Chapter 1 A Sudden Turn of Events

Urgent alarm bells echoed throughout Leyton Town. Church knights and priests in white robes rode through the streets, gathering every townsfolk who might be left behind. Simultaneously, wind mages flew from the town's church to every corner of the town, loudly announcing the emergency evacuation order in the air.

Teams of knights also galloped out of town, rushing to the scattered villages and outposts on the north and south sides of the town. Above the mage hall behind the church, pillars of teleportation light constantly flashed, transporting others to more distant areas to organize the evacuation. Although most of the Beinz Diocese was covered by mountains and jungles, making the population sparse, there were still many small villages besides Leyton Town distributed near the defensive line. These small villages were also part of the defensive line, with regulations like Leyton Town belonging to semi-civilian and semi-military fortresses. Between these villages, there was a series of knight order outposts and watchtowers. These units together formed the "Sacred Lake Defense Line." And now, all residents had to be notified to evacuate the Beinz Diocese, so all the more mobile personnel in the town were sent out. Knights were responsible for notifying nearby villages, while mages teleported at all costs to remote areas to organize the evacuation. This was a race against time, leaving the locals only two days.

The sudden evacuation order plunged the townspeople and ordinary soldiers into great confusion. No one knew why such an unbelievable order had been issued – all personnel, whether or not they held ecclesiastical office, had to leave the Beinz Holy Land within two days. If this order had not been personally signed by Gerton, the archdiocese leader, and Marshal Ofra, it would have caused unprecedented chaos by itself. But now, with the two highest-ranking officials of the Beinz Diocese present, and four high-ranking ascetics issuing a joint statement, this inexplicable order was forcibly carried out. In addition, almost no one in the entire Beinz Diocese was a complete civilian. Everyone was more or less a member of the military or the church, so the evacuation was much smoother than expected: even if the civilians didn't understand what was happening, they still began an orderly retreat under the organization of the high-ranking clerics.

Of course, Gerton was not the kind of impulsive or gullible person. The old archdiocese leader's greatest characteristic was caution, so after returning to the town, he first sent several groups to check the situation in the Twisted Woodland. After discovering that the entire forest was indeed filled with strange and dangerous energy, and even the monsters in the forest had gone berserk, he truly issued the order for a full evacuation.

Hao Ren and his group waited for further developments in the temporary rest house. The tense and busy atmosphere on the streets outside also affected them. Lily seemed a little restless: "What do we do? Are we really going to fight a big guy that's several hundred kilometers wide? There's no way we can win!"

Izaaks gritted his teeth: "I've already prepared a meteorite, a super-sized one, enough to level the entire Twisted Woodland – you guys won't stop me this time, right?"

Hao Ren looked at this meteorite maniac and, for the first time, felt that Izaaks' habit of smashing a pit whenever he encountered a problem was a good one: "It seems we can only rely on you now. Hopefully, it will work, otherwise, I'll have to request support from above."

Vivian sat by the window, her brows slightly furrowed. She had been thinking about things since just now, and only now did she look up: "Why do you think it's such a coincidence? Nothing happened for three thousand years, and the Twisted Woodland is about to awaken just in the few days we're here?"

"It's most likely related to that spaceship," Hao Ren clicked his tongue, feeling like he was encountering all sorts of trouble. "Perhaps it could have remained peaceful for a few more days, but now a spaceship of tens of thousands of tons has blasted a hole in its house. Even if the lullaby in the Holy Coffin is strong, it can't suppress it."

Hearing this, Izaaks suddenly revealed a thoughtful expression: "There's another possibility: the Great Whirlpool may have destroyed the Holy Coffin. The 'lullaby' stopped prematurely."

These were all possibilities, but now it was no longer meaningful to investigate why the Twisted Woodland had awakened so coincidentally these few days. Becky nervously wiped her long sword over and over again, muttering while she worked. Hao Ren leaned closer and heard her muttering: "...Grandpa bless me, Grandpa bless me. You studied history your whole life, and your granddaughter may be written in the history books now..." After muttering this, she continued to mutter something else: "...The three great joys in life: being hung on the wall, being hung on the wall, being hung on the wall... There's nothing to be afraid of, maybe I'll become a hero this time..."

