It was five o’clock in the morning, and the sky was still dark. Lin Huang woke up with a start from his slumber.
He heard a rumbling noise from far away. It sounded like thunder or continuous bombing.
Even the hotel’s gla.s.s windows were vibrating.
"Is that thunder?" Lin Huang thought. It seemed really strange as the noise sounded more like it came from some heavy artillery fire.
Putting his doubts aside, Lin Huang walked to the window and looked at the sky.
It was dark and with a few stars in the distance. it did not look like it was going to rain at all.
"Could it be the two transcendents fighting?" he thought. Just as Lin Huang imagined the idea in his mind, the noise suddenly got far away and within minutes, it disappeared.
Lin Huang then emptied his mind. Since it was still dark outside, he went back to sleep.
Before seven o’clock in the morning, the Emperor’s Heart Ring on Lin Huang’s finger vibrated and woke him up a second time that morning.
It was Yi Yeyu who called.
"What’s wrong with her, calling me so early…" He looked at the time. It was only 6:40. Lin Huang mumbled to himself and picked up the call.
"Lin Huang, come to my room. I have something important to tell you!" Yi Yeyu shouted over the phone, sounding deadly serious.
"So early?" Lin Huang said, still annoyed.
"Stop dawdling. Come now!" Yi Yeyu hung up the phone.
Lin Huang washed his face. He did not even brush his teeth, he just gargled water and left.
When he arrived at Yi Yeyu’s room, she was pacing up and down in her room, an intensely concerned look on her face. She did not even notice that Lin Huang was already in her room.
"What happened?" Lin Huang said as he closed the door. It was unusual to see Yi Yeyu like that.
"Zhang Bo is dead!" Yi Yeyu said as she turned around to face Lin Huang.
"Whaa..ttt?!" Lin Huang stuttered. He was in shocked. "You mean the transcendent that we met last night?"
"I was woken up by a rumbling noise at four in the morning so I guessed they were fighting. I used a Scouting Relic to look in at their battle. At first, they were fighting not far from the mountains. Then, they got further away and more than two hours later, he was killed by the monster, and his dead body was eaten. The monster was badly injured and escaped underground," Yi Yeyu said.
"Did you inform the Hunter a.s.sociation yet?" Lin Huang asked, surprisingly calm.
"I informed them at around six in the morning. It was the first thing I did when I knew he was killed. I have also sent the recording of their battle from my relic," Yi Yeyu replied with a nod.
"What did the Hunter a.s.sociation say?" Lin Huang asked.
"They said the next transcendent will take at least two days to arrive…" Yi Yeyu responded, a helpless look on her face. "However, now that the transcendent monster is badly injured, it will lead the other monsters to kill humans around the footholds to engulf their Life Light to heal itself before the next transcendent comes."
"Why can’t you bring the transcendent here with your green wooden door? Wouldn’t that be much faster?" Lin Huang said, as the thought suddenly crossed her mind.
"The green wooden door is just a regular Dimensional Relic. It’s not as magical as you think it is. There are many limitations to it. It can only go to places that I have been, as well as locations of which I have the coordinates for. There are limitations to the distance too, where it can only transport people that are within a 3000-kilometer radius. It will not just send you wherever you want to go," Yi Yeyu shook her head.
"Then how about the quant.i.ty? Is there a limitation to that as well? How many people can you send through in a day?" Lin Huang asked.
"The maximum capacity would be 300 people at once and five trips back and forth per day. Which means I could send and bring 1500 people in a day. But there are more than 200,000 people in this foothold…" Yi Yeyu shook her head as she had thought of the plan before but it would not work.
"There are too few eagles here as well, less than 50 of them…" Lin Huang said. He thought they could use the eagles and leave the foothold, but soon he figured that plan would not work.
"Forget about it, let’s not think of it anymore. I will gather everyone here at eight o’clock. I will send all of you away," Yi Yeyu said. Knowing that she could that send all of the residents, Yi Yeyu hesitated no more and decided the best course of action herself.
