"Next, we need to relocate the people we evacuated earlier back to Shrek City."
Xia Ming's voice was calm, yet it made the elders' hearts sink.
Upon hearing this, Elder Song could not help taking a deep breath before slowly letting it out.
"How could that possibly be easy?" Her voice carried a trace of weary hoarseness.
"When we organized the citywide evacuation before, we mobilized every teacher, student, and ally just to barely complete it within such a short time.
"And now..."
She looked into the distance.
Where Shrek City had once stood, there was now only a boundless, bottomless crater.
The towering city walls of the past, the bustling streets, the rows of houses, the iconic Sea God Island...
Every trace of civilization had been wiped away.
Only scorched earth remained, along with the desolate air still thick with dissipating energy turbulence.
Proof of the earth-shattering battle that had taken place there.
"The city has completely vanished." Elder Song's voice dropped.
"Bring millions of people back? Back to face what?
"They do not even have a place to stand, much less hope of rebuilding their homes.
"This is practically equivalent to creating an entire city from scratch.
"The manpower, resources, time, and psychological impact on the people involved would be impossible to estimate."
The other elders also looked troubled and nodded one after another.
Just as the heavy atmosphere was about to solidify, Xia Ming gently shook his head.
A calm curve holding absolute confidence appeared at the corner of his lips.
"It's fine," he said easily. "I'll handle it."
Before his words had even faded, there was no earth-shaking eruption of Soul Power.
He merely raised his right hand calmly, spread his fingers slightly, and lightly clenched them toward the empty space ahead.
"Buzz—!"
A spatial tremor