Chapter 63: Chapter 62: Full Effort in Repairing the Meridians (Third Update)_1
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Many teachers were making strenuous efforts to rescue students, but still, over a thousand students died on the spot!
In an instant, the entire playground was destroyed into ruins by a purple shockwave, and the music that had been playing over the loudspeakers was replaced by the screams of tens of thousands of students.
Roar—
A beast's roar came from the center of the playground; the dust and ash that filled the air shook and flew everywhere as students scrambled in panic, their inner terror too overwhelming to dare a backward glance.
"Old Lin!"
Fang Ren carried Mu Huanqing to the top of the stands only to see Lin Bozhong covered in blood, his entire back embedded in the concrete wall, while he continuously spat out blood.
"Young master... run away..."
Lin Bozhong gave him a forceful push, signaling him to leave him behind.
"Let's go together!"
Fang Ren didn't care anymore and immediately took out a white pill and stuffed it into Lin Bozhong's mouth, followed by an outburst of gray vital energy from his body.
With one arm cradling Mu Huanqing and the other clutching Lin Bozhong, he charged at full speed towards a distant location.
"Ah Ran, you..."
Mu Huanqing, upon seeing the gray vital energy erupting from him, looked at him with surprise.
Lin Bozhong, clamped under his arm, was unable to speak, but his aged, trembling eyes betrayed his shock.
The young master lost his Spiritual Root... and yet he can still cultivate!
Ao—
The Void Beast at the center of the playground suddenly raised its head to the sky and shot a column of blue flame from its mouth, instantly tinging the clouds above with blue.
Sun Yan, who hadn't yet realized what he had done, saw the pillar of fire rising from the ground and immediately tried to escape. However, before he could react, the fire engulfed him completely.
"Ah! Ah!!"
Screams filled the sky as he turned to dust within the pillar of fire!
Hum—
The Void Beast, as if driven by madness, continuously spewed fire pillars in all directions, as if to vent the rage of being imprisoned by humans.
Flames descended to the ground everywhere, as if signaling the end of the world. Several campus buildings were sliced at their waists by the columns of fire, collapsing from the sky, while large fires ignited in the nearby bamboo groves and gardens, spreading rapidly into the distance.
Outside the school, the road was pitted with crater-like holes from the flames, and many vehicles caused chain collisions in their attempts to avoid them.
People strolling on the distant streets stopped to look at the campus sky ablaze with blue flames, mistaking it for a novel cheer at a college sports event, and took out their phones to take photographs of the distant sky.
...
Fang Ren desperately fled across the stands; regretfully, not being a Yuanxin Realm practitioner, he was unable to fly and could only rely on his legs to run.
The Void Beast roared angrily, and from the sky, a column of blue flame surged towards Fang Ren.
At this sight, Fang Ren sprinted in a frenzy. He didn't head towards the densely populated areas but instead towards a sparsely populated path, hoping to minimize casualties.
A flame column several meters thick pursued Fang Ren closely. While evading and running, he was not very agile with Mu Huanqing and Lin Bozhong in his arms. Soon enough, a burn scorched his back, causing a piercingly painful sensation that forced him to clench his teeth.
The Void Beast seemed to harbor personal enmity, singling him out as flames chased him and him alone.
By now, most students had evacuated several hundred meters from the playground, and some finally dared to look back at the Void Beast that had descended from the heavens.
With one glance, the shocked and fearful expressions on their faces intensified.
The Void Beast stood about thirty meters tall, turtle-like in form with robust limbs, and a tail studded with sharp, armor-like scales. A blue mini-volcano continuously erupted from its shell, and its head bore a rhino-like horn.
The monster's body was mottled purple-gray, streaked with patterns of blue flame.
Its massive body filled the entire playground, each movement causing the ground below to thunder and roar. With a sweep of its tail, it gouged grooves into the earth.
"This is... this is a Fourth-Order Void Beast!" exclaimed a Cultivation System teacher in panic.
"Fourth-Order!?"
The surrounding teachers and students, upon hearing this, displayed the grim visage of despair.
"Fourth-Order Void Beasts should only appear in the battlefields of Fifth to Seventh Districts! How could it come here!" a teacher bellowed in rage.
"It's over... our entire city is doomed... this creature will destroy our whole city within a day!"
"The Central war zone is too far from here! It'll take at least sixteen hours for help to arrive!"
"By the time help arrives, who knows how many of us will still be alive..."
"It's all over! All over!"
"First let's escape and warn other citizens to take refuge! Run as far as you can!"
"Not many can get out... the whole city trying to flee will clog up every road!" Some people, upon seeing the Fourth-Order Void Beast, began to despair.
Boom—
With a loud boom, a vast crevice of flames tore through the campus path; Fang Ren was blasted away, and Lin Bozhong and Mu Huanqing, whom he had been clutching, tumbled to the ground.
