Chapter 576: Retreat to the Final Frontline

The road battle's words fell, and the monsters in the Gray Mist simultaneously looked up.

They did not pounce on Jiang Yuan.

They also did not pounce on Qin Zhixia.

They turned around and walked toward the crowd isolated in the middle.

"Stop!"

The remaining Poker Cards in Jiang Yuan's hand scattered everywhere.

The card faces sliced through the air toward the faceless monster at the front. The monster raised both arms, letting the Poker Cards cut its flesh, without the slightest pause in its steps.

A smiling face split open on its chest.

"Don't… be… afraid…"

"Be… happier…"

When that face spoke, several nearby civilians clutched their heads and crouched on the ground, dry‑vomiting.

Jiang Yuan's shadow rose from the ground, coiled around the monster's legs, and dragged it backward forcefully.

But the woman whose half body was being dragged had already crawled to the edge of the crowd.

A young mother holding her son stepped back; her heel stepped on a overturned chair, and she fell to the ground. The child, only seven or eight, clung tightly to her neck, sobbing breathlessly.

An arm from the Patient Gown monster's abdomen reached out, grabbing at the mother and child.

Qin Zhixia, ten meters away, raised her sword.

"Liang Wen!"

【9】 "I'm here!"

I, the King, am here!

Liang Wen flipped over the monster's mouth, and a corner of his Windcoat's back hem was bitten off.

He cut off the more than ten arms the Patient Gown monster had extended.

But soon, Liang Wen began to turn gray.

He stared at the back of his hand for a couple of glances.

"Damn."

"This thing can even crawl along a wire."

The Patient Gown monster's abdomen writhed, and new arms burst out.

Liang Wen's smile vanished.

Qin Zhixia charged in from the side.

The Tail-Head Snake slashed the monster's waist and abdomen, its blade leaving a long gash. Those arms clutched the blade and pulled backward. Her mechanical prosthetic arm glowed with a pale white pattern; her five fingers gripped the hilt and forced it downward.

The monster was split open from the middle.

But before it fell, the severed hands continued crawling on the ground toward the mother and child.

"Retreat!"

The young mother lifted the child, but her legs were too weak to stand.

Qin Zhixia tried to chase over, but the faceless monster on the left had already broken through the shadow barrier and lunged toward the entrance of the safe house.

Beyond the entrance was the Medical Team, the wounded, and more than two hundred uninfected people who had been screened out.

We can't let them.

Qin Zhixia stopped in place.

She looked down at the energy indicator on her mechanical prosthetic arm.

Twenty‑seven percent.

The darkness can still be activated.

The cost is still present.

The last time in Lingshui Shi, she traded her life for a victory. The doctor told her that lifespan isn't suitable as a consumable; each use shortens it.

She replied at the time.

"Live until retirement and then die, but you need retirement first."

Now, the Exit is right behind her.

She has no other options.

"Medical Team, bring people into the safe house."

"Qin Team, what about you?"

"I'll guard the gate."

The young policeman gripped his gun, his lips dry.

He watched Qin Zhixia's silhouette and suddenly understood why Wei Gong dared to assign the most dangerous spot to this woman.

It wasn't because she wasn't afraid of death.

But because as long as she stands here, she won't hand over the people behind her.

Qin Zhixia raised her mechanical prosthetic arm and pressed the red switch on the inside of her gauntlet.

"Darkness."

Her long hair began to lose color from the roots.

The black receded, and snow‑white spread to the tips.

A pale white light surged from the seams of the mechanical prosthetic arm, the metal shell emitted a harsh screech, and the Tail-Head Snake's blade was also stained with a layer of white.

The faceless monster had already charged to the front.

It raised its hand, and the smiling face on its chest split even wider.

"Quick... happy..."

Qin Zhixia stepped forward.

One slash.

The faceless tale's body was split in two from head to foot.

The blade's motion did not stop.

The long‑haired monster behind, just as it tried to go around the entrance, a white knife scar already slashed across its shoulder and neck. The monster fell to the ground, its body burned by a nameless force into fine, crumbling ash.

