72: Chapter 72 We're the righteous ones, okay?

The remaining few polluted creatures that had been blown away were quickly cleaned up by Commander Ji Yunlan and Chen Qichen.

A flash of blade light, and the neck of the last polluted creature was forcefully severed by Commander Ji Yunlan, black blood spraying all over the ground.

Chen Qichen pierced through another monster's skull with his sword, and with a surge of Source Power, directly shredded that mass of rotting flesh into pieces.

The shopping mall finally quieted down.

The ground was covered in shredded meat, blood, and shattered glass, and the air still held the lingering aura of the holy light from Lu Cheng's strike just now.

That aura was already very faint, but even this slight lingering charm managed to suppress the surrounding smell of pollution significantly.

Commander Ji Yunlan panted, turning her head to look at Lu Cheng, who was lying in the blood.

Chen Qichen also looked over.

Neither of them spoke for a moment.

Their feelings were indeed complex.

Commander Zhao had almost been beaten to death... The six giant polluted creatures had pressed them so hard they couldn't even break free.

If they had been at their peak, Commander Zhao wouldn't have been beaten like this... But those polluted creatures had already exhausted most of the three's stamina.

If it weren't for Lu Cheng's sudden outburst, repelling that man in black, today... the people in the entire Abandoned City, I'm afraid only a small portion would have survived.

Commander Ji Yunlan walked over, half-knelt down, and pressed her hand against Lu Cheng's neck.

The pulse... was very chaotic and also very weak.

"He's still alive," Commander Ji Yunlan whispered.

Commander Zhao leaned against a broken wall, his face pale, clutching his broken wrist, and grimaced:

"This kid... his life is truly tough."

Chen Qichen looked at Lu Cheng's still somewhat childish face, his eyes also somewhat dazed.

If this had been said half an hour ago, he would have called whoever said it full of shit.

Commander Ji Yunlan didn't delay, directly rummaging through the tactical pouch at her waist to find a recovery potion, then took out a basic nutritional injection, and quickly injected them into Lu Cheng.

After the medicine was pushed in, Lu Cheng's pale complexion eased slightly, but he still hadn't woken up.

"Advanced recovery agents cannot be used recklessly. His body is currently too severely depleted; forcing the medicinal effect could cause his Source Power channels to collapse."

Commander Ji Yunlan stood up, her tone steady, "Let's replenish him with basic recovery first to stabilize his condition, then do a detailed check-up when we return to the Military District."

Chen Qichen nodded, carrying his sword to one side, and began to guard the surroundings.

Commander Zhao also gritted his teeth and propped himself up, dragging his injured body to guard the other side.

The three of them surrounded the unconscious Lu Cheng, standing guard in this ruin.

The fog outside hadn't dissipated yet.

In the distance, there were still occasional low beast roars and the sounds of collapsing buildings, making one's scalp tighten.

Time passed bit by bit.

In the meantime, Commander Ji Yunlan fed Lu Cheng some diluted recovery liquid, and Chen Qichen went out to gather all the surviving soldiers nearby to this location.

Three hours later.

From the fog outside, two rapidly approaching sounds of wind-breaking finally arrived.

Chen Qichen's eyes sharpened, and his long sword was instantly raised.

Commander Zhao also tensed his body.

Commander Ji Yunlan stood directly in front of Lu Cheng, her hand on the hilt of her blade, staring at that patch of churning blue-purple mist.

A few seconds later, two figures rushed out of the mist.

Both were wearing military combat uniforms.

Their auras were thick, and their Source Power flowed with terrifying stability; they were clearly two soldiers of the Hua Hai Realm.

One of them raised his hand as soon as he landed: "Friendly forces!"

Commander Ji Yunlan didn't relax.

She recognized these two.

But she still kept a cold face and spoke directly: "Identification number."

The two were clearly stunned for a moment, then quickly reported their internal military identification numbers and the temporary support password.

Commander Ji Yunlan asked two more questions about details that only participants of this mission would know, and after confirming everything was correct, she truly lowered her blade.

One of the short-haired soldiers gave a wry smile: "Commander Ji, you're cautious enough."

Commander Ji Yunlan's voice was very faint, "Being cautious can save a few lives."

The man nodded and didn't waste any more words. His gaze quickly swept over the scene, and after seeing the remains of polluted creatures all over the ground and the heavily injured Commander Zhao and Chen Qichen, his expression changed significantly.

"You guys fought pretty hard over here."

Commander Ji Yunlan asked directly: "What is the situation in the north now?"

The two soldiers looked at each other, and the one who spoke did so quickly.

"It's doing alright, otherwise we couldn't have supported you so quickly."

"After the Black Seed's base in the city was hit last time, their strength was severely depleted, and they only sent two priests. Mayor Xia was well-prepared, and by the time we left, that side had already been brought under control."

After he finished speaking, he looked around. "What about you guys?"

