The disaster was far from over, and the sunlight tearing through the dark clouds only reached this corner of Water Marsh Base City.
The overall environment of the world remained dire, with countless terrifying Anomalies lurking in the wilderness, ready to bare their claws at humanity at any moment.
The battle was far from finished.
The investigators naturally understood this, yet they couldn't help but cheer. Because before today, no matter how many Anomalies they killed or how many cities they defended, they saw no hope.
Yes, no hope.
The frequency of Anomaly generation was increasing day by day. This was the most concrete data, and the Investigation Bureau had tried various methods but failed to stop it.
This data directly indicated one fact: the world was doomed and unstoppable.
This led to despair.
Many investigators, though unspoken, had been feeling somewhat dejected. But today, all of that changed. They witnessed the dawn breaking, and they truly saw hope.
Hope for the continuation of humanity!
Complacency? How could there be complacency! Having finally grasped a ray of light, how could they let it slip away?
The investigators were incredibly invigorated at this moment, not wanting to rest at all. Their eyes were no longer droopy, and they wished they could work for three days and three nights straight.
With passion and joy, they plunged into their work.
...
The entire Water Marsh City, the people of Water Marsh Base City, were cheering, immersed in excitement and joy.
The entire Donghuang was as well.
"Just yesterday at 10:33 AM, Water Marsh Base City lit up with dawn, tearing through the dark clouds that had been covering us for days."
"Now, let's interview some citizens within Water Marsh Base City."
In the news footage, the reporter interviewed several passers-by. All of them wore smiles. When asked about the moment dawn broke yesterday, their faces became even more animated. Each one spoke with vigor, vividly describing the shocking scenes of yesterday.
But there was no need for descriptions.
There was no need even to replay the shocking scene of dawn breaking yesterday, with golden light tearing through the sky and descending upon the human world.
Merely by raising the camera, capturing the current scene, and presenting it to the people...
It was enough to be shocking.
The sky at this moment was a clear blue, without a single wisp of cloud, as if all extraneous colors had been filtered out, resplendent and dazzling.
It was unbelievable, and merely looking at it was enough to move one to tears.
The internet had long since exploded, with discussions raging about the sky of Water Marsh Base City.
Excitement! Anticipation!
The few who were strongly opposed to mass migration were now speechless.
Instead, many people pleaded, hoping their cities would be next, wanting to leave their increasingly dangerous hometowns as soon as possible!
...
...
Fast was not possible.
The colossal national machine of Donghuang was now operating at full speed, with every screw tightened and every gear turning, leaving no room for idleness.
The Investigation Bureau wished they could be faster.
But for safety, everything had to proceed according to the established plan.
While ordinary people rejoiced, the investigators dared not let their guard down.
At this moment, with the dawn having lit up and the Light of Dawn covering Water Marsh Base City, the environmental safety of the entire base city had increased manifold. Occasionally, one or two Anomalies would emerge, but they could not cause any trouble. Before they could fully manifest in the shadows, they were eliminated by arriving investigators.
It was easy. The internal defense of the base city no longer required as many personnel.
But taking leave was out of the question, whether for investigators, special forces, or soldiers of the Embers.
The forces of Water Marsh Base City, now with their hands freed, sent a portion to the southern, western, and other regions to assist in the migration of the populace.
The remaining portion headed to the periphery of Water Marsh Base City, clearing out as many Anomalies as possible to prevent the formation of large-scale Anomaly tides.
"Boom—"
In a mountain shrouded in dark clouds and wisps of faint gray fog, Xing Jinglei, his chest bare, his muscles like forged alloy, unleashed a punch.
Accompanied by his low roar, this punch pierced through the body of a four-star Calamity-grade Anomaly and continued with undiminished force, destroying trees and rocks in its path, leaving a long trench a meter wide with compressed, hardened soil within.
"Hmph! Calamity Anomalies are nothing more than this."
"Next target is..."
Xing Jinglei ignored the remaining Anomalies around him. His strength was meant to be used against the big ones.
He sprinted rapidly, soon leaving behind most of the Anomalies lunging at him. The few stragglers were dispatched with a few finger jabs.
Confirming the surrounding area was safe, Xing Jinglei was about to check the mission map in his mind when he suddenly sensed impending danger. He turned his head, following his intuition towards the distant mountaintop shrouded in dark clouds.
Sporadic birds took flight.
Wisps of gray mist drifted, seemingly thickening, and clusters of monstrous shadows appeared from the other side of the mountain.
Xing Jinglei frowned and quickly used his Anomaly tracking skill. In his increasingly obscured vision, he saw...
Dense Anomalies!
Human-faced bird-monsters with tattered wings flapped out from behind the mountain.
These were three-star Anomalies. Xing Jinglei counted sixty to seventy at a glance, and there were even more Anomalies surging down the mountain.
Advancing flesh giants, charging skeletal knights, wobbling, shambling stitched monsters.
And so on and so forth, almost packed together, forming a black tide that covered the mountainside and spread downwards. On the other side of the mountain, the gigantic shadows of Calamity-grade Anomalies also began to appear.
