Chapter 258: Dead City
Zhang Ruochen and Han Qiu traveled day and night at maximum speed, finally reaching the outskirts of Demon Ridge around noon the next day.
On the horizon stood towering, majestic mountain ranges, dense with trees and sparsely populated, with occasional sightings of massive, ferocious barbarian beasts.
"We're only half a day's journey from Demon Martial City now. We should be safe."
Han Qiu let out a long sigh of relief and smiled. "I remember there's a small town not far from here called 'Yueji City,' which falls under the territory of the Cloud Terrace Sect Mansion. We can go there to rest properly. Maybe the people from the Cloud Terrace Sect Mansion and the Martial Market Academy who are supposed to meet us have already arrived in Yueji City."
Zhang Ruochen thought for a moment, then said, "Alright. If the Martial Market Academy and the Cloud Terrace Sect Mansion really have sent experts to meet us in Yueji City, that would be a good thing. But we should still be cautious. It's best to scout the area first before entering the city."
More than ten days had passed, so the news must have already reached the Martial Market Academy.
The Martial Market Academy would surely dispatch powerful experts to come and meet Zhang Ruochen. After all, given the talent he had displayed, he was definitely worth the academy's special protection.
When Zhang Ruochen and Han Qiu arrived outside Yueji City, they discovered something very strange.
The city gates were wide open, but not a single person was in sight.
Although Yueji City was only a small town, it was by no means desolate. Every year, countless martial artists ventured into Demon Ridge, and most of them would stop in Yueji City to rest, replenish healing pills, and sell barbarian beast carcasses.
Why was it that today, not a single person could be seen? It was like a dead city.
Zhang Ruochen sniffed the air lightly. Even from several hundred meters away, he could detect a strong stench of decay coming from the city.
"Why is Yueji City so quiet? Could the evil martial artists from the Spider Poison Merchant Guild have taken over this small town?" Han Qiu asked, puzzled.
"If it were the evil martial artists from the Spider Poison Merchant Guild, they wouldn't be so obvious about it."
Zhang Ruochen seemed to have already guessed something and walked straight toward the city gates.
Han Qiu hesitated for a moment, then followed him.
Once inside Yueji City, Zhang Ruochen and Han Qiu realized that the entire city had indeed become a dead city. Not a single living person could be seen on the streets.
Because there were only corpses.
The corpses lay scattered everywhere—some sprawled on the ground, some hanging from eaves, some cut in half...
They seemed to have died only a day or two ago. The bodies were shriveled, drained of all blood, and the air was thick with a nauseating stench of decay.
Even though it was still daytime, the scene gave off a chilling, eerie feeling, as if they had stepped into a hell on earth.
"An... an entire city... how did this happen?"
Even with her strong mental fortitude, Han Qiu's face turned pale, and a deep sense of fear welled up inside her.
"Could it be ghosts or monsters?"
Han Qiu moved slightly closer to Zhang Ruochen, nervously gripping the hilt of her sword.
Zhang Ruochen remained expressionless. He walked over to one of the dried-up corpses, crouched down, and looked at the two holes on the corpse's neck.
His pupils contracted. "It's her."
"Who?" Han Qiu asked.
Zhang Ruochen stood up again. "Have you heard about the Martial Market Academy's experts hunting a blood-sucking demon?"
"I've heard of it. They say the Martial Market Academy sent ten Heaven Extreme Realm experts to deal with her, but she still managed to escape."
Han Qiu suddenly realized something and exclaimed in shock, "Was it her who drained all the blood from these people? There must be tens of thousands of martial artists in Yueji City. One person alone couldn't possibly drain that much blood."
"She's probably already cultivated blood spirits."
Zhang Ruochen said thoughtfully, "With the help of blood spirits and her own strength, draining the blood of all the martial artists in Yueji City wouldn't be that difficult. After absorbing so much human blood, I wonder how much she has grown."
Han Qiu looked at Zhang Ruochen with some surprise and asked, puzzled, "You seem to know a lot about that blood-sucking demon."
"Of course. I've seen her before, and I know her origins," Zhang Ruochen said.
Han Qiu was taken aback, curiosity piqued. "What are her origins?"
"Now is not the time to talk about that blood-sucking demon. We have another problem."
Zhang Ruochen's gaze fixed on the city wall.
"Buzz, buzz!"
A swarm of multicolored bees flew above the city wall of Yueji City, their eyes gleaming with intelligence as they stared at Zhang Ruochen and Han Qiu.
Those bees were a hundred times larger than ordinary bees, about the size of a fist.
Their wings spanned half a meter, and sharp venomous stingers grew from their tails.
At a glance, they looked like a flock of colorful birds flying in the air, numbering in the hundreds.
"Thousand-Mile Bees!" Zhang Ruochen said.
Han Qiu also stared at the giant bees. "Being able to control so many Thousand-Mile Bees at once means the beast tamer must be a master-level figure. As far as I know, the Prince of the Four Directions has a strange expert by his side named 'Ling Xiansu,' who is a beast taming master. Could it be him who has caught up to us?"
