141: Chapter 141 The Allied Forces Have Finally Arrived

Jiang Ming first completed a convergence.

The final lingering echoes of the Gluttonous Specter swarm in the Shelter were completely crushed by the tree heart, transforming into purer lingering sounds that induced hunger.

The eerie remains in the cold storage of the old supermarket, the Water Supply Station, and the electrical room were also completely enveloped, digested, and absorbed by the flesh membrane.

The linkage of the three new organs was no longer a preliminary connection, but a true integration of flesh and blood.

The low temperature of the cold storage began to follow the logistics pipelines, affecting the temperature of the return pool at the Water Supply Station.

The moisture from the Water Supply Station slowly infiltrated the dry cable troughs of the electrical room along the old drainage ditch.

In turn, the pulses from the electrical room followed the metal pump casings and water pipes, bringing extremely subtle background vibrations to the entire underground network.

The city's breathing became smoother.

Beneath the bark, Jiang Ming inspected his panel one last time before the great battle.

[Name: Jiang Ming] [Race: Flesh-and-Blood Ancient Tree]

[Stage: Peak Flesh-and-Blood Ancient Tree]

[Combat Power Rating: S]

[Strength: 542]

[Speed: 351]

[Constitution: 599]

[Recovery: 583]

[Mental Pollution Resistance: 445]

[Territory Perception: 780]

[Flesh Manipulation: 802]

[Blood Spore Diffusion: 711]

[Blood Sound Mimicry: 658]

[Puppet Control: 504]

[Living Land Coverage: Black Tree Mouth Ruins, Tree Nest No. 1, Tree Nest No. 2, Old River Ditch tree nest no. 3, Communication Tower Culvert tree nest no. 4, Abandoned City Underground Main Sewage Channel, Broadcast Tower Cable Trench, Old Hospital Medical Waste Return Line, Old Supermarket Cold Storage, Water Supply Station Return Pool, Electrical Room Cable Trench, Shelter Air Supply Duct]

[Current Status: City Organ Linkage Matured, Regional Neural Network Formed]

[Notice: Equipped with Regional-level Parallel Pollution Delivery Capability]

He was very satisfied.

By devouring these three nodes and swallowing the Gluttonous Specter swarm, his attributes had risen by another notch.

More importantly, he had finally thoroughly strung together the internal organs of the Dead City.

Now, his attention shifted entirely to Ash Lamp City.

This final hard shell of humanity was finally going to move.

Inside the outer defense observation post of Ash Lamp City, the atmosphere was as heavy as a piece of soaked lead.

For three consecutive nights, abnormal reports piled up on Xu Baiheng's desk like snowflakes.

"South Section 3 city moat: The patrol team recorded blood bubbles welling up from the accumulated water, and a sentinel's ear canal bled with no obvious external injuries."

"Temporary external defense cremation pit: During ash cleanup last night, the bottom layer of mortar was found to be unusually damp, with an odor similar to the drainage outlet of the Old Hospital. Two cremation workers retched after smelling the odor and have been quarantined."

"Behind the West Section material distribution wall: Three people in line and a distributor simultaneously reported hearing chewing sounds in the mud behind the wall. One of them attempted to snatch a refugee's grain bag nearby."

Report after report pointed to different types of pollution, yet they all erupted at the same time.

On the outer defense line, even the dullest person finally understood that the thing entrenched in the Dead City was no longer a 'trouble in the distance'.

The war was pushed right before their eyes.

After debating throughout the night, the highest decision-making body of Ash Lamp City finally issued the sole directive.

Encirclement and suppression.

It was neither a probing clearance nor a defensive counterattack.

It was to concentrate all breathing forces in this region and launch a true regional joint encirclement and suppression.

Before dawn, the outer defense line of Ash Lamp City stirred completely like a startled behemoth.

The surviving veterans capable of combat from the Three Settlements were reorganized into three assault squads.

Scattered Awakened individuals everywhere were also forcibly pieced together under the name of the "Wartime Conscription Order" to form a "Heart-Cutting Squad" specifically responsible for frontal pressure and decapitation strikes.

And at the very core was the "Pure Fire Squad" dispatched from within Ash Lamp City.

Their numbers were small, only thirty people.

Yet as soon as they appeared, the air across the entire outer defense line changed.

Tings.

They wore heavy thermal-insulating and fireproof suits, carried silver-white pure flame tanks on their backs, and held long-barreled holy fire flamethrowers in their hands.

Their armor plates and flame tanks emitted a deep metallic clashing sound as they walked, resembling a row of living incinerators specifically come to disembowel monsters.

The coalition forces' combat plan was marked clearly on Xu Baiheng's map.

Step one: The "Pure Fire Squad" clears the way, sealing all exposed underground wellheads, sewage pipelines, and ventilation openings on the outer edge of the Dead City.

Step two: Concentrate long-range firepower and Awakened individuals to violently attack and cut off the Broadcast Tower.