In front of the safe house, an area was cleared.

Qin Zhixia stood there, white hair fanned across the back of her combat suit, and the mechanical structure of her left arm emitted heat.

She lifted her knife and tilted her chin toward the remaining tale in the Gray Mist.

"Come."

Lu Dou held up the White Umbrella and stared at her for two seconds.

"You are burning yourself."

"You are burning others for yourself!"

Lu Dou gave no rebuttal.

He lifted the umbrella handle.

Three tales turned direction and rushed toward the safe house entrance.

Qin Zhixia took a step forward.

The door behind her slowly closed.

Someone inside the door called her.

She did not look back.

On the other side, Su Ming was half‑kneeling on the ground.

The Time Marrow Worm's power had already spread.

Fine dark‑gold patterns rose from the cracks in the floor tiles, and the tales, the crowd, and the flying fragments were all dragged into a sluggish temporal layer.

A man who was running stopped halfway.

His raised foot hung in mid‑air, and the beads of sweat on his face slid slowly.

The smiling light beams that flew out of the Gray Mist also slowed.

They were originally invisible, and could only be located by the crowd's eruptions.

Now, Su Ming used time to compress them into slender white lines.

A full hundred or more.

They tunneled out from within the tales, from beneath the crowd's feet, and from the gaps in the damaged equipment, moving toward every living person.

Su Ming raised his hand and wiped the blood from his lip.

"L."

"Here."

"Mark the propagation lines."

"Marked. Total one hundred twenty‑seven lines. New lines added at three to five per second."

"To Jiang Yuan."

"Shared."

In Jiang Yuan's vision, all the white lines were projected with red coordinates.

He did not ask Su Ming whether he could hold on.

Meaningless.

If you can hold, hold; if you can't, you still must hold.

The Dark Shadow Court was restrained by a multitude of tales; it could no longer expand its domain and could only devote every ounce of power to the blade's edge.

The poker flew out.

The first one cut a white line.

The second one cut.

The third one.

The fourth one.

Each time a line was cut, nearby people would clutch their heads, kneel, and the smile on their faces would briefly fade.

The old patrol officer saw the scene and shouted at the top of his lungs.

"Everyone, don't run!"

"Get down on the ground!"

"If you see a white line, dodge!"

No one paid him any heed.

The crowd had already become chaotic.

Someone heard the tales laughing and bolted toward the safe house.

Someone saw a relative erupt and ran toward them crying.

Someone else held up a phone, their hand shaking so much the lens couldn't stay aimed, yet they kept filming.

"Stop filming!"

A female police officer knocked the phone from that person's hand.

The man, eyes reddened, pushed her.

I have to tell the outside!

What are you going to tell? Tell them to come in and die?

Besides, the news here can't reach the outside at all!

After the female police officer finished shouting, her eyes turned red.

She couldn't turn back.

She was responsible for this quarantine zone.

If the quarantine zone is breached, everyone behind will perish.

Get down!

Jiang Yuan's command overwhelmed the chaos.

An old man monster tale covered in mouths knocked over the quarantine barrier and dove into the crowd.

It doesn't bite people.

It opened mouths all over its body and pressed against a middle-aged man's face, saying:

Are you tired?

The man froze.

Just a moment ago he was still shoving and cursing.

The monster tale continued speaking.

Working is tiring, raising a family is tiring, even living is tiring.

Don't hold on anymore.

Smile a bit.

The man covered his ears and stepped back.

But the person next to him bumped into him.

Then someone else stepped on his foot.

He fell to the ground, and the crowd behind pressed forward.

Don't step on me!

Let me out!

The child is down there!

Screams mingled into a chaos.

Su Ming closed his eyes briefly.

This is what Lu Dou wanted.

The monster tale is not the main course.

Panic is.

When people panic, shoving turns into trampling, and trampling turns into resentment. Lu Dou only needs to stand aside and hand them a so-called happy exit.

