With the three Blood Wolf Association casters maintaining the barrier finally dead,
the pitch-black canopy looming over the gymnasium, which had filled everyone with despair, finally lost its energy supply.
"Sizzle..."
The black curtain of light began to flicker violently, then rapidly dissolved and dispersed like snow melting in early spring.
A shaft of golden sunlight pierced the dissipating darkness and fell once more upon the devastated field.
Light, at long last.
"We have a signal!"
"Calls are going through!"
Cries of delighted surprise rose from the crowd.
With the barrier gone, the blocked communications signals instantly returned to normal.
Meanwhile.
Jiang City, Guard Team central command.
The place had been busy but orderly, with staff monitoring the city's various data feeds.
Suddenly.
"Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!"
A shrill, piercing red alert blared throughout the hall without warning.
On the enormous city surveillance screen in the center, a glaring red exclamation mark instantly appeared on the previously quiet map, accompanied by frantically flashing streams of data.
"Captain! High-energy reactions detected!"
A monitoring officer sprang from his seat, his voice distorted by terror.
"Coordinates locked... Jiangcheng No. 1 High School!"
"The energy detector picked up an extremely high concentration of blood aura, along with... residual fluctuations from three terrifying skills!"
Ji Xiuneng, the Guard Team captain, had been looking down at some documents. At the mention of Jiangcheng No. 1 High School, he jerked his head up and stared fixedly at the red dot on the screen, his pupils contracting sharply.
Jiangcheng No. 1 High School...
Their awakening ceremony was today!
And if he remembered correctly, the children of those two important figures-Lu Fang and Wang Yixing-were there!
"Analyze the energy levels!"
Ji Xiuneng roared, cold sweat instantly soaking his back.
The monitoring officer's fingers flew across the keyboard. A few seconds later, his face turned as white as paper. He turned toward his captain, his eyes filled with despair.
"Analysis of the residual readings indicates... the intruders' energy levels... were all at least level 100!"
"Number... three!"
"And there's also energy residue from a dissipated sealing barrier!"
Boom!
Ji Xiuneng felt as though lightning had struck his brain. His vision went dark, and he nearly lost his footing.
Three level-100 powerhouses!
And a sealing barrier!
This was clearly a premeditated, targeted attack intended to kill!
What defensive forces did Jiangcheng No. 1 High School have?
Aside from those teachers in the tens of levels, their strongest were the principal and vice principal, both over level 100.
But caught unprepared by a planned ambush, and sealed inside a barrier, how long could they hold out?
As for those newly awakened students...
Ji Xiuneng's heart went cold.
Reason told him that, inside such a sealed slaughterhouse, with three level-100 powerhouses running rampant, their chances of survival... were infinitely close to zero.
Especially those two priority protection targets.
If anything happened to Lu Fang and Wang Yixing...
Ji Xiuneng dared not imagine the thunderous fury that would erupt when Jiang City's three pillars returned.
The whole of Jiang City would probably be turned upside down!
"It's over..."
Ji Xiuneng muttered to himself, a profound sense of helplessness rising within him.
But he could not stop.
Even if it was only to collect the bodies, he had to reach the scene as soon as possible!
"Everyone, assemble!!!"
Ji Xiuneng snatched the communicator off his desk and let out a hysterical roar, his voice carrying a trace of grim resolve and a tremor.
"First and second combat squads! Move out with me immediately! Destination: Jiangcheng No. 1 High School!"
"Hurry!!!"
Boom!
Boom!
Several silver-white streaks tore across the distant sky, followed by deafening sonic booms.
Several dark-gray Guard Team high-speed fighter aircraft approached with urgent momentum. Without even slowing down according to standard procedure, they forced themselves into a hover beside the ruins of Jiangcheng No. 1 High School's gymnasium at an almost diving angle.
The tremendous downdraft swept up dust and rubble from the ground.
"Clank-hiss!"
Before the hatch had fully opened, a figure jumped straight out from more than ten meters above the ground.
It was Ji Xiuneng, captain of the Guard Team.
The man responsible for Jiang City's public security, normally composed, capable, and unflappable in a crisis, now had disheveled hair and a forehead covered in cold sweat. His expression was utterly panicked, and his eyes were filled with the terror of someone about to face hell.
"Quick! Medical team! Search and rescue team!"
Ji Xiuneng bellowed, charging madly into the gymnasium as he shouted.
On the way there, he had already prepared himself for the worst.
Three level-100 powerhouses attacking a high school was no different from throwing wolves into a sheep pen.
He had even worked out how to beg those three big shots for forgiveness.
However.
When he rushed into the devastated gymnasium and swept his gaze over the scene, he froze.
The hellscape he had imagined-bodies strewn everywhere, rivers of blood, and nearly every student dead or wounded-was nowhere to be seen.
Although deep craters and cracks left by the fighting covered the scene, although half the raised platform had collapsed, although the gruesome corpses of Blood Wolf Association members lay everywhere...
Yet.
Those students in their school uniforms were actually all still alive!
Though they were all covered in dust and looked terrified, with some even crying, they were indeed still standing, and they did not seem to have suffered any fatal injuries.
"This... this is..."
Ji Xiuneng's gaze searched frantically. Soon, he spotted two familiar figures in the middle of the crowd.
Lu Fang.
Wang Yixing.
Although the two looked somewhat bedraggled, with dust on their clothes, all their limbs were intact.
"Phew..."
At the sight, Ji Xiuneng felt as though his heart had ridden a roller coaster, plunging from his throat back into his belly.
An immense sense of relief at having survived a calamity flooded his heart. His legs went weak, and he nearly dropped to his knees right there.
"Alive... they're both still alive..."
Ji Xiuneng wiped the cold sweat from his face, his lips trembling.
"Thank heavens, my career is safe..."
Then his gaze fell upon the principal and vice principal, who were having their wounds bandaged by the school doctor.
The two old men were covered in blood, their auras feeble. The principal in particular still had blood seeping from the hole in his shoulder and looked terribly wounded.
Ji Xiuneng instantly imagined an utterly tragic and heroic battle.
Facing three terrifying level-100 intruders, the two school leaders had burned through their lives and overdrawn their potential to protect the students, unleashing everything in a desperate struggle. Against impossible odds, they had achieved an unbelievable counterkill and ultimately saved these children's lives!
"Heroes! These are true heroes!"
Ji Xiuneng's eyes instantly reddened.
He rushed up to the principal in a few long strides. Without even bothering with etiquette, he seized the principal's uninjured hand and clasped it tightly.
"Old Zhang! Old Li!"
Ji Xiuneng's voice trembled with excitement, his words tumbling out incoherently.
"You... you're incredible! So great!"
"Against three level-100 powerhouses, you actually held out! You even managed to counterkill them!"
"You didn't just save these thousand-plus students-you saved my life, too!"