0p0 Chapter 116 Haicheng Crisis
Chapter 116 Haicheng Crisis
Haicheng, one of the eight major cities of Shanhe Prefecture, is located about 300 kilometers southeast of Jiangcheng.
Unlike Jiangcheng, Haicheng is not only backed by mountains, but also by the sea.
Backed by mountains and facing the sea, it is the only passage from Shanhe Prefecture to the eastern coast.
Its strategic position is extremely important. Once Haicheng falls, supplies from the eastern coast will be unable to be transported inland.
The economic lifeline of the entire Shanhe Prefecture will be severed.
The town garrison commander of Haicheng was named Cheng Daxiong, nicknamed Blind Cheng.
A martial artist at the early stage of the sixth rank, with a burly build and a strong waist.
But those who know him well know that he is meticulous and never acts recklessly in battle.
He is the most capable and skilled fighter among the eight garrison commanders of Shanhe Prefecture.
The city lord of Haicheng is named Xiong Chumo. He is a psychic master, a late-stage fifth-tier cultivator, specializing in forging, but his combat strength is average.
He and Cheng Daxiong were brothers for many years. The two, one skilled in literature and the other in martial arts, worked together seamlessly and managed Haicheng like an impregnable fortress.
The head of the Haicheng branch of the Night Watchmen is surnamed Xia, and his given name is Jing.
He was at the early stage of the sixth rank, at the same level as Cheng Daxiong.
Three people, two at the early stage of the sixth rank and one at the late stage of the fifth rank, joined forces to guard Haicheng.
This made the city one of the few of the eight major cities of Shanhe Prefecture that could completely suppress the alien beasts.
But Haicheng is now facing an unprecedented crisis.
Cheng Daxiong stood on the tower of the third city wall, overlooking the battlefield ahead, one eye squinting, the other covered by a black animal hide.
He lost his left eye in a battle ten years ago, and ever since then he has had another nickname: Blind Cheng.
He didn't care about the nickname; he even thought it sounded quite nice, at least better than "Cheng Daxiong".
The scene he saw with his right eye at that moment weighed heavily on his heart.
Below the city walls, there was a dense, overwhelming tide of strange beasts.
It's not a wind wolf, not an armored beast, and not a bloodthirsty tiger.
These beast tides are insects.
Countless insects.
Some resemble spiders, with eight legs, their bodies covered in black exoskeletons, and they are the size of calves, producing silk thicker and tougher than steel cables.
Some resemble beetles, round and plump, with hard shells on their backs. They have six short legs, yet they run quite fast and have astonishing impact force.
Some resemble centipedes, ranging in length from several meters to tens of meters.
Hundreds of thousands of insects.
They spread out outside the city, a dark mass stretching from the city walls all the way to the distant horizon, seemingly endless.
This isn't even the most despairing part. The most despairing part is that these insects have already breached the outer two walls of Haicheng.
Haicheng adopted a steady and pragmatic strategy, with five city walls, each five kilometers apart.
This design was created to cope with large-scale hordes of alien beasts.
Even if the first city wall is breached, there will be a second, a third, a fourth, and a fifth.
Each city wall is an independent defense system, with walls, gun emplacements, barracks, and warehouses, capable of operating independently.
This design has proven to be very effective over the past decade or so. With these five city walls, Haicheng has gradually encroached on the territory of the alien beasts, pushing its defensive line outwards by tens of kilometers.
But now, two of the five city walls have been breached.
The third line is currently enduring the most intense attack from the insect swarm.
"Commander Cheng! The city gate is about to collapse!" A soldier ran up from the city wall, his face covered in blood and panting heavily.
"How much ammunition do we have left?" Cheng Daxiong asked without turning his head.
"Not much left. Less than three hundred shells remain, and bullets are almost used up too. At the current rate of consumption, we can only last for two more hours at most."
"Two hours," Cheng Daxiong muttered to himself.
He looked at the soldiers on the city wall who were firing desperately.
Their faces were etched with exhaustion and fear; their fingers could no longer pull the trigger.
