Volume 1: Bo'an Awakening & The Calamity Storm
Chapter 86
The Lifeline and the Collapsed Arch Bridge
The blood-red rain continued to pour relentlessly from the pitch-black sky. Heavy, stinging droplets carrying the rank stench of churned mire and toxic secretions lashed mercilessly against the raw, battered flesh of the exhausted refugee column scrambling in desperate flight.
Beneath their pounding feet, the asphalt along South Street had buckled into massive, jagged fractures. Thick mud mingled with viscous gore, spraying violently in all directions with every frantic, heavy stride.
“Hang in there, folks! Feng Lan High is right ahead! As long as we get across the bridge, we’ll reach safety!”
Zhang Hu’s hoarse, rasping bellow tore through the howling tempest. His tattered school uniform clung sodden against his stout shoulders, his calves trembling uncontrollably after miles of continuously channeling Earth mana to clear collapsed rubble and pave a path for the fleeing masses.
Yet the moment the staggering refugees reached the curb of the grand boulevard opening onto the canal embankment, a scene of sheer despair slammed squarely into their vision, forcing hundreds of terrified souls to freeze dead in their tracks.
The massive flood-diversion canal—spanning over thirty meters in width and dividing the South Street commercial district from the grounds of Feng Lan Magic High School—had transmuted into a ravenous, aquatic monstrosity. Rushing down from upstream, the floodwaters churned a sickly, turbid crimson, raging violently into thundering vortexes and foaming whirlpools. The horrifying kinetic force slammed splintered tree trunks, twisted car chassis, and bloated, mangled corpses against the concrete revetments with deafening crashes.
And worst of all—the sturdy stone arch bridge that had once served as the sole arterial crossing connecting the two banks was now severed, a central span over ten meters wide completely collapsed!
The yawning abyss gaped like the maw of a bottomless chasm, swallowing every shred of vitality. Mangled, twisted rebar hung limp above the roiling river chasm, while heavy slabs of crumbling concrete cracked and sheared away every few seconds, plunging into the churning current only to be swept downstream in an instant.
“The... the bridge is broken!”
“Heavens above! How are we supposed to cross?! With the floodwaters raging like that, a single misstep means drowning instantly!”
“We’re finished... there’s nowhere left to run...”
Women choked back racking sobs as they clutched their wailing babes tight to their chests; a silver-haired elder let out a shivering gasp, his numb, trembling fingers dropping his wooden cane to clatter uselessly onto the sodden stones. Over two hundred refugees bottlenecked against the fractured bridge abutment, trampling against one another in sheer, undiluted panic.
Scarcely two hundred meters away on the opposite bank, the pale-golden hemispherical dome of the Auxiliary Grand Barrier at Feng Lan Magic High radiated a warm, sheltering luminescence, protecting thousands of fortunate citizens who had arrived before them. The boundary separating brutal slaughter from safe salvation was merely the span of this single canal, yet that severed gap felt like an impassable abyss between life and death.
“Damn it! What kind of cursed nightmare is this?!” Li Peng shrieked, his knees knocking together so violently he collapsed straight into the muck, his face drained of every last drop of blood.
Ling Bai slumped against a crooked lamppost, his chest heaving violently. His Ice Stardust had long since withered to near depletion after the grueling skirmishes of their fighting retreat. Staring across the perilous gap into the roaring torrent before him, his lips twitched spasmodically, his fists clenching until his fingernails bit into his palms and drew blood:
“There isn’t an Intermediate Wind Mage here to ferry people across with Wind Glide... and my Ice magic doesn’t possess anywhere near enough mana to freeze a torrent this violent... Is this truly... the end of the line?”
ROAAAR... BOOOOM!!
Before his lamentation could even fade, bloodthirsty, feral howls erupted like rolling thunder from the crossroads behind them!
The pungent stench of fresh blood oozing from the gaping laceration on Teacher Kang Mu’s chest, compounded by the scrapes and gashes marking dozens of wounded refugees along their flight, had drawn a deadly pack of predators straight along their scent trail.