But if we leave, 200,000 people will be killed by the monsters," Lin Huang stared intensely at Yi Yeyu. He did not agree with her plan to leave all the residents to certain doom. They were talking about human lives after all.
"I will stay," Yi Yeyu said calmly.
Lin Huang was quiet after what Yi Yeyu said. He was thinking if he should get Xue Luo and Bing w.a.n.g to help, but after some thought, he decided not to.
Although he had saved Xue Luo’s life, Xue Luo had restored his Life Wheel and even gave him an epiphany.
That said, they did not owe each other anything.
Moreover, Xue Luo was one of the monsters. It would be too much to ask if Lin Huang was to get her to kill a transcendent monster that had done nothing to her.
After much thought, Lin Huang asked, "You said the transcendent monster was badly injured, which would mean that the possibility of it fighting would hardly be a worry, but it can still lead all the monsters here. There are level-1 and level-2 wild zones nearby where the strongest monsters are not more than bronze-level monsters. If we stay to fight them, we might win!"
"Although the monsters’ levels aren’t high, there will be so many of them. Even a gold-level hunter like me would die from exhaustion if the monster crowd was to attack. I’m one of the members of the Hunter a.s.sociation. I have to stay to protect the residents. You guys have yet to register yourself with the a.s.sociation so you guys are not hunters yet so there’s no need for all of you to stay. I know you’re young and full of justice, but this is not the time to be heroic. Stay alive now so that you can avenge those who died when you’re stronger in the future," Yi Yeyu said and shook her head as she disagreed with Lin Huang’s plan. It seemed like she was already prepared to die.
Looking at her, Lin Huang did not say a word.
It was eight o’clock in the morning two hours later. Everyone gathered in the meeting room on the hotel’s first floor after receiving Yi Yeyu’s emergency alert.
Lin Huang sat quietly in the last row of the meeting room.
Everyone included Bai Yan were there. After a moment of silence, Yi Yeyu started to speak.
"The reason why I called all of you here is because I have bad news," Yi Yeyu said. She then took a deep breath and told them the truth. "The transcendent that was sent by the a.s.sociation found the transcendent monster which caused the uproar last night. However, at six in the morning earlier today, he was killed by the monster," she said.
The crowd went completely silent after hearing what Yi Yeyu said, but soon, an uproar erupted among them.
"If a human transcendent can be killed by the monster, this foothold isn’t safe at all," someone said.
"We should’ve left yesterday. Now, this foothold has been marked by the transcendent monster," another person shouted.
"Miss head examiner, you should be able to send us away right?"
"Miss head examiner, it was you who made us stay, you should be responsible for our safety!" more people said, yelling over each other.
…
Overwhelmed by the accusations, Yi Yeyu was upset but she did not say a word.
"Everyone please be quiet! Let the head examiner finish what she was saying," Lin Huang who sat at the last row stood up and said.
"Lin Huang, you’re responsible for this too. If you didn’t stop us, many of us would have left a few days ago," another crowd member cried. As it turned out, Lin Huang’s heroic act too attracted some accusation.
"Do you have a death wish?!" Lin Huang roared and summoned Bai. The vampire appeared and stood quietly by Lin Huang"s side, staring at everyone in the room.
Looking at Lin Huang’s expression, some of them were silenced immediately. They recalled getting beaten up by Lin Huang’s monster for disobeying him and shuddered in silence.
"Lin Huang, don’t exploit your power," Bai Yan said as he stood up across Lin Huang and summoned his Lion-Headed Troll, ready to fight him.
"Both of you this stop right now!" Yi Yeyu shouted. She could not take it anymore!
Seeing Yi Yeyu so mad, the whole crowd was on edge as to what would happen.
"I"m not done yet," Yi Yeyu continued. She suppressed her anger and said, "I have already informed the management of the a.s.sociation. They are going to send other transcendents here. The thing is, they will need two days to arrive so I’m thinking of sending all of you away from here before that."
Hearing what Yi Yeyu said, the crowd calmed slightly. n.o.body had any objections.
After a moment of silence, a young voice spoke up from the last row, "Miss head examiner, you can send everybody away. I will not leave!"