Volume 1: Bo'an Awakening & The Calamity Storm
Chapter 74
Mad Rush to South Street
“WOOOOOOO——!!”
“SCREEECH—— WOOOOOOO——!!”
The shrill, mournful wail of the Blood-Red Alert siren screamed through every corner of Bo’an City, violently ripping apart the suffocating silence of the storm-swept night. Above, the vault of heaven buckled beneath a churning ceiling of clotted, rust-red clouds. The blood moon hung suspended at the apex of the sky like a colossal, weeping eye hemorrhaging gore, showering the mortal world in an eerie, sickening luminescence.
The blood rain poured down with punishing intensity. Each viscous, iron-tainted drop struck the asphalt like lead shot, giving off foul ribbons of steam thick with demonic miasma. Far along the northern horizon, the defensive battle line of the Cang Lei Ridge Forward Outpost had been torn completely apart. Tens of thousands of frenzied demon beasts surged across the shattered fortifications, their deafening howls shaking the mountains as they drove straight into the vulnerable heart of an unshielded city.
At the forward staging plaza of the Hunter Union, utter pandemonium reigned supreme. Hundreds of battle-mages shoved and scrambled for position, their frantic bellows drowned out by the harsh, metallic clatter of magitech firearms and portable cannons being racked with live rounds.
“Third Squad, Fourth Squad! Form a defensive perimeter! Secure the civilian evacuation route toward the Central District subterranean bunkers!”
“The border garrison is mobilizing their Ironclad Phalanx at the Western Gate! All Hunter squads Rank B and above, fall in immediately!”
Amidst that roaring cacophony of panic and shouted orders, a coarse, beast-hide combat glove suddenly clamped onto Lin Feng’s shoulder, wrenching him backward with jarring force.
“Fan Chen! Where the hell do you think you’re going?!”
Lin Feng’s head whipped around. The man gripping him was Yang Zuo, the veteran captain of the hunter squad he had fought alongside for months under his mercenary alias. Yang Zuo’s square-jawed face was drained of color, the jagged scar running down his cheek twitching violently beneath the unholy crimson glare of the blood moon. His composite breastplate was caked with grime and fresh, still-steaming smears of beast gore.
“Have you lost your damn mind? That way leads straight toward the outskirts of South Street!” Yang Zuo roared, his voice raw and gravelly, his wide eyes boring into the youth before him. “Fan Chen, it’s suicide! Fall in with the military vanguard! There isn’t a single garrison unit defending the southern approaches—South Street is already an abattoir!”
Yang Zuo’s fingers tightened like an iron vise around Lin Feng’s collarbone. The grizzled captain genuinely regarded this mysterious boy named “Fan Chen” as a once-in-a-generation talent, a comrade who had bled beside him through countless brushes with death. He could not stand by and watch a brilliant young mage charge blindly into an open grave.
Yet the answer to his desperate plea was a pair of eyes crimson-streaked with wild, ferocious bloodlust.
Every muscle across Lin Feng’s body locked taut as a steel cable. He locked eyes with his captain, his chest heaving violently with rapid, ragged breaths. In his mind at this very moment, there was no space for “tactical formations,” “containment lines,” or the “greater good.”
South Street...
That impoverished, forgotten quarter perched on the fringe of the city, where rotting clay tiles shielded his aging father, Lin Hai. That weary, stoic man who spent year in and year out wrestling the steering wheel of a sputtering, decrepit mana-truck, hands cracked with motor grease, pinching every copper coin just to pay for his son’s magical education.
Where his little sister, Lin Xiaomo, crippled from youth, sat huddled in her battered wooden wheelchair by the drafty windowsill, shivering in terror as the screams of ravenous beasts echoed through the pitch-black night...
If he lost them, what point was there to Lin Feng’s life?
“My family is on South Street!”
Lin Feng ground out each word through tightly clenched teeth, his voice low, guttural, yet vibrating with an obstinate madness that brooked no argument:
“Even if it kills me, I am going back!”
The moment the words left his lips, a blistering wave of magical heat erupted from Lin Feng’s shoulder, violently throwing Yang Zuo’s iron grip aside! His silhouette launched forward like an arrow loosed from a recurve bow, vaulting off the crumbled parapet of the plaza and plunging headlong into a city drowning in an ocean of blood!
“Fan Chen! Stand down! Dammit...”
Yang Zuo’s desperate shout was instantly swallowed by rolling thunder and the savage howling of ten thousand demonic beasts ringing from behind.
The wind shrieked past Lin Feng’s ears in freezing, needle-sharp gusts. He sprinted with reckless abandon through the devastated avenues, pushing his velocity to its absolute, bone-rattling limit. His heavy combat boots trampled through dark-red puddles, sending filthy crimson spray splashing across the hems of his tactical trousers.
The deeper he pushed toward South Street, the more the surrounding streets resembled an earthly purgatory.
Barely half an hour ago, these had been peaceful, humble lanes where weary laborers wound down after an exhausting day of honest toil. But now, every semblance of civilized order had been ground into kindling beneath monstrous claws.