"Hiss—"
Even the fearless Master Xing's scalp tingled.
He wasn't afraid of the Calamity-grade Anomalies. He could easily kill one, and two or three were no challenge either. Even more terrifying Hell-grade Anomalies were no match for him.
But,
There were too many Anomaly monsters! The Anomaly tide was too ferocious!
Master Xing had faced the Gate of Anomalies and Anomaly tides before, and he had a record of single-handedly breaking through tides. At this moment, however, he felt apprehensive. The tide before him was not the small tides of hundreds, thousands, or one or two thousand he had faced before.
Instead, it was countless, on the mountaintop, on the east side of the mountain, and on the west side of the mountain.
With his mathematical abilities, Xing Jinglei could not estimate the number. Thus, he quickly entered the mission map.
His current location was deep in the mountains, far from Water Marsh Base City, deeper than other Embers or special forces.
Around the map, there were originally mission markers, red ones.
Large groups, extra-large groups, innumerable.
Innumerable represented thousands. The mission markers seemed to have reached their limit when clustered together. Thus, Xing Jinglei saw that not far from the mission markers, large and small, the red markers were also dense and rapidly advancing.
"Damn it!"
"Just how many is this!"
Fleeing without a fight was not Master Xing's style. Xing Jinglei gritted his teeth, sprinted to the top of a small hill, and stared intently into the distance, at the several colossal shadows within the black, surging tide.
Here they come, coming fast!
This tide was sprinting! Xing Jinglei focused on one of the colossal shadows, then leaped from the mountaintop like a bird with its wings spread.
He continuously stomped on the Void Mirage Steps, his phantom-like evasive skill reduced to a single characteristic in his hands: brute force. He sprinted on air, the air erupting with explosions. He flew directly above the head of a four-armed giant demon. A critical hit combined with a skill blast detonated, and his massive fist smashed into the car-sized head, caving it in. The next moment, it bulged outwards from within, and a single punch blew it apart.
Black, green, and all sorts of blood splattered everywhere.
Xing Jinglei continued to tread on air, avoiding falling into the throng of Anomalies, but giant bird-monsters still lunged at him from the sides. He dodged to the side, one punch per monster.
He didn't care about the black and green blood splattering onto his forged alloy muscles, which hissed but... failed to break his defense.
This was the confidence Xing Jinglei had in taking the heads of Calamity-grade Anomalies within the Anomaly tide.
He couldn't dodge so many attacks, so he simply didn't dodge. This was his usual fighting style.
A bone spur shot towards him.
Xing Jinglei didn't dodge. He twitched his muscles, and it bounced off with a metallic clang.
But as dozens of bone spurs shot towards him, and hundreds of Anomaly flames drifted over, Xing Jinglei's expression changed. He dared not resist blindly. Even though his bronze skin, iron bones, and steel sinews were strong enough, his specially made shorts were starting to wear thin.
He had to dodge.
At times, he plunged into the throng of Anomalies, wreaking havoc.
At times, he leaped into the air, escaping the encirclement.
At times, he displayed his manliness, blasting apart the heads of Calamity-grade Anomalies.
However,
After fighting for a while and beginning to pant, Xing Jinglei found that not only had the number of Anomalies not decreased, but it had increased.
The Anomalies covered the sky, reminding him of the fear of being overwhelmed by an endless tide of Anomalies when leveling up in the Anomaly realm.
"Damn it!"
Master Xing leaped into the air. This time, he no longer charged towards the conspicuous colossal shadows, but turned and ran. No, this was a tactical retreat to bring back this valuable information.
But he was now trapped within the Anomaly tide. Even with his Cannon Fist clearing a path, he couldn't blast through the Anomaly tide in his line of sight.
Xing Jinglei had lost count of how many Anomalies he had killed or how many energy recovery potions he had drunk.
Just as his face turned pale and he was about to succumb and call for reinforcements from his mentor, the Anomalies in front of him finally thinned.
Xing Jinglei shot out of the trench he had blasted with his Cannon Fist and looked back. Behind him was still a densely packed mass, with countless Anomalies rushing towards him. Even those few colossal shadows of Calamity-grade Anomalies were closing in on him.
He no longer had the will to fight and ran with all his might.
By the time he finally managed to outrun the tide behind him, Xing Jinglei leaned on his knees, panting. What he saw were wounds all over his bare chest and his specially made shorts, torn into mere strips of cloth.
Damn it!
...
Before a certain expert surnamed Xing discovered the Anomaly tide, Fang You had already found it with the reminder from Xiao Huan.
He just didn't say anything.
Mentor Fang was silently observing and concluded that a five-fold awakened expert like Xing Jinglei, once trapped in a large Anomaly tide, would also be in danger of exhaustion and death.
And such large tides were not isolated. There were several others.
To the east, west, south, and north, numerous small tides converged and were rapidly surging towards Water Marsh Base City.
As they surged, they absorbed Anomalies from the surroundings, continuously growing stronger.
Growing like a snowball.
And this, was the greatest danger facing the base city in the first phase of the Dawn Plan.