by <unknown>
The parachutes floating in the night sky represented hope, but they were also a symbol of death!
Crack! Crack! Crack!
Hiu! Hiu! Hiu!
Li Yao noticed that the dozens of contraptions that looked like catapults in the camp of the Village of Peace had been tightened to the maximal. A brawny, armed man was crouching on the rail of every catapult. After a rumbling noise, they were launched into the air like cannonballs.
All the brawn men were carrying huge metal backpacks. As their momentum petered out and they were about to fall, their backpacks released powerful air currents and unfolded four metal wings, allowing them to ascend and approach the parachutes.
In the meantime, from the city ruins outside of the red line, a lot of brawny men with wings were ejected, too. Like birds, they staggered and charged at the parachutes.
Shua! Shua! Shua!
They were all experts when it came to manipulating the wind power and air currents. Like the most professional surfers, they made use of the turbulence of the air delicately and reached the parachutes' side.
Their wings were thin and had sharp edges, allowing them to cut the ropes of the parachutes and make the parachutes fall to one side.
After every rope was cut off and a parachute was sent to their destination, exclamations that sounded like howls would echo on the ground.
"They are all Winged Warriors," Han Te explained to Li Yao. "Because we have only drawn the red line on the ground and it is impossible for us to divide the range in the sky, a batch of elites from every village flies into the air in advance and controls the fall of the parachutes accurately to make them fall into their own zone. In that case, the assets will surely be their village's!"
More and more Winged Warriors flew into the sky, but the direction of the parachutes whose rope was cut off was very difficult to control. Should there be any change in the wind, it was very easy for them to collide and tangle with each other.
Therefore, the Winged Warriors from different villages inevitably had soul-stirring fights in midair. Now and then, somebody's wings would be cut off and kicked down from the sky, thudding to the ground in huge dust and dull noises.
The larger a parachute was, the heavier the asset inside would be. The few largest parachutes soon became everyone's target.
Some of the Winged Warriors flew higher and higher without bothering anything in order to drag the largest parachute to their side. They gradually approached the 'Heavenly Rails'.
It all happened too fast. The Heavenly Rails suddenly glittered, like giant boas that had finally revealed their terrible true appearance. Lightning raged and illuminated the night sky, electrifying the Winged Warriors who had touched the sky and tearing them into pieces.
"They were too close to the sky," Liu Li said gloomily. "Sinners like us are not qualified to touch the holy sky."
Chapter 1967: Everybody's Target |
Those who were capable of flying in midair to cut and control the parachutes were only few after all. Most of the parachutes simply fell unimpeded, landing in different parts of the ruins randomly.
As the parachutes got closer and closer to the ground, the howls deep inside the city ruins became fiercer and crazier.
Under the blood red moonlight, it could be seen that countless pairs of skinny hands were extended out of the rundown buildings and the debris. Humans were no longer humans but wild, starving dogs.
Boom!
The first chests of assets finally hit the ground in heavy noises. The previously blossoming parachutes were like wrinkled skin on the ground, announcing their location as an eye-catching mark.
"Hooo!"
"Let's go! Let's go!"
The sinners showed up!
With saliva running out of their mouths, greed beaming out of their eyes, interconnected veins protruding on their foreheads, and their hands and feet cramping uncontrollably, they crawled out of the debris like ghosts and ran toward the parachutes without bothering anything.
Li Yao even saw that, in order to be faster on the uneven ruins, some of them were running on all fours with their backs hunched, truly like the ferocious animals that were sprinting for food.
A gory battle erupted immediately.
To fight for the hope of survival in the next year, even white-haired old ladies and children who were wet behind their ears turned into the craziest devils. They punched, kicked, smashed, stabbed, bit, and scratched until their fingernails were all rolling up in blood, all in order to drag the heavy assets to their own village.
The thick ropes of the parachutes cut into their skinny bodies deeply and almost chopped them in half from their shoulder. But they felt none of it and put on a smile of satisfaction until they were knocked down by other people who were even more beast-like.
The competition between the old and the young was already fierce enough, and the battle among the adult warriors was even more gruesome.
Roaring chainswords cut the enemy in half. Thundering vibration sabers shattered the enemy's internal organs into a pulp of blood. The high-heat axes did not produce any sound by themselves, but the sound that was similar to branding when they kissed the flesh was enough to give anyone who heard it nightmares for ten days. However, none of the noises were half as devastating as the roars and screams of the people who knew nothing but killing.
In the perception of Li Yao's soul, everyone's field of spiritual energy in the city ruins had been cast into the most dangerous turbulence.
He even saw that, when somebody activated their maximum spiritual energy, they exploded before they could attack their enemy!
When the blast that was as powerful as the self-detonation of a Core Formation Stage Cultivator swept out, the ten or so brawny men who were fighting over the resources nearby were blown away at the same time and crashed into the rough crags brutally, their bones shattered. It was obvious that they would not live.
What was left at the center was merely a shallow crater from which a blood red steam flowed. The brawny man whose spiritual energy went out of control at the beginning had been entirely obliterated without leaving even a fragment of bone.