Hao Ren found it amusing and couldn't help but pat Becky on the shoulder: "Relax, if it really doesn't work, we can still go offline in an emergency. At least we won't die."

Unexpectedly, Becky's expression changed when she heard this: "I've decided, I won't escape this time."

"Huh?" Hao Ren was greatly surprised.

"This is my hometown," Becky lowered her head and continued to wipe her long sword. "'Firstborn' must be very powerful. If it runs out of the Dragonspine Mountains, I'm afraid not many people in this world will survive... They have nowhere to escape, so I won't escape this time either."

Hao Ren was immediately moved, and saw Becky holding the magic sword, closing her eyes slightly, and whispering: "But you can forcibly take me out without my consent, don't forget..."

Hao Ren: "..." This girl lived a conflicted life!

At this moment, Lily's ears suddenly twitched. She nimbly slid off the chair and lay on the ground, her pointed ears close to the floor: "Did you guys hear anything?"

Hao Ren and the others exchanged glances: "No."

"It sounds like a gurgling sound," Lily had one ear to the ground and the other twitching. "Coming from underground..."

Hao Ren immediately felt cold sweat running down his neck: "...It can't be this fast, right? Didn't you say it would take two more days to awaken?"

Before he could finish speaking, a commotion suddenly came faintly from afar. A moment later, the town's alarm bells rang again at a more urgent pace!

Everyone hurriedly came to the window, only to see many fully armed warriors running in the direction of the commotion, and further away, a blurry firelight was rapidly rising.

Izaaks was the first to run towards the door: "Go and see, something's wrong!"

Hao Ren and his group ran into the street, heading towards the source of the commotion. By this time, more and more panicked crowds had appeared on the street, all running from the direction where the firelight was rising. Becky grabbed a passerby at random: "What's going on up ahead?"

The passerby looked panicked and answered loudly without looking at who it was: "Monsters! Monsters are running out from underground!"

Hao Ren's heart tightened. At this critical moment, anything running out from underground was likely related to those roots!

He immediately led the team towards the scene of the incident, bumping into countless townsfolk running towards them along the way. After turning past a row of bungalows, he saw what the so-called monsters were all about:

Countless large holes had suddenly broken open in the town's stone slab road, and a large number of spine-chilling tentacles were emerging from the holes, frantically flailing and attacking everything within range!

It was the root system of the Twisted Woodland!

These bizarre and terrifying subterranean creatures brought unprecedented panic. The townsfolk, who had been trapped in confusion, finally knew what the inexplicable evacuation order was all about. Everywhere was filled with the terrified screams of civilians and the painful cries of the wounded. The huge tentacles that suddenly emerged from the ground caused great casualties to the unprepared civilians. People scattered and fled, desperately trying to stay away from these unheard-of monsters, while the church warriors who had rushed to the scene were already fighting with those monsters. Relying on their heavy armor and special body enhancement powers, the knights desperately controlled the immensely powerful tentacles, while the mages on the outer edge of the team found the only effective means of attack after a brief observation: fire.

The firelight that had risen just now was caused by the mages attacking the tentacles.

However, facing the tentacles of those ancient creatures, the power of ordinary warriors and spellcasters was simply too weak. A single tentacle could easily sweep several heavily armored, strong warriors flying ten meters away. The fireballs of ordinary mages could only burn off a negligible layer of keratin on the surface of the tentacles. The ordinary town guards who had gathered were only barely holding out against these monsters with their flesh and blood, and this stalemate was being rapidly broken as more and more tentacles burst out of the ground!

A terrifying flame suddenly rose from Izaaks' body as he charged towards the nearest tentacle like a humanoid tank, while shouting at the ordinary soldiers: "Go and notify Ofra and Gerton! Leave this to us!"

Hao Ren drew his inspector's pistol and waved to the others: "Let's go!"