Chapter 304: Will the Human Race... Flourish?

Chen Shi came over holding a stack of maps.

"Young Master Li, take a look at these maps."

Li Ming took the maps and gave a portion to Lin Chao.

Lin Chao looked at the maps and flipped through them casually.

The content drawn on these maps was very crude.

Regarding the gathering places of the Blood Clan, they were only marked haphazardly.

As for the human Earth Caves, they were not marked on the maps at all.

Lin Chao understood that this was for fear of the maps leaking into the hands of the Blood Clan, bringing a catastrophe upon the humans in the Earth Caves.

On the maps, there were many green sections.

The green sections meant that walking here was relatively safe, and one would not encounter large-scale Blood Clan forces.

However, the scope of these maps was limited only to the North Heaven Domain.

"Are there maps of other domains?" Lin Chao asked.

His thoughts were not limited to just the North Heaven Domain.

After all, he would have to go to the other domains as well.

Chen Shi was slightly stunned and hesitated for a moment: "There are, but the maps of other domains are even cruder regarding the markings of the Blood Clan and Evil Spirits; they roughly mark the regions, and as for the green safe zones, those are not delineated at all."

Ordinary lone wolves bought maps specifically for the safe zones marked on them.

"It's fine." Lin Chao did not care much about these things.

"Alright." Not long after, Chen Shi returned with new maps.

The new maps were even cruder.

"Alright, that's all for these maps." Lin Chao selected a total of five maps.

"How much?" Li Ming asked from the side.

Lin Chao had saved his life, so the money for buying these maps was naturally something he would help pay for.

Walking out of the Wanbao Pavilion, the streets were bustling with people.

On the entire street, there were almost no Ordinary humans; most were martial artists.

Lin Chao knew that in the Holy City, the entire population practiced martial arts.

Only in this way could the Holy City have the most basic ability to protect itself in the dark Inner World.

Li Ming took Lin Chao and strolled along the street.

Suddenly, the sound of urgent hoofbeats came from a team.

A group of martial artists wearing red armor could be seen shouting: "Urgent report!"

Seeing this scene, Lin Chao paused slightly.

The martial artists on the street consciously separated to make way for the red-armored martial artists.

Li Ming's expression changed drastically: "The Red Armor Army is the City Lord's personal guard; what major event has occurred?"

Li Ming was incomparably worried inside.

The Red Armor Army was one of the most elite armies in Litian Holy City, and the missions they carried out were generally of great importance.

Now that the Red Armor Army had returned with a highest-level urgent report, the matter was certainly not small.

"I must go back and see what exactly happened."

Li Ming felt a sense of crisis in his heart.

"Sir, you go ahead and stroll by yourself."

"Alright."

When Li Ming returned to the mansion, he discovered that his father was no longer in the mansion; it seemed he had received an urgent report and gone to the City Lord Mansion.

At this time, Lin Chao was still on the street, strolling casually.

He entered a teahouse and ordered some new tea.

The entire teahouse was exceptionally lively, with many martial artists chatting casually.

"Lao Qi, I heard that when you went out this time, you captured a Blood Noble?"

"Hehe, I was lucky and ran into an injured Blood Noble."

"A Blood Noble, how satisfying!"

"These Blood Clan members treat us humans as food, treating us humans like meat sheep; they all deserve to be killed!"

"Some say there are kind-hearted ones among the Blood Clan, but that kindness is only kindness toward their own Blood Clan!"

"Once, when I was on a mission, I was severely wounded and was healing in a human Earth Cave gathering place.

As a result, the last time I went to that Earth Cave again, I discovered that there was no one left in the Earth Cave; they had been slaughtered by the Blood Clan.

Those sons of bitches of the Blood Clan all deserve to die! Deserve to die!" Mentioning this, the burly man's face turned livid, and his eyes were bloodshot.

"I don't know when we will be able to wipe out all the Blood Clan!"

"Sigh, don't talk about destroying the Blood Clan; we should be thinking about how to survive well," an old man said.

Hearing the old man's words, everyone felt a bitter taste in their hearts.

Indeed, the Blood Clan was powerful.

In the North Heaven Domain, the power of the Blood Clan was dozens of times that of the humans.

If it weren't for relying on the Holy City, these martial artists would find it hard to survive for a few years out in the Great Wilderness.

"I won't live to see the Human Race flourish in this lifetime, and my son probably won't either.

However, as long as we work hard and kill one Blood Clan member every day, one day, the Blood Clan will be killed off, and the Human Race will surely flourish!" a man said with high spirits.

"We will, we will be able to see the Human Race flourish!"

"We may not see it, but our descendants will!"

"Right, weren't humans in the past all Meat Slaves raised by the Blood Clan?

Yet, our ancestors, under such circumstances, still hacked through thorns and brambles to carve out a new world for us, enduring countless dangers to finally establish the Holy City!"