Piercing the blinding curtain of rain, dozens of eerie pairs of feral green and sickly red eyes blazed within the pitch-black gloom. A pack of Dark Scarlet Wolves—over thirty ferocious Servant-class, one-horned beasts—pounded over shattered masonry and collapsed brick walls, hurtling forward like a tide of phantom reapers!
With every bounding leap, paving stones shattered beneath their talons. Their jagged, saliva-dripping jaws leaked viscous, dark-green secretions that sizzled corrosively against the rain-soaked asphalt. The pack alpha was as massive as a compact truck; the bone spear of its single horn pointed forward like a lance, its four iron-shod paws pounding the roadway in a thunderous rhythm, closing the distance to under sixty meters in the blink of an eye!
“They’ve caught up! The wolves are here!!”
Pandemonium instantly consumed the crowd. Dozens of frantic, able-bodied men shoved elderly folk aside in blind panic, stampeding frantically in search of any nook or cranny to hide, plunging the riverbank into a terrifying stampede.
“Everyone, shut up! Stand your ground and stay right where you are!”
A commanding roar, tempered and sharp as forged steel, suddenly detonated across the embankment, cleanly overpowering both the crashing thunder and the ravenous snarls of the advancing pack!
Lin Feng strode forward with long, measured paces. His black shirt was torn to ribbons, exposing a chiseled torso marked by superficial lacerations left by the razor windstorms of his fierce duel against the Black-Winged Frenzy Wolf. A streak of dried blood clung to the corner of his lips, yet his abyssal black eyes were chillingly serene—exuding a haughty, unshakeable aura like a solitary mountain standing firm against a raging tsunami!
Seeing Lin Feng step forward to anchor the line, the hysterical crowd seemed to grab onto a miraculous lifeline. The shrieks and wails gradually died down, every scrap of desperate hope converging upon the broad, resolute back of this sixteen-year-old youth.
“Father, support Teacher Kang and get him to the edge of the bridge! Zhou Min, stay close and protect Xiaomo!” Lin Feng ordered decisively, his tone deep, steady, and devoid of the slightest tremor.
Lin Hai nodded vigorously. Hunched over, the aging father hoisted Kang Mu securely onto his shoulders, his weathered, calloused hands gripping the unconscious teacher’s legs, who had passed out from blood loss. Zhou Min hastily shielded Lin Xiaomo, who sat in the folded wheelchair under the canopy of a battered umbrella. Her red-rimmed eyes welled with moisture as she nodded frantically: “Lin Feng... please be careful!”
Lin Feng did not glance back. Turning his gaze toward Zhang Hu, who was gasping for air beside him, his voice dropped to a taut snap:
“Fatty Hu! How much Earth mana do you have left in the tank?”
Zhang Hu swallowed hard, wiping rain from his face with his sleeve. Clutching a dulled, low-grade magic stone nestled inside his pocket, he ground out through clenched teeth:
“Enough to trace two Star Paths! Brother Feng, tell me what you need! At worst, your grandfather Hu will burn every last drop in my spiritual sea to stake my life against these beasts!”
“I don’t need you to throw your life away fighting.” Lin Feng’s gaze flicked toward the fifteen-meter rupture in the stone arch bridge, his voice dropping rapidly: “This bridge was built with rubble stone and reinforced concrete. Use Earth Wave—shift all the shattered stone blocks from the canal bed and the abutments, fuse them together, and construct a temporary stone bridge! Pave a lifeline for our people to reach the other side!”
Zhang Hu flinched, his eyes bulging: “B-but... the torrent is churning with insane force! Any stone bridge I raise will only hold for three or four minutes at most! And what’s more... that pack of Dark Scarlet Wolves is less than fifty meters out! Who’s going to stop them?!”
The corner of Lin Feng’s lips curled, a fierce, haughty grin flashing across his soot-and-blood-smeared face:
“Those stray mongrels... I’ll welcome them with my flames!”