Heavy alloy lampposts had been snapped in two by charging behemoths, their severed mana conduits dangling into stagnant pools of water and spewing violent bouquets of crackling azure sparks. Civilian vehicles were flipped on their roofs, crumpled into jagged scrap metal.
Along the drab, peeling whitewashed walls of the dilapidated tenement blocks, broad, sickening streaks of fresh gore painted the masonry, interspersed with deep, ragged claw gouges that tore straight through brick and mortar. The suffocating coppery reek of butchery rose thick in the air, swirling with the acrid smoke of burning timber into a foul miasma that choked the back of his throat.
Mutilated corpses of innocent civilians lay strewn across alleyways.
There were grown men shredded limb from limb, their cold fingers still locked around splintered wooden clubs in a futile final stand. The piercing, desperate wails of small children shattered the gloom: “Mama! Help me, Mama!” The broken, agonizing cries of the elderly rose toward the unyielding heavens: “Gods above! Is anyone there... please, save my grandchild!”
Yet there was no army here. Not a single high-ranking battle-mage had set foot in this destitute slum. The city’s primary defense lines had contracted inward to fortify high-value assets—the Magic Association headquarters, administrative hubs, and the fortified compounds of the noble clans in the Central District. The rotting district of South Street had been abandoned the exact millisecond the Blood-Red Alert sounded!
“Bastards! Filthy beasts!”
Lin Feng clenched his fists until his fingernails bit deep into his palms, his own blood welling up and washing away in the slick rainwater. His heart spasmed with sharp, wrenching agony. Every desperate wail echoing through the dark fell upon his ears like the strike of a war hammer, a relentless reminder that his own family was enduring this exact same nightmare.
“Dad... Xiaomo... hold on! Wait for me!”
A feral growl tore from his chest. He bit down on his lower lip until copper flooded his tongue, using the searing physical pain to purge any paralyzing terror. His legs pumped frantically, vaulting clean over heaps of shattered masonry and collapsed walls that barricaded the street.
Just as Lin Feng tore through the intersection feeding into the main thoroughfare of South Street, a savage screech exploded directly overhead!
“ROOOOOAAAR——!!”
From the collapsed tin awning of a demolished storefront, a massive dark shadow dropped like a falling boulder! The air was cleaved apart by a foul, rancid gust of wind!
It was a fully matured Blood-Eyed Frenzy Wolf, well over three meters in length, its coarse gray pelt bristling like a cluster of iron spikes soaked in blood rain. Its crimson eyes burned with unhinged bloodlust; its cavernous maw swung wide to reveal jagged fangs arranged like a rusted iron bear trap, viscous saliva drooling onto the pavement.
The beast’s pounce was aimed squarely at a young mother huddled beneath the shattered veranda ten meters away!
The young woman lay flattened against the wet asphalt, using the frail curve of her back as a human barricade to shield her toddler, who was wailing hysterically against her chest. When that colossal dark shadow plummeted from above, she knew death had arrived. She didn’t try to scramble away. She simply clenched her eyes shut, pulling her child tighter into her bosom, offering her own flesh and bone as the final shield!
The demon wolf’s forepaws spread wide, five curved claws gleaming keen as tactical daggers, less than half a meter from the woman’s unprotected nape!
A razor-thin fraction between life and death!
Lin Feng flashed past the alley mouth. He didn’t break stride. His charging speed didn’t falter for even a single beat!
Whoosh!
Within the stygian dark of his spiritual sea, his crimson Fire Stardust surged in a violent torrent. Seven deep scarlet Star Cores snapped into alignment along a flawless orbital arc! In a fraction of a heartbeat, the Fire Star Path was forged!
“Scarlet Flame——BURST!!”
Lin Feng unleashed a thunderous battle cry!
His right arm whipped forward. An orb of superheated crimson fire detonated into the night! Surging with terrifying thermal shockwaves that flash-vaporized the descending blood rain, it tore through the gloom with blinding velocity!
SHRRREEE—— BOOOOOMMMMM!!
An earth-shattering explosion ripped the narrow alley apart!
The Rupturing Fireball struck with pinpoint precision squarely between the eyes of the Blood-Eyed Frenzy Wolf, just as its razor talons hovered an inch above the woman’s neck! The horrifying concussive yield of a Tier-3 Primary spell, combined with the extreme purity of Star Cores tempered by the Primordial Dragon Pendant, obliterated the demon wolf’s skull into a boiling mist of black gore and incinerated ash!
The beast’s massive carcass was thrown violently backward by the blast wave, smashing hard against a brick wall and saving mother and child in the nick of time!
Trembling uncontrollably, the young mother cracked her eyes open. Drenched in cold sweat, she stared in dazed disbelief at the headless, smoking beast twitching in its death throes right before her feet.
Lin Feng’s silhouette swept past like a raging hurricane. He didn’t pause for gratitude, nor did he waste a fraction of a second glancing at the smoldering corpse. As he blurred past, his voice rang out like a bronze bell:
“Run toward the Central Plaza! Move, now!”
