"Click."
The crisp snap of a lighter broke the suffocating silence.
"Girl."
"If we can't find where it all began, let's try another angle."
"After the spiritual energy erupted in full, where on this planet were the most mutated beasts?"
"And where did those beasts first organize themselves and unleash a large-scale Beast Tide?"
In the corner of the screen,
Elder Zhan lit a specially supplied cigarette. The flame illuminated his weathered face.
Su Qingxue raised her head and met Elder Zhan's imposing gaze.
She answered without hesitation.
"The ocean."
At those two words,
the air in the command room seemed to grow even heavier.
"Most of this planet is covered in water."
"The number of creatures in the ocean is beyond calculation."
"Spiritual energy transforms aquatic life far more than it does land animals."
"In both size and ferocity, they are the undisputed rulers."
In the conference room,
Elder Long, who had barely spoken, frowned sharply.
Dragon Country had a long coastline.
If the monsters in the ocean struck first,
wouldn't its prosperous, densely populated coastal cities become hell on earth?
Those cities were the lifeblood of more than half of Dragon Country's economy.
As if sensing the elders' concerns, Su Qingxue changed tack.
"However."
"You don't need to worry too much about the sea just yet."
"The bodies of most mutated ocean creatures have changed completely."
"In the early stages, they can't leave the water at all."
"Once they do, their enormous weight will crush their own organs."
Hearing that,
the elders on the other end of the video call relaxed almost imperceptibly.
"Going by the course of events in my previous life,"
"it wasn't until three years after the Spiritual Energy Revival"
"that Oceanic Ferocious Beasts evolved the ability to live on land and began launching large-scale assaults."
"In other words, coastal areas face relatively little pressure during that three-year window."
"The real threat to our survival is on land."
"..."
Su Qingxue held up three fingers.
"Tell us more about the land."
"Which areas fell first?"
Elder Zhan stubbed out his cigarette and leaned forward.
"On the seventh day after the disaster began,"
"over a hundred devastating Beast Tides erupted across the globe at once."
"As for Dragon Country..."
"There were seven massive Beast Tides within our borders."
At Su Qingxue's words,
even Lin Yuan, who had been listening quietly, clenched his fists.
Seven days!
In just seven days,
these ragtag hordes of Ferocious Beasts had become organized armies.
That rate of evolution defied all reason.
"The first location was the Changbai Mountains in the northeast."
"Great numbers of Mutated Wild Wolves and black bears surged out of the forests and tore through the local defenses."
"Their leader was a Mutated Amur Tiger assessed at the Mid-Second-Tier Stage."
"The second location was the Lingnan Mountains."
"Venomous insects and snakes gathered in a vast swarm. Their leader was a Mutated Forest Python, also at the Mid-Second-Tier Stage."
"..."
Elder Zhan quickly marked the locations on an electronic map.
At the same time,
he mentally ran through the martial arts ranks Su Qingxue had mentioned.
A First-Order Martial Artist could dodge bullets at close range.
A Second-Tier Martial Artist could withstand ordinary gunfire.
Would even a heavy machine gun fail to pierce the hide of a beast at the Mid-Second-Tier Stage?
"But those were only the two weakest outbreak points."
Su Qingxue's voice grew heavier, as though a boulder pressed down on it.
"The Kunlun Mountains and the Taihang Mountains."
"Shennongjia Primeval Forest and the Wuyi Mountains."
"The Beast Tides in those four regions were more than three times the size of the first two."
"The beasts leading them had all reached the Late Second-Tier Stage!"
The Late Second-Tier Stage!
Those words struck everyone in the chest like a hammer.
Against monsters like that, ordinary infantry would be as fragile as paper toys.
Even heavy armored vehicles would likely be little more than metal coffins.
But that was not the end.
Su Qingxue suddenly turned to look at Lin Yuan beside her.
At that,
Lin Yuan froze for a moment.
"The worst outbreak"
"was outside Shu Capital, near the Qingcheng and Emei mountain ranges."
"Millions of beasts surrounded the entire basin, leaving no way through."