Without wasting another heartbeat, Lin Feng pivoted on his heel, turning to confront the thirty-plus Dark Scarlet Wolves stampeding toward him in a frenzied charge!
HOWWWWLL——!!
The alpha let loose an ear-splitting howl. Bundles of knotted muscle along its four limbs bunched and exploded, propelling its massive bulk into the air from thirty meters away! The venomous horn atop its skull shimmered with a rancid, spectral azure sheen; talons curved like reaping scythes ripped through the sheeting rain, descending directly toward Lin Feng’s skull!
“Fatty Hu! Raise the bridge now!!”
Lin Feng’s roar detonated in tandem with an earth-shattering eruption of power from his palms!
Zhang Hu gritted his teeth so fiercely that crimson trickled from the corner of his lips. He didn’t spare another glance backward, staking his life, his honor, and the survival of hundreds of refugees completely upon his childhood brother! His rough palms slammed hard against the cracked concrete rim of the arched bridge:
“Earth Wave: Displace! Stone Rampart Span!!”
Earthy ochre magic flared brilliantly from Zhang Hu’s palms, permeating deep into the stone masonry of the bridge structure!
RUMBLE... CRASH... BOOM!!
The earth shook violently! Empowered by Earth elemental mana, dozens of boulders weighing hundreds of kilograms strewn along the canal banks—alongside fractured slabs of concrete lodged at the base of the pilings—suddenly seemed imbued with living will. They surged upward from the roiling red torrent, clattering and locking against one another in deafening collisions. Anchoring into the two fractured abutments, they knit tightly together into a rugged, jagged stone bridge roughly one and a half meters wide, spanning the entire fifteen-meter chasm!
“The bridge is up! Cross now! Single file, move it, move it!!” Zhang Hu collapsed to his knees, his entire frame shuddering violently. Veins bulged along his temples like twisting serpents as he poured every scrap of his willpower into locking the rock formation together against the brutal battering of the foaming torrent below.
Simultaneously, at the bridgehead facing the ravenous pack:
The alpha wolf descended in a savage pounce, less than five meters above Lin Feng’s head! The rancid stench wafting from its crimson gullet blasted squarely against the youth’s face.
Yet Lin Feng did not dodge! He didn’t even yield half a step!
Within his fiery spiritual sea, the seven gold-rimmed Tier 4 Fire Stars ignited in a blinding blaze! Dispensing with any cumbersome incantations, the golden Star Path linked into a seamless circuit in a mere tenth of a second—a casting speed of supernatural mastery!
“Fire Burst: Blazing Wrath!!”
Lin Feng whipped his torn sleeve forward!
A dense, deep-crimson orb of flame—the size of a millstone—erupted from his palm, rocketing skyward to slam squarely into the underjaw of the airborne alpha!
BOOOOOOM——!!
A world-shaking detonation ripped through the stormy night!
This was no ordinary flame! Empowered by the Tier 4 Stars tempered by the Primordial Dragon Pendant, the fireball exploded into a terrifying thermal shockwave that tore across the ground! The kinetic blast pulverized the alpha’s cranium right out of midair, spraying charred scraps of flesh and hissing black blood in all directions!
Yet Lin Feng was far from finished!
He knew full well that a single strike could never halt thirty-odd demonic beasts driven berserk by the scent of fresh blood!
“Crimson fire... heed my will, scour the earth!!”
Lin Feng roared, his arms sweeping out in a flawless, sweeping arc! Two successive blasts of Scarlet Flame burst forth in rapid succession, slamming into the buckled asphalt directly before the bridge entrance, coalescing with the searing shockwave of the previous blast!
KABOOM... ROAAAR...!!
The scorching heat liquefied the cracked asphalt into bubbling, molten slag! Roaring scarlet infernos surged over three meters high, unfurling across twenty meters along the roadway to erect a towering wall of blazing fire that sealed off the entire approach to the arch bridge!
