The Predicament

He clenched his fist and charged outside without much hesitation!

At the school gate, a flash of red light appeared, and a curtain of blood suddenly rose before him.

Chu Yuan punched it. The blood curtain shuddered, then settled back into stillness...

Ma Hui hadn't run into this barrier when he came because Yan Xuan knew it couldn't stop him and hadn't wanted to waste the strength.

But Chu Yuan was different...

"Principal!"

Qi Da understood. He punched the blood curtain.

A passage several meters wide opened, and Chu Yuan slipped through without hesitation...

"What's he doing?"

"I don't know, but he's not going to abandon us in the middle of a fight." Qi Da replied irritably, "If you can't do anything either, then why did you come? To stand here and stare into space with me?"

"Didn't I say? I'm here to get a group of people out."

"You're really going to do that?" Qi Da resisted the idea.

Chenyang City had limited forces. If they had to spare some of them to preserve these so-called seeds of survival, then they wouldn't have enough strength on the front lines!

Without anyone to hold them back, Chenyang City would fall even faster!

After all, the Blood-Sucking Array would meet some resistance when extracting the essence from living people. But if Warriors also joined in the slaughter...

Yan Xuan, that bastard, had no idea how many accomplices he had. But they'd been lurking and laying plans in Chenyang City for so long that they'd already figured out how its forces were distributed!

It didn't take a genius to realize that the enemy had deployed more fighters than Chenyang City had.

Otherwise, why would Ma Hui still be here wasting time talking to him?

He'd have gone out to seek help already!

Great Qin was vast, but not that vast to a Seventh Realm Warrior.

If the Seventh Realm Warriors in Yunan Prefecture knew what was happening in Chenyang City, they could arrive in two minutes... Unfortunately, no one knew.

"Now that things have come to this..."

With Smoke-Drifting Steps running at full force, Chu Yuan raced down the street like a blur.

The streets had descended into chaos, too. Many people with twisted expressions had rushed out and were attacking indiscriminately.

They weren't very strong, mostly at the Blood-Qi Realm, with the strongest only at the Impermeable Realm.

But there were simply too many of them...

After crossing just one street, Chu Yuan had already seen more than a dozen people like that.

But he didn't have time to deal with them. He just hurried home as fast as he could.

Only after he'd used up nearly half his Spiritual Power did he finally reach his apartment complex.

Hearing the screams from inside, Chu Yuan's heart sank again. He ran downstairs in a few strides.

Then he climbed up the outer wall and slipped into the house through his bedroom window.

Fortunately, he was in the habit of keeping the window open for ventilation, saving him the trouble of breaking one...

"Mom!"

Chu Yuan shouted.

"Yuanyuan?!"

Han Cui's startled voice came from the living room. Chu Yuan pulled open the bedroom door and saw her standing guard at the entrance with a kitchen knife.

At last, half the tension left his heart.

"Yuanyuan, how did you..."

"I came back from school." Chu Yuan's voice turned grave. "Mom, something's happened. We need to find somewhere to hide!"

"Yingying is still at school!"

"I'll go get her!" Chu Yuan felt a little frustrated. How had he not thought to ask the principal for something to defend himself with beforehand?

It wouldn't be easy to take his mother with him to find Chu Ying, but he was even less willing to leave Han Cui alone at home.

Ordinary apartment complexes weren't built with reinforced materials, and a steel door sandwiched with wood wouldn't stop an Impermeable Realm Warrior's attacks...

"All right... Then come back as quickly as you can. I'll wait here!"

"Let's go together."

"But..."

Just then, someone outside began pounding urgently on the door.

"Mom! Open the door!"

They both froze for a moment. It was Chu Ying's voice.

Han Cui hurried to open the door, and Chu Ying came rushing inside, panting.

"You got back from school so quickly?"

"You skipped class again?!"

Han Cui knew her daughter's habits all too well. There was no way she'd gotten back from school in such a short time. She hadn't gone to school at all.

She'd probably been off playing somewhere near home...

But thank goodness for that.

With the whole family together, even though they had no idea what was happening outside, it was still a comfort.

Han Cui turned to Chu Yuan and asked, "Yuanyuan, what exactly is going on?"

Chu Ying was still shaken. "Yeah, bro. When I ran back, I saw that the guards at the gate had been killed!"

"I don't know much myself." Chu Yuan shook his head. "It looks like someone's trying to sacrifice Chenyang City..."

He hadn't spoken to Qi Da since leaving the school.

But given the Blood-Sucking Array's function and the area covered by the six pillars of light... it wasn't hard to figure out.

Han Cui's face paled. "But Chenyang City has more than a million people... Someone will stop them, right?"

"I don't know... Mom, let's get out of here first."

"Where to?"

"I remember there's a shelter in Dafeng Mall nearby." Chu Yuan replied gravely.

Even without a powerful Warrior guarding it, the shelter's construction materials were sturdy enough to withstand attacks from Warriors at the Internal Breath Realm and below.

"Sigh, how could something like this happen out of nowhere..."

Chu Yuan was just as bewildered. All he'd done was sense his Spiritual Power on Yan Xuan and expose him.

How had things suddenly spiraled into this?

Had Yan Xuan and the organization behind him become so enraged at failing to trick him that they'd decided to drag all of Chenyang City down with him...

With Han Cui and Chu Ying along, Chu Yuan couldn't use Smoke-Drifting Steps to race along at full speed anymore.

But they still moved quickly.

At least, on the way there, they hadn't encountered any thugs who could threaten him.

Han Cui hurried along, just managing to keep up with Chu Yuan. As they passed the entrance, she saw the guards' bodies inside and her face turned grim again.

"Bro! Someone's coming!" Chu Ying cried out in warning.

Three people were sprinting down the road to the right of the entrance!

The long sabers in their hands were stained with blood, and their clothes were splattered with it too.

Yet their faces were feverishly excited. They looked at Chu Yuan and the others like they were prey!

Chu Yuan didn't need Chu Ying to warn him. He'd spotted them already.

He drove Smoke-Drifting Steps to its limit, rushed forward, and seized the foremost man by the throat!

With a slight squeeze, there was a crack, and the man crumpled to the ground...

Chu Yuan took the man's long saber and gripped it in his hand.

He activated the Wind-Riding Sword Control Art. Two cold flashes flickered, and two heads rolled to the ground.

It was all over in the blink of an eye.

Clean, efficient, almost like an art...

Chu Ying's eyes widened, and her body trembled slightly. She looked at him as though he were a stranger.

Her big brother was mature and steady, sure...

But since when had killing people become as easy and casual for him as killing chickens?

Han Cui swallowed, then smacked the back of Chu Ying's head to snap her out of it. "Don't just stand there! Run!"