# 324
**Chapter 324: Cloaks and Medals**
Lin Qiye pondered for a moment, then looked up at the towering black wall beside him and asked in confusion, "Why hasn’t anyone tried climbing over the wall? No matter how high it is, there should always be someone who can use their Forbidden Ruins to get over it, right?"
An Qingyu shook his head, casually picked up a small stone from the ground, and hurled it over the wall.
The moment the stone flew past the wall, a blinding bolt of lightning erupted from the top, instantly turning the stone to ash.
“The Purification Chamber is said to have the most advanced defense system in all of Great Xia. It’s no joke. Every brick in these walls is highly conductive. I suspect there’s a high-risk relic buried underground somewhere that can generate electricity automatically and is connected to the entire wall. Once something tries to cross over and disrupts the magnetic field, it triggers an electric shock.”
An Qingyu adjusted his glasses and continued helplessly, “At first, I didn’t notice this detail either. But when the riot first started, someone tried to climb the wall and was instantly fried into a charred corpse.”
“So, the only way out of the Purification Chamber is through the main gate?” Lin Qiye fell into thought.
“That’s right,” An Qingyu nodded.
Seeing that Lin Qiye still didn’t react, An Qingyu turned to him and asked, puzzled, “Aren’t we going to make a move? If the number of prisoners keeps dropping like this, it’ll be much harder for us to break through that gate.”
Lin Qiye stared at the chaotic battlefield ahead, his brows slightly furrowed.
“Wait a bit longer…”
…
“Kill them all!!!”
“Anyone who dares stand in my way dies!!!”
“You few over there, take down that Night Watch bastard blocking the path!”
“Quick!! They’re almost done! They’re running out of ammo!! Charge!!”
“I’m gonna be free! Hahahaha!!!”
“Once I get out, the first thing I’ll do is kill every last Night Watch bastard who locked me up! You think you’re tough!? Try catching me again!”
“Haha! Yeah! Kidnap their wives and kids, make them kneel and kowtow to me! And once they’re done, I’ll chop off their heads and use them as piss pots!”
“Tsk, if his wife’s good-looking, using her as a piss pot would be a waste, wouldn’t it? Hahahaha!!”
“Kill kill kill!! Kill them all! This is our chance for revenge!!”
“…”
The prisoners surged forward like wild beasts, fearless and frenzied. Their numbers had already been halved, but now, the truly vicious ones who had been hiding behind the others, using them as human shields, finally began to show their fangs!
The real powerhouses among the prisoners, who had been biding their time, finally revealed themselves when the Night Watch blocking the path had mostly fallen.
One after another, powerful figures burst out from the crowd, charging into the military’s defensive line like bloodthirsty wolves among sheep, slaughtering everything in their path!
One prisoner killed over a dozen people in a row, rushed up to a tank, and with hands glowing brown, twisted the barrel into a knot.
Another prisoner dropped from the sky, punched the tank’s armor, and the shockwave instantly turned the crew inside into pulp.
Boom——!!
At the same time, an armored vehicle on the other side was blown apart, shards of steel and chunks of flesh flying into the air, scattering across the ground.
With the dozen or so Night Watch members gone, no one could stand against the prisoners’ Forbidden Ruins. The defensive line of heavy artillery and gunfire was instantly torn apart.
“Hold the line! Even if we die, we hold them!!” Amid the roar of artillery, the Purification Chamber’s external defense commander screamed into his radio:
“If these madmen with superpowers get back into society, the consequences will be unimaginable!”
Bang! Bang! Bang!
A volley of artillery fire only briefly slowed the prisoners’ advance. Then, even more prisoners surged through the gaps, crazed and merciless, reaping lives.
Just as the entire defensive line was about to collapse, a blazing firestorm suddenly roared in from the distance, landing precisely in front of the final line of defense. A wall of flame erupted, forcing the prisoners to halt.
“All the Night Watch are dead. Who else with Forbidden Ruins is interfering?” One prisoner frowned at the sight.
The next moment, two men in black-and-white striped prison uniforms slowly walked out from the flames.
Wang Lu swept his calm gaze across the prisoners. He clenched his right fist, the flames dancing in his palm extinguished, and the fire wall behind him vanished, leaving only embers drifting in the air.
“Who said all the Night Watch are dead?”
Beside him, Fang Yanghui spoke slowly.
“You two?” Someone in the crowd quickly recognized them and burst out laughing. “What, two murderers expelled from the Night Watch want to play heroes now?
Don’t forget—you’re not Night Watch anymore! The moment you took off your cloaks, removed your medals, and put on those prison uniforms, you became just like us! Prisoners! Criminals!”
“And now you stand in our way? Looking to die!?”
“Look at these two idiots! Hahahaha…”
“That’s why I say Night Watch are all fools! The one I tricked and killed with a hostage was a fool, and so are these two!”
“Since they want to die, let’s oblige them!”
“Kill them!!”
“…”
Mockery and insults echoed through the crowd. One after another, prisoners charged forward, surging toward Wang Lu and Fang Yanghui with murderous intent.
Wang Lu stood silently, watching the overwhelming assault, and slowly spoke:
“So what if I’m not wearing a cloak? So what if I’m in prison clothes?”
He reached up, grabbed the collar of his prison uniform, and with a sudden jerk, tore it to shreds!
The fabric fell away, revealing Wang Lu’s bare upper body—bronze, muscular, and covered in scars. Knife wounds, bullet holes, burns, stab marks… a grotesque yet majestic tapestry of pain.
A cloak. A dark red cloak.
Fang Yanghui tore his prison clothes apart too. His body bore even more scars than Wang Lu’s.
Flames ignited in Wang Lu’s fists as he glared at the prisoners and roared:
“These scars are my cloak! These bullet holes are my medals!!
Strip away the prison clothes, and I still have my cloak and medals! But you? Even if you take off those prison clothes, you’re still nothing but disgusting, ugly vermin!”
With that, a torrent of fire erupted from Wang Lu’s body. Standing bare-chested in the flames, he looked like a god guarding humanity, standing firm at the final line of defense.
“I, Wang Lu of the Night Watch, stand here—who dares to fight me?!”