Carried by blinding momentum, three Dark Scarlet Wolves trailing immediately behind their alpha failed to brake in time, crashing headlong into the firewall!
Yelp... HOWWWLLLL!!
Blood-curdling shrieks tore through the rain! Coarse, wire-like pelts instantly caught fire, transforming them into howling, living torches. The flames of Tier 4 Stars carried bone-incinerating thermal properties; within three short breaths, the flesh and hides of the three beasts melted away, thrashing violently across the mud before collapsing into lifeless, smoking husks!
The remaining twenty-odd wolves screeched to a frantic halt just outside the wall of fire! Iron claws gouged through pavement, producing ear-splitting screeches that set teeth on edge.
They stared at the ravenous, crimson inferno roaring skyward, then shifted their terrified gazes to the youth standing resolute behind the curtain of flame, shrouded in a faint haze of dark energy, his eyes bone-chillingly cold. Feral instinct warned them: the being before them carried the slaughterous stench of a supreme apex predator—one freshly bathed in the blood of the sovereign of Cang Lei Ridge itself! Paralyzing terror gripped the pack; they could only snarl impotently from afar, not a single beast daring to gamble its life against that deadly wall of fire!
“Run! Cross the bridge, now!!”
Standing behind the wall of fire, Lin Feng barked over his shoulder.
Only now did the shell-shocked refugees snap out of their stupor. Seeing the youth single-handedly suppress an entire horde of savage monsters with his terrifying magic, an unyielding flame of hope ignited within every breast!
“Move! Don’t shove! Women and elders go first!”
Lin Hai bellowed, securing Teacher Kang Mu upon his back as his steady footsteps carried them across the rugged stone bridge first. Below, the torrential flood roared with terrifying fury, churning spray soaking their trouser legs, yet under Zhang Hu’s desperate concentration, the jagged slabs clung stubbornly to one another.
Right behind him, Zhou Min pushed Xiaomo’s wheelchair, hurrying across the span. The girl twisted her head, looking back at her brother’s lone silhouette holding the line amidst the blood-rain and roaring flames. Hot tears tracked down her cheeks as her small, trembling hands clasped tight in prayer: “Brother... you must stay safe...”
One by one, mothers clutching their babes, silver-haired elders, and the limping wounded grasped hands, guiding one another across the stone lifeline.
Ling Bai and Li Peng sprinted blindly across the rocks. The moment their feet touched the opposite bank within Feng Lan High’s grounds, both collapsed to the turf, gasping like beached fish, lingering terror still etched into their faces as they stared back at the radiant inferno anchored by Lin Feng.
Thud!
Zhang Hu spat out a mouthful of fresh blood, his knees sinking deep into the mud as the mana in his spiritual sea bottomed out completely. Deep fractures spiderwebbed across the stone span under the crushing kinetic onslaught of the swirling vortex:
“Brother... Brother Feng! The bridge is... about to collapse! Get over here, quick!!”
Having burned through its sustaining mana, Lin Feng’s wall of fire gradually sputtered beneath the relentless downpour. Noticing their barrier waning, the Dark Scarlet Wolves’ eyes flared crimson once more, tensing their haunches to shred the insolent human blocking their path!
Lin Feng did not flinch in the slightest. Taking two swift steps backward, he spun and vaulted onto the stone bridge!
The split second his canvas shoes struck the opposite bank, Lin Feng whirled, his arm chopping down with a savage concussive shockwave laced with furious mana, striking the stone abutment behind him!
CRRAAAACK... BOOOM!!
Bereft of sustaining Earth mana and shattered by the blunt external strike, the fifteen-meter stone span crumbled completely! Dozens of massive boulders collapsed into the canal, swept away in a heartbeat by the raging crimson flood!
The fastest wolves lunged to the opposite bank’s edge, watching helplessly as their prey stood safely on the far side. The raging watery chasm cleanly bisected the two banks, sealing the beasts outside the defensive perimeter! They could only throw their heads back, venting frustrated, mournful howls that tore into the stormy night.
“We... we survived!!”