Step three: Burn down the connecting zone between the Old Hospital and the Shelter to prevent the pollution source from continuing to spread.

Step four: Advance inward along the "safety belt" burned out by the "Pure Fire Squad", force out Jiang Ming's main roots or core Tree Nest, and incinerate them in one fell swoop.

The plan was clear, and the steps were explicit.

Yet in front of the combat map, Xu Baiheng raised the only objection.

"The premise of this plan is treating it like an enemy that knows how to defend a city and hold strongholds."

He looked at the Broadcast Tower marked as the "main attack direction" on the map, his voice very cold.

"But it is not."

"It won't defend a city; it will use a city to fight you."

His words completed the core logical tone of this great battle.

Humanity wanted to fight a stronghold war, wanting to pull out nail after nail.

But Jiang Ming was fighting an organ war, a procedural war.

He intended to treat the entire Dead City as his own body, making every step you took tread upon his internal organs.

On the other side, Lin Qiu had already built a wartime medical chain of unprecedented scale.

She did not set up the wounded sheds together, but divided them into five zones.

The Burn Zone, used to treat wounded personnel accidentally injured by pure fire or contaminated by charred corpses.

The Decay Zone, specifically handling people whose limbs were rotted by bloodstains and corpse water.

The Sound Pollution Zone: all wounded personnel experiencing tinnitus, auditory hallucinations, or aphasia were locked inside, their mouths sealed.

The Damp-Rot Zone, prepared for those dragged out from ground collapses and sewage pits.

And the largest, the "Mixed Pollution Zone".

"Before entering, wash your armor seams, ear canals, nasal cavities, and the soles of your shoes."

Lin Qiu faced a row of medical workers, her tone devoid of the slightest warmth, "Whoever doesn't follow instructions, don't enter the shed."

She was very clear that what was most terrifying about this battle wasn't the large number of deaths.

It was that those half-dead wounded personnel would gradually drag the entire battlefield back into the city.

Underground, through his massive urban neural network, Jiang Ming saw all of this with utmost clarity.

He saw the veterans of the Three Settlements wiping down old gun barrels.

He saw the Awakened distributing strengthening potions.

He saw the "Pure Fire Squad's" flamethrowers undergoing final pressure tests, spitting out holy flames of dazzling white-gold, carrying a dry heat that seemed capable of burning straight through the air.

He did not rush to make a move.

Like a patient butcher, he was observing the fleshest parts of his prey.

His roots followed the Broadcast Tower, Water Supply Station, air ducts, and ground fissures, pinpointing the coalition's most vulnerable locations bit by bit.

The advance line was too long, making it difficult to attend to both ends.

The command chain relied too heavily on orders and shouts; in front of the Broadcast Tower's lingering echoes, it was as thin as paper.

The "Pure Fire Squad's" fuel was indeed overbearing, but once dragged into the sewage layer, the persistence and stability of the flames would be greatly compromised.

There was also the cremation team, who habitually relied on that old cremation pit on the outer defense line, believing the fire there burned brightest and safest.

Jiang Ming also discovered an even bigger opportunity.

Tings.

To support this encirclement and suppression, Ash Lamp City had moved the external defense cremation pit, temporary casualty sheds, and material distribution walls forward by nearly a hundred meters.

They wanted to use the shortest distance to support the frontlines most efficiently.

This was tantamount to proactively piling the five most critical things—'corpses, fire, medicine, crowds, and supplies'—neatly right where he could reach them.

Within Jiang Ming's tree heart, the location of that cremation pit was marked with a deeply dark red imprint.

Before dawn, at the moment when the sky was darkest.

On the outer defense line of Ash Lamp City, rows of pure fire flamethrowers lit up simultaneously.

The white-gold firelight tore through the night fog, illuminating the twisted broken buildings and collapsed streets on the outer edge of the Dead City into a blazing red.

The coalition vanguard began marching out of the city.

Heavy combat boots stepped onto the scorched earth, emitting dull marching sounds.

At the very front of the formation was the incineration belt pulled open by the "Pure Fire Squad".

In the middle were the hard bones formed by the Three Settlements assault squads and the Awakened.

At the rear was the rearguard held down by the Ash Lamp City patrol unit.

Underground, Jiang Ming slowly tightened his root network.

Like a mouth prepared to feed, he quietly watched group after group of food voluntarily stretch their feet in.

Right at this moment.

At the very top of the distant Broadcast Tower, a slight noise suddenly came through.

Hiss.

The sound was as light as an illusion, yet it clearly brushed past everyone's eardrums.

It was as if someone pressed against everyone's ears and chuckled softly.

The leader of the "Pure Fire Squad" walking at the very front abruptly raised a hand.

The entire advancing formation instantly came to a halt.

The coalition forces of thousands, in the very first minute of their departure, collectively fell into silence for the first time.