In a disaster like an earthquake, the hardest to kill should be earth-types.
Zhang Lesi leaped, chasing Zhao Yi down.
Their two hands finally clasped together. Zhao Yi pulled Zhang Lesi into his arms.
His other hand reached out—collapsed floor slabs, shattered concrete surged and grew madly, chasing him and Zhang Lesi, extending diagonally beneath them!
Zhao Yi’s hand slapped onto the concrete.
Superpowers could all be used at a distance, but contact activation had near-zero loss—the highest efficiency.
The falling speed was too fast! The concrete chased madly!
It caught his shoulders.
Caught his back.
Caught his waist.
Caught his legs.
Change the angle! Slow the speed!
The concrete slide Zhao Yi built with all his strength finally brought the two of them safely to the ground.
Then it snapped and crashed down on them.
Zhao Yi was horrified, instinctively wrapping Zhang Lesi tightly in his arms!
A hand reached out.
The massive building debris vanished into thin air.
Zhao Yi opened his eyes.
Jiang Cheng pulled Zhang Lesi away and shouted at Zhao Yi: “Go save people!”
Right now, earth-types were desperately needed.
Zhao Yi roared: “Watch her!”
He turned and ran.
Collapse, falling, dust rising everywhere.
Jiang Cheng screamed with all her strength: “Come to me! Come to me!”
Both her hands raised above her head. A black dot above rapidly expanded to the size of a disc, then in the next instant exploded into a massive black disc dozens of meters in diameter.
You could see the “black” because it hung overhead—from people’s upward angle, they could see its full form.
It was a black beyond black.
Clearly the surroundings were already night, yet it was “black” so clearly.
But if you could view it from directly to the side at its height, you’d see nothing at all.
Its thickness was 0.
The collapsed massive building debris rumbled down, disappearing into the black disc.
As if it were some invisible bottomless pit.
It was indeed a bottomless pit, because this was the visualization of Jiang Cheng’s hyperspace entrance.
Everyone knew Jiang Cheng was a spatial-type superpower with a hyperdimensional storage space.
Normally, this space didn’t need any “entrance”—Jiang Cheng could store things instantly at will.
But now, Jiang Cheng had opened the hyperspace entrance in front of everyone. Dozens of meters in diameter—enough to shelter many people.
Cracked concrete and rebar fell, all swallowed up.
Like a black hole.
Everyone hid beneath the black hole, finally safe.
At this moment, white light lit up on the other side of the courtyard.
The holy shield rose, also gigantified.
Sheltering survivors.
Some ran toward the light, some ran toward the black hole.
Those who ran too slowly were crushed to death on the ground by falling concrete.
Two buildings had completely collapsed. Four more had only half remaining, teetering on the verge of falling.
People screamed and cried, hanging and falling.
They thought they were certain to die.
A massive slide shaped from earth and stone extended from the ground.
People landed on the sloped surface—agonizing pain, but alive—sliding down the slide to the ground.
Thick vines, as if come alive, burst from the soil, claws and fangs bared. Countless vines extended, wrapping around one person after another hanging from broken walls, about to fall.
Water drawn from the muddy wet ground after the snow melted gathered into a water dragon, spiraling upward like a tornado.
Falling people were swept into the water dragon, spinning rapidly, dissipating their fall, landing safely.
“Over there! Over there—” Li Jiangbing roared.
People who landed safely scrambled and ran, either toward Su Yu or toward Jiang Cheng, seeking shelter.
Metal diagonal rods pulled up from the ground one by one, stabbing into the about-to-collapse building bodies.
Survivors slid down the rods one after another.
Moli had already transformed into a giant cat.
Giant but still nimble, he leaped into the air, bit down on a falling person in one bite, landed, and spat them out.
Then he rushed to the broken walls and rubble, climbing a dozen floors in the blink of an eye, carrying survivors as he dashed down.
Everyone with ability was saving people.
Earth-types like Sister Pan and Zhao Yi, wood-types like Song Jingshuo, metal-types like Cui Haiyang, water-types like Li Jiangbing doing everything they could, even Moli.
Fire-types lit fireballs to illuminate the night.
Until the morning sun rose, sunlight stabbing into Jiang Cheng’s eyes.
The night retreated.
All six buildings had completely collapsed. The high-rises that had once stood there had become massive piles of rubble. No more danger fell from the sky.
Jiang Cheng retracted her space. Su Yu retracted her shield.
They both collapsed to the ground.
Zhang Lesi felt her way over to both of them, healing the bruises and injuries from falls and impacts: “They’re fine. They’re just too exhausted.”
She was exhausted too.
Everyone lined up waiting for her treatment. Many had fractures and couldn’t move, lying in the mud waiting for her.
Those already healed stood barefoot in the mud and concrete debris, looking around blankly—
As far as the eye could see, no high-rises remained.
The youth apartments, Jixiang Jiayuan, Yujing Xiangyuan, even Duoduoduo Supermarket.
And the overpass in the distance.
All had become ruins.
Zhou Wang was also sitting on the rubble, dazed.
President Xu had survived. He searched for a long time and only found Wu Yan.
Everyone else was dead.
Death had killed Tao Xiaoxiao once, killed Tao Xiaoxiao twice—this time it had finally taken her away.
Everyone was dazed.
Dazedness was the shared emotion at this moment.
Jiang Cheng was the first to wake.
Moli had already turned back into human form. Li Jiangbing had found him clothes to wear.
