# 783
Chapter 784: Magic Fortress
Great Xia.
Above Jialin Pass.
A helicopter tore across the sky. Zuo Qing, cloaked in a dark red cape, sat by the porthole, gazing down at the magnificent steel fortress below.
"How goes the construction progress of Jialin Pass?" Zuo Qing asked, turning his head.
"It's basically complete. Only the final residential district is still under construction—it should be finished within two months." Chen Moyu replied. "The other eleven A-rank war fortress passes are at similar stages."
Zuo Qing nodded.
"The next priority is solving the shortage of personnel." A glimmer flickered in Zuo Qing's eyes. "While we have these twelve A-rank war fortress passes, we simply don't have enough people to man all twelve. The military side is no concern, but the Night Watch's numbers are already extremely limited. To deploy more personnel to defend the war fortress passes, we'll need to draw from Night Watch teams across the country."
Chen Moyu hummed in acknowledgment. "Commander Zuo, as per your instructions, I've compiled the statistics. After consecutive years of expanded Night Watch recruitment in the past two years, Great Xia's Night Watch count has increased from 1,992 to 2,709.
However, nearly a third of these 2,700+ personnel are recruits from the past two years. If we extract large numbers of veteran soldiers from Night Watch teams nationwide as originally planned, it would result in declining experience and age among Night Watch forces stationed across various cities, weakening their combat effectiveness."
"There's no helping it." Zuo Qing said calmly. "The current situation in Great Xia is unique. I don't need to explain the importance of the war fortress passes. Besides a few exceptionally talented recruits, sending other new recruits to the war fortress passes would only result in needless sacrifices... They're still too young. They need to grow and temper themselves in the rear before they can become pillars of Great Xia.
The front lines must be held by veterans."
Zuo Qing paused, then continued, "Of course, the weakening of combat effectiveness at Night Watch stations across various cities after the veterans leave is indeed a serious issue, but it's not without remedy..."
"What remedy?"
"Rapidly growing the new recruits in a short time... And I don't mean realm or combat strength—I'm referring to their experience and mindset." Zuo Qing spoke seriously. "The simplest and most direct way to achieve this is to improve the training quality of the new recruit boot camp!
Adversity and setbacks are the best environment for rapid growth. Our previous training schedules and intensity arrangements for the new recruit boot camp were still too gentle, and our management methods weren't strict enough. Under these special circumstances, if we want these greenhorns to grow at the fastest possible rate, we must employ special measures.
And these special measures can't be achieved by the instructors alone..."
Before Zuo Qing could finish, his phone rang. He answered it, and his expression instantly changed!
"I understand. Quickly notify all Human Apex and special squads to奔赴战场 with the fastest speed possible!" Zuo Qing's voice was stern and grave. He paused, then added, "Notify Wang Mian to prepare for another time traversal..."
Zuo Qing hung up, his expression heavy with concern.
"What's happened?" Chen Moyu noticed Zuo Qing's change and frowned.
"The second disaster-level beast tide has appeared." Zuo Qing spoke grimly. "Moreover, the communication tower inside Sunken Dragon Pass was destroyed by unknown enemies, preventing the alert from being sent in time. This message was brought out by Sunken Dragon Pass's acting commander who flew to Butcher蛟关 to deliver it..."
Chen Moyu was stunned. "Then the timing..."
"We're running out of time." Zuo Qing closed his eyes, calculating. "The distance between Sunken Dragon Pass and Butcher蛟关 isn't short. Even a 'Sea' realm Night Watch member using full speed would need five minutes to arrive. That's enough time for a disaster-level beast tide to destroy a war fortress pass that isn't even finished yet.
In other words, the beast tide will hit the coastline in at most two more minutes.
There's no time—even Human Apex would struggle to arrive on-site immediately, so..."
"So that's why you notified Wang Mian to prepare for another time traversal?" Chen Moyu immediately understood the purpose behind Zuo Qing's earlier command. "What do we do now?"
"You continue on to Jialin Pass." Zuo Qing pulled open the helicopter's cabin door. Howling wind rushed into the cabin, forcing Chen Moyu to squint as he watched the dark red figure standing at the cabin door.
"No matter how severe the situation, we can't simply give up so easily... Wang Mian's time traversal isn't without cost either." A blinding burst of azure light erupted from Zuo Qing's body, his entire figure blurring,
"Maybe we can still make it in time...
If a miracle occurs."
His final muttered words, Chen Moyu didn't quite catch. By the time he came to his senses, Zuo Qing had already vanished into the sky beyond the cabin door.
...
Sunken Dragon Pass.
In the blood-colored waters, the corpses of "mysteries" bobbed in the waves. One after another, powerful "mysteries" charged out of the beast tide, tearing at the gap in the outer wall. As time passed, that breach grew larger and larger, able to accommodate more and more "mysteries" passing through simultaneously.
The six members of the Nightfall Squad fighting side by side within the narrow pass faced mounting pressure that escalated rapidly.
The larger the breach, the more "mysteries" flooded into Sunken Dragon Pass, and the harder Jialan and Berserk Cao Yuan at the front lines had to fight. Their figures gradually became submerged in the massive tide of beasts. The wide-area attacks from the others also began to falter against the overwhelming beast tide.
"Where's Qiye?" Baili Pangpang's artillery ammunition was nearly depleted. He stared at the ever-growing wave of "mysteries" before him, his expression grave.
"No idea. Haven't seen him since the fighting started." Shen Qingzhu replied.
"I saw him." An Qingyu, beside them, pushed up her glasses and pointed toward the shattered outer wall. "He went outside alone."
"Outside?"
Baili Pangpang froze, lifting his gaze toward the outer wall that was about to be completely overwhelmed by the beast tide. Confusion filled his eyes. "What did he go outside for?"
BOOM——!!!
Before Baili Pangpang's words could even finish echoing, beneath the漆黑的夜幕, dense magical radiance lit up simultaneously in the distance. Hundreds and thousands of massive magic circles rose in overlapping layers, rapidly rotating across the churning sea!
Dazzling lights of every color tore through the pitch-black night and the blood-soaked sea, like a magnificent and spectacular magical fortress, pressing down upon the beast tide at the heart of the outer wall breach.