Chapter 292

The poison gas bomb's awakening effect was immediate; a punch from Suo La hit a vital spot, causing cardiac arrest, and the Shuang Ju Ren, whose life or death was uncertain, instantly woke up.

But upon waking, she realized it would have been better to just die; her nose felt as if a herd of angry bulls had trampled it, and she still couldn't catch her breath.

"Good heavens, what the hell is this stench……"

She coughed up a clot of congealed blood in her throat, opened her blurred eyes to look around, and saw a weak black-and-gold figure half-lying on the ground not far away.

"Alliance leader, are you alright?"

The Shuang Ju Ren, excited, had the frost on her eyelashes start to melt, and she stumbled toward her older sister, frightening Ji Ming, who rushed forward to stop her.

"Hold on, friend, this house has become a dangerous building; if you keep stomping like that, it might just collapse!"

Moreover, given the Shuang Ju Ren's current muddled distance judgment, it's all too easy to accidentally give the still-uncoordinated warhorse girl an entirely unnecessary war trampling.

Ke Li Si Ting also feared death, and she quickly echoed in agreement as she stood up.

"Shuang, don't rush, I'm fine……"

However, she had indeed taken a solid beating from the angry Suo La, her whole body aching, and she had to kick her hooves against the ground several times before she could steady herself.

Ji Ming watched this scene and fell into thought.

Three minutes had passed, and the supposedly omnipotent SpiritGathering Liquid still hadn't fully restored their bodily functions……

Could it be, like the talismans, that the Rejuvenation Liquid series' efficacy also declines as the target's level rises?

Never mind, then just increase the dosage!

"The transformation into undead is a fairly violent curse magic; you were defeated by an existence akin to a mother body, so it's normal for your bodies to exhibit various aftereffects."

So Ji Ming twisted open another two bottles of Rejuvenation Liquid Fourth Generation and handed them over.

"Drink up quickly; the entire Inner City is now flooded with the undead plague, whether you fight or flee, you must first restore your combat strength."

After swallowing those two bottles, the medicine took effect instantly; the two, who should have been bedridden for days to recover, were instantly restored to full health and finally had the energy to pay attention to the pile of fragrant fried meat scraps prominently placed in the center of the hall.

A giant capable of hammering two not-low-level combat professionals had, in just those few minutes while they were unconscious, transformed into an unrecognizable, grainy golden appearance—something anyone would suspect.

But Ji Ming had a catch-all answer for these problems that could be called omnipotent——

【All of this is the arrangement of the Holy Light God】

"Wow, you're quick-witted, little boss, you even jump in to answer."

【This is what the Holy Light had me say; He said you shouldn't always let Him arrange things for you every time.】

"……"

Only the divine can serve as an all-purpose excuse; for anything we can't explain, we just dump it all on the gods, and others will believe it!

Thus Suo La's cause of death shifted from "beaten to death in Ji Ming's experiment" to "blasted into minced meat by a divine thunderbolt from the Holy Light God."

"So the Holy Light God descended with power? Then it's only natural that Suo La would die."

Now both of their bodies have recovered enough to have spare energy for thought, so they stopped wasting time here and began to explore their surroundings.

No matter how you say it, this place is still the Inner City's highest combat strength location; even under Suo La's scheming, attempting to blow it up from within could never completely destroy it in one go.

Thanks to Feen's militarized management of the Mountain Folk Wild Wind Mercenary Corps, in the difficult environment of leaderless dragons falling into chaos, they internally restored their combat strength in the form of squads and took the lead in launching a counterattack against the undead's advance.

As the elder brother of the Sunshine City mercenary lineage, any mercenary who encountered them would choose to join, gradually forming several snowballs that, upon meeting each other, grew into even greater strength.

Thus, when the three of them later found the main mercenary force, they discovered not only had they not been defeated, but they had even begun a large-scale counteroffensive, reclaiming land from the undead building by building.

And after Ke Li Si Ting assumed the role of alliance leader, she, who had been holding her breath inside, easily slew an undead captain who had already been level 21 before transformation and had become so ferocious that she fought while eating.

Ji Ming's usual neutral-good persona—of not offending anyone and getting along with everyone—also came into play; during the entire purge operation he never got a chance to strike, being completely escorted forward by layers of mercenaries, unable to suffer even the slightest injury.

Of course, they weren't being friendly to Ji Ming for no reason; rather, too many mercenaries were wounded in the battle, and the divine doctor was right here—if they didn't hurry to seek medicine, most likely they wouldn't survive the trip to the Andrew Hospital one li outside.

