The Day the City Fell

The demon beast tide came faster and harder than anyone had expected.

That evening, the sky had still been clear. Orange-red sunset clouds spread above the western walls, the sentries changed shifts as usual, and the veterans coming off duty warmed themselves by the fire in the barracks and chatted.

There had been no signs, no warning from the outposts, no early discovery by the patrols. When the howls of demon beasts rose from the forest, most people were still eating dinner.

The first wave tore three breaches through the outer defenses within half an hour. A section of the wall at the north gate collapsed—not from being rammed, but from the sheer force of a Gold Rank demon beast's impact shaking it apart.

Broken stones and sandbags tumbled from the wall and struck the retreating soldiers. Dust mingled with the smell of blood and filled the entire street. More than half the city guards were dead or wounded. The survivors fell back to the inner wall and sealed the passage through the north gate with rubble and sandbags.

The wounded formed a long procession as they were carried down. There were not enough stretchers, so some people carried casualties south on doors torn from their hinges.

Ye Zong personally took to the wall to oversee the defense. The Wind Snow Family's Black Gold Rank soul force erupted above the north gate. Its crushing pressure could be felt several streets away, and even the air hummed and trembled.

The demon beasts' charge was pushed back for the moment, but everyone knew the reprieve would not last. A Legend Rank presence was already flickering deep within the forest, like muffled thunder before a storm—silent, yet suffocating.

The Sacred Family reacted that very night.

Shen Hong urgently summoned every member of the family to the main hall. Wind poured through the doors, making the candle flames sway. Shadows on the walls swayed with them, as though the entire hall were trembling.

Shen Fei stood at the back of the crowd with his back against the wall, watching his ashen-faced father issue orders. Not to organize the family to help defend the city. Not to assign duties for treating the wounded. Not to mobilize the family's Demon Spirit Masters to reinforce the walls. They were to prepare boats immediately and evacuate Glory City by water.

The hall fell silent for a moment. Then the family members left to carry out their orders, footsteps mingling with the clatter of weapons. The stewards went to the warehouses to move supplies, the guards went to the docks to prepare the boats, and the women returned to their rooms to pack their valuables.

Everyone carried out the orders with methodical efficiency, as though they had rehearsed them countless times. No one objected. No one said they ought to stay and defend the city. No one asked what would become of the soldiers still fighting for their lives on the walls.

Shen Fei stood in the corner without a word. He had known this day would come. He had known the Sacred Family would abandon the city and flee when demon beasts reached its gates. He simply had not expected his father to dispense even with the pretense.

There was no call to "help defend the city," no fine declaration that they would "live and die with Glory City." There was only the naked truth: the Dark Guild would clear the way, and the Sacred Family would flee. This family had never cared whether Glory City lived or died.

Late that night, the Sacred Family's three boats secretly moored at the water gate docks behind Glory City. Moonlight spilled across the water, stretching the flotilla's shadows long.

Shen Hong personally supervised the boarding from the docks. Young and old filed aboard, each carrying hastily packed valuables. No one spoke. There were only footsteps and the occasional cries of children.

Shen Yue followed at his father's side. His face held neither fear nor reluctance, only the ease of a burden lifted. Before boarding, he glanced back at Glory City's walls. The gesture was so fleeting that he might not even have noticed it himself.

Then he turned to a steward and checked that all his luggage had been brought, his tone that of someone preparing for an ordinary family trip.

Shen Fei was among the crowd as well. With a simple bundle on his back and his head lowered, he walked in the middle of the line. Then, just before the boats were about to depart, he quietly slipped to the rear.

Everyone on the docks was busy moving luggage, counting heads, and checking the sails. Shen Hong stood at the bow with his back to the docks, confirming the route with the captain.

No one noticed the eldest legitimate son disappear from the edge of the crowd. Shen Fei bent down and slipped between the wooden crates piled on the docks, squeezed through the gaps, climbed over the breakwater, and stepped into knee-deep mud.

He slogged several dozen paces through the uneven footing and climbed onto the gravel road leading toward the city walls.

The horn announcing the flotilla's departure sounded behind him. Its low, lingering note carried far across the water. Shen Fei did not look back. He knew his father would not notice he was missing, and even if he did, he would not order the boats to return.

Shen Hong would not risk the entire family's lives for a disobedient son. Shen Fei followed the gravel road toward the walls. Moonlight shone on the road, the distant walls glimmered blue-gray in the darkness, and the flames on the beacon towers still burned.

