318: Chapter 318 Three Hundred Thousand vs. Three Hundred Thousand!

The Red Wolf Army stepped through the golden gate.

A sense of weightlessness swept over them.

When Lu Yuan opened his eyes again, the surrounding environment had completely changed.

What met his gaze was a gray, dead, and silent sky.

Snowflakes—or perhaps ash from burning buildings—drifted through the air.

The cold wind cut like a knife.

The thick smell of gunpowder and the pungent scent of blood flooded everyone's nostrils.

"Where is this?!"

Lu Yuan looked around.

Beneath his feet lay an ancient street, scarred and devastated.

The blue bricks and black tiles on both sides were shattered, and flames soared into the sky.

Not far away, the water in the moat had been dyed red with blood... corpses floated everywhere.

[Ding! The First Tribulation Trial: A Bow to the Daoist Heart! Has officially begun!]

[Mission Objective: Escort the civilians in the city to the extraction point safely!]

[Hint: The number of surviving civilians will affect the final effect of the Fire Inheritance!]

[Warning, Warning! Current trial difficulty: SSS-rank!]

[Ding! Space-time folding has been blocked!]

[All mecha vehicles, Abyss mounts, and heavy firearms have been forcibly sealed!]

[All players currently retain only cold weapons and basic physical fitness!]

[Note: Dying in the trial means being erased in reality! No resurrection! Players, please be cautious!]

The cold system notification echoed in his mind.

Lu Yuan took a deep breath.

Just then, a suppressed, faint whimpering sound came from behind a collapsed low wall.

Lu Yuan lightened his footsteps as he approached.

Behind the wall, a dozen or so ragged people were huddled tightly together, shivering.

They were sallow and emaciated, their faces covered in soot.

Their eyes were filled with fear and despair.

They wore patched cotton-padded jackets and coarse cloth shoes.

A gaunt-faced mother looked at Lu Yuan with vigilance.

She covered the mouth of the baby in her arms, terrified that the child might make even the slightest sound.

Nearby, several teenage girls had smeared pot ash on their faces, trying their best to look ugly.

Looking at these refugees.

Looking at their clothing.

Looking at this ancient city torn apart by artillery fire.

Lu Yuan's pupils constricted violently.

In his mind, those painful memories, once sealed in history textbooks and engraved deep in the soul of every Chinese descendant... began to overlap with the scene before him!

"Beep—beep—"

Just then, the guild chat channel, which had been silent for a long time, suddenly flickered to life.

The three hundred thousand members of the Red Wolf Army.

Although they had been randomly teleported to various corners of this ancient city, the guild channel remained accessible.

Zhao Meng's voice was the first to sound, filled with anxiety:

"Boss? Is everyone here?"

"I'm in a broken alleyway..."

"What's going on? My Gatling gun is gone, my inventory won't open, and even the Three Abyss Stooges are disconnected!"

Lin Zihao followed up immediately, his voice panicked: "Me too!"

"My vehicle permissions are all blacked out! Heavy firepower has been sealed too!"

"I'm in the ruins right now, there are so many refugees around!"

"Oh my god, they are so miserable, they're purple from the cold, they don't even have a single pair of intact shoes."

Xia Li's cold voice, for the first time ever, carried a trace of trembling:

"Everyone... take a look at the system panel."

"Look at the number of people we need to escort."

The channel went silent for a moment.

Then, countless gasps of cold air rang out one after another.

[Total number of civilians in the city to be escorted: 300,000!]

Three hundred thousand.

These three words were like a red-hot branding iron, searing the hearts of every Red Wolf Player!

Three hundred thousand civilians!

And the number of people from the Red Wolf Guild who entered this trial... was exactly three hundred thousand!

"Brothers... one person... escorting one..."

Zhao Meng's voice cracked, as if his throat were clogged with blood-soaked cotton.

Lin Zihao, whose tone was usually laid-back, became incredibly serious.

"I just found a newspaper in the ruins."

"The date is... December 13th."

"Add this city full of ruins, plus this number of three hundred thousand..."

He didn't finish his sentence.

And he didn't need to.

In an instant, the entire three hundred thousand members of the Red Wolf Guild fell into a brief silence.

Oppressive.

Suffocating.

Their eyes turned red in that moment.

It was a sorrow born from the depths of their bloodlines, an irreconcilable grievance spanning a hundred years of time!

They finally understood.

Why this first tribulation was called [A Bow to the Daoist Heart]!

The ancient gods of the Dragon Kingdom were using this fragment of history to question their descendants.

No earth-shattering mechas or tanks; no Abyss Demon King; all heavy firepower stripped away!

Did they still have the courage to face that most humiliating and darkest national tragedy with nothing but their own flesh and blood?

Did they still have the backbone to face the invaders' butcher knives?

"Creak... creak..."

The sound of leather boots stepping on bluestone slabs came from the end of the street.

Accompanied by unbridled, wild laughter.

And the metallic sound of gun bolts being pulled.

A group of beasts wearing muddy yellow military uniforms and human skin appeared in the fog, bayonets leveled.

Behind the low wall.

The mother closed her eyes in despair, hugging her child tightly.

An old man knelt trembling, sobbing uncontrollably.

Just as the beasts, grinning hideously, were about to lunge at the defenseless civilians with their bayonets,

"Pfft—!!!"

The dull sound of blades piercing flesh suddenly tore through the wind and snow!

The few beasts in the lead didn't even have time to react.

Then, several figures wearing red vests burst out from the shadows of the wall like ghosts!

No nonsense, zero-frame initiation!

White blade in, red blade out!

As blood splattered, several muddy yellow corpses twitched and fell into a pool of blood.

Lu Yuan looked at the twitching soldier before him, his expression blank.

He lifted his military boot and kicked the soldier hanging off his blade away with a heavy thud.

A slight flick of his wrist.

With a "swish," the blood droplets on the blade were flung to the ground.

Step, step, step.

All around the ruins, Wang Jian, Old Ma, Xia Li... one member of the Red Wolf Guild after another emerged from the smoke and rubble.

Slowly approaching him, they gathered silently behind Lu Yuan.

There were no earth-shattering God-Slaying Star-Annihilating Cannons.

No thirty-meter-tall invincible scarlet mecha.

In their hands, there were only rusty fire axes, watermelon knives, or even steel rebar...

But at this moment.

They stood there with nothing but their flesh and blood, blocking the front of the low wall, shielding the civilians behind them, their backs like mountains.

In the guild channel.

Lu Yuan's voice was low and hoarse, yet it carried the fury and killing intent of a volcano before eruption.

"Red Wolf Army, hear my order."

"Present!"

"Present!"

"Present!!!"

Three hundred thousand roars exploded in the guild channel, every word weeping blood!

"The system says, if we die in the trial, we die in reality."

"Everyone?! Are you afraid of death?!"

Lu Yuan slowly raised his long blade, pointing it through the wind and snow at the army surging forward.

"I'm not afraid!!!"

"So what if we don't have tanks or cannons?!"

"Back then, our martyrs had nothing either!!!"

"Today..."

"Even if all three hundred thousand of us f***ing die in battle!"

"The three hundred thousand fellow countrymen in this city..."

"Not one of them is allowed to be missing!!!"

Lu Yuan suddenly looked up, his eyes bloodshot.

Looking at the muddy yellow frenzy on the street ahead, he let out a roar that shattered the sky:

"Give it to me! Kill all these beasts!!!"