"It must be him," Zhang Ruochen said.
Thousand-Mile Bees were first-rank upper-level barbarian beasts. Their attack power was only average. Their real use was for tracking enemies, scouting terrain, and transmitting messages.
An ordinary low-level beast tamer could only raise one or a few Thousand-Mile Bees.
Being able to dispatch hundreds of them at once meant a master-level figure had arrived.
A beast taming master's combat power was even more terrifying than an average Heaven Extreme Realm martial artist. They could easily destroy an entire city.
A beast taming master was comparable to hundreds of thousands of troops, and their destructive power on the battlefield was the greatest.
After the Thousand-Mile Bees spotted Zhang Ruochen and Han Qiu, they flew out of Yueji City to report back to the beast taming master.
Han Qiu said, "Let's run while that beast taming master hasn't caught up yet!"
"Run? Run where?"
Zhang Ruochen said calmly, "What is a beast tamer's greatest strength? It's controlling barbarian beasts to attack martial artists. In Yueji City, there are city walls, buildings, and formations that can hinder the barbarian beasts, giving us a chance to fight back. But if we flee into Demon Ridge and get surrounded by a horde of barbarian beasts, things will be even worse for us."
Han Qiu said, "You mean we should stay in Yueji City and fight it out with that beast taming master?"
"We can't possibly match the power of a beast taming master. We're just trying to buy time, hoping that the experts from the Martial Market Academy and the Cloud Terrace Sect Mansion can arrive sooner," Zhang Ruochen said.
Han Qiu finally understood Zhang Ruochen's intention. Staying in Yueji City would make it easier for the experts from the Martial Market Academy and the Cloud Terrace Sect Mansion to find them.
If they fled into the vast mountain ranges, they would not only have to face an endless stream of barbarian beast attacks but would also have little chance of waiting for help to arrive.
Zhang Ruochen began to take stock of the usable resources in his space ring, pulling them out one by one.
Thunder Pearls: forty-five.
Third-rank healing pills: ten bottles, each with ten pills. Among them were healing pills, true qi recovery pills, and pills that temporarily increased strength.
Fourth-rank healing pills: two bottles, each with five pills.
Attack battle diagrams: seven.
Defensive formation flags: two sets. Attack formation flags: five sets.
...
Han Qiu stared at the massive pile of resources Zhang Ruochen pulled out from his space ring, utterly astonished.
Just the forty-five Thunder Pearls alone were worth ten million silver coins and had the power to destroy tens of thousands of troops.
Then there were the pills, battle diagrams, and formation flags—all the treasures combined were worth at least thirty million silver coins.
She was a noble young lady from the Cloud Terrace Sect Mansion and a top-tier genius, but compared to Zhang Ruochen, she was practically dirt poor.
Han Qiu picked up one of the battle diagrams and unrolled the sealed scroll.
The painting depicted a third-rank upper-level barbarian beast, the Purple Horn Beast. According to the explanation on the diagram, activating it would summon ten Purple Horn Beasts to aid the martial artist in battle.
Just this one battle diagram alone was worth over two million silver coins.
"How do you have so many treasures?" Han Qiu asked.
Zhang Ruochen had obtained these treasures from the warehouse of the Red Spider Giant Ship. They had originally been high-grade goods that the Spider Poison Merchant Guild planned to auction off.
He didn't tell her the source of the treasures. "To withstand the barbarian beast attacks, we need to set up formations first. I've already inspected Yueji City's city-protecting formation. It's been damaged to some extent, and even if we repair it, its power will be greatly reduced."
"There's only one way now. We need to combine the formation flags from the seven formations I've taken out with Yueji City's original city-protecting formation to create a new one. First, go and insert the formation flags into the city wall."
There were seven sets of formation flags in total: two sets of defensive formation flags and five sets of attack formation flags.
Among the formations, the smallest, the "Ghost Light Skeleton Formation," had only twenty-four flag poles, while the largest, the "Thousand Troops Ten Thousand Beasts Formation," had eighty-one flag poles.
The flag poles were cast from bronze, about seven feet long. Formation masters installed spirit crystals inside the poles to provide energy for the formation. The flags themselves were woven from witch gold thread, inscribed with formation inscriptions, and connected to the poles.
As long as the flag poles were inserted into the ground in a specific pattern, a martial artist could activate the formation using true qi.
Among the seven formations, even the cheapest, the "Ghost Light Skeleton Formation," could fetch three million silver coins at the Spider Poison Merchant Guild's auction, equivalent to the total assets of an eighth-rate clan.
Zhang Ruochen wasn't just setting up the seven formations; he was also integrating them with Yueji City's original city-protecting formation to maximize their power.
If successful, Yueji City wouldn't be impregnable, but it would at least have the strength to fight a defensive battle against that beast taming master.
Han Qiu turned into a graceful shadow, flew up to Yueji City's wall, and began inserting the flag poles into the wall, setting up the formations.
Inserting flag poles didn't require much skill—any martial artist could do it.
Strangely enough, even though she knew this battle would be a desperate struggle, Han Qiu felt excited and anticipatory, without any fear at all.