In human form, he definitely wasn’t as good at fighting as in cat form, but to take care of Jiang Cheng, cat form definitely wasn’t as good as human form.
Jiang Cheng swallowed the water ball Li Jiangbing waved over to her. Her first words were a question: “How’s Su Yu?”
Li Jiangbing: “She’s fine. Passed out from exhaustion, same as you.”
The impact of the falling building had been too great. Su Yu had actually cracked every bone in her body.
Zhang Lesi had healed her. Now they were just waiting for her to wake up.
Jiang Cheng nodded, and with Moli’s support, stood up.
Her bare feet were covered in mud. She stepped on rebar, stepped on concrete, and stood on a slightly higher spot, gazing into the distance.
The living all looked at her.
Everyone’s eyes had lost their light.
In the distance, they could even see the people of Jixiang Jiayuan looking over this way.
Without the high-rises, the world suddenly seemed incomparably open.
From one place to another, it looked so far.
Someone stepped forward and asked: “Jiang Cheng, what do we do now?”
Jiang Cheng looked at those lifeless eyes.
Her partners had once all been such passionate, optimistic people, so full of vitality.
She wanted to say something rousing and inspiring to encourage everyone.
But what could she say?
Say “The misfortune you suffered today all stems from my existence”?
Jiang Cheng closed her eyes.
“First, survive,” she said.
When she opened her eyes again, they were already calm and unrippled.
“Water.”
“Food.”
“Shelter.”
“Warmth.”
“In that order,” she said.
When people are dazed, being given instructions, they all began to move mechanically.
Cui Haiyang was still alive—forging water tanks.
Li Jiangbing was still alive—extracting pure water from the mud and humid air.
Song Jingshuo was still alive—walking barefoot in the mud, occasionally stopping, and plants would burrow out of the soil by his feet. Find one, then find the next.
Sister Pan and Zhao Yi were still alive—quietly discussing where to build houses.
The community area was full of ruins, broken walls and remnants of several floors.
The main thing was that the ground had split open. Deep in the fissures was pitch black, looking unfathomably deep. A massive fissure ran diagonally through the entire community, even cracking all the way to Jixiang Jiayuan.
Jiang Cheng said: “Let’s check the road.”
Out the east gate, from Jixiang West Street heading north, was the road directly facing Duoduoduo Supermarket’s main entrance.
The Tech District government had been wealthy and generous—the road was built especially wide.
Of course, now the east gate was gone too, and the supermarket was gone too.
After the metal-type superpower users stripped away all the railings in the middle of the road, the road without dividers looked like a plaza.
Sister Pan and Zhao Yi went to check. Although the road was covered in cracks and large chunks of asphalt had buckled upward, at least it didn’t have as many broken walls and rubble mountains as the community.
It was much flatter after all.
Sister Pan and Zhao Yi called Cui Haiyang to build houses together.
Simple and plain—four walls and a roof would do.
The rest searched the ruins for food, clothing, or survivors.
It was very hard to find any more survivors.
Everyone was just holding onto a thread of hope.
Suddenly someone called Jiang Cheng’s name: “Jiang Cheng—Jiang Cheng—come listen to this!”
Jiang Cheng stood up, her limbs weak.
Moli carried her on his back, leaping across the ruins, reaching the place where someone had called in just a few moves.
The person said: “Listen—”
Everyone who had followed held their breath, not daring to make a sound.
Gradually, they all heard it.
That familiar voice, buried in the ruins.
[Run—]
[End—]
Jiang Cheng stared at the ruins and told Moli: “Bring Sister Pan here.”
Moli went swiftly, and swiftly came back carrying Sister Pan.
Behind them, Zhao Yi and Cui Haiyang followed, panting: “What’s going on?”
They only understood what they were doing once they arrived.
Sister Pan crouched down and listened carefully, confirmed the direction, and pressed her hand to the ground.
The rubble and concrete blocks parted to both sides, until a corner of a room was revealed.
A relatively intact corner, you could say.
The shortwave radio lay in this triangular zone, crackling.
[It’s not over yet.]
[You must escape.]
The mysterious man repeated over and over: [I told you to run. Why won’t you run. It’s not over yet. You must run quickly. If you don’t run, you die. You die.]
Everyone stood at various heights.
All expressionless, listening to the mysterious man’s voice.
Fear? Fear had a limit too. It had probably been used up already.
So they could no longer feel fear—only numbness remained.
Jiang Cheng stared at the shortwave radio, then suddenly called someone: “Gao Yuxuan.”
Gao Yuxuan was dazed. Caught off guard by being called, he stepped forward: “Jiang Cheng?”
Jiang Cheng asked: “This thing—can it still make sound without power?”
Gao Yuxuan: “Of course not. We specially modified it with a car battery…”
Gao Yuxuan’s voice trailed off.
They’d used car batteries to modify this shortwave radio for battery power.
But now, the wires were broken, and the battery was nowhere to be seen.
Yet the radio was still working.
The mysterious man kept saying: [I told you to run. Why won’t you run.]
Not pretending anymore, huh.
Jiang Cheng smiled.
She asked: “Who are you?”
How could you talk to a radio like that?
This was a radio, not a phone on speaker.
This was a simplex-mode radio—one side had to finish speaking before the other could speak.
You had to press the button.
Gao Yuxuan’s lips moved.
From the radio, the mysterious man answered: [Who I am doesn’t matter. What matters is—if you don’t run now, you will all die. Leave this place.]
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