As Lin Chao listened to these words, ripples stirred within his calm heart.

In a world like this, being an Ordinary person is a great tragedy.

The Human Race is an incredibly complex species.

They love internal strife and are selfish and self-interested.

Yet, in times of desperation, they are also incredibly united, displaying powerful vitality and tenacious will.

Lin Chao took a sip of the lukewarm Water and savored it carefully.

Just then, a young man beside Lin Chao looked at him: "Do you think the day they speak of will come?"

This young man was dressed in fine silk and had delicate skin, appearing to be of extraordinary background.

Lin Chao looked at the young man: "Perhaps it will."

"Is that so?" The young man picked up his teacup, staring at the Water in a daze, not knowing what he was pondering.

"May I ask your surname, brother?" The young man looked at Lin Chao.

"My surname is Xu, given name Ling."

"Xu Ling..." the young man murmured, "My name... is... Huang Xu."

"Huang Xu?" Lin Chao noted the name.

This name was quite unique.

And this young man seemed somewhat hesitant when mentioning this name.

It was as if he had not been called by this name before.

Huang Xu looked at Lin Chao: "You are very special... you give me a very special feeling."

Huang Xu looked at Lin Chao, his eyes filled with a thoughtful expression.

"Is that so?" Only then did Lin Chao seriously size up the young man before him.

The other party's strength should be around the Fifth Tier.

In the Holy City, this could be considered an elite.

"Huh... inside his body, there seems to be a very powerful and obscure energy hidden." Lin Chao felt slightly surprised inwardly.

Energy that could make even him feel it was powerful must be at least Eighth Rank energy.

However, that energy seemed to be in some sort of state, trapped in dormancy.

This energy clearly did not belong to Huang Xu himself, but had appeared in his body suddenly.

"Right." Huang Xu glanced at Lin Chao again, the suspicion in his gaze dissipating, finally turning into a sense of loss.

He probably wasn't the one.

The other party gave him a very intimate feeling.

However, under his perception, the other party was just a martial artist.

On his body, there was nothing...

Unlike him, he was not the same kind of person.

This intimacy, perhaps, was just because the other party's appearance was gentle and refined, giving people a sense of affinity.

This made Huang Xu feel slightly disappointed.

However, having just experienced a great change in his life, Huang Xu actually still had many things he wanted to confide.

"In the North Heaven Domain, the power of the Blood Clan is dozens, or even a hundred times that of the Human Race.

And in other domains, the power of the Blood Clan is even stronger; do you really think the Human Race still has hope?"

"Naturally." Lin Chao's gaze was calm.

This world is a place of tragedy and despair for humans.

But for him, it is a place of countless opportunities.

As long as he is careful and cautious.

These Blood Clan members will all become the foundation of his power.

Huang Xu looked at Lin Chao, his gaze still incredibly lost, and he did not speak again.

And at this moment, suddenly, a desolate bell toll rang out.

Clang!

The sound was sorrowful and solemn.

The bustling teahouse suddenly fell into a silence.

The burly man's hand holding the teacup stopped, and the teacup fell to the ground with a crash.

Beside him, the smile on the face of the old man with crane-like hair and chicken-skin complexion vanished, his face wrinkling as he revealed a look of terror.

The bell tolled continuously, without end, ringing a full ninety-nine times.

"How is this possible!"

"How could the Litian Bell ring!"

"The Holy City has been built for ten thousand years!"

The Litian Bell would not ring.

In the ten thousand years since the city was built, it had never rung.

Once it rings, it means...

"The Holy City is falling!"

"Which Holy City has been destroyed?"

The martial artists in the teahouse were in agony; some had blood-red eyes, while others were inexplicably shocked.

They had never witnessed the founding of a Holy City, yet they had witnessed the destruction of one.

The destruction of a Holy City meant that nearly ten million of the Human Race had fallen into the hands of the Blood Clan.

This also meant that the land of hope for the Human Race, the place the Blood Clan could not breach, the Mythical status of the Human Race, had shattered.

The Holy City is the hope of the Human Race, and also the faith of the Human Race.

However, without any warning, without any omen, a Holy City just suddenly fell like this.

It was like a dream or an illusion, extremely unreal.

This feeling was as if you were sitting at home and suddenly saw the news that, without any warning, the neighboring city had been wiped out by a mushroom bomb.

The entire Litian Holy City was plunged into endless sorrow.

Some people knelt on the ground, weeping bitterly.

"Is this Heaven wanting to destroy our Human Race?"

"God, look at this world!"

Half a day later, the news flooded into Litian Holy City.

This time, the fallen Holy City was Dahuang Holy City, which was closest to Litian Holy City.

In terms of overall strength, Dahuang Holy City was even a large margin stronger than Litian Holy City.

Among them, there were a total of 9.2 million humans.

