Chapter 96: Intimidation

The beast tide collapsed after Jiang Qin hit them with a 【Nuclear Explosion】.

Even the Fierce Beasts that survived by luck were mostly crippled or scared out of their wits, and were easily cleared by the soldiers who had gone out of the city, who brought the corpses back inside.

After all, Dongxing Jidi Shi's food reserves weren't plentiful right now.

Meanwhile, the base city's management returned to the meeting room to continue the meeting.

However, the atmosphere of the meeting had changed considerably compared to before.

Apart from Su Lingwei and Chen Xiaohu, the rest didn't even dare meet Jiang Qin's eyes—this was awe for the strong, and respect.

Their own strength was simply not on the same level as this man's.

That was their shared thought.

Jiang Qin sat in the main seat, calmly took a sip of water, set down his teacup, and said:

"When I was guarding the city just now, it was mainly ordinary people, but when I went to the wall there were clearly so many Martial Artists inside the city—why didn't they take part in the defense? Is there some special arrangement?"

"It's not that, mainly… we can't mobilize them either."

An officer said helplessly.

"Those Martial Artists are all disciples of the major Martial Artist families, and the major Martial Artist families are all allies with each other. They have a cooperative relationship with our base city's management, and they only step in when Fierce Beasts break into the city."

The Martial Artist family disciples didn't care about the residents of the city at all, and naturally didn't care whether they lived or died.

If they didn't live in Dongxing Jidi Shi, they probably wouldn't lift a finger even if every person in the entire base city died—they only cared about themselves.

Jiang Qin clicked his tongue—"Tsk~"—and his tone suddenly turned teasing.

"You're so lenient with them, I almost feel like you're their parents, worrying about your own children like this. Maybe you're trying to stabilize the situation, but have you thought about one thing?"

The teasing tone vanished, and a cold edge entered his voice.

"If the Martial Artist families don't have to go up on the wall to fight the Fierce Beasts, then the Martial Artists inside the city who are afraid of Fierce Beasts can each and every one of them join them and avoid fighting. If this keeps repeating over Time, who will still be willing to risk their life fighting Fierce Beasts in the future?"

Everyone silently lowered their heads.

This question hit the nail on the head—it was the most serious problem currently facing Dongxing Jidi Shi.

They hadn't had much experience managing a city back then, and by the time they noticed this later, it was already too late. The Martial Artist families had united, and they couldn't do anything about it.

Jiang Qin stretched out his hand and knocked heavily on the conference table twice.

"Thud! Thud!"

The people below instinctively looked at him.

Jiang Qin calmly began assigning tasks: "Two things."

"First, immediately send people to notify every single Martial Artist family—any faction with more than ten Martial Artists—to report to the city wall within two hours, and compile the number of Martial Artists under each of them along with their approximate strength."

"You also send people to investigate the approximate number of Martial Artists under them."

"Second thing, contact the other cities. The Zhenling Bureau of each city must send one person to Dongxing Shi for a meeting within three days."

His voice rang with absolute authority, leaving no one daring to refute.

Someone timidly raised a hand and said: "Th-then what if they refuse?"

Hearing this, Jiang Qin gave a cold laugh: "If they refuse, they refuse. I'm not going to kill my own compatriots, am I."

Hearing this, Chen Xiaohu and Su Lingwei said inwardly:

'If anyone really dares not to come, this guy will absolutely kill people!'

……

The news that the beast tide had been cleared spread like wildfire through the city, and the citizens erupted in frenzied cheers.

At the same time, those Martial Artist factions also received the notice from the base city.

Some were trembling with fear, some dismissive.

But perhaps because Jiang Qin had wiped out the beast tide in a single strike.

Two hours later, the walls of Dongxing Shi were filled with people from the major factions. They had all been intimidated by Jiang Qin's strength—without that feat of his wiping out the beast tide, probably eighty or ninety percent fewer people would have shown up.

When the deadline arrived.

Qiu Jie handed a roster to Jiang Qin.

"Most of the people have come. Twenty-eight factions in total. Nine of them only sent butlers or servants—clearly perfunctory. And the three biggest factions—the Holy Church, the Feng Family, and the Li Family—didn't send anyone at all."

The Holy Church, formerly the Church of the Gods.

Before the catastrophe, they were rats that everyone shouted at and beat. The joke was that now they had actually taken on the name of a holy church, openly hoodwinking the public, and plenty of people still believed them.

Jiang Qin casually took the roster, then looked at the faction representatives gathered below and said:

"First of all, I'm very glad that all of you could give me face."

"I've called you all here just to announce one thing: from now on, Martial Artists above the Spirit Attraction Realm in your factions must accept the city's dispatch. Below the Spirit Attraction Realm, eighty percent will be drafted into the army to hunt Fierce Beasts."

Everyone who heard this was stunned, almost thinking their ears had malfunctioned.

"What kind of international joke is this? Drafting eighty percent of Martial Artists below the Spirit Attraction Realm into the army is one thing, but Martial Artists above the Spirit Attraction Realm also have to accept dispatch—are you planning to use us as cannon fodder to be sent to our deaths?"

"I thought the base city was making such a big fuss because something major was about to happen. I didn't expect that calling so many people here was for this kind of joke. Does this young kid not know that the times have changed? This is long past the era when the authorities controlled all Martial Artists."

"Our Xu Firm will absolutely never agree to such an absurd thing!"

"Shhh~~ Don't you know that the person up there wiped out the beast tide with a single move two hours ago?"

"Bah! You actually believe that? You can tell at a glance it's something the base city put out to scare people. If there really was such an expert, why would they only show up now? It must be some secret weapon the military has been hiding—probably the kind that can only be used once. I stake my life on it, that's absolutely how it is!"

"That's right…"

Their whispering fell into Jiang Qin's ears, but his expression didn't change in the slightest.

He continued: "Someone will be compiling the number of Martial Artists from each side shortly. Before that, let me invite you all to watch a good show."

A good show?

Everyone stopped their discussion and looked up.

Qiu Jie opened the electronic map and said softly: "First, the nearest one, the Holy Church—that tall tower building eight hundred meters directly ahead of you. It's their prayer Time now, so all members should be inside the church praying."

"Good."

Hearing this, the crowd was baffled about what he was about to do.

Then they noticed that the sky above Dongxing Shi was shrouded by a layer of dark clouds, identical to the strange phenomenon from two hours earlier—except this time the range was far wider, gradually covering most of the city.

"Fall."

Jiang Qin spoke a single word.

The thundercloud above lowered a thick bolt of lightning as if it had a mind of its own, striking precisely at the church building eight hundred meters away.

"Boom—!"

The lightning was blinding, the thunder deafening.

The moment one bolt faded, a second immediately took its place, lasting a full minute.

Only when the entire church collapsed in a thunderous ruin did it finally stop.