Chapter 237 - 235: The Great Transfer and the Breakout

Huo Jun’s logic was simple: there was no point in fighting to win or lose against a horde of the dead.

If the Corpse Calamity didn’t pursue living creatures, then in theory, even skirting its edge to relocate would be safe.

His plan was to temporarily relocate everyone and then decide their next move in a few days based on the situation. Whether the Corpse Calamity had moved on or reinforcements had arrived from Harmony Island, their options would be much better.

This demonstrated the effectiveness of Huo Jun’s earlier display of force against the Hei Race.

In their long history of struggle in the Noon Realm, they had always been more inclined to "defend"—otherwise, they wouldn’t have chosen a place that was easy to defend and hard to attack for their tribal lands.

The world outside was desolate, with an ecosystem even more hostile than the deserts on Cyan Blue. You couldn’t even find a single insect.

Leaving their ancestral lands, which had water and had been their home for many years, carried a greater risk of starving or dying of thirst than defending it to the death.

But with this group of "outsiders" from Yanhua, things were different. If they left with only essential food and water, Harmony Island could provide for their basic needs, even if they only had to last for a few days.

After being briefed, the Hei Race’s Clan Leader loudly explained this reasoning to his people.

At Huo Jun’s command, the entire Hei Race camp sprang into action. They were to take only food, water, and livestock, and they had just one hour.

Amid the chaos in their lands, everyone packed in silence. Their efficiency was far greater than Yang Shen had expected.

But the calamity arrived faster than anyone had anticipated.

Just as the preparations across their territory were only half-complete...

The nearly ceaseless, sand-filled winds of the Noon Realm... suddenly fell silent.

Everyone looked up, bewildered. They saw... a strange sky.

And a magnificent aurora.

Yes, at least to the Cyan Blue Star People, it resembled an aurora. But to the Noon Realm People, it was the harbinger of death.

Strange, violet rays of light advanced slowly across the sky, like a river of liquid amethyst...

The aurora was clearly unnatural. For a celestial phenomenon, it seemed to hug the ground, making it exceptionally brilliant and immersing everyone in its Xuanqi splendor.

Yang Shen froze, his blood running cold. He immediately dropped what he was holding and, with a few bounds, reached the Hei Race’s watchtower. The scene that met his eyes made him feel...

...as if he had stepped into an epic.

The distant plains, obscured for days, were now in full view. A black-and-gray torrent was spreading from the far horizon.

It was a great river formed of dead bodies...

The hundreds of millions of the dead drew closer, and soon, the sound of their footsteps trampling the dead earth could be heard.

There were humans in strange armor, giant beasts several meters tall, and rats scurrying between their feet.

This thousand-year pilgrimage had ravaged countless lives across the continent of the Noon Realm...

On the cliff’s edge, Yang Shen watched the army of the dead, taking a deep breath.

’Indeed, exploring the Exotic Realms was fraught with countless risks. So many heroes had fallen in these other worlds, and their enemies weren’t even specific foes.’

’It was the world itself...’

At some point, Huo Jun had also arrived at the cliff’s edge. He gauged the direction of the corpse torrent and said calmly, "Faster than I thought. But it’s only grazing the edge, which is good. We’re still evacuating."

Huo Jun suddenly floated out from the command center, his True Gang holding him aloft in the air. "Everyone! Evacuate immediately! No delays! Anyone who hesitates will be executed!"

1,100 people from the Hei Race, 300 from the remnants of the Mo Race, sixty from the Yanhua Recon Team, and 30 surviving soldiers from Europe began to move out!

One person tried to bring extra "possessions," dawdling. Before the recon team even had to act, the Clan Leader strode forward and slit their throat with a Curse Engraving blade. Blood gushed out as he made a public example of them, not even giving them a chance to explain.

The others remained impassive, and the people from Cyan Blue didn’t interfere.

Under the immense pressure to survive, some individuals still failed to grasp the reality of the situation. But they couldn’t sway the fundamental survival instinct of the Noon Realm People.