Such a scene was anything but unusual in a Bliss Ceremony. After one sinner was battered because their spiritual energy went out of control, even more sinners unleashed whatever techniques they had without a care, yelling and shouting.
"It's collapsing! It's collapsing!"
Right then, countless people began exclaiming deep inside the ruins. As it turned out, a skyscraper that was hundreds of meters tall and had been shaking since the very beginning finally could not withstand the fight near to the foundation anymore. It slowly slanted and collapsed in ear-splitting noises!
The overwhelming dust covered half of the ruins. A lot of people were smashed in the collapse, and still more people were screaming between the rebars and the rocks. But others simply put on their respirators and went on fighting on top of the dead bodies of their companions and their enemies.
Perhaps there were only a few places where the sinners did not fight the moment they met.
Those places were huge wooden boxes. The ropes of their parachutes had been cut off in midair, which made them fall too fast and crash into pieces when hitting the ground, revealing the clean, fragrant compressed food inside.
The compressed food was mostly made of animal oil, high-energy dry fruits, and all kinds of additives. They had a fragrance that could drive anyone crazy.
The normal way to eat them was to cut a small slice and boil it in the water to turn it into a bowl of thick porridge. One bowl would be enough to fuel the high-intensity training and hunting of a sinner for an entire day.
However, by the time a Bliss Ceremony came around, the assets retrieved from the last Bliss Ceremony had been consumed over an entire year and were mostly used up.
A lot of the sinners from the barren villages had almost gone crazy in hunger.
Smelling the fragrance of the compressed food, the sinners were all rushing close
without caring about anything, their eyeballs almost bursting out of their faces, before they picked up the compressed food and ate frantically.
Countless sinners were wolfing around the broken wooden boxes like dogs. Very soon, some of them began cramping on the ground while holding their belly. Their abdomen rose so high that a balloon seemed to be expanding crazily inside.
That was the Bliss Ceremony, a blessing given by the angels to the sinners!
"Warriors of the Village of Peace, let's go!"
The battlefield was half a frigid ocean and half an inferno. The city ruins beyond the red line were an utter mess, but there was still nothing but indifference and silence within the red line.
The Village of Peace had the best gear and the strongest warriors. The assets that they had accumulated in recent years had not been entirely used up yet. At the very least, they were fed properly before they joined the battle. They were naturally not as devastated as the other sinners.
Instead of fighting for assets like headless flies, they observed the situation calmly. It was not until the chaotic sinners gradually approached the red line that 'Blood Eagle' Zhao Lie finally gave the order from the command tower.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Almost a hundred caterpillar tractors that were aged, dusty, and embedded with iron plates and stings were driven to the red line.
Between every two caterpillar tractors were three to five warriors of the Village of Peace. They were all tall, muscular men. Each of them held an iron shield the size of a door. At the bottom of the shield was a wedge. After the shields were stabbed into the ground, they were as unshakable as iron towers.
Every muscular man bashed the iron shield heavily in a fixed rhythm with a hammer in their hand. After every three beats, they would shout at the same time, "Peace! Peace! Peace!"
The sounds swept across the battlefield like tides.
Another dozen caterpillar tractors whose turrets had been dismantled and replaced with large searchlights were nearby. The lights were all turned on, illuminating the red line clearly and shooting at the road beyond.
Whoever charged from the other side of the red line would be dazzled by the searchlights, and their every movement would be noticed quickly.
The warriors were both well-organized and emanating daunting auras. They were indeed a tough troop.
After the iron wall was established, the old, the weak, the women, and the children behind were able to collect the assets without concern. They had occupied the largest territory, and there was no need for them to kill each other because they were surrounded by their own people. Naturally, their efficiency was high.
In the meantime, some of the sinners who were out of their mind intended to barge into the red line, only to be apprehended by the defenders of the Village of Peace. After their legs and arms were broken, they were launched back by the 'catapults'. There was no telling how they would end up.
Han Te, Liu Li, and Li Yao joined the team to move the assets, too. Not entirely satisfied, the young man mumbled in complaint, "Zhao Lie does know what he is doing. It seems that there won't be a fight in the Bliss Ceremony this year."
Li Yao, however, sensed the feeble changes of the wind. Looking at the descending parachutes from the sky, he calculated for a while and said, "Don't be so sure. There may be changes."
Right then, a wind rose.
At first, it was an insignificant breeze, but the speed of the wind gradually accelerated and raised overwhelming dust. Half of the city ruins were covered in the dust. Even the bloody Flower of the Other Shore in the sky became obscure in the haze.
The largest batch of parachutes had been released.
Almost a thousand eyes of fiends were opened slowly.
Red lights were flashing on the Heavenly Rails, reminding the sinners that it was the last batch of relief assets.
Together with the parachutes that had been tossed earlier and were still descending, more than half of the assets were floating in midair.
However, the wind was blowing toward the Village of Peace's 'territory'.
Boosted by the wind, more than half of the parachutes flew to the Village of Peace.
