Chapter 16: Disaster (Part 1)
Clearly, the green-robed middle-aged man carrying the longsword was named "Dillon," while the gray-robed man was called "Rudy."
The black flames spewing from the black dragon beneath the gray-robed man's feet spread like smoke, instantly enveloping the green-robed middle-aged man. A dazzling emerald-green light suddenly flared up on the surface of the green-robed man's body, protecting him entirely and preventing the black flames from harming him in the slightest. At the same time, a sword's cry rang out.
That sword's cry was even louder than the dragon's roar, echoing across heaven and earth.
The green-robed middle-aged man held his longsword and swung it. A colossal, hazy sword light, dozens of meters long, directly sliced through the air and struck fiercely at the gray-robed man. The gray-robed man remained motionless, coldly watching the massive sword light, while silently chanting a magic spell under his breath.
"Is that sword light? Such a massive sword light?" Linley muttered as he ran toward the warehouse, turning his head to look. "How will that gray-robed man block it? With his black dragon?"
"Boom!"
The black dragon didn't even try to block it. It let the massive sword light strike the gray-robed man directly. The gray robe on the gray-robed man's body exploded and tore apart, but beneath it, a gleaming suit of battle armor was revealed. The armor shone so brightly it was blinding, like diamonds.
The massive sword light struck the armor but failed to harm the gray-robed man in the slightest.
"How is that possible?" Linley was truly stunned.
Running without looking at his feet, Linley accidentally stepped on a stone and tumbled forward. But he still turned his head to look at the eastern sky. "What kind of armor is that? How can its defense be so powerful?"
"Linley, hurry up, stop daydreaming!" Hogg saw Linley like this and couldn't help but roar angrily.
"Yes, Father." Linley snapped back to reality, scrambled to his feet, and dashed straight toward the warehouse.
"Rumble~~~" Suddenly, a terrifying sound echoed across heaven and earth, followed by a wave of panicked screams throughout Wushan Town. Linley couldn't help but turn his head to look at the sky again. What he saw terrified him—
In the eastern sky, countless massive boulders were suspended in the air, each one the size of a house.
"Whoosh!" "Whoosh!" "Whoosh!" ...
All the house-sized boulders, their surfaces glowing with a yellow light, streaked across the sky at incredible speed, hurtling toward the green-robed middle-aged man like meteors. Each boulder must have weighed nearly a hundred thousand jin. Such enormous stones were countless times larger than the rocks launched by catapults during wartime.
Even the walls of a city fortress would struggle to withstand such a heavy blow.
One boulder alone was terrifying enough, but now, as far as the eye could see, they were densely packed. One house-sized boulder after another slammed into the green-robed middle-aged man. This scene completely stunned the people of Wushan Town.
"Boom!"
The first boulder struck the green-robed middle-aged man. Suddenly, his entire body erupted with a surge of emerald-green light, turning him into something like a "green sun," radiating blinding green radiance.
The countless boulders surged like a tidal wave, surrounding and attacking the green-robed man.
In the blink of an eye, the green-robed man was engulfed by the mass of boulders, though the emerald-green light could still be seen through the gaps.
"Boom!"
With a violent crash, boulder after boulder exploded. Each one was shattered by the terrifying emerald-green battle qi, breaking apart into fragments of various sizes that scattered in all directions.
From hundreds of meters in the air, combined with the explosive force of the battle qi, the fragments were propelled with tremendous strength and flew great distances.
"Not good!" Hogg's face turned deathly pale. Hillman, still on the streets of Wushan Town, also went white as a sheet when he saw this. They both understood—
Disaster had descended upon Wushan Town!
Countless stone fragments, some nearly two meters in diameter and others as small as a human head, rained down from hundreds of meters in the air, scattering chaotically in every direction. Each boulder had shattered into dozens or even hundreds of pieces, and nearly a fifth of those fragments were hurtling toward Wushan Town.
"Father!" Linley shouted to Hogg in the distance as he saw the massive stones plummeting from the sky.
"Quick, get inside!" Hogg roared in desperation.
Linley was still dozens of meters from the warehouse. Hearing his father's roar, he ignored everything else and sprinted toward the warehouse. Then came the sounds—"Boom!" "Boom!" "Boom!" ... The endless crashing of stones hitting the ground.
It was like an earthquake, a scene of apocalypse.
"Whoosh!" A boulder weighing hundreds of jin grazed Linley's body and smashed into the ground not far from his feet, leaving a deep crater. Cold sweat broke out on Linley's back—if he had been just a little closer, he would have lost his life.
"Boom!" "Boom!" "Boom!" "Boom!" ...
The sounds of stones smashing through roofs, shattering stone slabs, pounding into the earth, and the screams of those crushed to death mixed together, creating a scene of doom.
"Whoosh!" A few more large stones landed in front of Linley, forcing him to leap back to dodge.
If he kept dodging like this, how could he ever reach the warehouse?
"Linley, young master, hurry!" A figure rushed out of the warehouse—it was Grandpa Hill. Hill's body was enveloped in a fiery red battle qi shield as he ran straight toward Linley.
"Big brother, hurry, hurry!"
At the warehouse entrance, four-year-old Wharton, looking as if he were about to cry, shouted loudly at Linley.
"Wharton, get inside, now!" Linley roared.
"Whoosh!" An extremely rare boulder, nearly two meters long, shot down from the distant sky, heading straight for the warehouse. Linley noticed this and calculated in an instant—if that boulder hit the warehouse roof, Wharton, standing at the entrance, would definitely be injured, or even... crushed to death!
"Get inside, Wharton!" Linley's eyes nearly split at the corners as he roared, charging toward the warehouse at full speed.
No longer caring about the stones falling from the sky, Linley didn't dodge. He dashed straight for Wharton as fast as he could.
Hill, facing Linley, couldn't see the boulder hurtling toward the warehouse behind him, but Linley saw it clearly. If the warehouse collapsed and debris fell, little Wharton's body wouldn't stand a chance.
"Young master Linley!" Hill exclaimed in alarm when he saw Linley's reckless charge.
Two or three more stones slammed down around Linley. Like a leopard, Linley kept his eyes locked on little Wharton and lunged into the warehouse. Hill, turning around, finally saw the two-meter-wide boulder crashing toward the warehouse. His face turned deathly pale.
"Get down!" Linley roared, his expression ferocious.
Little Wharton had never seen his brother look so terrifying. Frightened, he immediately dropped to the ground, tears welling in his eyes as he looked at Linley, his lips trembling: "Big brother—" Linley dove forward, covering Wharton with his body.
At almost the same moment—
"Boom!"
A deafening crash. The terrifying boulder slammed into the warehouse roof. Though the stone slabs of the roof were sturdy, they couldn't withstand such a massive impact and shattered directly. The walls also cracked and collapsed.
"Young master—" Hill's eyes turned red. His battle qi erupted violently, and he shot forward like a red lightning bolt, forming a protective qi shield around himself. He swung his palms to deflect the falling debris from the collapsing wall. The debris and Hill reached Linley almost simultaneously.
"Rumble~~~"
In an instant, Wharton, Linley, and Hill were completely buried under the collapsed wall.
Hogg stood in the courtyard, wielding a greatsword to deflect a rapidly falling stone. But when he turned to look in Linley's direction and saw Linley throw himself over Wharton without hesitation, followed by Hill diving in to protect them, he was utterly stunned.
The warehouse collapsed, and debris rained down.
"Linley—" Hogg's eyes turned red.
At that moment, Hogg couldn't tell whether Hill had covered Linley first or the debris had struck Linley first.