Translated by XephiZ
Edited by Aelryinth
The Shadow Mage roughly explained the situation. Mo Fan asked him to bring him to the survivors. He wanted to see them.
It was getting dark, perfect for them to move around with the Shadow Element. Mo Fan followed the student across the flooded city and arrived at a school at the back of the town.
“Are they inside?” Mo Fan asked.
“Yes, but not in the buildings,” the student said.
Mo Fan and the student went inside the school. The buildings were a little old and damaged. Most kids were sent to study in bigger cities. There were not many students left in the towns.
There was a little hill behind the buildings, all covered in weed.
“There’s a bunker here,” the student pointed at an entrance that was half-submerged in the water.
Mo Fan took a closer look and noticed the hill was not just made of soil. It was stacked with sturdy rocks, too!
The bunker was serving as an emergency shelter. The water had already covered the entrance, and the hill was only around the size of a house. There was no way it had enough room to contain the people of a town.
Were the people hiding underground? It would have to be deeper than the river!
“It’s sealed off to stop the water from flowing into it. I wouldn’t have found it if I hadn’t discovered an air vent hidden under the grass,” the student said proudly, taking hold of the opportunity to show off in front of his senior.
“Well done, we’ll go inside through the air vent,” Mo Fan directed him.
“There’s a magic Barrier stopping me from going inside,” the student admitted awkwardly.
“It’s fine, come with me.”
—
Normal magic barriers were unable to stop Mo Fan’s Fleeing Shadow.
They flowed inside the well-hidden air vent. It was extremely deep and long. Even if the sea monsters noticed some unusual airflow in the area, they would most likely give up on exploring it, as it was disguised to look like a rat’s burrow or a snake’s hole.
They followed the meandering tunnel through some junctions, and finally reached the magic Barrier.
“Chaos Magic?” Mo Fan was surprised. The vent was disguised with a smokescreen that would trick most creatures into believing they had reached the end of the tunnel.
It explained why the sea monsters that were roaming through the town had failed to discover the tunnel.
Mo Fan and the student headed deeper and soon discovered the fan for the vent.
They went past the fan and arrived in a spacious area. Mo Fan and the student could hear soft voices.
“Someone’s here!” a nervous voice suddenly shouted.
A few Mages quickly gathered at the vent, staring at the strange shadows in front of them.
“Calm down, I’m a student of the Pearl Institute. We have come to save you!” The student revealed himself.
The Mages looked at him in surprise. Someone had finally responded to their call for help!
“Are all the folks of the town here?” Mo Fan asked directly.
The Mages had a fright. They turned around as if they had just seen a ghost.
A woman with a ponytail, standing the closest to Mo Fan, was spooked. She had no idea when the guy had appeared.
Cough cough! “He’s my senior… his cultivation is higher than mine, so none of you noticed him,” the student quickly explained.
“Oh!” The Mages were the City Hunters in charge of the area. They had organized the people of the town to take shelter in the bunker.
To Mo Fan’s surprise, the bunker was actually about the size of a sports stadium. It was filled with people, including the young and the aged.
There were a lot of people, but everything was in order.
The families each had their own areas to drink and rest. Some people were chatting, but their voices were very soft.
Normally, a stadium with a capacity of over ten thousand people would be bustling with noise that would reach the streets outside.
However, it was rather quiet in the bunker. No one was panicking, crying, or screaming. Everyone was calm and quiet.
Usually, a group of people would argue and fight under dire circumstances, let alone a group of ten thousand people in an enclosed environment with no way of knowing what was happening outside. The enclosed space and the sense of uneasiness could easily cause the whole group to suffer a mental breakdown.
“Who’s in charge here?” Mo Fan asked.
A man in his thirties among the Mages stepped forward. “There’s no one in charge. We just gathered the people and stuck together to increase our odds of survival.”
The man was younger than he looked. He had an unkempt beard, but a handsome face.
“This is the captain of our Fangjiang’s City Hunters, Ma Yong. He was once a military advisor for the northwest military district,” the woman with a ponytail introduced him proudly.
Captain Ma Yong was the reason why the people of Bing Town were unharmed. He had taken note of every shelter, bunker, evacuation point, and relay station after he was assigned here, including the routes, bridges, and the paths that led to them.
Ma Yong did not ask the people to flee for their lives when the sea monsters were invading through the river. The town was surrounded by water. Even if they traveled far away from the town, there were still many paddy fields, ponds, and lakes that would increase the sea monsters’ activity range, not to mention the sea monsters were faster than humans.
The area would devolve into a hunting ground for the sea monsters if they tried to run away. Their chance of survival would solely depend on how quickly the sea monsters were able to hunt them down.
The other towns served as perfect examples. The number of survivors from each town were less than three digits!
Less than a hundred survivors for every ten thousand people. It showed how savage the sea monsters were and their intimidating numbers.
Therefore, Ma Yong had not evacuated the people from the town. He had decisively brought them to the bunker instead.
The bunker was located underground, with rocks and heavy gates protecting the entrance.
They might have a chance if they hid the air vent and tried their best not to make any noises!
“You made a wise decision. The other towns close to the river are…” The student trailed off tellingly.
“I’m just using the experience I received from when I was in the army. Our numbers would make us an easy target for the sea monsters,” Ma Yong smiled wryly.
A middle-aged man with a worried face came up to them and asked, “Does this mean the army is here? Have they wiped out the sea monsters out there? Can we finally get out of here? My son is having trouble breathing. The air vent is too small. Everyone is distressed!”
“Are our rescuers here?”
“Awesome, we made it!”
“The army is here for us!”
The others seemed to have finally noticed Mo Fan and the student, and were growing excited.
The student and Mo Fan exchanged awkward glances.. They did not know what to say to the people.