The screams on that side of the red line grew lighter and lighter. Only intermittent moans could be heard.
All the sinners opened their mouths and waved their hands in vain, watching tremendous assets falling into the hands of the Village of Peace.
The people who fought each other brutally simply looked at each other in silence with their bloodshot eyes.
This was perhaps the year with the most uneven distribution of resources in history.
At least two thirds of the resources had gone to the Village of Peace.
The remaining dozens of villages fought each other brutally for a pitiful third.
Silence. The darkness of the city ruins on that side of the red line was mired in dangerous silence.
In the silence brewed either death or outbreak!
Li Yao's soul could sense that a fiendish fire was rising from the other side of the red line. It grew higher and higher and was practically burning up the entire ruins.
We can't live. It is impossible for the sinners of so many villages to live on the one third of the assets.
Unfair. This is too unfair. We fight so hard but we can only get one third, and they watch us fight and do nothing and will get two thirds.
Let's go and rob them!
We can't allow the Village of Peace to be so dominating anymore!
I'm told that the Village of Peace will destroy us very soon. Let's go together and destroy them first!
The sinners communicated with each other with their eyes.
They arrived. Illuminated under the pale light of the searchlights, the ragged, bleeding, and ghastly sinners showed up.
The crowd—filled with idiocy and zeal, pitifulness and ferociousness, the will to survive and the urge to destroy—wriggled forward against the shields, hammers, searchlights, and caterpillar tractors of the Village of Peace like a bunch of animals and zombies!
Chapter 1968: Behind the Curtain |
Despite the protection of the iron wall, the villagers of the Village of Peace still felt as if their hearts were trembling.
Even counting the strengthless villagers, there were only several thousand of them total. It was impossible for them to defend the long red line that pierced through the entire city ruins.
There were too many sinners of dozens of villages on the other side. Although most of the sinners were bags of bones, the glimmering greed beaming out of their eyes alone was frightening enough to make them drop their weapons.
"Prepare to fight. Everybody, drop your assets and grab your weapons. Prepare to fight!" Zhao Chong and his Iron Blood Youths shouted in the city ruins on their single shuttles, distributing chainswords and sticks that were embedded with high-voltage electric arcs to the old and the young.
Li Yao vaguely overheard the fierce quarrel between 'Sky Breaking Hammer' Gu Zhengyang and 'Blood Eagle' Zhao Lie. Interested, he said to Han Te and Liu Li in a low voice, "Let's go up there and take a look."
While the three of them were moving, the crowd on the other side of the red line had already pressed forward quite a distance.
On the command tower, the disagreement between the village leader and the captain of the exploration team was already too intense to be hidden.
They heard Gu Zhengyang speaking loudly. "Hurry up. Throw two hundred boxes of assets over with our launchers and ask the leaders of their villages to talk to us. Tell them that if they are willing to retreat, we will offer them another two hundred boxes of assets by dawn. That's a promise from 'Sky Breaking Hammer'!"
'Blood Eagle' Zhao Lie, on the other hand, widened his eyes and bellowed, "Leader, are you out of your mind? Those assets were blown to our side by the wind. They are the gifts that the angels have given us. How can we give away the meat that we have already swallowed?"
Gu Zhengyang raised his voice and
shouted in fury, "You've seen the situation. Those people have gone completely mad and do not care about their lives at all. How can we defend such a long red line? There will be dire consequences if they break the defense!"
"Even if they do, so what? What are the dire consequences?" 'Blood Eagle' Zhao Lie licked his lips and grinned hideously. "Our warriors are far stronger than them in the first place, and we have rested and prepared for such a long time. Look at them. They will fall if the wind blows harder, and they want to steal food from us? In their dreams!"
Gu Zhengyang grew anxious. "How many people will die?"
"People die in the Land of Sins every day. It is either them, or us!" 'Blood Eagle' Zhao Lie roared. "You think a few hundred boxes of assets are enough to satisfy them? No. It will only make them feel that you are weak and vulnerable, and they will only push further and further. The deterrence of the Village of Peace will be no more!
"I assure you that after you give four hundred chests to them today, no village will be scared of the Village of Peace tomorrow. Everybody will consider us a piece of fat meat without bones, and nobody will hesitate to bite us hard at the first opportunity!
"We can only keep the Village of Peace safe by making them fear us and nailing the fright deep into the bones of the son of bi*ches!"
"They will not be scared of us." Gu Zhengyang's voice softened. "Look at them right now. They have turned into a bunch of rabid dogs!"
"Yes. They are a bunch of rabid dogs, and they are certainly not scared of us right now." 'Blood Eagle' Zhao Lie sneered. "However, by the time I crush their skulls, those rabid dogs will learn what fear is."
"Zhao Lie…"
"Enough, leader. Indecisiveness is your greatest weakness! The rules that we do not attack until we are attacked and that whoever crosses the red line will be killed were made by you. Command of the operation was given to me by you, too. Right now, I am the highest commander, and everybody must listen to my command. Otherwise, not just you, even my own son will not be shown any mercy. Those who disobey me will be executed immediately!"