243: Chapter 243 Heavenly Fire

Zhao Hu put down his wine bowl and licked the wine stain on his lips.

"One hundred years ago, Yao Beasts and humans actually lived their own separate lives."

He dipped his chopsticks in a little wine and drew a horizontal line on the table surface.

"Two hundred li north of Cang City is the territory of the Yao Beasts, and south of it is the territory of humans. In the middle is a default line that hasn't changed much for several hundred years.

Hunters going into the mountains to hunt would occasionally run into them, fight, and a few people would die, and that was just how it was.

The Yao Beasts do not come out of the mountains, and people do not enter the deep forests; everyone minds their own business."

en own picked up the conversation.

He leaned against the back of the chair, the bandage on his left shoulder glowing pale yellow under the candlelight. When he spoke, his body didn't move; only his mouth moved.

"At that time, there were three hundred cities around Cang City."

Su Mingyuan's chopsticks stopped.

"Three hundred?"

"Three hundred," en own said, "the large ones had two to three hundred thousand people, and the small ones had forty to fifty thousand. Cang City was at the very southernmost end, considered medium-scale. Adding up all three hundred cities, the population exceeded fifty million."

He took a breath, his throat extremely hoarse, and he had to stop every few sentences.

"One hundred years ago, this line was gone."

Zhao Hu drew a horizontal stroke across the wine line on the table, wiping the line apart.

"Yao Beasts moved south, all the Yao Beasts moved south together."

Zhao Hu said, "It wasn't just one or two, but in swarms and groups, ranging from First-Order to Fifth-Order. They were like they went crazy, killing anyone they saw, attacking any city they saw, regardless of day or night."

en own said: "The first to be slaughtered were the sixty cities in the very north. Overnight, all sixty cities fell, not even managing to send out a request for reinforcements. The next morning, the southern cities sent people to investigate. The streets were full of blood, corpses piled up in the alleys, and some were gnawed down to just bones."

en own continued: "The remaining two hundred plus cities began joint defense, mobilizing Martial Artists and organizing city defense. But too many Yao Beasts came, and unlike before when they rushed around chaotically, they had method and order. They knew which city to attack first and which to attack later, knew how to besiege cities and cut off food supplies, and knew how to launch feigned attacks to lure tigers away from mountains."

"Organized?" Su Mingyuan asked.

"Yes." en own's voice dropped by half, "This is the most eerie part. Yao Beasts in the past were just beasts; when hungry they looked for food, when their territory was invaded they bit back a couple of times, at most dozens gathering in a pack. After one hundred years ago, they knew how to coordinate, set up ambushes, and concentrate forces to hit weaknesses."

Zhao Hu added: "It was written in the notes left by my grandfather's grandfather that back then, an elite force of three hundred Third-Order Martial Artists set out from Cang City to reinforce Luming City in the north, and halfway there they were ambushed by a pack of Yao Beasts. The ambush site was chosen in a canyon, blocked at both ends, with flying Yao Beasts above and ground-traveling Yao Beasts below; not a single one of the three hundred people returned."

"An elite force of three hundred was ambushed and completely annihilated." Su Mingyuan repeated.

"Right," Zhao Hu said, "Ever since then, various cities dared not send people out anymore, and could only guard their own."

en own said: "After defending for three months, twenty out of three hundred cities remained. Defending for another half a year, five remained. By the spring of the second year, only Cang City was left."

His gaze fell on the unfinished bowl of wine on the table.

"The survivors of the other three hundred cities all surged into Cang City. At that time, the City Lord of Cang City was a Fifth-rank Martial Artist named Zhou Qian, who was my great-grandfather.

He led all the Martial Artists of Cang City, plus the Martial Artists who fled from other cities, to hold the city walls tenaciously.

Later, on the fortieth day, my great-grandfather Zhou Qian killed a Fifth-rank Yao Beast, but he himself was crippled, his Meridians completely severed, and he passed away that very night.

But once that Fifth-rank Yao Beast died, the remaining pack of Yao Beasts dispersed and retreated back to the north."

en own stopped speaking here.