Yet, such a great city, without any warning, simply collapsed.

How could this not be shocking?

Three days later.

Li Mansion.

Li Ming had a look of worry on his face.

These past few days, news from the outside kept coming in.

The entire Holy City was in a state of panic.

"Sir, are you leaving the Holy City now?" Li Ming looked at Lin Chao, his words carrying deep exhaustion.

"Yes." Lin Chao nodded.

He had already stayed in Litian Holy City for a long time.

"Sigh... the wilderness is not like the Holy City; Sir, you must be careful." Li Ming sighed.

Too many things had happened in these few days; even he was physically and mentally exhausted.

After all, who would have thought that a Holy City would just be destroyed like this.

However, Li Ming thought of something, and a look of pain appeared on his face: "But now, who can say that the Holy City is safer than the wilderness?"

Mentioning this, Li Ming was heartbroken.

Lin Chao did not respond; he understood what Li Ming meant.

"Sir, why do you think those people would betray their own kin, betray their own homeland?" Li Ming was heartbroken.

Dahuang Holy City was destroyed at the hands of human traitors.

Dahuang Holy City, like Litian Holy City, had one City Lord, three Grand Commanders, and twenty Commanders.

Among them, there were also the Eight Great Families.

Two of the three Grand Commanders of Dahuang Holy City, and all eight of the Eight Great Families, had secretly defected to the Blood Clan.

With these high-ranking insiders providing information and secretly using treasures provided by the Blood Clan, they Imprisoned the City Lord of Dahuang Holy City.

The City Lord of Dahuang Holy City lost control of the Holy City.

When the Blood Clan army arrived, seven Eighth Rank Blood Clan members took action, and the Holy City had no ability to resist at all; at the hands of the Blood Prince, the Holy City fell.

It could be said that the Holy City had no ability to resist, and without even displaying its powerful defenses, it was destroyed just like that.

"It is merely for profit." Lin Chao sighed.

In the Inner World, the situation of the Human Race could be considered critical.

Yet, the infighting of the Human Race continued nonetheless.

Lin Chao also knew quite a bit about the news of the breach in Dahuang Holy City this time.

The Eight Great Families of Dahuang Holy City had secretly conducted some transactions with the Blood Clan, exchanging cultivation resources by providing the locations of human gathering points in the Earth Cave.

Such transactions had continued for decades.

However, the City Lord of Dahuang Holy City finally vaguely discovered this matter, so he dispatched a Grand Commander to investigate in secret.

Who would have known that the Grand Commander was also a member of the Eight Great Families.

The people of the Eight Great Families knew about this and were in a panic, fearing that the matter would be exposed.

After all, once such an act of colluding with the enemy was discovered, it would mean the execution of their entire clan.

They would have no place left to stand in Dahuang Holy City.

And in order to survive, they could only make the City Lord stop investigating this matter.

The City Lord was the only Eighth Rank in Dahuang Holy City.

With the power of the Eight Great Families, they could not deal with the City Lord at all.

Thus, they thought of uniting with the Blood Prince to take action against the City Lord.

As long as the City Lord died.

Their dealings with the Blood Clan would not be exposed.

Their initial thought was to borrow the hands of the Blood Clan to kill the City Lord of Dahuang Holy City, and then replace the City Lord.

Unfortunately, their plan only succeeded halfway.

The City Lord was indeed killed.

As it turned out, the Blood Prince clearly had greater ambitions.

Once the City Lord of Dahuang Holy City died, many of the Blood Clan's secret agents among them immediately took action.

Dahuang Holy City was destroyed because of this.

It can be said that the Eight Great Families also did not expect that Dahuang Holy City would be destroyed.

Yesterday, a clansman of the Eight Great Families was captured and paraded through the streets of Litian Holy City.

That clansman cried out loudly: "We only wanted to change a City Lord; it is the Blood Clan that is too despicable, don't blame us."

This statement made people angry.

"Sigh," Li Ming let out a sigh.

Originally, he, like the Ordinary residents of Litian Holy City, always felt.

As long as every generation works hard, the Human Race will eventually flourish.

However, the matter of Dahuang Holy City was like a basin of cold water poured over his head, shattering all his confidence.

Never mind the Human Race flourishing; it would be good enough if the Human Race could struggle to survive.

Li Ming looked at Lin Chao, and suddenly remembered the conversation the two had once had when they arrived.

"Mr. Xu Ling... is there still hope for the Human Race?"

Xu Ling looked at Li Ming: "Among the Human Race, there are those who are sinister, and there are those who are lovable.

If it follows normal development, for the Human Race to flourish is very, very difficult.

It could even be said that what the Human Race faces will be... destruction.

However... there are always abnormal things in the world, aren't there?

Moreover, whenever there is great chaos, the Human Race produces many talents."

The world... also always has miracles, doesn't it?

(End of this chapter)