realized that one of the pillars of light seemed to be very close to his home...