Chapter 32: I Am Counting on You; You Are Our Hero

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Rows of razor-sharp teeth lined that enormous maw. Cold light gleamed from the spikes on its tongue, while saliva dripped slowly from its upper teeth.

Fresh flesh still clung to its fangs and spikes. Between the teeth below lay half of a mangled hand, every fingernail torn back, the flesh a bloody mess. It was easy to imagine how its owner had fought desperately to survive, and how, amid despair and agony, he had finally lost his life.

The children huddled together in terror behind Lin Zhao, sobbing one after another, yet daring not to cry too loudly for fear that the noise would draw the monster over.

Lin Zhao's heart tightened. He stood on high alert, and the feather appeared in his hand. Yet the monster remained utterly still, as though completely confident in its trap and certain that no one would discover it.

Golden flames emerged from the feather in his hand. Carrying the fury in his heart, the searing heat shot forward like a blade.

The instant the feather entered the beast's mouth, flames surged skyward. Waves of heat billowed out as a blazing inferno erupted. The monster let out a howl of unbearable pain and rolled violently across the ground, trying to extinguish the fire engulfing its body.

Only then did Lin Zhao see that it was a lizard-shaped monster more than twenty meters long and six or seven meters tall. Its head resembled a snake's, its tail an eel's. Its sharp claws tore cracks across the ground, while its slender head and tail smashed several deep hollows into the underground palace. At last, it turned into a heap of ashes.

"Ah... Was it really that easy?" Lin Zhao murmured, staring at his hand.

All right, he remembered now. Compared with the Old Tree, he was merely a little runt. But that was the Old Tree's problem. Who wouldn't look like a little runt beside it?

Back in the Vast Sea, Lin Zhao had slaughtered his way in every direction, regarding ordinary ferocious beasts as nothing more than experience fodder.

These little monsters might have been a challenge for an ordinary wizard who had just begun learning magic, but he was a Human Wizard acknowledged by the Old Tree. Surely that made him at least an elite boss in a minor dungeon?

For a moment, Lin Zhao's confidence soared.

Meanwhile, the children burst into excited applause and cheers.

"Big Brother is amazing!"

"He killed that terrifying monster in one move!"

"I want to become a wizard as powerful as Big Brother when I grow up!"

Warmth spread through Lin Zhao's heart. He casually patted one child's head and looked around.

After the monster's death, the underground palace finally revealed its true appearance.

It was a hall about the size of a basketball court. Stone cabinets stood in the corners, filled with two kinds of wood. One was pale and soft, like bread; the other was marked with beautiful patterns. A map of the underground palace had been drawn on the wall beside them.

The children happily went over to the pale wood, then looked up at Lin Zhao with wide eyes.

"Big Brother, can we have lunch now?"

Lin Zhao recalled the knowledge he had downloaded. This wood was called Whitewood, the staple food of the people of the Wizard Kingdom. It grew even faster than bamboo and yielded enormous harvests. It could also be fed to livestock. Most importantly, it could be stored for three to five years without spoiling. Other foods, once brought into the Fang Kingdom, quickly rotted under the influence of calamity force.

So, aside from not tasting very good, it had virtually no drawbacks.

"Eat, of course you can eat." Lin Zhao answered instinctively. Then he remembered himself and broke the soft wood into pieces, distributing them among the children.

The children ate it like dried beef, biting off strands and chewing them slowly. Some even took small bottles of sauce from their pockets and shared them with their favorite companions for dipping.

They sat or squatted in little groups, some on the ground and some on the steps. Their two-colored school uniforms bore the names their families had embroidered onto them, and they even competed to see who could eat the fastest.

"Big Brother, why aren't you eating? Would you like to try the dipping sauce my mother made?" A little girl with braided hair came over, holding out a small bottle that was still half full. She gazed at him expectantly.

"All right." Lin Zhao tore off a strip of Whitewood, dipped it into the pitch-black sauce, and took a bite. "It's delicious."

The sour, salty sauce combined with the tasteless but resilient Whitewood. It chewed like rubber and was truly awful.

After thanking her, Lin Zhao held up the feather and studied the route map on the wall, along with the annotations beside it.

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The underground palace was enormous. It was not a single shelter, but a network of subterranean passages connected throughout the Di Kingdom. Where the passages intersected, they resembled a subway station. The Di Kingdom used these tunnels to transport supplies, move troops, and evacuate civilians, and they were maintained by dedicated personnel in ordinary times.

They were currently in a branch passage. There were valves along it that could be closed in an emergency to block invading monsters. The best choice was to follow the route to the main line. Elite squads were stationed there to maintain order and guide the refugees toward safety.

Lin Zhao checked the direction and felt somewhat reassured. As long as they reached the main line, found the larger forces, and handed the children over to the wizards of the academy, everything would be fine.

He sat to one side, waiting for the children to finish eating and regain their strength before setting out together.

Unfortunately, the children were far too slow. The tunnel to the main line stretched for more than ten miles. How were the little ones supposed to walk that distance—

Wait!

He suddenly remembered that when the academy recruited assistants, it required them to be apprentice wizards with totems.

An apprentice wizard who possessed a totem was already a true wizard in practice. So he could clearly use his totem to carry everyone!

What an idiot he was!

He summoned his own beast. The handsome, slender horse-like creature stood motionless, but it did not look large enough to carry more than twenty people.

So its back needed to become longer...

Under the direction of his wizardly power, the beast transformed into a strange, elongated monster more than ten meters long, its belly dragging along the ground. Because its body had become so long, its short and comical limbs skittered across the floor like those of a maggot.