Ten minutes later, with the recon team in the lead, the column of evacuees was on the move.

Yang Shen carried several large crates on his back, yet his movements were nimble. He was positioned at the front of the column, assigned to "Martial Artist Team 1."

In military marches since ancient times, both the vanguard and the rearguard had to be elites. Huo Jun clearly considered Yang Shen a "capable fighter" and deployed him accordingly.

The entire column of evacuees stretched about three hundred meters.

The distant army of the Corpse Calamity was now less than two kilometers from the Hei Race’s territory.

Fortunately, the dead wouldn’t give chase. The column just needed to move away perpendicularly.

At their closest, only a few hundred meters separated them.

This gave Yang Shen a closer look at the torrent of the dead, a tide numbering in the hundreds of millions.

The thundering stampede made the very earth beneath their feet cry out. The vibrations struck right at people’s hearts. In that moment, death itself seemed to take physical form—a great river into which all life would eventually flow, embarking on a never-ending crusade...

’This world... no, all worlds... they truly are magnificent and full of variety.’

’One day, he wanted to travel through all the Exotic Realms, to be the very first person to step into a completely new world...’

The black torrent, an accumulation of a thousand years of the Noon Realm’s dead, numbering in the hundreds of millions, perhaps even billions, brushed right past them and swarmed up the high slope of the Hei Race’s territory.

Everyone couldn’t help but pause for a moment at the bizarre spectacle. The Cyan Blue Star People were mostly in shock, while the faces of the Hei Race were etched with grief.

The tide was over ten kilometers wide. Just a fraction of its edge grazing their home was enough to turn the Hei Race’s territory into ruins. No battle was needed; the dead, in all their varied forms, simply trampled everything flat.

Yang Shen was curious what the dead would do when they reached the cliff, but he quickly realized he had no concept of their sheer numbers.

Even the slightest fringe of the torrent numbered in the tens of millions. They simply walked off the cliff without a hint of awareness, shattering on the rocks below.

Long-extinct giant beasts, serpents, rodents, and humans fell one after another. Soon, they filled the hundred-meter-high chasm, forming a long ramp of white bone. Those that followed simply walked over them, oblivious.

Combined with the unending river of aurora in the sky, no film or words could ever capture a fraction of the scene.

The column of evacuees continued its silent march north. They planned to travel at least eighty kilometers to avoid any unpredictable turns from the River of Calamity and Pestilence.

It seemed like a complete success. Aside from the few members of the Hei Race who were killed as a warning and the supplies left behind, it felt like a total victory.

Until... a figure flew in from the distance. Deng Ming landed and immediately reported to Huo Jun at the rear of the column:

"Advisor Huo... a branch has broken off from the main torrent of the Calamity..."

He didn’t shout, keeping his voice low...

Huo Jun’s voice was grim. "How large?"

"Too many to count... At least ten million of the dead, and that’s just counting the larger ones."

These tributaries were offshoots of the River of Calamity and Pestilence. Because the aurora in the sky was not a solid stream, it would occasionally splinter into wisps, causing parts of the undead army to break off and follow.

These offshoots would eventually rejoin the main torrent or widen into new ones... just like an ordinary river.

But, as luck would have it, its path lay right across their evacuation route!

Huo Jun immediately produced a map and had Deng Ming trace the tributary’s path. He then quickly calculated their respective speeds.

The conclusion was grim: they were too slow. They would be cut off.

Jill, who was standing nearby, proposed, "Advisor Huo, if the situation becomes untenable, I suggest the team from Cyan Blue evacuates on its own."

At a Martial Artist’s speed, it would be easy to leave the dead behind. Those at the True Gang realm and above could even float just above the ground. They would be safe no matter what.

But the nearly 1,500 Noon Realm People, with their families in tow, were slowing them down too much. Less than thirty percent of them had power equivalent to the Bone Training realm.

Huo Jun shot her a look.

