93: Chapter 93 seems to have only one answer.

Watching the two men about to fight over five catties of pork, the corporal nearby slapped each of them on the head: "What are you arguing about! Aren't you happy that the Demonic Beast Tide didn't come? Looking for trouble, are you?"

"We're just not happy!" that young soldier said righteously, "We finally got a chance to go to the battlefield, but we didn't even get to touch a single hair of a Demonic Beast!"

The corporal was so choked up by his words that he rolled his eyes.

On the city wall, Lei Lie's expression was even uglier than the soldiers below.

It wasn't out of worry—given Flower City's current combat strength, if the Demonic Beast Tide came, it would just be delivering food.

The reason for his ugly expression was the same as the soldiers': they had prepared for so long, but the other side failed to show up.

This feeling was like throwing a punch with all your might only for it to land on cotton; all that strength had nowhere to go.

"Is it possible that this year's Demonic Beast Tide has been delayed?" Wan'er asked, standing behind him.

"No." Lei Lie shook his head. "The Demonic Beast Tide is an iron law of the City Lord World; it must arrive on the seventh day after a new City Lord descends. There has never been an exception."

"Then did it take a detour?"

"That's also impossible. The direction of the Demonic Beast Tide is locked based on the city's location; there is no such thing as a detour."

"Then what in the world—"

"Report—!"

A scout came sprinting from outside the city, vaulted over the obstacles at the city gate, and knelt down below the city wall: "Minister Lei! A large number of Demonic Beast corpses have been discovered twenty-five miles to the east!"

Lei Lie stood up straight abruptly: "What?"

"Demonic Beast corpses! They are all Demonic Wolves, at least a thousand of them! They are scattered inside and outside a valley pass, and all of them are dead! The bodies are still warm!"

The city wall fell silent all of a sudden.

Lei Lie and Wan'er exchanged a glance, both seeing the same question in each other's eyes—who did this?

"Where is the Strategist?" Lei Lie turned his head to ask.

"The Strategist is in the back," the personal guard replied.

Just as Lei Lie was about to send someone to call him, a steady voice came from the inner side of the city wall: "I am here."

Strategist Zhu Ge's wheelchair was pushed out from the shadows.

The person pushing the wheelchair was one of his personal attendants, but everyone knew that Strategist Zhu Ge never needed anyone else to arrange where he wanted to go.

His appearance here meant he had been waiting for this news all along.

"Does the Strategist know what is going on?" Lei Lie asked straightforwardly.

Strategist Zhu Ge did not answer directly; instead, he took a chess piece—a white one—from his sleeve, placed it on the armrest of his wheelchair, and gently spun it with his fingertip.

"Minister Lei, which road do you think those five hundred people, whom Zhou Yun released today, took?"

Lei Lie's expression froze for a split second.

Strategist Zhu Ge raised his head, looking at him with calm eyes: "The valley pass to the east is the only way from Flower City to the direction of Qing City. The Demonic Beast Tide came from the east and also had to pass through that valley. Five hundred Professionals of Bronze Rank or higher, arrayed in formation in the valley to intercept and kill—"

He didn't finish his sentence, nor did he need to.

Lei Lie's mouth opened, then closed again.

He turned to look towards the east, where the afterglow of the setting sun spread a layer of orange-red light across the horizon; the distant valley pass was hidden in the twilight, and nothing could be seen.

But he knew what had happened in that valley pass.

Five hundred people, in that narrow valley, had swallowed the entire Demonic Beast Tide for Flower City.

"Why did they..." Lei Lie's voice was somewhat hoarse.

Strategist Zhu Ge put the chess piece back into his sleeve and said two words softly: "A favor."

The city wall fell silent for a while.

The news quickly spread throughout the city.

After the army of fifty thousand recovered from their astonishment that the "Demonic Beast Tide had been intercepted by others," their emotions became extremely complex.

Some people cursed Old Dao for stealing the credit, some said they had good intentions, some sighed that "those people aren't all bad," while many more were whispering—

"Zhou Yun must have known, right?"