"It needs more legs..." Lin Zhao mused.

At once, more than a dozen pairs of legs sprouted from the creature's slender belly. It looked even more terrifying. Several children dropped their wood in fright and clung to one another, though curiosity soon made them poke their heads out to stare.

"Then I might as well turn it into a centipede!" Lin Zhao felt rather foolish. But then he thought about it. If all these transformations were possible, why bother making such a bizarre mess?

With a thought, the totem beast changed according to his will. Its head became a proud golden bird, while behind it stretched more than a dozen small animal seats, turning it into the sort of miniature animal train commonly found in large shopping malls.

At that moment, the children behind him erupted into delighted cheers.

Lin Zhao felt rather proud. He had them climb aboard and eat as they traveled, but the children were already fighting over their favorite seats.

"Don't interfere, Big Brother!" they shouted, waving their fists. "We'll compete with speed and wizardly power, then choose our seats according to our rankings. That's how it works at the academy!"

Very well. Lin Zhao gave them time to compete. By the time everyone had taken their seats and the little train set off, however, he felt a touch of regret. The train had no background music. It seemed to be missing something.

But soon, one of the girls began humming a song:

"Fortunate is the day, auspicious is the hour..."

The other children joined in, each singing a different song. Some sang of the Wizard God, others of their parents. For a while, they sounded like a flock of ducklings, all squawking at once until Lin Zhao's head began to ache.

"Stop singing! How about I teach you a song?" Lin Zhao hurriedly called out.

The children eagerly agreed.

Lin Zhao cleared his throat. "All right, listen carefully. The first line goes: We are all brave..."

And so, in the dark and chilly cavern, a childhood battle hymn from another world rang out.

Lin Zhao felt secretly pleased. Surely this counted as cultural exchange?

Along the way, he saw many pulsating egg sacs embedded in the walls. A small monster resembling the large beast from before was tearing its way out of one of the membranes.

Whoosh, whoosh!

Golden feathers streaked through the air, and in the blink of an eye those hideous things were reduced to ashes.

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The children cheered one after another.

-

At the same time, deep within the pitch-black underground palace, a young man with a white rabbit perched on his shoulder sat beside a table and picked up a surgical needle. The rabbit was in terrible condition. Half its body had been torn open, exposing flesh and bone, and it twisted its head around to lick the deep wound across its back.

"Grand Academician, Sword Gate needs reinforcements. They can hold out for three incense periods at most." A blood-covered messenger came rushing over in desperation.

"Tell them to withdraw." The young man let out a long sigh.

"Grand Academician! There are still hundreds of thousands of apprentice wizards behind Sword Gate who haven't been evacuated!" The messenger's vocal cords seemed to tear apart in an instant.

"I know that better than you do. They are hundreds of thousands of apprentice wizards under the age of seven, many of whom only entered the academy this year." The young man sighed again. "But our current mission is to hold the main passage of the underground palace. The Deputy Lord's Black Cavalry will need fifteen incense periods before they can be mobilized. If we fail to hold the main passage and they are cut off outside the West Gate, what will happen to the more than two million wizards still sheltering in the underground palace?"

"You are an Earth Wizard! You can go help them! If they could rest for one hour, they would be able to hold the line!" the messenger asked with a trembling voice.

"I have to remain at the central hub. The third wave of Black Tortoise Shadows is almost here," the young man said helplessly. "If the central hub falls, every underground palace in the Di Kingdom will collapse and destroy itself. That was the absolute order issued when the Great Mountain Tu built these underground defenses."

Despair filled the messenger's young eyes. "Isn't there any other way?"

"There isn't. Your wounds are severe. Go get them treated first..."

"No need. Thank you, Grand Academician. I will return to Sword Gate." The messenger wiped his eyes and turned to leave.

"Stay. If you go back, you will die there."

The messenger did not stop, nor did he look back. "It is what I must do."

The young man watched his departing figure and gave a bitter laugh.

This attack had come far too suddenly. The underground palace, which should have been the safest place, had instead become the first to fall. Not only had the Devouring-Life Lizards been planted inside it—creatures capable of growing rapidly by devouring humans—but, more importantly, the formless and invisible Black Tortoise Shadows had arrived.

The Ghost City of the Vast Sea, the place nearest to the Di Kingdom, disturbed a great evil every time it stirred. This time, the disturbance had awakened the divine remains of the Black Tortoise!

It was one of the five greatest calamities in the Vast Sea, more powerful than even a Sky Wizard and only a step away from godhood. Its Domain stood an entire level above the Domain of the Lord of Di.

Before it even drew near, the Di Kingdom had already begun to enter its Domain. Within the territory affected by it, thousands of its shadows would first condense and attack the places where living beings were gathered in the greatest numbers.

More than two million apprentice wizards were currently sheltering in the central underground palace. He could not leave.

Every soldier he could mobilize had already been sent out. Where could he possibly find more troops to provide assistance?

"The Black Tide beyond the Great Wall has already begun its second wave, hasn't it? Will the Black Cavalry make it here?" The Grand Academician picked up a surgical needle and stitched shut the wound on his shoulder. "What about reinforcements? Even one would be welcome!"

Just then, the messenger from before suddenly came scrambling back inside.

"Grand Academician! Grand Academician! A wizard has come from the fallen Heaven Gate with more than twenty apprentice wizards. He says he is the reinforcements!"

"So only one actually came..." The Grand Academician felt as though he had lost a fortune, but his body was already in motion. "Where are they? Take me to him!"

As he charged out of the hall, he saw a young man surrounded by five blood-covered messengers, looking utterly at a loss.