The iron command struck the woman like a pail of icy water, shattering her paralyzing stupor. Clutching her child tightly, she scrambled to her feet and sprinted with every shred of remaining strength back toward the inner city.
At that exact moment, right behind Lin Feng, a fragile wisp of pale-blue luminescence drifted upward from the butchered carcass of the fallen Blood-Eyed Frenzy Wolf. It was the Soul Remnant of a Minion-tier demon beast!
Under normal circumstances, such mindless soul remnants would dissipate into the atmosphere within seconds without specialized necromantic vessels to harvest them. But the moment the mote of light ascended into the air, the pendant resting against Lin Feng’s chest stirred!
Pressed against his skin, the pitch-black surface of the Primordial Dragon Pendant suddenly radiated a fathomless, abyssal glow. It unleashed a tyrannical gravitational pull, drinking the entire glowing wisp into its depths!
Hummm——
A soft, resonant vibration echoed through the depths of Lin Feng’s consciousness. The Primordial Dragon Pendant warmed slightly against his flesh, its ancient draconic runes pulsing in a slow rhythm as it began to nourish and temper the soul.
Yet Lin Feng had not an ounce of attention to spare for the pendant’s harvest!
His mind was focused with laser-like obsession on a single coordinate:
House No. 47!
That dilapidated, narrow alleyway where his father, his sister, and he had leaned on one another to survive for over a decade!
Thud! Thud!
Lin Feng’s heavy strides hammered against cracked concrete as he cut through two more deadly corners. He skidded across a slick smear of blood, instantly catching his balance by planting a hand against a stone curb and shoving aside shattered wooden beams blocking the path.
Up ahead, the familiar dirt lane leading into the South Street slum compound finally came into view!
It was a narrow red-clay path flanked by moss-covered cinderblock walls and withered bamboo thickets that choked off sightlines. Under ordinary circumstances, this was the most peaceful corner of the district, where neighborhood children gathered to play each evening as the sun went down.
Now, the red clay had churned into a treacherous quagmire flooded with greasy, blood-tinged water. Deeply carved into the muck were massive beast tracks, leading in a grim, unbroken trail toward the heart of the alley.
CRUNCH!
Rounding the bend into his lane, Lin Feng came to a screeching halt!
The thick soles of his combat boots plowed through the muddy clay, carving two deep furrows over two meters long with a sickening, wet friction. His body pitched forward slightly, fists clenched so hard his knuckles turned white, his heart hammering against his ribs with enough force to shatter bone.
Lin Feng’s pupils snapped shut into needle-sharp points!
Right in the center of the narrow three-way junction—a passage barely four meters wide, the sole path leading toward House No. 47 less than a hundred meters away—two Netherblood Wolves, half again as massive as ordinary wolves, their razor-sharp fangs dripping with fresh gore, stood growling and barring the path!
The air inside the alleyway seemed to freeze into solid ice. A foul stench ten times more putrid than common beasts slammed straight into Lin Feng’s nostrils!
These were the most brutal predators among demon wolf kind—beasts standing at the absolute zenith of the Minion Tier!
Their hulking bodies were half again as large as ordinary Blood-Eyed Frenzy Wolves, stretching nearly five meters in length and built like two heavily armored combat vehicles forged of obsidian steel. Coarse bristles stiff as iron nails covered their frames, glinting with a cold metallic sheen beneath the blood rain. Four pillar-like limbs dug deep into the churned mud, thick veins and corded sinews bulging with every labored breath.
Most terrifying of all, the horn protruding from each beast’s brow was not the ash-gray of common pack wolves, but an abyss-black spiral—sharp and jagged like an executioner’s demonic spear. Their forearm-length fangs dripped steaming, dark-crimson blood that hissed as it struck the wet earth. Beneath the claws of one beast, a familiar scrap of floral-patterned cloth—torn from the blouse of the elderly woman who sold vegetables at the head of the alley—lay trampled into the mire.
Hearing Lin Feng’s sudden skidding halt, the two monstrous beasts slowly turned their massive heads.
“GRRR... RRROOOAAARRR!!”
Two titanic skulls swung around, four blood-red eyes burning like pits of hellfire as they locked onto the youth who had just appeared! The deep, guttural roar rumbling from their chests sent tangible shockwaves rippling down the narrow lane, rattling the cinderblock walls on either side and sending showers of crumbled mortar splashing into the mud.
The two beasts dropped their center of gravity, their spine ridges rising like jagged mountain peaks. A heavy, iron-hard tail whipped against the flanking wall with a dry CRACK, blasting a massive section of brickwork into dust!
They choked the entire alleyway. Not an inch of clearance remained to slip through.
And right behind those two bloodthirsty behemoths, deep inside the pitch-black alley steeped in the silence of the grave... The rusted iron gate of House No. 47 hung flung wide open, shrouded in a deathly, suffocating stillness!