If the talismans are still rare items that only he and the Killer Goblin can craft, then after the handcraft workshops were fully rolled out, the early versions of the Rejuvenation Liquid had already begun overproduction.

Coincidentally, there was now a batch of defective goods collected from players on hand, taking up space and likely to ruin the brand if sold, so Ji Ming simply took them out and gave them to this group of mercenaries.

Although they were all semi-defective, something is better than nothing, and moreover the efficacy of the inferior Rejuvenation Liquid is already high enough to outpace many healing potions.

Now the mercenaries all grinned at him; if Ji Ming didn't know that a few of them were born with lucky breaks, he might have thought they were just a bunch of honest farmers.

Thus, with the main damage dealers and supporters in place, the Mountain Folk mercenary base was utterly reclaimed in a sweeping fashion, clearing out every undead wandering within.

However, the mercenary base was ultimately only a small part of the Inner City; looking outward at the walls everywhere teeming with undead, the survivors faced two choices.

The first choice is to stay.

Since even An Ge Lu could dig a defensible fortress with a secret exit beneath his manor, as the heir to the Lionheart King's orthodoxy, Feen, who firmly believed in the nine burrows of the cunning rabbit theory, naturally had preparations ready.

In fact, inside the base there exists a war‑grade shelter whose supplies are rotated according to a very strict timetable, guaranteeing that at any time several thousand people can live there securely for a month, and Feen conducts unscheduled inspections.

Now the base's population has been halved by the early chaos and infection, so they could actually hold out even longer inside, waiting for opportunity and rescue.

But sitting and waiting for death is tantamount to handing one's life over to others, which is absolutely not the custom of the Deep Forest folk; they are accustomed to grasping everything and feeling in full control.

Moreover, the outer city is now storm‑tossed; likely, aside from a few key points, most of it has already fallen to the undead, and the hidden hand's doing this is surely to reap the harvest once the situation is set, turning Sunshine City into a death‑filled pleasure ground.

By that time, the lone‑wood‑unsupported mercenary outpost……

If luck were a bit better, it could become a renowned high‑level dungeon that, decades or centuries later, adventurers would gradually nibble at as a check‑in spot.

If luck were poor, they would collectively turn into elite undead soldiers, sent by the hidden hand to the front lines against the various nations as expendable filler.

"Good grief, just out of the tiger's den and into the wolf's lair—if we really do this, the whole gang would have fought for nothing; I oppose it!"

And the second choice is to flee.

No, in the Lionheart King's high‑EQ terminology it's called——"strategic retreat".

Break out, break out directly! Escape from here before Sunshine City completely rots away,

Then even if the hidden hand were wilder and wilder, it would still have a limit; this place is the fringe of the civilized world, and they attack towns with such terror that perhaps the various nations could not reach them, after all nobles have no reason to march out and wage war over a plot of land that doesn't tax them, just to burn their private luxuries on keeping mistresses and buying trinkets.

But if it were inside the Hui Guang Kingdom, especially the territories of those marquises and counts……just look at the myriad countermeasures the divine selection has against the uncanny; even if a noble lord were a useless wreck, the Holy Light Church would be there, and they'd absolutely not dare go looking for death.

But……

As long as one is a Hui Guang person with a bit of spine, to them the Deep Forest folk are even more hateful than the uncanny; they are just a bunch of bandits who come down from ShanShang every autumn to raid the grass valleys, doing nothing remotely human,

Thousands of fellows with the words "Uncle, hello I'm a bad guy" written on their faces, if they were to just swarm en masse into the Hui Guang Kingdom's noble territories……

Surely they won't mistake the Shen Lin Wang Guo's deceitful roundabout invasion for the radiant southern nobles trembling with fear, shaking their purses with a ding-ling, clang-clang, and launching a reckless dragnet, huh?

As for why they are so eager to head north, rather than opening their minds and looking in other directions……

Because the other three directions are either small towns inferior to Sunshine City, or simply barren wastelands where only grass grows.

The radiant authority is strict; if this group of powerful aberrations has a source, it can only be over there, and the survivors, whether gathered or scattered, basically have no chance to escape alive.

So……

Now the situation is actually that we can't stay nor flee; the mercenaries are completely dumbfounded, feeling that this is even trickier than when we fought the walking corpses before.

... Never mind, I'm just a lackey; the big picture still needs to be directed by the leaders, why should I waste my brain?

