Chapter 1405: Breathing Portals

Breathing Portals

During this period, Teacher Ye felt deeply uncomfortable in his heart.

Back when they lived in the Mother Tree, although their area of movement wasn't large, they could at least attend classes freely, choose the meals they liked to eat, and allocate their own time as they pleased. Beneath that small canopy, it was a free world that belonged exclusively to them.

But what about now?

The Integration Faction had certainly obtained asylum in the South Sea Domain, but the children's lives were no different from prisoners... Their area of movement was restricted to a small factory, with people patrolling outside at all times. Their daily meals were fixed and delivered by dedicated personnel driving in, and there were even Divine Path Possessors escorting them nearby. The gazes those people cast upon the children of the Integration Faction were as vigilant as if they were looking at a group of wild beasts in a zoo.

Teacher Ye could see the children's eyes—from radiating light while at the Mother Tree, to now gradually turning into fear and inferiority bit by bit. Everyone was treating them like monsters, and even they themselves were beginning to doubt themselves.

Teacher Ye wanted to shatter people's prejudices. Even if it meant sending him to the battlefield, it wouldn't matter. He believed that Old Wolf and the others would definitely be willing as well. As long as they could perform meritorious deeds on the battlefield, perhaps the children could gain a portion of... even if it was just a tiny sliver of freedom and equality.

"No." The Blind Man refused without hesitation.

"Teacher Ye, I hope you can understand. This concerns the life and death of the South Sea Domain, we cannot take even the slightest risk."

Teacher Ye was no longer in the mood to listen to what was said in the rest of the meeting.

When the meeting adjourned, he still sat blankly in place, until a hand lightly patted his shoulder.

Teacher Ye looked up, only to see Han Meng already standing behind him.

"Teacher Ye, the meeting is over," Han Meng spoke up to remind him.

"... Mhm."

Teacher Ye snapped back to reality, turned around, and walked out of the conference room, his view of his back haggard and helpless.

When everyone had left the conference room, the Blind Man still hadn't moved. He sat quietly in place, his fingertips continuously calculating something in his hands, his brows furrowing tighter and tighter...

"Strange thing..."

"Why... can't I calculate it clearly?"

...

Thump, thump, thump——!!

A dull, loud noise came from the sky above the South Sea Domain.

On the other side of the sky, countless cursed sea monsters were climbing up along the tortoise shell layer by layer. Using their tentacles, teeth, tails, and sharp claws, they madly smashed against the outer surface of the tortoise shell, letting out thunderous, booming sounds.

But with every strike they made, a layer of ink-like characters would ripple across the surface of the tortoise shell, as if superimposing a layer of defense upon the already incomparably hard tortoise shell. No matter how they smashed, it was difficult to leave a mark. Only a small number of high-tier Calamities were able to blast out streaks of cracks.

And at different positions on the tortoise shell, countless Calamities were surging along the gaps at the edge of the tortoise shell like a whirlpool, continuously drilling inside.

"Hurry!! The people at the first defensive line are almost unable to hold on, have the people from the second defensive line move up!"

"Don't panic! The enemies will only attack from the breathing portals. As long as we don't mess up our own rhythm, they won't be able to break in!"

"Two Seventh-Tier Calamities and one Eighth-Tier Calamity drilled in this batch!"

"Don't be afraid, put all your effort into dealing with the other Calamities. Someone will step in to handle the high-tier Calamities!"

"..."

Behind one of the breathing portals, countless figures were charging wave upon wave toward those Calamities that had rushed in. A semi-encircling defensive line, coupled with the "Character Storage" ability of the Path of the Scholar God, nearly turned this place into a Calamity slaughterhouse. Any relatively low-tier Calamity that attacked in would be slain here in no more than a minute.

And at the instant the two Seventh-Tier Calamities and one Eighth-Tier Calamity attacked in, several figures flew out from the rear.

Pu Sanyuan had already been prepared for a long time. With his entry into the battlefield, the slaughter grew even more intense.

Han Meng was just about to step forward when Pu Chunshu called out to stop him:

"Uncle Sanyuan is here, so there won't be any major issues. You should preserve your strength and go support the other breathing portals."

"Where are the other breathing portals?"

"There is one breathing portal every fifteen kilometers."

Hearing this, Han Meng froze slightly, and then seemed to realize something. "You guys intentionally left these breathing portals?"

"How would we have such ability?" Pu Chunshu smiled. "It was mostly arranged by the Lord of the South Sea and our Ancestor."

Han Meng nodded. "Very smart... If the entire South Sea Domain was completely sealed off with the tortoise shell, not leaving a single gap, although it would be safe in the short term, they would sooner or later break open cracks, and the locations of the cracks couldn't be predicted...

"But if gaps are left for them in advance, this group of Calamities will give up on indiscriminate large-scale attacks and turn to directly attacking the gaps instead. Firmly controlling the locations of the battlefields in your own hands and occupying the geographical advantage makes defending much more enduring.

"No wonder you guys call them 'breathing portals' instead of gaps."

"It is better to guide than to block." Pu Chunshu summarized the South Sea Domain's tactics with four words. "The things left behind by the ancestors all have their reasons."

"Then I'll go check out the other breathing portals."

Han Meng set off, rushing toward other directions.

Han Meng successively passed by quite a few breathing portals. The sizes of these breathing portals seemed to have undergone precise calculation; near a large breathing portal, there were basically small breathing portals. Since most of the Calamities of the Forbidden Sea were relatively large in size, the Calamities able to come in through the small breathing portals wouldn't be too strong. Using this method, the South Sea Domain not only successfully blocked the Calamities, but also filtered them based on strength.

"This Lord of the South Sea is indeed not simple," Han Meng muttered to himself.

Just as Han Meng was hurrying on his way, from the corner of his eye, his gaze fell upon the street to the side. Perhaps it was the keen intuition brought by [Judgment], but he instantly locked onto a petite figure striving to run amidst the crowd.

It was a young girl wearing brown hemp clothes. She wore a small yellow hat on her head, currently gripping the brim of the hat tightly with both hands, perfectly concealing the two fluffy ears on her head. At this moment, she was carefully observing her surroundings while running in the direction of the factory.

"... A Fusionist?" Han Meng's eyes narrowed slightly. After hesitating for a moment, he still didn't step forward to intercept her.

He could roughly guess where this girl had run out from.

Han Meng retracted his gaze, and his figure continued to hurry toward the next breathing portal...

At this moment, Little Peach hadn't noticed Han Meng's presence at all. Passing all the way through the streets with turbulent crowds, she arrived near the factory where the Integration Faction lived.

She looked around and saw no one, directly jumping into the sewer to the side. Following the "dog hole" Little White left behind, she crawled into the factory, and then quietly sealed the "dog hole" back up.

"Little Peach, you're finally back!" Right at this moment, a voice sounded from the darkness.