"Ranzi! Run!"
From a distance, Li Xingwang and others could only stand still and shout, unable to get closer.
"Damn it! Why can't I be a cultivator!" Jing Haichuan exclaimed in anger, slapping his thigh.
"Get out of here quickly! I'll save them!"
A cultivation system instructor immediately wanted to rush down the path, but the sky was filled with sparks continuously smashing into the ground, creating deep pits. The center of the spark explosion was where Fang Ren was, and those sparks were splattering everywhere like a torrential downpour.
"Roaming Dragon Sword Qi!"
The instructor's body immediately emitted a dragon-shaped aura, enveloping him in protection as he rode his sword into the sky.
Hum——
But it was impossible to get close to Fang Ren; he had barely rushed forward a few dozen meters when a cluster of exploding sparks forced him back, his skin scorched and bleeding.
"Teacher Liu! Come back! Save more students' lives first!" another instructor shouted to the one who had just charged out.
Teacher Liu, seeing the sky full of descending fireballs, could only grit his teeth and return to the group escorting the students, his gaze filled with unwillingness as he watched Fang Ren.
"Damn it!"
Fang Ren endured the pain and crawled up from the ground, his body releasing gray vital energy to its utmost, protecting Mu Huanqing and Lin Bozhong in front of him as he continued to run forward.
His face was covered in blood, the skin on his back was charred, and the last explosion had injured his waist bone; now carrying two people, his running speed had greatly decreased.
Meanwhile, in the distance, three men in black robes floated outside the school, closely watching everything happening within.
"Brother Sha, this Void beast is too fierce; we can't get through to kill our target," one man said as he watched the sky full of fireballs.
"Heh, do you think we still need to take action now?" Sha Baihe laughed, looking down at the miserable Fang Ren.
Another man said, "This Void beast is really acting to our liking, as if it's specifically targeting Fang Ren."
Sha Baihe said, "Mainly because this Void beast fears the energy on the body of the Nine Heavens Mystic Lady, otherwise it wouldn't have spared tens of thousands of others and only targeted them three."
"So, we just watch him die?" a man asked.
Sha Baihe coldly responded, "Otherwise, what? Do you want to rush in and be burned to ashes?"
"I... I just feel it's hard to swallow not killing him with my own hands."
On the ground, Fang Ren was still fleeing with Mu Huanqing and Lin Bozhong. The blood on his body kept increasing, and even as a cultivator, he was struggling to withstand the injuries.
"Ah Ran, put me down!" Mu Huanqing suddenly said.
"Put you down, my ass!" Fang Ren wouldn't listen to her at all.
"It wants to kill me!" Mu Huanqing began struggling to get down.
"You listen to me!" Fang Ren shouted angrily.
Mu Huanqing was overwhelmed with mixed feelings.
Lin Bozhong bit his teeth and said, "Young Master... let this old one go..."
"Shut up!"
Fang Ren didn't listen to either of them, dodging and running, the gray vital energy on his back still shielding him from the fire's harm. Without this layer of gray vital energy, he would have been charred long ago.
Boom——
Another explosion erupted, and Fang Ren was once again blown away.
Thud——
Hitting the ground hard, Fang Ren felt his knee bones shatter, losing almost all sensation in his legs; he couldn't even crawl up.
He turned and saw the fireballs continuously flying over, his face turning an extreme shade of pale.
"Ah Ran!"
Seeing this, Mu Huanqing immediately scrambled up and flung herself onto Fang Ren, hugging him tightly to shield him from the descending fireballs.
Fang Ren looked at Mu Huanqing, who had thrown herself on him, his heart in utter turmoil, and screamed, "Qianye! Come out and entangle it!"
Swish swish swish——
In an instant, hundreds of gray tendrils burst out from Fang Ren's body, rapidly coalescing into a massive net over a dozen meters wide, set up in front of the three of them.
Boom boom boom——
The fireballs from the sky kept crashing down onto the gray net, sending blue flames spraying in all directions.
But in the end, they didn't touch a hair on his beloved.
Roar——
The Void Beast roared furiously, as a column of blue flames began gathering in its mouth, preparing to spew forth towards Fang Ren.
Seeing this, Fang Ren clenched his teeth tightly; he had only just reunited with Mu Huanqing, and now they were about to be separated again...
"Qianye! Fully restore her meridians!" Fang Ren ordered through gritted teeth.
Swish——
A tendril wrapped around Mu Huanqing's wrist, and bursts of red energy continuously flowed into her body.
As long as Mu Huanqing regained her strength, at least they could escape from here, but then she would go back to battle, and if he couldn't join her, they might never see each other again.
But little did he know, his order would lead to far greater complications that would unfold...