In the room, there was only the sizzling sound of the candlelight burning the lamp wick.

Zhao Hu gulped a mouthful of wine, his Adam's apple rolling as he swallowed the wine.

"Ever since then, the Yao Beasts have never rested," Zhao Hu said. "Every few years they come in a wave, varying in size, but never again on the scale of one hundred years ago. Cang City being able to hold on until today relies entirely on the foundation left by City Lord en's great-grandfather."

After listening, Su Mingyuan did not reply.

He picked up the wine bowl and drank it down in one gulp.

One hundred years ago.

These three words were like a thorn stuck in his mind.

The outbreak of the zombie virus in the Zombie World —— One hundred years ago.

The sudden appearance of the giant race in the Giant World —— One hundred years ago.

The expansion of the Zerg towards the surface in the Zerg World —— One hundred years ago.

Now, the Yao Beasts in the Yaowu World suddenly changed their habits and launched a large-scale attack on humans —— also one hundred years ago.

Four worlds, four disasters, the exact same time point.

Su Mingyuan placed the wine bowl on the table and looked at Tao Zhe.

Tao Zhe obviously had also thought of this problem.

He was gripping the small bottle he had secretly used to sample wine and forgot to put the cap on. The wine was dripping onto the table drop by drop, and he was completely oblivious.

The eyes behind his glasses stared at Su Mingyuan, his lips moving slightly without making a sound.

The two of them locked eyes for a second.

Tao Zhe put down the small bottle, turned around to look at en own, and asked a question completely unrelated to the previous topic.

"City Lord en, one hundred years ago, was there a meteorite fall?"

en own was stunned for a moment.

Zhao Hu was also stunned, his mouth chewing on a piece of Yao Beast meat with puffed-up cheeks, stopping to look at Tao Zhe.

"Meteorite?" Zhao Hu asked inarticulately, swallowing the meat in his mouth, "What meteorite?"

"It's rocks falling from the sky," Tao Zhe pushed up his glasses, "Very big stones falling from the sky, smashing into the ground, making a loud noise and having firelight."

Zhao Hu still hadn't reacted, turning his head to look at en own.

en own's expression changed.

He braced himself on the chair armrests, leaning his body slightly forward. The bandage tugged at his wound, hurting for a moment; he frowned, but didn't pull back.

"What you are talking about should be the heavenly fire."

Tao Zhe and Su Mingyuan looked at him simultaneously.

"Heavenly fire?"

"Yes, heavenly fire." en own's brows furrowed tightly, as if trying hard to recall something, "It was recorded in the history books of Cang City that half a month before the Yao Beast riot, a flash of fire appeared in the northern horizon, descending from the sky and landing on the wasteland of the far north. At that time, the entire sky was illuminated, and the people of Cang City standing on the city walls could see it, glowing for a full half-incense stick of time."

He paused.

"When it landed, the earth shook three times. Cang City was at least over a thousand li away from the landing point, but the ground still shook, and a few old houses in the city were shaken until they collapsed."

Zhao Hu remembered at this time: "Right, heavenly fire! It was mentioned in my grandfather's notes, saying that after the heavenly fire landed, the northern sky remained red for several days straight, not even turning dark at night, and they thought it was a big fire."

"And then?" Tao Zhe pressed on.

"Then came the Yao Beast riot," en own said. "Half a month after the heavenly fire landed, the Yao Beasts started moving south. At that time, nobody connected these two things together, thinking it was just a coincidence."

"Did anyone go to see where the heavenly fire landed?" Su Mingyuan asked.

en own shook his head: "That is the far north wasteland, over a thousand li north of Cang City, and the middle is entirely the territory of Yao Beasts. Nobody could go there before one hundred years ago, and even more so after one hundred years."

Su Mingyuan didn't ask anymore.

He picked up the wine bowl and took a sip, the coolness of the Spiritual Qi in the wine liquid sliding down his throat.

Heavenly Fire.

Meteorite.

Just like the previous three cities.