“We made it! We reached the school!!”
Choked cheers and uncontrollable sobs of sheer ecstasy erupted along the embankment. Hundreds of refugees embraced one another, weeping openly as they shook off the suffocating terror that had hounded them across every bloodstained street.
Lin Feng strode over to support Zhang Hu, whose legs were buckling beneath him.
“Outstanding work, Fatty.” Lin Feng patted his friend’s shoulder firmly, genuine admiration shining in his eyes.
Zhang Hu cracked a wry grin, wiping blood from his lips with his sleeve as he panted heavily: “Damn it all... almost ended up as dog chow... But damn, Brother Feng, that felt fucking amazing!”
Supporting one another, the crowd moved toward the reinforced alloy gates of Feng Lan Magic High School.
This place had become the largest Barrier Shelter in the southern district. The pale-yellow magical barrier dome cast a warm glow over the sprawling campus spanning dozens of hectares, completely walling off the toxic atmosphere and the cruel blood-rain raging outside. Thousands of refugees packed the courtyards, lecture hall corridors, and access tunnels leading down to the reinforced subterranean magic shelters deep underground.
A team of medical personnel and Healing Mages from the academy rushed forward to assist.
“Quickly! Get this critically wounded patient to the field operating room! Multiple fractured ribs and severe internal organ trauma!” The physician’s face drained of color upon seeing Kang Mu’s wounds, urgently directing the stretcher crew to rush him away.
Lin Hai and Zhou Min hurried after them to help, while a female teacher gently wrapped Xiaomo in a warm fleece blanket, pressing a steaming cup of water into her hands.
Lin Feng let out a long breath of relief. The crushing boulder that had weighed upon his chest since leaving the South Street crossroads had finally settled. His family and friends were safely inside the barrier.
Yet the instant Lin Feng stepped past the half-meter-thick alloy gates and entered the school’s front courtyard...
Thrum... thrum... hummm...
Resting against his chest, the black dragon jade of the Primordial Dragon Pendant abruptly flared with an unnatural, searing burn! A bone-chilling psychic jolt pricked his consciousness, warning him of a supremely dangerous sinister aura lurking in extreme proximity!
Lin Feng’s brow furrowed tightly. Raising his chin, his razor-sharp gaze swept across the plaza.
At a corner of the square less than thirty meters from the gate, a colossal granite pillar standing over ten meters tall, etched with intricate ancient runic arrays, towered into the air—the Auxiliary Barrier Activation Monolith, the very heart that powered and sustained the entire magical ward sheltering thousands of mortal lives within Feng Lan High!
Standing beside the monolith at this moment was no ordinary barrier technician, but a silhouette clad in the dignified, slate-blue garrison uniform of the border defense corps. Fastened to the man’s epaulets was the rank insignia of a Platoon Captain.
Lu Yuan!
The very military officer once hailed as a paragon of the city defense garrison!
Yet at this moment, Lu Yuan stood with his back to the joyous throng of arriving refugees. His face was obscured beneath the low brim of his military cap, but through the gap beneath his shoulders, Lin Feng could clearly track every clandestine movement:
Lu Yuan’s right hand, concealed deep beneath his military greatcoat, was slowly retrieving a small, ash-gray ceramic phial.
His fingers meticulously pried loose the wax seal, exposing an eerie, fine grayish-black powder within. The moment the powder contacted the ambient air, a faint, colorless, and odorless vapor coiled outward—yet it caused the space immediately surrounding the barrier monolith to twist in a bizarre, grotesque distortion!
A twisted, cruel, and ghastly lunatic sneer crept across the platoon captain’s lips. His eyes locked onto the mana crystal conduit channel that fed energy into the barrier pillar, and his fingers began tilting the ceramic phial downward...
Lin Feng’s entire body strung taut as a bowstring! His pupils contracted to needlepoints, a surge of freezing killing intent rocketing straight into his brain:
That bastard... is trying to poison and sabotage the lifeline barrier monolith!!