"And the lord of that Beast Tide was an Ironclad Mad Ape over ten meters tall."
"It had reached the Peak Second-Order Stage!"
"Ordinary artillery shells couldn't even singe a hair on its body."
"It uprooted roadside utility poles to use as weapons and could flatten a main battle tank with a single blow."
A beat later,
Su Qingxue spoke slowly, each word distinct.
Lin Yuan's nerves snapped taut.
Shu Capital!
That was his hometown.
His parents and younger sister were all in that city right now.
If the most terrifying Beast Tide erupted there, he could imagine what would happen to his family.
"Comrade Su."
"How did the country respond to those seven Beast Tides in your previous life?"
Elder Yu's fingers whitened around his glasses.
Attacks on that scale went far beyond anything conventional security forces could handle.
"We threw lives at them."
"We had no Martial Artists and no transcendent powers."
"Faced with monsters impervious to blades and bullets, the military could only rely on conventional weapons."
"Large-caliber howitzer batteries fired around the clock until their barrels glowed red."
"Armor-piercing rounds, thermobaric bombs..."
"We hit them with every heavy weapon we had."
"In the end, we did repel the Beast Tides and hold the defensive lines."
"But the cost was terrible."
"Seven satellite cities were reduced to ruins and became nests for mutated creatures."
"Between frontline soldiers and innocent civilians, the dead and wounded numbered over two million!"
"..."
Su Qingxue paused.
Her eyes reddened slightly.
"It had only been seven days since the Spiritual Energy Revival!"
"How could those beasts reach the Peak Second-Order Stage in just seven days?"
At that moment,
a military district general voiced the question on everyone's mind.
From what they knew so far,
apart from the prodigy Lin Yuan,
none of the others who had sensed spiritual energy had broken through to the First Order even after a month.
How could a pack of wild animals evolve faster than humans?
"Because they have no limits."
"Humans cultivate step by step, circulating their Cultivation Techniques through the Circulation of the Heavenly Cycle."
"But those mutated beasts don't need to."
"Their way of evolving is primitive and bloody—they devour one another."
"The moment the Spiritual Energy Revival began, the law of the jungle intensified beyond measure."
"If a wolf kills a hundred mutated rabbits and eats their flesh, it rapidly accumulates energy."
"Then a bear eats the wolf, and a tiger eats the bear."
"Through that frenzied plunder, like raising creatures to devour one another,"
"a large enough population will eventually produce a monster at the Peak Second-Order Stage."
"They don't need insight. They just need to keep killing and eating."
"..."
Su Qingxue's lips twitched into a bitter smile.
The brutal truth laid bare nature at its bloodiest.
If the beasts were allowed to keep developing like this,
even Dragon Country's vast industrial capacity would eventually be exhausted by them.
"So they grow stronger by devouring each other."
"Even if we level half a mountain with missiles,"
"the few beasts that survive will only grow more terrifying by eating the corpses of their own kind."
"We'd be helping them evolve faster!"
After hearing Su Qingxue's explanation,
Elder Zhan gave a cold snort, a sharp killing intent flashing in his eyes.
Su Qingxue nodded silently.
That was the most hopeless part of the apocalypse.
The more you killed, the stronger the survivors became.
Unless you could wipe out every living thing in an instant,
even more terrifying monsters would always rise from the ruins.
"Leaders."
"Things are different in this life."
"In my previous life, Dragon Country had no warning."
"We could only face the Ferocious Beasts with our own flesh and blood."
"But this time, we already have the Basic Breathing Technique, martial arts Cultivation Techniques, and combat Martial Techniques..."
"If we can spread these methods before the disaster begins"
"and train High-Tier Martial Artists of our own,"
"then no matter how fast those beasts evolve, humanity will have the power to fight them head-on!"
The mood at the scene had grown heavy.
Nie Dingguo stepped forward and addressed the crowd.
His words were like a shot of adrenaline to everyone present.
On the other side of the screen.
They exchanged glances.
It was a gamble with the survival of their people at stake.
They had to marshal the entire nation's strength and make every preparation in advance!
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