"Personally, I don’t care if these Aliens live or die."

"But my mission includes ensuring the survival of as many of the rare Noon Realm People as possible."

Jill frowned. "If we get cornered, are you going to trade the lives of our own people for these Aliens?"

Huo Jun scoffed. "Orders are orders. You can voice your objections, but they must be executed without the slightest deviation!"

"You people from Europe, with your bands of aristocratic thieves, wouldn’t understand the military traditions of the Yanhua Army."

With that, he wasted no more words and bellowed:

"All personnel! Abandon everything except food and water! Pick up the pace!"

The Noon Realm People fell silent once more... They had already lost so much, and now they were being told to abandon what little they had left.

But still, they resiliently carried out the order.

Countless crates and handcarts were abandoned where they stood. Adults hoisted children onto their backs and quickened their pace.

The elderly?

In the Noon Realm, only the Clan Leader had the privilege of growing "old."

The column’s pace quickened considerably, but luck, it seemed, was not on their side...

The tributary... had split again, sending out an even smaller tendril.

Like a true great river, its course was ever-changing.

A smaller stream, a million strong, was now cutting diagonally toward the column. This time, there was no need for Deng Ming’s report; everyone could see it with their own eyes.

The column immediately changed direction, heading northeast. But changing their angle also meant increasing the distance they had to travel...

Slowly but surely, they were being cornered by the two tributaries!

But Huo Jun already had a contingency plan. He snorted, "All units, prepare for a breakthrough!"

"Martial Artist Team One, you’re the vanguard! Teams Two and Three, protect the flanks! Team Four, rearguard! Deng Ming, aerial support!"

"Hei Race Curse Engraving team! Protect your children! For every one that dies, I’ll kill one of you!"

"Jill! You lead Team Five! Back up Team One! You’ll rotate the charge!"

The formation wasn’t large, and as a Late-stage True Gang master, Huo Jun could float freely just above the ground to direct his forces. As a key combatant himself, he had no need to remain in the central command.

Strategy is the brilliant mind of warfare. Huo Jun might not have been a dazzling genius, but he was more than competent.

And courage is its very soul!

Besides, hiding in the rear didn’t suit the personality of a Madman.

Huo Jun vaulted into the air, landing tall and proud at the very head of the column, right in front of Yang Shen.

Facing the hundreds of thousands of the dead, Huo Jun’s powerful figure stood unwavering. "Yang Shen," he asked, his back to him, "are you excited?"

Yang Shen felt his brain shrink for a second, but he still managed a grin. "I am. Glad to charge alongside Huo."

"Good. We can’t kill the Noon Realm People, so we’ll have to get our kicks with these dead things."

Huo Jun twisted his left shoulder, which had been bare a moment ago.

Black matter coalesced, forming a jet-black arm!

Clearly, he too had undergone a Curse Engraving transplant.

Then, with a crook of his finger, Huo Jun used his Gang Qi to pull two enormous Tiger-Headed Sabers from the rear of the column...

Each saber was nearly two meters long. He lifted one in each hand, raising them like tusks aimed at the heavens.

His salt-and-pepper hair stirred, though there was no wind, making him look like a great lion in its twilight years.

Only now did Yang Shen feel he was seeing Huo Jun in his full glory...

Breaking Evil! Dual-wielding Tiger-Headed Sabers!

The immense pressure he exuded was almost tangible!

The Exotic Realm’s unique environment and their suppressed technology made the Yanhua Recon Team feel as if they had returned to an ancient battlefield, forced to face the forces of nature with the tactics of an ancient army.

But it also allowed the Martial Artists to rediscover the spirit of "contention" that had been alive for millennia!

Behind Huo Jun, Yang Shen and all the others drew their weapons.

There were sabers, spears, and staves, but also grenade launchers. One person even dual-wielded Gatling guns.

Huo Jun didn’t roar or shout. He simply pointed forward with one of his sabers, his hand as steady as a rock.

"Break through with me!!"

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