Many people will then walk there on their own.

Jiang Yuan.

Su Ming spoke.

Left side crowd, first cut it open.

Jiang Yuan looked over.

There were nearly a thousand people crowded together, infected and uninfected mixed. If the shadow were to forcibly separate them, it would surely injure people.

It would cause accidental injury.

If we don't cut now, more will die.

Jiang Yuan's finger halted in midair.

In the distance, a father was using his body to shield his daughter.

That child was squeezed so hard he couldn't breathe, his face turned pale.

Jiang Yuan gritted his teeth, and the shadow rose from the ground.

A black wall thrust horizontally into the center of the crowd, dividing the most congested area into two sides.

Someone was shoved over.

Someone collided with the shadow, their arm scraped.

Curses immediately surged.

What are you doing!

Does the Investigation Bureau also want to kill people!

Jiang Yuan didn't explain.

He continued to tighten the shadow, creating space for those on the ground.

Just then, the first batch of transformed individuals stood up.

They still had tears hanging on their faces.

A girl who had been crying while holding an old man for half a day wiped away her tears and looked up toward her mother.

The corners of her mouth turned up.

The action was very slow.

Yet it was so neat it gave one chills.

The people nearby also began to laugh.

The man who had just been cursing the most fiercely laughed.

The woman holding the child and fleeing laughed.

The middle-aged man who had been stepped on lay on the ground, still coughing blood, and also laughed.

Their faces showed no madness.

Only peace.

Too peaceful.

"Mom."

The girl reached out her hand toward her mother.

"Don't cry."

Her mother stepped back two steps, desperately shaking her head.

"Don't come over."

"I'm fine."

The girl walked over and hugged her mother.

The movement was gentle.

"You'll be okay too."

The mother struggled to get up.

"Let go of me!"

The girl hugged even tighter.

The tears on her face hadn't dried, yet her smile didn't change at all.

"Don't resist."

"Resisting will only hurt."

More smiling people turned around.

They did not attack.

They sought out their family, friends, and colleagues, opened their arms, and walked over to embrace.

A man embraced his wife.

The wife screamed and hit him, her nails scratching his face.

The man just smiled.

"It's okay."

"I forgive you."

"You should forgive yourself too."

The wife's struggle grew weaker.

Her crying stopped.

After a few seconds, she lifted her head, the corners of her mouth also beginning to turn up.

Su Ming felt a heaviness in his chest.

The Time Marrow Worm was squeezed to its limit by him, and the edges of his vision began to darken.

He saw not far away, a young mother holding her son hiding behind a seat.

The Patient Gown urban legend didn't touch them.

The one walking over was her husband.

That man, who just moments ago had been bound by Jiang Yuan's Shadow and was begging others to kill him.

At some point, he had broken free of half the restraints.

He walked over step by step.

His face bore a smile, yet his eyes still retained a hint of clarity.

"Don't come over!"

The wife clung to the child and shrank back.

The man stopped.

He raised his hand to press against his own chest, his smile growing wider.

"Run."

"Don't let him hug you."

Su Ming's pupils constricted.

"Jiang Yuan, front-left!"

Jiang Yuan's poker just cut two transmission lines, but the distance was too far.

The man had already lunged over.

He embraced his wife, and also embraced the child who was crying and trembling.

"Don't be afraid."

"Dad will take you to a place where you don't have to be afraid."

The woman struggled desperately, her nails scraping bloody marks on the ground.

The child cried, calling for dad.

The next second.

The woman's crying broke off.

The child also stopped crying.

The mother and child lifted their heads from the man's embrace.

Three faces, all wearing the same smile.

Su Ming felt a bloody taste welling up in his throat.

He coughed up a mouthful of blood, pressed his palm to the ground, and the power of the Time Marrow Worm finally began to disintegrate.

The white lines that had been slowed came alive again.

He stared at that family of three, his eyes bloodshot, and roared into the communicator.

"Don't bother with them!"

"Retreat!"

"Fall back to the last line of defense!"