Chapter 431

393. Chapter 393: City Alert

When Li Yi returned to Tianchang City, the city was utterly silent; only a few people hurried along the roads, as if all residents had vanished overnight. The already unremarkable streets were now desolate, and alarm sirens occasionally blared while broadcasts continuously urged nearby evacuation.

Once a Tianqing event occurs on a large scale, living in high-rise buildings is extremely dangerous, as even minor instability can cause skyscrapers to collapse and bury the living.

Therefore, evacuating residents is essential.

Moreover, a Tianqing event had already occurred ten years ago, so all subsequent urban construction opted for villas no taller than three stories; however, the newly planned district was called An Ding District, which even cultivators could not afford—Li Yi himself currently owned no residence there.

"Judging by this, this Tianqing event will be extremely severe."

Li Yi drove through the streets, observing the city's changes; he even spotted armed troops installing lethal weapons in certain locations, clearly in preparation for enemy appearances.

In addition, investigator vehicles were parked at every corner of the city, ready to respond to emergencies at any moment.

On the roads, numerous supply vehicles continued to operate busily.

Before such a great disaster, a nation's underlying strength was now revealed—but unfortunately, the Sixth World had not yet been fully secured; otherwise, large-scale interdimensional evacuation would have been the safest option.

After circling the city, Li Yi did not linger outside but immediately returned to Peace Financial Tower.

Looking at the dozens-of-stories-high tower, he felt this building would likely not survive the Tianqing event—it would probably collapse, and this district might become a new ruin zone; no, perhaps all of Tianchang City would turn to rubble. He only hoped the impact wouldn't be too vast, giving Earth's people more time to breathe.

"Excellent! You evil Earth Prisoners are finally done for—what an incredible piece of news! I knew it: Earth Prisoner, the root of all evil, must be purged sooner or later, or other worlds will surely be ruined." Suddenly, the lingering consciousness within the knife coin awoke again, seemingly aware of the celestial upheaval, and now seemed delighted.

"The fall of Earth Prisoner brings you no benefit—you'll go to the Four Seas and Eight Continents, where cosmic energy is thin, and you'll perish soon." Li Yi replied bluntly.

The lingering consciousness in the knife coin said: "I am but a fragment of a soul clinging to life; life and death mean nothing to me now. Dying among warriors of the Four Seas and Eight Continents would be a worthy end—as long as I'm not buried in this evil Earth Prisoner."

"I want to know why you hate Earth Prisoners so much?" Li Yi stopped walking and asked.

In truth, he had long wanted to ask this, but never found the right opportunity.

The lingering consciousness sneered: "I was once possessed by your evil Earth Prisoners. Though I ultimately destroyed them, their evil thoughts shocked me deeply. I once saw your Earth Prisoners duel with swordsmen—others drew swords, but you drew guns, calling it 'American Iaijutsu'—utterly despicable."

"I once saw a young man possessed by an Earth Prisoner—his nature changed completely, losing all sense of propriety, honor, and shame. He seized his master's wife, his elder brother's wife; if the woman resisted, he'd say, 'You don't want your family harmed,' forcing compliance, then ravaged the region, plundered wealth, and called it 'free love' and 'business competition.'"

"I once saw an Earth Prisoner pretend to be pure and humble, joining a sect. After only three months of training by his master, he became ruthless and poisoned his benefactor, stole the sect's techniques, framed others, and turned the entire school into chaos. When discovered, he fled immediately, planning to repeat the scheme—when I caught him, he still showed no remorse, shouting, 'Great men ignore small details,' 'Victors write history,' 'Deceit is not wrong.'"

"I once saw Earth Prisoners in the countryside refuse to work, shun self-improvement, spread evil doctrines, gather followers, declare themselves righteous heroes, claim to act 'in heaven's name,' kill officials, rebel, and unleash a bloody storm. In less than a year, they killed hundreds of thousands. When I captured them and prepared to execute them, they still had the audacity to argue, 'To kill one is a crime; to kill ten thousand makes you a hero. A true man cannot go a day without power.'"

"I also..."

Li Yi quickly interrupted: "Stop, stop, stop—I understand."

"Hmph. As for Earth Prisoners—they have no morals, no honor, no boundaries. They forget great righteousness for petty gain; they stab their own countrymen in the back. These are mere child's play—I don't even bother remembering them. Tell me, is it excessive to call your kind inherently evil?" the lingering consciousness asked.

"Not excessive." Li Yi's face grew awkward.

"Then should these evil Earth Prisoners be killed?" the lingering consciousness asked again.

"They should be killed," Li Yi said.

The lingering consciousness said: "See? Even you, a native Earth Prisoner, think they deserve death—how much more so for others?"

"You've encountered many Earth Prisoners across dimensions—surely not all of them were terrible?" Li Yi now felt deeply uneasy; it seemed all interdimensional visitors were wreaking havoc.

"There was one marginally better one—constantly reciting poetry, pretending to be a scholar to seduce beauties. Though he craved fame, he wasn't outright vile; his worst act was merely cuckolding the emperor. Compared to others, he was almost virtuous. But I didn't kill him; I don't know what became of him, but he likely ended up plotting to usurp the throne anyway," the lingering consciousness said.

Good heavens.

Do interdimensional visitors really play this hard? They're cuckolding emperors and corrupting imperial harems.