"He definitely knew. Didn't you see how calm Zhou Yun was when he let them go today?"

"So Zhou Yun did it on purpose? Letting them go was just to have them block the Demonic Beast Tide?"

"Don't guess blindly; Zhou Yun isn't that calculating."

"That's true... If Zhou Yun were the type of person to scheme against others, he wouldn't have let them into the city in the first place."

The discussions rose and fell, but a consensus was quietly forming: those five hundred people had owed Flower City a favor when they left, and after leaving, they had repaid it.

This account was settled.

The matter of the Demonic Beast Tide was resolved, but Lei Lie did not order the troops to withdraw.

Because there was still the Desolate Tide.

The seventh day of the City Lord World had two waves of trials—the Demonic Beast Tide and the Desolate Tide.

The Demonic Beast Tide consisted of Demonic Beasts, mindless and charging to kill, winning by numbers and brute force.

The Desolate Tide consisted of Desolate Beasts, which had intelligence and organization, making them harder to deal with than the Demonic Beast Tide.

The sun was about to set, and the Desolate Tide hadn't come either.

Now even Lei Lie was confused.

The Demonic Beast Tide could be intercepted and killed, but what about the Desolate Tide?

Desolate Beasts did not follow fixed routes and did not act according to the habits of beast herds; five hundred people crouching in a valley pass wouldn't be able to intercept them.

"It's a good thing if the Desolate Tide doesn't come," Wan'er said.

"A good thing?" Lei Lie frowned. "The Desolate Tide doesn't just not come because you want it not to."

"Maybe it's because of the White Tiger Clan?" Tie Shan interjected. "Zhou Yun brought them rain, so they are returning the favor by not attacking us?"

Everyone present felt this guess made sense.

The White Tiger Clan had intelligence and knew how to be grateful; Zhou Yun helped them save their crops, so it made logical sense for them to not attack Flower City in return.

Lei Lie was still not entirely at ease, but the sky had indeed darkened, and it was impossible to let fifty thousand people spend the night in the wild.

He ordered the army to return to the city, leaving two thousand people on the city wall to stand guard, while the rest returned to their camps to rest.

Zhou Yun had been on the city wall the whole time.

From morning till night, he hardly spoke, just standing quietly, occasionally looking into the distance, and occasionally exchanging a few words with Wan'er.

When Lei Lie ordered the troops to withdraw, he didn't object, just nodded and said, "Good work."

But he didn't return to the City Lord's Mansion.

After everyone had dispersed, he stood alone on the city wall and raised his left hand—the faint light of the city lord seal shone on his face through his sleeve.

On that city lord seal, the red light representing the Demonic Beast Tide had already gone out.

But the yellow light representing the Desolate Tide was still there.

It was not a "lingering" faint light, but a full, continuous, ongoing yellow light.

The Desolate Tide had not ended.

The Desolate Tide was happening.

Just not in Flower City.

Zhou Yun stared at that yellow light for a long time, and the images of the White Tiger Clan on the wilderness appeared in his mind—the Tiger-men rescuing crops in the rain, the Little White Tiger who cut its wrist to water the ground, and the mother tiger who silently led the clan.

They didn't come to attack Flower City.

But the Desolate Tide would definitely happen—if it didn't attack Flower City, then who was the Desolate Tide attacking?

The answer... seemed to be only one.

Zhou Yun turned and walked down the city wall, his pace much faster than usual.

He almost bumped into Lei Lie on the stairs—Lei Lie hadn't left yet and was about to come up to find him.

"Zhou Yun?"

"Assemble five hundred people, and bring all the priests," Zhou Yun's voice was not loud, but he spoke very quickly. "Also, bring all the black jade connection paste and spirit rice."

Lei Lie was stunned: "Where to?"

"The wilderness where the White Tiger Clan is."

Zhou Yun had already reached the bottom of the city wall without stopping his pace.

He looked back at Lei Lie, and in his eyes, there was something Lei Lie was very familiar with—not anger, not anxiety.

"I hope they... don't do anything foolish."