Chapter 348: The Apocalypse Descends, Each Seeks Their Own Path of Survival

A giant back, darker than the night sky, merely by the hanging corner of its garment, shrouded Gongliang City and its surrounding area.

The hem of the garment was like ink and dark pigment, like a fluttering ribbon or washed silk; as it drifted, it carried an illusory and unreal sense of detachment, as if it were a projection reflected in black water—at times undulating, at times calm, but ultimately it occupied the sky above Gongliang City.

"Megalophobia!"

Zhou You's throat felt a bit dry; observing at close range a back so vast it exceeded all imagination brought a dual impact to his vision and soul that could simply overturn his worldview.

Descriptions in numbers and words were far too powerless; heights of 50 meters, 100 meters, 500 meters, or even 1000 meters were far less intuitive than witnessing it with one's own eyes.

"A Charm, a Charm comparable to a Strong Martial, it is a Great Hidden Charm!"

A Small Hidden Charm is equivalent to a mid-to-high-level Martial Master, but a Great Hidden Charm is comparable to the Strong Martial level.

Zhou You had just left the city, and the Charm descended upon Gongliang City right after; this was too much of a coincidence.

The few people beside him began to stir and couldn't help but look back, but he stopped them with a shout, "Don't look back, run!"

The convoy was already some distance from the city, but only when the giant shadow descended did they realize by comparison that they had never actually left the radiation range of Gongliang City.

In the wild fields less than 700 or 800 meters away, a thick, ink-like black mass churned; it was shockingly a loose thread from the hem of the giant shadow's garment, and it was already very close to them.

It was too dangerous; they were still far from a safe range.

"Hungry Tiger Swallows the Sun."

Zhou You tensed his legs and kicked back, instantly causing the ground to sink three feet, as his Qi and blood surged out from his waist, abdomen, and spine.

In an instant, a pitch-black sphere jumped out into mid-air and landed in front of the convoy.

A gale whipped up, and the massive suction force generated by the sphere enveloped the livestock and family members in the convoy; like a slider on a track lubricated with oil, their speed increased abruptly, faster and faster.

Amidst the whistling sound, the facial muscles of Qi-blood martial artists like Zuo Shier and Liu Bing were blown into distorted shapes, and they could barely open their eyes.

With one breath blown out, the convoy seemed to be dragged by an invisible giant hand over a thousand meters away.

In Gongliang City, the giant black shadow in the sky also moved at this moment.

Merely the posture of bending over to look down caused the surrounding air to tear, and noisy, grand movements rang out one after another; one moment it seemed to be rising from the ground, the next it became a descent from the heavens.

"Hidden Charm, this is a Great Hidden Charm, where are the City Gate Guards?"

Desperate cries rang out from the direction of the city walls; at this moment, someone finally remembered the long-missing City Gate Guards.

The next moment, the answer descended from the sky.

At the position of the upper part of the giant shadow, which should have been the 'head', a horizontal slit suddenly cracked open, just like a wide-open mouth.

This Hidden Charm did not open its mouth to eat people, but to spit something out.

Clatter, clatter—a torrential flood poured out, and countless stones collided and pushed against each other as they fell into Gongliang City.

The area where they fell was precisely the direction of the Inner City, the location where the two great families resided.

A waterfall of rock weighing hundreds or even thousands of tons, larger in volume and wider in scale than a meteor shower, instantly leveled the mansions of the two great families that stretched for a hundred miles, right before the eyes of the caught-off-guard crowd.

After the strike, the residents in the city realized that the two great families were already empty; the high-ranking members had all run away.

"The Xu Family and the Qi Family are not fit to be human; they threw us to the Charm as food while they fled themselves."

"The City Gate Guards specialize in killing Charms, so where are they?"

Suddenly, clatter, clatter, clatter—countless fine pebbles and gravel rolled to form quicksand, pouring down from a high place, and a stone pillar rising to the sky grew out from the ruins of the two great families.

This stone pillar looked as if it had broken through the earth, growing from deep underground, standing tall in the high sky without falling.