The lingering consciousness continued: "Besides you—you're the most unlike an Earth Prisoner I've ever met. Perhaps your demonic nature hasn't awakened yet, or perhaps you still retain some conscience. But from my experience, Earth Prisoners inevitably fall to darkness. Your evil is innate, ineradicable. One day, you will descend into demonic ways—and the stronger you become, the greater the chance."

"In the end, it's always the same: 'Better I betray the world than let the world betray me,' or 'It's not me who's wrong—it's this world.' Then, with resolve, they descend into darkness, ravage all life, and even kill a passing dog. You always find some flimsy excuse to do evil and feel justified."

"You understand Earth Prisoners better than anyone—I must admit, you're absolutely right." Li Yi could no longer deny it; the lingering consciousness had hit the nail on the head.

This truly matched Earth's people's nature.

Now Li Yi understood why the lingering consciousness hated Earth people so much.

If it were him, seeing such evil beings all from the same world, same place, even same race—he'd also suspect: Is this race inherently evil? Why is there not a single good person?

"If Earth Prisoners stayed only on Earth, their evil wouldn't be so obvious—perhaps they'd just restrain each other, since none of you are easy targets. But once placed outside, it becomes catastrophic," the lingering consciousness said. "A world this evil—wouldn't its destruction be a good thing?"

Li Yi said: "That's too extreme."

"Extreme? Do you know how your Earth Prisoners rebel and massacre cities? They kill anyone taller than a cartwheel—so that bastard laid the wheel flat." The lingering consciousness snorted heavily.

"..."

"Actually, strictly speaking, I'm not an Earth person—I'm half a warrior of the Four Seas and Eight Continents. After all, I formally took a master, and I carry the bloodline of a god from the Wildlands." Li Yi said, feeling guilty.

"I don't care. Remember—you still owe me two Earth Prisoner lives. The ones killed before don't count toward you." The lingering consciousness vanished after saying this.

Li Yi sighed.

At this point, why is this guy still counting?

Wait.

Suddenly.

Li Yi realized something from the lingering consciousness's words.

The evil Earth Prisoners he'd encountered weren't all from the same world—meaning, when alive, this knife coin had traveled through many worlds?

How was that possible?

Or was the knife coin's claim true—that it truly possessed a unique interdimensional method?

Li Yi felt curious—and intrigued.

If he could master a special interdimensional method, he wouldn't be so passive. Building his own interdimensional base was unrealistic; even if he succeeded, he'd need a complete wonder as an energy source—something utterly impossible for him now.

Perhaps those two Earth Prisoner lives really should be fulfilled.

Wait.

If he did this, wouldn't he be doing exactly what the knife coin accused him of—finding a convenient excuse to fall into darkness, and justify it?

Quickly.

Li Yi shook his head, dismissing his wild thoughts, and drove to the base of Peace Financial Tower.

At this moment, the tower's surroundings were heavily fortified.

Armed robots patrolled with high-energy sniper rifles; surveillance cameras lined every corner. The AI Lan Ji had diverted part of its processing power to take over the building's security system. On the rooftop, three high-energy beam cannons stood ready.

But Li Yi saw no Thunder fighters, nor the beasts Niu Niu and Shan Yi.

At this hour, they were probably still hunting transcendent creatures in the danger zone.

Though celestial phenomena had changed, the Tianqing event hadn't begun yet—better to prepare thoroughly.

"Li Yi, you finally made it back—thank heaven!" Lu Lu Jue, stationed at the entrance, immediately approached, visibly relieved.

"I said I'd return after opening the interdimensional point. How's things? Nothing major happen?" Li Yi stepped out of his vehicle and asked.

Lu Lu Jue said: "All's well. Thanks to our preparations, nothing went wrong. All your relatives who could come have taken refuge in Peace Financial Tower—others' relatives did the same. Zheng Lan anticipated this and converted all ten floors into single rooms—hundreds can stay without issue."

"Supplies are fully stocked—Lin Yue's two storage magic treasures are completely filled. Evacuation vehicles are ready as well. If the Tianqing event isn't severe, we can live here for one or two months. If it's severe, evacuation is feasible—we won't use main roads. We'll depart directly from here, using Thunder fighters to blast a path straight to the interdimensional point in the danger zone. Your AI Lan Ji calculated: if everything goes smoothly, we can evacuate completely in one hour."

"Good. Then we wait and see," Li Yi nodded.

He didn't trust Lu Lu Jue and the others' combat abilities—but he trusted their competence. With their help, he could offload countless trivial tasks and conserve time and energy for other matters.

"Has Zhao Zhao Lingfu finished his work?" Li Yi asked again.

"He says clearing the danger zone's perimeter will take one more day—he'll finish by tomorrow morning. So we just hope the Tianqing event doesn't start within these two days," Lu Lu Jue said, looking up at the sky.

Even as a Spirit Perception cultivator, he could feel the spatial wormholes were highly unstable, with massive, violent cosmic energy leaking out.

Moreover, celestial anomalies were growing more frequent—the interdimensional gate could open at any moment.

"Since everything's prepared, we simply wait for the Tianqing event to begin," Li Yi said. "All we can do is this. Stay optimistic—we survived the first Tianqing event. Now we're cultivators. Why fear the second?"