When they ran out of bullets, they drew their swords and prepared for hand-to-hand combat.
Cheng Daxiong's eyes welled up with tears. These were all his soldiers; he had led them for many years, seeing batches die and then being replaced, only to have them die again.
He thought he had gotten used to it, but seeing their young faces now, he realized he still couldn't get used to it.
"Blind Cheng!" Xiong Chumo's voice came from behind, urgent.
"Shanhe Prefecture has replied! Reinforcements will take at least two days to arrive!"
Cheng Daxiong frowned even more deeply. Two days was too long.
Haicheng couldn't even hold on for half a day.
"What about the other acropolises?" he asked.
"It will take a whole day to get to the nearest acropolis!" Xiong Chumo's voice was filled with a sense of helplessness.
"Several garrison cities around Haicheng are being held back by strange beasts, preventing them from sending troops to support us."
"What about Jiangcheng?"
Xiong Chumo was stunned for a moment.
Jiangcheng, the city that consistently ranks last in performance reviews?
That city that doesn't even have a sixth-tier expert?
Weicheng, who was suffocated by the powerful families and had to ask Shanhe Prefecture for money every year.
Why did Blind Cheng suddenly think of asking about Jiang Cheng?
Xiong Chumo hesitated for a moment: "Jiangcheng is not far from us, about 300 kilometers away as the crow flies."
But you know their strength; Jiangcheng doesn't have any sixth-tier experts. What use would they be if they came?
Cheng Daxiong glanced back at Xiong Chumo, a look of shock flashing in his single eye.
"Didn't you watch the live stream from Jiangcheng a few days ago?"
"Live stream? What live stream?" Xiong Chumo looked completely bewildered.
He's been too busy lately. The beast tide in Haicheng has him completely overwhelmed. He doesn't even have time to eat, let alone watch live streams.
He only knew that something seemed to have happened in Jiangcheng, but he didn't have time to ask for details.
Cheng Daxiong looked away without offering any explanation.
He was also busy; the situation in Haicheng was much more complicated than in Jiangcheng.
He only managed to watch the replay of Jiangcheng's live stream last night.
After reading it, he sat in his study for a long time.
Ye Feng.
Nineteen years old.
Mid-stage of the fifth rank.
He killed a sixth-tier Heavenly Demon Envoy with a single strike.
That young man, those achievements.
It deeply shocked him, a veteran who had fought on the battlefield for decades.
He had seen many geniuses, but none like this.
This Ye Feng doesn't seem to have come to this world to cultivate; he seems more like he's here to collect debts.
They came to collect the debts owed to humans by the alien beasts.
"Blind Cheng! Watch out!" Xiong Chumo's exclamation broke Cheng Daxiong's thoughts.
In the distance, a gigantic centipede-like monster burst forth from the swarm of insects.
It is over thirty meters long and its body is covered with a blackish-purple carapace with strange patterns.
Its head has a pair of huge venomous fangs, from which drips black liquid that corrodes large pits on the ground.
Sixth order.
That wasn't an ordinary sixth-tier beast king; it was a mid-sixth-tier beast king.
Without hesitation, Cheng Daxiong jumped off the city wall.
With his full power unleashed at the early stage of the sixth rank, the spirit weapon broadsword in his hand flashed with a cold light as he slashed towards the head of the centipede beast king.
As the blade flashed, a deep gash was cleaved open in the centipede beast king's head, and black blood gushed out.
But it didn't die, and it didn't even retreat.
It opened its huge mouth, and a black poisonous mist spewed out, enveloping Cheng Daxiong.
Cheng Daxiong swiftly retreated, avoiding the poisonous fog.
Even a single breath of the poisonous mist from a sixth-tier beast king requires a significant amount of vital energy to expel.
He steadied himself and was about to attack again when he discovered that several more insect-type Tier 6 Beast Kings had rushed out from the insect swarm.
A spider, a beetle, a mantis, and a grasshopper.
Including the centipede, five sixth-tier insect kings pounced on him at the same time.
Five sixth-tier alien beasts had already surrounded him!