He had never truly belonged to this family. He had seen that clearly in his first month after transmigrating. Shen Hong cared only about the family's survival, Shen Yue only about his father's favor, and the family elders only about profit and safety.

No one would care where an unfavored eldest legitimate son went or what he did. He had not stayed for anyone in particular, nor for love, friendship, or any other tender reason. He simply did not want to watch this city become ruins.

At the end of the gravel road stood the recruitment station at the south gate: an abandoned warehouse, a few battered tables, and an old soldier in charge of registration.

Shen Fei gave his real name when he enlisted. The old soldier glanced up at him and probably recognized his surname, but said nothing. He merely wrote his name in the register.

He was assigned to support duties on the middle defensive line. His Gold Rank 1-Star strength was outstanding among the younger generation, but on a real battlefield, it was barely enough to keep himself alive. His work was to haul sandbags, repair the walls, and light the beacons when the beast tide attacked.

The other soldiers in his squad were all young men in their early twenties, either local commoners or members of minor families' branch lines. They knew he was "that fellow named Shen," that he was good with a sword and willing to work hard, and that he did not talk much.

During breaks, the others gathered to drink and gamble. He sat in a corner cleaning his sword, passing a whetstone over its edge again and again.

The fighting resumed late that same night.

The demon beasts' second charge was fiercer than the first. Within an hour, the first breach was torn through the inner wall's defenses. Demon beasts poured through it into the inner city, directly threatening the area where civilians had gathered.

By the time Shen Fei arrived with the reserve squad, corpses were already piled high in the breach. An old city guard leaned against a battlement, his intestines spilled across the ground, still propping himself up with his spear and refusing to fall.

He looked at Shen Fei, opened his mouth, and said, "Don't let them through." Then he breathed his last.

Shen Fei drew his sword and stepped into the breach.

He had no sense of how long he fought. He only remembered picking up fallen soldiers' weapons and swinging them when his sword's edge curled, unable to tell whether the things beneath his feet were rubble or corpses.

Blood soaked his sleeves and plastered them sticky against his skin. He killed one Silver Rank Fanged Beast, then another, then another. Eventually, he lost count and could only strike, block, dodge, and strike again with mechanical motions.

A Gold Rank demon beast charged through the breach. It was three times the size of a Silver Demon Beast, covered in dark gray armored scales, with a curved, pointed horn rising from its forehead.

The soldiers around it were knocked flying like scraps of paper, unable to last even a single exchange. Shen Fei glanced behind him. Beyond the breach lay the civilians' gathering area. People were still running down the street-old people, children, women carrying bundles.

He stepped forward to meet it.

He knew he could not defeat a Gold Rank demon beast. The gap in cultivation was too great for any technique to bridge. He only needed to hold it back, even if only for a little while.

He lured the Demon Beast into the narrow space at the foot of the wall, darting back and forth around a corner and using his sword to interfere with its vision. Its tail struck his left arm. The crack of bone came from his elbow, dull yet sharp.

He kept maneuvering with his sword in one hand. The beast's scales sliced a gash in his right leg, and every step landed wet. He kept the Demon Beast occupied at the foot of the wall, dragging out the struggle until every civilian behind him had made it around the street corner.

Then the Gold Demon Beast's horn pierced his chest.

He felt no pain, or at least not as much as he had imagined. The instant his body was pierced, every sound grew distant. The battle cries, the Demon Beasts' howls, the crash of collapsing walls—all sounded like voices on shore heard from beneath the water.

His sword fell to the ground with a clear clang.

In his final glimpse before death, he saw a Legend Rank demon beast smash the beacon tower on the wall with a single swipe of its claw. Its massive body blotted out the sky and sun. As its claw descended, the tower built of huge stones shattered like a clod of dried mud.

Rubble and flames rained from the sky. Sparks scattered in every direction, tracing countless arcs through the night. The soldiers still fighting on the wall looked up together at the thunderous crash. There was no fear on their faces, only a calm that had already accepted fate.

Everything was over.

Darkness swallowed him. In the last instant before his consciousness faded, a thought flashed through Shen Fei's mind. If there is another life, I won't slam my father's desk again.

I'll keep my mouth shut. I'll endure. While everyone thinks I'm meekly keeping to my place, I'll set my pieces on the board one by one. Then, with those secret letters, those coordinates, those meeting times, I'll personally tear out every blade the Dark Guild has driven into Glory City's heart.