"..."

The gazes that saw the stone pillar seemed to be stuck to it by strong glue, unable to move away ever again.

The rough, ash-gray rock surface was covered with mottled red and black blood, irregularly interspersed with skeletal remains; the material of this stone pillar was actually a mixture of stone and flesh, compressed into shape. At the top of the stone pillar, facing the eight directions of southeast, northwest, etc., each protruded a living human face.

"Captain Ye, Captain Zhang..."

Eight directions, eight faces, corresponding to the Eight Great Ghost-Catching Captains in the city.

With their faces embedded in the stone pillar and their flesh and bones mixed into it, the original bodies of the eight captains were clearly already dead, having perished at the hands of the Hidden Charm.

Beneath the eight faces was an even more shocking scene: the once-living City Gate Guards had been smashed and mixed into the stone pillar, presenting a contour appearance similar to a fried dough snack.

Previously, some had questioned why the City Gate Guards did not show themselves; the answer had been given.

The City Gate Guards led by the Eight Great Ghost-Catching Captains had been wiped out in the great battle against the Hidden Charm, all of them becoming food in its mouth.

An atmosphere of despair shrouded the entire city.

With the two great families having fled and the City Gate Guards wiped out, Gongliang City was left with only its walls; how could it withstand the ravages of the Hidden Charm?

"Escape, we must escape!"

Almost in an instant, the Martial Masters made a decisive choice; the ultra-long-distance vision they possessed allowed them to see scenes of such horror and details of such grotesque nature that they far exceeded the hazy understanding of ordinary people.

This Great Hidden Charm was definitely a terrifying existence of the Strong Martial level; they could not fight it, they could not win, and staying behind meant certain death.

Inside the martial arts hall...

The apocalypse had arrived, and the Apprentices and Disciples were panicked and uneasy, not knowing what to do!

Wang Jianxiong smashed the gate with a punch, "Lu Qiang, take Yan'er, we are fighting our way out."

The fact that the two great families had fled had been exposed in public; he had fulfilled his promise to keep the secret and no longer needed to remain in the city.

Lu Qiang took a deep breath; time flies, and in the end, things always return to how they were in the beginning.

He still remembered twenty years ago, when he was just a child who knew nothing of the future, holding the infant Wang Yan in his arms, following his master through a life of displacement until they settled in Gongliang City.

The past reappeared before his eyes, and he was about to embark on a journey with his master again, just like in the beginning, never having changed.

The world is so vast, but where is the permanent hometown where one can truly settle down?

"Master, no matter if we go to the ends of the earth, this Disciple will follow you."

Chaos had quietly descended...

After the Hidden Charm appeared, it was like a king issuing a call; the Charms lurking everywhere in the city no longer needed to hide, tearing off their human skins one after another to expose their tracks, swaggering about to hunt and eat the living.

At this moment, Gongliang City had instead become a hunting ground for the Charms, and all humans were but blood-food.

Ordinary residents were powerless to resist, and the martial artists were panicked and uneasy, seeking a path to escape, unable to pay any mind to the Charms.

Morale collapsed rapidly; compared to the city's residents, the number of specters was like a drop in the ocean, yet no one stepped forward to kill them and maintain order.

The doors and windows of one martial arts school after another were flung open, and figures scurried out, each fleeing for their own life.

Fleeing when the moment arrived appeared chaotic and frantic; food and carriages could not be prepared, and they could not even gather their families, only grabbing whatever was at hand, unable to even care for their own flesh and blood.

The city gates at various sections of the wall were wide open; those garrison martial artists, possessing an advantage, realized the situation was wrong and decisively picked up iron pots and grain to flee for their lives.

However, they did not get a few miles out before they saw the rebel army that had originally retreated returning once more.

It was not just countless mobs with eyes reddened by hunger; mixed among the large force were a significant number of Blood-Qi Warriors and Martial Masters.

With dead ends both in front and behind, many people saw this and committed suicide on the spot, not wanting to suffer any more torment.

(End of this chapter)