Thus the captains of the various small mercenary bands and the squad leaders of the mountain folk Gust gathered together, and under the deputy's leadership formed a team to find Ke Li Si Ting.

What should we do, alliance leader?

Alliance leader, please issue your orders!

Sir, please fulfill your duties as a leader!

Ke Li Si Ting smiled, smiled, then turned her head.

Shuang Ju Ren, what do you think?

Shuang Ju Ren smiled, smiled, then…… still smiled.

She knew Ke Li Si Ting meant for her to help come up with an idea—but if you can't think of one, how could I?!

To avoid losing face, she snapped to attention with a slap and spoke solemnly.

Alliance leader sir, all our actions will obey your command! Loyalty and sincerity!

Who would have thought the mercenaries misunderstood their meaning, even thinking that the alliance leader (Ke Li Si Ting) was worried they weren't obeying her, and were singing in tandem with their deputy to deliberately test their loyalty.

——Oh dear, good alliance leader, you've really wronged the lot of us; now that danger is at hand, the unlucky brothers are all hoping the two older sisters will save them!

So the mercenaries also quickly stood at attention, followed Shuang Ju Ren as a parrot, and finally let out a very loud shout.

Be~the finest warrior, loyalty and sincerity!

……

……

……

No, is it that our voices aren't loud enough? Why aren't the two old ladies saying anything?

While the mercenaries were pondering whether to give themselves a wrist slap on the spot, learning from the ancestral king and the twelve knights when they swore brotherhood by drinking each other's blood, the long‑observing god‑chosen clapped his hands.

Low emotional intelligence——

You all lack brains and are afraid of death, right? You like to hem and haw here, right? Today, Uncle Ji Ming will find you a way to live!

High emotional intelligence——

If you really can't put aside the safety of the Inner City, unwilling to look out only for yourselves, whether you stay here or flee, I actually have another plan.

The mercenaries' wounds still have the spring‑return liquid taking effect, so they definitely want to give the god‑chosen sir this face, and thus they all kept silent.

Ji Ming's plan is simple——is there a possibility that, if you want to survive, besides fleeing, you can also backhandedly slash the pursuers?

Although there are many walking corpses, from here we can see that the red isolation barrier on the horizon is still operating at full power, so no matter how they rage, they can't escape the Inner City.

Moreover, those with some ability inside the Inner City are not something mere walking corpses can handle, so if the behind‑the‑scenes mastermind truly wants to win, they still need to send experts to carry out the encirclement and suppression.

Thus, although the Inner City now looks like a wreck, the overall outcome is still undetermined; if we can launch an offensive before the balance is completely broken, we still have a chance to win.

Since Suo La personally admitted to being the biggest mole in Sunshine City, the industries under the Business Union definitely have a teleportation array similar to the one in the basement of the Adventurers' Association building before.

——The walking corpse plague is merely to muddy the waters, letting the Sunshine City folks wear themselves out running; that is their true killing move.

Destroy it, and this Sunshine City doom‑city crisis will end on the spot; the remaining walking corpses, whatever they are, won't affect the overall situation.

Currently, the mercenary with the sharpest mind is the deputy who has been ear‑deep beside the old scoundrel Fei En for years; although he can't come up with an idea, he immediately spotted the flaw in Ji Ming's plan.

God‑chosen sir, your idea is very bold, and I also agree with your courage, but how can we be sure where the teleportation array is?

Ji Ming asked himself beforehand, went through all the landmark buildings in Sunshine City, and relying on the feedback of the ominous qi luck, arrived at the answer that the lord's manor basement is the place.

Thus his answer was to place the divine ring on his forehead, letting it tilt and emit a golden beam of light, pointing far toward the lord's manor's direction.

Friend, the great Holy Light tells me, the aberration's nest is over there.

The deputy's eyes were about to pop out; the Holy Light Church, as an old‑guard power, your church's god‑chosen actually still has such ability?

Their Shen Lin Wang Guo's forest church also isn't lacking a god‑chosen, but that odd old man who likes to act young, aside from a body of terrifying rumors and infamy, truly has no legendary tale worth mentioning……

Thus, with the spirit of using whatever works to the fullest, he trembled with his tongue and continued to ask.

But…… please forgive my presumption, sir, if that place is the aberration's nest, can we really defeat their large force with just us?

Before his words even finished, the night's cold wind blew in a burst of explosion sound, flames shooting up— that was the direction of the Sheng Guang Jiao Tang.