Commander Ji Yunlan was silent for a moment, turning her head to look at Lu Cheng, who was still unconscious.

Her gaze was complex. There was shock, lingering fear, and also a bit of uncontrollable suspicion.

Then she spoke. "We were saved by this little guy, the Key... has appeared."

She paused, lowering her voice a few notches.

As soon as these words were out, the expressions of the two Hua Hai Realm soldiers changed simultaneously.

One of them had his pupils contract, subconsciously looking at Lu Cheng, and then at that metal box.

"Are you sure?"

Commander Ji Yunlan didn't answer immediately, just glancing at the messy environment around them, and sweeping across the still-churning mist.

This was clearly not the place to talk. She said directly: "The details... we'll talk about them when we go back."

The two soldiers also reacted and didn't ask further.

One of them immediately took off his backpack and took out two palm-sized black devices, which looked very much like foldable signal beacons.

The other person took out a silver-gray disc and quickly placed it on the ground.

Click, click, click. Several machines unfolded simultaneously, and circles of blue-white patterns lit up on their surfaces.

The next second, a low humming sound rang out. The sound became deeper and deeper, spreading outward in layers.

The blue-purple mist, which had been as thick as a living thing, seemed to be forcibly pushed away by some power, and began to retreat on a large scale.

First, the street outside the shopping mall was revealed. Further away, broken buildings, abandoned cars, and collapsed road surfaces gradually revealed their outlines from the mist.

A moment later, the sky above the entire Abandoned City had cleared up quite a bit. The field of vision finally opened up.

Commander Zhao watched this scene and let out a long breath: "Damn it, finally I can see the road."

Chen Qichen walked back and looked down at Lu Cheng: "Let's take him back first. If this kid keeps lying here, something will really go wrong."

Commander Ji Yunlan nodded. Just as they were preparing to evacuate...

Southern suburbs. In a basement hidden beneath an abandoned warehouse, the lighting was dim, and the air was filled with the smell of blood and medicine.

Lou Ye lay on the ground, his whole person almost unrecognizable.

The life aura on him was extremely weak, his chest rose and fell very faintly, but the muscles under his skin were still twitching and contracting piece by piece, as if something was frantically gnawing inside his body.

The ground was covered in the blood he had vomited. It was black-red and sticky.

Around him stood five men in black.

All five wore standard black robes, with different expressions on their faces; some were gloomy, some were irritable, and some simply had a cold look of disdain, as if looking at trash.

One of them looked down at Lou Ye, his voice suppressing anger. "They couldn't possibly have had time to react to the chaos in the south this time."

He took a step forward, his boots stepping on the edge of the blood pool. "So you, one person plus over a dozen Tier 4 exotic beasts and hundreds of Tier 3 exotic beasts, were beaten into this state by Commander Ji Yunlan and those soldiers who look like kids?"

The basement went quiet for a moment. Lou Ye's eyelids twitched, and he tried hard to raise his head.

His lips were white, his throat full of blood foam, as if he wanted to say something. "I..."

Just after spitting out one word, he trembled violently. Pfft! A large mouthful of fresh blood sprayed directly from his mouth, splattering his chest and the ground everywhere.

The five men in black frowned simultaneously. One of them cursed in a low voice: "Damn it, don't die right now."

Another person immediately squatted down and took out a bright red potion from his bosom.

The color of the potion was dark and thick. As soon as the bottle was opened, a pungent smell of blood spread out.

He pinched Lou Ye's mouth open and poured it directly in. "Swallow it."

After the medicine entered his throat, Lou Ye's pupils, which were about to dissipate, slightly focused, and the veins on his neck and the back of his hands bulged, as if he had been forcibly injected with a bit of power.

He took two heavy breaths and squeezed out a few words intermittently from his mouth. "Stu... Stu... dent..."

The five stared at him simultaneously. "What student?"

Lou Ye's eyeballs trembled, and a sound like a broken bellows came from his throat. "A..."

As soon as the words fell, he twitched violently again, and his life force began to drain away at an even faster speed.

A man in black beside him darkened his face, raised his hand to press on his chest, and poured a cold Source Power into him, forcibly locking in his last bit of life.

But it was only keeping him alive. The man raised his head, his tone very cold. "He's beyond saving, throw him to be refined; now is exactly the time when we are short on people."

A man in black beside him twitched the corner of his mouth and couldn't help but curse: "How can this damn plot of dying halfway through a sentence happen to a villain?"

Just as he finished speaking, another person beside him raised his hand and smacked the back of his head. Slap.

"What villain." That person's tone was very unhappy.

"This just goes to show that we are the righteous ones, which is why this kind of thing happens. That bunch of brain-dead Federation and military, sooner or later, will die in that catastrophe!"

In the basement, the dim light flickered. Lou Ye on the ground was still twitching slightly, blood foam constantly bubbling from the corners of his mouth, and his eyes had begun to unfocus.

The five men in black stood around him, their faces looking worse than the other.